INSUBORDINATE.: Recent Episodes
Stosh D. Walsh
Do you think work can change the world? Do you have a little rebel in you? If so, this podcast is for you. Individuals are the cornerstones of organizations. Organizations are the cornerstones of communities. And communities are the cornerstones of the world. That means if we do the right things in our organizations, our workplaces, we can make the world just that little bit better. But traditional approaches to management, leadership and employee engagement aren’t working. We're listening to the wrong people and doing the wrong things in our workplaces. Fortunately, there are better ways, and INSUBORDINATE exists to explore and share them. Host Stosh D. Walsh from Constant Organizational Development leverages over 15 years of experience in consulting, education and executive coaching to help you advance your professional development and grow your business. Discover practical insights on management, leadership, employee engagement, and other organizational development and human resources related topics. Learn and apply the best ways to develop yourself, others, your team and your organization without any confusing theory, impractical nonsense or pithy aphorisms. Question traditional approaches that aren’t working. Get direct, actionable ideas for how to make our workplaces better. Invest in what drives positive outcomes for individuals, teams, organizations and the world. Don’t settle for bad management, bad leadership, and bad workplaces. Be insubordinate, and let’s make the world better together.
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In this episode, we discuss the ubiquitous "building culture," and learn why we should STOP trying to build culture. We also discuss:
- What culture actually is, and why it's a lagging indicator
- Why the term "cultural architect" is ridiculous
- What we can do to influence culture
- What organizations should be doing to define culture
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE Take our FREE Management Styles assessment HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
Take our FREE Management Styles assessment HERE
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HEREUntil next time, stay with the program!
Send us a Text Message.
In this week's episode I chat with Cheryl Baird, a pastor and licensed clinical therapist, about her experiences as a woman leader, her advice for addressing your mental health in the workplace, the one thing every leader should have, and many other topics.
Books she references in the episode:
The Body Keeps the Score by van der Kolk
The Sneeches by Dr. Seuss
Thou Shalt Not Be A Jerk by Eugene Cho
Try Softer by Aundi Kolber
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I had a post on LinkedIn go viral this week. For all the wrong reasons. In this episode, I talk about what happened, and cover:
- Why "info" graphics are often not very informative
- Why thinking critically about what we read online is important
- Questions we can use to help us evaluate the quality of information
- Why management and leadership are different (again)
- What is unique to management and leadership, and what is "basic humanity"
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PLEASE BE ADVISED--this content contains non-explicit references to self-harm, domestic violence and addiction. If any of those areas are difficult for you for any reason, please care well for yourself as you watch/listen.
We are all people. And our stories matter. Because they inform who we are everywhere we go, including work. In this episode, I share a story I told at a recent storytelling event about my father's suicide, and the subsequent journey I've taken. I hope this content inspires you to take the risk of sharing who you are and inviting others to do the same in your spheres of influence. Indeed, with so many forces seeking to emphasize ways we disagree, part of being INSUBORDINATE is to insist on humanizing one another, and finding spaces where we can talk about our experiences before we consider issues, problems or conflicts.
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE Take our FREE Management Styles assessment HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
Send us a Text Message.
In the first episode of Season 3 of INSUBORDINATE, I chat (via video!) with David Rendall, author of The Freak Factor and several other books. We discuss his new assessment, Amplifi, and how awareness can help us find the right fit for our work, our relationships and our interests.
Also in this episode:
- How Amplifi can help you identify descriptors and areas that have been difficult or painful
- The importance of finding relationships with people who will encourage you to be more of who you are
- A company that sells socks in sets of 3 that don't match
- Dave's affinity for pink, and why part of being insubordinate for him is insisting that colors don't have a gender
- Critical concepts like Alignment, Affiliation and Partnership
You can access Dave's books HERE
You can take the Amplifi assessment for FREE HERE
You can view clips of Dave speaking HERE
There's no such thing as too much talent. But once we have identified top talent in our organizations, how should we manage those individuals?
In this episode, we discuss:
- The 5 ways we should manage top talent people
- What to communicate to top talent
- The importance of mentors
- The difference between development for top talent and development for others
- The critical role of the manager
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
In this episode, Stosh responds to an article by The Center for Creative Leadership that says organizations should be wary of having "too much talent."
