The Leadership Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos, experts on leadership development
We interview great leaders, review the books they read, and speak with highly influential authors who study them.
Purpose isn't something you find once and follow forever. It's something you practice every day. Tom Rath is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of StrengthsFinder 2.0, How Full Is Your Bucket?, Eat Move Sleep, and his latest book, What's the Point?: Turning Purpose Into Your Daily Superpower. After decades studying what helps people thrive, Tom believes we've been thinking about purpose all wrong. Instead of waiting to discover some singular calling, he argues that purpose is built through the choices we make and the questions we ask every day—starting with one simple question: What's the point? In our conversation, we explore why leadership has become too self-focused instead of centered on what others need, how small daily decisions shape a meaningful life, and why the rise of AI makes human judgment, relationships, and genuine conversations more valuable than ever. If you're looking to lead with greater intention, make better decisions, and build work that truly matters, this episode offers a practical framework for turning purpose into something you live—not just something you chase. Find episode 523 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Tom Rath on The Daily Question That Changes How You Lead https://bit.ly/TLP-523 Key Moments [04:03] The leadership belief Tom has changed his mind about in six years [05:42] Why purpose isn't a grand concept, it's built into every hour [08:34] Passion vs. meaning vs. purpose, and why "follow your passion" is bad advice [11:12] Balancing self, purpose, and business reality — managing the leadership "triad" [14:46] The radiologist study: how a simple photo changed diagnostic accuracy [17:10] Why leaders are the worst role models for well-being, and what to do about it [20:51] How AI is rewriting the social contract between responding and creating [22:55] Success vs. usefulness, and what headstones actually say [24:40] The "two deaths" — Jim's take on legacy and what outlives us [28:18] The one habit leaders can't skip: modeling, not mandating [32:29] The single question Tom believes every leader should ask daily [35:41] How Tom's view on team fabric vs. self-understanding evolved since StrengthsFinder [37:20] The common thread across all of Tom's books, from bucket-filling to purpose Memorable Quotes "Purpose is really something that you build into every hour of your day." "I think being useful is a lot more important [than being successful]." "Success and achievement push you further into the hamster wheel in a lot of cases." "If the hour is your currency and the response is your hammer, you will have the first jobs to be automated and displaced." "Leaders on average are the worst role models in that regard, full stop." "The more time you spend focusing on your own happiness and how to make yourself happy, that has diminishing returns and doesn't really work out as well as most people imagine." "You don't always know that you have tomorrow. You got to do it today." "Our strengths are only relevant in the context of a relationship or a contribution to the world." "The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity." - Leo Tolstoy Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Tom Rath Website | tomrath.org/careersight Tom Rath LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/trath Tom Rath episode | TLP198: Life's Great Question - with Tom Rath
Kim Svoboda is the founder of Aspiration Catalyst and author of BOLD Leadership: The Adventure of Building Excuse-Proof, Goal-Crushing Teams. Kim argues that leadership isn't about position, power, or title. It's about creating a vision others believe in while leading in a way that aligns with your values. Too many leaders achieve external success without ever asking whether the life they're building reflects what matters most. In this conversation, Kim shares how a simple values exercise exposed the gap between the leader she wanted to be and the life she was actually living. She explains how that experience became the foundation for her BOLD framework (Brilliant vision, Oneness, Lighthouse leadership, Daring drive), why intentional leadership starts with knowing what you stand for, and how leaders create stronger cultures by serving as a lighthouse for others rather than simply driving results. If success looks good on paper but feels disconnected from what matters most, this conversation is a practical reminder that leadership begins with leading yourself first. Find episode 522on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Kim Svoboda on Stop Building a Life That Looks Good but Feels Wrong https://bit.ly/TLP-522 Key Moments [06:12] From running a $1B P&L to feeling burnt out, disengaged, and miserable at the top [10:51] What being a BOLD leader really means and the yin-yang of boldness [13:34] Why leaders spend all day firefighting instead of doing what actually matters and the antidote [15:26] Nature vs. nurture: how much of team performance is leadership, how much is selection [19:05] How one toxic top performer can quietly derail an entire high-performing team [22:48] Why employee engagement has been stuck for a decade — and what actually drives it [28:17] Why leaders lose intentionality — and how to reclaim your circle of control [35:10] Business ethics and trust — what companies are getting right, and where they overstep [39:22] Kim's closing thoughts — leadership isn't about position or title, it's about what you create Memorable Quotes "Bold is a framework for being an intentional leader and bringing everyone along with you." "Get 80% of the data and information that you need to make a solid decision, and then go. The next 20% isn't really going to matter that much." "When you're tolerating behavior that isn't in alignment with the goals that you have, it is soul crushing for teams." "Sometimes your top performer, if they don't have the right cultural and values piece, is actually hurting you more than they're helping." "What do you truly have control over? I like people to just focus on what you have agency over and start there." "I actually did take a step back and spent time really getting clear on what it was that I wanted. And I don't think that most people do that." "Every relationship we have starts with trust." "I think it's to treat others the way that they wish to be treated." "Leadership isn't really about position or power or title. I really feel like it's about what you create." Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Kim Svoboda Website | www.aspirationcatalyst.com Additional Information | www.boldleadershipbook.com/home Facebook | www.facebook.com/aspirationcatalyst LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/kimsvoboda
Donnie Boivin is the CEO and founder of Success Champion Networking, five-time bestselling author, and founder of the Badass Business Summit. Donnie argues that traditional networking fails anyone selling high-value services. Too many people spend their time collecting business cards from people who will never buy from them instead of building relationships with people who can open the right doors. In this conversation, Donnie explains why the best networkers focus on helping others grow before asking for anything in return, why collaborating with competitors can create opportunities neither side could win alone, and how consistently investing time in relationships leads to bigger deals than chasing referrals ever will. If you're looking to build a stronger network, close larger opportunities, and create lasting business relationships, this conversation offers a practical roadmap for doing it differently. Find episode 521 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Donnie Boivin on Why Traditional Networking Is Broken https://bit.ly/TLP-521 Key Moments [04:01] How Donnie fell into networking almost by accident [05:32] The Home Depot story that changed his whole approach [09:17] The biggest mindset shift networking actually requires [12:52] Why salespeople stay behind their laptops instead of networking [15:46] How Success Champion curates chapters for real fit [22:02] Leading well when everyone around you is in transition [24:52] Why influence matters as much as relationships [27:06] The case for showing up completely as yourself [29:53] What AI means for the future of relationships Memorable Quotes "I define networking as building other people's businesses." "Your clients are not networking. The people who are in the rooms you have access to can't buy your stuff." "If you can't measure it, it's very hard to find success with anything." "The more you try and be your authentic self, the more you're going to enjoy life." "It's the five people you surround yourself with, but it's also the five prospects you're going after, the five clients you currently have, the five people you're networking with." "Be a hell of a lot more mindful about the people you are surrounding yourself with." "Effective networking isn't a result of luck. It requires hard work and persistence." Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Donnie Boivin Website | https://donnieboivin.com Donnie Boivin YouTube | www.youtube.com/@donnieboivin Donnie Boivin Twitter | @donnieboivin Donnie Boivin Facebook | www.facebook.com/donnie.boivin Donnie Boivin LinkedIn |www.linkedin.com/in/donnieboivin Donnie Boivin Instagram | www.instagram.com/donnie.boivin
David Gray is the CEO of FedUp Foods, a values-driven beverage company serving major retailers. His purpose-driven leadership has earned national recognition, including being named one of the MO 100 Top Impact CEOs, an annual ranking of purpose-driven business leaders, and receiving the Pros to Know Award. David believes the best leaders never force a choice between empathy and accountability. In times of uncertainty, people need both. Connection creates the trust that makes accountability possible. In this conversation, David explains how leading through Hurricane Helene reinforced the importance of putting people first while communicating clearly through uncertainty. He shares the practical crisis leadership framework that guided his team through Hurricane Helene, explains why values become even more important as organizations scale, and reflects on what changed his mind about leadership: people really can grow when leaders take the time to understand and develop them. Whether you're leading through change or simply trying to build a stronger culture, this conversation offers a practical framework for balancing compassion with accountability while staying true to your values. Find episode 520 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | David Gray on Empathy Without Lowering the Bar https://bit.ly/TLP-520 Key Moments [03:17] How profit sharing and gardens shaped your culture [05:31] Do values activate, or do people? [06:16] Leading through Hurricane Helene and what it taught and what leaders need to think differently in disruption [10:22] The four-point crisis playbook [13:38] We've had 20 years of stability—is this the new normal or the regular normal? [15:47] How to lead through slow-drip crises, not just hurricanes [21:19] Protecting your mission as a for-profit company [23:49] The push and pull between profit and purpose [27:09] Dividend model vs market cap model—which works better for values-driven companies? [31:58] What leadership belief did you finally unlearn? [33:56] Your one main thought for leaders listening Memorable Quotes "If you don't have the right values, then you can't nurture a culture." "We need to create a culture that's ground up, not top down." "You need to understand where your people are at. You need to know if they're safe and you need to understand what their needs are." "You don't have to have all the answers, but you're keeping people abreast of the work that you're going." "We are doing more with less. That's just the reality and that the strategies that we put in place can be disrupted at any time." "We have never had to compromise in a way that takes away from our mission." "If you don't connect, I guess that accountability piece could probably feel like harassment." "We have the privilege and the responsibility to develop our people both personally and professionally because they spend probably more time with us than they do with their friends and their loved ones." Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com FedUp Foods Website | www.fedupfoods.co David Gray LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/david-gray-ab33b02a FedUp Foods Instagram | www.instagram.com/fedupfoods.co
Patrick Ryan is the author of "The Moral Market: Adam Smith and the Promise of Virtuous Capitalism." Patrick argues that capitalism was never intended to be separated from morality. Modern business leaders often treat ethics as a compliance issue or a reputational concern. Adam Smith saw it differently. He believed markets only function when they are built on justice, reciprocity, and trust. In this conversation, Patrick explains how shareholder primacy reshaped leadership thinking, why leaders should measure success beyond short-term financial performance, and how Smith's concept of the impartial spectator can help leaders make better decisions when competing interests collide. For leaders trying to balance performance, responsibility, and long-term value creation, this conversation offers a practical framework for making decisions that are both effective and principled. Find episode 519 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Patrick Ryan on The Leadership Idea We Missed for 250 Years https://bit.ly/TLP-519 Key Moments [04:20] What have leaders fundamentally misunderstood about capitalism as a moral system? [08:44] How does the duty of care in law connect to Smith's impartial spectator concept? [12:40] What practices should leaders adopt to institutionalize the impartial spectator? [15:53] Performative leadership versus legitimate storytelling. [21:14] Where does the rules and system play versus personal responsibility in leadership? [25:25] Where have you personally struggled between what's profitable and what's just? [28:53] For busy leaders without time to reflect—what's your closing advice? Memorable Quotes "Morality is not a friction. It's actually the lubricant that makes markets work." "Prosperity without justice is mere plunder." "He believed that economic exchange was a way of creating trust, which is quite interesting really, using capital, an early form of capitalism, using competition, using economic exchange as a way of creating a commonality as opposed to splitting people apart." "Morality and respect, and that level of reciprocity is the oil that generates everything. It's not extractive, it's value additive." "If a leader that performs integrity creates a culture that performs integrity, rather than a leader that is and has integrity. The tone from the top. It's vitally important." "Legitimate storytelling is the honest description of something that's actually happening. It's not a dishonest description of something you would like to happen." "The majority of us want to live a happy, healthy life where we have created value for our companies, we've created happiness in our families, we've done good works for our communities, and we're able to point to that and be proud that we've made that difference." "You should neither be rewarded nor penalized for moral luck. You should be rewarded or penalized for the actions that you took yourself and the effect that you had in creating value." Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Patrick Ryan LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/patrickryan
Jill Schulman is a keynote speaker, Marine Corps veteran, and bestselling author of "The Bravery Effect: A Parable Teaching the Science of Conquering Fear, Achieving More, and Living Life to the Fullest.". Jill argues that bravery is not a personality trait. It's a skill. Most people assume brave people are simply wired differently. The research suggests something else: bravery is built through repeated action in the presence of fear. In this conversation, Jill explains why comfort is often the biggest obstacle to growth, what people get wrong about bravery, and how leaders can create environments where individuals are willing to take risks, speak up, and stretch beyond what feels safe. She also shares the three-stage framework behind her work and why bravery is a prerequisite for learning, innovation, and leadership. For anyone trying to grow, lead change, or help others reach their potential, this conversation offers a practical look at how bravery is developed and why it matters. Find episode 518 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | The Bravery Effect: Jill Schulman on Why Courage Is a Skill, Not a Trait https://bit.ly/TLP-518 Key Moments [05:20] Why a Minnesota girl traded civilian life for the Marine Corps [11:02] The science behind the comfort trap and why avoidance kills growth [13:32] Bravery redefined: you cannot be brave without fear present [17:27] Two myths that get bravery wrong—and why most people believe them [24:16] The connection between discipline, bravery, and stoicism [27:58] The first rule of building bravery: ask for help [32:19] The exact three-stage framework to train bravery in your people [39:40] Her biggest regret: letting good keep her from pursuing great [42:18] Final challenge: what are you waiting for to go after what matters Memorable Quotes "Bravery is defined as voluntary action in the presence of fear toward a noble, worthwhile goal. If you're not a little scared, you're not being brave." "Bravery is a skill that anyone can and everyone should build in order to be the most successful and live their best life." "Each time you take a step forward in the presence of fear, you take a little bit of the power away from the fear and then your self confidence goes up a little bit more." "Fear is a signpost that is pointing us toward the thing that we should do versus something we should run away from." "We are born to strive. So it's the struggle that makes us stronger." "When we challenge ourselves by doing the hard things, psychologically, our brain changes." "Taking a step, not feeling ready is how you feel more ready in the future." "Good gets in the way of great. I had a good career, but I was scared to go out on my own and to write the book and to put myself out there." "Everyone can and everyone should learn to be braver." "The world is not limited by IQ. We are all limited by bravery and creativity." — Eric "Astro" Teller Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Jill Schulman Website | jillschulman.com Jill Schulman Recent TEDx: https://youtu.be/G2x63Wk07fE?si=Add6OGYs17Xx0vr8 Jill Schulman LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/jillaschulman Jill Schulman Facebook | www.facebook.com/jill.schulman.5
Jim Brown is the author of "The Imperfect CEO: Making the Climb to Organizational Health" and founder of Org Health. For over 30 years he has worked with CEOs, boards, and executive teams to build healthy organizational cultures and lead with clarity, courage, and shared responsibility. Jim argues that leadership accountability is the most underestimated pillar of organizational health. Not because leaders think it is unimportant, but because most assume they are already doing it well. In this conversation, Jim explains why leaders often judge themselves by their intentions while everyone else experiences their impact. He shares how that gap erodes trust, weakens accountability, and limits collaboration. He also discusses the small leadership behaviors that create outsized cultural change, how to distinguish productive tension from destructive conflict, and the early warning signs that organizational health is beginning to deteriorate. If you're trying to build a stronger culture, improve accountability, or create greater ownership across your team, this conversation offers practical insights you can put to work immediately. Find episode 517 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Jim Brown on The Accountability Gap: Why Leaders Misjudge Their Own Impact https://bit.ly/TLP-517 Key Moments [01:01] Which pillar do CEOs underestimate most [05:23] How do people go too far with imperfection [09:58] Small behavior change with outsized impact [12:36] The mind shift to stop being the bottleneck [14:30] Productive tension versus destructive conflict [16:38] When teams don't define the problem the same way [19:20] Leading indicator of deteriorating organizational health [21:37] Why we're lousy at collaborating in meetings [25:21] Why we collaborate well as humans but fail in business [28:54] Success on paper but something was off [30:16] Closing thoughts for listeners Memorable Quotes "The impact is the question, not the intention. It doesn't matter that we had the right intention. If the whole group in the room was just deflated because of what you said, it's useless to say, 'I didn't mean it that way.'" "Leadership is not about doing. Leadership is about leading. We have to get a mind shift to stop giving the answers, stop doing the work. All of our effort needs to be equipping the leaders around us." "Productive tension is anchored in clarity around a shared goal. When we all know what we're aiming for, we can be jostling with each other energetically." "The more you have someone looking to you for the answer, the less everyone else will think about what the answer should be, offer suggestions, or own the decisions." "What's happening in meeting rooms is a huge indicator of what's really going on in the culture." "As leaders, you will always have to help people manage tensions. It's not either or. Somehow we've got to figure out the balance of that tension." "The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent. The day he forgives them, he becomes an adult. The day he forgives himself, he becomes wise." – Alden Nolan Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Jim Brown Website | www.orghealthteam.com Jim Brown LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/authorjimbrown
Joth Ricci is CEO of LYBL (Live Your Best Life), owner of Winderlea Winery, author of The System, executive chair of Burgerville, and former CEO of Dutch Bros and Stumptown Coffee. In this conversation, Joth explains why great companies aren't built by leaders who solve more problems—they're built by leaders who teach their people how to solve them. He breaks down the difference between executing and multiplying, what actually breaks during scaling, why discipline is the foundation of everything, and what the next decade of leadership development is actually missing. For leaders who've built something good but want to scale it without losing it, or for anyone responsible for developing the next generation of leaders, this episode cuts to the root of where most organizations plateau. Find episode 516 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Joth Ricci on The Leader as Teacher: Building Leaders, Scaling Companies, and Multiplying Impact https://bit.ly/TLP-516 Key Moments [05:59] The behavior that blocks learning in every organization and how to fix it [08:01] What breaks first when you scale too fast and how to protect against it [10:50] The recipe for pacing growth without losing your culture [13:13] Why discipline isn't just a trait—it's the through-line of great leadership [15:57] How to spot a leadership multiplier versus someone who's just executing [17:46] The number one mistake when promoting high performers into leadership [19:44] A coaching principle most executives miss [22:02] The gap between resilience and burnout—and what leaders actually need to do [24:14] How to balance purpose-driven work with financial performance [27:07] What the next generation of leaders is missing [31:00] Why curiosity and people skills are the real bottleneck for the future [34:27] When success isn't enough—the shift from achievement to fulfillment Memorable Quotes "Adults are just adult versions of the 16 year olds they were. You have engaged employees, employees just getting through the day, and employees staying off the radar. Great leaders engage at all learning levels." "I don't solve problems for people. I teach them how to work through problems. That shows you what people are made of. The people who can figure it out, they're going to do okay. The people who can't—they don't pass the test." "Great leadership is about pacing. Understanding how to manage your organization's pace and what they can and can't do. You build capacity incrementally, not in big steps. If you go too fast, it breaks you and the organization." "I'm a big believer in the discipline of staying on task, the discipline of getting things done, the discipline of how you manage your day. You can't manage others if you don't manage yourself well." "The job of a coach is to prepare your people. The players play the game; the coach doesn't. That's how you lead—constantly preparing people for what they do." "When I look for multipliers, I'm looking for people having influence on other people—dynamic in rooms, connecting with people, not talking at them. Emotionally able to meet people where they're at." "The number one mistake is promoting good performers who haven't shown those markers of leadership potential. We're good at identifying performance. We're terrible at identifying potential leaders." "Psychological fitness is not just recharging. It's the ability to stay on strategy and lead your teams through execution even in times of challenge or great growth." "The one thing many leaders miss is their ability to engage at different learning levels and achievement levels. We expect people to perform but don't spend time helping them get better." "The most impactful thing I ever did wasn't taking Dutch public. It was helping people grow. That's what fulfills me. And now I get to do that full-time." "A great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of arts, since the medium is the human mind and spirit." — John Steinbeck Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Website | winderlea.com Website | www.thesystem.co LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/joth-ricci-1248588
Murshed Chowdhury is the founder of Tech Duels, a communication and training platform redefining how individuals and organizations develop critical thinking and decision-making skills through structured debate. Murshed believes debate is one of the most underused leadership development tools available today. Not because it teaches people how to win arguments, but because it teaches them how to truly think, listen intently, and openly engage with ideas they disagree with. In this conversation, he explains why structured debate builds communication skills faster than most traditional training programs, how competition can strengthen learning without turning every discussion into a fight, and why live interaction is becoming more valuable as AI makes information increasingly accessible. He also shares why the future belongs to people who can combine technology with strong human judgment. Whether you're leading a team, developing talent, or navigating disagreement, this conversation makes a compelling case for why communication remains a distinctly human advantage. Find episode 515 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Murshed Chowdhury on Why Structured Debate Is a Leadership Superpower https://bit.ly/TLP-515 Key Moments [03:43] Why Murshed built Tech Duels after seeing brilliant engineers fail due to poor communication [06:51] Why structure and competition matter more than traditional training approaches [08:08] Why emotional intelligence and social IQ are the real competitive edge [09:56] How AI is reshaping the challenge [12:04] The downside of leaning too heavily on AI tools [14:33] How competitive format teaches people to listen, ask questions, and reach understanding instead of winning [17:26] The 'holy wars' problem: How to get tech leaders unstuck from their chosen platforms [20:42] The Veterans Technology Conference: Connecting military talent to tech careers [22:32] Reinvention at any age: The core skills that let people pivot careers [27:20] Helping people who process slowly [30:16] Murshad's take on AI uncertainty Memorable Quotes "Networking is not predicated on your personality. It's a set of skills. If you can learn it, you can be an expert." "Public speaking is the number one fear in the United States above death." "You judge a person by their question, not by their answers." — Voltaire "With AI and deepfakes coming, live events, interaction, understanding, emotional intelligence, social IQ—that's going to be really important moving forward." "Critical thinking skills are something you need in every facet of life, personally and professionally." "Half of our conflicts come down to one side not hearing what the other side was trying to say." "You have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak." "There's some really cool stuff on the other side. If you just listen to the other side, you'll be shocked at how much alignment there might be." "Core skill sets like discipline, ambition, eagerness, curiosity, and the willingness to learn—these let you reinvent yourself at any age." "The time thing is supposed to give you guardrails so you don't talk endlessly. But when you have structured thinking, even two or three minutes is plenty of time." "People are listening to you, they're speaking to you. If you can really own that, you can do amazing things." "We're all learning AI as we go. Stay curious, keep learning, and focus on what you can control right now." "It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it." - Joseph Joubert Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Murshed Chowdhury Website | www.techduels.com Murshed Chowdhury LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/murshedchowdhury
Karen Doll is a licensed psychologist, author of "Building Psychological Fitness: How High Performers Achieve with Ease," a partner at Psynet Group and chairs the Flourishing at Work initiative under Harvard's Flourishing Program. Most leaders know how to push through stress. Far fewer know how to recover from it. Karen argues that the difference matters more than most people realize. In this conversation, she explains why psychological fitness is not a personality trait but a trainable skill. She breaks down the difference between the stress that helps you grow and the stress that slowly wears you down, why resilience is more about recharging than enduring, and what leaders can do to support mental health at work without trying to become therapists. For leaders who feel constantly on, stretched thin, or responsible for the wellbeing of their teams, this episode offers a practical framework for building resilience that lasts. Find episode 514 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | https://youtu.be/S54CwTMZY0Q https://bit.ly/TLP-514 Key Moments [03:33] What separates psychologically fit leaders from those who struggle [05:37] Why mental strength is trainable and what that actually looks like [08:19] Top-down vs. bottom-up strategies for managing stress and the mental health continuum [13:22] Shared accountability: what leaders owe their teams on mental health [15:23] The victim mindset problem and what leaders can do about it [21:00] Why there's no magic test that predicts leadership success [24:48] The two biggest derailers Karen sees in executive assessment [28:12] The sweet spot between healthy ambition and burnout [31:45] Why clarity on your values is the shortcut nobody takes [33:23] Why the victim mindset is the silent career killer [35:54] When Karen's own psychological fitness was tested and what changed [39:34] Closing thoughts: the one thing every leader can do starting today Memorable Quotes "Resilience is about recharging. It isn't about powering through." "Between the stimulus and the response, there is a space. In that space lies our power to choose." "Defensiveness is the one thing I will not give feedback on. You tell someone they're defensive and they defend themselves. It's a dead end." "The goalpost keeps moving — and people are left feeling it's never enough. That is unnecessary distress." "Those that can spend the time recovering tend to struggle less." "Having social support and a multi-dimensional life — that's probably number one in terms of buffers against stress." "We do all have some agency in how we manage our mental health and how we move towards flourishing." "When something upsets us, sometimes that thinking pattern is not serving us and it's not necessarily factual." "If you move the body, it can settle the mind." "Leaders don't need to be their team's therapist." "Being a victim or having a victim mindset is not going to work out well for anybody — and that's never going to be good for mental health." "Self care is selfish — that was the core belief I had to break." "Small acts of kindness for people who are struggling — think of what a difference that can make. And that's accessible to all of us." "Just being a little more intentional — it doesn't cost anything. It doesn't need budget." "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." — Thomas Jefferson Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Karen Doll Website | https://psynetgroup.com/ LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/learning/improving-your-mental-health-at-work Karen Doll LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/karendecesaredoll
Nick Black is the founder and CEO of GoodUnited, a former Army officer, co-founder of Stop Soldier Suicide, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and a UNC Distinguished Alumnus. Nick focuses on a cost most leaders refuse to calculate: isolation. What happens to your people when no one is checking on them? After deploying 27 months in combat with the 173rd Airborne, Nick watched one of his soldiers survive war and then lose his life weeks after returning home. That experience reshaped how he thinks about leadership, connection, and responsibility. In this conversation, Nick explains why isolation is the common thread behind many of the losses he has seen, both in combat units and inside organizations, and why the peer group surrounding people is not a culture perk but a lifeline. He also shares what it took to carry mission driven urgency from the battlefield into the nonprofit world and then into a scaling company. For leaders who want to protect their people and not just manage them, this episode offers a more honest standard for what leadership actually requires and what it costs when it is missing. Find episode 513 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Nick Black on The Leadership Cost of Isolation https://bit.ly/TLP-513 Key Moments [05:43] How 9/11 changed everything for Nick [10:54] The moment that led to Stop Soldier Suicide [15:01] What every leader needs to know about mental health [16:34] The balance between reflection and dangerous isolation [19:27] Leading people vs. taking care of people [20:49] The biggest leadership lesson learned outside the military [22:43] Bringing military training discipline into business [24:04] Why onboarding is where most companies fail [26:15] What "taking the hard road" actually looks like on a resume [27:14] Why offensive linemen make better leaders [29:07] How a lifetime of service shapes who you become [32:35] Closing thoughts on leadership and mental health Memorable Quotes "When in doubt, lead the way. That has yet to steer me wrong." "Isolation is your enemy. Never allow yourself to sit in a room with your thoughts." "Give that friend a call — your strongest friend, your quietest friend. Let them know you're still in their corner." "I have no idea what to do, but I seemingly have a PhD in what not to do." "Mission first, people always — and the only way you get the mission is through your people." "Find ten people that can do the work of a hundred." "You don't need to go be an Army Ranger. Show me how you got out of your comfort zone, took something on, and didn't quit. It could be anything." "Go find your passion and then go serve it." "If you can't laugh at yourself, you're not being honest with yourself — and I don't think many people are going to follow you." "The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to, because if you're really doing something worthwhile, I think you'll be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side." — George Lucas Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Good United Website | goodunited.io Nick Black LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/nick-black-7658ab37
Kevin Rice is the former co-founder and president of Hathaway, a digital consultancy acquired by Bounteous in 2021. He is now an angel investor at Theorem One Capital and host of the CEOs and ABCs podcast. Kevin focuses on a gap most leaders don't want to look at. The difference between who you are at work and who you are at home. At work, the metrics are clear. You perform, you grow, you win. At home, none of that works. The scoreboard is different, and most leaders realize that too late. He describes how years of operating in "CEO mode" made him effective in business but distant in the one place it mattered most. The same habits that drove results at work were quietly breaking connections at home. Kevin explains why the real currency at home is not revenue or growth, but connection, and why one hour of full presence beats a full day of being half there. He also shares what it looked like to lead a company while raising young kids on his own and the moment he could no longer ignore the gap. For leaders who are winning professionally but feel something slipping personally, this episode puts language to the cost and makes it clear what it takes to close that gap. Find episode 511 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Kevin Rice on Winning at Work, Losing at Home https://bit.ly/TLP-512 Key Moments [03:39] Kevin describes his early leadership style as "a bull in a china shop" — all forward motion, little humanity. Parenting taught him that accountability and dignity are not opposites. [06:25] Jan introduces the Hippocratic framing: leaders should first do no harm. Kevin's version: have enough gas in the tank when you come home. For 13 years, his family got the scraps. [09:37] Kevin's crucible — single father, global pandemic, 100+ hires, pending acquisition — all at once. His coping mechanism was robot mode: high performance, zero feeling. When the deal closed, he felt nothing. [14:26] Kevin says one hour of full presence beats eight hours of distracted availability. Kids only live in the present moment — and they know when you're not there. [17:18] Kevin believes AI's real gift to leaders is buying back time. The question is what you do with that time once you have it. [22:54] Kevin's message to the next generation: don't wait for a breaking point. As Tony Robbins says, success without fulfillment is failure. Structure your life before the crisis forces you to. [28:59] Kevin did the inner work after the exit — therapy, journaling, parenting coaching. That's what reconnected him to joy, not the money. [32:34] The oxygen mask principle applies at home too. You can't lead your family from empty. Sleep, exercise, breath work, meditation — these aren't luxuries. They're the foundation. [34:49] And remember… "Family is not an important thing. It's everything." — Michael J. Fox Memorable Quotes "Career is your passion. Your kids are your purpose. Don't confuse the two." "One hour of full presence is worth more than eight hours of distracted availability." "Success without fulfillment is failure." "I was physically there, but mentally rehearsing the next meeting. I thought I'd cracked the code. I was just losing my kids." "The victory was hollow — and that's when I knew everything needed to change." "The currency at home is connection. It's not sales, revenue, or EBITDA." "You can't get those moments back. You can't pay that back in arrears." "80% of the time you spend with your kids is before they leave the house." "It's hard to be good at work if things aren't good at home — and vice versa." Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Kevin Rice Website | www.ceosandabcs.com/ Kevin Rice YouTube | www.youtube.com/@CEOsandABCs Kevin Rice LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/kmrice Instagram | www.instagram.com/kevinrice_ceosandabcs
