Disrupting Corporate ‘Arsehole’ Environment, with Peter Malek

Disruption Interruption podcast host and veteran communications disruptor Karla Jo Helms interviews Peter Malek, a proven Process and Technology Transformation Leader and author — and learns how the current culture of promoting high performers without providing adequate leadership training is damaging innovation and productivity.  

(Tampa Bay, FL) March 7, 2023 — The average employee is productive for 31% of the 8-hour office workday.(1) Stress and distraction are significant detriments, as 41% of workers report stress makes them less productive, and it takes around 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after a distraction.(1) Happy workers are more loyal, healthier, and around 20% more productive than their stressed-out or unhappy counterparts.(2) The single most critical factor in employee satisfaction, happiness, and engagement is a workplace culture that fosters common philosophies and practices, where employees are invested in outcomes and feel part of something bigger than themselves.(3) Yet, despite the proven success of leadership training, 51% of HR professionals reported their companies do not possess strategically-aligned leadership programs.(4)  

Enter “stabilizing” disruptor Peter Malek, a proven Process and Technology Transformation Leader and author, who explains to Karla Jo Helms, host of the Disruption Interruption podcast, that the skills that make an individual a high performer are not the same as those that make a great leader. As a result, many individuals promoted in the corporate environment lack the ability to effectively ignite their team’s potential. This lack of productive leadership damages the bottom line and creates negative corporate cultures that stagnate creativity, innovation, and productivity. 

After two decades of leading teams as a top performer, Peter took a lateral step to work with a company whose mission he believed in. Within days of arrival, the team he had given up his previous career to join was dissolved, and he was put under a newly hired manager. When he expressed displeasure at the abrupt change, he became a target for corporate bullying despite gaining overwhelmingly positive feedback from stakeholders and customers. He said, THAT’S IT — I’M DONE WITH THE STATUS QUO and left the corporate world to open his own business. He wrote #PerFORM: The Path to Becoming Unstoppable and Achieving Fulfillment to promote the pillars of leadership that generate productive, collaborative cultures. 

Peter explains: 

• Every individual has a passion to achieve, accomplish or contribute in some way. 

• Yet, in the status quo corporate culture, you often have to put a mask on. We do what we need to succeed but are miserable underneath that mask. When we go home, it gets vomited out on the ones we love, affecting our personal lives. 
• If your day-to-day environment is frustrating and challenging, you are less likely to go beyond what is asked. 
• Essentially, we've put padlocks on individuals' brains and restricted the flow of creativity and innovation. 
• Creativity and innovation start to foster and grow when individuals feel safe, enabled, empowered, and surrounded by people they like working with. 
• Good leadership is often a hard-won trait. Wisdom comes with failures and experience–battle wounds. 

• The book outlines seven pillars of winning leadership. 
• One pillar is creating purpose and a sense of belonging. We all want to feel we are contributing to some good cause. 
• A second pillar is the power of a pro-performance team. On a sports team, each individual knows how well the others perform. In corporate culture, we hide performance reviews. While you don’t want to share every detail, giving employees a chance to see how they rank relative to their peers can be highly motivating. 
• A third pillar is to reevaluate how you set goals and objectives. Succeed together and fail together. 
• We all have the ability to be disruptive and innovative. We all have that curious, inventive child inside of us. What is lacking is environments that foster that natural flow of creativity safely and productively. 

Disruption Interruption is the podcast where you’ll hear from today’s biggest Industry Disruptors. Learn what motivated them to bring about change and how they overcame opposition to adoption. 

Ways to get more Disruption/Interruption: Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify and Stitcher  

About Disruption Interruption: 

Disruption is happening on an unprecedented scale, impacting all manner of industries — MedTech, Finance, IT, eCommerce, shipping and logistics, and more —and COVID has moved their timelines up a full decade or more. But WHO are these disruptors, and when did they say, “THAT’S IT! I’VE HAD IT!”? Time to Disrupt and Interrupt with host Karla Jo “KJ” Helms, veteran communications disruptor. KJ interviews bad a**es who are disrupting their industries and altering economic networks that have become antiquated with an establishment resistant to progress. She delves into uncovering secrets from industry rebels and quiet revolutionaries that uncover common traits — and not-so-common — that are changing our economic markets … and lives. Visit the world’s key pioneers that persist to success, despite arrows in their backs, at www.disruptioninterruption.com. 

About Karla Jo Helms: 

Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR(TM) Strategist for JOTO PR Disruptors(TM). Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the line — and how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumnus of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators, and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinion — Karla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances and doing what it takes to excel. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way, and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of Anti-PR to drive markets and impact market perception. 

About Peter Malek:  

Peter Malek is a versatile and proven Business and Technology executive with 18+ years of progressive achievement in organizational strategy, operational excellence, project/change management, product management, and business process optimization. He has 10+ years of leadership, including building, implementing, and scaling process excellence & automation practices, curriculum, training, offerings, and service solutions. Peter is the author of #PerFORM: The Path to Becoming Unstoppable and Achieving Fulfillment. Learn more about Peter Malek on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-malek-8a980a1/ 

References: 

1. Flynn, Jack. “20 Incredible Productivity Statistics [2023]: Average Employee Productivity in the U.S.” Zippia, 2 Nov. 2022, zippia.com/advice/productivity-statistics/. 
2. Nash, Robert. “The Nexus of Employee Satisfaction and Productivity.” Helpware, 28 Oct. 2022, helpware.com/blog/the-nexus-of-employee-satisfaction-and-productivity. 
3. Harter, Jim. “Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction and Organizational Culture.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 15 Nov. 2022, gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx. 
4. Bouchrika, Imed. “24 Leadership Training Statistics: Data, Insights & Predictions.” Research.com, 4 Oct. 2022, research.com/careers/leadership-training-statistics. 

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Media Inquiries: 

Karla Jo Helms 

JOTO PR™ 

727-777-4621 

jotopr.com