The George Experiment: Recent Episodes
George Lee Sye
The George Experiment is a collection of conversations and snippets of wisdom for high performing business leaders, line managers, supervisors and lifelong students of leadership and business. Hosted by George Lee Sye - public speaker, author, business educator and coach - this is a focus on lifestyle and turning this big experiment we call life into one long successful venture.
BUILDING TRUST AS A LEADER
In the absence of rapport, connection and trust, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get people to willingly do things for you.
If you find yourself as a leader in that situation, you will be forced to fall back to a formal authority based structure rather than the use of influence.
And that will clearly limit your ability as a leader.
If you want to expand your ability to get people to do things beyond some authority model, you absolutely have to be able to build that report, connection, and especially trust.
—————
GEORGE LEE SYE rose to prominence working for the government in the counter-terrorism field in the late 80s and 90s, where his deep desire to constantly improve and establish highly professional operations came to the fore. He then moved on to take up and thrive in managerial positions in the corporate world.
He founded Soarent Vision Pty Ltd in 2000 and has continually run that company as Managing Director and in 2019 established his personal training site – the 9 Skills Factory – where he is now focusing attention on putting everything he knows about career development on the table and delivering his world renowned business improvement and leadership training.
—————
MADE POSSIBLE BY:
Remember to go and visit the 9 Skills Factory Platform - George’s education platform for professionals and career driven folk, this is the business that makes this podcast possible - https://www.9skillsfactory.com
For more information about George Lee Sye and his work, visit his personal website here - https://georgeleesye.com/
—————
AUDIO:
To listen to this podcast in audio only, visit SPOTIFY and The George Experiment podcast, or visit the podcast website here - https://thegeorgeexperiment.com/
The music on this podcast is used under license from Artlist - License Number 248442 .
George’s Big Experiment In Performance, Life and Legacy
A FISHERMAN’S STORY - This episode’s guest is one of the best known fishermen in Australia, Mr Ron Gallo.
Born in 1937, Ron has spent the major part of his life fishing and working in the fishing industry up in the northern parts of Australia around Cairns.
His passion for fishing seems to have never waned. His desire for quality equipment led him to start making his own lures years ago, in addition to other fishing equipment. He got so good at this that he is now quite famous for those hand crafted products.
They are highly sought after by people in the know and getting much harder to come by. So much so that many now sit in collections.
Unfortunately these types of skills, driven by passion and a desire for quality, are going by the wayside as people buy more and more cheaply manufactured items. But that’s the way it is today.
Given Ron’s passion and tireless dedication to his craft, George always wanted to have this chat and learn the story behind Ron and his love of fishing.
—————
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to go and visit the 9 Skills Factory Platform - George’s education platform for professionals and career driven folk, this is the business that makes this podcast possible - https://www.9skillsfactory.com
For more information about George Lee Sye and his work, visit his personal website here - https://georgeleesye.com/
—————
AUDIO
The music on this podcast is used under license from Artlist - License Number 620227.
“WOKENESS” - WHAT IT IS AND ITS PROS AND CONS - George went down the rabbit hole to study and understand the concept of being ‘Woke’.
In this podcast he discusses what he has learnt about the concept - its origins, the pros and cons of the ‘Woke’ concept, and how its principles can, and have been applied positively and negatively in corporations today.
He recognises that the concept has a strong connection to the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, but it is more than that. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the idea of 'wokeness', it was always intended to be a positive and value adding idea.
Why did he record this particular podcast? Ultimately the reasons were these:
(a) To make sure we understand the concept fully,
(b) To recognise when it is being used and applied in a negative way, and
(c) Personally to work out how it can be used positively to add value to society.
If you are in any leadership or HR type of role, this should be of interest to you.
—————
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to go and visit the 9 Skills Factory Platform - George’s education platform for professionals and career driven folk, this is the business that makes this podcast possible - https://www.9skillsfactory.com
For more information about George Lee Sye and his work, visit his personal website here - https://georgeleesye.com/
—————
AUDIO
The music on this podcast is used under license from Artlist - License Number 620227.
HOW TO KEEP PEOPLE FOCUSED AS A MANAGER - One of the more difficult challenges every leader is faced with today is how to keep people focused on the things that are important to the business.
Factors such as busyness, habits and ritual patterns of behaviour, time compression, and lacking motivation to change; all contribute to the problem that we as leaders must address.
This podcast is a discussion about the strategies that George found effective in keeping the people around him and who work for him focused on the important things.
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to go and visit the 9 Skills Factory.
This is George’s education platform for professionals and career driven folk, this is the business that makes this podcast possible - https://www.9skillsfactory.com
SHEENA LIVESEY - Sheena has worked with George for around 10 years and has played a hugely important role in the achievements of George and his company.
She is now transitioning into a new career - that of nursing. Currently in her third year of nurse training she is now spending more and more time doing placements in hospitals and various wards and building her hands on experience.
This conversation was prompted by George’s desire to understand what it’s like to work in the various wards of hospitals and how the pressures of the COVID pandemic are affecting the frontline works in the hospital system - the nursing staff.
