Blanchard LeaderChat: Recent Episodes
Chad Gordon and Blanchard
This podcast is devoted to helping you be your very best by keeping up with current trends in self-development, leadership and business. The Blanchard LeaderChat Podcast provides the perfect way for you to stay up-do-date on the latest ideas, insights, and innovations that impact you and your work. Each episode features an expert sharing their ideas about helping people become the best leaders they can be. So, subscribe today, listen at your convenience, and keep checking back for new episodes. You’ll be inspired by what you hear.
Hear Manu Kapur explain how carefully curated failure can become a signal for deeper learning. People can gain lifelong readiness to push themselves outside of their comfort zones, using setbacks as launchpads for learning and innovation as described in his book Productive Failure: Unlocking Deeper Learning Through the Science of Failing.
For more information visit www.manukapur.com
Hear Barrie Conchie share the results of his research with Sarah Dalton to identify the most important skills leaders need today. They believe setting direction, building energy, exerting pressure, increasing connectivity, and controlling traffic are focus areas, as presented in their book, The Five Talents That Really Matter.
For more information visit conchie.com
Hear workplace culture expert, Jessica Kriegel explain why the concept of “generational differences” is an unfair generalization, and how the best managers work with people based on their talents, strengths, and challenges. She explores the concepts from her book, Unfairly Labeled: How Your Workplace Can Benefit from Ditching Generational Stereotypes.
For more information about Jessica Kriegel visit Jessicakriegel.com
In this special double episode, hear Jennifer Brown discuss her book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader and Marcus Buckingham talk about his book Love + Work. Both thought leaders will deliver keynote sessions at the upcoming Blanchard Leadership Summit to be held October 8-10. 2024 in Dana Point, California. For more information go to blanchard.com/summit2024
Hear Pam August explain how to cut through the noise and stress of your busy life to realize your true potential as outlined in her book, Potential: How to Connect What’s Already There for Exponential Impact. It involves having the right mindset, setting your intention, and pausing to notice where you are in relation to your intention to choose how you move forward.
For more information www.connectingpotential.ca
Hear Ken Coleman explain that self-awareness is the most crucial element in determining what kind of career will be the most fulfilling. He asks you to identify what you do best, what you enjoy, and what motivates you to begin the journey as detailed in his book, Find the Work You’re Wired to Do.
For more Information visit www.Kencoleman.com
Hear Shawn Kanungo explain how individuals need to be life-long learners and to take risks daily to develop the confidence to become bold. It is the practical way to transform yourself and your organization. He shares tips from his book The Bold Ones: Innovate and Disrupt to Become Truly Indispensable.
Learn more about a Shawn Kanungo on LinkedIn
Rich Horwath shares tips from his book Strategic: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence. He explains that new growth comes from new thinking and it’s critical to take time to think about how to do things differently. Taking time to think, plan and act strategically is the secret to navigating every business challenge.
For more information on Rich Horwath go to www.strategyskills.com
In this episode, hear Cassandra Worthy explain how to embrace change by paying attention to your emotions—especially your negative emotions—to achieve growth and transformation. She shares tips from her book Change Enthusiasm: How to Harness the Power of Emotion for Leadership and Success.
For more about Cassandra Worthy visit www.changeenthusiasmglobal.com
Hear Dr. Travis Bradberry share strategies from his latest book, Emotional Intelligence Habits. He explains how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the micro behaviors that will take your EQ to new heights. His insights will help you change your habits and change your life.
To learn more follow Dr. Travis Bradberry on LinkedIn
In this episode hear Dr. Jay Campbell, Chief Products Office at Blanchard and host Chad Gordon discuss the results of the Blanchard 2024 HR/L&D Trends Survey. You’ll learn about the eight specific focus areas identified in the survey that Human Resources and Learning & Development professionals will face as challenges, or opportunities in the coming year.
Download the eBook here.
In this episode Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley discuss how they are helping leaders become servant leaders with the tips in their new book, Simple Truths of Leadership Playbook. They explain how to put learning into action with the structured exercises and thought-provoking questions from the book.
Get your copy of Simple Truths of Leadership Playbook
To register for the Simple Truths of Leadership Webinar with Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley, click here
To join a monthly book club led by Randy Conley, become a member of the Blanchard Community – it’s free!
In this episode:
· HEAR Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon discuss EVERY episode of the LeaderChat podcast that aired in 2023!
· LISTEN as each guest reveals the key facts and ideas they want YOU to learn from their episode!
· DISCOVER valuable information that will make you want to listen to each episode AGAIN and AGAIN and revisit the insights shared!
In this episode Dr. Keith Keating explains the importance of making learning initiatives a part of the overall corporate strategy. He shares how to develop a proactive approach to L&D as outlined in his new book, The Trusted Learning Advisor.
For more information visit www.keithkeating.com
Hear Dr. Stejskal share how she created her framework for developing resilience as outlined in her book, The 5 Practices of Highly Resilient People. She explains that our lives are filled with challenges, complexity and change and using these practices will help us flourish during difficult times.
For more information visit https://www.resilience-leadership.com/
Hear Dan Rockwell explain how talented people often unintentionally hold themselves back from success. He encourages listeners to identify their self-defeating behaviors to become the authentic leaders they want to be. He shares tips from his latest book, The Vagrant: The Inner Journey of Leadership.
For more information about Dan Rockwell visit www.leadershipfreak.blog
Hear Dr. Marilee Adams share powerful insights from her best-selling book Change Your Questions, Change Your Life. She explains how the questions we ask ourselves and others can either expand our mindsets and open us up to new possibilities or constrict our mindsets to limit our choices.
Learn more about Dr. Marilee Adams at www.inquiryinstitute.com
Hear Nate Regier explain how finding the balance between compassion and accountability is the ultimate way for leaders to create improved results and a thriving workplace. He shares the importance of building connections with your people from his latest book, Compassionate Accountability.
For more information about Nate Regier visit www.compassionateaccountabilitybook.com
Hear Catherine Stothart explain how leaders can learn to understand what motivates each individual on the team to enable them to use their talents and fulfill their potential. The conversation is based on her recent book, Motivation: The Ultimate Guide to Leading Your Team.
For more information about Catherine Stothart visit www.essenwood.co.uk
Hear Seth Godin explain how to break the negative shift that has taken place in the workforce, as outlined in his new book, The Song of Significance. The key is for managers and employees to come together to build a significant organization that enrolls, empowers, and trusts everyone to deliver their best work, no matter where they are.
For more information about Seth Godin, visit www.sethgodin.com
Hear Scott Blanchard, President of Blanchard®, share information about the recent rebrand of the company. He talks about the new tagline—The Heart of Human Achievement™, and the vision of the company—Leaders Powered for Good. He explains how Blanchard will continue to serve a diverse set of organizations with immersive learning experiences that enable leaders at all levels to turn potential into performance.
For more information, visit www.Blanchard.com
In this episode hear Ozan Varol explain how being genius isn’t for a special few. It can be cultivated. Sharing information from his new book, Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary, he encourages you to discard what no longer serves you and discover the qualities that make up your own personal genius.
For more information about Ozan Varol visit www.ozanvarol.com
To join his mailing list text Ozan to 55444
For more about the book visit www.geniusbook.net
In this episode hear Soren Kaplan explain how life experiences influence our mindsets and abilities while impacting our present success and future opportunities. He shares tips and examples from his latest book, Experiential Intelligence: Harness the Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthroughs, and describes the differences between IQ, EQ and XQ.
For more information about Soren Kaplan visit sorenkaplan.com.
Hear Carol Kauffman share information about the MOVE framework from her latest book, Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes are High, coauthored with David Noble. She describes how leaders must learn to read situations and respond in the most effective way to manage high-stakes challenges.
For more information about Carol Kauffman, visit www.carolkauffman.com
In this episode hear Bill Treasurer share tips for becoming a more confident and competent leader from his latest book, Leadership Two Words at a Time. His message is especially helpful for new leaders, but leaders at all levels will find wisdom in his words.
For more information about Bill Treasurer, visit www.couragebuilding.com
In this episode, hear human and organizational development expert Linda Berens talk about a framework for identifying your pattern of core psychological needs, values, and behaviors from her book, Understanding Yourself and Others. She explains that the more we can understand about ourselves and others, the better we can work together.
For mor information about Linda Berens visit www.interstrength.org
In this episode hear Christina Maslach explain the causes of burnout as described in her new book, The Burnout Challenge. She talks about how to recognize the signs of employee burnout and how to combat the issue to promote increased productivity and health.
For more information about Christina Maslach, visit www.theburnoutchallenge.com
In this episode, hear Jennifer Brown deliver a call to action for leaders at every level to find their role and voice in affecting societal and workplace change. She shares concepts from her new book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader, Second Edition.
For more information about Jennifer Brown visit www.jenniferbrownconsulting.com
In this episode, hear Keith Ferrazzi explain how remaining competitive in the post-pandemic world requires a new model of leadership. It will take radical adaptability to sustain continuous change, inspire innovation, and separate the best organizations from the rest! His latest book, Competing in the New World of Work provides the roadmap.
In this episode hear Mike Easley share experiences and insights from his two decades as CEO of an electric cooperative. He explains why self-awareness and empathy are crucial for anyone aspiring to be a leader—especially a leader worth following.
For more about Mike Easley on LinkedIn or visit his book website at noosofleadership.com/
In this episode Eileen Hahn shares tips from her new book, The Job You Were Born For, which presents a revolutionary approach to aligning your work with your life’s purpose. She provides the method for learning what you were born to do while loving every moment of it and making a positive impact in the world.
For more information visit www.eileenbhahn.com
Do what you love. Sounds simple, right? Hear Marcus Buckingham share how to determine when you are at your best, so you can do what you love, and do it for the rest of your life. His newest book Love + Work focuses on bringing love, the most powerful of human emotions, back into your work and in life.
Hear emotional fitness and leadership expert Nataly Kogan share her super-practical guide for reducing daily struggle and burnout so you can live, work and lead with more energy, joy and meaning. Her new book The Awesome Human Project is a response to her own journey as a refugee who achieved tremendous success. She makes the compelling case that while challenge in life is constant, struggle is optional. For more information about Nataly Kogan visit www.natalykogan.com
In this episode hear Whitney Johnson explain the S Curve of Learning from her latest book, Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company. She describes the three phases in the curve as the Launch Point, the Sweet Spot, and Mastery and helps you understand where people are on the learning journey to develop their potential.
For more information about Whitney Johnson visit www.whitneyjohnson.com/newsletter or listen to her Disrupt Yourself podcast.
In this episode coauthors Tom Kaden and Michael Gingerich talk about the skill of listening from their book Listening 2by2: A Paradigm Shift for Leaders. Listening takes intention, patience—and practice. Listening is no longer considered a soft skill but an integral part of communication not only for organizations, but families and personal relationships. They share tips from their L.I.S.T.E.N model to elevate the need to improve communication to the top of our priority list.
For more information about Tom Kaden and Michael Gingerich visit www.Someonetotellitto.org
In this episode Amer Kaissi shares results of his extensive research into the traits that define strong, effective leaders from his new book, Humbitious: The Power of Low-Ego, High-Drive Leadership. Conventional thinking has us believe that those filled with hubris and a lack of self-doubt make the best leaders. However, he explains how the unique combination of humility and ambition are the most important skills a leader can use. Humbitious leaders integrate humility into their relationships with others to drive results for their organizations.