"Too much talent" is a myth. But what about culture and fit? How do those intersect with talent and performance?
What role do great managers and coaches play in the process?
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
In this episode, we highlight upcoming topics, talk about actually taking vacations, give a quick reminder about existing resources you can use to become a better manager or leader, and introduce an exciting new resource coming soon!
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
In this episode, we discuss 5 critical areas every organization, manager and leader needs to address in order to create environments where people give their best and want to stay.
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
Every leader and manager needs to delegate. But despite good intentions, most don't delegate well. How can we improve our delegation so our intentions match our outcomes?
In this episode, we discuss:
- The 5 questions everyone should be asking before we delegate anything
- What is strategic about delegation
- What is developmental about delegation
- The role of talent in delegation
- Where most managers and leaders make delegation mistakes
- The kinds of conversations we should be having when we delegate
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
I am on LinkedIn frequently. It is a great place to learn, share information, network, etc. However, it also can be a source of well intended, but misguided advice.
One such example that appears often is "The Eisenhower Matrix"--a simple model designed to help users prioritize activities and time. It has it's value, but also its problems, both of which we discuss in this episode.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why it is important to examine any model with a critical eye
- Differentiating between "urgent" and "important"
- Where managers and leaders should actually spend most of their time
- The implications of this model for delegation
- The 2 most important things to consider when delegating
- How purpose, values, vision and culture shape our understanding of models and how we implement them
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
We all have a tremendous power to influence others. Sometimes that power is very simple, and often overlooked.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What it means to "be the tide"
- How we can be intentional about our approach to others
- Where we have privilege and how we can wield that on behalf of others
- Where we have been hurt, and need encouragement or presence from others
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
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Part 2 of 2. The Women's World Cup highlighted much more than great soccer. The victorious Spain team had significant issues off the field, and other nations like Nigeria and Jamaica raised issues about the level of support and pay from their respective national organizations. Sadly, Jenni Hermoso was cast into the spotlight after the final because of the behavior of her nation's football president.
These problems highlight the ongoing issue of gender equity.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How leaders should apologize when they are wrong
- The difference between community and friendship, and the importance of both
- What we can learn from the support Jenni Hermoso has received
- Things bad leaders and organizations do to absolve themselves of responsibility or self-examination
- What exemplary leadership looks like in bad situations
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
Intro/Outro music: "This Epic Rock Trailer" by AlexGrohl-purchased and used with permission
The Women's World Cup highlighted much more than great soccer. The victorious Spain team had significant issues off the field, and other nations like Nigeria and Jamaica raised issues about the level of support and pay from their respective national organizations. Sadly, Jenni Hermoso was cast into the spotlight after the final because of the behavior of her nation's football president.
These problems highlight the ongoing issue of gender equity.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why the president of the Spanish FA has been inappropriate and unprofessional
- Why women shouldn't have to share the spotlight
- Who should be paid the most, and why
- What our response should be when minority groups say something isn't right
- Statistics about pay, and why disparate pay still exists
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" HERE
Until next time, stay with the program!
Intro/Outro music: "This Epic Rock Trailer" by AlexGrohl-purchased and used with permission
Asking great questions is an essential skill both inside and outside the workplace. In this episode, we discuss:
- The value of cultivating great questions
- The best things to do when you are asking a series of questions
- 7 Questions everyone should be asking
- How great questions are useful inside and outside of work
- What playing tennis has to do with management
- How frequently you should meet with people 1:1
- Your thoughts on expanding the topic pool for this podcast
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Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Subscribe now and don't miss an episode!
Until next time, stay with the program!
Intro/Outro music: "This Epic Rock Trailer" by AlexGrohl-purchased and used with permission
In this episode, we discuss:
- How 1:1 meetings can help managers and leaders avoid or mitigate "bait and switch"
- What an "employee value proposition" is, and when that is (and isn't) a good thing
- How great organizations connect performance to purpose
- Why it's important for people to have more than just transactional work
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Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Subscribe now and don't miss an episode!
Until next time, stay with the program!
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In this episode, we discuss:
- How expectations can elevate and rescue people
- What are the prerequisites for expecting something from someone
- When expectations are bad for you
- Why "keeping people humble" is stupid
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Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Subscribe now and don't miss an episode!
Until next time, stay with the program!