A big shoutout to all of the nurses in Australia and the world, the respect we have for what you do is enormous.
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to visit George’s 9 Skills Factory education platform for professionals and career driven folks, this is the business that makes this podcast possible - https://www.9skillsfactory.com
ANDREW READ - Andrew Read is a professional Health and Fitness trainer and coach. As he says, he “helps 40yr old men regain their youth and athleticism.”
He is also author of Run Strong, Taming the Beast, and anything else that represents smart training for what he refers to as the “Ageing Athlete”.
George had the chance to chat with Andrew and they talked obviously about health and fitness, about mindset as it affects people’s health and fitness, and the impacts of COVID19.
What comes across in this conversation is Andrew’s genuine care for people and their health, his no-bullshit approach for helping people achieve what they desire, and his commitment to making a difference and doing his bit to fix a problem that only seems to be getting worse.
If you are struggling with weight and are being honest to yourself about the problems this will create for you, you can also do your bit by checking out Andrew’s 28-day challenge.
Yep, this was a long one, the chat went for some 2-hours and George did not get through all of the topics he wanted to talk to Andrew about, so there will be more conversations for sure.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Andrew Read and his 28-day Challenge, visit his Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/athleticadventurer/
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to visit George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform which is the business that makes this podcast possible - https://www.9skillsfactory.com
THE MOTO EDITION - Harry Khouri is our guest on this episode. Harry is a motorcycle racer, he’s an Aussie, and he’s very fast!
He debuted in the Australian Superbike Championship racing in the 300cc class in 2017 at the age of 13. A graduate of the California Superbike School here in Australia, he showed tremendous potential so ventured into the international arena in 2019.
In 2021 he moved up to world level racing and completed his rookie season racing in the extremely competitive World Supersport 300 class.
In this episode, George had the opportunity to chat with Harry about how he got into this level of racing, his experience in WSSP300 in his rookie season, and what’s next on the horizon for him in the world of racing.
These are insights into a level of competition that most of us will never experience.
Please support Harry through his social media, best place to start is via his Facebook Page Here.
And we should not forget these people - a big shout out to Harry Khouri’s sponsors, thank you for supporting Harry as he waves the Aussie flag in world level racing:
-
Addicted to Track (Mark McGregor)
-
Parklea Sand and Soil
-
Grant Engineered
-
Bob and Ben the Tree Men
-
Kabuto Helmets
-
Peregrine1 leathers
-
Porter Group
-
Excite Motorsports
-
Earmold Australia
-
Shane Stratton
Last but not least, please remember to visit our YouTube channel without which this would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
And also a shout out to K-Tech Suspension Australia
CASSANDRA ALEXANDER RN - Cassandra (aka Cassie) Alexander is a nurse. She spent ten years of her career working in a burns ward of a US hospital, loving her job and the tough but important role of caring for burns victims.
Then in 2020 we were all struck by the COVID19 pandemic.
So Cassie took her skills working in what are referred to as isolation wards, to become a COVID ward nurse.
That’s when things changed. So in 2021 she wrote about her experience in a book titled YEAR OF THE NURSE. That book is a 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Memoir in the words of someone who knows what it is like behind the closed doors of the COVID ward.
In this episode, George chatted with Cassie about her experiences in the ward, dealing with the hospitalised victims of COVID19, misunderstandings out there about masks and vaccinations, nurses coping with stress and PTSD.
It is a super interesting story that will surely awaken you and give you a much greater appreciation of the tough role nurses have to perform, and maybe .. just maybe help you to not become a COVID19 hospitalisation statistic yourself.
Remember, if you are experiencing signs and symptoms of PTSD, remember to speak up and get help.
MORE INFORMATION
More information about Cassie and all of her books can be found on the Amazon website here - https://www.amazon.com/Cassie-Alexander/e/B007A2R4P0
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to visit George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform which is the business that makes this podcast possible.
KEITH BANKS - This is a follow up conversation with Keith Banks, and a reference to his second successful book - Gun To The Head.
George talked with Keith about his experience in tactical operations, touched on Operation Flashdance, and delved into his experience dealing with the aftermath and years of PTSD.
Thankfully Keith came through the ordeal and now his contribution to mental health and well-being is felt widely because of his writings.
He has taken all of his experiences and learnings and presented them in such a way that we can all take something positive away, even if our circumstances are different.
If you are experiencing signs and symptoms of PTSD, remember to speak up and get help. And also listen to the first conversation with Keith Banks in Episode 64 of this podcast.
MORE INFORMATION
More information about Keith Banks and where to get his books can be found on his website - https://keithbanks.com.au
MADE POSSIBLE BY ..
Remember to visit George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform which is the business that makes this podcast possible.
THE MOTO EDITION - intended for listeners who are passionate about motorcycle riding and racing of any kind and who want to improve their own riding skills.
Our guest on this episode is Mitch Paynter.
In 2019, Mitch Paynter won the Queensland Superbike title and was rider of the year at the motorcycle club that operates out at the Morgan Park racetrack in Warwick, Queensland.