For more information about Amer Kaissi, visit https://www.amerkaissi.com/
Hear Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley discuss how to be an effective leader by using the skills of servant leadership and building trust. They share how to put the commonsense methods into common practice from their book Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust.
For more information visit www.simpletruthsofleadership.com
In this episode, employee engagement expert Heather Younger explains that if you are looking for increased productivity, customer satisfaction, or employee engagement, you need to care for your employees first. People will go the extra mile for leaders who show they are genuinely concerned about their staff. But while most leaders think of themselves as caring leaders, not all demonstrate that care in consistent ways. Your employees will judge you by your actions, not your intentions.
For more information about Heather Younger go theartofcaringleadership.com. Or follow Heather Younger on LinkedIn.
In this episode, hear peak performance expert Steven Kotler explain why we are all capable of achieving the extraordinary. Talking about his latest book, The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer, Kotler explains how the four skills of motivation, learning, creativity, and flow impact our ability to achieve and exceed expectations. He describes how the secrets of elite performers—athletes, artists, scientists, and CEOs—can be applied to your own performance so you can turn your biggest dreams into your most recent achievements.
About Steven Kotler:
For more information about Steven Kotler, go to www.stevenkotler.com, or www.flowresearchcollective.com.
In this episode, hear Carey Lohrenz explain how we can all learn to overcome the stressful circumstances in our lives instead of being overwhelmed by them. She shares the fundamentals of surviving and succeeding during times of crisis as outlined in her new book, Span of Control: What to Do When You’re Under Pressure, Overwhelmed, and Ready to Get What You Really Want, to be released June 1, 2021.
About Carey Lohrenz:
For more information about Carey Lohrenz, visit www.Careylohrenz.com.
To pre-order Span of Control, by Carey Lohrenz click here.
In this episode hear Liz Wiseman reveal the secrets of stellar professionals who play the game at a higher level from her new book, Impact Players: How to Take the Lead Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact. Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, Wiseman explains what the most influential players are doing differently, how small, and seemingly insignificant differences in how we think, and act can make an enormous impact, and why—with a little coaching—this mindset is available to everyone who wants to contribute at their highest level.
For more information about Liz Wiseman, visit www.thewisemangroup.com.
In this episode, Juliet Funt, globally recognized warrior in the battle against busyness, shares tips from her latest book, A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work. Funt developed a framework to help people regain control of an overloaded, chaotic schedule. She reminds us to insert white space—short periods of open time into our daily routine to reinvent the way we approach a maxed-out schedule.
For more information about Juliet Funt, visit www.Julietfunt.com
In this episode hear Trust expert Randy Conley explain the important ways to create psychological safety by building trust in your working environment. He offers suggestions for things you can do immediately to create a safe place to work and challenges you to take the responsibility to make a difference.
In this episode coauthor Pat Zigarmi describes the process of developing your Leadership Point of View as presented in the book Leading at a Higher Level. She explains the three basic steps of identifying key people and events that have influenced your thoughts about leadership, describing your leadership values, and sharing your expectations of yourself and of others with your team members.
For more information about Leadership Point of View go to kenblanchard.com
In this episode, organizational change expert Jake Jacobs shares how to make any change initiative successful by using the techniques from in his latest book, Leverage Change: 8 Ways to Achieve Faster, Easier, Better Results.
Jacobs encourages you to embrace change, learn to love the troublemakers, and find ways to help people make a meaningful difference during the change process.
In this episode, hear author Robert “Bo” Brabo share personal examples of delivering servant leadership in military, government, and business environments from his latest book, From the Battlefield to the White House to the Boardroom.
Brabo explains how leaders can thrive by putting a focus on people and acting in alignment with the core values of their organization, whether big or small, public or private, for-profit or not-for-profit. Leaders who demonstrate consistent behaviors to support these values will be able to show long-term results for themselves and their companies.
For more information about Robert “Bo” Brabo, visit www.robertbrabo.com
In this episode hear renowned business culture expert Stan Slap explain the difference between understanding your employees and understanding your employee culture. The distinction isn’t semantics; it’s the key to whether your strategies will succeed or fail. He shares tips for getting maximum business performance from his book, Under the Hood: Fire up and Fine-Tune Your Employee Culture.
In this episode, hear performance coach Victoria Labalme share strategies for moving forward in times when your goals aren’t precisely clear. Some people know exactly what they want and go for it, but others aren’t quite sure. Labalme talks about the tips and techniques from her new book, Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius.
About Victoria Labalme:
For more information about Victoria Labalme, go to www.riskforward.com/book or www.victorialabalme.com
In this episode hear business strategy expert Berta Aldrich describe how the global marketplace has changed and explain why companies are struggling to hire and retain high-performing talent. She shares tips from her latest book, Winning the Talent Shift to show you how to overcome the three main barriers to unlocking the potential in today’s workplace. By redesigning your talent acquisition strategy, you will increase revenue, engage teams and leaders, and set your company apart from the competition in the marketplace.
About Berta Aldrich
For more information about Berta Aldrich, go to www.bertaaldrich.com, or LinkedIn “Winning the Talent Shift” by Berta Aldrich.
Join us to hear learning strategy and design expert Julie Dirksen explain how to create a learning experience that’s effective instead of one that gets forgotten as soon as the learner completes the session.
The first important steps in Dirksen’s process are to understand who your learners are, then define the behavior you want them to learn. This might seem obvious—but the trick is to identify the specific steps required to make that behavior visible and then teach them in a way that is both memorable and applicable to the learner.
Dirksen understands that the goal of good learning design is to help learners emerge from the learning experience with new or improved capabilities—skills they can take back to the real world and apply immediately. With the recent shift to virtual learning, this includes using methods to keep people engaged in the session. Dirksen encourages you to use tools available on learning platforms to keep people active, such as asking participants to write on a whiteboard or put comments in the chat, or calling on them to unmute and answer a question. She also stresses the important role that repetition plays in the transfer of knowledge and offers methods to enhance memory.
Dirksen’s favorite learning tip? Designers should ask themselves one question about every single thing they are trying to teach: Can I provide a real-world example that will illustrate this learning point?
About Julie Dirksen:
To learn more about Julie Dirksen, go to www.usablelearning.com.
Marcus Buckingham believes there are some basic assumptions about work that are just no longer true in the business environment today. In this episode, he shares his insights on eight of the nine lies featured in his latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, including ideas such as: People care which company they work for; The best plan wins; The best companies cascade goals; The best people are well-rounded; People need feedback; and more.
In this exciting episode, you’ll hear how aviation pioneer Carey D. Lohrenz learned what Fearless Leadership means in two of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Through her experiences, Lohrenz identified a fundamental truth: high performing teams require fearless leaders.
“Fearless leadership isn’t about not feeling fear. It’s having the ability to feel uncomfortable and to move through it and show up to be the best you can be,” explains Lohrenz. Hear her describe the fundamentals of Fearless Leadership:
- Courage: If you cultivate courage in yourself, you’ll have what it takes to see limitless possibilities for yourself as a leader.
- Tenacity: Embracing the persistence it takes to keep going after a goal—even when it becomes difficult or risky—and continuing to take action.
- Integrity: Do the right thing, be honest, be trustworthy, and lead by example.
Lohrenz also describes how to put Fearless Leadership into action by first setting a clear vision, then being the catalyst for moving your team toward that vision by creating the culture to support it. She also illustrates the importance of being resilient as a leader and describes the seven steps you can take to become more resilient:
- Reject victimhood
- Embrace change
- Focus on what matters
- Find a wingman
- Know what you can control
- Learn from adversity
- Take action
“Above all, Fearless Leadership is the difference between having the life, team, culture, and organization that you want, and settling,” says Lohrenz.
So risk more, worry less, and take action—because bold, fearless action drives success.
For more information about Carey Lohrenz, visit www.careylohrenz.com
A finite game has known players, fixed rules, and a clear end point, like baseball. But with infinite games such as business or politics, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined end point. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game—there is only ahead or behind.
In this episode, hear virtual training pioneer Cindy Huggett share information from her book Virtual Training Tools and Templates: An Action Guide to Live Online Learning. She offers tips to ensure your virtual training is successful by meeting the specific needs of your organization.
The first step is to define what virtual training means for your company. For example, if you are trying to replicate an in-person experience for a small audience, your design will have different requirements than it would if you were trying to reach a large audience.
When creating a virtual program, the three most important things to consider are an engaging facilitator, an interactive design, and prepared participants. Preparation is a key to success. Virtual facilitators must understand the specific features of the technology they are using and have backups in place. Huggett’s book offers a virtual trainer checklist to help.
Most of all, facilitators need to realize that delivering in the virtual arena involves much more than simply making a presentation. Facilitators must make learners the focus—and think of the training as a conversation. To help the learning come alive, make use of the time together in the virtual setting exactly as you would in a face-to-face session.
About Cindy Huggett:
To learn more about Cindy Huggett, go to www.cindyhuggett.com, or find her on Twitter: @cindyhugg.
In this exciting episode, Alexa Shoen shares secrets for finding your first job—or your dream job—from her new book, #EntryLevelBoss. She calls her approach a “fitness plan” for looking for work, with the goal of helping people go through the job search process as efficiently as possible.
Shoen believes there are 14 incorrect beliefs that stymie our job search efforts and she challenges us to reconsider those assumptions. For example, many people believe they need the right degrees to get the right job. They spend thousands of dollars on schooling when they should have focused on getting practical experience. It’s not that an MBA isn’t a good thing—but sometimes jumping on the first rung of the ladder to get the experience can be more important than getting more educated.
Before you start your job search, Shoen wants you to answer three questions:
- What kind of role do you want?
- Where do you physically want to work?
- What industry do you want to work in?
Don’t just throw your resume out there—answer these questions and create a list of possible employers. Then plan a strategy for making connections with those companies. Shoen reveals a few creative methods for tracking down people who can help you find that perfect job.
Most important, Shoen advises you to focus on being interested instead of looking interesting. Find out enough about the company to know what kind of problem you can solve for them. Think about what you can bring to the job on day one that will set you apart from other candidates.
About Alexa Shoen
For more information about Alexa Shoen, go to www.entrylevelboss.com.
In this week’s podcast, you’ll hear Brendon Burchard explain why and how some people perform at a higher level than others. He identifies six habits successful people practice to sustain long-term achievement in their personal and professional lives.
- Seek clarity. Successful people continually seek clarity. They are curious and ask questions. They are intentional about understanding how they are perceived by others and about the specific differences they want to make.
- Generate energy. So much mental, emotional, and spiritual fatigue exist today that we all must take control of our own energy. High performers develop routines such as meditation or other wellness practices to increase their energy throughout the day. They practice the exercise of releasing tension and they set their intentions before starting a project or activity. They create transitional moments to refuel their bodies and minds, and to increase creativity and focus.
- Raise necessity. High performers amp themselves up to do a good job. Before any situation, they define why it is important to excel, and they increase the psychological stress on themselves. They understand who and what they are performing for, and strive to be their best.
