Stop announcing, start persuading: Getting commitment over compliance with Dr. Jay Conger

Your employee recognition program might be making half your team feel invisible. Here's how to fix it.For more on this episode: https://www.theliftpod.com/episodes/white-workplace-appreciation Guest Bio:Dr. Paul White is a psychologist and the co-author of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (along with Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages). He is the Founder and Workplace Appreciation Expert at Appreciation at Work.Topic Highlights:Why younger workers are shifting the numbers on the most widely preferred languages of appreciationWhat “words of affirmation” gets wrong (and why introverts dread your all-hands shoutouts)The AI appreciation trapHow to make your best people actually feel appreciated enough to stay (and keep working hard)00:00 - Introduction01:30 - What most leaders get wrong about appreciation10:15 - Why younger workers are shifting toward quality time21:25 - Recognition vs. appreciation26:00 - The appreciation deficit no one talks about31:48 - Why AI-generated appreciation backfires33:36 - How to make your best people unpoachableEpisode Links:The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the WorkplaceLanguage of Appreciation AssessmentConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Roger Federer only wins 54% of the points he plays. And yet, he wins 80% of his matches. The gap between those two numbers is proof that failure isn’t the opposite of winning; it’s part of the formula. Dr. Amy Edmondson has spent her career proving exactly that — and she’s here to help leaders stop running from failure and start designing for it.Topic Highlights:— Why psychological safety was never about comfort— Why “fail fast” is missing the point— The Alan Mulally moment: what happens when every status report is green while the company loses $17 billion— Stop, challenge, choose: the three-step framework for staying regulated when things go sideways— Why Dr. Amy reframes the postmortem entirely (and what she calls it instead)Guest Bio:Dr. Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, the person who popularized the concept of “psychological safety” at work, and has been ranked the #1 management thinker in the world.Episode Links:Dr. Amy Edmondson on LinkedInRight Kind of Wrong Connect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most leaders think persuasion is a pitch. Jay Conger has spent his career proving it’s something else entirely — and that the difference explains why most major change initiatives quietly fail.Jay grew up watching his father host world leaders from Queen Elizabeth to Nikita Khrushchev  as a deputy at the State Department. Those dinner table stories became the foundation for a career studying what actually makes people follow you.Topic Highlights:– Why compliance gets you through the quarter and can cost you your best people first– How one unscripted moment can build or destroy your reputation faster than any strategy deck– The move that separates leaders who get commitment from those who only get compliance– How to persuade a skeptic without arguing via the small-pilot approach Guest Bio:Jay Conger is a professor at the McKenna School of Business at Claremont McKenna College and one of the world’s leading researchers on leadership, influence, and persuasion. He has advised executives and organizations across industries for decades.Episode Links:Dr. Jay Conger on LinkedInThe Persuasive Leader (Jay’s book)Busting Three Common Myths of Change Management (Bain study)Connect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Just a couple months ago, Katie and Billy Kim packed up their lives in New Jersey — two careers, two kids, and a mortgage — and moved to Korea. To make it happen, they navigated a year-long project involving six trips to the South Korean consulate, an unexpected citizenship complication, a possible military draft, a cancer diagnosis, and ultimately, the realization that fear and inconvenience are the worst reasons to not make something happen.Topic Highlights:– Why Katie first shut down the idea of moving across the world – and what changed her mind– The consulate saga that almost derailed everything – The “excuse test”: how to tell whether something is a real constraint or just discomfort– The three things the Kims agreed on before they even booked a flight and why most teams only get one of them right– Why a shared “why” matters more than a perfect plan when things don’t go as expectedGuest Bio:Katie Kim is a marketing executive and former VP of Global Marketing at MillerKnoll. Billy Kim is an independent investor and the family’s designated maverick.Connect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your manager has been telling you for three years that your work is excellent. Then one day you're let go. Nobody saw it coming except the person who signed your reviews. James Coyle has watched this play out more times than he can count. His take: that's not a performance problem. That's a leadership failure. Topic Highlights:– Why avoiding the hard conversation is always more expensive than just having the hard conversation– The ethos behind the “tell me how people get paid” principle – What basketball taught James about self-awareness (and why most players always think they're one of the best two on the team)– The three-bucket framework for deciding what to do with underperformers– The difference between an average employee and a great employee Guest Bio:James Coyle is the EVP, President Marketplace of OPENLANE, a leading digital marketplace for wholesale vehicles, and a former senior leader at Amazon during its most aggressive growth years.Episode Links:OPENLANEJames on LinkedInHow To Fire People Properly: When Waiting Too Long Goes WrongConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You know the feeling of researching