His story is one of a focused commitment to motorcycle racing and seeking to be the best rider he could possibly be in a fun but often brutal sport.
In 2020 Mitch’s goals expanded to racing in the Australian Superbike Championship in the 2021 season. However, the chaos of the COVID19 pandemic and race cancellations made it almost impossible to participate.
To make matters worse, during a 2021 racing weekend at Morgan Park, Mitch entered the final race of the weekend with a comfortable lead. But after a bad start from P1 he high sided the motorcycle in the second turn and suffered life threatening injuries which resulted in weeks of hospitalisation and a long period of recovery.
George took the opportunity to talk to Mitch about his racing, the process of getting faster, the crash and next steps for him.
George first met Mitch in early 2021 when Mitch was given a taste of coaching with the California Superbike School as an on track ride coach. That experience has inspired his interest in now coaching others to be better riders, and to share his knowledge.
If you are just getting into track day riding, or even if you are a seasoned rider and racer, Mitch has some great information to share here.
Mitch owns and operates MP Air Solutions on the Gold Coast here in Australia.
Please remember to visit our sponsors of this podcast, without them it would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
THE MOTO EDITION - intended for listeners who are passionate about motorcycle riding and racing of any kind and who want to improve their own riding skills.
Our guest on this episode is Steve Brouggy.
Steve is well known for his long involvement in the motorcycle world as a racer, ride day organiser and the man who originally brought Keith Code's California Superbike School to Australia.
George had the opportunity to chat with Steve who is one of the highest qualified and capable ride coaches in the world today. They discussed the “simplicity” of good motorcycle riding, how Steve got fast himself, and answered many of the questions we all have about road motorcycles, track days, and riding fast amongst other things.
If you are just getting into track day riding, or even if you are a seasoned rider and racer, there are some great take aways here for you.
To find out more about the track and ride days organised by Steve and his company (MEGA), visit the web sites for the two tracks where they operate here in Australia:
Phillip Island GP Circuit Ride Days
Sydney Motorsport Park Ride Days
And, please remember to visit our sponsors of this podcast, without them it would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
THE MOTO EDITION - intended for listeners who are passionate about motorcycle riding and racing of any kind and who want to improve their own riding skills.
Our guest in this episode is Ash Hare, one of the owners and directors of the Asia Pacific branch of the California Superbike School based in Australia and New Zealand.
George capitalised on the lockdown in NZ to grab Ash and take the opportunity to chat and ask him questions about all things motorcycle riding.
Ash is one of those track riders / motorcycle racers who is also an active street rider who enjoys mountain runs on weekends. So the conversation was more than just about the track and racing.
Whether you’re a seasoned rider or simply someone thinking of getting into track riding or racing or just weekend motorcycle riding, there’s a lot of good information here for you.
MORE ABOUT CSS
The California Superbike School operates in USA, Asia Pacific and Europe. CSS has a bulletproof, step by step method for training riders in the exact skills of cornering motorcycles. With more than 30 years of experience, CSS has become recognised worldwide as the global leader in this field. The school has 15 specific riding drills spread over the first 3 Levels, and then over 200+ drills to draw upon to take your skills to the highest standards during Level 4 experiences.
Visit the Australian Branch Here
Visit the New Zealand Branch Here
And, please remember to visit our sponsors of this podcast, without them it would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
THE MUSIC
The song played in this episode is titled ‘Moonlight’ and is an original by Ash’s band Canopia.
In an earlier episode (#62) Don McKay spoke about his experience dealing with and surviving cancer. And one of the things that came out of that conversation for George was the obvious 'resilience' he practiced and displayed throughout that time.
What’s interesting is that George worked with Don back in the 1990s and was privy to how this resilience was a part of Don’s character way back then. So he invited Don to talk more about the topic, and expand on his work in teaching resilience to others through his activities as a part of the My Evolution business.
There are many lessons for all of us in this podcast about life and how we approach it.
More information about Don McKay and his work with resilience can be found on his website - https://www.myevolution.com.au
Please take a moment to visit our sponsor - George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
THE MOTO EDITION - intended for listeners who are passionate about motorcycle riding and racing of any kind and who want to improve their own riding skills.
Our guest in this episode is Al Samuels, owner and operator of Race Dynamics in Sydney, Australia.
Race Dynamics is a company that provides complete rider support services ranging from building and tuning bikes, supplying the best race proven performance parts to fitting, tuning and maintaining suspension. They also provide full race meeting and ride day support with training.
George had the privilege of spending two days on his property with Al. So he took the opportunity to sit down and ask him questions about bike set up and riding.
For anyone who seeks to improve their own riding and bike set up, there's a tonne of information here for you.
Whether you are a seasoned riders or simply a person of thinking of getting into track riding or racing, you’ll get a lot from this.
For more information about Al Samuels and work, connect with Race Dynamics on Facebook.
And, please remember to visit our sponsors of this podcast, without them it would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
It takes a lot of courage and tenacity to go public with your own content. To put yourself out there on social media, YouTube, the public speaking stage, in the coaching arena; all expose you to not only positivity, but also negativity.