- Increase productivity. Focus is the key to increasing productivity. High performers don’t do something just so they can cross it off their list. They continuously determine the most important work they should be doing—and then they intentionally block out time for that work in order to achieve their most critical goals.
- Develop influence. High performers influence others by asking them to think about things differently and to challenge themselves. When you think about someone who influenced you, you’ll realize they probably challenged you in the same way.
- Demonstrate courage. Demonstrating courage doesn’t have to be a Herculean feat. Practical things done on a daily basis help people perform at higher levels. Speaking up for yourself, sharing your truth, and speaking up for others are all acts of courage.
As Burchard explains, “The things that matter most to your performance might seem like common sense, but they are not common practice. You must identify the things that make you extraordinary and align the right habits to help yourself become a higher achiever.”
About Brendon Burchard
For more information on Brendon Burchard, visit www.brendon.com
In this episode, hear Keith Ferrazzi explain the new rules for work presented in his latest book, Leading Without Authority. The days of authoritative command and control are gone. “Work doesn’t happen in organization charts anymore. Leaders need to learn the power of co-elevation to bring collaboration to a higher level of effectiveness,” says Ferrazzi.
When a leader thinks of themselves as a servant, host, or Sherpa, their role changes to one that focuses on working hard to get the most out of a group of individuals. If the whole team is committed to the mission and to each other, extraordinary and transformative things happen.
A team isn’t necessarily a group of people in the same department reporting to the same person. Today’s teams are made up of peers working together across functions to achieve results. Co-elevation requires a shift in mindset and behaviors. Ferrazzi shares how to re-contract with colleagues to define new ways to work together collaboratively and offers bold solutions you can put into practice tomorrow.
Now more than ever before, it is critical for individuals to step up and lead even if they don’t have the title, the authority, or the position. It might not be comfortable at first, because it will be disruptive. But disruption drives innovation. The true power behind co-elevation breaks down silos and gets people focused on crossing the finish line together.
For more information about Keith Ferrazzi, go to www.keithferrazzi.com. To access the handout mentioned in the podcast, go to www.keithferrazzi.com/leaderchat.
In this episode, hear leadership expert Dave McKeown challenge leaders to break the cycle of mediocrity and take responsibility for their own development. In his latest book, The Self-Evolved Leader, McKeown acknowledges that it is easy for leaders to get stuck in the busyness of the day-to-day and allow themselves to be disrupted at any time. Leaders need to spend less time taking care of every little detail and more time developing, inspiring, and encouraging their staff.
In this compelling episode, you’ll hear La’Wana Harris share timely thoughts about her new book, Diversity Beyond Lip Service. She explains how she works with leaders to help them become aware of their own biases and how to make conscious choices that mitigate bias in order to embrace diversity. Harris defines diversity as the full spectrum of human indifference including race, gender, and sexual orientation. But she also points out other differentiators such as cultural elements, position or role status, privilege, and physical abilities that limit inclusion.
La’Wana’s executive coach experience has provided many opportunities for her to work with people to first build their awareness of biases, then do the self-work to move forward with actions that have a positive impact. She encourages us to commit to courageous actions and speak up when we see someone being marginalized. The action is to not ignore what you are observing; instead, practice awareness, point out the discrepancy, and be part of the solution. This is the only way to move beyond supporting diversity only through lip service. It takes a long-term commitment to action.
Diversity is an issue that must be addressed, and now is the time. “There are no extra people—every single person has inherent value and it is a huge disservice to ourselves and others not to mine for the greatness in everyone. We must help others become their best selves and fully appreciate the beauty in our diversity,” explains Harris.
For more information on La’Wana Harris, go to lawanaharris.com or find her on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Mark Johnson describes a method for putting visionary thinking and processes into place so that any organization can take advantage of disruptive innovation. As business models change at an ever-increasing rate and the world becomes noisier, the tendency for most organizations is to hunker down and deal with the here and now. But it is important to get past the pull of the present and plan for five to ten years in the future.
In this episode you’ll hear Joel Peterson, chairman of JetBlue Airways, discuss the difference between an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurial leader. In his latest book, Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff, Peterson explains that leaders who want to make a lasting impact must learn to launch new initiatives, inspire others, and champion innovative approaches. In short, these leaders require a new set of skills.
Judd Hoekstra, coauthor of Who Killed Change, explains why up to 70 percent of change efforts fail. Research indicates there are several predictive reasons why change fails, and Hoekstra explains how to navigate through the process successfully. He also describes three of the five stages of concern that people experience during a change initiative.
“If leaders know that showing gratitude and appreciating the work of their employees is important, why aren’t they doing it consistently?” asks Adrian Gostick, organizational culture expert and cofounder of The Culture Works. In this episode, hear Gostick talk about research his company conducted with more than one million employees that confirms the strong relationship between employee recognition and employee engagement. He explores the myths that are holding people back in his latest book, Leading with Gratitude, coauthored with Chester Elton.
Hear motivation expert Susan Fowler describe the three basic needs that are essential to optimal motivation: choice, connection, and competence. She explains we all need to create these three needs in our lives in order to thrive.
- Creating the basic need of choice can be as simple as recognizing that we have a choice. Have you ever wished you didn’t have to go to work in the morning? That is a choice point. When that happens, ask yourself what would happen if you didn’t go to work—what would you lose? Then ask yourself what you would learn and contribute if you did go to work. Thinking about those things will help you plan and understand that you do have a choice. Fowler recommends that at the end of each day we ask ourselves which choices made us happy and which ones didn’t. This simple process makes us more aware that we do have choices, and it helps us look at consequences to ensure we make better decisions in the future.
- The need of connection is tied closely to values. If you say family is your number one value but you spend 80 hours a week working and missing family events, or if you say health is a value but you don’t eat right or exercise, you might need to take a closer look at your values. The choices we make are true indicators of our values—so if we don’t know what your values are, we’ll have trouble creating connection in our lives. Defining our values is the first step toward creating connection.
- The third basic need is competence. This isn’t necessarily about mastery; it’s about learning and growing every day. Everyone wants to feel effective at managing professional and personal activities, but mastery doesn’t happen overnight. Developing competence is about making progress.
The most important takeaway is that we can control the quality of our lives by controlling the quality of our motivation through the creation of choice, connection, and competence.
For more about Susan Fowler, go to www.susanfowler.com.
A finite game has known players, fixed rules, and a clear end point, like baseball. But with infinite games such as business or politics, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined end point. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game—there is only ahead or behind.
In this episode, Craig Weber explains how strong communication skills can build healthy work environments and increase leadership effectiveness.
“The first step is awareness. People need to be aware of how they react to others during conversations,” explains Weber. Once people have this awareness, they can be more thoughtful about their responses and help conversations move along in a positive way.
The second step is to embrace a new way of thinking. Many people let their ego get in the way during conversations when they want to prove they are right. That isn’t helpful. The purpose of a conversation is to get a clear understanding of an issue with the goal of working together to make good decisions and move forward. To do that, you must develop a mindset of learning.
The third step is learning the skills of candor and curiosity. Candor involves being able to state your opinion clearly and explain the thinking behind it. Curiosity is about testing your opinions or theories with others to learn about blind spots or inaccuracies in your thought process. It also involves the ability to inquire and gain clarity about comments or opinions from others.
Weber suggests creating a personal plan to work on specific areas of your communication skills. Be aware of your behaviors, approach every conversation with a learning mindset, and then practice the skills of candor and curiosity. Weber wants everyone to realize they have the power to make a difference both at work and at home by simply improving their communication skills.
For more information about Craig Weber, go to https://www.weberconsultinggroup.net/conversational-capacity.
Jennifer Brown says most of us are not aware of the variety of forms bias can take. The most important thing is to start having discussions about diversity and unconscious bias so every leader can begin their journey toward becoming an inclusive leader.
Marcus Buckingham believes there are some basic assumptions about work that are just no longer true in the business environment today. In this episode, he shares his insights on eight of the nine lies featured in his latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, including ideas such as: People care which company they work for; The best plan wins; The best companies cascade goals; The best people are well-rounded; People need feedback; and more.
“I’ve been in the business of leadership development for 30 years, and it became increasingly evident to me that love is the foundation of great leadership,” says Steve Farber. He isn’t talking a touchy-feely notion of love, but the competitive advantage you can have when you love what you do in the service of people who love what you do. This book is about dispelling the myth that love and business are mutually exclusive. Farber isn’t talking about love as a sentiment, but as a discipline: love of the cause, values, people, customers, products, and services.
In this exciting episode, you’ll hear how aviation pioneer Carey D. Lohrenz learned what Fearless Leadership means in two of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Through her experiences, Lohrenz identified a fundamental truth: high performing teams require fearless leaders.
“Fearless leadership isn’t about not feeling fear. It’s having the ability to feel uncomfortable and to move through it and show up to be the best you can be,” explains Lohrenz. Hear her describe the fundamentals of Fearless Leadership:
- Courage: If you cultivate courage in yourself, you’ll have what it takes to see limitless possibilities for yourself as a leader.
- Tenacity: Embracing the persistence it takes to keep going after a goal—even when it becomes difficult or risky—and continuing to take action.
- Integrity: Do the right thing, be honest, be trustworthy, and lead by example.
Lohrenz also describes how to put Fearless Leadership into action by first setting a clear vision, then being the catalyst for moving your team toward that vision by creating the culture to support it. She also illustrates the importance of being resilient as a leader and describes the seven steps you can take to become more resilient:
- Reject victimhood
- Embrace change
- Focus on what matters
- Find a wingman
- Know what you can control
- Learn from adversity
- Take action
“Above all, Fearless Leadership is the difference between having the life, team, culture, and organization that you want, and settling,” says Lohrenz.
So risk more, worry less, and take action—because bold, fearless action drives success.
For more information about Carey Lohrenz, visit www.careylohrenz.com
In this episode, you’ll hear Jim Clifton describe the findings from Gallup’s largest study on the future of work from his new book, It’s the Manager. “We found that engagement—not satisfaction, but engagement, where people are developing and contributing to something bigger than themselves—is extremely low. In the United States, about 30 percent of employees are engaged at work. And if you look worldwide, that number drops to 15 percent,” says Clifton. “This tells us that in the world of management, something isn’t working. The numbers are depressing—but the possibilities are inspiring.”
After studying 300,000 teams across 160 countries, Gallup found that one thing makes the difference between high performing teams and failing teams: the manager. While the world’s workplaces have been going through extraordinary change, the practice of management has been stuck in time for more than 30 years.
Hear Clifton describe a few of the 52 discoveries from his book, including the importance of creating the kind of culture that supports employee development and the need for managers to stop being a boss and start being a coach. The new, younger workforce wants their work to have deep mission and purpose—and they don’t want old-style command-and-control bosses. They want coaches who inspire them, communicate with them frequently, and develop their strengths.
“Just imagine if we improved engagement from 15 percent to 50 percent. We would see meaningful growth like never before.”
About Jim Clifton
For more information about Jim Clifton, visit www.gallup.com.
For everyday situations that can drain our daily energy and make us lose focus, Micro-Resilience offers quick and easy ways to help us cope: Learn how to Refocus Your Brain, Reset Your Primitive Alarms, Reframe Your Attitude, Refresh Your Body, and Renew Your Spirit!