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We're getting even more personal with the start of SEASON TWO.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why Season Two has been delayed
- How leading can kill you, and...
- How NOT leading will kill you
- How to identify why you might be avoiding leadership
- The importance of showing up in the world not only for the world's benefit, but also for our own
- Putting on a show (the right kind of show!)
- What Stosh has learned in the last 2 years, and specifically since the last episode of INSUBORDINATE. Hopefully there is something in it for you.
Click HERE to see the TEDx talk referenced in this episode
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
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Until next time, stay with the program!
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We're getting personal this week.
I started this episode as the final installment of the "Leadership Myths" series, but realized that my perspective on the topic of "It's Lonely At The Top" had evolved over the last decade, most notably because of significant leadership experiences I've had in that time.
In the hope that it will prove valuable to those who listen, I'm sharing that story and those insights this week.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What's true (and what isn't) about "It's Lonely At The Top"
- How we can avoid, or at least lessen, the effect of loneliness on us as leaders
- Stosh's last 18 months, and why they've been some of the most difficult he's experienced
- The importance of having people who have known us for a long time, and who know us well
- Breaking down barriers that prevent us from becoming closer to other people at work
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
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Until next time, stay with the program!
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Learning from your mistakes is a good idea, but thinking that you'll learn more from them than your successes is a myth (and, ironically, a mistake).
Instead, we should study ourselves at our best, make sure we have a direction, and move toward something, not merely away from something.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The pushback I got when I said Elon Musk was a bad leader
- The difference between making mistakes on purpose and "trying to fail"
- Why moving toward something is almost always better than moving away from something
- Questions to ask yourself to determine direction
- Some of Stosh's history, and how he lived a long time before realizing some of the truths he shares in this podcast
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Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
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Until next time, stay with the program!
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"Lead From Within."
You've heard this advice before from people like Lolly Daskal, but it's a leadership myth to believe that you can just discover what's inside you and start leading.
Good leaders know what's within, but they aim it at what's without.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why "lead from within" is a bad idea
- How talent, purpose and passion are important, and not important, to leadership
- Why "calling" is a dangerous word, and why you should never hire someone based on it
- Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, and why he's a bad leader (if he's even a leader at all)
- Why both followers and the future are essential to leadership, and having one without the other isn't leading
Click HERE to join the conversation in the INSUBORDINATE. Facebook group!
Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
Subscribe now and don't miss an episode!
Until next time, stay with the program!
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You can't be a leader in every situation.
But that doesn't mean you're not a leader.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why position and leadership aren't the same
- The litmus test for leadership at any level
- How many followers you need to have to be a leader
- The consequences of not claiming your influence
- What would happen if more people claimed their influence
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Get a FREE Leadership ebook HERE
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Until next time, stay with the program!
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Can anyone be a leader?
Is it true that with enough training or preparation, anyone can do anything?
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why you can't become anything you put your mind to
- The 10,000 hour expertise rule and how it applies to leadership
- Why aptitude is more important than desire
- Why social media influencers aren't usually leaders
- How diversity and specialization are important to leadership
- Why leading in a daycare setting is just as much leadership as being a CEO
- What "American Idol" has to do with leadership
- Why it's OK NOT to lead in every situation
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Does "The Golden Rule" work for managers and associates?
Well... kind of.
In this episode, we discuss:
- "The Golden Rule" as a moral guide
- Specific instances where "The Golden Rule" does not work
- How "The Golden Rule" influences company culture
- What we can do instead when "The Golden Rule" doesn't apply
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Where are you going?
How will you get there?
Chances are good you've had some help along the way, and you might need some help in the future, too. It's also likely you've been helpful to someone else based on your experiences or expertise.
In short, you've probably had mentors, and you've probably been a mentor. But why is that important and how can we be more intentional about mentoring?
In this episode, we discuss:
- What mentoring is, and how it differs from management, leadership and coaching
- 5 Things Great Mentors Do
- Whether your organization should have a formal mentoring program
- Who should be a mentor, and why
- What "the curse of knowledge" has to do with mentoring
- Why it's critical to claim our influence in the lives of others
- Why "open door policies" aren't enough
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Book referenced in this episode: "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath
Stosh's TEDx talk referenced in this episode: "Lead Like They're Dying" TEDx Talk
Intro/Outro music: "This Epic Rock Trailer" by AlexGrohl-purchased and used with permission
Not everyone wants to be a manager or leader. Where do individual contributors fit in?