And it is this fear of the negative aspects of the public domain that often prevents very talented people from actually sharing what they know and can do that adds value to us all.
In this episode, George gives you five mindset lessons that will help you deal with that and make sure you step forward and get your ideas and content out there where we can all benefit.
And remember, go and visit our sponsor page, this platform is what makes this podcast possible:
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
THE MOTO EDITION - intended for listeners who are passionate about motorcycle riding and racing of any kind … like George.
Our guest in this episode is Mark McGregor, owner / operator of Addicted to Track - a company that provides a Logistics and Service Experience for Motorcycle Track Riding Enthusiasts who want to ride their own bike here in Australia or overseas at cool motorcycle tracks.
George and Mark spoke about more than just the business. Mark is a super experienced rider who can really punt a bike around a track. George took the opportunity to explore the way Mark approaches track riding and continuously improving his skill and track times.
For anyone who seeks to improve their own riding, there's a heap of tips in here for you. Whether you are a seasoned riders or simply a person of thinking of getting into track riding or racing, you’ll take away something.
For more information about Mark’s bike transport, tours and hire business, look for Addicted to Track on Facebook or visit the website here.
And, please remember to visit our sponsors of this podcast, without them it would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
This is the very first episode of the MOTO EDITION of the TGE podcast, intended for listeners who are passionate about motorcycle riding and racing and track days.
Our guest here is Stephanie Redman who is a talented rider for sure. But her real talent and passion lies in coaching motorcycle racers, particularly the younger riders.
In this episode she talks to George about a range of topics including coaching in Europe, recovering from COVID19, getting into motorcycling and European junior riding compared to that in Australia. George also took the opportunity to get a heap of tips from her that will help seasoned riders as well as anyone thinking of getting into track riding or racing.
To stay up to date with the journeys of Steph, you can follow her via her Coach49 profile on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Please remember to visit our sponsors of this podcast, without them it would not be possible:
The Bike Stig YouTube Channel
George’s 9 Skills Factory Professionals Education Platform
Public speaking is a skill for sure. However many people approach the development of their capability with public speaking with a purely technical mindset. They erroneously think that by learning the techniques of public speaking and presentation delivery, mastery follows.
Truth is a good public speaker knows they need to BE something in order to DO public speaking well.
This podcast is about what you need to BE first if you do want to be a public speaking master.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
George has observed the career of Kate Sommerville over the course of many years since first meeting her in the late 1990s.
Given her drive, progress and level of career success in what many would call a challenging industry, George took the opportunity to sit with Kate and learn what he could about her approach to work, career, leadership and life in general.
At the time of this recording, Kate is the General Manager Legacy Assets for the mining giant BHP. Her responsibility includes 24 closed mines across USA and Canada, a team of 200 including contractors, and a coverage that also includes 108 dams in 24 different facilities.
Kate, who has an engineering degree, an MBA, a First Class Mine Managers Certificate and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. FAusIMMCP, is a fantastic role model for anyone with strong career aspirations, especially young women.
And if that’s not enough, Kate also enjoys (yes she actually used the word “enjoy”) competing in Ironman triathlons and 100+ kilometre runs!
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform
Keith Banks, author of the best selling book titled ‘Drugs, Guns and Lies’, sat with George and discussed his life as an undercover cop during the most notoriously corrupt period in Queensland's history that ended with the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
Keith describes what it was like to live life as an undercover agent, building relationships with people he would have to ultimately betray, the transition back to what we might call a normal life, the impact of this on his life and mental well being, and finally dealing with PTSD.
More information about Keith Banks and where to get his books can be found on his website - keithbanks.com.au
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
This is a discussion between George and Don McKay that looked at principles applied by special operations groups and defence forces to build highly bonded teams and create a strong mission focus.
They looked at how these principles can be applied in modern day organisations who want to achieve optimum performance, deliver on their business plans and also develop people who can lead within the organisation beyond the current leadership team.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
More information about Don McKay and his work with resilience can be found on his website - www.myevolution.com.au
Don McKay talks about his experience surviving cancer, specifically Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
The discussion evolved around a range of related topics such as dealing with chemotherapy, maintaining a positive attitude and healthy mindset, diet, fasting, resilience, and getting back into connection with people at a time when his appearance had changed drastically.
There are many lessons for all of us in this podcast about life and how we approach it, even if we aren’t going through a similar experience.
More information about Don McKay and his work with resilience can be found on his website - My Evolution.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Death by PowerPoint - you know the term - PowerPoint presentations done is such a way you want to die.
Fancy animations, info dripping from the pages, logos and branding on every single page, bright colours, presenter reading the slides ... all of the things we must avoid if we want to effectively get our messages across to audiences.
In this podcast, George talks about the 6 biggest mistakes presenters make using presentation slide packs:.
He also provides you with 6 tips for avoiding these mistakes.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and it has resulted in many changes including how you develop yourself professionally. But it’s not all smooth sailing, as there are problems that have emerged that can prevent us being successful with our professional development using more modern platforms and strategies.