Bonnie St. John explains how in her book Micro-Resilience, coauthored with Allen P. Haines.
“We have so much disruption in our lives—new technology, new customers, new competition, new processes and systems,” says St. John. “All of this disruption creates stress and mental exhaustion. But you can make tiny changes in your daily routine to help you deal with the big changes going on in your life.”
A lot of information is available about how to deal with big life changes such as illness or natural disasters. These kinds of events can require complex solutions and take time to work through. But for everyday situations that can drain our daily energy and make us lose focus, Micro-Resilience offers quick and easy ways to help us cope.
In this episode, S. Chris Edmonds discusses the key points of his book The Culture Engine: A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employees, and Transforming Your Workplace.
S. Chris Edmonds has a delightfully simple explanation of culture: “Culture is all about how people treat each other—how leaders treat their teams and peers, how employees treat each other, and how people treat customers and vendors. It’s about relationships and respect,” he explains. As simple as that sounds, it can also be a very disruptive concept to some organizations.
Many leaders and managers are asked to manage business results but are rarely asked to manage the quality of their work culture. “Get out of the mindset that results are the most important thing. Make respect as important as results. One of the first things I do is educate senior leaders about how important it is to have a culture that is purposeful, positive, and productive—one that is going to drive great customer experiences and employee engagement.”
So how does an organization start creating the culture they want to cultivate? Edmonds suggests writing an organizational constitution—a document that outlines the purpose, values, strategies, and goals of the company. It describes exactly how employees will engage with each other, with customers, and with vendors. An organizational constitution gives meaning and clarity to every employee by providing a clear understanding of how they can do their best work, treat others respectfully, and help the organization prosper.
It is critical to urge all the leaders in the organization to model the behaviors outlined in the organizational constitution. It becomes the document they can lead by, live by, and manage performance to. It helps them hold people accountable, praise people who are living the values of the constitution, and redirect people whose behaviors are not in alignment.
If your organization doesn’t have a constitution, individuals can lead by example. Edmonds asks leaders to pay attention to the relationships they have with their direct reports, peers, customers, and vendors. “I ask leaders to shift from an ‘I need’ mindset to a ‘What do you need?’ mindset. If leaders can help their people accomplish tasks easier, or give a client what they need, they will build trust and create a mutually beneficial relationship,” Edmonds explains. “I’ve seen it work with intact teams within organizations. I tell people to just start making a difference where they are.”
Edmonds shares several examples of working with organizations to help them define their purpose, values, strategies, and goals, and describes how these companies are creating their desired cultures. The stories bring his concepts to life.
Edmonds stresses that culture drives everything that happens in an organization day by day, including focus, priorities, and the treatment of employees and customers. A great culture not only drives great performance but also can help attract and retain top talent. However, a great culture isn't something that evolves naturally—it must be defined, supported, honored, and modeled every day.
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About S. Chris Edmonds
For more information on S. Chris Edmonds visit his website at www.drivingresultsthroughculture.com
In this episode, Whitney Johnson discusses the secrets to creating an engaged and productive team as outlined in her book, Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve.
Johnson shares seven ways managers can support their team members’ journey up the curve.
- Take the right kind of risks—Help team members understand the difference between doing something just to compete, versus finding a problem that needs to be solved and creating the solution.
- Play to your distinctive strengths—Help team members identify what they are good at and let them apply their knowledge to those types of projects.
- Embrace your constraints—By identifying constraints and taking a hard look at them managers can help team members inspire innovation.
- Battle entitlement—Encourage team members to think about new ways of doing things. Just because a process has been in place for years, doesn’t mean it is the best process. Entitlement can kill innovation.
- Step back, down, or sideways to grow—Continually pushing forward is not always the best way to drive innovation. Help people understand the positive influence of stepping back to look at other possibilities.
- Give failure its due—Accept what you can learn from failure. It might be the very thing to catapult you up the learning curve.
- Be driven by discovery—Encourage your team to ask for feedback and use what they learn to discover things that might be holding them back.
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program, based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Whitney Johnson
For more information on Whitney Johnson visit www.whitneyjohnson.com. Or visit www.whitneyjohnson.com/diagnostic to take an assessment to determine where you are on the S-Curve of Learning.
In this episode, Tasha Eurich describes concepts from her book Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Thank We Think. Eurich explains how developing self-awareness—knowing who we are and how others see us—can help you be fulfilled, confident, and successful in life and work.
“As an organizational psychologist—and intuitively—I’ve always believed that self-awareness was an important skill. But as an executive coach, I’ve come to realize it is an essential skill. I wanted proof, so I started researching the concept.”
Eurich’s research shows that self-awareness is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. It also shows that most people don’t see themselves as clearly as they could. “Our data reveals that 95 percent of people believe they are self-aware, but the real number is 12 to 15 percent,” she says. “That means, on a good day, about 80 percent of people are lying about themselves—to themselves.”
There are two parts to self-awareness: internal and external. Internal self-awareness means knowing your values and personality strengths and weaknesses. External self-awareness means knowing how other people see you. The two parts are independent of each other. A person can be high or low on both scales, or high on one and low on the other.
Fortunately, self-awareness is a skill that can be developed—all it takes is a willingness to improve. Critical elements include questioning your assumptions about yourself and asking for feedback. Most people don’t like hearing feedback, but pushing past this discomfort is one of the first steps on the journey to self-awareness.
Eurich identifies a phenomenon she calls cult of self as a global problem. “Think about the way people use social media. They don't post bad news—only great news. It can take so much effort to make ourselves seem a certain way that we become disconnected from who we really are,” she explains. “We each have a choice between being a meformer—just talking about ourselves, or an informer—focusing on what we do, how we can add value to the world, and what we learn from people around us.”
Self-serving behavior shows up in the workplace when people are not authentic and not open to feedback. The most productive work environments, according to Eurich, are built around people being humble, open, honest, and willing to learn and grow.
“A surprising finding centers on people who spend a lot of time in self-reflection. We assume they would be more self-aware, but it isn’t true. Some people spend so much time ruminating on the negative that it actually damages their self-awareness. The key to effective self-reflection is to think about something for a defined period of time and then make a decision, not to beat yourself up. For example, instead of focusing on why you may have done something, think about what you can do differently next time or what kind of support you need. Self-reflection should move you forward productively.”
To apply this concept in the workplace, leaders must model self-awareness behaviors. First, ask for feedback from every member of the team. Create a safe environment for people to share their truth when giving feedback. Most important, make sure this is a continuous practice—not just an activity at a retreat.
Eurich offers one last piece of advice. “Working on your self-awareness will put you ahead of 80 percent of your colleagues. It is the secret ingredient. Don’t put pressure on yourself to do it quickly—be open to what people tell you so that you can make a significant improvement.”
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Tasha Eurich
For more information on Tasha Eurich, and to take a free self-awareness quiz, go to www.insight-quiz.com.
In this exciting episode, Peter Bregman shares his thoughts about leadership and the importance of showing up with confidence, being connected to others, and being committed to a purpose in a way that inspires others to follow. He explains that the most successful leaders not only know what to say and do, but are willing to experience the discomfort, risk, or uncertainty of saying and doing it. These leaders display what Bregman calls Emotional Courage.
“Think about a conversation you need to have, but haven’t. You have all the skill and knowledge you need, but you aren’t doing it. Why? Most likely it is because you believe it may cause you to feel something you don’t want to feel. You might become disconnected from that person. Or they might come back in anger or act in a passive aggressive way that can damage relationships and put projects at risk. It could simply make you uncomfortable—and no one likes to feel uncomfortable. Emotional Courage is not how much you know—it is about what you are willing to feel,” says Bregman.
The four elements of Emotional Courage are simple to understand, but not always easy to implement. To be a leader with Emotional Courage, you need to:
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Be confident in yourself. To be confident, you need to understand who you are as a leader and then determine who you want to become. Asking for feedback is a powerful way to uncover blind spots, while listening to and accepting that feedback is the key to changing your behavior. Building confidence creates the foundation for your leadership style.
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Be connected with others. Listening with a willingness to learn something new is the birthplace of connection. Following through on commitments builds trust for a lasting, honest relationship. True success depends on connecting with others.
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Be committed to a purpose. Create a clear, powerful, compelling focus toward a larger purpose in order to channel your energy and the energy of those around you toward a common goal. Achieving a common purpose requires extreme focus.
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Act with Emotional Courage. Understand when you don’t want to feel something and take steps toward it. Be courageous and act boldly. Emotional courage feeds on confidence, connections, and commitment.
“The key thing to remember is to be aware of what is important to you and be willing to take the risk to increase your own productivity. That will have a positive impact on personal and organizational results—because you will be operating with Emotional Courage.”
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program, based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Peter Bregman
For more information on Peter Bregman, visit www.bregmanpartners.com.
As we wrap up season one of the LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com.
Enjoy this episode of Chad Gordon interviewing Dr. Travis Bradberry, researcher and author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0—which has sold over one million copies!
Bradberry shares how emotional maturity is absolutely critical for success as a leader, and how emotional intelligence is a capacity that can be learned and developed. He explains that increasing your emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness.
Bradberry discusses how to integrate EQ training into a leadership development curriculum—and how the emotional intelligence displayed by top leaders can set the example for all levels of leadership in an organization. Bradberry also shares strategies for dealing with stress, procrastination, and toxic people.
Emotions are a primary driver of behaviors and emotional intelligence is a foundational skill of all good leaders. Learn how to be a master of your emotions in a way that increases your effectiveness as a leader.
And be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways on Dr. Bradberry’s ideas.
As we wrap up season one of the LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com.
Enjoy this episode of Chad Gordon interviewing Patrick Lencioni, author of The Ideal Team Player as well as nine other books on teams and motivation—which have sold nearly five million copies! Lencioni describes leadership as a calling that requires putting the needs of others ahead of your own. That begins with identifying people with the right qualities and developing those qualities to the fullest extent.
Building on the concepts he first explored in his best-selling first book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni recommends taking a moment to consider your own behaviors when working on a team. He teaches how using a Humble—Hungry—Smart model can help you and others become more effective team members.
Lencioni shares how leadership development experts can identify these traits in potential new hires along with sharing his own personal story of using these principles in his work and other areas of his life.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his key takeaways and the areas that he most plans to work on.
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book,& The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Patrick Lencioni
For more information on Patrick Lencioni visit www.tablegroup.com
As we wrap up season one of the LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com.
Enjoy this episode where Chad Gordon interviews Elena Botelho, coauthor of The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People into World-Class Leaders to hear what it takes to become a world-class leader.
“Most ideals about why people are successful are driven by stereotypes and gut feel rather than facts and data,” explains Botelho. “In this book, we’ve aspired to provide information about how anyone can be successful by helping readers learn from other successful people in business.”
Learnings shared in the book are based on groundbreaking research and in-depth analysis of more than 2,600 leaders drawn from a database of more than 17,000 CEO and C-suite executives. Botelho describes the four behaviors of highly successful people as identified by the research.
- They are decisive and understand the importance of speed over precision when making decisions. According to Botelho, most people assume that CEOs have an uncanny ability to make the right decisions more often than other people. But her research indicates that what really makes a CEO stand out isn’t necessarily the accuracy of their decision, but the speed and will to make the decision in the first place.