What happens when you spend 10 years interviewing some of the world's top leaders? After 500 interviews with CEOs, generals, founders, bestselling authors, athletes, and elite performers, Jim Vaselopulos and Jan Rutherford discovered a surprising pattern. The most successful leaders were NOT the most polished, they were the most self-aware, adaptable, and relentlessly committed to growth. In this special milestone episode of The Leadership Podcast, Jim and Jan pull back the curtain on a decade of conversations with world-class leaders and reveal the biggest lessons, myths, failures, sacrifices, and leadership truths that emerged across 500 episodes. Topics discussed The leadership myth they are glad to have challenged Why great leaders rarely have a "perfect" career path The dangerous difference between style and substance The hidden sacrifices behind elite success Why adaptability matters more than efficiency Guests who completely changed their thinking How leadership has evolved in the age of AI Why "leaders are learners" became one of the defining themes of the show The one leadership question they still haven't fully answered after 500 episodes This is more than a reflection on podcasting, it's a masterclass built from 10 years of conversations with some of the world's most accomplished leaders. Whether you lead a company, a team, a family, or simply yourself, this episode will challenge how you think about growth, influence, success, and leadership. Watch this Episode on YouTube | Jim and Jan on What 500 Top Leaders Taught Us — And Why It's Not What You Think Find episode 511 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Key Moments [00:00] The brutal truth 500 leaders revealed [05:11] Did they ever think they'd reach 500 episodes? [10:10] Guests who left them speechless [13:58] Conversations that changed their minds [18:05] The biggest leadership myth they busted [23:10] When the podcast became more than interviews [32:32] How the podcast changed them as leaders [35:25] The 5 episodes every leader should hear [41:23] The leadership question they still can't answer Memorable Quotes "You can't hit the ball if you don't go to the plate." "The market will tell you what it values and it isn't always what it should." "Adaptability must accompany efficiency, or you will not survive." "Behind every great leader is a great support system." "Sell the problem, not the solution." "If you want to be great at something, you are going to have to make sacrifices. There is no hack. There is no shortcut." "You don't get any dumber talking to smart people." "Leadership is not a destination. It is a state you have to manage and it never ends." "Don't judge a book by its cover. Hold your assumptions lightly." "Self-reliant leaders, at the end of the day, make others better." "Be interested. Care about people. Be nice. You can have a huge influence on other people's lives and it really is that simple." Explore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Jan Rutherford LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/janrutherford Jan Rutherford X | @JanRutherford Jim Vaselopulos LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/jimvaselopulos Jim Vaselopulos X | @jim_va
Maria Brinck is the Founder & President of Zynergy International and author of "The Leadership We Need: A New Mindset for a Brighter Future." In this episode, Maria argues that the leadership crisis most organizations face isn't a skills gap — it's a flawed model. The qualities we've long rewarded in leaders — confidence, decisiveness, and control — were effective in a different era. But in today's environment, those same traits can actually become liabilities. She challenges leaders to examine what they have never been asked to question: the unconscious bias shaping who gets selected, who gets developed, and whose voice gets heard. She also makes the case that the most important thing a leader can unlearn is the need to have all the answers, because that single habit is what keeps collaboration from ever becoming real. If you have ever wondered why your organization keeps producing the same results no matter how much it changes, this episode is worth your time. Find episode 510 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Maria Brinck on Why Your Organization Keeps Getting the Same Results (No Matter What You Change) https://bit.ly/TLP-510 Key Takeaways [03:36] Maria says the fastest path from command-and-control to collaboration is genuinely knowing your people's strengths and values. [05:54] Maria draws a line between happiness and meaning. [09:24] Maria describes leaving a pharmaceutical career where she was in the top 2% nationally. The titles and money were real. The meaning was not. [12:06] Maria names the blind spot most leaders never examine. A deeply ingrained bias toward traits that once protected a tribe but now limit an organization. [14:31] Maria says our bias toward alpha, hyper-masculine leaders isn't a choice — it's an evolutionary hangover that no longer serves us. [18:09] Maria connects human leadership patterns to what she observed in Cameroon. The species that chose collaboration survived peacefully. The one that chose dominance did not. [23:07] Maria names the one thing most leaders need to unlearn. [25:21] Maria introduces the open 360. It measures behaviors like trust and psychological safety over time and ties them directly to performance reviews. [30:29] Maria on the internal voice that signals something needs to change. Everyone has it. Most people have been trained to ignore it. [33:33] Maria offers one starting question for anyone who wants to create rather than find their purpose. When do you feel most alive? [36:07] And remember... "Our problems are mainly a consequence of a lack of holistic understanding of the man-made system in which we are entwined." — Helena Norberg-Hodge Quotable Quotes "Purpose doesn't show up under a rock that someone else put there. You have to create it." "No one is as smart as all of us." "We want one thing, and we need a very different thing. We need to evolve." "Creating purpose now empowers you. You empower your inner author." "Finding purpose versus creating purpose. That is the difference." "In nature, no one exists alone." "Our poly crisis reality is a direct consequence of the monopoly we have seen in leadership." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Maria Brinck Website | www.mariabrinck.com Maria Brinck LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/mariabrinck Maria Brinck Medium article Aug 21st, 2025 | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/the-new-portrait-of-leadership-maria-brinck-of-zynergy-international-on-which-legacy-ideas-about-bca18c3bea89 Maria Brinck Forbes article Oct 23rd, 2025 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelldebevoise/2025/10/23/the-leadership-we-need-why-knowing-all-the-answers-is-costing-us-88-trillion/
Dr. Bill Kline is a professor of business ethics and the Executive Director of the Academy on Capitalism. He argues that capitalism and ethics aren't separate conversations. They're the same system. Without ethics, there are no property rights, no enforceable contracts, and no functioning markets. Strip that away and you don't get capitalism. You get chaos with a price tag. In this conversation, Bill discusses the difference between socialism's ideals and capitalism's outcomes. He also breaks down what leaders must do to rebuild trust with younger workers, and why one simple question keeps getting ignored: Do we actually understand what capitalism is? If your organization is struggling to articulate why business and markets matter or you're watching younger talent disengage from the mission, this episode gives you a clearer way to think about what's really at stake. Find episode 509 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Dr. Bill Kline on Capitalism Without Ethics Is Just Chaos https://bit.ly/TLP-509 Key Takeaways [01:59] Bill shares he studied Austrian economics at Grove City, speaks Hungarian, and plays Bob Dylan at open mic nights. [02:04] Bill explains the Academy on Capitalism exists because universities are hostile to capitalism and students are paying the price. [04:59] Bill traces anti-capitalism sentiment in universities back decades, but argues the tone became more politically aggressive around the early 2000s. [07:32] Bill argues capitalism cannot exist without ethics, property rights and enforceable contracts are not optional, they are the foundation. [09:03] Bill reveals how his thinking shifted: he now decouples free market conversations from welfare state debates entirely to open more ears. [12:40] Bill explains why people always compare socialism's ideals to capitalism's realities. We know every flaw of the system we live in, and none of the others. [18:51] Bill says leaders cannot badmouth capitalism and expect anyone to believe in it. Optimism about markets is a leadership responsibility. [20:53] Bill pushes back on the single-answer approach to propose different companies, different missions, and markets thrive on that multiplicity. [23:54] Bill describes the campus atmosphere where faculty whisper support for capitalism and why ideological stridency creates intellectual silence. [27:23] Bill outlines what's lost when students comply instead of engaging in anger, cynicism, and eroding respect for the institutions that protect freedom. [30:12] Bill asks the one question leaders avoid — do we actually know what capitalism is — and argues humility is the starting point for any honest conversation. [32:03] And remember…"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations, capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature." Sydney Hook Quotable Quotes "Capitalism does not exist without ethics." "You can't badmouth the system and then expect anybody else to like it." "It's not just to have and be a person of integrity — it's to explain why, so that people can see it." "Have fun with ideas — because as soon as you stop having fun with them, everything gets grumpy and awful." "To have markets, period, you have to have ethics." "If you want a better company culture, if you want people who work towards productivity, then some kind of positive stance towards capitalism is incumbent on leaders." "Maybe we should learn more about what this thing really is — rather than just assuming from the get-go and now it's just proving we're right about it." "The people who don't agree stay out — so you end up with an echo chamber, and that tends to become a very stable equilibrium." "Simply because you don't agree with my economic system doesn't say anything about me as a person." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Dr. Bill Kline Website | www.academyoncapitalism.org Dr. Bill Kline YouTube | www.youtube.com/@TheAcademyonCapitalismTV Dr. Bill Kline LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/williamekline
Matt Cavanaugh is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, PhD, former Army Athlete of the Year, and author of "Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before." Leaders often treat failures, setbacks, and scars as liabilities to hide. Matt Cavanaugh argues the opposite — that the scars you've earned, physical and emotional are the most honest measure of growth you have. The question isn't how to avoid them. It's how to use them. In this conversation, Matt reframes what a scar really is: not a mark of defeat, but evidence of where you've grown. He explains why the outcomes of any serious effort are never just win or lose — they're win, learn, or die — and why leaders who avoid failure miss the chance to build real judgment. He also makes the case that the strongest motivation isn't personal ambition, but a mission that serves something bigger than yourself. For any leader who's been knocked flat by a failed plan, a difficult season, or a decision they regret — this episode reframes what those moments are actually worth. Find episode 508 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Matt Cavanaugh on Your Scars Are Your Resume https://bit.ly/TLP-508 Key Takeaways [04:37] Matt describes a scar as proof you've healed and grown. He sees scars as what connect us. It's the one thing every human shares. [10:24] Matt explains that urgency comes from scale and proximity. When the threat is close, you act right away. He learned this in the Namib Desert with a pack much heavier than the others. [14:58] Matt says leaders need skin in the game. You need one signal you can actually feel. Start by observing and understanding before you act. [16:47] Matt breaks it into two modes. The war of the knife and the war of the map. One is emotional. The other is strategic. Good leaders know when to step back. [22:07] Matt reframes kidney donation as something gained. Not something lost. He found purpose in it. And the real gift was being useful to someone else. [29:11] Matt believes endurance matters more than courage. Courage is short. Endurance stays. Most missions are lost first in the leader's mind. [32:41] Matt shares that kidney donors often show higher empathy. But endurance is something anyone can build. Leaders can grow their capacity over time. [34:41] Matt talks about the pushback at home. His wife was against the decision. He weighed the risks and trained hard. Walking away was not an option for him. [39:18] Matt says find a real mission with real stakes. Do it with others and for others. That's how you create scars that matter. [41:01] And remember..."Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek." - Mario Andretti Quotable Quotes "A scar is the spot where you've grown more than others." "It's not win, lose, or draw. It's win, learn, or die." "There's nothing you can't do if you're doing it with and for others." "More often than not, holding on a little bit longer turns out right." "Make good scars. You'll never regret it. The rest is just Netflix on Tuesday." "Urgency lives at the intersection of scale and proximity of threat." "When danger is close, you act in the moment." "Courage is momentary. Endurance is what carries you." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Matt Cavanaugh Website | mlcavanaugh.com Matt Cavanaugh X | @cavanaughforco Matt Cavanaugh Facebook | www.facebook.com/mlcavanaugh1 Matt Cavanaugh Instagram | @cavanaughforco
Patrick Leddin is an army veteran, entrepreneur, and NYT and WSJ Bestselling Author. He is the co-author, with James Patterson, of "Disrupt Everything—and Win: Take Control of Your Future." Most leaders treat disruption as something to survive. Patrick argues that's exactly the wrong frame. The gap between leaders who thrive in uncertainty and those who get buried by it isn't talent or timing — it's mindset. And that can be learned. In this conversation, Patrick explains why disruption doesn't always mean blowing things up. Sometimes it means doubling down when everyone else pivots. He breaks down the five roles people play in change and shares a practical way to assess the odds before you commit. For any leader feeling overwhelmed by the pace of change, this episode offers a more honest and more useful way to think about what's actually in front of you. Find episode 507 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Patrick Leddin on Disrupt or Be Buried: The Mindset That Changes Everything https://bit.ly/TLP-507 Key Takeaways [02:08] Patrick reveals he failed out of junior college before the Army changed everything. [03:50] Patrick explains how a COVID-era Vanderbilt crisis leadership course — and a guest lecture from James Patterson — planted the seed for the book. [08:06] Patrick reframes disruption as opportunity, not threat — and why hitting pause before reacting is the move most leaders skip. [12:50] Patrick shares the KPMG story where saying "just get me to lunch" turned into a $12 million project. [15:29] Jan asks Patrick which of the book's five roles he was playing in that moment — Trailblazer, then Torchbearer as the team grew. [16:35] Jim asks Patrick how timing plays a role in disruption and whether being too early kills commercial success. [19:31] Patrick walks through the back-of-envelope math he used with Vanderbilt's Chancellor to turn a 15% shot at co-authoring with Patterson into a 50% one. [25:08] Patrick outlines how to tell the difference between fear that signals danger and discomfort that signals growth. [28:51] Patrick confirms that everyone is wired for disruption — and offers the single smallest first step to prove it. [34:14] Patrick challenges every listener to identify one relationship that's gone sideways and disrupt it — for good. [36:08] And remember…"The reason why it is so difficult for existing firms to capitalize on disruptive innovations is that their processes and their business model that make them good at the existing business actually make them bad at competing for disruption." - Clayton M. Christensen Quotable Quotes "A disruption is anything that causes you to pause and consider — knocks you out of your normal routine." "Sometimes you disrupt something by choosing to double down on what you're already committed to — even when everyone else says go the other way." "We say disrupt everything. We don't say change everything." "Anybody who tells you they know where AI is going to be next year is either lying or just foolish." "The status quo is deceptive. Things aren't going to stay that way. But that's okay — because you're wired to handle it." "Sometimes you gotta bet on yourself. Sometimes you gotta step back and do some math." "You won't make any shots you don't take." "Don't wait until after the meeting to tell your friend the vibe is wrong. Say it in the room." "We live in a sea of relationships — and relationships shouldn't just be transactional." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Patrick Leddin Website | patrickleddin.com Patrick Leddin Podcast | patrickleddin.com/podcast Patrick Leddin LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/patrickleddin Patrick Leddin Instagram | @patrickleddin
Steve Cadigan is a global talent strategist, author of "Workquake: Embracing the Aftershocks of COVID-19 to Create a Better Model of Working," and LinkedIn's founding Chief HR Officer. Steve believes the world of work is going through a "workquake" — a fundamental shift that's breaking the old employer-employee contract. At the core of it is a false premise: the idea of long-term loyalty that neither side can reliably keep. In this conversation, Steve explains why many of the world's most successful companies have surprisingly short employee tenure, why the workforce isn't disloyal but loyal to growth, and why leaders should focus less on retention and more on creating meaningful development while people are with them. For leaders navigating turnover and rapid change, this episode offers a more honest way to think about talent and what it actually takes to build teams that perform. Find episode 506 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Steve Cadigan on Retention Is Dead: The Workquake Reshaping Talent https://bit.ly/TLP-506 Key Takeaways [03:40] Steve defines a workquake as any shift so fundamental it renders the existing architecture of work obsolete. [04:46] Steve argues that most employer-employee relationships begin on a false premise — and that dishonesty is where the breakdown starts. [06:42] Steve reframes retention: instead of demanding loyalty, commit to making the employee's time with you the most growth-oriented chapter of their career. [09:12] Steve uses Chick-fil-A as a model for honest talent strategy — celebrating alumni, not just retaining them. [17:42] Steve explains how LinkedIn turned its recruiting struggle into a competitive advantage by aligning the employee experience with the product promise. [26:26] Steve warns that over-indexing on experience and ignoring transferable talent is one of the most costly mistakes leaders make today. [30:36] Steve makes the case that learning must be designed into work itself — not treated as a perk or a line item that gets cut first. [33:53] Steve challenges leaders to ask honestly which companies today are actually building for 100 years — and why so few are. [38:14] Steve argues that AI is being misused as a cost-cutting tool when its real power is making people more capable, not replacing them. [41:13] Steve leaves leaders with one directive: stop waiting for a benchmark that doesn't exist — and be willing to become one. [42:58] And remember..."Nonetheless, the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." - Vince Lombardi. Quotable Quotes "If you want people here because they want to be here, you're running a company. If you don't, you're running a prison." "The workforce is incredibly loyal — just not to you. They're loyal to growth." "If your talent strategy is not changing as fast as the outside world, your employee relationship is near its end." "If the outside world is changing faster than the inside, the end is near." "You can't have a job today that takes someone five years to figure out." "We have so over-indexed on experience and so overlooked talent." "There is no benchmarking for this moment — you're going to have to be the benchmark." "People want to be on teams that are going somewhere." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Steve Cadigan X | @SteveCadigan Steve Cadigan Facebook | www.facebook.com/thestevecadigan Steve Cadigan LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/cadigan Steve Cadigan Instagram | @stevecad
Will Linssen is the CEO of Global Coach Group, and the author of "Triple Win Leadership Coaching: The Coach's Guide to More Impact, More Coaching, and More Clients." In this conversation, Will challenges the traditional model of leadership coaching. Too often, coaching focuses on the leader while leaving the team out of the equation—one reason why team satisfaction frequently remains low even when leaders feel they've made progress. Will explains how great coaches assess coachability before the work even begins, why ego is often the biggest barrier to meaningful change, and what leaders in global, multicultural environments consistently misunderstand about communication and feedback. We also explore the impact of AI on leadership. Will argues that decades of accumulated expertise are losing their advantage. The leaders who will thrive going forward aren't the ones with all the answers—they're the ones who know how to ask the right questions. If you've ever wondered why leadership development often fails to stick inside organizations, this conversation offers a candid look at what's missing—and what needs to change. Find episode 505 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Will Linssen on Why Leadership Coaching So Often Fails https://bit.ly/TLP-505 Key Takeaways [03:26] Will reveals why traditional coaching fails: coworkers are left out, so their satisfaction with the leader's growth drops to as low as 18%. [05:23] Will reframes leadership development from "project me" to "project we" — and why that single shift drives real momentum. [10:30] Will explains how quarterly co-worker feedback keeps both the leader and the team mutually accountable for results. [12:01] Will names the two biggest predictors that a leader won't change: ego and job insecurity. [17:03] Will shares what 100,000+ leaders across six continents have in common — and where culture changes the game. [21:37] Will makes the case for leading with questions in high-hierarchy cultures as the fastest way to unlock smart, silent people. [26:20] Will reveals the belief about leadership he changed his mind about most after 30 years: outside-in behavioral change beats inside-out every time. [28:13] Will walks through the Triple Win business case that connects leader behavior to team behavior to measurable numbers. [35:50] Will warns that AI is depreciating your leadership experience premium fast — and what that means for your role. [39:16] Will's single action item for every leader in 2026: ask your team what advice they have for you, pick one thing, and go. [40:29] And remember..."A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson Quotable Quotes "Leadership is not about the leader. It's about the people the leader is leading." "You need to change the leader's system, not just the leader." "The more you make leadership about "we" and the less you make it about "me" — realizing that "we" includes "me" — the more it makes total sense." "Leadership is co-creating change with coworkers." "Ego is total poison for coaching." "If adults don't want to change, they will not change." "We're not perfect people every day, but we can commit to being better every day." "We don't focus on those who need our help the most. We focus on those who want our help the most." "Don't ask closed questions. Ask the how question — that's where execution breaks down." "The moment you start making leadership about yourself, you're already making the first misstep." "Leaders only change when the new outcome is important enough to them." "As human beings, we have more in common than our passports divide us." "Smart people with AI can out-leader you very quickly. Be ready for that." "The leader is like a symphony orchestra conductor — the one who makes everything work together without playing an instrument." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Will Linssen | www.facebook.com/coachlinssen Will Linsse LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/wlinssen Global Coach Group Website | globalcoachgroup.com
Mark Crowley's newest book is The Power of Employee Well-Being: Move Beyond Engagement to Build Flourishing Teams. For more than a decade, organizations have chased employee engagement - through surveys, gamification, perks, and wellness apps - yet the results haven't improved. Gallup now reports engagement at a ten-year low. Mark was one of the early voices questioning the engagement movement, and in this conversation he explains why the model itself is flawed. We talk about what leaders have been measuring incorrectly, what employee well-being actually means, and why the strongest predictor of team performance isn't compensation, perks, or pressure to produce. It's belonging. If you're seeing burnout, quiet disengagement, or people simply going through the motions, this conversation offers a different lens on leadership—and practical insights you can start applying immediately. Find episode 504 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Mark Crowley on Why Your Team Is Still Disengaged https://bit.ly/TLP-504 Key Takeaways [03:04] Mark explains why employee engagement flatlined. [08:09] Mark draws the line: personal well-being is on you, but how your people perform at work is almost entirely on the leader. [12:08] Mark defines employee well-being, and why wellness apps and free yoga are just band-aids. [15:26] Mark reveals the number one driver of well-being: belonging. [18:36] Mark on hybrid work: packed Zoom calendars are theater. Judge people on outcomes, not optics. [24:22] Mark pushes back on the work ethic debate, and calls out companies playing both sides of the hybrid fence. [32:59] Mark shares the story of his top performer who turned down bigger offers — for one reason her boss never expected. [38:16] Mark's fix for micromanagement: weekly individual check-ins that solve problems before they spiral. [41:30] Mark's closing insight: 95% of human behavior is driven by emotion. Stop asking what people think — ask how they feel. [43:13] And remember..."Well-being is attained little by little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself." - Citium Zeno Quotable Quotes "Once people negotiate their compensation, pay stops being a day-to-day motivator. You've got to figure out the other four drivers." "Wellness is not well-being. A free yoga class is a band-aid." "The number one driver of well-being is belonging — and most leaders never thought that was their job." "If people are feeling supported, trusted, growing, and appreciated — they will naturally reciprocate and produce at levels most leaders have never seen." "We've been misaligned to human nature. That's why engagement never worked." "Nobody can thrive without connection. The highest performing teams are the ones where everybody has each other's back." "The tighter people are, the more people feel like they can be who they are — that's the greatest driver of well-being." "Ask people how they feel — not what they think. That's where the real answer is." "Up to 95% of human behavior is driven by feelings and emotions. That's not soft, that's science." "People pour their heart into surveys and nothing ever gets done." "HR should be the advocates for people — not the C-suite's executioner." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Mark Crowley Website | markccrowley.com Mark Crowley Podcast | markccrowley.com/podcasts Mark Crowley X | @MarkCCrowley Lead From The Heart Facebook Page | facebook.com/LeadFromTheHeart Mark Crowley LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/markccrowley
Muriel M. Wilkins is the founder and CEO of Paravis Partners, host of the HBR podcast, Coaching Real Leaders, and author of "Leadership Unblocked: Break Through the Beliefs That Limit Your Potential." Muriel makes the case that lasting leadership change doesn't come from better tactics. It comes from changing the hidden assumptions driving those tactics in the first place. Drawing on research with over 300 coaching clients, Muriel introduces seven hidden blockers—simple, pervasive beliefs that quietly sabotage even the most capable leaders. She explains why high performers are especially vulnerable, why action bias becomes a liability at the top, and what "doing the inner work" actually looks like when you're in the thick of real pressure and expectations. This is one of the most practically grounded conversations we've had on self-awareness, sustainable change, and what it really takes to lead at the next level. Watch this Episode on YouTube | Muriel M. Wilkins on 7 Hidden Beliefs That Sabotage Leaders (And How to Break Them) https://bit.ly/TLP-503 Key Takeaways [03:07] Muriel explains why "is it them or is it me?" is the wrong question—and what to ask instead. [04:57] The assumptions layer of the VABES framework: why changing behavior without changing the belief beneath it never sticks. [07:09] The seven hidden blockers outlined: I need to be involved. I need it done now. I know I'm right. I can't make a mistake. If I can do it, so can you. I can't say no. I don't belong here. [09:09] Why "I need to be involved" is the #1 blocker for leaders trying to scale up—and how it keeps them stuck in the weeds at exactly the wrong moment. [11:26] How action-orientation—a strength that builds careers—becomes a liability when it skips the half of the equation that makes change sustainable. [13:43] Muriel argues that Western culture rewards controlling the external — questioning the internal was never part of the deal. [18:45] What to do when a hidden blocker gets surfaced: why these beliefs aren't the enemy, and the three-step approach to working with them rather than against them. [22:56] Muriel challenges the idea of fixed personality, it's mostly learned beliefs, and adults can choose to examine them. [27:17] Muriel reveals that in 22 years of coaching, not one client has ever called asking to work on their beliefs — the readiness has to come first. [29:15] What "doing the inner work" actually looks like inside a real coaching conversation—under pressure, with no time to think. [33:14] Muriel's origin story: the client results that wouldn't stick, the personal walls she kept hitting, and the Michael Singer quote that reframed everything. [37:11] Muriel admits she found herself in all seven blockers while writing the book, not just the one or two she expected. [41:24] The pro tip: two words. Be curious. Not about others—about what you're thinking, and whether it's aligned with where you want to go. [43:12] And remember..."It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean." — Tony Robbin Quotable Quotes "You have to go back and question the assumptions that went into the model. You didn't go in and rejigger the model itself." "We spend so much time trying to make everything on the outside okay so that we can feel okay on the inside." — Michael Singer, cited by Muriel "It's not about getting rid of them. It's about understanding and being strategic and having choice around when you use them." "It is not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean." "What you think your personality is not really your personality. Your personality is just a bunch of learned behaviors that came out of learned beliefs." "You have a portfolio of beliefs, and you should be able to tap into any of them at any given time." "They're not the enemy. They're just not the friend that you want to have at that given moment." "In order to get results on the outside, you've got to make sure that the inside is also aligned." "Do you want to make the change before something else forces you to do it, or do you want to just wait?" "What am I thinking about myself, about the other, about the situation — and is it helping me or is it not?" These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Muriel M. Wilkins Website | murielwilkins.com HBR podcast Coaching Real Leaders | www.murielwilkins.com/podcast-coaching-real-leaders Twitter | @murielmwilkins Facebook | www.facebook.com/coachingrealleaders LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/murielwilkins Instagram | @coachmurielwilkins
Mark Morgenfruh is the President and CEO of GetHRready and author of "Never Fire Anyone: A Leader's Guide on how to Lead People not Companies." He holds a Master of Human Resource Management from Rutgers University and built his no-nonsense, trust-first philosophy from the ground up. In this episode, Mark dismantles the two most common leadership failures he calls "keyboard cowboys" (leading from behind a screen) and "happy talk" (avoiding the real conversation until it's too late). He makes the case that trust isn't built through programs or policies — it's built by being a normal human being when you walk through the door. Mark introduces his values-based leadership and disciplinary model — an alternative to PIPs and terminations. He explains why firing someone is more often a reflection of a bad hire or promotion decision than a performance problem. He also challenges HR to stop being the policy police and start being an enabler of real relationships between leaders and their people. If you've ever avoided a hard conversation, put someone on a PIP, or wondered why your culture feels transactional — this episode is for you. Watch this Episode on YouTube | Mark Morgenfruh on Never Fire Anyone https://bit.ly/TLP-502 Key Takeaways [02:47] Mark explains why leaders undermine trust — even with good intentions — by hiding behind hierarchy instead of being human. [04:11] Mark expands into his two failure modes: keyboard cowboys who lead from behind a screen, and happy talk that avoids the real conversation. [07:22] Mark defines trust-based leadership — it's not the carrot, not the stick. It's simply being a normal person when you walk through the door. [14:07] Mark argues PIPs almost never work and terminations reflect a hiring failure. He offers a values-based model that moves people into roles where they can succeed. [16:24] Mark introduces a core framework from his book: employees should create more value than they consume. [19:26] Mark points out that most companies dismiss exit interviews instead of mining them for honest feedback. [20:58] Mark shows why strong relationships let you catch the unraveling early, and why waiting until the fifth or sixth waypoint is too late. [29:49] Mark reframes HR's real role — not a policy manual, not a union shop, but an enabling function that coaches people back into direct relationships. [35:08] Mark challenges companies to engage talent wherever they are, and tells leaders of remote teams exactly what they're doing wrong. [39:58] Mark closes with a clear message: kill happy talk, lead with candor, and act with urgency before the spiral starts. [42:25] And remember..."To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved." — George MacDonald Quotable Quotes "Stop the happy talk. Stuff is going south — let's talk about what's going south and how we fix it." "A termination is a more severe reflection on the hiring or promotion decision than it is on the employee." "Trust comes from being normal. Just having a conversation with people." "You're never going to get in trouble for doing more than you have to do for a person. Period. End of story." "There's some veil that we put on when we walk through that door that is killing us in our work relationships." "You don't call when you just need something. You call just to see how they're doing." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Mark Morgenfruh Website | www.neverfireanyone.com Mark Morgenfruh LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/markmorgenfruh TLP039: Humanizing Our Workplaces with Liz Ryan
Steve Taplin is the CEO of Sonatafy Technology, author of "Fail Hard, Win Big: 30 Ventures | 20 Failures | 10 Wins," and host of the Software Leaders Uncensored podcast. In this conversation, Steve reveals the partnership that almost destroyed him but vindicated him five years later; why he walked out of a meeting with a Fortune 500 CIO; and the discipline that saved his sanity. Steve also shares the 24-hour rule for processing failure to help his teams fail without breaking trust or morale. Steve breaks down the practice that taught him when to fight and when to quit. If you've ever been paralyzed by the fear of failure—or worse, burned by a partnership you trusted—this episode will rewire how you think about risk, resilience, and what it actually takes to bounce back. Find episode 501 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Steve Taplin on Failure as Fuel: When to push through and when to quit https://bit.ly/TLP-501 Key Takeaways [04:16] Steve shares his most painful failure-turned-win: a $2 million deal his partner closed that he walked away from—five years later, both the partner and sponsor were indicted for fraud. [07:59] Steve drops the hard truth: "Nobody cares about your business. They care about the problem it solves." [09:43] Steve's philosophy on raising money: "Raising money is a responsibility—your business has to be ready for it." [11:15] Steve recalls his "oh sh*t" moment at IBM: he didn't know the difference between sales and marketing after starting his first company. [13:36] Steve credits journaling as his resilience tool and describes rehearsing failure scenarios with his team to build organizational resilience. [18:50] Steve defines earning potential: "Your ability to make money is your ability to solve more challenges than everybody else." [21:52] Steve recounts going back to IBM as VP of Sales and selling over $1 billion in contracts. [27:03] Steve explains when to quit and the discipline that made financial clarity possible. [32:00] Steve's message to young people: "You don't have a choice—the world is unforgiving. You either learn from failure or you don't survive." [35:04] And remember..."Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt Quotable Quotes "Integrity is not optional, especially when you're raising money—it's foundational." "Nobody cares about your business. They care about the problem it solves." "You get 24 hours to be upset. Then shake it off and figure out a solution." "Success is not just money—it's having the freedom to operate your business AND great relationships with your family." "Your ability to make money is your ability to solve more challenges than everybody else." "If you don't take risks, you can't keep accelerating your career." "Good, bad, or indifferent, you learn more from failures than you do successes." "You can't grow without failing." "Use your failures as fuel and learning experiences." "You got to know how to run businesses. You got to know how to sell if you want to take control of your life." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Steve Taplin LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/stevetaplin Sonatafy Technology Website | www.sonatafy.com Software Leaders Uncensored YouTube | www.youtube.com/@SoftwareLeadersUncensored Software Leaders Uncensored Podcast | softwareleadersuncensored.com
