Welcome to the Lead with Levity podcast. My goal is to interview a diverse set of leaders who are interested in making a big impact on the employee experience and willing to share their perspectives on levity at work. Join me in this fantastic interview with Dr. Melanie Katzman.
Dr. Melanie Katzman is a business psychologist and consultant to the world’s top public and private companies, government agencies and nonprofits. She is the founder of Katzman Consulting and a founding partner of the social enterprise Leaders’ Quest. Katzman was a Senior Fellow at Wharton School’s Center for Leadership and Change Management and co-created/hosted the show “Women@Work” on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. She has been featured in the Financial Times, New York Times, O Magazine, South China Morning Post, Vanity Fair, and on ABC-TV, CBS-TV, and Lifetime.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Common disconnects between people
- How we can challenge our assumptions to connect on a deeper level with others
- How to clear any negative energy before approaching someone else
- How to transition from polite small talk to the real agenda
- What can we do to maintain connection with remote workers or when working across time zones
- What happens when you take a hard stance of “I’m not here to make friends”
- Dr. Katzman’s take on shared office space and how it creates barriers for meaningful connections
- Questions to ask to check-in during one-on-ones
- What to do if you’ve been disconnected from others at work
Melanie Katzman, Ph.D.
Melanie A. Katzman, PhD is a business psychologist, advisor, and consultant to the world’s top public and private companies, as well as governmental and nonprofit institutions.
A sought-after expert in executive development, group dynamics, and leadership diversity, she founded Katzman Consulting in 1999 and has worked with businesses—including Accenture, Bain Consulting, Goldman Sachs, MTV, PwC, and Viacom—in 31 countries. A busy speaker, Katzman is also a partner of the global social enterprise Leaders’ Quest, which serves a community of 12,000 members and facilitates cross-sector strategic discussions on pressing economic and social problems. She has held faculty positions in psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical Center and the University of London, was a senior fellow at Wharton Business School’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, and was a visiting professor at Bocconi Business School in Milan, the Henley School of Management in Henley-on-Thames, England, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