- They are reliable and deliver what they promise, when they promise it—without exception. This behavior sounds simple, but isn’t easy to practice consistently. Botelho describes the importance of being on time and doing what you say you’re going to do—and she offers another tip: “Highly reliable leaders are thoughtful about setting expectations right up front.” Botelho shares that this behavior not only improves the likelihood you will succeed in your role, but also increases your chances of being hired In the first place.
- They adapt boldly, especially when faced with the discomfort of the unknown. “Of the four behaviors, this is the one where people are most likely to underestimate their ability—and that is costly.” Botelho explains people naturally assume change will be painful, so they resist it. But her research shows that the most successful leaders are good at letting go of past behaviors, habits, and commitments that will not serve them in the future.
- They engage with stakeholders without shying away from conflict. These leaders focus on leading to deliver results that benefit the company as opposed to leading to be liked. They keep all stakeholders—customers, employees, and shareholders—in mind and manage those relationships.
Finally, Botelho shares some counterintuitive insights about making great strides in your career—what she calls career catapults. “Sometimes it is better to go small in order to go big,” Botelho says. Having an elite MBA or working for a marque company is a great way to advance your career, but sometimes taking what looks like a side step instead of always focusing on moving up the ladder can have a more positive impact. By being in charge of a smaller project, division, or group, you might actually have a chance to practice more skills and get more exposure.
According to the author, here is the most important message to take away from The CEO Next Door and this podcast: Excellence is more achievable for us than we assume.
Be sure to stay tuned for comments from Ken Blanchard at the end of the podcast!
As we wrap up Season 1 of the Blanchard LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com.
Enjoy this episode where Chad Gordon interviews Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the world's top-rated executive coach and author, about his book Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts–Becoming the Person You Want to Be.
Dr. Goldsmith discusses the environmental and psychological triggers that can derail us at work and in life, and what we can do about them.
Drawing on years of experience coaching top executives, Goldsmith gives us an inside look at how to achieve change in our lives. He discusses the unique challenges top executives face and shares the number one reason people don't act on their good intentions. He also offers six questions we can ask ourselves every day to help us stay on track and begin to find alternatives to instinctive impulse-response behavior patterns.
Goldsmith explains how we can open up new possibilities by planning in advance, avoiding negative triggers when possible, and adjusting our behavior when triggers are unavoidable. He also offers great advice on how to add a little structure to our lives that allows us to be our best.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways from the concepts discussed.
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Marshall Goldsmith
For more information on Marshall Goldsmith visit www.marshallgoldsmith.com, or email Marshall at marshall@marshallgoldsmith.com. He can also be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
“Everyone wants to be happy,” says Neil Pasricha. “We were brought up to believe that if we worked hard we would have great success, and then we would be happy. But that just isn’t true.”
Pasricha shares research that indicates combining great work with success, doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness. In fact, it is the opposite. Being happy leads to great work, which leads to success. Coming to work with a positive mindset has been shown to increase productivity by 31 percent and sales by 37 percent. People who are happy are 40 percent more likely to get a promotion, and they live an average of 10 years longer than people with a negative mindset.
Pasricha believes that happiness is a choice, and he offers simple tips for leading a happier lifestyle. He suggests we spend 20 minutes each day doing one of the following:
- Going for a walk outdoors in nature.
- Journaling about our day.
- Reading 20 pages of fiction. (It is important to read fiction rather than nonfiction, to develop our imagination.)
According to Pasricha, all three of these activities change the chemicals in our brain in a way that helps us develop a more positive mindset. His research reveals that happiness is 50 percent genetic, 10 percent influenced by circumstances, and 40 percent influenced by intentional action. He suggests we all focus on the 40 percent that we can manage.
“I know what has worked for me and ask that you consider a few things. First, take care of yourself. Stop watching and reading the news. You don’t have to bury your head in the sand, but you don’t need to let the news consume your life, either,” explains Pasricha. He also suggests we avoid toxic people, instead surrounding ourselves with people who are happy to take care of their own happiness.
“I also suggest you throw away the concept of retirement. The happiest society in the world is in Okinawa, Japan. Their life span is seven years longer than Americans, and they don’t even have a word for retirement in their vocabulary.”
Pasricha says four of the things that help us live happy lives tend to disappear when we retire:
- Social—friends and colleagues
- Stimulation—learning new things
- Structure—a reason to get out of bed
- Story—being a part of something
“I highly recommend that you forget about retirement and remember that happiness is a choice. You can change your mindset and choose to influence your life in a positive, happy way.”
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Neil Pasricha
For more information on Neil Pasricha visit www.globalhappiness.org.
In this episode, Vicki Halsey, author of Brilliance by Design, shares a case study of a team putting the ENGAGE model into practice. For years, both in the school environment and in corporate education, Vicki Halsey observed what was happening in classrooms—a teacher standing in front of a group of people, talking at them. The people in the audience were not engaged; only the speaker. This was very different from Vicki’s classrooms, where people were active, inspired, and even noisy.
“It occurred to me that the person who is energized and all fired up is the one doing the teaching—not the one doing the learning. It should be the other way around,” explains Halsey. “It happens every day in companies around the world. We hire people because they have fabulous transferable skills, but we don’t spend the time it takes to teach them what they need to know in their new position to help them be successful. We don’t engage them in learning. So, to help the learning process, I designed a simple six-step process that brings out the brilliance in learners: the ENGAGE model.”
Energize and Focus Learners—Get people involved before the session starts by sending emails to explain the importance of the experience. Then give them exposure to the materials that will be used. Send books, articles, podcasts, or video to help them start to learn before they get there. When they arrive at the meeting or classroom, get them involved immediately with an interactive exercise.
Navigate the Content—Present the content through interactive lectures, demonstrations, stories, handouts, exercises with card sorts, or case studies. The key is to understand that people learn in different ways. You need to present the content in enough ways to give everyone a chance to learn.
Generate Meaning—Once the attendees have learned the content, move the learning from short-term memory to long-term memory and help participants sell themselves on why the learning is important in their world by having them create flip charts about the value, benefits, and meaning of this learning in their lives. This will rally commitment for the next part of the ENGAGE model so that they will apply what they have learned.
Apply to the Real World—Have people apply what they have learned through practicing or rehearsing. Give them all the tools they need—checklists, scripts, video examples—then have them practice, practice, practice.
Gauge and Celebrate—It is critical to assess how much learning has occurred—and then celebrate. This can be as simple as a quiz show-style game or crossword puzzle, a group mind map, or a “stump the panel” game. The idea is to create a fun way to deepen the learning and help transfer the learning to doing.
Extend Learning to Action—Keep the learning top of mind after the meeting or class. Send reminders with a tip of the week, share success stories of people using their new skills, or have award ceremonies to honor people’s commitment to the learning.
Continuous reminders or refreshers will help extend the learning.
“Research indicates that designs for learning sessions focus about 70 percent of the time on the content to be learned and only about 30 percent on having learners practice what they are learning,” says Halsey. “If you want to unleash the brilliance of your people, you must flip that equation, so they are practicing the new skills 70 percent of the time. Don’t just talk at them. Let them process, learn, and get to work.”
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Vicki Halsey
For more information on Vicki Halsey, go to www.vickihalsey.com.
In this enlightening episode, Brené Brown describes her research study, seven years in the making, that looks at the future of leadership and the barriers and obstacles to daring leadership. “One of the most important findings of my career is daring leadership—a collection of skills and practices that are teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. It isn’t easy—because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. But it is necessary if you want to cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and embed the value of courage into your culture,” explains Brown.
Brown describes the four skills needed to become a courageous leader. The first and most important skill is Rumbling with Vulnerability. Brown had assumed that the biggest barrier to courageous leadership would be fear, but her research indicated that fear is not a barrier. In fact, leaders she interviewed admitted to being fearful much of the time. The real barrier is how people armor themselves to deal with the fear. It is critical to understand that we all self-protect when we feel scared, defensive, or vulnerable.
A great tool to use when Rumbling with Vulnerablity is curiosity. “When I find myself in a tough situation or I’m about to receive some hard feedback, instead of getting my armor up, I stay open and ask questions, so I can get specific information,” Brown explains. In the book she identifies 16 different ways we armor ourselves and offers ways to move that armor out of the way to become a daring, courageous leader.
The second skill is Living into Your Values. Leaders constantly must do tough things, give hard feedback, put bold ideas into motion while being unsure of the outcome, and take many risks. Courageous leaders are able to do this consistently because they operate with a clear set of values and behaviors that line up with those values. “It is important to have values as a leader, but it is critical to operationalize them. Otherwise they are just vague concepts, not guiding principles,” Brown explains.
The third skill, Braving Trust, can be tricky because many leaders don’t know how to talk about trust. Direct reports have to trust their leaders in order to have honest conversations and both parties have to be in an unarmored position. It’s no secret that the highest performing teams are built on a foundation of trust. And building trust is a skill that can be taught and learned.
The fourth skill is Learning to Rise and deals with the ability to re-set after an error or mistake. The ability to be resilient helps leaders learn from mistakes quickly, share those learnings, and continue to move forward in a positive way. And, yes, it is a skill that every leader can learn.
“Courage is a skill set we can teach, measure, and observe, but we are choosing not to because it is an investment of energy and time and it takes muscle building. But why are we choosing not to do it? If we need braver leaders, but we’re not investing in skilling them up, what is getting in the way?” asked Brown.
Brown’s new book, Dare to Lead is the ultimate playbook that offers practical skill-building tools for creating brave leaders in your organization.
About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Brené Brown For more information on Brené Brown, go to www.brenebrown.com and click on the Dare to Lead Hub for free resources.
In this episode, Susan Fowler explores how most companies expect managers to motivate their people to accomplish goals. Managers may try many different methods to encourage people to reach their goals, from rewards and recognition to pressure and intimidation. But research indicates that these methods just don’t work. “When did we get to the point that people have to be motivated by carrots and sticks—carrots representing incentives or bribes, and sticks representing pressure, threats and tension?” asks Fowler.
Many people may not be aware of new research showing that the real secret to motivation is creating an environment where people are optimally motivated to perform at their highest level.
“Look at your own beliefs,” says Fowler. “Do you think people are basically lazy and won’t do what you want them to do, or do you believe people want to thrive and make a contribution in their role? Do you believe people are more motivated extrinsically or intrinsically?”
Research indicates that people want to thrive and that intrinsic rewards are more sustainably motivating than extrinsic rewards. Problems arise when managers don’t believe people want to succeed or when they default to extrinsic reward systems to improve performance.
Fowler describes three conversations managers can have with direct reports. Each includes a separate set of questions to help analyze a direct report’s motivation on certain projects or tasks. The first set of questions gets to the root of the psychological need for autonomy: does the direct report feel good or bad about the choices available to them on their task? Everyone needs a sense of control over what they do. The second set of questions focuses on the psychological need for connection or relatedness and helps identify values and purpose. The third set of questions relates to the psychological need for competence and describes the skills the person brings to the task.
When the manager asks the direct report questions that put them in touch with their needs for choice, connection, and competence, the direct report is able to find their own source of motivation internally—and that is the most powerful motivation.