In this episode, we discuss:
- The 3 things individual contributors bring to organizations
- 3 tips for managing and leading individual contributors
- Why just being "willing" isn't enough, and how individual contributors are more than just willing participants in an organization's plans
- Why we should leave individual contributors alone
Be sure to join the conversation in our Facebook group "INSUBORDINATE. The podcast." https://www.facebook.com/groups/1108782543356267/
Subscribe now and don't miss an episode!
Until next time, stay with the program!
Download your FREE leadership ebook at https://constantod.com/getbook
Download your FREE guide "How to Engage Your Team" at https://constantod.com/getengaged
Intro/Outro music: "This Epic Rock Trailer" by AlexGrohl-purchased and used with permission
What are the behaviors great leaders demonstrate?
How can you develop these behaviors?
What value does being a great leader bring to an organization?
In this episode, we discuss:
- How to know whether or not you should be a leader
- The 3 things all great leaders do regardless of where they're leading
- Behaviors great leaders demonstrate in each of the 3 areas
- Specific things you can do to be a great leader in each of the 3 areas
- How great leaders add value to groups or organizations
- What the main function of a leader is
Be sure to join the conversation in our Facebook group "INSUBORDINATE. The podcast." https://www.facebook.com/groups/1108782543356267/
Subscribe now and don't miss an episode!
Until next time, stay with the program!
Don't forget to download your FREE leadership ebook at https://constantod.com/getbook
Intro/Outro music: "This Epic Rock Trailer" by AlexGrohl-purchased and used with permission
What are the behaviors great managers demonstrate?
How can you develop these behaviors?
What value does being a great manager bring to an organization?
In this episode, we discuss:
- How to know whether or not you should be a manager
- The 3 characteristics of great managers
- Behaviors great managers demonstrate in each of the 3 areas
- Specific things you can do to be a great manager in each of the 3 areas
- What the main function of a manager is
- A metaphor that will help you manage others even better
Be sure to join the conversation in our Facebook group "INSUBORDINATE. The podcast." https://www.facebook.com/groups/1108782543356267/
Subscribe now and don't miss next week's episode, where we'll get specific about leadership behaviors and how to improve as a leader
Until next time, stay with the program!
Don't forget to download your FREE guide "How To Engage Your Team" at https://constantod.com/getengaged
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You've heard statements like "managers do things right; leaders do the right things."
You've also heard advice that suggests you should try to be a leader, not a manager.
But are these definitions and prescriptions helpful? How different are management and leadership, really? Do we have to choose between them? Is being a leader better than being a manager?
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why pithy statements and prescriptions about management and leadership are well meaning, but unhelpful
- Why both management and leadership are essential to organizational success
- Why you should be BOTH a manager AND a leader
- What the main function of a manager is
- What the main function of a leader is
- What behaviors are associated with management and leadership
Be sure to join the conversation in our Facebook group "INSUBORDINATE. The podcast." https://www.facebook.com/groups/1108782543356267/
Subscribe now and don't miss next week's episode, where we'll get specific about management behaviors and how to improve as a manager
Until next time, stay with the program!
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"Quiet Quitting" has gone viral. What is "Quiet Quitting" and what should individuals and organizations know about it?
Bottom line up front: "Quiet Quitting" is a lose-lose proposition, but that doesn't mean it is without merit or something we should ignore.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What "quiet quitting" is and why we should pay attention to it
- How "quiet quitting" relates to engagement
- 7 practical tips for individuals who might be considering a "quiet quit"
- 7 practical tips for organizations who want to create workplaces where "quiet quitting" is an anomaly, not the norm
- A new assessment that can help people identify their strengths and stay engaged: http://amplifitest.com/
- A FREE guide that can help managers engage their teams: https://constantod.com/getengaged
Be sure to join the conversation in our Facebook group "INSUBORDINATE. The podcast." https://www.facebook.com/groups/1108782543356267/
Subscribe now and don't miss next week's episode, where we'll discuss the difference between management and leadership, and why it's important to differentiate them. Sneak preview: most of what you've heard on this topic is wrong!
Until next time, stay with the program!
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