In this podcast George talks about 5 principles that can help you ensure your success in using modern strategies for your own professional development.
#1 Make A Personal Decision To Learn a Skill
#2 Undertake Micro Learning NOT Course Completion
#3 Start the Day With Training
#4 Engage All Senses to Accelerate Learning
#5 Undertake Micro Application
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
While he has heard it said that “business improvement kills innovation”, George never fully understood it until he heard it and saw it first hand and began to realise that business improvement can hamper innovation if certain scenarios are allowed to take place.
George realised there are points along the improvement journey when the thinking of the people involved could either support of kill innovation. And much of this thinking stems from the conditioning we are exposed to in educational institutions and at work.
This podcast is about the 6 scenarios identified by George where business improvement can inadvertently kill innovation.
Scenario 1 - One Solution Problem Statements
Scenario 2 - We See Solutions, Not the Waste
Scenario 3 - Cause Effect Points to One Solution
Scenario 4 - Judging Value Add
Scenario 5 - Chunked Up Flowcharts Conceal Waste
Scenario 6 - Poor Facilitation
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
From 1928 to 1932, a gentleman by the name of George Elton Mayo conducted an experiment at the Hawthorne Western Electric plant (in the USA) to determine if increased lighting would result in increased productivity.
As it turned out, they realised it was actually the ‘Hawthorne Effect’ that had caused an increase in productivity, not increased lighting.
In this podcast, George talks about how you can use this effect as a practical improvement strategy to drive process improvement, behaviour change, and generate deeper knowledge of process performance and the variables that affect that.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
The age old saying ‘practice makes perfect’, while well intended, has always been misleading. What we’ve come to realise today is that ‘perfect practice makes perfect.
In this podcast George talks about how to take the concept of perfect practice in to the business world and apply it to work based capability development when you might not be able to actually practice the process or tool or technique before you use it for real.
He gives the example of how he practiced the tools of business improvement perfectly while facilitating real-world problem solving through teams, and became a world renowned leader and respected author on the use of business improvement methodologies and associated tools.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George Leesye’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Public speaking is one of the greatest fears people have. Try doing it as an Introvert!
In this episode George talks about introversion, particularly as it affects public speaking. He also provides a number of hard learnt ways an introvert can effectively prepare for and deliver their public speaking engagements and presentations most effectively.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
The backbone of your work is the process you repeatedly use to deliver a product or service to your customers. And the experience your customer has in engaging with that process will cause them to form either a positive opinion about you or your department or company, or form a negative opinion. In this podcast, George talks about how to make sure those processes work for you and help you make the experience of your customers the best it can be.
Even if you are an employee in a company, this is relevant to you.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Imagine for a moment you have to write a proposal for someone. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, if you have to present an idea for change to solve some problem for someone, you will be presenting a proposal.
In this podcast I’m NOT going to talk about how to present your proposal.
What I do want to talk about is how you go about getting the right information so that when you deliver your proposal, it is perfectly in sync with what they want, and how they want to receive it.
This podcast is brought to you by Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
To view the Web Class referenced by George in this podcast, and download the pre-proposal interview tool - CLICK HERE
No matter what you might think of Apple products or Steve Jobs himself, there is absolutely no doubt that we can learn much from the way he presented Apple products to the world. Steve Jobs was remarkable, he was the master of creating and delivering a memorable event. In the process of persuading his customers to buy his products, he entertained, informed and educated the audience. Could we possibly learn from how Steve Jobs approached presentations?
That’s what this podcast is about - the principles that Steve Jobs used in his presentations.
We’ve also added two more unusual English words - Sonder and Mizpah.
This podcast is brought to you by: Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
The English language can be quite difficult to grasp, especially some of the unusual words it contains.
So here is a little education on some unusual words from our English language and an expansion on our linguistic arsenal with the following:
Quire, Agelast, Octothorpe, Meldrop, Pot-valor, Jentacular, Nudiustertian, Tittynope, Winklepicker, Kakorrhaphiophobia, Halpace, Bibble, Mixology
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George’s 9 Skills Factory professionals' education platform.
Target fixation is deadly on a racetrack and on the road. The concept also relates to situations where you are presenting ideas in order to influence a person or audience that you don’t necessarily have rapport with yet.
The key to dealing with it is the expansion of your conscious awareness - visually and mentally - a challenging yet extremely beneficial skill to develop if you want to be your best as an influencer and presenter.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George's 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Do you get to your pitch too soon? Do you have the right foundations in place so your audience considers your idea fully before they make a decision about their commitment to it? George talks about what it takes to effectively get resistant audiences ready for your change idea presentation or pitch.
This podcast is brought to you by: Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George's 9 Skills Factory professionals' education platform.