“You must remember to be mindful and not judgmental when having these conversations with your staff,” Fowler says. “By asking these questions, you are helping people to be more self-aware and to explore what their motivational outlook is all about.”
Fowler believes managers can create an environment where their people can have a better quality of life. “It’s not that we don’t want money—we are all motivated by money, power, and status—but there are other options that serve us and the people around us more effectively. We need to become more aware of why we are motivating people the way we are, and what is motivating us.” Fowler encourages you to ask yourself these three questions: (1) Why do I make the choices I make? (2) How do I feel a greater connection? and (3) How do I learn and grow every day?
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
For more information about Susan Fowler, go to http://susanfowler.com/
Or https://www.kenblanchard.com/Products-Services/Optimal-Motivation
In this episode, Don Yaeger, author of Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently, discusses his research on why some teams win when others fail. “My research of the business and sports world uncovered sixteen things that successful teams do, and I grouped them into four main pillars,” explains Yaeger. (As you listen, you’ll realize the names of the four pillars create the acronym TEAM.)
Pillar One: Targeting Purpose “Every team has to have a shared sense of purpose,” says Yaeger, “but this is more a belief than a statement. A high performing team feels a shared purpose in their bones. It becomes part of who they are as a team.” You may have heard about Simon Sinek’s Why concept (if you know the answer to why your work matters, you will enjoy your work more.) The concept behind this pillar is very similar to Sinek’s concept, but it applies to entire teams, not individuals. The sense of purpose for a team identifies who they are serving and why that matters. Whether in business, sports, military operations, or day-to-day life, teams show up more positively when they share a sense of purpose.
Pillar Two: Effective Management Yaeger explains that team leaders need to be committed to developing others. To build a team to its full potential, a leader should recruit people for a cultural fit and then train them for skills. Profit and loss statements are the roadmap to the future for many companies—but Yeager suggests having the right people in the right positions is a better way to ensure that people and teams are constantly developing and improving. The most successful teams have markers on their roadmap of performance defined as developmental goals, not monetary goals.
Pillar Three: Activating Efficiency This pillar focuses on a willingness to not just accept change but embrace it, so the team can be successful even in transition. “It is important to build a culture of mentorship. Leaders do that by making their expectations clear and praising good performance that supports the culture. Every member of the team must act as a mentor when necessary. It isn’t the job of only the team leader to be a mentor—everyone needs to own that role.”
An especially good example of this pillar is for leaders to be fully engaged in all meetings or practices to let the team know their performance is the most important thing at that moment. In fact, Yaeger recommends that leaders be either fully engaged and present or fully absent. If a leader isn’t prepared to be there 100 percent, they might as well not show up at all.
Pillar Four: Mutual Direction Great teams have a true sense of what they ultimately want and what it will take to get there. A football team focuses on the fourth quarter and a business team focuses on the completion of a project. Both teams focus on the finish. By preparing all along the way, great teams build a culture where they can win even in critical situations.
Most important, Yaeger urges team leaders to design the culture they want. “By design or by default, your team will have a culture. So design it the way you want it to be and focus on creating and maintaining it. The best teams aren’t necessarily the ones with the best talent—they are the ones with the strongest culture.”
About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, governments, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
About Don Yaeger For more information about Don Yaeger go to donyaeger.com.
Learn six strategies for turning a pressure situation into an opportunity. In this episode, Judd Hoekstra, coauthor of Crunch Time: How to be Your Best When It Matters Most, talks about the skill of reframing—intentionally thinking about a situation in a new or different way to improve performance.
“When faced with a stressful situation, it is normal to have the fight, flight, or freeze reaction. But what you should do is pause and recognize when you are having negative thoughts—then challenge your thinking to have positive thoughts,” Hoekstra explains. Hoekstra offers six tips for putting reframing into practice.
- The first is to reframe from trying harder to trying easier. Contrary to what many of us have been taught, trying harder under pressure is often counterproductive. Think about your best performances. Were you grinding and full of anxiety? More than likely, you remember your best performances as almost effortless. Trying easier isn’t about being lazy or not trying. It is about throttling back just a little. It’s about taking the tension out of what you’re doing and replacing it with a level of effort that allows you to perform in a relaxed state.
- The next skill is to reframe from tension to laughter. Humor diffuses pressure better than any pharmaceutical on the market. It momentarily reduces the perceived threat posed by a situation. It also helps generate a sense of control and provides perspective that can help you see dire circumstances with some levity. It also stops cortisol, a stress hormone, in its tracks and releases endorphins—the feel-good neurotransmitters that enhance performance.
- Reframing from anxiety to taking control is a skill that can be used in any stressful situation that undermines your performance. Instead of setting lofty goals that can be intimidating, set simple, short-term, bite-sized goals that are attainable. Then you can take control of the situation and perform at a higher level.
- Fighting our own doubts is difficult, but it is possible to reframe from doubt to confidence. “When I’m making a presentation but I’m filled with doubt, I think back to a similar situation where I performed at my best level. I visualize that performance—I actually relive the event—to build my confidence and remember that I’ll be using the same tried and true skills that I’ve successfully used before,” says Hoekstra.
- Reframing from failure to a learning moment is one of the most useful skills to consider when trying to deliver your best performance. Whether you are an athlete, business person, actor, parent, or teacher, we can all learn from our mistakes. Hoekstra shares how Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40, has banned the word mistake from the company’s culture. Ridge prefers the term learning moment. People are afraid of making mistakes, but having a learning moment is an opportunity. He asks people to think about what they’ve learned and to share that information with others.
- The last skill is to reframe from prepared to overprepared. This skill is especially helpful in pressure situations. A normal amount of preparation is fine, but it won’t serve you well when the pressure is high. Overpreparation allows you to operate instinctively even when things are not going as planned. “Overpreparation is what allowed Michael Phelps to set a world record in the 2008 Olympics even when his goggles were leaking and he couldn’t see the edge of the pool,” says Hoekstra. Overpreparation is the skill that allows you to overcome the unthinkable.
The best thing to remember is that people everywhere, in all kinds of professions, are using reframing skills successfully. They are as helpful to a CEO or athlete as they are to a parent trying to have a positive interaction with their children.
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we speak with Robert Greene, author of the New York Times bestseller, Mastery.
Greene shares some of the key points from his book, beginning with the importance of self awareness—getting a clear sense of who you are, where you are going, and what motivates you.
From there, Greene discusses the importance of acquiring skills. He makes a strong case for an apprenticeship approach, where you focus on skill development above all else in your early years on the job. The goal is to develop the type of skill mastery needed in today’s specialized world.
Finally, Greene recommends developing a plan to fully leverage the skills you’ve developed. Planning can be self-guided, though he does recommend finding a mentor as a great way to shorten the process. The key is to take action, overcome fear and inertia, and learn how to experience failure and learn from it.
Overall, Greene provides an inspiring look at how to become the person you know you can be!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, we interview Beverly Kaye, author of the new book Up Is Not the Only Way.
Kaye shares new ways to stay engaged and feel valued for managers and others who work in flat organizations—companies that offer few opportunities to climb the traditional corporate ladder. Kaye says a focus on creating engaging work and new opportunities for growth can help.
Part of the process for individual contributors is about changing their perspective on their current job. Kaye jokes that the grass is not always greener on the other side. "Sometimes when we get there, we find out it's AstroTurf."
Instead, Kaye suggests individual contributors ask themselves a few key questions—"What part of my job do I love?” “How could I do more of that?” “How can I talk to my manager about this?”—and then move on to what Kaye calls career calisthenics: "What part of my current job could I push away from?" "What parts of my manager’s job could I pull toward me?"
Kaye also recommends people open themselves up to alternative career paths by seeking out options other than just waiting for a promotion.
For managers, Kaye recommends a one-on-one conversation with each direct report that focuses on the person’s career. Questions such as: "What was the best part of last week for you?” "What did you like best about the last project you worked on?” and "What one skill have you brought to this position that you haven't fully used yet?” are all good places to start.
It's not easy. But it can be done. And in this podcast, Beverly Kaye shares how.
Be sure to listen to the end of the episode to hear Ken Blanchard's insight on the concepts Kaye discusses.
“We all know how good we’ve become—but we don’t know how good we could be,” says Mark Sanborn in his new book, The Potential Principle. “Almost all people have a desire to get better—but only 30% have a plan.”
That’s wishful thinking, says Sanborn.
Sanborn recommends that people practice “positive discontent” in their lives and says that life gets interesting when you ask yourself, “How much better could I be?”
He offers four reasons for getting started sooner rather than later:
- Change: If you stay the same, you get left behind
- Customers: The more you do, the more they expect—you have to keep improving
- Competitors: They keep getting better—you need to, also
- Capability: It gives you a chance to offer more to the world
Sanborn discusses his Potential Matrix, which focuses on both your inner world and your outer world. In the outer world you have performing and learning. In the inner world, thinking and reflecting. Sanborn explains that most people have a preferred quadrant, but it’s best to work on all four and look for improvement in all areas.
“Start with what you most need to improve. Where would you see the most benefit? This makes it easier to create momentum.”
Next, Sanborn recommends finding people who can help you along your journey.
“Engage others—think who before how. Who can help you get better? Find an expert who already knows.”
Sanborn also discusses how to disrupt your present thinking, refocus on what is important, and increase your capacity.
“You need to disrupt yourself before someone else does. You probably have a relationship, process, or problem that you know isn’t working very well. It’s always better to initiate disruption yourself than to wait for things to get worse—then you have to act.
Sanborn specifically encourages leaders.
“Leaders know what matters—the key is to make it matter to others—that’s what makes you a leader. Focus on the important things. Grow yourself and grow your team. Learn how to accomplish more in the same amount of time.”
And finally, some personal advice.
“Each morning make it a goal to go to bed that night a little bit smarter than you were when you woke up. Learn something new. Try something different. Make a new a new friend. Pursue a new idea. Don’t go through life status quo.”
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview to hear Ken Blanchard’s thoughts and takeaways from the ideas Sanborn shares!
In this episode, Alex Hutchinson shares what he learned from ten years of researching human performance. He explains that whether you are running a marathon, building a career, or raising a family, you will have fundamental struggles. And even though the situations are very different, the struggles are similar. “Human achievement relies upon the ability to endure—and your ability to push forward in any circumstance will separate the very successful times from the less successful times,” explains Hutchinson. Here are a few of the fascinating concepts he shares:
Although some limits we experience feel physical, many are dictated by the brain. That doesn’t mean we can ignore those limits, but we need to realize they are more changeable than we think. If, for example, you are struggling to win a race or fighting to stay awake during a presentation, you are hitting a limit. Being able to recognize the difference between apparent and actual limits is at the heart of understanding what endurance is all about.
Your beliefs could be the most powerful asset you have for improving performance. Believing you can do something is part of the trick. The method of creating belief doesn’t happen overnight—it takes time and effort to build confidence. And confidence improves performance. Tricking yourself that you are performing better than you actually are can bridge the gap between what your brain thinks you can do and what your body really can do. Deception is useful to show you what is possible to achieve; however, it isn’t a great method for sustaining performance.
Understand that mental fatigue is as real and as tiring as physical fatigue. Research shows that looking at a computer screen for a few hours can cause changes in your brain chemistry that result in mental fatigue—and that can damage your physical performance. So, if you are in the office powering through a project on your computer, maybe the best thing you can do is get up and take a walk outside to refresh your mental state and then get back to your project with renewed energy.