Work–life balance sounds responsible. Admiral William (Bill) McRaven thinks it's misleading at best—and often harmful. In our special 500th episode of The Leadership Podcast, McRaven strips away the language leaders hide behind and replaces it with judgment, clarity, and responsibility. Instead of chasing balance, he offers a far more useful distinction: knowing which commitments are crystal balls and which are rubber balls. Some things can be dropped and recovered. Others, once broken, are gone for good. Leadership starts with knowing the difference. He's equally direct about what hasn't changed. Despite endless debate about generations, McRaven argues that the fundamentals remain stubbornly constant. People still respond to integrity. They still want leaders who work hard, stay humble, and put service ahead of ego—whether they're wearing a uniform, sitting in a classroom, or working in a corporate office. McRaven also calls out one of the most common leadership evasions: "empowerment" without clarity. Trusting people doesn't mean leaving them guessing. When expectations are vague, accountability collapses. He explains the real difference between micromanaging and leading—making sure everyone understands what good actually looks like. One of the most enduring lessons in the conversation comes from a command master chief who gave him a four-part standard that guided his entire career: Learn the business Be a good teammate Be a good person Work harder than everyone else No slogans. No shortcuts. He also reflects on the quiet dangers of overconfidence—how believing your plan is airtight can blind you to obvious risks—and why experienced advisors matter more than raw intelligence. This episode is a reminder that leadership isn't about trends or terminology. It's about judgment, responsibility, and doing the hard, unglamorous things well—consistently, and without excuses. Find episode 500 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Admiral Bill McRaven on The Leadership Myths We Keep Getting Wrong https://bit.ly/TLP-500 Key Takeaways [04:11] McRaven reveals he's a journalism major who writes poetry. [05:00] McRaven explains pressure reveals who leaders really are versus who they thought they'd be. [07:06] McRaven discusses how perfectionist leaders struggle when plans fail while adaptable "C students" often outperform. [09:06] McRaven emphasizes humility and surrounding yourself with people who'll tell you when your plan is stupid. [12:43] McRaven explains you never have perfect clarity, so rely on experienced team members who've seen similar situations. [14:44] McRaven explains why every great flag officer he knows is steeped in history and human context. [18:30] McRaven shares the command master chief's formula: learn the business, be a good teammate, be a good person, work hard. [21:58] McRaven dismantles the myth that millennials need different leadership—timeless fundamentals work across all generations. [24:11] McRaven emphasizes universal principles: be polite, be gracious, don't be the center of attention. [27:18] McRaven admits his Iraq failures with sleep and Red Bulls, then shares the lesson: six hours sleep, eat right, never look stressed. [31:33] McRaven explains combat tours leave little reading time, but staff tours are when leaders prepare by studying. [34:05] McRaven shares his biggest reversal: he preached "no work-life balance" until learning the crystal ball analogy. [41:07] McRaven explains technology always changes but leadership fundamentals stay constant: understand people and resources. [44:11] McRaven dismantles "empowerment"—leaders must first set clear expectations before backing off. [49:21] And remember..."Let no one ever say we dream too small" - Father John Jenkins Quotable Quotes "Pressure is what really shows who we are. When you do it repeatedly, you begin to overcome a lot of those shortfalls and you become a better leader." "You better have a little swagger... But don't ever mistake swagger and confidence. If you aren't humble again, that swagger will turn into hubris, and that will get you into trouble." "Hard work makes up for a lot of shortfalls. You don't have to be talented, you don't have to be overly smart, you don't have to do anything. You just have to work hard." "Some of those balls are crystal balls. And if you drop the crystal balls, they're going to shatter and you're never going to be able to pick them up again. You need to know the difference between the rubber balls and the crystal balls." "Micromanagement is not a dirty word. You don't want to spend your whole time micromanaging, but you have to make sure the rank and file that are working for you know what your expectations are." "If you think that you are the smartest man or woman in the room, if you think that your plan is going to outpace the enemies, or if you just think as a corporate leader that you have figured out all the ins and outs of the issue you're dealing with, you're going to be humbled pretty quickly." "The fundamentals of leadership did not change. The faculty, the students, the university presidents, the people I worked for, they expected me to be a good leader. I knew how to lead." "If you want to be good at what you do, there is no work-life balance. The fact of the matter is, something's going to have to be sacrificed because if you want to be good at what you do, you are going to have to come in early, you are going to have to work hard, you're going to miss anniversaries." "Your responsibility as a leader is to make sure the men and women working for you are the best they can be... You have to have trained them well, you provided them the resources." "Leadership is rarely a solo effort. It's a team sport. And you better have a good team surrounding you so you can find out where your shortfalls are and make sure, again, you don't walk into a minefield." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com William H. McRaven Instagram | @williamh.mcraven
Joe Pine is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and advisor, best known for The Experience Economy and his latest work, The Transformation Economy. In this episode, Joe explains why the market is finally ready—25 years later—for the shift to the transformation economy. He walks through the evolution of economic value, from commodities to goods, services, experiences, and now transformations, and makes the case that businesses must stop charging for inputs and start charging for outcomes. Joe introduces the four spheres of transformation—Health & Wellbeing, Wealth & Prosperity, Knowledge & Wisdom, and Purpose & Meaning—and argues that the true role of business is human flourishing: helping people become who they're meant to be. Profit isn't the goal; it's the scorecard. We also explore "encapsulation"—preparation, reflection, and integration—and why it's the key to turning experiences into lasting change. Joe breaks down why outcomes-based pricing is both the hardest shift and the biggest opportunity for transformation-driven companies. In this conversation, you'll learn how to spot transformation opportunities in your business, move beyond time-based pricing, and align what you charge with what customers actually value. Find episode 499 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Joe Pine on You're Charging for the Wrong Thing with Joe Pine https://bit.ly/TLP-499 Key Takeaways [04:04] Joe explains why the world is finally ready for the transformation economy after 25 years of people asking when he'd write this book. [09:11] The four spheres of transformation: Health & Wellbeing, Wealth & Prosperity, Knowledge & Wisdom, and Purpose & Meaning—and why almost every business can find themselves in at least one. [12:59] The difference between fitness centers (charging for time as an experience) versus personal trainers (instilling discipline for transformation). [17:42] Why companies must eventually align what they charge for with what customers value—and how this drives the shift to outcomes-based pricing. [22:09] Joe introduces "invitational transformations"—experiences that invite people to transform their identity (like the Guinness Storehouse or Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). [26:38] Human flourishing defined: the extent to which people are who they're meant to be. This is the raison d'être of business. [34:09] The concept of encapsulation: Preparation (before the experience), Reflection (after), and Integration (ongoing)—the framework that turns experiences into transformations. [35:59] How Joe wrote the book on Substack, getting real-time feedback from subscribers that fundamentally changed key frameworks in the book. [44:18] Joe's vision for transformation businesses: charge for demonstrated outcomes, foster human flourishing, and recognize that profits measure how well you help people flourish—not the end goal itself. [46:46] And remember..."The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic. Transformation begins with a change in mindset." — Peter Drucker Quotable Quotes "You are what you charge for. If you charge for undifferentiated stuff, you're in the commodities business. If you charge for demonstrated outcomes that your customers achieve, you're in the transformation business." "Eventually you have to align what you charge for with what your customers value. Let me say it again: Eventually you have to align what you charge for with what your customers value." "Fostering human flourishing is the raison d'être of business, period. That's why business exists—to help people flourish." "Human flourishing is the extent to which people are who they're meant to be." "The irony is of course that you may be offering a transformation guarantee, but that's exactly what you can't actually do. You can't guarantee a transformation. However, the best way to get it to happen is to offer a guarantee." "Profits are never the end. They're always the measurement by which you achieve the ends of human flourishing." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Joe Pine Website | www.strategichorizons.com Joe Pine X | @joepine Joe Pine LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/joepine TLP004: Joe Pine - Visionary Leadership Instilling Purpose
Oli Raison, co-founder of Safarini Leadership, designs immersive leadership expeditions in Kenya that combine cultural exchange with Samburu elders, wilderness trekking, and deep reflective coaching. In this conversation, Oli challenges one of leadership's most entrenched assumptions: that resilience is about individual grit and mental toughness. Drawing on the Samburu concept of naboisho—interdependence—he shows how real resilience is built through collective support, not solo endurance. He also names the single most important question leaders need to ask when entering any new culture or organization: What assumptions am I making? The catch? Most assumptions are invisible to us because they feel like "normal." Oli also explores why many wilderness and offsite leadership experiences fail to create lasting change, and shares his solution: a three-phase transformation framework—preparation, immersion, and integration—shaped by the work of past podcast guest, Joe Pine. This episode is an invitation to question your cultural defaults, rebuild genuine human connection, and develop a healthier relationship with time—so your leadership, and your team's resilience, can actually endure. Find episode 498 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Oli Raison on Why Grit Isn't Enough: Rethinking Resilience in Leadership https://bit.ly/TLP-498 Key Takeaways [04:12] Oli says the leadership assumption consistently dismantled his resilience—the Samburu are resilient through interdependence called "naboisho," not grit. [07:00] Oli identifies profound learning as the importance of having a shared sense of purpose and a very strong shared set of values. [08:31] Oli responds that people have very different expectations of leadership in different cultures around the world. [10:11] Oli reveals the Samburu doesn't have words for anxiety or depression and you'll certainly never meet somebody who knows somebody who committed suicide. Oli notes loneliness is now as damaging for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. [12:00] Oli responds I think too much comfort can be a bad thing and people get discombobulated easily if things don't go quite to plan. [14:35] Oli answers the critical question leaders should ask: what assumptions am I making? Because we don't realize we're making assumptions. [17:07] Oli explains African societies have a fundamentally different understanding of time where there's always enough time. [20:10] Oli explains the Samburu are very spiritual people connected with their ancestors and you're also connected with your descendants. [22:30] Oli says mindset adjustment happens organically from just being offline during 10-day expeditions with six days of camel-supported trekking. [24:53] Oli describes their three-phase structure: preparation, immersion, and integration with coaching sessions at two, four, and six weeks after. [29:20] Oli responds his long-term impact is about flourishing, particularly helping men dealing with anxiety, depression, and suicidality. [31:43] Oli states his aspiration: how can we create workplaces, organizations and teams that flourish? Because that's when people really do their best work. [33:45] Jan shares his realization about keeping fingers on the keyboard versus closing the laptop because the most important thing is that person in front of you. [35:56] And remember..."One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure." - William Feather Quotable Quotes "The Samburu, what makes them so resilient is this concept of interdependence, this reliance, this collective reliance on one another...if my cattle get wiped out because of a really challenging drought, I know that my neighbors are going to step in and they're going to give me some of their cattle." "Naboisho is a word in their language which kind of roughly translates to coming together or unity. And they often say things like 'we are because they are,' that we are all sort of in this together." "This is a society that doesn't have words for anxiety or depression. And you'll certainly never meet somebody who knows somebody who committed suicide...loneliness is now as damaging for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day." "In the west, we think of time as a commodity. We think of time as something that can be saved, it can be wasted, it can be lost. And as a result of that, I feel that time is the master of us and we are not the master of time." "The Samburu always say there's always enough time because they don't think of time as this continuous thing...time occurs when events happen, it's more relational and it's more eventful." "What assumptions am I making? And this is tricky, right, because a lot of the time we don't realize we're making assumptions." "We don't need to be experts, but we do need to be detectives...what assumptions am I making that might be getting in my way?" "All of this technology is actually causing our brains to operate on a frequency that is not conducive with creative thought at all. And by being in nature, just that alone creates an environment for people to have some really powerful insights." "I think one of the things that people come away with is I really need to take more time out to just contemplate and to think. You know, think about your business, think about your life. We don't take time to think anymore. We're just reacting." "This obsession with hyper productivity is actually just, again, it's all distraction, you know, it's taking us away from just being with ourselves in the moment or being with somebody else." "In 1990, the average man had five close friends and now he has one...every minute that we spend on a device, on a phone, on a laptop, thinking that we're connecting is a minute that we're not spending really connecting with somebody." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Oli Raison LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/oli-raison-1107aa11/ Safarini Leadership Website | www.safarinileadership.com Safarini Leadership LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/company/safarini-leadership Safarini Leadership Instagram | @safarinileadership
Geoff Woods is founder of AI Leadership and #1 international bestselling author of The AI Driven Leader: Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions. In this episode, Geoff introduces the CRIT framework: "Context, Role, Interview, Task." He also reveals why most leaders are still acting like industrial workers—showing up on time, following orders, doing repetitive tasks—when machines now do that work better than humans. He shares his CRIT framework for turning AI into your most valuable thought partner and explains why AI isn't replacing your job. Geoff demonstrates how to collapse three months of work into 30 minutes, shares a painful leadership lesson, and breaks down why 99% of AI use cases are distractions from the 20% that actually drives results. Discover practical strategies for making faster, smarter decisions, getting AI to ask YOU the right questions instead of the other way around, and reclaiming what makes you uniquely human in an AI-driven world. Find episode 497 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Geoff Woods on Why Most Leaders Are Using AI Wrong—and How to Fix It https://bit.ly/TLP-497 Key Takeaways [03:04] Geoff recounts pushing for a 250x revenue goal three months ago that "actually broke the team" and caused a key leader's resignation. [07:02] Geoff responds to whether "AI-enhanced" is better than "AI-driven" by saying leaders who don't use AI "are at a severe disadvantage." [10:21] Geoff explains his mindset as a family man first is rooted in "the questions you ask yourself determine your fate." [13:53] Geoff reveals the most common self-deception in leaders: "They put more focus on having the right answer than having the right question." [19:26] Geoff walks through applying the CRIT framework to Jim's niece Yvonne's question about AI for client lifecycle management. [26:31] Geoff says the missing link between reading the book and transformation is simple: "Whether they actually applied it." [28:16] Geoff explains decision-making isn't just go/no-go but asks three questions: "What's the upside? What's the downside? Am I willing to live with the downside?" [34:03] Geoff shares his controversial belief in extreme 80/20: "If it's not a 20% priority driving 80% of impact, then why are we wasting oxygen on it?" [39:17] Geoff's closing thought: "You are not what you do" and realizing this means "AI can only enhance you because it can never replace you." [42:27] And remember… "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing you can do is the wrong thing. And the worst thing you can do is nothing." – Theodore Roosevelt Quotable Quotes "I don't ask AI questions. I make AI ask me questions. That's the core difference between me and everybody else." "Most people spend their career majoring in the minors. Nobody got promoted for being the best email checker in their company." "You are not what you do. The moment you realize what you do is not who you are, you start asking better questions." "If you want to 10X your growth, you've got to stop doing 80% of what you currently do and reinvest that effort into higher capabilities." "The questions you ask yourself determine your fate. They determine how you see the world." "I believe the purpose of a goal is not to achieve a result. It's to be a compass to inform who you can become." "Throughout history, technology has made the value of certain skills skyrocket and the value of certain skills plummet." "AI is not going to take your job. But somebody who knows how to use AI as a thinking partner absolutely will." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Geoff Woods Website | https://www.aileadership.com/ Geoff Woods X| @geoffwoods Geoff Woods LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/company/ai-thought-leadership
Mark van Rijmenam is a futurist, award-winning keynote speaker globally ranked as number one in his field. Salesforce recognizes him as a leading voice in AI. His latest book, Now What: How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, is available now, and he's the founder of FutureWise. In this episode, Mark challenges the assumption that faster change requires faster action. He argues that organizations moving at breakneck speed with AI and emerging technologies often skip the critical step: pausing to think about consequences. Mark introduces his three E's framework—educate, experiment, execute—as a systematic approach for leaders navigating exponential technological convergence. He emphasizes that while root knowledge becomes obsolete, skills like adaptability, strategic foresight, digital literacy, and ethical grounding become essential for building resilience in uncertain futures. In this episode, you'll discover how to lead through exponential change without losing your humanity, your judgment, or your competitive edge. Find episode 496 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Mark van Rijmenam on Why Faster Change Doesn't Mean Faster Action https://bit.ly/TLP-496 Key Takeaways [02:14] Mark circumnavigated Australia on bicycle in 100 days, raising $25,000 for Dutch children's cancer fund. [04:19] Mark said the most important starting point is becoming aware and educating yourself on all emerging technologies, not just AI. [08:19] Mark explained we discover AI rather than invent it, so we need to slow down and think instead of rushing forward. [14:46] Mark's digital twin can be WhatsApp'd 24/7 in 29 languages to answer deeper questions about his book. [16:17] Mark hopes in 10 years leaders will ask "how could we have been so stupid to move so fast?" [19:42] Mark recommends the three E's framework: educate, experiment, then execute what works best. [21:52] Mark insists leaders must understand technology implications or they'll dismiss great ideas they don't understand. [25:15] Mark said we need authentic human leaders because a machine-run society would be efficient but unpleasant. [29:51] Mark hopes technology convergence will foster humility and help us live in tandem with nature. [36:58] Mark said focus on analytical skills, adaptability, foresight, digital literacy, ethics, creativity, and collaboration. [39:07] And remember..."Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion." - Ray Kurzweil Quotable Quotes "Leadership today in this fast changing world is different from leadership yesterday. The world of yesterday is no longer." "We don't invent AI, we discover AI. And that is a completely different perspective that has a big effect on everything that we do." "A lot of the big tech companies don't even understand the LLMs that they're building. They don't understand how they operate, which is really problematic." "Critical thinking is under siege because of these large language models, but we still need to think ourselves." "It's a bit of a paradox. You think you need to move faster and faster because the world is changing faster and faster. But you also need to build in moments to pause and reflect." "It's nice to be the first to market, but often it also comes with all the R&D and all the problems. Sitting back a little bit longer will help you move faster in the end." "Static knowledge is sort of dead. We need to have dynamic interactions." "AI and capitalism is a perfect storm where they really feed into each other." "If we don't educate people how to leverage AI, how to deal with AI, they might think it cares about you." "If we're going to end up in a society that's run by machines, it will be a very not pleasant society to live in." "We are social animals. We need that social interaction." "History doesn't repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes." "Continually running faster and faster to grab more and more money might not be the best solution in the world where we built extremely powerful tools." "Root knowledge is sort of becoming out of date because you can just look up with the click of a button." "You're not going to have one career anymore. You're going to have multiple careers in your lifetime and potentially even have multiple careers at the same time." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Mark van Rijmenam website | www.thedigitalspeaker.com Mark van Rijmenam X | @vanrijmenam Mark van Rijmenam LinkedIn | http://linkedin.com/in/markvanrijmenam
Patrick Veroneau is CEO of Emery Leadership Group and author of The Leadership Bridge: How to engage your employees and drive organizational excellence and The Missing Piece: What Great Teams Do That Others Overlook. In this episode, Patrick explains why organizations' increasing focus on accountability systems over the past five years has coincided with employee engagement hitting a 10-year low. He reveals the accountability paradox: the harder you push for accountability, the further you get from ownership. Patrick discusses why leaders fall short in closing the gap between intention and impact—we intellectually understand leadership concepts, but fail to apply them consistently. Patrick explains the sequence that moves teams from compliance to genuine commitment (support → celebrate → own), reveals the invisible habit great teams practice (recognizing progress along the journey, not just outcomes). If you're tired of accountability systems that aren't working and want to build real ownership on your team, this episode will change how you lead. Find episode 495 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Patrick Veroneau on The Accountability Paradox https://bit.ly/TLP-495 Key Takeaways [02:57] Patrick said growing up in a large family made him more intuitive because he was always around older people having adult conversations. [04:43] Patrick explained that leaders fall short because they intellectually understand concepts but don't apply them consistently or model the behaviors they expect. [06:58] Patrick shared that social exclusion triggers the same brain response as physical pain, and unexpected recognition spikes dopamine while unrecognized effort decreases it. [11:47] Patrick revealed the accountability paradox: average teams focus on accountability first, but great teams support and celebrate first to create ownership. [14:25] Patrick shared Stephen Covey's insight that leaders need to trust other people first, not wait for others to trust them. [17:32] Patrick said the invisible habit of great teams is celebrating progress along the way, not just the final outcome. [21:34] Patrick said companies that aren't flexible on remote work will be at a disadvantage, but connection must be intentional and meaningful. [26:49] Patrick shared that Rear Admiral Cutler Dawson's success came from "walking the deck plates"—connecting with people at all levels, not his authority. [33:24] And remember..."Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire teammates and customers." - Robin S. Sharma Quotable Quotes "Don't settle for accountability. It's the low bar. Shoot for ownership." "To be on a great team, you have to first commit to being a great teammate." "Average organizations focus on accountability first. Great teams support and celebrate first, then create ownership." "We need to trust other people first. You need to give before you get." "When people feel they should be recognized and aren't, their dopamine levels go down. That's what we experience as disengagement." "Accountability is included in ownership. But not the reverse." "Humility is the circuit breaker on overconfidence." "Walking the deck plates—connecting with people at all levels. We've overcomplicated what it means to lead." "If you don't commit first to being a great teammate, you absolutely won't be part of a great team because you're the weakest link." "Look for work, look for stuff to do, look where you can help." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Emery Leadership Group Website | www.emeryleadershipgroup.com Emery Leadership Group Facebook | www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063653920372 Patrick Veroneau LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-veroneau Patrick Veroneau Instagram | @patrickveroneau
Mark Steffe is President and CEO of First Command Financial Services, bringing over 30 years of financial services leadership. In this episode, Mark explains why he left his dream job working with ultra-high-net-worth families to serve military members who truly need financial guidance. He shares how military families face unique challenges including frequent relocations, spouse underemployment, and modest pay, requiring advisors who understand their sacrifices. Mark demonstrates how building trust and psychological safety enables difficult financial conversations, comparing financial advisors to doctors who need honest patient information. He outlines his quality control approach for serving the tight-knit military community, emphasizing mission alignment, compliance-first culture, and protecting reputation. Discover practical strategies for leading with mission over metrics, building trust for difficult conversations, and coaching teams to improve rather than simply demanding better results. Find episode 494 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Mark Steffe on When Leadership Is About Who You Serve https://bit.ly/TLP-494 Key Takeaways [04:06] Mark explains he left ultra-high-net-worth services because he wanted to change lives, not just help wealthy people get wealthier. [07:26] Mark reveals how much military families sacrifice, putting our interests and safety ahead of their own. [11:34] Mark notes COVID year one was easier as crisis mode, but year two's transition back proved harder. [14:34] Mark explains First Command uses AI for exponential growth without adding employees, upskilling workers instead. [17:27] Mark credits Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" for emphasizing communicating the why, not just what and how. [21:54] Mark reframes the financial mess as reflecting "how busy you've been taking care of everybody else," not personal failure. [27:42] Mark outlines quality control requires mission-aligned hiring and rejecting the false choice between profitability and compliance. [33:13] Mark tells his "throw strikes" story: His son didn't need parents yelling commands, he needed a coach to fix his mechanics. [38:52] And remember..."Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison Quotable Quotes "Our job was to help wealthy people get wealthier. I wanted to change lives instead." "If Jack's not throwing strikes, he doesn't need someone to yell at him to throw strikes. He needs the coach to walk out to the mound and help him adjust his mechanics." "If employees aren't performing at the level you need, it's not because they don't want to. They don't know how yet." "What became an accommodation for concern of people's health and safety became an entitlement." "We can either be profitable or we can be compliant. The answer is always AND—we have to be profitable AND we have to be compliant." "Early in your career you get promoted for what you do. Later, it's how you lead, how you communicate, how you paint a vision." "Your messy finances are a reflection of how busy you've been taking care of everybody else, not personal failure." "If you take care of your clients and do the right thing for them, the profits will show up." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Mark Steffe Website | www.firstcommand.com Mark Steffe LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/mark-steffe Below are two articles from Mark about his leadership philosophy and communication strategies and the financial challenges facing military families and the importance of financial advisors. ● https://medium.com/authority-magazine/impactful-communication-mark-steffe-of-first-command-financial-services-inc-on-5-essential-e60d3e4855f7 ● https://usveteransmagazine.com/usvm/helping-military-families-overcome-historic-money-struggles/
Jim and Jan tackle the uncomfortable truth about "sand people," those team members who grind everything to a halt, and why even your best glue guy can't overcome the friction they create. Drawing from their coaching experience, Jim and Jan reveal how to identify and deal with sand people before they destroy your team. They explore the telltale signs—projecting, hoarding resources, passive-aggressive behavior—and explain why leaders consistently wait too long to act. They also share the harsh truth that someone who is not performing well is costing more than they produce, and costing opportunities and damaging team morale in ways that are difficult to quantify. In this episode, you'll learn how sand people self-identify through their behavior, the specific ways they inhibit high performance, and most importantly, why it's critical to move quickly.. Find episode 493 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Jim and Jan on "Sand People" - The Hidden Drag on Your Team's Performance https://bit.ly/tlp-493 Key Takeaways [01:35] Jim coined the term "sand people" to describe team members who act as sand in the gears, preventing smooth team operation. [03:05] Jan noted that 60% of people in the U.S. are not in high-value jobs with only 31% engagement, creating a disconnect between economic growth and worker fulfillment. [05:12] Sand people often project by complaining about what others aren't doing, which is exactly what they themselves aren't doing. [07:34] Jan confirmed that one bad person on a team poisons everything, making it impossible to have a successful team experience. [12:33] A-players immediately avoid sand people and start looking for better teams because they expect leaders to uphold standards. [16:04] Jim witnessed Larry Yost pick up a cigarette butt when no one was watching, demonstrating how modeling behavior matters more than words. [19:17] Jan admitted being a sand person as a young cynical military officer, making wisecracks without anyone coaching her on the impact. [21:05] Jim acknowledged being too harsh early in his management career and emphasized the importance of learning from mistakes. [22:06] Jan's biggest business mistake was bragging about new hires then keeping them too long trying to fix them instead of recognizing sunk costs. [23:49] Jim advocated hiring for unteachable qualities like curiosity in salespeople rather than skills you can train. [26:34] Jan recommended "Top Grading" by Brad Smart for distinguishing between easy-to-change skills and hard-to-change qualities like energy and passion. [33:36] Leaders must be attracted to friction to identify where to remove resistance and lubricate the machine for team effectiveness. [29:57] Jan identified two coaching buckets: helping people prioritize time strategically and having difficult conversations about performance expectations. [33:21] And remember… "The path of least resistance is the path of the loser." - H. G. Well Quotable Quotes "If getting rid of people is easy for you and you don't lose sleep over it, you're probably a sociopath." "The day it gets easy for you is the day you've kind of lost your soul." - "We've got to have good friction. Friction that produces traction, not friction that produces drag." "Your culture becomes the worst behavior you tolerate." "One bad person, even if they're a little bad, is way more powerful than the best person for a team." "Look for work, look for things to do, and give more than you take." - "Sand people are limiting your culture. They are in effect a toleration of sub optimal performance of weakness." "If we pay people that aren't getting the job done, then they're either a charity case or they are a thief." "As a leader, I think we need to be attracted to friction." "People are not fine wine." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Jan Rutherford LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/janrutherford Jan Rutherford X | @JanRutherford Jim Vaselopulos LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/jimvaselopulos Jim Vaselopulos xX | @jim_va
Jinky Panganiban serves as Professor of Practice at the University of Oregon's Sports Product Management Program, founder of 1969Blue Consulting, and founding member of Oregon Sports Angels. She is a former Vice President and General Manager at Nike with over 20 years of global executive experience. She led multibillion-dollar businesses across Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, and Europe. In this episode, Jinky reveals why "fitting in" kills leadership potential and how your cultural background becomes your superpower in global business. Jinky explains how the sports product industry has built intentional leadership development by translating a shared mission to fit local cultures instead of forcing one uniform way while maintaining a unified mission. She addresses the volatile state of global trade by emphasizing curiosity and critical thinking as essential skills for the next generation. Jinky argues that despite rising nationalism and tariff threats, consumers are already voting for a borderless world through their digital behavior and content consumption. In this episode, you'll discover how to leverage your cultural background as a superpower, build high-performing global teams, and lead with authenticity in an increasingly connected world. Find The Leadership Podcast episode 492 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Jinky Panganiban on Stop Fitting In https://bit.ly/TLP-492 Key Takeaways [04:09] Jinky describes how she started at Nike through a blind ad in Manila and was handpicked to help build Southeast Asia operations. [06:26] Jinky reveals how three white male mentors helped her realize her cultural background was her superpower. [09:47] Jinky explains that great leadership starts with being—knowing who you are and what you stand for—not just the doing of checking off deliverables and performance goals. [12:51] Jinky distinguishes influence from selling. [13:42] Jinky describes how SPM deliberately keeps students in the same project teams for 18 months because leadership is formed in the messy middle when deadlines are tight and not everybody agrees. [17:12] Jinky explains the collective industry commitment to raising next-generation leaders who will progress the culture. [20:32] Jinky demonstrates how global brands must translate their message locally. [25:17] Jinky shares how mentor Kate Delhagen gave her courage to leave corporate and explore angel investing. [28:58] Jinky describes her current advisory work with startup brands where she's both business advisor and biggest cheerleader, modeling what Kate did for her. [31:04] Jinky argues that despite borders and tariffs, the next generation of consumers already thinks globally through social media and digital platforms, celebrating differences rather than fearing them. [34:09] Jinky emphasizes that curiosity combined with critical thinking—vetting sources and asking why—is essential for navigating today's information-saturated world. [37:26] Jinky encourages everyone to celebrate where they've come from because there's only one of you, and you can't be more original than that—your background is your competitive advantage. [ ] And remember… "To be one, to be united, is a great thing, but to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater." – Bono Quotable Quotes "There's only one of you, so you can't be more original than that." "My cultural background and where I came from and all of my lived experience actually isn't something that I should shy away from or even be embarrassed about, but actually use it to my advantage and actually leverage it." "Great leadership starts with being. It's knowing who you are, what you stand for, and how you show up, especially when no one's watching." "We believe that leadership is formed in the messy middle. You know, when the deadlines are tight, the tempers are like rising and then not everybody's agreeing, but then you still have a deadline to hit." "Global doesn't mean uniform. The best teams share common purpose but express it in ways that feel very local." "Even if we put borders around things, the consumers will vote anyway to go beyond borders. Ideas, innovation, their talent, creativity, I don't think it carries a passport." "Human leadership never goes out of style." "Learn to lead yourself first. Build credibility, make sure that you practice empathy, and then lead through action and not titles." "If you don't know how to work in teams, you cannot work in the industry." "It's not so much exporting the culture, it's about translating it so that it works for everybody." "Cultural intelligence or cultural fluency is really critical because I've seen how that has become the one skill that could bridge global teams and communicate even beyond language." "Making sure that you find sources that are credible. Not just take things face value. Critical thinking is also something that's really important to ask the question why." "Culture, whether that's country culture or community culture, it's something to leverage, and it could always be a superpower for you." "We want to make sure that we leave this place better than we found it." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Jinky Panganiban LinkedIn | http://linkedin.com/in/jinky-panganiban
Jack Swift is a West Point graduate, former CEO of TIFIN and Liminal Collective, and co-founder of Pacific Current Group and Sangha. He now advises frontier AI ventures, including Vantage Discovery (sold to Shopify), Brightwave, and Grid Aero, and co-founded Sangha, a community for conscious leadership. In this episode, Jack explains why the biggest threat to your organization isn't outside pressure. It's your need to be right. He shows why old leadership habits—command and control, chasing quarterly targets, and relying only on past wins—no longer work. He offers a different approach built on deep listening, less ego, and faster instincts. Jack talks about the blind spots he sees on boards, from big companies ignoring rapid change to startups burning cash to prove a point. He also shares how to spot the moment when governance stops supporting durability and starts blocking innovation—and what to do before bureaucracy kills your edge. Listen to this episode to learn how to drop old frameworks, trust your gut, and build a learning culture that works with AI instead of fighting it. Find The Leadership Podcast episode 490 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Jack Swift on Letting Go of Old Frameworks https://bit.ly/TLP-491 Key Takeaways [02:28] Jack shares that stopping drinking a few years ago has been "incredibly clarifying" for his decision making and presence as a leader. [05:19] Jack shares how his perspective on leadership has evolved from military to entrepreneurship to board service. [10:11] Jack emphasizes three critical elements that make an effective independent board director: maintaining independence to evaluate organizational health, stepping into conflict early, and the ability to "look around corners" and anticipate future disruption. [15:07] Jack identifies the biggest blind spot for larger companies and the biggest blind spot for early-stage companies and founders. [19:26] Jack reflects on how his experiences as an entrepreneur shaped how he evaluates opportunities and risks. [21:48] Jack reflects on something 18 years ago that helped him learn without screwing up. [23:00] Jack discusses the role of ego versus intuition in leadership. [25:34] Jack defines governance in highly regulated industries like insurance and financial services versus the AI space. [29:56] Jack agrees AI works best in regulated spaces because "machine based learning and models work really well in systems, rules based systems" where regulatory review "may have taken humans six months to do, it can be done in like six minutes." [33:16] Jack describes how Boulder's ecosystem has influenced his approach to leadership and growth. [36:35] Jack advises traditional industry leaders to "let go of old frameworks" and "be open to how it might be done" because entrenched industries are "specifically ripe for innovation and disruption." [37:36] Jack says one piece of advice for leaders navigating uncertainty today. He explains why whole-body listening matters for the future of leadership. [41:19] And remember..."I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau Quotable Quotes "Leaders make decisions and they look for and create alignment within an organization." "The need to be right is the biggest blind spot. Taking the position that I want to be right, I'm gonna burn capital to show the world that I'm right is a very risky way to go about your business." "I made a lot of mistakes. I screwed a lot of things up. Sometimes because I didn't know any better, sometimes because I let my ego make decisions, and sometimes because I was relying on old frameworks that just wouldn't work anymore." "Your go mind shouldn't always drive the car. Sometimes you need to put instinct in the driver's seat and let your brain be the passenger." "Let go of old frameworks. Don't think you know better. Work on self awareness, work on your personal growth edges. Better at you is better at what you do." "Listen with your whole body. Your body knows—that's your gut, your instinct, your intuition. The faster you can listen, receive, and act, the faster you'll be able to go." "Human beings are the only species that can imagine infinite future potentials and bring them into reality. That creative capability is uniquely human and incredibly special." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Jack Swift Website | www.jackcswift.com Jack Swift LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/jack-c-swift