A big fat welcome to the 2021 new year, recorded on new years day in this podcast George talks about the opportunities that can arise from tough times such as those bought on by the COVID19 pandemic.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
In this podcast, George talks about how COVID-19 and the response to the pandemic forced his company and its customers to take a long look at how they were approaching professional development, find the strengths of the old model and incorporate those into a new and more effective framework for professional development. Yes, it does require a little more attention to make sure circumstances are right and the recipient company has the right culture and attitudes towards education.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
In this podcast, George talks about the biggest barrier to business improvement and self development - the system people work within. He also leaves you with a simple, yet vitally important, 5-step framework he used for decades as a Manager to overcome the barriers created by the organisational system.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
In this podcast, George talks about how to structure your evidence in a presentation so that you are able to raise the likelihood that your audience buys into it. Ultimately you want to structure that evidence in a way that matches the evidence strategy of the audience.
This podcast is brought to you by: Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
In this podcast, George talks about the way you go about pitching your solutions or ideas for change to senior people in organisations - executive teams, CEOs, boards etc. the big take away for you will be this - don’t ask for permission.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
In this podcast, George talks about the psychology of momentum from a practical perspective. He explains how you can go about maintaining interest and momentum for many change or initiative you might be leading.
This podcast is brought to you by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
In this podcast, George talks about stakeholder engagement as a change leader - when to engage, how to engage, how to develop a one-on-one communications strategy for engaging a stakeholder; the things you need to know to enhance your ability as a leader of change.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
We have equality in one thing only - how much time we have each day. Yet the way people approach time and use that time varies greatly.
One of the main focal points of any manager when it comes to time is optimising their productivity, yet there is a consistent tendency for us to experience time compression as urgent tasks get dumped on our laps.
What do we do about that?
Here are some tips from someone who has been able to avoid most of this imposed time compression over his 45 year working career and stay focused on achieving results without buckling under undue stress.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Getting people to work effectively as teams is a talent that can be learnt. And once you understand what it is that holds people in the storming phase of their team development, then you can use some simple strategies to raise the likelihood they get through that phase quickly and become a high performance team. In this podcast George shares some strategies he learnt during his military and special operations days and has used successfully over the past 3 decades of his working life.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
If you are a leader, who do you put first - yourself or your people? The true test of this is when things are not going so well; during business downturns, during pandemic isolations, when you don’t have sufficient equipment for everyone, when office space is limited. Leaders eating last is a lesson that relates to many things associated with what you do as a leader in both good and bad situations.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Everyone is challenged in getting others to change their behaviour at some time in their life. It can be as a parent or as a leader or as a business owner; doesn’t matter what the situation is we all have to work through the issues of this at some time.
As you’ll learn in this podcast, if you are going to have any degree of success in this endeavour you must understand the principles of reinforcement. It’s these four principles that George will run you through that just might be a turning point for you as an influencer of others.
It’s also a podcast every parent should hear too.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Culture change … one of the most difficult things to achieve at a conscious level. Leaders and managers can definitely influence culture, but doing it intentionally and in a specific direction requires some thought and a lot of awareness of what it is that underpins culture.
Here’s some tips from George that have served him well in driving culture change in organisations and teams he’s worked in and led over the past 30 years.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
The ability to execute an idea is way more important than the ability to develop a plan if your goal is to achieve success in anything.
Many people are great at putting plans together, where the separation occurs is when they need to turn those plans into concrete achievements.
In this podcast George plays an extract from his business execution skills program and touches on the psychology of execution and how it differs from project management.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Let’s be self-reflective here for a minute, what would people say about your meetings behind your back? Would they rave about them or would they just look at each other and take a deep breath to hide their thoughts?
If you want to run meetings that don’t suck like many of them do, then you need to park any thoughts that the only solution is to make them shorter, and choose to be different in how you design and manage those meetings.
Here’s some useful tips that George has learnt by running literally tens of thousands of hours of meetings that people get value out of …. and being able to keep them awake.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Some people think that if they simply record videos of what it is they teach, and then sell access to those videos; that will be the solution to their current classroom training and competency development model.
Truth is video will be an important part of the alternative, but it’s not THE solution. There’s more to it than that.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Back in the late 1990s people didn’t really understand business improvement to the level they do today.
The main focus went to the training and development of the project leaders, but the role of project sponsor was not given the attention it should have been.
In this podcast George discusses 5 key things good line managers who sponsor business improvement projects must know about the role.
Whether you use lean or six sigma or agile or some sort of RCA methodology is irrelevant, this applies to all.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
How well do you really plan? Is your problem solving and planning process robust enough that you could guarantee you’ve come up with the best plan available to you?
In scenarios other than construction, traditional project management as a planning approach leaves most planners with some gaps in their plans. They make one fundamental mistake (or omission we should say) that is not made by the military.
In this podcast George looks at that one thing and explains how you can use it to solve problems more effectively and develop better plans.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Maximum productivity without the stress is what we are all trying to achieve.
Unfortunately much of what happens in our environment, and many of the approaches we use to manage our time and activities might actually be obstacles to us being as productive as we potentially can be. They also contribute to the unnecessary levels of stress we are exposed to.
In this podcast George gives you 5 simple yet effective strategies for changing that and actually addressing the obstacles that prevent us achieving our productivity potential.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
Rather than you [as the leader] always trying to solve employee behavioural problems, why not shift ownership of the problem from you to them.