a hotel for three hours and still not booking it? The Points Guy Brian Kelly has made a career out of knowing exactly when to stop doing research – on flights, on investments, on the decision to quit your job – and just make it happen. For Brian, it's about knowing when you have enough information to move.Topic Highlights:– How Brian made the biggest decision of his life with no mentor, no banker, and no blueprint– Why the worst-case scenario you're afraid of almost never exists– What corporate boardrooms and bad travel decisions have in common– How to take a great leap without burning the bridge you might need later– Why he thinks many executives aren't using AI enough to see what's comingGuest Bio:Brian Kelly is the founder of The Points Guy, New York Times bestselling author of How to Win at Travel, and one of the most-visited travel media personalities in the world.Episode Links:The Points GuyHow to Win at Travelpoint.meseat.aeroinsuremytrip.comHetrick-Martin InstituteRainbow RailroadConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben Brooks usually asks the questions. This week, he's the guest, and The Lift's Executive Producer, Steph Colbourn, takes the host chair to dig into the nitty-gritty of management.Leadership gets the TED Talks while management gets the eye rolls. But here's the inconvenient truth: 70% of the employee experience is determined by one thing - the quality of their manager. Problem is, we've been talking around management for years. Topic Highlights:– The Pilot Six: Ben’s framework to define what good management actually looks like – Why “getting promoted to manager” is too often Latin for “I'll make more money” but no one tells you about what you're actually signing up for– The story behind the employee who stuffed papers between the keys of Ben's keyboard just to get his attention – What Ben's own 360 feedback revealed about where he's still a mediocre manager (and what he's doing about it) Guest Bio:Ben Brooks is a leadership strategist, career innovator, executive coach, founder of PILOT, and host of The Lift. He loves traveling, making new friends, and of course, his dog, Jetson. Episode Links:The LiftPILOTConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What do you do when the President of the United States, the Senate majority leader, the Secretary of Energy, and an army of lobbyists all want you to say yes – and your answer is no? Robert Powelson has been in that exact position. In this conversation, Rob shares what it actually costs to hold the line – and, what it buys you.Topic Highlights:– What Rob said in a three minute 4th of July phone call with the Pennsylvania governor that upended the pressure campaign around Uber – Why Rob, a lifelong Republican, voted to kill the Trump administration's coal bailout proposal– Why the invisible infrastructure holding your daily life together is more vulnerable than most people realize – What it means to spend your credibility wisely when you only have a finite amount – The relationship habit Rob credits for leaning on in the face of the toughest calls Guest Bio:Rob Powelson is President & CEO of the National Association of Water Companies and a former member of President Trump's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.Episode Links:Rob’s LinkedInNational Association of Water CompaniesConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben went to Salzburg for two weeks of “pure PTO” vacation. He ended up spending the first day and a half locked in a hotel room, heart rate elevated, surrounded by sticky notes. In today’s episode, we cover incompletions: the tasks that haven't been done, the conversations that haven't happened, the decisions still open. And why they are probably quietly costing you, your coworkers, and your organization more than you realize.Topic Highlights:– What "attention residue" is and why your brain stays at work long after you've left the building. – Why incompletions don't just drain you personally – they quietly stall entire organizations. – What being on the receiving end of someone else's incompletion actually does to them. – The 20-minute microdose you should take before any vacation, big deadline, or leadership transition.Guest Bio:Ben Brooks is a leadership strategist, career innovator, executive coach, founder of PILOT, and host of The Lift. He loves traveling, making new friends, and of course, his dog, Jetson. Episode Links:The LiftPILOTConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When was the last time someone on your team told you something you didn't want to hear? If you have to think about it, you have your answer.Too many leaders have spent their entire careers avoiding conflict, and now they're running teams where nobody tells them anything useful, nothing real gets decided, and everyone is very, very pleasant about it.According to Amy Gallo, this isn't harmony – it's dysfunction with better manners.This is one of our favorite episodes from earlier this year. It originally aired on May 19, 2026.Topic Highlights:– Why the cost of staying silent is almost always higher than the cost of speaking up– The "eight-lane highway to harmony" metaphor about conflict avoidance– How AI is quietly making us worse at disagreeing with real humans– The important difference between being liked and being respected– The practice of "conversational receptivity"Guest Bio:Amy Gallo is an expert on workplace conflict and feedback, a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, and the author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People).Episode Links:Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)Radical CandorThe Five Dysfunctions of a TeamConflict at Work: How to Have the Hard Conversation You’ve Been AvoidingConnect with Us:theliftpod.comLet’s stay in touchSubscribe to The LiftFind Ben online: LinkedIn | InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.