Katie Lefkowitz is a neuroscience-trained entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Harken Foods who's reinventing candy with gut health at its core. In this episode, Katie reveals how her neuroscience background taught her to demand feedback systematically and observe behavior over words—skills that proved universal across consulting, scaling, and founding companies. She shares why she chose measured growth at Harken after experiencing Caulipower's explosive trajectory. Katie explains how the "seven questions framework" helps teams navigate the market's rapid shifts by keeping core values fixed while pivoting operational tactics. Discover practical approaches to data-driven decision-making, building authentic workplace culture, and leading through uncertainty without losing sight of core values. Find The Leadership Podcast episode 490 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Katie Lefkowitz on Reinventing Candy and Culture https://bit.ly/TLP-490 Key Takeaways [03:03] Katie explains her neuroscience background taught her the scientific method, helping evaluate questions less emotionally and with reduced bias. [04:05] Katie describes how all decisions need to be based in data, seeking feedback from every person on the Harken team. [05:44] Katie shares Harken was created after a health scare related to colon cancer introduced her to food as medicine. [07:25] Katie explains Caulipower grew as the fastest growing brand in all of CPG, but for Harken she wants to be more measured. [09:03] Katie confirms the Caulipower success gave her confidence to go at it alone with Harken. [09:48] Katie reflects on trying to be what she thought a leader looked like, being insecure about her age and gender. [11:45] Katie explains there will always be some imposter syndrome, but having Harken within her control has helped relieve that feeling. [13:20] Katie recalls a pitch where the first person said her product doesn't taste good, leaving her crying in the cab to the airport. [15:25] Katie describes watching if people take a second bite during tastings because behavior tells more than words. [16:36] Katie emphasizes listening more than talking as the key leadership lesson. [17:29] Katie explains the company uses Southwest Airlines' seven questions framework where core values don't change but goals and focus do. [19:05] Katie notes that running decisions through core values becomes second nature and prevents losing time on wrong priorities. [20:18] Katie states at their early stage it's about hiring people who believe in what they're doing because culture is what happens when she's not in the room. [21:44] Katie explains parents understand prioritization better because anything to get more time with their kid is of high value. [23:40] Katie reflects that taking pauses to pick up her kid allows her to process things better and make better decisions. [24:46] Katie advises knowing what motivates you—autonomy, mastery, purpose or status, wealth, power—and making decisions based on who you actually are. [27:41] And remember... "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." – Frederick Douglass Quotable Quotes "If you're not telling me I'm doing something wrong or questioning what I'm doing, very frequently, I'm gonna have a problem with that because there's no way that I'm doing everything right." "Listen more than you talk. You will always get a lot more from really hearing people than you're ever going to get from talking at them." "When you're just yourself, it actually comes off much more authentic. And it's those relationships that you're holding yourself back from if you're not able to be your full self." "Have confidence in yourself, own who you are. And it'll actually take you much further than trying to fit into some old mold." "All decisions just need to be based in data and not necessarily, you know, stories." "It's about keeping your core values and making sure that runs through every decision that you're making." "My time is my most valuable resource, not only to myself personally, but to the company." "Taking that pause actually allows me to process things much better. And having that breathing room, I think I just make better decisions." "Know what motivates you... Not who you want people to think you are, but who you actually are." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Katie Lefkowitz Website | https://harkensweets.com Katie Lefkowitz Facebook | www.facebook.com/people/Harken-Sweets/61551227397377/?_rdr Katie Lefkowitz LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/katielefkowitz Katie Lefkowitz Instagram | @harkensweets TLP478: The Consequences of Inaction with Nick Cooney TLP472: Embracing Uncertainty with Dr. Margaret Heffernan
Annie Duke is a three-time bestselling author, decision strategist, and former professional poker champion. She holds a PhD in cognitive psychology and is co-founder of the Alliance for Decision Education. Annie's latest best-selling book is "Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away." In this episode, Annie reveals why knowing when to walk away is the most underrated leadership skill. Drawing on cognitive psychology and real-world coaching with executives and venture capitalists, she breaks down why we're wired to stick with bad decisions, and more importantly, how to override that wiring. Annie explains how sunk costs, identity attachment, and status quo bias conspire to keep us committed past the point of reason. Listen now to stop grinding on goals that don't serve you, and start quitting your way to better outcomes. Find The Leadership Podcast episode 489 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Annie Duke on Quitting – Knowing When to Walk Away https://bit.ly/TLP-489 Key Takeaways [02:01] Annie reveals she's an avid tennis player and has a Bernadoodle dog not mentioned in her public bio. [02:54] Annie explains quitting is central to success because decisions are made under uncertainty and even perfect choices have bad outcomes 20% of the time. [06:25] Annie discusses how over-optimism harms decision-making by overestimating both likelihood and quality of good outcomes. [09:41] Annie describes Don Moore's research showing optimistic people just spend more time on unsolvable problems without performing better. [11:44] Annie clarifies that quitting feels too early in the moment but people looking back realize they quit too late. [14:27] Annie explains not quitting creates two problems: pursuing unhelpful goals plus losing opportunity cost of redirected resources. [15:03] Annie recommends using psychological distance through quitting coaches and kill criteria involving mental time travel. [16:19] Annie describes an exercise where executives set six-week benchmarks for underperforming employees, accelerating decisions. [19:38] Annie advises adding "unless" statements to goals since cost-benefit analyses change over time. [24:45] Annie addresses information paralysis by emphasizing the time-versus-accuracy trade-off in decisions. [30:49] Annie acknowledges self-knowledge matters but notes people have competing preferences between short-term wants and long-term values. [33:28] Annie explains how implicit decision-making allows bias to highlight factors supporting desired conclusions. [36:49] Annie explains explicit frameworks resolve short-term versus long-term conflicts by creating future accountability. [37:57] Annie tells negotiation clients every deal can be broken, paralleling keeping quitting as an option. [38:30] Annie addresses opportunity cost neglect where people focus on immediate goals without considering sacrifices. [44:32] Annie connects quitting to innovation since minimal starting information requires flexibility to pivot. [46:22] And remember…"If at first you don't succeed, try again, then quit, there's no point in being a damn fool about it." - W.C. fields. Quotable Quotes "When you make decisions to start things, you are making those decisions under conditions of uncertainty." "When you're thinking about quitting, it will generally feel like it's too early. But when you're looking at someone from the outside, if you're coaching, it'll feel like they're too late." "We quit way too late, as judged by our happiness." "When we don't quit something that we ought to quit, we have a double problem. One problem is that we're doing something that isn't helping us achieve our goals. And the other problem is an opportunity cost problem." "You don't want the goal itself to become an object because it is a representation of a cost benefit analysis." "In order to be a really good innovator, you have to build in this whole idea of quit." "Every deal can be broken, and even if you break it's not broken." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Annie Duke Website | www.annieduke.com Annie Duke X | @annieduke Annie Duke Facebook | www.facebook.com/AnnieDukeAuthor Annie Duke LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/annie-duke-30ab2b5/ Annie Duke Instagram | @_annieduke
Bernie Banks is a professor and institute leader at Rice University and co-author of "The New Science of Momentum: How the Best Coaches and Leaders Build a Fire from a Single Spark." As a Brigadier General, he led West Point's Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership in his final military assignment. In this episode, Bernie decodes how fleeting moments morph into sustained momentum. Drawing on eight years of research, over 250 interviews and thousands of survey responses across sports, business, politics and the military, Bernie shares a tried-and-true model leaders can use to spark movement, sustain it, and redirect it when needed. Momentum doesn't happen by accident—it's built through small wins, clear culture, situation-readiness, and intentional follow-through. Whether you're leading a team, an organization, or your own career, listen in for practical tools to recognize the early spark, harness the energy, and turn it into a flame that drives real progress. You can find episode 488 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Bernie Banks on From Fleeting Moments to Sustained Momentum https://bit.ly/TLP-488 Key Takeaways [03:27] Bernie explains the book originated from the 2017 Super Bowl when the Patriots came back from 28-3 to win against the Falcons. [06:39] Bernie explains momentum is overlooked because people view it as common sense rather than a vital leadership skill. [08:23] Bernie outlines the momentum model starts with leadership setting culture, then moving into preparation where leaders actively seek to generate momentum. [11:29] Bernie uses Nvidia as an example, explaining they made strategic decisions long ago to prepare for the AI revolution. [14:05] Bernie emphasizes "culture is not what you talk about, it's what you tolerate, it's what you reinforce." [15:35] Bernie shares Alan Mulally telling a disruptive Ford executive they needed a transition conversation because those behaviors wouldn't be tolerated. [19:23] Bernie quotes Warren Buffett on hiring: look for smart, driven, and principled people, never hiring someone high on the first two without the third. [21:57] Bernie explains hiring depends on whether you need to maintain or innovate. [25:05] Bernie advises being open and honest with people about gaps they'll have to address for the new reality. [27:39] Bernie explains momentum requires both managers who optimize systems and leaders who produce change. [30:36] Bernie notes the most effective leaders were high on both people and results orientation. [33:17] Bernie discusses the Pygmalion study, stating people rise to the level of expectations when leaders show vested interest in their well being. [34:51] Bernie explains he replaced "failure" with "embrace challenge" because failure has negative connotation and finality. [37:23] Bernie emphasizes intentionality matters, explaining legacy means our story will be told by others, not ourselves. [41:44] Bernie closes stating "momentum is leader business" and the book is designed as a how-to guide with immediate actions. [44:30] And remember…"The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum." - Frances E. Willard Quotable Quotes "Culture is not what you talk about. It's what you tolerate. It's what you reinforce." "Results are one thing, but the how matters." "Momentum is not something they stumbled upon. It was something they actively sought to generate." "People will rise to the level of your expectations so long as they believe you have a vested interest in fostering their well being and that you're equipping them to meet those expectations." "In the best organizations, accountability is the word, and in many organizations, accountability is a bad word." "Challenges can lead to opportunities, and we can always learn things along the way as we push through challenges." "Legacy comes from the Latin word legatus, which means people, person, delegated, which means our story will not be told by self." "Be intentional. The great leaders are." "Momentum is a leader business. " "A core obligation of every leader is to put their people in a position to win." "You don't put people in a position to win by watering down expectations." "Wherever there's a challenge, there's an opportunity." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Bernie Banks Facebook | www.facebook.com/bernard.banks.9 Bernie Banks LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/bernard-bernie-b-4458003
Hans Lagerweij is the author of The Why Whisperer: How to Motivate and Align Teams That Get Your Strategy Done. In this episode, Hans shares that he wrote the book after watching great strategies fail during execution. He saw a gap between understanding the importance of purpose and actually implementing it. Hans explains that you can't shout your way to purpose. Whispering requires getting close to your team and having two-way conversations. He emphasizes that leaders need to listen to personal motivations and ideas from team members. Hans presents three options when there's misalignment between personal and organizational purpose: change your personal why, take leadership to influence the organizational why, or leave. Listen to this episode to learn how to move your organization's purpose from theory into practice. You can find episode 487 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Hans Lagerweij on Three Ways to Motivate Teams and Align Strategy https://bit.ly/TLP-487 Key Takeaways [03:06] Hans reveals his first job at 15 was in a DIY store managing screws and tools, sparking his commercial curiosity. [05:04] Hans explains the "Why Whisperer" addresses the gap between Simon Sinek's purpose theory and practical implementation. [06:25] Hans attributes strategy failure to lack of discipline in communicating and aligning teams, not discipline itself. [07:06] Hans explains whispering means close two-way conversations with teams rather than top-down broadcasting. [10:37] Hans outlines three options for misaligned purposes: change your why, influence the organization's why, or leave. [15:35] Hans talks about clarifying the why and how that helps simplify decision making for leaders. [19:18] Hans recommends asking team members what makes them most proud to understand what drives them. [20:53] Hans introduces the "reverse elevator pitch" where leaders articulate direction, importance, and excitement in three minutes. [22:30] Hans explains "purpose" is universal across cultures but requires different communication approaches depending on cultural norms. [27:47] Hans challenges leaders to move "purpose" from wall posters into the organization's heartbeat. [28:50] And remember…"The louder the world becomes, the more radical it is to whisper truths. Not to be heard by all — but to be remembered by someone" - Lawrence Nault Quotable Quotes "You can't shout your way to purpose." " Whispering means you need to be so close with your team to have actually a conversation, a two way conversation and you know, to listen to ideas and personal motivations from your team. So yeah, it's really whispering to me is, you know, about getting people to own the why, not just follow it. So it is seriously going from a beautiful slogan on the wall to something that is, you know, in the hearts and minds. " "A clear purpose really helps, you know, to reduce options. Choices from a million to just a few right ones." "A clear purpose absolutely will save your time, will, you know, set your directions. As I said, it's your North Star." "Purpose is absolutely universal language, but, you know, you have to speak it in different accents." "In the end, the most powerful strategy is the one that your team believes in and that they're willing to fight for." "If there is a conflict between the two, if there's disconnect, it will always feel like misalignment. It will always feel like, you know, you're not at the place in that organization." "If you can synchronize individual and organizational purposes, you know, or wise, you know, then you create an authentic connection that really drives results." "In every culture, in every country, you know, people want to feel a sense of purpose. I think it's simply a fundamental human need." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Hans Lagerweij Website | www.hanslagerweij.com Hans Lagerweij X | @hanslagerweij Hans Lagerweij LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/hanslagerweij Hans Lagerweij Instagram | @hansblagerweij
Lauren Wittenberg Weiner is a speaker, business therapist, and bestselling author of Unruly: Deconstruct the Rules, Defy the Norms, and Define Your Success. In this episode, Lauren shares the pivotal moment that crystallized her unruly philosophy. When told she couldn't do something, she learned to transform that doubt into motivation rather than letting it paralyze her. She explains how reframing negative feedback as challenge fuel drives her leadership. Lauren explains the difference between gatekeepers who clone themselves and gateways who open doors. She tackles the transactional trap and why building an unconditionally supportive village matters more than networking scores. Lauren discusses managing multiple demanding roles through ruthless curation of priorities. She emphasizes that priorities must be constantly reassessed as circumstances change. Listen to this episode to learn how breaking free from conventional expectations can lead to more authentic success and fulfillment in both leadership and life. You can find episode 486 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Lauren Wittenberg Weiner on Unruly: Deconstruct the Rules, Defy the Norms, and Define Your Success https://bit.ly/TLP-486 Key Takeaways [02:36] Lauren reveals she almost joined the circus as a dancer between college and graduate school after a friend who was a trapeze artist convinced her. [04:09] Lauren explains the philosophy of "unruly" crystallized over many years, starting when she was a "good girl" who did everything expected of her. [09:12] Lauren discusses her "prove me wrong" attitude, explaining she reframes negative feedback as a challenge rather than trying to forget it, using research about not thinking about a white bear. [13:09] Lauren outlines her three-step framework: know the rules, find the space between them, and change them when needed. [15:42] Lauren clarifies she's "not a big believer in breaking the rules" but rather in knowing what rules say, finding space within them, and changing them consciously and thoughtfully when they don't work. [22:16] Lauren describes the shift from leaders being "gatekeepers" who pick people who look and think like them to being "gateways" that allow different people to prove they're qualified. [25:28] Lauren discusses transactional versus non-transactional relationships, and emphasizes the importance of having an "unconditionally supportive village" of people who pick you up when you're down and cheer for you unconditionally when you succeed. [29:23] Lauren explains how redefining luck as preparation influenced their breakthrough when winning a $200 million SOCOM contract, saying "we didn't get lucky, we were prepared." [33:48] Lauren discusses "ruthless curation" of priorities as an iterative process, using the example of her kids being a priority but their spirit week costumes not being her priority. [37:54] Lauren advises her 35-year-old self to "stop worrying about what anyone else thinks, figure out what you want" and own your decisions without feeling guilty. [40:25] And remember…"Never assume you can't do something. Push yourself to redefine the boundaries." - Brian Chesky Quotable Quotes "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to." "You can't hack your own psychology. You can't stop doing what your brain is going to make you do, but you can move around it and understand it and use it to your own advantage." "It's not about bringing people in that aren't qualified. It's about allowing people to show that they're qualified, even if they don't look or think or have gone on the exact same trajectory that everyone who came before did." "Transactional begets transactional and non transactional begets non transactional." "You've gotta have the same people who will pick you up when you're down and who will cheer for you unconditionally when you make it." "Stop worrying about what anyone else thinks, figure out what you want." "Nobody else gets to define for you what makes sense for you, but then own your decisions." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Lauren Wittenberg Weiner Website | https://laurenwittenbergweiner.com Lauren Wittenberg Weiner Ted Talk on ""Credibility and Connection Through Thoughtful Authenticity ": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BjOjr7FLyI Lauren Wittenberg Weiner Podcast | Unruly The Podcast Lauren Wittenberg Weiner Facebook | www.facebook.com/TheLaurenWittenbergWeiner Lauren Wittenberg Weiner LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-wittenberg-weiner-1732865 Lauren Wittenberg Weiner Instagram | @laurenwittenbergweiner
Hal Elrod is the bestselling author of "The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)." The book offers a practical morning routine that has transformed the lives of over 3 million people. In this episode, Hal describes discovering the six practices that became the SAVERS method (Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, Scribing) during the 2008 financial crisis when he needed to rebuild his life and income. He shares how implementing these practices every morning doubled his income within two months and became the foundation for helping millions of others. Listen to the full episode to hear how Hal turned life's hardest moments into practical tools for personal transformation and daily excellence. You can find episode 485 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Hal Elrod on Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) https://bit.ly/TLP-485 Key Takeaways [02:44] Hal reveals he realized during cancer at 37 that he was a workaholic, so now he drives his kids to school daily and shortens his workday to align with his family priority. [04:33] Hal explains he learned the five minute rule at age 20 selling Cutco by feeling emotions for five minutes then saying "can't change it" and moving forward. [07:25] Hal recounts being hit by a drunk driver at 70 mph at age 20 where he broke 11 bones and died at the scene for six minutes but applied the five minute rule to accept his reality. [13:26] Hal confirms the five minute rule is the practical bridge to Viktor Frankl's concept of choosing one's attitude in any circumstance. [21:05] Hal explains the Miracle Morning program and why the morning routine is important for making every day your best day. [29:37] Hal shares that the expanded edition of his book adds 20 pages to the SAVERS section and two new chapters called the Miracle Evening and the Miracle Life. [33:00] Hal shares that he gives up three hours of work each day to drive his kids to school, choosing lasting memories with them over more book sales. [37:58] Hal explains that his experiences guide him toward a higher power's purpose and shares that his parents' response to his sister's death taught him to turn adversity into service. [43:12] Hal defines a good life as fulfilling your potential in service of others by showing up as your best self every day from a place of love. [46:16] And remember…"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." - Marcus Aurelius Quotable Quotes "It's okay to be negative and get upset when things don't go your way, but do not dwell on it for an extended period of time." "Set your timer for five minutes and give yourself five minutes to feel your emotions fully. Don't suppress them, don't try to act the way you think you should. Bitch, moan, complain, cry, vent, whatever you gotta do." "Every painful emotion that we experienced was self created by our resistance to our reality." "The last of man's freedoms, is to choose one's own attitude in any given set of circumstances." "You cannot change reality in this moment as it exists. You can only do things in this moment to change the next moment or the moment after that." "I believe that we create our own statistics." "Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development." "If you win the morning, you win the day because you're putting yourself in a peak physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state." "Family men with businesses, not businessmen with families." (Front Row Dads tagline) "Everything you've been through is intentional and it's part of your journey, so you can help as many people as you possibly can." "Every day you wake up and you ask like, what's the best version of myself today? How can I show up at my best? How can I fulfill my limitless God given potential today?It's fulfilling your potential in service of others." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Hal Elrod Website | http://miraclemorning.com Achieve Your Goals Podcast | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/achieve-your-goals-with-hal-elrod/id820889267 Hal Elrod X | @halelrod Hal Elrod Facebook | www.facebook.com/groups/MyTMMCommunity Hal Elrod LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/hal-elrod-aa054324a Hal Elrod Instagram | @hal_elrod Watch The Miracle Morning Movie for free: https://miraclemorning.com/movie/ The Miracle Morning App | https://miraclemorning.app/
Brandon Sawalich is the President and CEO of Starkey, leading 6,000 employees across 29 countries in the hearing healthcare industry. In this episode, Brandon addresses how healthcare leaders balance innovation with human connection. He explains that hearing health requires both cutting-edge AI technology and personalized care from healthcare professionals. He shares leadership lessons from guiding Starkey's transformation into a global brand while preserving its family culture. Brandon discusses how to maintain core values while under pressure to prioritize patient outcomes over stock market demands. Listen to this episode to discover how Brandon leads with purpose in an industry that transforms lives, balances innovation with human connection, and maintains company culture during global growth. You can find episode 484 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Brandon Sawalich on Balancing Innovation with Human Connection https://bit.ly/TLP-484 Key Takeaways [05:01] When asked about balancing innovation with human elements in healthcare, Brandon explains hearing technology has evolved from analog whistling devices to AI-powered solutions, noting "We were the first to pioneer using AI back in 2000, starting in 2017 and we're in our eighth generation now." [07:01] Brandon outlines leadership challenges in managing multiple stakeholders, emphasizing "What's best for the patient is best for our customer is best for Starkey." [08:26] When asked about protecting culture while growing globally, Brandon explains his approach: "We hire for attitude and develop the talent because that attitude has to fit within the Starkey culture." [10:04] Brandon describes their training philosophy as "the Starkey way," emphasizing mentoring over traditional training programs and stating "I want one way" rather than multiple programs. [12:14] When asked about balancing kindness with results, Brandon explains his leadership approach: "I work for you. We all have to hold each other accountable." [14:21] Brandon defines being "the best" in their industry by focusing on sound quality and ease of use, explaining "to be the best is yes, you have to run an efficient company" and have "the best sounding sound quality hearing aid in the world." [15:41] Brandon reveals the hearing aid industry structure: "The hearing aid industry is made up of five companies in the world. Starkey is the only US owned and operated." [16:56] When asked what makes him the best leader, Brandon emphasizes accessibility and continuous learning, stating "I'm always available to the team if they need it" and "I'm always curious." [19:58] When asked about being overwhelmed, Brandon explains he's not overwhelmed because "I love this company. I've been here 31 years and I'm honored to have the job." [24:06] Brandon shares pivotal experiences that shaped his leadership, including leading industry advocacy in Washington D.C. from 2017 and navigating COVID-19 challenges. [30:53] When asked about daily improvement, Brandon identifies time management as key: "my time management and am I spending, you know, the time on, you know, 20% of the things that are going to make an 80% impact for the company." [33:05] Brandon concludes with parting counsel for leaders: "Don't be a blockbuster. Push yourself. You know, innovate or die" and emphasizes "complacency kills." [34:19] And remember…"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind, yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers" - Khalil Gibran. Quotable Quotes "It's not just about sound and amplifying sound. You have to personalize and customize something in a very personal business because you have to care and hearing healthcare professionals have to care about the patient in front of them and it's better hearing with a human touch." "You have to make your mistakes. You have to fail in order to improve yourself and move forward. You know, if you're going to fail fast." "If you got somebody that's not the right fit, you know, you have to be able to have the courage to hit that head on and make change." "It's not about coming up and say, well, you didn't produce this much. We need to sit down and talk. It's kind of sitting down and a little bit of a human approach. Common sense is, hey, tell me what's going on." "I'm not going to ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn't do myself. And I'll get a cup of coffee, I'll pick somebody up at the airport, whatever it takes. Because again, that's the team approach and very much lead from the front." "You got to be comfortable being uncomfortable." "Don't lose sleep over the competition, lose sleep over are we making progress or not? Are we getting better? Because complacency kills." "Don't be blockbuster. Push yourself. You know, innovate or die. And you've got to have the courage to change because change management. People's afraid of change." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Brandon Sawalich Website | www.starkey.com Brandon Sawalich X | @starkeyhearing Brandon Sawalich LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/brandonsawalich Brandon Sawalich Instagram | @brandonsawalich
Zach Mercurio is a researcher, and optimist instructor who specializes in purposeful leadership and meaningful work. He is the author of "The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance," that reveals the psychological foundation that drives human energy and performance in organizations. Zach addresses why 60% of employees don't feel cared for at work and how this creates a mattering deficit leading to quiet quitting or toxic behaviors. He discusses the Optimism course he created with Simon Sinek, which focuses on developing human skills that show people their significance so they believe they can improve any situation. Zach reveals the three essential dimensions people need: feeling noticed (seen and heard), affirmed (their uniqueness makes a difference), and needed (relied upon and indispensable). He explains how organizations can maintain purpose as "the invisible leader" despite quarterly pressures, emphasizing that people won't contribute to bigger purposes until they first believe they're worthy of having one. Listen to discover why the age of AI makes human connection skills irreplaceable and learn the counterintuitive truth that people must feel valued before they can add value. You can find episode 483 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Zach Mercurio on People Must Feel Valued Before They Can Add Value https://bit.ly/TLP-483 Key Takeaways [05:59] Zach defines mattering as feeling significant through being valued and adding unique value. [08:05] Zach explains human energy comes from knowing we matter, with research showing lower cortisol in those who feel significant. [11:15] Zach describes the "mattering wheel" where feeling valued builds confidence to add value. [13:56] Zach notes 40% of feedback fails because people don't feel cared for by the giver. [18:54] Zach outlines "wise feedback": express belief, reaffirm capabilities, offer support. [22:12] Zach defines optimism as believing you can improve moments and explains how digital communication created human skills gaps. [29:22] Zach emphasizes only humans take moral responsibility while noting only 40% feel cared for at work. [33:22] Zach positions matter as a prerequisite to purpose - people must feel cared for before caring about work. [36:12] Zach advises asking "When you feel you matter to me, what am I doing?" and outlines three practices: noticed, affirmed, needed. [38:08] Zach states "hurry and care cannot coexist" and suggests using meetings for relationships, not information exchange. [42:17] Zach explains these "soft" skills need rigorous practice as attention spans dropped to 47 seconds and leadership requires separate human skills. [46:19] Zach challenges leaders to master human skills because leadership is a separate occupation requiring separate skills. [48:20] And remember…"The business of business is relationships; the business of life is human connection." - Robin S. Sharma Quotable Quotes "It's almost impossible for anything to matter to someone who doesn't first believe that they matter." "All human energy is an outcome of knowing that we matter." "The ultimate energizer is knowing that you and your life and your work are worthy of your energy." "We don't build confidence on our own. We build true confidence when we know someone has our back." "People need to be valued to add value." "Feeling valued gives us the confidence we need to add value. The more we add value, the more we see the evidence of our significance, the more we feel valued." "Hurry and care cannot coexist." "When leaders can't connect, they usually try to control. We try to control what we don't understand." "Loneliness is not the outcome of being alone. Loneliness is the outcome of feeling that you don't matter." "It's the quality of the interaction that matters, not the quantity when it comes to loneliness." "People will not care until they feel cared for." "Leadership is a separate occupation. It is a separate occupation that requires a separate set of skills." "Optimism is the belief that the future can be better and that I have what it takes to make it better." "AI will take your job if you do not master the human skills to cultivate trust and care." "The heart of leadership is to inspire." "Feedback without a relationship comes across as aggression." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Zach Mercurio Website | www.zachmercurio.com Zach Mercurio Facebook | www.facebook.com/ZMercurio Zach Mercurio LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/zachmercurio Zach Mercurio Instagram | @zachmercurio Essential Skills to Create a Culture of Mattering - Zach Mercurio
Todd Sattersten brings over 20 years of experience in nonfiction book publishing, and is the author of "The 100 Best Books for Work and Life." He's also the publisher at Bard Press and has dedicated his career to helping leaders navigate the overwhelming world of business literature. In this episode, Todd reveals how he curated 100 essential books into 25 problem-focused chapters, moving beyond traditional business categories to address both professional and personal challenges leaders face. He explains why growth comes from believing change is possible and how daily effort accumulates into meaningful progress. Todd discusses the shift from data-heavy business books toward more introspective, permission-giving literature that acknowledges the chaotic nature of modern leadership. Todd discusses the difficulty of finding quality fiction with positive leadership examples and his preference for books that help readers ask different questions rather than provide step-by-step formulas. Todd concludes by stressing the importance of reading with intention, distinguishing between reading for entertainment versus insight, and building sustainable reading habits that focus on addressing real challenges rather than collecting impressive quotes. Listen to discover how to navigate information overload, identify truly transformative books, and develop the reading habits that separate effective leaders from those who simply accumulate knowledge. You can find episode 482 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Todd Sattersten on The 100 Best Books for Work and Life https://bit.ly/TLP-482 Key Takeaways [03:42] Todd explains his selection process started with 60-70 known books, then Todd describes how the 25 topics emerged naturally from the books themselves - goal setting, habits, leadership, relationships, motivation. [06:48] Todd identifies two key patterns to accumulate people's consistent actions: "growth comes from the belief that change is possible" and "daily effort matters." [13:28] Todd explains that great books redefine problems to create different solutions, citing examples like focusing on better customers rather than better products. [16:02] Todd reveals he's nervous about trendy books, especially about companies or leaders that don't hold up over time. [20:51] Todd believes people recognize tremendous value in listening to work others have already done, whether from Stoics, Buddhists, or other traditions. [23:50] Todd emphasizes reading requires choosing between entertainment versus insight, asking "how will I act differently after reading this." [27:03] Todd explains the data-heavy book trend came from 30 years of neuroscience research but now sees a shift toward permission-giving books. [31:50] Todd identifies "Your Brain at Work" by David Rock as his top pick for explaining brain function limitations. [35:40] Todd describes "Reboot" by Jerry Colonna as transformative for connecting personal stories to leadership effectiveness. [39:17] Todd concludes by encouraging leaders to "build a habit of reading" since most successful leaders are readers. [40:09] And remember…"The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who will get me a book I ain't read." - Abraham Lincoln. Quotable Quotes "Growth comes from the belief that change is possible." "Daily effort matters." "A different way to define the problem creates a different way to solve the problem." "If you don't understand the stories that you have about yourself, then you can't possibly be the best possible leader." "Fiction can provide a really great perspective." "The work is internal most of the time. It's not, hey, I need to go fix some business thing." "Leadership is a journey of growth." "A book still does something that almost every other art form doesn't do." "The people who understand the value of books understand there's a tremendous value in listening to the work others have already done." "Identifying a set of effective solutions… that's what leaders need." "Please build a habit of reading. I can't think of a better habit for a leader." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Todd Sattersten Website | http://toddsattersten.com Todd Sattersten LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/toddsattersten Todd Sattersten Instagram | @toddsattersten