Pain causes discomfort that slows us down. An athlete experiences physical pain, but someone making a presentation or speech can also feel pain. The good news is that pain tolerance can be developed. To push the limits of your endurance, you need to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Nutrition plays a huge role in your performance. It’s obvious that physical endurance depends on food and water, but a nutritious diet is also important for brain function. There is no silver bullet diet—you must find what works best for you.
Finally, Hutchinson explains the importance of optimism and believing in yourself. He reminds us that “The experience of a limit is a sensation in the brain. It isn’t easy to change, but it isn’t as absolute as it feels. Don’t take the feeling of hitting a limit as a signal of failure, but as a signal to look for another way to accomplish your goal.”
Chad Gordon interviews Dr. Henry Cloud, author of the new book, The Power of the Other: *The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond—and what to do about it.*
Cloud shares the importance of recognizing the impact that others have on your success. He explains how every significant act in your life always includes someone else. How are you being influenced by others—and how are you influencing the key people in your life?
Cloud also shares a unique "four corner" model that helps you identify relationships that are toxic and lead to feelings of disconnectedness, inferiority, or feeling fake. He describes how to move beyond these three negative corners and lead yourself and others into honest, authentic relationships where people thrive.
Cloud discusses strategies for moving beyond a good/bad mindset by creating a language and using a process that leads to real conversations that help people move forward. Whether it's in a one-on-one conversation, or in a team setting, you'll learn strategies to improve trust, feedback, and performance.
And don't miss the final minutes of the podcast when Ken Blanchard joins in at the end of the interview to share his thoughts and key takeaways!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, we speak with Susan Fowler, coauthor (with Ken Blanchard and Laurence Hawkins) of Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager®.
Fowler shares some of the key points from the book, including challenging assumed constraints, identifying personal points of power, and becoming more proactive in getting your needs met.
Fowler also discusses the importance of creating a culture of self leadership in today’s organizations where individual contributors seek out the direction and support they need to succeed. Fowler explains that in today’s fast-paced business environment, self leaders need to take responsibility and avoid adopting a victim mentality. She shares how individual contributors can partner with their managers using the key principles of Situational Leadership® II, which are also a part of the book’s content.
Fowler encourages listeners to adopt the mindset and skillset for becoming a self leader. She explains how taking that approach provides a self-directed path to performance, engagement, and optimal motivation at work.
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview, where Ken Blanchard shares his thoughts and takeaways.
What does it take to become a world-class leader? In this episode of LeaderChat Podcast, we speak with Elena Botelho, coauthor of The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People into World-Class Leaders.
“Most ideals about why people are successful are driven by stereotypes and gut feel rather than facts and data,” explains Botelho. “In this book, we’ve aspired to provide information about how anyone can be successful by helping readers learn from other successful people in business.”
Learnings shared in the book are based on groundbreaking research and in-depth analysis of more than 2,600 leaders drawn from a database of more than 17,000 CEO and C-suite executives. Botelho describes the four behaviors of highly successful people as identified by the research.
- They are decisive and understand the importance of speed over precision when making decisions. According to Botelho, most people assume that CEOs have an uncanny ability to make the right decisions more often than other people. But her research indicates that what really makes a CEO stand out isn’t necessarily the accuracy of their decision, but the speed and will to make the decision in the first place.
- They are reliable and deliver what they promise, when they promise it—without exception. This behavior sounds simple, but isn’t easy to practice consistently. Botelho describes the importance of being on time and doing what you say you’re going to do—and she offers another tip: “Highly reliable leaders are thoughtful about setting expectations right up front.” Botelho shares that this behavior not only improves the likelihood you will succeed in your role, but also increases your chances of being hired In the first place.
- They adapt boldly, especially when faced with the discomfort of the unknown. “Of the four behaviors, this is the one where people are most likely to underestimate their ability—and that is costly.” Botelho explains people naturally assume change will be painful, so they resist it. But her research shows that the most successful leaders are good at letting go of past behaviors, habits, and commitments that will not serve them in the future.
- They engage with stakeholders without shying away from conflict. These leaders focus on leading to deliver results that benefit the company as opposed to leading to be liked. They keep all stakeholders—customers, employees, and shareholders—in mind and manage those relationships.
Finally, Botelho shares some counterintuitive insights about making great strides in your career—what she calls career catapults. “Sometimes it is better to go small in order to go big,” Botelho says. Having an elite MBA or working for a marque company is a great way to advance your career, but sometimes taking what looks like a side step instead of always focusing on moving up the ladder can have a more positive impact. By being in charge of a smaller project, division, or group, you might actually have a chance to practice more skills and get more exposure.
According to the author, here is the most important message to take away from The CEO Next Door and this podcast: Excellence is more achievable for us than we assume.
Be sure to stay tuned for comments from Ken Blanchard at the end of the podcast!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast Chad Gordon interviews Jackie Freiberg, coauthor of Cause!: A Business Strategy for Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness. Freiberg describes how finding your purpose helps organizations and individuals take their performance to a new level.
Freiberg shares how organizations need to find their cause if they are going to stand out in a crowded field.
Part of the process, according to Freiberg, is having employees reclaim their dreams--moving beyond just having a job to find something bigger and more fulfilling. And once becoming reacquainted with what's engaging, she shares how to take a dream and turn it into action. The key, says Freiberg, is to find your personal WHY, in addition to your HOW and WHAT.
Freiberg shares how leadership development experts can help reignite this type of larger thinking using a three step process that includes: Identifying Your Why, Becoming Intentional, and then finally, Measuring Impact.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his key takeaways on the information Freiberg shares.
In the latest installment of the Blanchard LeaderChat Podcast, Chad Gordon interviews Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company and coauthor with Ken Blanchard of Helping People Win at Work.
In the podcast, Garry shares key principles from the book and how he has put them into practice over the past ten years at WD-40 with remarkable impact.
It all starts with goal setting—a conversation focused on getting where you want to go—and it is a shared responsibility between the manager and direct report.
In Garry’s opinion, the annual performance review process is broken. Why wait until the end of the year? Coaching, development, and feedback should be an everyday conversation between leader and direct report. Garry describes how to change people’s mindsets so mistakes become learning moments—and how this shift not only helps drive out fear but also increases learning.
Garry shares 12 principles that L&D professionals can use to impact training and development as well as employee engagement. Garry walks his talk—and the results are impressive. At WD-40, employee engagement numbers are in excess of 90%. What’s more, compounded shareholder annual income growth has been over 15% per year for the past 14 years—and over 20% for the past 5 years.
Ridge describes how a focus on values, learning, teaching, growth, and community can lead to enhanced performance by helping people step into the best version of themselves.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways on Garry's ideas. Ken shares how success is based on not only what happens in the classroom but also what happens afterward. Ken takes a look at the performance review process and illustrates how important it is to focus on providing people ongoing feedback instead of sorting them into a normal distribution curve.
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we speak with David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum! Brands and author of O Great One!: A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition.
For Novak, a large part of the success he had with improving performance at KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell during his tenure as CEO of parent company Yum! Brands was creating a culture of recognition.
“Recognition is a big driver of success. You have to show people you care about them,” says Novak. “Leaders need to be heart-wired—they need to have a big heart.”
Novak shares that the higher up you go in the organization, the more you have to support other people’s ideas.
“If there is no involvement, there is no commitment. You have to use your listening skills. It tells people that what they do really matters.”
Novak also dispels the myth that recognition won’t play out in other cultures.
“Recognition is universal. A lot of people were doubters, but once they saw the power of it they said ‘I’m going to try it myself.’ And then they developed their own personal recognition awards.”
Recognition reinforced behaviors that drove the business says Novak and he encourages others to give it a try in their organizations.
“It’s not that hard to say ‘Thank you.’ The more you give, the more you receive.”
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview to hear Ken Blanchard’s thoughts and takeaways from the ideas David Novak shares.
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we speak with Mark Miller, Vice President of High Performance Leadership for Chick-fil-A and author of the new book, Leaders Made Here.
For Miller, growing great leaders wasn’t an option at Chick-fil-A. Accelerated growth was putting a strain on leadership bench strength.
“We needed more leaders faster. We couldn’t just overload existing leaders. We knew we would get to the breaking point.”
Miller discusses the journey Chick-fil-A took in developing a leadership culture—where people are routinely developed.
“You have to start by understanding the importance of leadership and defining what leadership means in your organization. In most organizations you’ll find a wide variety of different answers. You have to forge a consensus.”
But that’s not the end of it says Miller. Next, you must train existing and emerging leaders to establish that common language of leadership. Part of that includes giving emerging leaders a chance to practice. As Miller explains, “Most of what we know about leading we learn from actually doing it.”
“It’s easy to always give tough projects to existing leaders—but you have to be willing to give emerging leaders a chance. Who are the less seasoned, less experienced, emerging leaders who we could provide with an opportunity?”
Miller also discusses measurement and metrics including a leadership bench strength rating. He recommends using a technique showing how ready people are for their next leadership assignment using a scale of Ready Now; Ready in 1-3 years; or Good in Place.
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview to hear Ken Blanchard’s thoughts and takeaways from the interview.
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, we interview Sydney Finkelstein, author of Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent.
Drawing on some of the key points from his book, Finkelstein explores the different ways managers of all personality types bring out the best in people.
He discusses the importance of seeing people as individuals and the need for leaders to customize how they work with each person.
Finkelstein also addresses the challenge of delegation. He explains that Superbosses don’t delegate and forget. They roll up their sleeves on a day-to-day basis to help direct and support the work along the way.
Finally, Finkelstein looks at how a paradoxical approach to management works best. Through examples of leaders at a wide variety of companies, the author points out how Superbosses maintain a dual focus on people and results, collaboration and competition, and creating a performance culture while inspiring their people.
Finkelstein encourages leaders to bring out the best in people. Good leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Although they all have different personalities and mindsets, they can share similar techniques and outcomes. Discover the impact one leader can have. When you help others, you help yourself and your organization.
Be sure to listen to the very end of the podcast, where Ken Blanchard shares his thoughts and key takeaways on the concepts Sydney Finkelstein discusses in the interview.
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, we interview Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever.
Bungay Stanier, a top executive coach and consultant, shares how time-pressed managers can effectively coach direct reports by asking instead of telling, being a little more curious, and engaging a little more often.
“The biggest barrier to managers coaching,” says Bungay Stanier, “is that managers believe they don’t have the time. As a result, coaching as a leadership skill is rarely employed.”
Bungay Stanier discusses the benefit of silence—the importance of being a manager who asks questions instead of jumping in and always giving advice. As he explains, “We are all advice-giving maniacs. Sometimes the best way to channel that energy is to ask questions.”
He shares seven essential questions that can help managers elevate their capabilities to coach others.
The first question, which Bungay Stanier calls the Kick-Start Question, is: “What’s on your mind?” This question opens up the door to more interesting and helpful questions.
The last question, which, when paired with the first, forms what Bungay Stanier calls the Coaching Bookends, is the Learning Question: “What was most useful or most valuable for you?” This question helps people become more masterful and competent.