You can do this with George’s 3W approach which turns the employee into someone who has some skin in the game and vested interest in coming up with solutions.
The cool thing is this also can be used successfully at home.
This podcast is sponsored by:
Soarent Vision Pty Ltd and the 9 Skills Factory professionals education platform.
It’s been a long journey, more than 20 years in fact, to work out the most effective way to lead business improvement work in a minimum of time.
Now George is sharing his 3-phase approach which can have a hugely positive impact on how you do your project work, especially in the set up / pre work phase.
This podcast is sponsored by Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
So many highly capable leaders end up being overwhelmed with work. And one issue is the constant asking by others for them to do things to help solve problems.
Here’s a way for you to get the monkey off your back when your people come to you with another task. Asking these questions doesn’t mean you don’t help out, it just means if you do then you know it’s actually the best way to achieve an outcome that is important for you or your team.
This podcast is sponsored by Soarent Vision Pty Ltd, and George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform and Soarent Vision.
Team building is a challenge all leaders are confronted with at times. While challenging, it’s vitally important that you can build these teams if you are to get the best performance possible out of your organisation.
Here George discusses three strategies that you might consider that will certainly help you build your teams.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform and Soarent Vision.
Sometime in the 1970s before he died in 1982, my father (George Lee Sye Snr.) wrote a poem about the last Anzac. As it turned out Alexander William (Alec) Campbell was that final surviving Australian participant of the First World War’s Gallipoli campaign. With his passing in 2002, that last living link between Australia and the Gallipoli story was broken.
Here is a fitting and poetic tribute to this man, and to all ANZACS and service men and women of Australia and New Zealand.
The concept of coaching is often misunderstood. The ultimate goal of an effective coach is to put the person being coached at cause. The moment you do that, you create a situation where the person can take control of necessary change and themselves produce a better outcome as a result.
Here George explains how the coaching style of leadership works and how it effects the learning and behaviour of people.
For more information about George and his training, visit his 9 Skills Factory education platform or his personal website GeorgeLeeSye.com
The global corona virus pandemic is forcing companies to look at new ways to do business and ways for up-skilling their people. Here George explains how an effective coaching program (as opposed to traditional classroom training) will be a more effective way to develop lean six sigma and business improvement skills, and drive effective application and delivery of results.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
Genuine mastery of a topic in your chosen field is not a matter of doing some training, writing a book and then wallah … you’re the guru! No, it’s a journey that you must choose to make consciously that requires passion, dedication and commitment.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
How important is trust if you want to influence or sell or get buy-in to your ideas? Well it so important in fact, that if you can't get it, you are unlikely to get anyone to do anything .. without being a dictator.
This is a conversation about how to build trust quickly as a leader or small business owner and it's bought to you by the main sponsor the 9 Skills Factory professional development platform.
The term servant leadership is bandied around but is often misunderstood. After running a hospital for a year in the late 1990s and going into the job without any technical knowledge, George got first hand training in how servant leadership can be used to drive accountability and ownership of solutions for progressive change. And how to use that strategy as a way for you to let go of solutions yourself.
This podcast is sponsored by the 9 Skills Factory professional development platform.
Tough times mean tough measures, unfortunately many people will become victims of layoffs as CEOs fight to protect $s and companies (and their own families). How do you future proof yourself so you lower the likelihood that you become a victim?
Easy ... connect yourself to the $ part of your company and become an indispensable asset, rather than a cost that can be eliminated. You do that by professionally educating yourself properly and upskilling for your long term career.
One place you can do that is at George Lee Sye's 9 Skills Factory.
In times of change, people get mentally caught up in what used to be, rather than what could be. When it comes to the current drive towards use of technology, stop asking "does it do this" and get into the habit of asking "how can we get it to do this" .. a much more effective thinking pattern for proactively evolving.
After 30 years of writing and 17 published books, George Lee Sye is clearly qualified to offer advice on how to write and self publish a book. And in these tough times of home isolation, the time has never been better for you to actually do that .. write your own book.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
High performance leaders are fantastic to work for as they can be incredible mentors and also take you along on the journey they will be making …. If you do certain things.
Here’s some tips for what you can do to make yourself valuable to those higher performing leaders that we aspire to be like.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
We’ve all experienced tough times. What makes the present times interesting is the level of sharing we have with the challenges.
George wanted to share 8 things he’s learnt over 35 years of constantly dealing with challenges and difficult circumstances in business and life in general, These are the things he's focused on right now in his own life and running a small business, and you can implement these immediately in your own situation right now. The intention is that we navigate our way through these times in a way that as positive as it can be.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
Tough times ahead for everyone, that’s for sure. Are you ready for it, how good is your CV, are you in a position to differentiate yourself from others when it comes to promotion or job prospects?
George provides a three step framework for getting ready by creating a CV that sells the value you bring to the table.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform.
In 2009 Craig Hurkett transitioned from employee to self employed with the creation of his company EnterpriseIS and since then he’s gone from strength to strength delivering value to a fantastic customer base.