Michael Ventura is an entrepreneur, author of "Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership", and advisor to leaders at organizations including the ACLU, Google, Nike, and the UN. He has taught emotionally intelligent leadership at Princeton, West Point, and Esalen. In this episode, Michael explores why our natural childhood empathy fades as adults due to life complexity, cultural conditioning, and survival mechanisms that suppress this innate behavior. He explains how organizational design can create systems where empathy thrives through measurement, rewards, and leadership modeling rather than trying to change people individually. Michael outlines seven empathetic archetypes that leaders can shift between like gears: the Sage (practices presence), Inquirer (asks great questions), Convener (creates connection environments), Confidant (builds trust), Cultivator (provides vision), Seeker (values self-work), and Alchemist (experiments and learns). He emphasizes knowing when to shift archetypes based on circumstances and people. He addresses why leaders struggle to guide rather than control, explaining how successful leaders must transition from having answers to asking questions and empowering others. Michael explains empathy's benefits through a GE medical imaging case study where understanding patient experience led to environmental changes that cut pain complaints in half and increased cancer detection by over 10%. Listen to this episode to discover how empathy drives retention, innovation, and competitive advantage while serving as both leadership skill and business strategy. You can find episode 481 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Michael Ventura on The New Language of Leadership https://bit.ly/TLP-481 Key Takeaways [02:19] Michael explains that empathy fades as we age because life beats it out of us in some ways. [05:10] Michael outlines three types of empathy: affective (golden rule), somatic (physical experience), and cognitive (platinum rule). [07:27] Michael emphasizes that empathy must be embraced and modeled as a behavior from the top all the way down. Michael warns that empathy requires a code of ethics because "sociopaths are good cognitive empaths." [10:11] Michael clarifies that his keynote's first slide always says empathy is not about being nice. [13:06] Michael describes seven empathic archetypes as "gears in a manual transmission" that leaders should shift between. [19:05] Michael advises leaders to ask "How do you learn? How are you motivated?" to diagnose which archetype to use. [22:18] Michael states "Leaders should only do what an individual or team cannot do for itself" because leaders must transition from having all the answers to asking the right questions. [23:47] Michael shares that West Point teaches empathy because officers must lead people from "every socioeconomic stripe imaginable." [29:07] Michael cites retention as a hard benefit, noting it costs "1 1/2 times the salary" to replace someone. [35:54] Michael shares what he wandered; he's writing a book about moving from "North Star thinking to constellation thinking" for purpose. [38:33] Michael observes society lost its "emotional commons" where everyone shared the same cultural experiences. [42:17] Michael advises leaders to start empathy work "where the need is the greatest" rather than organization-wide. [43:42] And remember..."I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it." - Maya Angelou Quotable Quotes "Life beats it out of us in some ways." "We start to see ourselves as the main character a little too much sometimes and forget that there are other characters in the play all around us." "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. And the only way you're going to know that answer is if you do two things that most humans don't want to do. Admit they don't have an answer and then go ask the uncomfortable question." "Sometimes the most empathic thing that you do is say the hard thing or do the hard thing for someone else." "Stop trying to be the most interesting person in the room and start trying to be the most interested person in the room." "Leaders should only do what an individual or team cannot do for itself." "Don't tell people what to do. Tell them what outcome you want and let them surprise you with how they get it done." "When something is powerful and something is effective, just recognize it can be used for bad as well." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com TLP389: Worry is a Misuse of Imagination with Harris III Michael Ventura Website | www.michaelventura.co Michael Ventura X | @michaelventura Michael Ventura Facebook | www.facebook.com/themichaelventura Michael Ventura LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mvmvmv Michael Ventura Instagram | @michaelventura
Tamara Myles is a speaker, professor, and co-author of "Meaningful Work: How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee." She specializes in the science of human flourishing at work and serves as faculty at Boston College and the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, Tamara challenges the biggest misconception leaders hold about purpose and productivity. She explains how leaders often view these as opposing forces, when research shows they actually create a virtuous cycle that drives engagement, performance, and innovation. Tamara emphasizes that self-awareness through intentional reflection time is essential for productivity, as leaders who carve out solitude to think strategically can better connect their work to meaningful impact. Tamara shares insights from studying positive outlier organizations and leaders who excel at creating meaningful work environments. She identifies role modeling as the number one factor that moves the needle in changing team behavior and performance. Discover how purpose and productivity work together to create high-performing teams that feel fulfilled in their work. You can find episode 480 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | https://bit.ly/TLP-480 Key Takeaways [02:53] Tamara explains the biggest misconception is that purpose and productivity "are at odds with each other" when they "create a virtuous cycle." [03:49] Tamara confirms leaders are responsible for 48% of our experience of meaning at work. [05:51] Tamara outlines her framework of three pillars: community, contribution, and challenge. [10:30] Tamara emphasizes that "clarity around values" is foundational to meaningful work. [12:49] Tamara highlights that reflection is actually a huge part of creating that meaning at work. [15:40] Tamara explains that bad management habits get passed down from generation to generation. [18:49] Tamara identifies "role modeling the behaviors" as "the number one needle mover." [21:48] Tamara confirms that alignment between spoken values and actual behaviors is huge. [25:57] Tamara explains to work on things that are important but not urgent yet. [30:02] Tamara defines community as "do I matter here," contribution as "does what I do matter," and challenge as "does my growth matter here." [32:29] Tamara shares that Americans are "much more achievement driven" while Brazilians are "much more relational." [36:38] Tamara explains workplaces are one of the last places where people from different backgrounds still come together. Tamara discusses that what really matters is how they design the time that they are together. Tamara connects consequences to "going back to clarity and expectations. [42:44] Tamara closes with three daily questions: "who did I connect with," "is something better in the world," and "did I learn something today." [44:44] And remember…“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” - Rumi Quotable Quotes "Purpose is a symptom." "Clear is kind." "Reflection is actually a huge part of creating that meaning at work." "These bad management habits get passed down from generation to generation." "The number one needle mover is role modeling the behaviors that they want to see." "Alignment between spoken values and then actual behaviors is huge." "We are all humans. We are fallible. Nobody's perfect." "Our workplaces are one of the last places where people from different backgrounds with different ideologies, different beliefs, different skills, maybe different languages, you know, still come together to work on a common goal. What really matters is how they design the time that they are together." "We can have discipline without being rigid." "Every meeting is a decision support system." "Sometimes you need to be direct and you need to be, you know, quick thinking and acting and sometimes you need to be patient." "People just don't know how to run meetings. People don't know how to do the basics of like, follow up and all that. It's just, it's really epidemic bad." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Tamara Myles Website | Tamara Myles LinkedIn | Tamara Myles Instagram |
Siri Chilazi is a senior researcher at the Women in Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, and co-author of "Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results." She helps organizations bridge the gap between research and practice using evidence-based approaches to workplace fairness. In this episode, Siri explains why workplace fairness requires redesigning systems rather than changing people, demonstrating how structured processes like predetermined interview questions produce less biased results than open-ended conversations. She argues that organizations must analyze workforce data to reveal bias patterns in hiring, feedback quality, and career advancement, treating fairness metrics with the same rigor as financial data in business decisions. Siri presents evidence from studies showing that traditional diversity training fails to change actual behavior despite positive participant feedback. She recommends structural alternatives like specific performance evaluation prompts, automated feedback reminders, and technology tools that flag biased language in assessments. She advocates for opt-out promotion systems that automatically evaluate eligible employees rather than requiring them to self-advocate, sharing how this approach increased women and people of color's advancement rates. Siri outlines her three-part framework: "Make it Count" through data tracking, "Make it Stick" via small process tweaks, and "Make it Normal" by shaping workplace culture through individual actions and standards. Siri addresses resistance management by framing fairness discussions around business results rather than ideology, explaining how even skeptical leaders find evidence-based approaches make practical sense for organizational success. In this episode, you’ll discover practical, evidence-based strategies for creating fairer workplaces through smart system design rather than individual behavior change. You can find episode 479 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [03:21] Siri reveals it's much faster, easier, often cheaper, and more effective to change surrounding environments rather than individual brains. [04:59] Siri describes a more effective approach involving asking all candidates the same set of questions in the same order and assessing answers comparatively. [07:07] Siri confirms fairness was chosen intentionally because research shows it's a universally shared human value globally that fairness resonates with leaders because it's impossible to spot talent accurately without it. [09:52] Siri clarifies data can be a powerful engine for change only if actively harnessed and analyzed to reveal insights. [13:48] Siri outlines how organizations should ask whether employees get feedback of the same length and spend different amounts of time at given ranks before promotion. [16:15] Siri explains bias tends to creep into potential assessments because they're more subjective with less formal data. [17:39] Siri confirms more than half a century's worth of studies showing diversity training basically doesn't shift people's behavior making performance evaluation prompts more specific and close-ended as a more effective approach. [23:30] Siri describes opt-out systems where everyone meeting certain criteria gets automatically evaluated for promotion versus opt-in systems. [27:31] Siri explains how an Australian employer reduced the gender gap by telling rejected candidates they were in the top 20% of applicants. [30:16] Siri outlines her three-part framework: make it count, make it stick, and make it normal. [32:54] Siri identifies the biggest resistance that occurs when changes touch leaders' own everyday work directly. [34:01] Siri explains her core aspiration is to shift discussions about fairness from ideology and emotion to data and evidence. [39:44] Siri invites everyone to think of one thing in their daily work they could tweak slightly to make it more fair. [41:04] And remember…“Though force can protect in an emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotable Quotes "Our behaviors are often shaped by the environments that surround us, right? The physical environments, but also the policies, the processes, the norms, the stereotypes, the culture, so to speak. And those external forces shape us to a much greater degree than we realize." "If we want to shift behaviors, it's much faster, easier, often cheaper, and most importantly, much more effective to change that surrounding environment, those systems and processes, rather than to try to change our individual brains." "There's a lot of research that shows that fairness is a universally shared human value globally. Right. People gravitate to fairness. Kids as young as 4 and 5 years old develop a really sophisticated understanding of fairness." "It's actually impossible without fairness to spot talent accurately, to truly hire the best people, and then to evaluate those people objectively so that we make sure that we're advancing and promoting the best, most competent people rather than the ones who, for example, appear most confident on the surface." "Data can be a powerful engine for change, but only if we harness it as such, only if we actively make the data speak." "People often subjectively love the trainings. They'll give it an 11 out of 10 on the score form and they'll report that, oh yes, I learned all these new things I didn't know before. I'm much more motivated now to make sure that I don't evaluate people in a biased way. But then when we follow up with them and see what they actually do in six months, in 12 months, in two years, we just don't see evidence of behavior change." "We often confuse confidence with competence. So just because someone's pounding the table, applying for everything, saying, me, me, I'm ready, give me a raise, promote me, put me on this, that doesn't mean that they're actually the most skilled or competent person for that task." "I really think if. If we make sure we create a culture where people matter, they're appreciated, and that they belong. And again, what surrounds that is fairness. Of course. And again, you know, the whole idea is, you know, you're working toward results. You know, you grow your people, you grow the company." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Siri Chilazi Website | Siri Chilazi LinkedIn | Siri Chilazi Instagram |
Nick Cooney is the founder and managing partner of Lever VC, an early stage fund focused on food and ag tech innovation. He also founded the Lever Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing a humane and sustainable food system, and authored "What We Don't Do: Inaction in the Face of Suffering and the Drive to Do More." In this episode, Nick tackles the Malthusian Trap debate and explains why more people face starvation today in raw numbers than ever before, despite technological advances in food production. He argues that capitalism alone cannot solve global food insecurity because it represents a complex systems problem requiring economic development, better governance, and philanthropic intervention beyond market mechanisms. Nick draws on evolutionary psychology to explain why people naturally care more about local issues than distant suffering, advocating for logic-based approaches to maximize impact. He emphasizes that organizational success breeds engagement more than empowerment structures, warning that flattened organizations often create accountability confusion and poor decision-making when people lack necessary expertise. Nick stresses that leaders should focus on helping teams achieve clear, meaningful results rather than prioritizing feel-good management approaches that may undermine actual effectiveness. Listen to this episode to explore how leaders can address complex global challenges while building more effective and engaged organizations. You can find episode 478 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | https://bit.ly/TLP-478 Key Takeaways [02:17] Nick reveals something not found online that he practices what he preaches by donating a large portion of his annual income to support efforts that reduce suffering in the world. [03:03] Nick explains the struggle with food distribution despite production advances noting that while technology has made food production more efficient there are more people living in extreme poverty and facing starvation today than hundreds of years ago due to raw population growth. [06:45] Nick outlines why investment money sometimes goes to the wrong places explaining there is a fadish nature to venture capital where certain things get in fashion plus ag-tech innovation is often slower to be adopted than other technologies and faces regulatory challenges. [10:26] Nick addresses why capitalism has not solved world hunger stating that while there has been good progress with the percentage of global population in extreme poverty trending down free markets alone are not going to be a full solution. [14:38] Nick explains what drives people to care about issues noting that humans are descended from apes optimized for survival in pre-Agrarian life giving us strong instincts to care about those close to us but having far less concern for those out of sight. [19:16] Nick clarifies his focus is not specifically on hunger but on animal suffering because he spends most of his time on animal suffering since it is an area where there is huge amounts of extreme suffering that does not have to be there. [22:05] Nick discusses managing teams in impact-focused organizations explaining he has been fortunate that his entities were working in areas with clear positive impact so people were attracted to work there because of the positive impact they knew they were having. [27:20] Nick agrees with concerns about flattening organizations stating that excessive flatness can lead to suboptimal results because people may not have the expertise to make smart decisions and it can make empowered people feel discouraged when they fail. [30:49] Nick confirms the abundance-scarcity parallel in organizational design explaining that companies flush with cash get very fat with higher burn rates while cash-tight companies are forced into much smarter decision making by economic necessity. [33:44] Nick explains the impact of inaction in corporate settings noting there is a huge bias towards focusing on what we are doing ethically rather than consequences of inaction but today the biggest harms are caused by failing to put time, money or mental energy into helping those facing extreme suffering. [39:53] Nick reflects on duty of care laws stating it is interesting that legally we treat a child 10 feet away versus 200 feet away dramatically differently even though the outcome is exactly the same if both children suffer and die. [45:28] Nick emphasizes the incredible power individuals actually have, explaining we can save hundreds of lives and spare hundreds of thousands of animals from suffering through really cost efficient charities which means we have a greater level of responsibility to use that power well. [47:21] And remember...“The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.” - George Bernard Shaw Quotable Quotes “What did evolution optimize us for as a species? Survival." "I think it's really important to bring in logic, thoughtfulness, a quantitative analysis if we really want to do the most good that we can." "Any one of us, at least those of us living in the us, Europe, semi industrialized or industrialized countries, we have the ability to literally save the lives of hundreds, thousands of people, spare hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of others from intense suffering." "Free markets alone are not going to solve the problem. They can help it, but there's, or in some cases could hurt it as well." "Today the biggest harms that we cause to others are not caused by bad actions we take. They're caused by our inactions failing to put time, money, or as you were alluding to mental energy into helping those who are facing extreme suffering." "We actually have this really incredible amount of power. We don't think that we do." "Occasionally when everyone is empowered to do something, like no one knows who's supposed to step up and do something, and you kind of get into this situation where you can be a victim of, let's say, the bystander effect." "There is a system for many things that does keep us in check about, keep us accountable for the things we do not do. And that would be in our legal system." "Part of the job of a leader, whether you're trying to run a business or a nonprofit or save the world, is you're trying to get people to care." "I don't know that we spend enough time on the design part and step back and go, well, how do we design an environment where we get the right behaviors psychologically." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Nick Cooney Website | Nick Cooney X | Nick Cooney Facebook | Nick Cooney LinkedIn | Nick Cooney Instagram |
Sara Sabin is an executive leadership and intuition coach. In this episode, she shares her core philosophy that leadership starts with mastering your internal world. Sara describes how leaders can rewire thought patterns through simple daily exercises, explaining the neuroscience behind how small efforts compound for dramatic confidence improvements. She tackles the biggest intuition myth that emotions equal gut feelings, explaining true intuition appears as clear, emotionless flashes while emotions masquerade as insight. Listen to discover why leaning into discomfort and maintaining sharp thinking skills will determine whether you thrive or become obsolete in an AI-driven world. You can find episode 477 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [03:21] Sara explains AI laziness wasn't "one lightning moment" but "a slow creep" of observing marketing and content "starting to look the same." [05:25] Sara distinguishes AI from human delegation, noting team members get the opportunity to expand in a certain area and to use their brain. [07:31] Sara clarifies AI can complement critical thinking if "used after you've done the critical thinking part" but warns replacement impairs your "ability to stand out." [15:01] Sara reveals her core insight that "leadership is an inside job" with every leadership skill having "an internal component." [17:22] Sara explains emotional regulation isn't about "transcending emotion" but "the ability to acknowledge emotions, accept them" when triggered. [20:50] Sara explains habitual thought patterns influence your belief systems which determine your actions and changing them is easier than you might think. [26:30] Sara busts the myth that "emotion is not the same as intuition," defining real intuition as "a very clear, emotionless flash." [32:36] Sara outlines her worst-case AI scenario where "everyone starts to look the same" mentally, losing creativity and becoming "open to manipulation." [39:41] Sara challenges listeners to lean into discomfort and not get lazy while maintaining a sharp brain. [41:17] And remember...“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” - Eliezer Yudkowsky Quotable Quotes "Leadership is an inside job." "Lean into discomfort. Don't get lazy." "Emotion is not the same as intuition." "Your habitual thought patterns influence your belief systems which determine your actions and behaviors and therefore your results." "A little bit of effort every day goes a long way." "Unless you understand the internal pieces that drive the external strategy and make it work, then you won't ever get to the realm of being exceptional." "Until you are in a place of emotional neutrality, you cannot be an excellent communicator, period." "Intuition is just a very clear, emotionless flash of something." "Use your emotional triggers and your resistance to things to learn something." "Pay attention to when you get triggered, it's pointing to a layer that you need to shed." "AI can be a tool to augment and improve critical thinking, but it can't replace critical thinking." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Sara Sabin Website | Sara Sabin LinkedIn | Sara Sabin X |
Jed Brewer is the president and founder of Good Loud Media, a nonprofit organization that uses music and video to drive social impact in underserved communities around the world. In this episode, Jed describes how Good Loud Media operates by bringing together Grammy-winning musicians, renowned psychologists, and subject matter experts to create targeted media campaigns. Jed explores the concept of empathy in leadership and violence prevention. He explains how mass violence stems from a "death of empathy" where people demonize their enemies, and how perspective-taking through music can help restore human connection even in conflict zones. Jed shares his approach to networking as a superpower for creating change. He emphasizes that success is always a team effort and encourages leaders to view their network as the foundation of any meaningful impact. Listen to this episode to discover how music can be engineered to solve complex social problems and learn practical strategies for building powerful networks that drive systemic change. You can find episode 476 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [02:23] Jed reveals something people can't find about him online, that he grew up playing in rock bands and learned at 14 that "music has the power to bring us together" and can "create a place where people feel welcome when they don't feel welcome in other places." [03:36] Jed explains his journey from being a preacher's kid to prison chaplain and also describes how his passion developed through the fusion between music and technology that led him to study engineering while maintaining his love for music, understanding that "technology is a way to drive that forward." [07:02] Jed explains how he got into prison outreach and outlines his startup experience. He reveals a breakthrough discovery. [13:07] Jed explains the business case for underserved populations, noting that pharmaceutical companies are "leaving money on the table" because potential customers aren't aware of life-saving products like HIV medications that "could be using these products." [15:47] Jed connects his faith background to his mission, explaining that his personal faith centers on "love your neighbor as yourself" and finding ways to "reduce human suffering." [17:03] Jed explains how he brings high-caliber people together and he describes the Narcan project. Jed identifies the messaging challenge where some people viewed Narcan as "something that drug users would have" he also outlines his collaborative process where he works with subject matter experts. [24:27] Jed describes distribution strategy where they put the song "everywhere" - radio, social media, and in-person community outreach - celebrating most when "people amplify it to their own network." [26:54] Jed explains his international focus where he started building relationships with creatives worldwide for cost-effective production and he reveals their focus on preventing mass violence. Jed describes their Nigerian mental health success where they embedded therapeutic breathing exercises in music. [32:57] Jed explains music's unique power, noting that unlike speeches that tell people what to think, music tells them "what to think and how to feel at the same time" because "people don't have their guards up about music." [35:48] Jed defines empathy through perspective taking, explaining that empathy begins with consciously thinking "what would it be like to be this other person" and seeing enemies as human beings, even those you disagree with. [40:18] Jed emphasizes networking importance, stating "Your network is your net worth" and "I don't think anybody succeeds alone" because success is always team success, so "the question is, who's on your team?" [44:25] Jed describes his leadership transition where Good Loud Media is shifting from him "doing everything" to "setting other people up to be the people that are doing things" as they expand internationally. [47:27] Jed delivers his closing call to action, saying "You have a vision in your head of something that you can do to make the world a better place... Do it. Now is the time... The world needs you." [49:10] And remember...“Where words fail, music speaks.” - Hans Christian Andersen Quotable Quotes "I learned as a kid that music has the power to bring us together. I learned when I was 14 that music can create a place where people feel welcome when they don't feel welcome in other places." "I have always been a firm believer that networking is just how we all get where we're going. We all do better when we've got the riches of friendship." "Dig your well before you're thirsty." For me, the living out of that faith has to do with love your neighbor as yourself…I think that all of us can agree that whenever possible, lessening the amount of suffering in the world and lessening the amount of suffering that our neighbors and that our loved ones face is the morally right thing for us to pursue." "I have discovered few things that produce as much genuine magic as simply asking... There's a famous phrase, you have not, because you ask not. I have learned to ask pretty boldly for things, and most of the time people say yes." "Your network is your net worth. The people that, you know, are. That is your riches in life." "I don't think anybody succeeds alone... I think that success is always team success." "You're telling them what to think and how to feel at the same time. Music is a guided meditation that has both a cognitive and an emotive aspect happening in parallel."In mass violence, there's a death of empathy." "The only way forward is to see our enemies as human beings. And that really is what empathy is." "I think empathy in many ways begins and ends with perspective taking." "There are different seasons in life and there are different phases, and we pass in and out of them." "You have a vision in your head of something that you can do to make the world a better place. I know you do... Do it. Now is the time. Not next week, not next year. Do it. Get started. It won't get easier. The best time to do it is right now.We need you. Get to work. This is your moment, the sign you've been waiting for. This is that sign. Get started with your thing that's going to make the world a better place." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jed Brewer Website | Good Loud Media Facebook | Jed Brewer LinkedIn | Good Loud Media Instagram |
Nicola Ilic is a social entrepreneur, activist, and adjunct professor of leadership at Georgetown University. He's the founder of Changelab and applies lessons from grassroots movements to transform how leaders build agency in others. In this episode, Nikola defines democratic leadership as enabling people to exercise leadership regardless of title when facing uncertainty rather than voting or consensus-building. The key difference is that instead of becoming the authority figure people depend on, democratic leaders create agency in their teams to handle challenges independently. He says that most leadership development initiatives fail to transform because they focus on comprehension rather than experiential learning. Nicola discusses the challenge facing emerging leaders who grew up in protected environments and can't handle uncertainty, explaining how leaders must create developmental challenges for their teams. Listen to discover how to enable others to reach their leadership potential. You can find episode 475 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [02:34] Nikola reveals he played basketball seriously in Serbia as a point guard, which taught him "individual excellence, work ethics and team play." [04:20] Nikola explains democratic leadership centers around "how do you relate to uncertainty" based on observing his young daughters. He notes that "authoritarians are always also fear mongers" because creating fear makes people search for a parental authority figure. [08:40] Nikola says to make our companies, our teams, our organizations better is to focus on the core, which is enabling people to "exercise leadership in the face of uncertainty, no matter what is their title". [11:53] He emphasizes that transformation requires "tacit learning" through immersed experience, like presenting to 40 CEOs despite being scared. [18:34] He shares his two most powerful questions: "what do you think?" and "tell me more" which he uses with kids, students, and everyone to develop their thinking. [20:50] Nikola explains how leaders course-correct reactive behavior is that leaders must enable all the talents because you need all the brains you can get. [26:07] He clarifies that "voting is not democracy - it's the ability to surface various ideas, let them compete and then come up with the best one" creating a "free market of ideas" and co-creation process. [31:15] Nikola teaches that effective democratic leaders must "differentiate initiative and extroversion from leadership" and act like "a conductor in the orchestra" who knows each team member's personality and draws out contributions from introverted members. [34:31] He notices three things in young leaders: people from "well protected childhoods" have "underdeveloped their ability to handle uncertainty," everyone is "looking for purpose," and many feel "there's something deeper that we need to change." [37:28] Nikola confirms students must test themselves and asks them "what is the highest good you can imagine?" because "when you aim for something that's huge" and believe in it, "challenges will feel very differently." [40:56] He shares growing up in Serbia during the 1990s war, joining a movement against dictatorship as a teenager, and discovering "we as kids can organize and use nonviolence to overthrow the worst dictator in Europe." [44:31] Nikola invites listeners to become "activists in unlikely places" by building allies through one-on-one conversations before making interventions. [48:15] And remember…“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” - Confucius Quotable Quotes "It just makes you person with a title and authority. Yeah, it's. I like to use this metaphor of, you know, if you see a person with a knife, what do you say oh, here's a chef. Or do you say oh, here's a murderer? Well, it depends what they do with the knife. It's the same with power, authority and title." "The core of Democratic leadership is how do you relate to uncertainty? How do you enable people to exercise leadership in the face of uncertainty, no matter what is their title." "Once acquire self reliance, kill is now there. And it's part of her identity, it's part of pride." "What do you think? And tell me more. These are two most powerful questions." "If you talk to anyone who built a successful business, they always tell you it's about playing a long game because who cares about short term if it's going to be wiped out long term?" "It's not voting. Voting is not democracy. Voting is just A part of democracy, right? It's the ability to surface various ideas, let them compete and then come up with the best one." "As Nietzsche said, he or she who knows why to live can bear. Anyhow, if you're doing something that you believe in, challenges will feel very differently." "If you want to change something in your organization, you can, but you have to think about it as a little activist project." "We got to connect the comprehension to the actual transformation." "At the end of the day, country, company, whatever it is, the vote happens with dollars. Okay, where do consumers spend their money? Consumers spend their money. That's how the best ideas percolate to the top and win." "We control two things. Where we spend our time and how we respond to our environment." "Your circle of influence is bigger than you think, potentially. "There's three things you can do. You can suck it up, you can try to change it, or you can move on." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | ChangeLab | Nicola Ilic LinkedIn | Nicola Ilic's Newsletter: "Pulse of Change" |
Anne Marie Anderson is a three-time Emmy winner with 36 years in sports television, including a decade as a producer at ESPN working with elite athletes and executives. She's the author of "Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win" and has navigated multiple career pivots throughout her professional life. In this episode, Anne Marie reveals that audacity isn't reserved for the naturally fearless but can be developed as a learnable skill. Anne Marie explains that true audacity requires getting comfortable with failure, surviving it, and trying again. She identifies four barriers that stop leaders: fear, time, money, and that inner critic. Elite performers don't silence their inner critic but examine its messages with neutral curiosity. Anne Marie teaches her catastrophize your life technique for evaluating risks by imagining the worst possible outcomes. This helps distinguish between legitimate concerns and irrational fears that paralyze decision-making. She emphasizes that the cost of inaction is always higher than the price of failure. Anne Marie introduces the concept of your front row, the people who challenge you and tell you the truth. She advocates for shape shifting leadership and shares how vulnerability became key to her transformation. If you're ready to stop letting fear control your biggest decisions, this episode is essential listening. You can find episode 474 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [02:42] Anne Marie reveals what's not publicly known about her: she did adventure travel before kids, rafting dangerous rivers, climbing to Everest base camp, and trekking gorillas in the Congo. [03:39] She explains that audacity requires practice with failing and getting comfortable with failure because "if you're not failing, you're really not pushing yourself to be audacious." [04:32] Anne Marie advises understanding why you want to make a change first, then evaluating what you're willing to risk to get there. [06:18] She identifies that elite athletes control their inner critic by recognizing it and examining messages with neutral curiosity rather than trying to silence it. Anne Marie defines audacity as "optimism that you're going to survive no matter how they work out." [08:26] Anne Marie intentionally shares her failures with her children, showing them rejections she gets to normalize failure as information. [11:36] She shares what to do differently to confront the fear and recommends catastrophizing situations to their ridiculous extreme. [17:06] She explains that your "front row" should be people who challenge and push you, not necessarily your best friends who want to keep you safe. [22:48] Anne Marie describes leaders as "shape shifters" who tailor their approach to each person's individual motivation and needs. [26:00] She distinguishes that urgent tasks are usually responses to others' requests while important tasks move you closer to your values and goals. [28:17] Anne Marie shares how her relationship with vulnerability has changed through the series of transformations she had in her lifetime and career. [31:03] She describes actively seeking rejection to desensitize herself, advising people to "fail first, go fail a lot." [32:54] Anne Marie's closing advice is for leaders to share their vulnerabilities and be "shape shifting leaders" who find the best in everyone. [34:16] And remember...“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” - Dale Carnegie Quotable Quotes "It requires practice, and it requires practice with failing and getting comfortable failing." "If you're not failing, you're really not pushing yourself to be audacious." "Audacity at the base, right, is about optimism. And it's not optimism that things are going to work out the way you want it to. It's optimism that you're going to survive no matter how they work out." "If the price is too high to do the work, to create the change, then wait till you get the bill for regret, because that is super steep." "I would far rather have a list of failures than have a list of regrets." "You're going to get information as to how to take your next step. If you don't take that first step, how do you know where to go?" "Elite performers on that last one, inner critic, have great control of their inner critic power. They don't silence it. You can't silence your inner critic, but you can recognize it for what it is." "Your front row needs to be those people who will challenge you, who will push you, who will tell you the truth." "A great leader is somebody who's going to be able to say, obviously, I have all of these incredibly urgent matters. I'm carving out specific times to work toward our goals, our future." "Things that are urgent are usually in response to a request... Things that are important move us closer to our values, vision, goals, who we want to be." "I tell people, fail first, go fail a lot. Whatever the thing is you're most afraid of, do that one first. When you start actively seeking it out, it becomes easier." "To really understand human behavior, I think you have to understand what people fear." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Anne Marie Anderson Website | Anne Marie Anderson LinkedIn | Anne Marie Anderson Instagram | Sign up for Anne Marie Anderson book updates:
Barry Jesinoski is the National Adjutant and CEO of Disabled American Veterans (DAV), leading an organization with over one million members. In this episode, Barry shares his unconventional journey from a young Marine who needed help to leading one of America's most respected veteran service organizations, despite never completing a college degree. He explains why he limits remote work, and reveals the two fundamental principles that every DAV employee learns from day one. He discusses how integrity and communication became the foundation for building organizational culture.. Barry shares what it truly means to be a "disabled veteran", and explains that many veterans with service-connected disabilities don't consider themselves disabled at all. Barry also reveals how DAV maintains effectiveness in Washington across changing administrations. The organization stays completely apolitical and focuses solely on what benefits veterans, their families, and survivors. This strategy has helped DAV influence virtually every major piece of veteran-friendly legislation while spending only 1% of their budget on lobbying efforts. This episode offers practical wisdom for leaders wondering how to build authentic organizational culture and lead effectively without traditional credentials. You can find episode 473 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Barry Jesinoski on Key Takeaways [02:19] Barry reveals that people would have to dig to discover he doesn't have a college degree, explaining "I believe most people assume that I have a degree, maybe multiple degrees, maybe an advanced degree. I do not have a college degree." [04:01] Barry outlines his journey from Marine Corps service and medical discharge to being hired by DAV despite lacking a college degree, then explains DAV's move from Cincinnati to their current Erlanger, Kentucky headquarters. [07:22] Barry describes their new headquarters' employee benefits and explains his belief that "collaboration and ingenuity production suffers when a workforce is remote, say even beyond 20% of the time." [11:44] Barry establishes his core leadership values of integrity and communication, explaining how these helped him succeed when promoted at age 23 over two colleagues with 20+ years experience. [18:29] Barry clarifies that many veterans with service-connected disabilities don't consider themselves disabled, noting the spectrum ranges from simple scars to full-time care needs, including invisible symptoms like PTSD. [23:54] Barry outlines DAV's broader mission including Washington lobbying, vehicle donation programs, employment matching, volunteer networks, and the Patriot Boot Camp entrepreneurial program with mentoring sessions. [31:06] Barry addresses DAV's political stance, emphasizing "We are completely apolitical. We have to be" and explaining they support anything "good for veterans, their family members and their survivors." [34:26] Barry directs people to learn more about DAV through their website at dav.org and mentions they have "about 1.4 million followers on social media." [35:57] And remember...“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotable Quotes "When I talk about integrity, I'm really talking about people who do what they say they will, people who always project a good image of our organization, people who listen before being heard, people who put in an honest day's work and take pride in their work, and people who respect others." "The communication part, that's really about communicating honestly, actively and proactively, really asking questions when you have them, especially when you're new." "I believe that distance or absence makes the heart grow colder, not fonder." "I'm a firm believer that collaboration and ingenuity production suffers when a workforce is remote, say even beyond 20% of the time." "Many of us who are technically qualified or considered to be by the VA disabled veterans... we don't consider ourselves disabled at all. I'm not. I didn't consider myself disabled when I was medically discharged from the Marines and I haven't considered myself as such a day since." "If it's good for veterans, their family members and their survivors, we're on it. If it's bad for that same group of people, we're on it. And we will call out lawmakers who are not doing right, we believe by our veterans any and every day of the week." "I found that operating with integrity and through strong communication served me well in my career." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Website | Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Facebook | Disabled American Veterans (DAV) X | Disabled American Veterans (DAV) LinkedIn |
Dr. Margaret Heffernan has written six books including "Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril" and "Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future," both widely recognized as top business books. Dr. Heffernan returns to the Leadership Podcast with insights from her new book "Embracing Uncertainty: How writers, musicians and artists thrive in an unpredictable world." She challenges conventional wisdom on how we think about decision-making in uncertain times. She reveals why leaders need to step away from predictive algorithms and reclaim their human capacity for intuition. She discusses the difference between healthy uncertainty and harmful vagueness, sharing practical techniques for leaders who want to make better decisions without drowning in endless analysis. She reveals why agenda-free meetings often produce better results than structured ones, and how silence can be more powerful than speaking. Through personal examples, Dr. Heffernan demonstrates how apparent failures can become unexpected successes when we learn to sit with uncertainty rather than rush to conclusions. This episode provides actionable insights for leaders who want to navigate uncertainty with confidence, make decisions with incomplete information, and create space for the unexpected insights that drive breakthrough thinking. You can find episode 472 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [03:32] Dr. Heffernan reveals what's not in her public bio: she's been trying to grow vegetables for about 10 years and is still absolutely terrible at it, and she's currently learning Italian, which is a deeply humbling experience. [04:53] Dr. Heffernan explains that leaders can reclaim intuition for better decision-making by absorbing quality information through everyday observations—like walking city streets or eavesdropping on conversations—to "restock their mental kitchen" with rich ingredients that will inform future choices when needed. [10:11] Dr. Heffernan confirms that when you slow down, thoughts bubble to the surface - some mundane like "oh God, I forgot to feed the cat," others valuable like identifying the right person for a job that your brain was processing subconsciously. [11:59] Dr. Heffernan distinguishes between necessary ambiguity and harmful vagueness by explaining that decisions are always ambiguous because they're "hypotheses about the future," but harmful vagueness occurs when leaders don't ask clear questions or establish what decision needs to be made. [17:09] Dr. Heffernan describes transforming a board she chairs from having overly strict agendas to focusing on "what are the three most important things we need to be talking about right now," explaining she has more often seen time wasted from detailed agendas than loose ones. [20:33] Dr. Heffernan explains that "action is how you search" - you can talk, think, and research forever, but the only way to know if something will work is to start, emphasizing that what really matters is beginning, not necessarily where you start. [23:06] Dr. Heffernan suggests that risk tolerance may actually be lower than ever before, but people's level of anxiety drives them to reduce risk, working with wealthy companies whose "risk aversion is almost tangible" despite having enormous resources. [24:36] Dr. Heffernan acknowledges that artists and musicians must be vulnerable to put themselves out there, but explains that most people she's worked with have high risk tolerance because "if you're going to do something meaningful and worthwhile, probably going to be something you haven't done before." [26:35] Dr. Heffernan shares that her book "Willful Blindness" initially seemed like a failure with only a couple of reviews after six months, but took off after making the Financial Times Business Book Award longlist and continues to have readers over a decade later. [28:53] Dr. Heffernan explains her motivation for writing "Embracing Uncertainty" stems from her belief that "the marginalization of the humanities and the arts, the defunding of the arts" is doing "immense harm" and represents "a gigantic loss, not just to the arts, but to all aspects of life." [32:01] Dr. Heffernan outlines her ideal leadership retreat opening: "sending people out for a walk and coming back to report what they saw," explaining this practice "wandering around stuff" and would reveal amazingly different observations from different people. [33:43] Dr. Heffernan suggests the better instruction for the walking exercise would be "noticed" rather than "saw" because "you could notice in all sorts of different ways," allowing people to focus on hearing, feeling, or thinking differently. [40:57] Dr. Heffernan explains she's become "much less concerned about planning now," leaving more margins for things to go wrong and scheduling less frantically to create "space and time for things to happen." [42:39] Dr. Heffernan describes a transformative experiment where she appointed herself "the listener" in meetings, discovering that when you're not looking for moments to speak, "you actually are listening to the person who's speaking instead of rehearsing in your mind what you're going to say next." [45:48] Dr. Heffernan concludes that leaders should remember "what's uncertain is a whole range of things that are possible" and warns against "demanding too much certainty too fast" because "what's certain is what's known and something you've done before," while innovation requires exploring uncertainty rather than shutting it down. [46:57] And remember...“Uncertainty is a very good thing: it's the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.” - Tim Crouch Quotable Quotes "Intuition is a very accelerated retrieval of a lot of stuff that's been roaming around in your head. The issue is, how do you make sure that the stuff roaming around in your head is quality stuff." "Action is how you search. You can talk about stuff forever. You can think about stuff forever. You can research stuff forever. But the acid test is, do you start?" "What's uncertain is a whole range of things that are possible. Be careful of demanding too much certainty too fast in too many domains because what's certain is what's known and something you've done before." "If you're desperate to speak, you don't listen. I realized that's what I'd been doing a lot of my life - looking for the moment where I could land my brilliant contribution." "The only way I can know if I can write a book is to write a book. I can think about it forever, but actually, I will never know unless I do it." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Margaret Heffernan Website | Dr. Margaret Heffernan X | Dr. Margaret Heffernan Instagram | Dr. Margaret Heffernan Facebook |
Kurt Gray is a professor of psychology and neuroscience, and the author of "Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground." In this episode,. Kurt explains why our workplaces have become battlegrounds of moral outrage. Kurt's groundbreaking premise challenges the fundamental assumptions leaders make about motivation and conflict. While we've been taught that humans are driven by conquest and dominance, Kurt's research reveals we're actually hardwired as prey animals, constantly scanning for threats and seeking protection through tribal bonds. This isn't just academic theory—it's the key to understanding why your team members react with such intensity to seemingly minor workplace conflicts, why facts fail to resolve disputes, and why traditional leadership approaches often backfire in our current climate of perpetual outrage. Kurt reveals why social media has weaponized our ancient prey instincts, creating what Kurt calls "moral panics" that spread faster than ever before. Kurt introduces the revolutionary concept of "stories of harm"—the narratives that drive all moral conflict. Kurt also discusses the "vulnerability paradox"—how the strongest leaders actually become more effective by showing vulnerability first. Kurt outlines his practical framework for CIVil discourse: Connect, Invite, and Validate. This isn't corporate speak or sensitivity training. It's a research-backed approach that acknowledges our prey psychology while channeling it toward productive outcomes. Leaders learn how to connect with people as human beings before diving into disagreements, how to genuinely invite different perspectives without triggering defensive responses, and how to validate concerns without necessarily agreeing with conclusions. This episode is a timely reminder that outrage doesn’t have to define us and that leadership starts with understanding how others perceive harm. You can find episode 471 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [02:28] Kurt reveals he starts out in geophysics before transitioning to psychology, looking for natural gas in the Canadian wilderness before studying people's minds. [03:35] Kurt explains that while we think of humans as apex predators based on museum dioramas of cave people with spears, we're actually fairly weak and were more likely hiding from predators in the past, worried about getting eaten. [06:49] Kurt explains that people work together in groups for protection - one human naked in the wilderness won't survive long, so we need teams to help us survive and protect each other from threats. [08:17] Kurt explains that emotions and gut feelings drive our decisions more than facts, and when people have strong moral convictions, they dismiss facts from the other side as "not the right facts" or "not real facts." [11:24] Kurt suggests framing challenges as positive ways to rise to the occasion rather than focusing on fear, emphasizing resilience and future-facing thinking about how teams can be stronger. [13:21] Kurt emphasizes seeing people as three-dimensional rather than flattening them to just the opinion you disagree with, and highlighting common values and missions that organizations share. [14:54] Kurt acknowledges the trend of self-segregation but suggests focusing on deeper unifying concerns about protecting ourselves, families, companies, and nations from harm. [17:57] Kurt explains multiple factors including cable news, social media's ability to incite moral panics through limitless threats paired with virality metrics, and the resulting purity tests when people feel threatened. Kurt explains that debates often center on "who's the real victim" - in immigration, the right sees American citizens as victims while the left sees undocumented immigrants as victims fleeing violence. [23:16] Kurt explains that in group conflicts, minds think of moral competitions as binary (perpetrator or victim), and people stick to victimhood claims because it's better to be the victim than the perpetrator. [27:51] Kurt explains that vulnerability creates connection - when forced to be vulnerable with others (like being stuck in wilderness conditions), people bond incredibly because they're all in trouble together. [30:38] Kurt references Nick Epley's studies where people on Chicago trains think deep conversations would be awkward but actually love them, bonding much faster through meaningful questions rather than small talk. [32:54] Kurt confirms this, explaining our minds are hardwired to find threats, so when obvious threats like starvation don't exist, we expand minor threats into big ones - calling this "creep of harm." [36:28] Kurt confirms that our minds evolve to protect us from harm by paying attention to places where we feel victimized in the past, like always remembering an intersection where you get mugged. [39:01] Kurt outlines Connect (ask questions to connect as human beings before discussing politics), Invite (genuinely invite them to share beliefs with motivation to understand), and Validate (appreciate their vulnerability in sharing without immediately arguing back). [43:28] Kurt emphasizes asking "what harms do they see?" when confronted with someone who disagrees, as this takes you out of your own mind into theirs and allows you to meet them where they're at. [45:38] And remember...“Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.” - Immanuel Kant Quotable Quotes "We are more hunted than hunter." "Conflict flattens people and it flattens people to just the opinion that they have that you disagree with." "People say, you know what I want. I want the facts... And then people say, not those facts. Those are not the right facts. Those are not real facts. Facts are very flimsy, especially in cases where we have strong moral convictions." "Social media is so good at inciting moral panics because it has two features. One of them is a limitless supply of threats... And two, it pairs these threats with virality metrics." "The way to be comfortable being vulnerable with others is, in fact, by trying to get other people to be comfortable being vulnerable with you." "The safer we are, the more we take minor threats and we expand them in our minds to be big threats." "We should, as leaders take a Hippocratic oath to do no harm." "The reason we work is not just to make money and take care of our families. We work, you know, in the service of other human beings to make other people's lives better." "A lot of the behavior we see in the work world is based on fear." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Kurt Gray Website | Kurt Gray X | Kurt Gray LinkedIn | Kurt Gray Instagram |
Ken Rusk is owner of Rusk Industries and bestselling author of "Blue-Collar Cash: Love Your Work, Secure Your Future, and Find Happiness for Life". Ken is also a motivational speaker who achieved WSJ Bestseller status with Blue-Collar Cash during the pandemic. In this episode, Ken reveals why 77 million Americans still work with their hands, yet blue-collar careers remain stigmatized. He shares his revolutionary approach to employee engagement through what he calls "hiring the whole person" - not just the eight hours they work, but understanding their dreams, goals, and what they're chasing in life. Ken also discusses the critical difference between reactive and proactive work environments, why blue-collar workers often have more control over their outcomes than white-collar employees, and how leaders can create what he calls "momentum mechanisms" that align personal and corporate goals. He shares memorable stories from his entrepreneurial journey, including the moment he realized two employees were making him money while he worked elsewhere, and the life-changing experience of working for someone who "thought big" in every aspect of life. Ken's pragmatic approach to leadership development, employee engagement, and business growth offers actionable insights for leaders in any industry who want to create environments where people can design the lives they want while contributing to organizational success. You can find episode 470 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [03:11] Jan raises the question of how leaders can reshape the way society sees dignity and value in all kinds of work. Ken points out that nearly half of the 167 million fully employed Americans still work with their hands, a reminder that blue collar work remains essential. [04:59] Ken highlights that blue collar workers often have more control over what they produce, which gives them a direct connection to their work. He describes the “stand back moment” — a sense of pride in creating something tangible, a feeling that’s often missing in office jobs. [07:35] Reflecting on 38 years in business, Ken shares how his company grew from 6 to over 200 people. He talks about building a culture that made "ditch digging cool" before workplace culture was even a buzzword — hiring not just for the hours on the job but for the full person behind the role. [11:33] Ken talks about assigning someone the role of “Chief Culture Officer” or “Chief Cool Officer” to keep the company environment engaging. They swapped the word "goals" for "time pathways" and made personal milestones visible, so people feel invested in their work and each other. [14:08] Ken notes how side gigs have become more common. With tools like social media and mobile banking, many are turning hobbies — like making epoxy river tables into thriving weekend businesses selling for thousands. [16:00 Ken says his definition of success has shifted. What matters most now is time having the freedom to step back, see the big picture, and choose how to engage with his businesses. [17:15] One hard-earned lesson for Ken: drop the ego. He realized building a company isn’t about being the hero, it’s about finding people with entrepreneurial spirit and letting them lead because sometimes they’ll take it even further than he could alone. [19:15] Ken shares how he communicates financial responsibility by focusing on ROI instead of just dollars. He encourages department heads to think like owners by sharing profits from new revenue or cost savings creating buy-in from top to bottom. [23:49] When teaching ROI, Ken keeps it simple. He gives team leads a whiteboard and makes them subtract expenses manually — like balancing a checkbook — so they understand how their actions impact profits they can share in. [25:52] Ken encourages young people to ask "why" before choosing college or a trade. He suggests drawing a picture of their ideal life — the home, lifestyle, hobbies — then working backwards from that to choose a path. The key isn’t what you do, but what you do with it. [30:23] Ken shares two defining moments: one, realizing he could earn income even when not physically present on a job site; and two, working for someone who lived and thought on a massive scale. Both experiences showed him the power of big thinking and building something bigger than himself. [36:56] To close, Ken encourages people to block out the noise of expectations. Everyone knows what they truly want deep down. The key is to put that vision in front of you, let it guide you, and go live the life you actually want. [39:03] And remember...“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.” — Aristotle Quotable Quotes "Almost half the people in the United States are in some form of working with their hands to create, fix, repair, build something." "When you hire somebody, it used to be that you hired the eight hours that they were alive and working. Well, you better now know what that something else is." "When you have corporate goals that are on the same track and same speed as personal goals of the people within it, that's where this amazing synergy happens." "Time is probably your most valuable asset that you're ever going to own." "Did I open this company for it to run me or for me to run it?" "You're going to find out that their seedlings might even be higher than yours. You might be your own self limiter." "I don't necessarily think it's as important what you do for a living as it is what you do with what you do for a living." "You really need to stop listening to all the noise of societal expectations and even what other people think you should do." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Ken Rusk Website | Comfort Peace and Freedom Foundation | Ken Rusk X | Ken Rusk Facebook | Ken Rusk LinkedIn | Ken Rusk Instagram |
In this episode, Jim and Jan explore the power of doing nothing and why it might be the most strategic move a leader can make. They begin with a discussion on Jan’s Crucible® expeditions, and the consistent lesson is that you have to slow down to speed up. For Jim, it means intentional time without distractions. For Jan, it means hiking alone in silence, letting his mind wander and connect unexpected thoughts. They share how leaders like Einstein and Da Vinci embraced doing nothing as a form of active thinking. Jim and Jan also talk about character and discipline, referencing General Stanley McChrystal’s formula where character equals conviction times discipline. They explain how many people are disciplined but have never paused to ask whether their actions are aligned with their true values. They also stress that alignment is not a one-time event but a continuous process that requires regular feedback and adjustment. Jim and Jan also talk about the pressure people feel today, especially around layoffs and uncertainty. They highlight the importance of stepping back to identify the real problem before jumping into action. Jim points out that when leaders rush to act without reflecting, they waste those resources. Jim and Jan believe leaders need a think list, not just endless to-do lists. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure where to focus next, this episode is a chance to reset. You can find episode 468 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [01:22] Jan asked Jim what he learned from his three crucibles. Jim said the biggest lesson is that “you have to unplug.” Solitude and stillness are essential for deep thinking and avoiding distractions. Jan added that you have to slow down to speed up, a principle he discovered during a hike in the snow-covered mountains. [02:29] Jan shared that doing nothing doesn’t mean sitting still. His mind was racing during the hike, processing thoughts like a “1985 MTV video.” He explained that movement without distractions lets his thoughts roam freely and helps him reset mentally. He drew inspiration from Einstein, who used solitude to spark creativity. [04:04] Jan discussed General McChrystal’s formula: character equals conviction times discipline. He said discipline alone is not enough if your convictions are flawed. Jim referenced a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: if you have six hours to cut down a tree, spend three sharpening the axe. He stressed the importance of thinking before acting. [07:02] Jan advised leaders to keep a think list instead of a to-do list. He asked Jim how he finds time to think. Jim shared how stepping back during his entrepreneurial journey helped him recognize the right opportunity. Jim said doing nothing is about quieting your mind to open your eyes and ears. He explained that opportunities often go unnoticed when you’re laser-focused or moving too fast. [10:20] Jan said people under pressure need to “do nothing” in a productive way, like building relationships. He recalled early career advice that helped him shift from non stop work to meaningful connections. Jan reflected on how aging helped him realize what truly matters. He emphasized learning from others’ mistakes to save time. [13:56] Jim used to tell veterans to focus on themselves before helping others. He later realized that helping others while seeking support lifts your spirits and sharpens your own clarity. Jim encouraged leaders to define the problem clearly before solving it. In meetings, he suggests everyone write down what problem they think they’re solving. If the team isn’t aligned on the problem, they can’t solve it effectively. [16:05] Jan shared a military lesson on shooting an azimuth to stay on course. He explained that even small mistakes in direction compound over time. Jim said alignment is not a one-time event but a continuous process. Jan emphasized the need for constant adaptability. Jan also noted that being “lazy” in the right way is really about being efficient with effort and resources. [23:40] Jim explained that efficiency isn’t just about maximizing profit. It’s about managing limited resources like time, money, warehouse space, and customer attention. Jan said energy is another limited resource that must be protected. [25:49] Jan said leaders must care for themselves mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Jim closed by noting that throughout history, great leaders have stepped away to think. Those quiet periods led to their most valuable insights. If you never step back, you may never realize what you’re missing. [28:45] And remember...“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” - May Sarton Quotable Quotes "You have to slow down to speed up." "Some people can sit. I can't sit. My doing nothing is moving." "Character is conviction times discipline." "The pressure's on. Well, what do you think most people are going to do when they hear the pressure's on from the boss? Let's get busy, let's do something." "You should have a think list, not a to do list." "It's not about doing nothing. It's about quieting your mind so you can open your ears and your eyes to see things that were already there." "You gotta take care of yourself, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually..." "You have to schedule quiet time." "Loneliness is the poverty of self. Solitude is the richness of self." — May Sarton "Alignment isn’t a static thing that happened once." "If you don't take the time and make the time to check out, you'll never understand what value you're missing." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jan Rutherford LinkedIn | Jan Rutherford X | Jim Vaselopulos LinkedIn | Jim Vaselopulos xX |
Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert with decades of experience and author of “Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence”. Kevin explores what it takes to lead effectively in a constantly changing environment. He shares why being a “remarkable” leader isn’t about charisma or titles. It’s about intentional actions, self-awareness, and the ability to influence in complex and fast-changing environments. He challenges a common leadership trap: mistaking consistency for rigidity and explains how great leaders remain anchored in values while staying flexible in approach. He explores why so many leaders fail to delegate, how trust and influence suffer in remote settings, and the frequent mistake of promoting technical experts into people leadership roles without preparing them for the shift. He also explains that leadership hasn’t changed at its core, but the growing diversity of values has shifted the context dramatically. Kevin explains the confidence-competence loop and why the right leadership response often lies in managing tensions, not finding balance. He encourages leaders to slow down, reflect with purpose, and make conscious choices that align with the moment’s needs and not just their preferences. If you’ve ever wondered how to lead when the ground keeps shifting beneath you, this episode is one to listen to more than once. You can find episode 467 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [02:39] Kevin shared that he collects antique tractors and matching toy replicas. Growing up on a farm and being involved in his family’s agriculture business gave him real responsibility at a young age. That early exposure shaped how he sees leadership today: through the lens of contribution, accountability, and impact. [05:33] Kevin believes being remarkable starts with recognizing each person's ability to make a difference. It’s about instilling confidence without arrogance and acting intentionally. Great leaders help others believe they are capable and valuable, especially in environments filled with change. [09:40] Kevin challenges the false choice between being consistent or being flexible. He uses the image of a mature tree—rooted but able to bend—as a model for leadership today. Flexibility means changing your approach without compromising core values, especially as the context around you evolves. [13:39] Jim asked how the growing diversity of values affects leadership today. Kevin explained that while human behavior and leadership fundamentals haven’t changed, the context around them has shifted dramatically. [17:35] Many leaders want to delegate but get caught in the mindset that it’s quicker to do things themselves. Kevin frames delegation as an investment, not a transaction. Building trust and capability in others takes time up front, but it's essential—especially in distributed and hybrid work settings. [21:02] Kevin points out that organizations often promote top performers in technical roles without preparing them for leadership. He draws a parallel to sports that great players rarely make great coaches. [23:33] Kevin shares that to be intentional, leaders must slow down and reflect. Whether it’s quiet time during a commute or a simple end-of-day check-in, asking what went well and what could improve helps leaders stay grounded. Kevin stresses that reflection isn’t about ruminating, it’s about learning and adjusting. [29:02] Kevin notes that progress often comes after setbacks. When leaders own what’s theirs and shift focus to outcomes and others. Getting stuck in guilt or blame prevents forward movement. The key is to learn the right lessons and redirect energy to what matters next. [35:13] Kevin leaves us with a challenge: if you're still leading the same way you were before the pandemic, it's time to reassess. The world has changed. Flexible leaders recognize what the situation requires and adjust their approach—not based on habit, but on what will serve their people and outcomes best. [36:52] And remember...“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.” - Bruce Lee Quotable Quotes “Being a flexible leader is about being willing to change my approach based on the context of the situation.” “Delegation has to be an investment.” “To be a truly flexible leader is a really hard task, because I'm suggesting that you have to go past your autoresponder.” “Reflection that informs maybe where the discipline should be.” “The confidence, competence cycle. Right. As we become more confident, it helps our competence, and as we become more competent, we become more confident.” “We think about leadership as being about three O's: outcomes, others and ourselves.” “What we need to do is manage the tension between things more than trying to find a perfect answer.” “If you haven't, if you've been consistent as a leader from then until now, do you think that all of those changes have conspired to make your approach to leading more effective? I'm not taking that bet.” This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Kevin Eikenberry Website | Kevin Eikenberry You tube channel - Kevin Eikenberry The Remarkable Leadership podcast - Kevin Eikenberry X | Kevin Eikenberry Facebook | Kevin Eikenberry LinkedIn | Kevin Eikenberry Instagram |
Retired U.S. Army three-star General Ray Palumbo is co-founder and senior partner of Venturi Solutions, having served 34 years leading conventional and special operations forces during peacetime and combat. A former 160th Squadron pilot and West Point graduate, he now serves on multiple boards and is passionate about supporting injured military veterans and Gold Star families. In this episode, Ray discusses the critical distinction between leadership and generalship, explaining how generals must orchestrate multiple military capabilities while understanding how military power fits into broader national strategy. He reveals how his humble beginnings in a Pennsylvania steel town, raised by educators and coaches, instilled the mental toughness and values that would serve him throughout his military career. Ray explores the transformative experience of joining the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, where constant assessment and high standards created a culture of excellence that changed his life. He breaks down his leadership pyramid model, emphasizing how successful organizations must establish unchanging values, cultivate culture that aligns values with behavior, build strategic capabilities, and communicate vision beyond immediate goals. Ray also addresses the complex challenge facing military veterans in today's polarized political environment, offering hope that stronger, more moderate leadership can bring the country back to "competing within the 40-yard lines." For leaders transitioning from military to corporate environments, veterans feeling disillusioned with current discourse, and executives seeking to build values-based organizations, this episode provides powerful insights on authentic leadership, strategic thinking, and the importance of maximizing life's "scraps of time" for continuous growth. You can find episode 469 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Ray Palumbo on A Leadership Pyramid Model Key Takeaways [05:02] - Ray explains his grandparents owned Columbus Tavern in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he grew up in a coal town, came from a family of educators and coaches, his dad was a high school coach who became principal, and all family members had to play sports which taught mental toughness, discipline, and academic excellence. [06:41] - Ray confirms that the mental toughness his dad instilled, being educators who demanded academic excellence, and learning to be a team player, win, and lose with dignity was definitely ingrained growing up. [07:32] - Ray advises to "hang tough" because "the pendulum swings," believes the political discourse is polarized, and thinks stronger moderate leadership will bring the country back to "fighting the game between the 40 yard lines instead of from end zone to end zone." [09:29] - Ray explains there are similarities between military and corporate leadership, it comes down to values, mentions the army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage, and emphasizes that values must be lived, not just carried in your wallet or on dog tags. [14:22] - Ray distinguishes that military leadership focuses on mission above self with potential personal sacrifice, while corporate leadership focuses on company loyalty and profitability. Generalship involves manipulating multiple capabilities and understanding how the military fits into all elements of national power including diplomatic, information, economic, and financial elements. [19:55] - Ray describes running a Combined Joint Special Operations Task force in Afghanistan where night operations sometimes resulted in civilian casualties, creating information challenges at local, national, NATO, and global news cycle levels, noting they "didn't figure it out at first" but "got better at it as time went on." [23:53] - Ray recalls a two star general telling him "we are all benefited and limited by our experiences," explaining he came from special operations with high expectations and had to learn not to "outrun your headlights" when commanding conventional forces doing complex air assault operations in Germany. [26:20] - Ray mentions working for General McChrystal in JSOC and reading "The Speed of Trust" by Stephen Covey, emphasizing that "trust goes a long way on cold, dark nights" when you have no control but must believe someone will get you where you need to go. [29:14] - Ray describes his pyramid model: establish values as the foundation, cultivate culture that reflects those values, build strategy to achieve desired ends, and communicate vision constantly, emphasizing that leaders must establish organizational values while culture aligns those values to actual personal behavior. [33:31] - Ray believes stronger moderate political leadership is needed but has strong opinions against senior officers opining about the commander in chief because it creates dilemmas for current soldiers who must follow orders while also respecting their former commanders who criticize the president. [37:48] - Ray explains that families have "suffered enough" during military service, today's political discourse involves digging into personal history, and many feel they've "given a lot already" and prefer other ways to help rather than dragging families through political campaigns. [39:09] - Ray shares a story from West Point where General Maxwell Taylor spoke about taking advantage of "scraps of time" throughout life, explaining that instead of hanging out drinking beer, using those moments for reading, studying languages, or practicing skills will put you ahead of competitors over a lifetime. [41:15] And remember..."Humility and knowledge and poor clothes excel Pride and ignorance in costly attire." - William Penn Quotable Quotes "We are all benefited and limited by our experiences." "You don't want to outrun your headlights at times." "When it comes to mission focus, military leadership is loyal to the Constitution and puts mission above yourself." "Generalship, in my view, to answer your question, finally, is understanding the nuance between management of military capabilities and how military, how the military fits into all the other elements of power at the national level." "We need stronger leadership that's more moderate." "I believe that organizations have to be successful organizations and successful leaders have to establish values of the corporation." "Culture is so important in my mind because what is culture? It's. It's aligning the corporate values, the base, to actual personal behavior, how they behave." "If you take advantage of your scraps of time throughout a lifetime, and all things being equal to your competitors, you're going to be ahead." "There's stuff you want to do because you have a bunch of tools on your tool belt. And then there's stuff you should do because the community, country, society, whatever, needs you to do those things, which is going to require sacrifice." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Ray Palumbo LinkedIn |