As Bungay Stanier explains, “People don’t learn when you tell them stuff. Learning occurs when people have an opportunity to stop and reflect.”
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview, when Ken Blanchard shares what was most useful for him!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, Chad Gordon interviews Dr. Travis Bradberry, researcher and author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0—which has sold over one million copies!
Bradberry shares how emotional maturity is absolutely critical for success as a leader, and how emotional intelligence is a capacity that can be learned and developed. He explains that increasing your emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness.
Bradberry discusses how to integrate EQ training into a leadership development curriculum—and how the emotional intelligence displayed by top leaders can set the example for all levels of leadership in an organization. Bradberry also shares strategies for dealing with stress, procrastination, and toxic people.
Emotions are a primary driver of behaviors and emotional intelligence is a foundational skill of all good leaders. Learn how to be a master of your emotions in a way that increases your effectiveness as a leader.
And be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways on Dr. Bradberry’s ideas.
In this latest installment of the Blanchard LeaderChat Podcast Chad Gordon interviews Jon Gordon, author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller The Energy Bus. Jon’s other books include Soup, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, and The Carpenter.
Jon discusses how leaders can combat negativity at work through vision, purpose, and optimism. He explains how positive organizations outperform negative ones—and he shares intentional practices for increasing the levels of communication and connection on teams. You’ll learn how a combination of vulnerability, informal relationships, and connecting creates the glue that holds a high performing team together.
Jon describes how an attitude of positivity helps leaders define moments of heroism, hardship, and highlights to “get people on the bus” and heading in the same direction. He shares a strategy—Love-Serve-Care—that converts talent to greatness and creates inspiring leaders.
Relationships are foundational. Jon talks about how anyone can become a “come with me” leader by investing in others and helping them grow. He also describes how we can all find time to build relationships in our busy and stressful lives.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways on Jon’s ideas. You’ll see how, when you take the time to serve others and help them grow, your efforts come back to help you grow as well!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we interview Jen Sincero, author of You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life.
Sincero shares how to stop limiting yourself and start focusing on your strengths.
Drawing on her own experience of personally trying and evaluating almost every self-help resource out there, Sincero recommends finding the approaches that work best for you and then taking action. Don’t over-control the situation. Have faith and trust that the “how” will take care of itself—even if it scares you.
As Sincero explains, “It’s never really the right time—but you have to decide and put yourself into motion. Inside all of us is incredible potential. Open yourself up to a new reality. It’s about rediscovering your true nature and tapping into the mother lode of potential available to you. That’s when you can start to make big, fat changes in your life.”
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview, where Ken Blanchard shares his thoughts and takeaways.
As a part of onboarding, Mike Rognlien, builder of awesome people at Facebook, would always ask new employees if the culture at Facebook was a deciding factor in their decision to join the company.
“Every time, in more than six years of asking that question, almost every hand would go up,” says Rognlien. “Then I would tell them, ‘Great, now it’s your responsibility not to mess it up.’”
In his new book, This Is Now Your Company: A Culture Carrier's Manifesto, Rognlien shares that every person must own their contribution to the organizational fabric of a company, no matter what role they are stepping into. It begins by owning your role.
“If the definition of culture is the sum total of all of our behaviors, then you can start tipping the culture in another direction by changing your behavior.”
To help with that, Rognlien suggests organizational leaders encourage higher quality conversations between managers and direct reports. He says most companies don’t have an environment that allows people to sit down with their managers and ask, “How are we going to get through this together?”
Rognlien describes this relationship as a 50-50 partnership—meaning the direct report has just as much responsibility for clear goals and performance feedback as the manager.
“You are half the relationship. If you know more about something—or if something specific requires special care or attention—then you’d better be willing to have that conversation.”
Rognlien goes on to discuss personal branding, feedback, and leveraging your strengths. He closes the interview by discussing a hot topic in today’s organizations—unconscious bias. He explains that bias exists in every organization—and that some biases can actually be helpful and support organizational values.
“At Facebook, for example, we had a bias for moving quickly. When interviewing or working at Facebook, if you were moving slowly, you would feel it—the bias for speed was ever present. That’s an example of a conscious bias that is useful and has served Facebook well.”
Rognlien explains that the unconscious form of bias accumulates over time without being recognized—and it can lead organizations to act in ways that go against stated values. While he believes organizations can’t completely eliminate bias, he suggests steps can be taken to bring it out into the open.
“Our goal is to create people and organizations who are comfortable talking about unconscious bias. We have to stop being afraid and we need to have those conversations.”
In closing, Rognlien encourages listeners to step into their fears.
“The only way you will know if something isn’t going to work is to try and fail. If you can learn something from it, was it really a failure?”
Be sure to listen through to the very end of the session, where Ken Blanchard shares his key takeaways from the interview!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast we interview Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.
Drawing on some of the key points from the new revised and updated edition of her acclaimed Wall Street Journal bestseller, Wiseman explores why some leaders, whom she calls diminishers, drain capability and intelligence from their teams while others, multipliers, amplify it to produce better results.
Wiseman explains that leading others begins by leading self. She shares stories from her early work career where she learned that she did her best work when she was being challenged and felt she was a little bit in over her head.
Wiseman also shares some of the top questions she has been asked since the initial release of the first edition of Multipliers. She discusses some of the ways to bring out the best in others—while avoiding diminishers—and especially how to avoid being an accidental diminisher yourself.
Wiseman's advice to leaders is to be a multiplier of people by seeing your job as helping to bring out the potential in each person. Accidental diminishing happens when well-meaning managers unknowingly micromanage or rescue their people and deprive them of a chance to learn and grow.
Be sure to listen to the very end of the interview to hear Ken Blanchard’s takeaways—what he learned and will remember from the interview.
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast, Chad Gordon interviews Dr. Brené Brown, researcher and author of three #1 New York Times Bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection (2010), Daring Greatly (2012), and Rising Strong (2015). Brown and her work have been featured on PBS, NPR, CNN, and at TEDx Houston, where in 2010 she presented one of the top five most viewed TED talks of all time.
Brown describes her work with large organizations on the topics of vulnerability, empathy, courage, and values—and how to make skills in these areas a part of your leadership development efforts.
Drawing from fifteen years of research, Brown shares how to be a courageous leader. Her findings? Vulnerability is courage in the face of risk, uncertainty, and emotional exposure. According to Brown, you have to be willing to show up, be seen, and be all in—even when you can’t control the outcome.
As Brown explains, “What do transformational leaders have in common? A capacity for discomfort and a keen awareness of both their own emotional landscape and the emotional landscapes of others.”
Brown also shares key points from her most recent book, Rising Strong—teaching leaders how to get back up when they fall in the service of being brave.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 35-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways on Brené’s ideas.
What are your beliefs about customer service—and how are they driving the customer experience in your company? That’s one of the key questions Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey, coauthors with Ken Blanchard, explore in their book Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care.
Cuff and Halsey share a four-part CARE model to help readers and listeners explore the key concepts.
- Committed to Service. “It has to be intentional,” says Cuff. Cuff and Halsey share a story about how they helped Petco Park—the baseball home of the San Diego Padres—develop a service vision. Working together with 3,500 service providers at the park, they created a shared commitment to creating Major League Memories.
- Attentive. “Attentiveness is about noticing others,” says Halsey. “It means being present and others focused—and drawing out what is important to them.”
- Responsive. Responsive includes acknowledging feelings. While this is important in all aspects of customer service, it is especially important when things go wrong. “The key is to be ready and have a plan,” says Cuff.
- Empowered. “If you treat your people as valued internal customers, they will take care of your external customers,” says Cuff. “That includes empowering people to make decisions and give feedback,” adds Halsey.
Halsey and Cuff discuss how social media has increased the opportunity for disgruntled customers to share negative stories—which makes it absolutely critical to do your best with every single customer interaction. The authors share stories from their day-to-day interactions to illustrate how important the actions of individual employees are. “Customers assume their experience with one person is indicative of the entire organization,” say Halsey and Cuff. “That shows how important every interaction is!”
They also share how rectifying a difficult situation on the spot can turn a negative into a positive.
“If you can resolve a problem on the spot, you can save 95 percent of relationships, says Cuff. “And that usually results in a stronger relationship than existed before.”
Halsey and Cuff encourage listeners to apply the CARE approach in non-profit, government, and small or large business—all kinds of organizations.
“The principles remain the same, says Cuff. “Your products can be replicated; and price is always competitive—the differentiator is going to be the service you deliver to your customers.”
Be sure to listen through to the very end of the session, where Ken Blanchard shares his key takeaways from the interview!
In this episode of the Blanchard LeaderChat podcast Chad Gordon interviews Patrick Lencioni, author of The Ideal Team Player as well as nine other books on teams and motivation—which have sold nearly five million copies! Lencioni describes leadership as a calling that requires putting the needs of others ahead of your own. That begins with identifying people with the right qualities and developing those qualities to the fullest extent.
Building on the concepts he first explored in his best-selling first book,The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni recommends taking a moment to consider your own behaviors when working on a team. He teaches how using a Humble—Hungry—Smart model can help you and others become more effective team members.
Lencioni shares how leadership development experts can identify these traits in potential new hires along with sharing his own personal story of using these principles in his work and other areas of his life.
Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his key takeaways and the areas that he most plans to work on.
How do you decide when to take on a new task or a new job? Could we thrive with a little bit more intentional thought? According to best-selling business author Dan Pink, there is a large and growing amount of research that gives clear guidance on how to get systematically better and smarter about making decisions on when to do things.
“We all experience Peak moments, Trough moments, and Recovery moments. The key is to schedule the right type of work for each of these times. Our cognitive abilities change throughout the day. Do your analytic work during the Peak, administrative work during the Trough, and creative work during Recovery.”
Simply following this pattern can result in a 20 percent improvement in how people perform a job, says Pink.
Peak times should be used for analytic tasks and those that require head-down, focused attention and energy—for example, writing a report or analyzing data. Save Trough time—which usually occurs later in the day—for routine administrative work.
“That’s when we should answer routine emails, fill out expense reports, or do the kinds of things that don’t require a heavy cognitive load,” says Pink.
Recovery time is best suited for certain types of insight work or brainstorming.
“Our mood is higher, but at the same time we tend to be less vigilant.”
Pink also shares insight on research that highlights the importance of taking breaks throughout the day. He offers a couple of best practice guidelines.
- Something beats nothing. “Even a one- or two-minute break can restore energy and mental acuity.”
- Moving is better than stationary. “Get up and move around—don’t sit at your desk and look at your phone.”
- Social beats solo. “Breaks with other people are more replenishing than breaks on our own—even for introverts.”
- Outside beats inside. “Nature has incredible replenishing benefits on our mental acuity and on our well-being.”
- Fully detached beats semi-detached. “When you take a break, leave your phone at your desk.”
Finally, Pink shares timing recommendations for starting new projects and keeping teams performing at their best, and also discusses how to be intentional when setting up the beginning, midpoint, and ending of projects.
Be sure to listen through to the very end of the session, where Ken Blanchard shares his key takeaways from the interview!
The Blanchard LeaderChat podcast provides the perfect way for you to stay up-do-date on the latest ideas, insights, and innovations that impact you and your work. Each episode features an expert sharing their ideas about helping people become the best leaders they can be.