Here he talks with George about a range of things including the journey, his learnings, pricing models, business improvement and problem solving, and most importantly how he approaches value creation for customers today through EnterpriseIS.
This podcast is sponsored by George Lee Sye’s 9 Skills Factory education platform - Click Here for more info.
For more information about Craig Hurkett and his company visit the EnterpriseIS Website Here.
Have you ever heard it said that “business improvement kills innovation”. George has, numerous times.
Though he never fully understood that because he was of the opposite opinion based on years of experience using improvement methods to actually create innovation.
Then one day, the penny dropped!
He heard it and saw it first hand and began to realise that business improvement can hamper innovation if certain scenarios are allowed to take place.
There are points along the improvement journey when the thinking of the people involved could either support or kill innovation. And much of this thinking stems from the conditioning we are exposed to in educational institutions and at work.
This is a podcast all managers, change leaders and improvement practitioners can learn from.
You’ll find these scenarios listed in an article posted on George’s 9 Skills Factory website here
What can we learn about life and business from riding a motorcycle on track at 300kph? Well if you can do it successfully, some key principles can be mapped back.
George Lee Sye spends approximately one week per month working in the ultimate part time gig (for a bike rider that is) - coaching riders as an on track coach with the California Superbike School in Australia.
Pondering the question during one of his mental meanderings on a plane, George was able to identify 17 lessons (or perhaps principles is the better term) that could be applied to life and business in general.
This is a podcast we can all learn from and apply in our own life and business situations.
More information about the California Superbike School is here
This podcast is sponsored by 9 Skills Factory
As weird as this might sound, it can be quite challenging for many supervisors and managers to effectively lead high performance employees.
So after thinking about this topic and those particular challenges in both the special operations and large corporation environments, plus the frustrations they’ve personally experienced under poor leadership, George and Don McKay had a chat to identify how a manager can be better at leading these types of people.
In the podcast George breaks it down into the 6 most important strategies he’s had success with during his 45 year career and discusses these with Don. This is a podcast we can all learn from and apply in our own work and business situations.
Sponsored by 9 Skills Factory
The review of a number of George’s books on performance, lifestyle and problem solving psychology, prompted Sheena Livesey to ask George a bunch of questions about his thinking and what was behind what he wrote. This is a podcast filled with gems about how you can fine turn your own thinking patterns so your experiences of life are taken to the next level. This is really a podcast about optimising your lifestyle and enhancing your career.
More book information, visit 9 Skills Factory here.
George speaks with long time friend (from special operations days) and now commissioned officer in the QPS, Don McKay, about his personal approach to high performance, and his research into what it is that separates those who perform “above the line” versus those who don’t. The conversation touched on health and longevity as well as the psychology of performance from a practical perspective. Don’s My Evolution business has now taken off and his focus on sharing what he knows to the masses is gaining momentum quickly.
This podcast was sponsored by 9 Skills Factory
Continual [business] improvement (CI) is a vitally important discipline in any business if you are going to consistently deliver on your business plans. Here George speaks with Ross Turnbull and Wade Pritchard from Gold Fields Australasia to get their practitioner’s view of how things work. They spoke about their experiences with improvement in business…. the challenges, the training, their learnings, and what has worked for them in getting results. Listen in because there are some great clues as to how all business improvement people should approach their work if they seek to really make a difference.
More information about George's business improvement training can be found at his 9 Skills Factory platform.
15 days into his 90 day 6 Pack at 60 challenge, George sits down and talks with Sheena Livesey about the challenge, motivation to do it, going public, the psychology behind doing it or not doing it, and both of their experiences in making these types of changes. The hope is to inspire others to take action to look after their own health and longevity before it’s too late.
In this episode George and Sheena talk about two factors that can have an enormous impact on your career, what it is that stops people from trying new things and seek perfection, and the idea of being present in your job ... it does relate to small business as well.
One of the barriers to learning is the 'illusion of knowledge', so in this episode George and Sheena talk about learning for the knowledgeable and how it changes from learning for the beginner. Bottom line is if you aren't consciously thinking about learning and growing, then you remain well prepared for the past, not the future.
After more than 20 years of public speaking, 1,000+ conferences and countless hours of talking to people from a stage, we know something about how to approach this scary thing we refer to as public speaking. In this conversation George and Sheena talk about what George refers to as the "Four Be's" and the topic of charisma is also mentioned.
In this episode we look at this buzz word 'servant leadership' and connect it back to some learnings from the late 1990s where a particular situation prompted the use of this concept from a practical perspective. Once you understand George's "I-We-They-I" model of thinking it might just get that monkey off your back as a line manager.
How you approach one thing in your life is how you approach everything ... from a mindset perspective. In this episode we talk about the #1 problem we see in big business today, the military approach to this and why they do what they do, and one way (yes it's an old war story) George resolved this issue way back in a past working life.
Another discussion with Sheena from our office about business. In this episode we talked about the relevance of lean and six sigma methods in business today, the most common mistakes made with business improvement, and the importance of soft skills particularly when it comes to pitching and selling ideas.