Dan Manning is the Chief Story Architect at Build The Story, and a former fighter pilot and U.S. diplomat. Dan digs into the difference between storytelling that entertains and storytelling that leads to decisions. Dan breaks down how he helps people choose the right story for the right moment and how every story should reflect a transformation: from fear to confidence, from confusion to clarity. He also talks about the power of visuals in storytelling, advocating for using them as prompts rather than distractions. Dan shares a story about giving tough feedback to ChatGPT and what it revealed about truth and trust in the digital world. If you’re in a position of influence whether that’s in a boardroom or on a Zoom call, this conversation will get you thinking differently about how you communicate. You can find episode 466 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [04:11] Dan shared how his varied experiences led him to storytelling.His background as a combat pilot and diplomat gave him lots of real-life stories. Each role taught him how to speak and connect in different ways. He says great stories come from living a full life. Teaching storytelling helped him improve his own skills. [05:57] Dan explained how he chooses the right story for the moment. He starts by asking what change he wants to spark. He chooses stories that move people from one mindset to another. It’s not about entertaining; it’s about making an impact. [09:26] Dan compares storytelling to how fighter pilots share lessons after missions. These “never again” stories are about mistakes and survival. In business, they help others learn without repeating those same mistakes. [11:11] Dan elaborated on how to make ‘never again’ stories work in business.Dan says a good story keeps people curious about what happened next. That curiosity helps the lesson stick. [13:37] Jim asked Dan about making his storytelling economical and precise. Dan always starts with the key message. He removes extra details so the main point stays clear. This helps people understand and remember what really matters. [19:59] Dan discussed the role of visuals in storytelling and whether we should ditch PowerPoint. Dan’s not a fan of slides, but he sees their value. He says visuals should support the message, not steal the spotlight. Use them to help people remember—not to do the talking for you. [25:22] Jim asked Dan about achieving conscious competence in storytelling. Dan learned to tell clear stories in high-stress situations. His military background taught him how to share complex ideas simply. Now, his goal is to help people act on what they hear. [29:38] Jan asked Dan about the paradox of emotional storytelling requiring emotional detachment. Dan says emotional stories must still stay focused. Even when a story is deep and personal, it should serve a purpose. If something doesn’t support the message, cut it out. [32:56] Dan explained his interaction with ChatGPT about “tough feedback.” He once asked ChatGPT for help and got a made-up excuse instead. It reminded him that AI can’t feel or judge—it just talks smoothly. He says let AI handle the easy stuff, and save the hard, creative thinking for people. [37:48] Dan believes good stories don’t just teach—they make people think. The real power is in getting listeners to reflect and ask their own questions. That’s what makes the story last. [39:33] And remember...“Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories.” - Yuval Noah Harari Quotable Quotes “You will never live long enough to make all the mistakes yourself. You have to learn from the mistakes of others.” “Story is the vehicle, not the cargo. The cargo is the important thing.” “I'm not trying to push my story onto other people. I want to find what is already in their mind that they're already interested in that makes them want to pull it from me. “ “Every story is a story of transformation.” “storytelling is the easiest way for humans to process information and use it to make a decision… And if I can be effective at conveying a story, I can shape the way that a person receives the information that I'm giving them. I can help them, I can drive their imagination to imagine what it would be like if you did the thing that I suggested that you should be doing. “ “I'm not telling stories for the sake of entertainment. I'm not telling stories so that people will laugh and nod and say, man, that guy's a great storyteller. I am telling stories because I want people to do something. I want them to make a decision too.” “If someone doesn't believe that the story you're about to tell is going to somehow benefit them, you're. They're not going to listen to you. “ “The more that we begin thinking about how we make decisions with tools like AI, the better off we are, because it's easy for us to just offload what we consider to be the hard work to AI, but we really need to be offloading the easy work to AI so that we have more time to do the hard work ourselves.” These are the books mentioned in this episode. Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dan Manning Website | Dan Manning LinkedIn | Dan Manning X |
Dr. Andreas Stamatis is a Professor at the University of Louisville and a Mental Performance Specialist at UofL Health, blending sport science, psychology, and leadership to help individuals and organizations thrive under pressure. In this episode, Andreas explores the foundation of mental performance—how it’s developed, why it’s often misunderstood, and what separates sustainable performance from momentary hype. Andreas introduces the “existential positive psychology”, a framework that views adversity as a growth opportunity—but only when it’s relevant. Andreas challenges the idea that mental toughness leads to selfishness. He explains that mental toughness is a personal construct—true strength lies in managing competing demands without losing yourself or others. He also tackles the corporate tendency to overvalue outcomes and undervalue behaviors. Andreas challenges that mindset, insisting that behaviors are more controllable, more consistent, and more ethical to reward. Andreas also sees potential in how AI can help shape behavior and context if used wisely. He compares it to any other high-performance tool: powerful when used with clarity and care. This conversation is for anyone who wants to build a mentally tough team, avoid burnout, and embrace the kind of leadership that values people over performance metrics. You can find episode 465 wherever you get your podcasts! Key Takeaways [03:14] Andreas breaks down mental performance, bringing with real-world examples. Andreas explains that mental performance isn’t about motivation—it’s about creating a “psychological infrastructure” that holds up under pressure, enabling sustainable, adaptable, and ethical performance when it matters most. [07:16] Andreas delved into existential positive psychology, using Lent as an example: “We do it because we understand that through stress, adversity, difficulty, we grow.” [09:28] Andreas pointed out what is relevant adversity. Forcing someone to run a marathon when they’re a diver won’t make them stronger—it’ll just derail them. True growth comes from adversity that aligns with personal goals. [10:45] To counter the perception that psychology is “soft,” Andreas uses data to show that mental toughness is a performance multiplier. His team collects evidence through interviews, questionnaires, and observations, proving that mental toughness improves not only performance but social cohesion and reduces issues like screen time addiction. [15:27] When asked if there’s such a thing as too much mental toughness, Andreas acknowledged the danger of a “machismo mentality.” While grit is valuable, it can become toxic when it turns into blind persistence that sacrifices well-being. [19:04] One of Andreas’s most powerful insights came when Jim quoted him: “The entity cannot be more important than the humans that support it.” He critiqued the “performance trap,” where results are prioritized over ethical behavior and people. Andreas advocates for a shift in culture—focusing on the process, the mindset, and the individuals who drive performance, rather than just the outcome. [24:08] When AI came up in the conversation, Andreas compared it to any high-performance tool: not a replacement for humans, but a servant to human potential. He envisions AI helping people fine-tune their focus, regulate emotions, and stay resilient by providing real-time, personalized feedback. [31:18] And remember...“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” - Thomas Jefferson Quotable Quotes "So existential positive psychology says, yes, be proactive, work on your strengths. However, that trauma, stress, adversity that you go through, it has the potential for growth." "Even in your darkest hour, there could be something that could help you grow and become better human." "So we’re not looking for adversity just to look for adversity... we need to take them through the process that would lead them to put them in a better position to be successful towards those goals." "Mental toughness is a multiplier." "The mentally tough mindset is purposeful, which means you know where you're going. There's direction, and there's energy towards those goals as a purposefulness." "The mentally tough mindset has efficiency, which means there's a congruency between your behaviors and your goals. Otherwise, they're just dreams." — "When you have a goal in order to achieve that goal, there are behaviors that you need to do in order to achieve that goal. Behind that one step before that is the mindset." “mental toughness is a personal construction. There’s no team mental toughness. It’s. It’s something that you have to work on yourself. I don’t see it as something that necessarily is negative. I see it as empowering." “an actual real mentally tough person can work with conflicting goals, that’s how we say, or interest." "So metrics start to, in a way, overshadow mindset and then the behavior becomes transactional. So that’s the performance trap. So we reward results even if they were achieved unethically or unsustainably, and we punish failure even if the process was sound and value aligned and we did the best we could under the circumstances. But the truth is this. Outcomes are variable. Markets shift, opponents adjust, life throws curveballs. But mindset can be trained, stabilized, and eventually applied across all of it." “When the standard, people know what's expected from them, no matter the result, the culture becomes behavior driven and value based and performance becomes more consistent and stress goes down." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram |
In this Mastermind episode of The Leadership Podcast, General Stanley McChrystal returns for a third conversation—his most personal and revealing appearance yet. Stan discusses the defining choices in his life, the moments that shaped his character, and the values that continue to guide his leadership. He talks about how his parents influenced his values through action, not words, and how his mother’s sudden death when he was sixteen changed the trajectory of his life and family. Stan shares his experience including near-expulsion from West Point, and another in his early Special Forces days when he learned that trying to be liked is not the same as leading well. Stan describes what it was like to work under leaders who lacked character, and how those experiences helped him define the kind of leader he never wanted to become. He discusses how having strong peers and a grounded spouse helped him stay true to his principles, even in environments where it was easy to lose direction. Stan shares how aging has narrowed his circle and sharpened his expectations for friendship. He also talks about how his views on war have evolved. He argues that true change in leadership and values may require discomfort or even crisis to take root. Stan shares why he believes society needs shared standards again—not to suppress individuality, but to maintain mutual respect and unity. Whether you’re a young professional, a seasoned leader, or someone thinking about the legacy you want to leave, this episode will challenge you to reflect. Stan reminds us that we’re not passengers in our own development. We can choose the kind of leader we want to be. You can find this mastermind episode wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [04:05] Stan shared how the foundation of his character was quietly built at home. His father, a combat infantryman, was steady and soft-spoken—the kind of man young Stan wanted to emulate. His mother, a thoughtful Southern woman, modeled integrity and social conviction. Stan said, “They never sat us down and talked to us about values… they just lived in a way that you thought, well, that’s the right way to go.” [07:11] Stan reflected on the emotional toll of losing his mother at 16. Her sudden death shook the entire family and deeply impacted his father, who, despite being a general and a warrior, visibly broke down. [09:01] When asked how he became the person he is today, Stan talked about trying on different leadership personas. He once tried being the “hard-ass” and even channeled General Patton, only to discover none of them fit. Eventually, through reflection and mistakes, he said, “At some point, there is a you, and you’ve got to sort of figure out what that is.” [11:43] Stan admitted that he came dangerously close to being expelled from West Point. It’s a story he laughs about now, but he acknowledged that if he hadn’t graduated, “we would not be laughing about it now.” [13:01] One of Stan’s earliest moral tests came during Ranger School. Exhausted and frustrated with a peer leader, Stan and a few others simply refused to follow orders. “There was a right and wrong… and we did the wrong thing,” he confessed. He’s carried the shame of that moment ever since, not because of the person they disrespected—but because he remembers what he did. [15:20] Stan looked back on his time as a young Special Forces lieutenant and admitted that he tried too hard to be liked. Over time, he learned that leadership isn’t about popularity—it’s about standards and setting the tone. A pivotal leadership lesson came when Stan was publicly fired by a seasoned commander after making a cocky remark in a meeting. “I’ve decided relieving you is wrong,” the major later told him. “You’re going to stay here, and I’m going to teach you to be an Army officer.” That humbling moment became a turning point—one Stan says he was lucky to receive. [20:19] Early in his career, Stan served under a battalion commander who taught him how not to lead. “He humiliated himself,” Stan realized, after being screamed at during a march. Later, that same leader quietly reenlisted an unfit soldier just to hit a metric—an act that shattered any remaining trust. “You don’t need a lot of examples like that to say: I will never do that.” [24:04] When asked if a public figure ever failed the character test, Stan said yes—and the disappointment stuck. “You start to say, well, if they’re really good at what they do, is it okay they do things they shouldn’t?” His answer: No. “Everybody’s got weaknesses… but there are bounds of acceptability,” and if someone crosses them, he simply steps away. [26:20] Stan shared that as he’s gotten older, his circle has gotten smaller. “I actually have a very small number of friends,” he said. While he’s become less judgmental, he’s also more selective. “I’m going to have people that I really respect and like—because that’s who makes me respect myself.” [27:50] Reflecting on whether younger people can shortcut the wisdom that comes with age, Stan emphasized the power of reading. Books like Once an Eagle offered different lessons at each stage of life. “Life is nuances forever,” he said, and engaging with deep, thoughtful material can guide us when experience hasn’t caught up yet. [28:54] Stan talked candidly about how his views on war have evolved. “Wars don’t actually solve the problem that we hope they will,” he said. After seeing combat firsthand, he became more cautious. But he also noted how those who sacrifice gain legitimacy in shaping national decisions. “They now felt legitimate,” he said of Israeli soldiers after Gaza—ready to sit at the table. [34:13] Stan’s call for a national conversation on character is rooted in concern for our systems. “We’ve let character erode,” he said. Good people enter politics and emerge changed—warped by the system’s demands. He doesn’t believe politicians will lead this movement. “It’ll start in schools, on teams, in churches,” he said. “Most of you are not being the people you even want to be.” [38:11] On the question of whether pain is necessary for change, Stan said plainly, “Yes, I think there has to be more pain.” He saw it during the transformation of JSOC—reform only came during failure. While he believes powerful leaders could spark change, he warned, “The history of very powerful leaders is you get something you don’t want.” [39:35] Stan acknowledged the tension between individuality and unity. “There need to be standards of decorum,” he said. He isn’t advocating for hats and skirts, but for shared norms that show respect. “The society doesn’t work without some kinds of rules,” he warned—rules that give us common ground. [42:18] Stan offered this insight: “Who you are is not an accident… make it intentional.” He believes we each have agency over our convictions and our discipline. His advice to young people: “Expect to stumble, expect to make mistakes… but move toward who you want to be. Don’t drift.” [45:07] And remember...“I think. Therefore I am.” - René Descartes Quotable Quotes “A leader is not an individual rock that everybody comes around. It’s a group of people, and you reinforce each other.” “Everybody’s got weaknesses… but there are bounds of acceptability.” "Leadership is never about the leader. It's about the mission, the people, and the values we refuse to compromise." “Life has nuances forever.” “Wars don’t actually solve the problem that we hope that they will.” “Who you are is not an accident. That just happens.” “Make decisions on who you want to be and then move toward that.” “Expect to stumble, expect to make mistakes.” "Why do we allow politicians to lie to us when we know they're lying and they know we know it? Why do we put up with that?" “Becoming who you want to be starts with deciding what that is.” “Character is the only metric that matters.” "You may not control your physical surroundings, but you control your mind." “Reaching our convictions demands deep reflection.” “The most critical discipline is to think for ourselves.” Books mentioned in this episode: Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | General Stanley McChrystal Website | General Stanley McChrystal X | General Stanley McChrystal LinkedIn | Facebook |
Sabina Nawaz is a top-tier executive coach who works closely with C-suite leaders and teams in Fortune 500 companies, government organizations, nonprofits, and universities globally. She’s also the author of “You're the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need).” In this episode, Sabina discusses how power can distort perception, making leaders unaware of how they’re coming across. She explains that the biggest barrier is often unacknowledged pressure, which leads to reactive behavior like micromanagement or overusing authority. She reveals how pressure can distort perception and lead to behaviors that harm both leaders and their teams. Sabina also dives into the tension between being approachable and maintaining authority, highlighting the importance of vulnerability and listening to others. She offers advice for leaders feeling overwhelmed, encouraging them to make time for "blank space" and reflect on their capacity before taking on more. For leaders looking to navigate the pressures of leadership and improve their effectiveness, this episode provides valuable insights on self-awareness, authority, and creating space for growth. You can find episode 464 wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Key Takeaways [04:18] Sabina shared how returning from parental leave led her into high-pressure meetings, causing her to shift from a supportive manager to a micromanager. A colleague’s comment about someone crying because of her behavior made her reflect: "It’s not power that corrupts—it’s pressure." [06:53] Sabina warned against burnout from constant pressure. She advises high performers to set boundaries and practice “blank space”—two hours each week to unplug and just be. [08:51] Sabina emphasized the importance of balancing authority with empathy. She advocates for the “shut up muscle,” where leaders wait to speak, allowing others to contribute first. [13:30] Sabina cautioned against claiming self-awareness. She encourages leaders to notice signs of power gaps, such as lack of independent feedback, as a way to improve awareness. [18:05] Sabina stressed that leaders should model vulnerability and avoid toxic positivity. Admitting struggles allows others to do the same, creating a more authentic work environment.She explained that leaders who hide their emotions prevent others from expressing theirs. Being open about one’s own feelings fosters human connection, despite potential misinterpretation. [24:24] Sabina addressed the myth of bad bosses, stating that it’s often pressure-induced behavior that causes leadership struggles. Leaders should adapt by reassessing how their strengths are perceived.Sabina urged leaders to reflect on how their strengths might be misunderstood under pressure. For example, “strategic” can be seen as manipulative and “calm” as disinterested. [28:03] Sabina highlighted the importance of reading signs from others and adjusting leadership behavior to avoid negative patterns and fit new responsibilities.Sabina shared a success story of a difficult leader who transformed by practicing restraint, slowing her pace, and valuing others’ ideas—earning praise as the “best boss.” [31:07] Sabina emphasized that coaching should come from genuine curiosity, not as an exit strategy. Only when leaders are willing to grow does true transformation happen. [32:32] Sabina offered a quick self-diagnosis tool from her book to spot “power gaps and pressure pitfalls,” with reflective prompts like: “Are you the only one coming up with ideas?” [34:51] And remember... Know Thyself - Socrates Quotable Quotes "It is not power that corrupts. It is pressure that corrupts us." "Our default reaction to pressure is to hunker down and do more, more, more, more busier. But you know what? The 24-hour clock timer is going to die at some point." – "There are many ways to skin the cat. There are many ways to get something right and to accomplish something." – Sabina Nawaz "The first, second, maybe the third, fourth or fifth person to speak... Let others speak first because the minute you speak, no one else is going to debate that." "Self awareness is a never ending quest." "If somebody says they're self aware, they're not." "If someone says they're selfless, all I care about is everybody else... it's probably the opposite." "The more open you can channel yourself as the more people... It gives people permission to come to you and connect with you, human to human." "Be mindful of how you do that openness. And would you rather they're going to make up stories about you regardless whether you say something or you don't?" “It's more about diagnosing which specific aspect of bad boss behaviors are coming out in you when the pressure comes, the inevitable pressure comes in to corrupt you. But then it goes back to, you can't do any of that if you are not self aware.” "There is no such thing as a purely bad or purely good boss." This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Sabina Nawaz Website | Sabina Nawaz LinkedIn | Sabina Nawaz Instagram |
Sibley Bacon is an applied researcher and functional artist, and shares how she blends creativity with structure to build more human-centered teams. Sibely describes what it means to be a "functional artist"—a leader who truly sees the big picture, connects deeply, and inspires through presence, not position. She reflects on lessons from her time at Google, where she worked on improving team dynamics and navigating the gap between theory and business reality. Sibley offers a new take on employee engagement: when people see their work as art, not just tasks, their connection to the purpose changes. She also shares why slowing down might be the most strategic move in a world driven by AI and speed—and why getting outside is more critical than ever. This episode challenges assumptions, invites deeper thinking, and offers a powerful mindset shift for anyone who wants to lead with heart and clarity. You can find episode 463 wherever you get your podcasts! We’re now on … please subscribe! Key Takeaways [02:47] Jim asked about Sibley’s journey, being a child of two artists yet pursuing math and science. Sibley shared that her home was one of high standards and creative discipline. Her father was a sculptor; her mother, a classical singer. She said, “If you’re not doing art, what is the point of being alive?” For her, structure and excellence weren’t negotiable—they were the minimum. Sibley remembered being asked about grad school at age nine. Her great-aunt had a PhD in Chemistry in 1935, so expectations were generational. That bar shaped her belief that nothing is off-limits if you approach it with discipline, humility, and openness. [05:54] Jim asked about what steered her toward tech. She recalled standing on a plaza at University of Maryland, looking around and realizing that “humans keep creating humans,” and data would need to be stored digitally. It wasn’t about passion—it was about self-reliance: food, shelter, and survival. That clarity fueled her path into software engineering. [07:29] Jan asked about being a functional artist. Sibley said being an artist is about seeing everything and feeling everything. Functional art, she said, is about creating elegant tools for mundane tasks—turning the ordinary into something purposeful and moving. “You have to absorb it all… and produce something people take note of.” [09:11] Jan brought up tone and intention in leadership. Sibley believes leadership starts with love. She cited John Madden’s wisdom—you have to know who needs encouragement, discipline, or nurturing. She said, “When your team knows you love them, and you’re doing everything you can to support their creative success, they perform better.” [11:49] Jim asked about her work at Google. Sibley said she approaches team effectiveness as an art form. At Google, she was both responding to and initiating change. She credited Dave Duffield (founder of PeopleSoft and Workday) with teaching her how to connect dots between software and business execution. She added, “If you don’t want to learn and grow, you don’t want to work on my team.” [14:24] Jim explored what makes cultures thrive or struggle. Sibley noted that unclear missions and rules of engagement stall momentum. She contrasted Google’s abundance and academic culture with her own background rooted in lean business execution—underscoring how resource environments shape behavior and accountability. [17:27] Jim asked about balancing creativity and discipline. Sibley explained that Google was designed for “starburst innovation”—parallel innovation across many disciplines. It took years, but she now sees how that environment was tailored for breakthroughs in AI, quantum computing, and neural networking. [21:26] Jan asked about negotiating engagement. Sibley flipped the phrase. “We need to go as slowly as we possibly can, as fast as possible,” she said. It’s not just poetic—it's tactical. Today’s emerging workforce, shaped by digital native neurology, requires deceleration to connect, adapt, and lead effectively. [24:50] Jan asked about adaptability. Sibley emphasized customizing leadership. Some thrive remotely, others need community. “You’re not leading static people,” she said. “Their lives are dynamic. How they need you changes.” To lead well, you must stretch your people—and stay one step ahead. [27:33] Jim asked how generations can collaborate. Sibley shared her commitment to being “a good ancestor.” It means grounding innovation in what's real—like gravity—and connecting high-tech tools to basic human needs. She’s working on building a “small business market exchange” to complement Wall Street with sustainability. [34:45] Sibley said humility was the hardest thing she’s worked for. “I was born a Leo, the year of the dragon, in Texas,” she laughed. “That doesn’t set you up for humility.” Her journey, she shared, is about making a living amends—and doing the work to serve others better. [36:02] And remember...“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”-Pablo Picasso Quotable Quotes “with a global computing infrastructure, I think we need to go as slowly as we possibly can, as fast as possible.” “Being an artist, you have to see everything. “ “It's not your job whether or not they like it or not. It's about that they think about it.” “Team execution effectiveness to support business sustainability. That is my art form.” “Part of being a leader is being willing to negotiate.” “We need employees to be adaptable. Everything’s changing. At the same time, we need leaders to be adaptable.” “So I think to be a leader means adapting to every single one of the people on your team, as their lives are dynamic.” “I always want to be able to stretch people outside their comfort zone so that they can learn and grow.” Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Sibley Bacon Website | Sibley Bacon LinkedIn |
Linda Ugelow is the author of “Delight in the Limelight: Overcome Your Fear of Being Seen and Realize Your Dreams.” In this episode, Linda shares how fear often stems from past experiences, and how leaders can reframe internal narratives to demonstrate more confidence. She dives into the power of self-acceptance and how it shapes leadership presence, especially in high-stakes situations. Linda shares how leaders can embrace strategic vulnerability—being open without oversharing—to build trust and credibility. If you’ve ever doubted your voice, this conversation will challenge your assumptions and offer a path forward to speak with clarity and confidence. You can find episode 462 wherever you get your podcasts! Key Takeaways [01:29] Linda shared that before becoming a confidence coach, she was an organic farmer growing specialty vegetables for local restaurants. But ten years ago, she realized she was in the wrong business. She knew she wanted to make an impact, and rather than judge that desire as grandiose, she owned it and began her personal transformation journey. [03:10] Linda explains fear always has a reason. It stems from life experiences, cultural influences, and how we were raised. People might have been bullied, overlooked, or told to stay silent growing up—leading to ingrained beliefs like “It’s not safe to be seen.” Fear, she says, isn’t the enemy; it’s a messenger from the past. [06:16] Jim prompted the distinction between self-awareness and self-acceptance. Linda encouraged us to love the sound of our own voices—not to dominate but to take up space with intention. She frames presence as a balance between owning the moment and celebrating others' moments in the spotlight. [08:23] Leadership moments aren’t always obvious. Linda encourages leaders to view these moments as service, not performance. If your voice might help move things forward, step in. The environment matters too—leaders must foster psychological safety if they expect others to contribute meaningfully. [13:01] Though she has a background in expressive arts therapy, Linda identifies as a coach. She helps people resolve deep-seated fears using tools like EFT (tapping), creative visualization, and inner forgiveness. Her process isn’t traditional therapy—it’s based on what worked to dissolve her own fear of being seen. [20:28] Linda explained that vulnerability looks different depending on the context—on stage vs. team meetings vs. watercooler chats. Her own experiences showed that being human—forgetting a point during a talk or making a mistake—can deepen connection and make you more relatable and trustworthy. [24:05] Jan asked how Linda helps leaders shift from fixed to growth mindset. Linda shared she overcame her fear at age 60. Her advice: start small, build confidence with tiny wins, and remove what's blocking you. Once the fear is cleared, skill-building becomes easier. “This is your life,” she says. “Live it fully.” [26:59] Linda wrapped with a powerful reminder: be your own best supporter. Silence your inner critic and give yourself permission to speak. Slow down, enunciate, and let your voice reflect the value of your message. People want to hear you—believe that, and speak like you do. [29:08] And remember...“We don't always have an accurate view of our own potential. I think most people who are frightened of public speaking and can't imagine they might feel different as a result of training. Don't assume you know how much potential you have. Sometimes the only way to know what you can do is to test yourself.” - Scott Adams Quotable Quotes “Fear is not the villain. Fear is a messenger.” “We need to not feel the pressure that we have to be a 10-year experienced speaker when we are just starting out.” “Self-expression and speaking is your human design.” “It's never too late. I overcame my fear of speaking when I was 60 years old.” “The world opens up to you when you remove all the blocks.” “Be your biggest advocate. Your staunchest supporter.” “If we’re going to bother to say it, let our words be heard.” “Perfect does not make us human.” This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Linda Ugelow Website | Linda Ugelow YouTube | Linda Ugelow TikTok | Annotated Speaker Preparation Checklist to feel grounded, focused, and energized when you speak. Delight in the Limelight podcast | Linda Ugelow Facebook | Linda Ugelow LinkedIn | Linda Ugelow Instagram |
In this episode, Jim and Jan dive into the critical aspects of leadership and talent development in today’s fast-changing work environment. They discuss how companies often seek “unicorn” candidates with unrealistic expectations—and why focusing on core traits like emotional intelligence, curiosity, and continuous learning is essential. Jim and Jan explore how hybrid work is reshaping the workplace and why relationship-building, trust, and clear expectations are key to fostering strong teams. They also examine how job seekers and employers often set themselves up for failure by chasing perfection. Jim and Jan Jan also offer practical advice on how to set clear career and hiring expectations, why adaptability is critical, and how small shifts can create big growth opportunities. If you’re leading a team, looking to hire, or thinking about your own career moves, this conversation offers a practical, honest look at what really matters—and what doesn’t. Key Takeaways [01:41] Jim explained that companies often search for "unicorns"—candidates who meet every requirement, even unrealistic ones. Jan emphasized that a core leadership responsibility is attracting, selecting, and developing talent—not just hunting for perfection on paper. [03:05] Jim and Jan agreed that many hiring managers are too focused on what candidates lack instead of what they bring. Jim pointed out that companies over-index on skills and miss out on key attributes like curiosity and a willingness to learn—traits that often matter more long term. [06:03] Jim noted that just like companies are looking for unicorn candidates, job seekers are hoping for unicorn employers. Jan laid out four traits to watch for in great talent: passion and purpose, a mindset of continuous learning, emotional intelligence, and the ability to build strong networks. [08:19] Jim talked about the difficulty of building relationships in a remote setting—especially without emotional intelligence and strong listening. Jan compared early career years to middle school: it's when people learn how to navigate politics, influence, and presence. That kind of social learning took a hit during the pandemic. [10:45] Jim predicted that smaller cities might thrive post-pandemic due to shorter commutes and easier transitions back to the office. He sees hybrid work staying, but believes 20-somethings still need in-person time to develop foundational business skills. Jan added that many teams are struggling with connection and accountability. He emphasized that relationship-building can’t be hacked—it takes real time, trust, and personal conversations about more than just work. [14:31] Jim shared a story of young professionals rejecting work based on industry, pointing to unrealistic expectations. Jan reminded listeners that companies hire to solve problems, not to fulfill career wish lists. They discussed the importance of setting clear expectations upfront and embedding key traits like initiative into the hiring process. [16:46] Jan stressed that avoiding early-career sacrifices often limits options later on. Jim explained that career growth follows a narrative arc: in your 20s, your value is effort; in your 40s, it’s your experience; and later, it’s wisdom. Each stage requires a different approach. [20:08] Jim raised the issue of age bias in tech and why staying visible matters. Jan agreed—saying that visibility is key to growth. He advised looking at who gets promoted and understanding what behaviors and values those people have in common. [23:49] Jan recommended using the Topgrading method when hiring, which emphasizes past performance over future potential. He highlighted three key things to assess: impact, influence, and cultural fit. Setting clear expectations during interviews is critical. [26:45] Jan brought up a striking stat—the largest voting gap in the last election was between educated women and uneducated men. Jim clarified that he wasn’t suggesting anyone should “settle” in relationships. Instead, both agreed that knowing your non-negotiables is essential and that no partner—or hire—is perfect. [27:52] Jan explained that mismatched expectations usually come down to poor communication. Most people talk more than they listen, and few ask the right questions. Interviewing is a skill—one that both sides often fail to prepare for. [29:15] Jim encouraged listeners to focus on what really matters and avoid perfectionism. He warned that “perfect is the enemy of progress,” especially when making hiring decisions or career moves. Overthinking often leads to doing nothing. [30:14] Jan shared a coaching example where a leader needed to clarify expectations around initiative. Not everyone grows—and if they don’t, they may no longer be a fit. He pointed out that adaptability is critical, especially in today’s ever-changing, chaotic environment. Organizations evolve fast, and employees must be willing to shift with them. Jim agreed—saying that people who enter a company with their own fixed agenda often struggle to adapt. [32:54] And remember...“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” - George A. Moore Quotable Quotes "One is to get results. Two is to behave and act according to the core values... But there’s a third leg and that third leg is to attract and select talent. And then once you have them, to develop and retain said talent." "People just aren’t finding what they’re looking for. But on the flip side, employees are also looking for the unicorn employer, you know, something that doesn’t exist." "If people aren’t able to develop power and influence in the organization, they are not going to get stuff done... They’re going to have to be able to negotiate and sell ideas." "There’s no hack to accelerate the development of relationships other than spending time with people." "The interview you're about to do is not about you. It's about their problem." "Everybody's hired for the same purpose. Get and keep customers." "A good life is lived in the service of other people." "You got to realize your value isn't from hard work, your value is from wisdom and knowledge and experience." “what really transpires between people looking for the perfect person and people looking for the perfect company is there's misaligned expectations." "So, you know, for expectations to be aligned, you know, both sides have to do their homework and prepare, ask a lot of questions, be good listeners.” "Perfect is the enemy of Progress." “not every position needs a perfect person.” Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
Susan Kelsey has authored four historical books and produced the award-winning documentary, “The Negotiator: Billy Caldwell.” In this episode, Susan shares her journey of discovering Billy Caldwell, the "Great Negotiator" of early Chicago. She reflects on the leadership lessons she learned from both Caldwell and Native American leaders, focusing on values like moral courage, tenacity, and the importance of handling success and failure with grace. Through her work with Native American tribes, Susan has gained a deeper understanding of leadership—one rooted in respect, curiosity, and self-awareness. She talks about the vital role storytelling plays in leadership and how it can make complex ideas more relatable. Driven by a lifelong curiosity, Susan shares how her hands-on experiences, like earning her pilot’s license and working on documentaries, continue to shape her perspective on leadership and learning. Tune in to hear her insights on the wisdom of elders, the value of cultural understanding, and how these lessons inform modern leadership today. Key Takeaways [04:06] Susan’s journey with Billy Caldwell began after noticing a plaque in her neighborhood. Over 30 years, she learned about Caldwell’s role as a negotiator between Native Americans and European settlers, shaping Chicago’s history. Caldwell’s unique position allowed him to influence key treaties, including the 1829 and 1833 Treaties, which played a major role in the region's development. [07:03] Susan described Billy Caldwell as the "ultimate glue guy," bridging cultural gaps between Native Americans, military settlers, and Europeans. His ability to understand both worlds helped him play a key role in negotiating important treaties for the Chicago area. His military background and unique perspective made him a crucial figure in shaping Chicago’s history. [09:29] Susan believes strong moral values and the willingness to stand for one’s beliefs, even at personal cost, set leaders apart. She emphasized that leaders like Billy Caldwell had the courage to take risks for the greater good. Moral leadership is key to achieving lasting change and making a positive impact. [10:53] Building trust with indigenous tribes took years of effort for Susan, including traveling to Kansas and embracing vulnerability. She learned that respect, curiosity, and open communication are essential in fostering meaningful relationships. Developing trust takes time, but it’s vital in working with diverse communities. [13:52] Susan’s persistence paid off when the Potawatomi tribe eventually approved her revised documentary. She learned that tenacity is key, especially when working through rejection. A surprising conversation with the tribe revealed that they didn’t see the loss of the Great Lakes as a loss, challenging Susan’s understanding of their culture. [15:28] Susan emphasized the importance of listening more than speaking in cultural interactions. She explained that silence is highly valued in indigenous communities, and actively listening can build trust. Reflecting back what’s heard fosters stronger relationships and a deeper understanding. [18:38] When Jan asked about her motivations, Susan revealed that lifelong curiosity drives her pursuits. She believes true learning comes from hands-on experiences, not just books or videos. Her curiosity led her to earn a pilot’s license to confront her fear of flying, highlighting her need to fully immerse herself in new experiences. [19:47] Susan never tires of filmmaking, as it allows endless creativity. She loves collaborating with Native American musicians to create meaningful soundtracks for her documentaries. Despite the high costs of filmmaking, she finds ways to fund her projects and emphasizes that the value of a story doesn’t depend on the budget. [21:07] Susan learned timeless wisdom from her work with Native American cultures, especially regarding grace in leadership. Handling both victories and defeats with dignity leaves a lasting impression. She learned this lesson through political mentors and experiences with Native American tribes, emphasizing grace as essential in leadership. [23:09] Susan explained that Native American cultures view leadership as more than survival—it’s about self-awareness. The Blackfoot Indians' perspective on Maslow’s hierarchy, which prioritizes self-awareness over basic needs, challenged Susan’s thinking. This worldview has shaped her understanding of leadership and personal growth. [24:57] Storytelling is a powerful leadership tool, helping leaders connect with others and make complex ideas relatable. Susan stressed that modern leaders should listen to elders, especially in uncertain times, for their valuable insights. Native American cultures offer wisdom that can guide today’s leaders through challenging situations. [27:07] When asked about becoming an elder, Susan shared that the title is a great honor in Native American cultures. Elders are respected for both their age and the wisdom they have gained over time. She contrasted this respect with how older generations are often treated in other societies, underscoring the value of experience. [28:26] Susan’s documentaries aim to spark meaningful conversations and encourage people to learn from one another. She highlighted the importance of curiosity and education in her work. Slowing down and reflecting on new ideas can provide valuable insights in today’s fast-paced world. [30:41] And remember...“When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes, they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.” - Chief Tecumseh Quotable Quotes "We just need to be curious about each other, learn about each other and respect each other and... and develop that trust where we can have a nice, healthy, honest conversation." "How you hold yourself and the grace that you have is what people will remember." "We know who we are, we know where we came from, we know where we're going, and so we know if we know who we are, we can do anything. We can find food, we can find shelter, we can build community." "Slow down a little bit. You can back up, even put it down for a day, come back, look at it the next day. Perspective." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Susan Kelsey Website | Susan Kelsey’s award-winning documentary, The Negotiator: Billy Caldwell. | Susan Kelsey Facebook | Susan Kelsey LinkedIn |
Adam Contos is a former SWAT leader turned CEO, leadership advisor, and author of “Start With a Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success.” In this episode, Adam begins by defining a "win" in leadership not as just hitting KPIs or completing projects, but as creating momentum through small, daily victories. Adam stresses the importance of fostering a culture of accountability within teams, but without micromanaging. He explains that accountability is about creating an environment where people can succeed, rather than policing behavior. When discussing setbacks, Adam reminds us that challenges are inevitable, but it’s how leaders respond that defines them. Instead of reacting emotionally, strong leaders respond thoughtfully, seeing setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than roadblocks. Adam also discusses how to sustain momentum, and highlights how constant, small improvements drive long-term results. Adam’s insights provide a fresh approach to leadership, showing that small, consistent actions over time can build lasting success. If you’re ready to implement these principles in your leadership journey, this episode is a must-listen. Key Takeaways [05:22] Jan asks Adam to define a "win" in leadership. Adam clarifies that a win isn’t just about KPIs or project completions. Instead, he believes it’s about creating momentum. He calls them "micro wins," like waking up before the alarm. Small wins add up, laying the foundation for bigger successes down the road. [06:34] Jan asks what shifts momentum for a team. Adam points to emotional intelligence, learning from failures, and adjusting strategies. Leaders help create a culture of confidence and resilience, guiding their teams to focus on strengths and not dwell on setbacks. [07:59] Adam shares that successful leaders don’t leave their days to chance. They start by setting clear priorities, communicating expectations, and modeling discipline. Jan asks if leaders should set boundaries or let teams determine their own priorities. Adam says it’s a mix. Leaders need to define expectations and values, but also give teams the flexibility to make their own decisions. [11:39] Adam explains that accountability isn’t about policing; it’s about creating an environment where people can succeed. Jan references a past guest who discussed the difference between what people want to do versus what they should do. He asks Adam how leaders can handle high-potential individuals who resist extra responsibility. Adam suggests challenging teams to grow while respecting their individual aspirations. Success isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and leaders must find the right balance between encouragement and autonomy. [15:16] Adam responds to the question about handling setbacks by saying that volatility and challenges are inevitable in all areas of life. What defines a person is how they respond. He reminds himself that each setback is just a chapter, not the whole story. Strong leaders see adversity as a stepping stone, not a stopping point. He stresses the importance of responding thoughtfully, not emotionally, to setbacks and learning from them for the future. [18:07] Adam explains that leaders are made, not born. Instead of testing people under stress, leaders should train them to handle pressure by gradually increasing their exposure to challenging situations. This builds the skills and confidence needed to handle future stress. [22:22] Jan asks how leaders balance confidence and humility. Adam says confidence without humility can lead to arrogance and failure. He explains that the balance shifts depending on the audience and context. For instance, sales teams may need more confidence, while executive teams might appreciate more humility. [24:18] Adam talks about executive presence, which is about gravitas, communication, and appearance. He shares how Jamie Dimon commands a room without saying a word, demonstrating the power of presence. Adam advises leaders to always show up prepared, look like they care, and deliver messages that resonate with their audience. [27:01] Adam explains that success creates momentum but warns that it can also lead to complacency if leaders think it will sustain itself. He stresses the need for continuous improvement to prevent stagnation. Adam points to Team Sky’s cycling success under Sir David Brailsford, where the focus was on constant, small improvements. Successful teams are driven by a mission, not just results. [34:58] Adam concludes by encouraging people to focus on creating wins every day. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing actions that lead to positive results, rather than getting stuck on unproductive tasks. He advises adopting a proactive mindset and viewing daily tasks as opportunities, not obligations. [36:47] And remember...“ Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. ” - Sun Tzu Quotable Quotes "A win isn't a KPI. A win isn't completing a project. A win more than anything is just creating momentum." "Successful leaders don't leave their day to chance." "If you walk in and sit down at the table in a meeting and you're pounding your fist and cussing things like that, guess what? The employees are going to do that. They're going to pound their fist and cuss at things when you're not in the room." "Great leadership starts before the first meeting. It's built in the moments of preparation and personal discipline." "I think you should allow people to spread their wings and fly as high and far and fast as they possibly can." "Accountability isn't about policing." "We need to create an environment where people can be as successful as they want to be." “volatility and setbacks have happened since the beginning of time. But ultimately you have to understand they don't define you. Your response to them is what defines you. “ "Great leaders really train themselves to see adversity as kind of a stepping stone and really not a stopping point in their career and their life.” “I think you can start putting pressures on people to see how they start to respond. And frankly, you can educate people. Leaders are made, they're not born." "Anyone can be taught, but it's hard to teach someone who doesn't want to learn." “if you have confidence without humility, it becomes arrogance, and that's when you get your butt kicked." "Know your audience, show up like a leader. I don't care where you're at, show up like a leader, look like you care and like you tried, and then deliver a message that resonates with your audience." “Success breeds complacency if you let it." "The best teams just don't work for results. They work for a mission. And if that mission is continuously developing and improving, they're probably going to continue to win because they're continuing to revitalize that momentum." "But the reality is the big guy started as a little guy at some point also, they just perpetually were able to ignore the losses that they were facing." "Set a culture, be a good person and live that culture. And if people like it, great. If they don't, great." "Focus on being better at a leader, as a leader, and focus on taking one more step towards your accomplishments." This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Adam Contos Website | Adam Contos | Adam Contos X (Twitter) | Adam Contos Facebook | Adam Contos LinkedIn | Adam Contos Instagram |
Pippa Begg, is the co-founder and CEO of Board Intelligence and co-author of “Collective Intelligence: How to Build a Business that’s Smarter than You.” In this episode, Pippa discusses the mindset shifts required for leaders to let go of control and empower others, emphasizing the dangers of hubris and the importance of questioning one's own authority. She also addresses the common struggle with delegation, advising leaders to trust their teams and ask powerful questions that drive innovation and collaboration. Pippa dives deep into the topic of communication, sharing a powerful example of how poor communication cost a brilliant opportunity. Pippa explains how AI can enhance decision-making in boardrooms by supporting human intelligence and uncovering biases, rather than replacing human input. When discussing power struggles in the boardroom, Pippa explained that they often arise from misalignment on what’s important, especially regarding value creation. Pippa talks about the importance of balancing focus with flexibility, and shares how organizations can continually assess their strategies, asking the right questions that allow the organization to adapt to dynamic markets. This episode is especially relevant for senior leaders looking to develop resilient businesses that thrive in an ever-changing world. Key Takeaways Quotable Quotes "The pace of AI development can call all of that out. So really the thing that's blocking progress here is not the pace of technology. It's the pace of human adoption." "Humans don't take perfect decisions. We know about unhelpful decision making heuristics that we use. We know about bias that we have." "We are better when we're being observed than when we're not being observed." "We rush to find the answer... and often what we're doing there is we end up rushing to find an answer to not quite the right problem." "Many amazing business successes. The idea did not come from the CEO or from the board." "Most of the time when there is border and power struggles, it's because there's misalignment on what's important." "If we are willing to expose our thinking, if we are willing to expose our writing, if we are willing to expose our conversations, then not only could we be prompted, but we can just hold a mirror and just see what we're doing, really reflect on it." "Focus is absolutely critical to an organization's success, but blind focus can be its downfall, as we saw with Nokia." This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Pippa Begg Website | Pippa Begg Recent Sunday Times profile (UK): Pippa Begg Recent research published into board effectiveness: Pippa Begg Latest BI fundraise: Pippa Begg LinkedIn |
Giles Watkins—coach, speaker, and author of “Positive Sleep: A Holistic Approach to Resolve Sleep Issues and Transform your Life (Positive Wellbeing).” In this episode, he explores why quality sleep is essential for high performance, decision-making, and long-term success. He dives into sleep’s role in workplace culture—how it affects performance, decision-making, and even global business operations. Giles discusses how different cultures view sleep, how leaders can help their teams without overstepping personal boundaries, and why some companies are incorporating naps into the workplace. If you’ve ever struggled with sleep, wondered how to optimize your rest, or lead a team that could benefit from better sleep habits, this episode is packed with insights. Key Takeaways [02:34] Giles explains that while awareness around sleep has improved, people are still sleeping an hour less than they did 50 years ago. He attributes this to distractions like artificial lighting, phones, and technology. While the body can physically recover from lost sleep, the brain does not regain the same benefits, such as memory consolidation and emotional processing. [09:09] Jan asks Giles to define sleep, referencing Part 2 of his book. Giles shares a definition from Harvard Medical School, describing sleep as a reversible state where activity decreases, external responsiveness drops, and the brain undergoes essential restoration processes. He emphasizes that modern sleep science is still evolving, with ongoing debate about its full impact on cognition, learning, and mental health. [16:09] Giles explains that sleep needs gradually decrease with age, but the change is not dramatic. Factors such as genetics, environment, and personal habits play a role. Some people naturally need less sleep, while others struggle with shifting rhythms over time. He highlights that recognizing these differences is key for leaders managing diverse teams with varied sleep patterns. [23:37] Jan shares his experience in the military, where sleep deprivation was common, but he personally struggled with it. Giles confirms that while some individuals can push through exhaustion, it is not sustainable. He compares chronic lack of sleep to “social jet lag,” disrupting natural rhythms and leading to lower motivation, reduced focus, and diminished quality of work. [27:58] Giles recalls his first experience working in Vietnam, where employees would nap under their desks after lunch. Initially shocked, he later realized it was an effective way to recharge. He contrasts this with Western cultures, where working through lunch is often seen as a sign of dedication. Businesses with global teams need to be aware of these cultural differences to maximize productivity. [36:37] Giles highlights the importance of bedtime routines—consistent sleep schedules, limiting screen exposure, and wind-down activities. He notes that many adults with sleep issues lost their childhood sleep habits after leaving home. Encouraging good routines in children can set them up for long-term sleep success. [41:19] Giles states that 80% of sleep problems can be resolved with behavioral changes, such as reducing screen time before bed, avoiding alcohol late at night, and sticking to a consistent schedule. He advises leaders to treat sleep as a priority, just like diet and exercise, to enhance their performance. [43:14] And remember, Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together. - Thomas Dekker Quotable Quotes “We’ve evolved as a species, but we haven’t evolved to sleep an hour less than we did 50 years ago.” “Leaders assume their teams are like them. Some love breakfast meetings, some don’t. Some don’t mind late-night emails, others do.” “The one long sleep is a post-industrial idea. Before factories, people often had two sleeps with a break in between.” “The French have an expression that translates as ‘the bicycle in your head.’ To sleep well, you have to get off the bicycle.” “You can survive with bad sleep, but you won’t thrive.” This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Giles Watkins Website | Giles Watkins LinkedIn |
Jamie Beaton is CEO of Crimson Education, helping students gain admission to top universities. A Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton graduate, he also founded Crimson Global Academy and authored “ACCEPTED! Secrets to Gaining Admission to the World's Top Universities.” In this episode, Jamie reveals the mentors who shaped his leadership, including legendary investor Julian Robertson, and explains how to accelerate growth as an emerging leader. He discusses the challenges of leading a global company, how cultural differences impact leadership, and what truly defines top talent beyond credentials. He also dives into the “curiosity switch”—the key to staying relevant, inspired, and continuously learning. Jamie shares a pivotal moment in his leadership journey—balancing the demands of running Crimson while attending Stanford Business School, a decision that tested his resilience and investor relationships. He also provides insight into how leaders can build high-performance teams, manage ambition without burnout, and create a culture of excellence and execution. If you want to learn how to lead with curiosity, build a world-class team, and navigate high-stakes decisions, this episode is a must-listen. Key Takeaways [02:43] Jamie shares his love for Warhammer, a strategy board game that takes him across the world to compete. He finds it a great way to disconnect from work and engage in a different kind of strategic thinking. [03:58] Jamie credits Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management, as a major influence. Julian took him under his wing, instilling confidence in his abilities and teaching him the balance between competitive drive and integrity. [08:58] Jamie’s experiences across countries like New Zealand, China, Singapore, and the U.S. have broadened his leadership perspective. He emphasizes that while leadership principles are universal, cultural differences impact feedback styles, work ethics, and hierarchical structures. Leaders must adapt to these variations to be effective. [11:35] Jamie highlights feedback styles as one major cultural difference. In places like Japan and China, direct feedback can be seen as disrespectful, while in the U.S. and New Zealand, a blunt and fast-paced communication style is more accepted. Work ethic expectations also differ, with China’s 996 culture (9 AM – 9 PM, six days a week) contrasting with New Zealand’s emphasis on work-life balance. However, he believes that people everywhere are drawn to ambitious, high-performance teams. [15:01] Jamie introduces the "curiosity switch", explaining that some people are naturally driven to learn while others become complacent. He believes curiosity can be reignited by exposing yourself to new industries, ideas, and challenges. Leaders who continuously push themselves to learn remain relevant. [17:38] Jamie admits that his rapid thinking once created chaos within his teams. Over time, he built a leadership team with specialized roles—some focused on executing ideas, while others thrived in early-stage innovation. By structuring his organization this way, he ensures creativity doesn’t disrupt operational stability. [21:09] Jamie values learning agility, ambition, and integrity over academic credentials. He shares a story about his co-founder, Fungzhou, who started with limited English at 18 and now manages hundreds of employees globally. He believes top talent is defined by their ability to adapt, seek feedback, and push beyond their comfort zone. [25:43] Jamie acknowledges that in the early years, he wasn’t easy to follow. To improve, he surrounded himself with strong communicators who could translate his vision into clear, actionable steps for the team. Over time, he became more aware of how his leadership style impacted others, ensuring his team had the clarity they needed. [27:11] Jamie has learned that face-to-face time is irreplaceable. He prioritizes in-person interactions with his executive team and country managers, even flying 18 hours for a two-day event. He believes that an hour in person builds more trust than 30 hours on Zoom, making these investments critical for leadership success. [29:22] Jamie describes the tension of balancing business school at Stanford while leading Crimson. His investors were skeptical, fearing it would be a distraction, while his team worried about his physical absence. Despite these doubts, Jamie pushed through, believing the skills and networks he gained would ultimately help Crimson grow. [34:01] Jamie credits his responsibility to his team, ambition, and the support of his co-founders as his guiding forces. He emphasizes that having trusted partners who can step in when needed is critical for sustaining leadership over the long haul. [37:02] Jamie explains that when your curiosity switch is on, work feels exciting and effortless. When it’s off, every task feels like a burden. To reignite curiosity, he advises evaluating your work, relationships, and digital habits, ensuring you remove anything that drains your energy. [39:26] And remember, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” - Benjamin Franklin Quotable Quotes “People love to be on a winning team.You know, I think if you have that fast-paced intensity, ambitious goals, the ability for fast career progression, fast learning, you know, that is addictive to people anywhere and that's definitely very infectious.” “You don't view feedback as some sort of negative thing, but actually as sort of like this addictive fuel for more growth.” “When the curiosity switch is on, every day you're working, it doesn't feel like you're working. You know, it feels like this exciting, adrenaline-packed, exhilarating adventure.” “If you're in the wrong lane, staying there longer won't fix it.” “I think the most notable thing about different cultural backgrounds or a couple, but one of them would be how you give feedback.” This is the book mentioned in this book Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jamie Beaton Website | Jamie Beaton LinkedIn | Jamie Beaton Instagram |
Kasey D’Amato’s experience goes from launching a dermatology division and founding a global skincare brand to building a multi-seven-figure real estate portfolio. In this episode, Kasey shares her insights on how leaders can avoid burnout, overcome stagnation, and create a life that aligns with their true purpose. She introduces her Holistic Leadership Mastery™ Framework, which breaks leadership into four essential quadrants and explains why so many leaders feel overwhelmed despite their achievements. We discuss why leaders should periodically disconnect, how to recalibrate every 90 days, and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people. She also shares her personal story of career reinvention, going from a physician assistant to a business leader and leadership coach. Kasey emphasizes that many successful professionals eventually feel stuck, questioning, "What’s the point?" even when they have achieved financial success. She explains how leaders can overcome this by focusing on emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-awareness. Kasey also talks about how leaders can break free from self-imposed limitations. She also discusses the importance of regularly evaluating time and energy allocation, challenging leaders to reassess 20% of their calendars every 90 days. Whether you’re thinking about a career pivot or struggling with burnout, this episode provides actionable insights to help you lead a fulfilling life. Key Takeaways [02:12] Kasey and her husband rescue and rehabilitate large dogs with difficult pasts. She finds that this requires calm, confident leadership, much like business leadership. [04:20] Many leaders neglect their personal well-being, relationships, and joy. Kasey’s framework breaks leadership into four quadrants: business acumen, self-leadership, team leadership, and industry leadership. A strong leader balances all four. [06:58] Kasey agrees that leaders often misallocate time and energy. Most spend too much time on tasks that don’t drive results. She recommends reviewing time allocation every 90 days to ensure alignment with goals. [08:24] Leaders often focus solely on strengths but may ignore personal weaknesses that could limit them in the long run. Kasey believes that while focusing on strengths is good, leaders should also be aware of what they are neglecting and consciously decide how to balance priorities. [14:15] She felt she had mastered her previous roles and began asking, “Is this all there is?” She realized she wanted to impact others in a broader way, leading her to reinvention. [19:21] Kasey advises completely disconnecting from routine for at least a week (ideally out of the country) to gain clarity. It takes about five days for the mind to stop focusing on daily work and start thinking about bigger questions like “Am I happy?” [24:35] Leaders often avoid tough decisions or self-improvement. Kasey recommends surrounding yourself with three types of accountability partners: mentors, peers, and direct reports. [28:34] Kasey plays the “What If” game with clients. If they say they don’t have time or money, she asks, “What if you did? What would you do differently?” This helps reverse engineer solutions and uncover creative options. [35:59] And remember, “When you have balance in your life, work becomes an entirely different experience. There is a passion that moves you to a whole new level of fulfillment and gratitude, and that's when you can do your best for yourself and for others.” - Cara Delevingne Quotable Quotes “Am I happy? Is this the life I dreamed of?” “We are our own problem. Look in the mirror.” “If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.” “You need to recalibrate your time and energy every 90 days.” “The first step to resilience is awareness. Just being aware changes everything.” “What if you did have time? What would you do differently?” “I’m the queen of reinvention.” “Confidence is critical. If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.” Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Kasey D’Amato Website | Kasey D’Amato Facebook | Kasey D’Amato LinkedIn | Kasey D’Amato Instagram |
Dr. Hope Zoeller is the Founder and President of HOPE (Helping Other People Excel), LLC, a consultancy dedicated to helping organizations cultivate effective and impactful leaders. In this episode, Hope shares why so many leadership programs fail and what companies must do to see real results. Drawing from her experience in corporate leadership, academia, and executive coaching, she unpacks the critical gaps between theory and practice, the hidden power of institutional memory, and why most organizations struggle with succession planning. Hope also challenges leaders to rethink how they engage their teams, emphasizing the importance of asking the right questions in 1:1 conversations and creating a culture of accountability. She dives into why so many leaders today feel burned out and reactive—and what they can do to regain control and lead with intention. If you’ve ever wondered how to build stronger leaders, make training stick, or future-proof your organization, this conversation is for you. Listen now and start leading differently. Key Takeaways [04:19] Hope shares how her time in corporate America shaped her leadership perspective. She worked in training and development for years, but when she was pushed into a different role despite her passion, she knew it was time to make a change. "It wasn't about the benefits or the stock. It was about making a difference." [07:06] Leadership training often fails when it’s just a checkbox exercise. Hope emphasizes the need for intentional development tied to company values. "If you're just checking a box, you might be better off not checking it at all." [11:11] Institutional memory can be a roadblock to progress. Hope describes employees who are "keepers of the failure data"—they remember every past mistake but don’t help find solutions. She reframes the conversation: "You were here when it was bad—so what would it look like if it worked?" [20:42] Leaders often resist one-on-one meetings, seeing them as unnecessary, but Hope argues they are essential. "How many of your meetings are actually valuable? Wouldn't your time be better spent investing in your people?" [23:30] Many companies neglect succession planning because they haven’t felt the pain of not having a pipeline. Hope warns, "The pain train is coming." Organizations that fail to prepare will struggle as the workforce shrinks and leadership gaps widen. [29:41] Many leaders today feel burned out and disconnected from their workforce. Hope believes companies need to make it safe for leaders to talk about these challenges. "We have to make it okay to say, 'I'm tired. I need support.' Otherwise, we risk losing our best people." [33:44] Hope shares a powerful analogy: "I can’t help every leader, but I can help some. If we all do that, think about the collective impact we can have." [35:58] And remember, “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” - Napoleon Hill Quotable Quotes "It wasn't about the benefits or the stock. It was about making a difference." "If you're just checking a box, you might be better off not checking it at all." "The pain train is coming. Are you ready?" "People don’t leave organizations. They leave people." "It’s not your people who quit and leave that you have to worry about—it’s the ones who quit and stay." "We’re not aiming for perfection. We’re aiming for progress." "I can’t help every leader, but I can help some. If we all do that, think about the collective impact we can have." “Coaching should not be punitive. It should be positive.” "I say as a leader, we need to be asking regularly how we're doing and be checking in.” "Keep showing up. Keep doing the work. Don't, you know, I've got a leader that right now she's so—she thought she was making progress. She got some feedback, and it just set her back to zero. She's like, is this even worth it? And days are going to be hard, and they're going to be harder. I think we're not moving into easier times, we're moving into harder times. So keep showing up and know that you're doing the work, and it will eventually pay off. It will eventually pay off. It's a long game." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | HOPE LLC Website | Hope Zoeller Facebook | Hope Zoeller LinkedIn | Hope Zoeller Instagram |
Dr. Steven Stein, world-renowned clinical psychologist, best-selling author, and MHS founder, consults for military, corporate, and TV shows, specializing in psychological assessment and emotional intelligence. He also hosts the podcast Work Therapy. In this episode, Dr. Steven explores how EI has evolved since its early days and why some leaders still underestimate its impact. Steven explains what leaders often overlook when developing their emotional intelligence and why traits like empathy and self-awareness are more important than ever. He also reveals the hidden factors that differentiate high-performing leaders from those who struggle under pressure. Through real-world examples—including a fascinating case study with the U.S. Air Force—Steven demonstrates how improving EI can directly enhance leadership effectiveness and retention. He also addresses the challenges of maintaining emotional intelligence in high-stress situations and how leaders can foster resilience and adaptability within their teams. As the workplace continues to shift with remote work, AI-driven decision-making, and evolving company cultures, Steven shares actionable strategies for leaders to build trust, authenticity, and engagement in their organizations. Whether you’re a business leader, coach, or aspiring executive, this conversation is packed with valuable lessons on how emotional intelligence shapes leadership success. Key Takeaways [02:22] Dr. Steven Stein shares that beyond his public achievements, he also leads a 12-piece jazz-rock band, highlighting the intersection of music and leadership. [03:55] Emotional intelligence (EI) has evolved significantly, moving from skepticism to a widely accepted concept influencing leadership, teamwork, and individual performance across various industries. [06:50] A critical aspect of leadership is developing empathy, actively listening, and understanding the emotions of those around you to enhance relationships and decision-making. [09:11] Under stress, leaders may become less empathetic and more directive, which can harm relationships and team dynamics. Maintaining emotional intelligence under pressure is crucial for effective leadership. [12:49] Resilient leaders and first responders thrive under high-stress situations by embracing the "Three Cs": Commitment (to a bigger purpose), Challenge (viewing obstacles as solvable problems), and Control (focusing on what can be influenced). [18:53] As AI and algorithms increasingly influence decision-making, emotional intelligence remains a crucial human advantage, offering insights and adaptability that machines cannot replicate. [22:51] A landmark study with the U.S. Air Force found that emotional intelligence training significantly improved recruiter retention rates from 50% to 92%, demonstrating the tangible impact of EI in the workplace. [29:20] Purpose-driven organizations with emotionally intelligent leadership experience significantly lower turnover rates, as employees feel valued and aligned with the company’s mission. [31:47] The shift to remote work has increased the need for authentic leadership. Employees are now more likely to leave companies rather than just their managers if they lack trust in organizational leadership. [33:44] Key leadership traits for retaining employees include authenticity, respect, clear communication, and allowing employees autonomy while offering guidance and support. [38:07] Many leaders struggle to delegate due to a fear of losing control or a perfectionist mindset. Effective leaders recognize their strengths and empower others to handle areas where they are less skilled. [41:57] Leaders should be aware of employees’ personal struggles without trying to solve them directly, instead offering support and resources to help them navigate challenges. [41:26] Closing quote: Remember “Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. ” — Travis Bradberry Quotable Quotes "Great leaders master the art of empathy." "Under pressure, emotional intelligence is often the first thing to slip. The best leaders stay self-aware and maintain composure, even in high-stress situations." "Resilience comes down to the 'Three Cs': Commitment to a greater purpose, viewing obstacles as challenges rather than threats, and focusing on what you can control." "Organizations thrive when leadership is authentic. Employees don’t just leave bad managers anymore—they leave companies that lack purpose and integrity." "Emotions play a crucial role in decision-making. The best leaders don’t suppress their emotions; they understand and use them to make better choices." "The best workplaces foster autonomy and respect. Give people ownership of their work, and you’ll see creativity, motivation, and engagement soar." "Leadership isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about empowering the right people to find the best solutions." "Delegation isn’t about losing control—it’s about recognizing where others can excel and trusting them to contribute their expertise." "The true test of leadership is how well you handle uncertainty. Those who adapt and evolve will always stay ahead." "Support your people, but don’t try to be their personal problem solver. A great leader provides resources and guidance without overstepping boundaries." “Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. ” — Travis Bradberry Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Steven Stein’s LinkedIn | Dr. Steven Stein’s Website | Dr. Steven Stein’s Facebook | Dr. Steven Stein’s Youtube | Work Therapy: When Work Sucks, How Can We Fix It? -
Brandon Young and Blayne Smith are the authors of “Perseverance > Endurance: Lead with Resilience. Grow Through Adversity. Win Together,” and they bring a wealth of leadership experience shaped by their military backgrounds. Brandon, a former U.S. Army Ranger with four combat deployments in Afghanistan, and Blayne, a former Army Special Forces officer, advisory board member of GORUCK, and the first executive director of Team Red, White & Blue, co-founded Applied Leadership Partners in 2020 during the pandemic. In this episode, they share hard-earned insights on fostering perseverance, embracing uncertainty, and guiding teams through adversity. They discuss how endurance is about surviving challenges, while perseverance is about thriving and growing through adversity. They cover key leadership principles, including self-awareness, adaptability, and the importance of long-term thinking. They also explore how leaders can create sustainable work environments that encourage perseverance without leading to burnout. Listen in to learn how to differentiate between endurance and perseverance, build adaptability, and lead through uncertainty. This is a powerful conversation. Key Takeaways [05:36] Brandon explains that endurance is about pushing through a defined hardship, while perseverance is essential for navigating long-term uncertainty and transformation. He shares how COVID-19 forced their business to pivot just three days after launching, leading them to develop a framework for perseverance. [09:43] Blayne describes endurance as a trap for high-performers, explaining that leaders must recognize their limits and ask for help when needed. He uses a baseball metaphor, comparing self-awareness to feeling the warning track before hitting the wall. [12:20] Jim suggests that endurance is like management—rationing resources to sustain effort—whereas perseverance is about leadership, making tough calls in uncertainty. Brandon agrees, adding that perseverance requires embracing the unknown and making the best possible choice at each step. [18:27] Brandon explains that no plan survives first contact. Leaders must plan, but they must also recognize that external factors will always play a role. Planning is about preparation, not prediction. He stresses that adaptability is crucial, as rigid plans often fail in dynamic situations. [22:08] Blayne emphasizes the importance of creating a culture where people feel safe making decisions. Leaders must set clear intent and boundaries while allowing flexibility. He warns that if leaders punish employees for making mistakes in earnest, they kill initiative across the team. [24:03] Brandon explains that pride is the enemy of growth. Leaders must be willing to acknowledge their blind spots and learn from failure. Blayne adds that having a "white belt mentality"—constantly seeking to learn—helps leaders grow and gain credibility with their teams. [29:39] Brandon shares that the hunger for excellence exists in all workplaces. Leaders must cast a clear vision, help employees see themselves in that vision, and create an environment where they can opt in or out. He emphasizes the importance of accountability and allowing people to step up when needed. [35:41] Blayne recalls a time when he realized that leaders need to communicate proactively. He assumed his team knew where his head was at, but they didn’t. This experience taught him the importance of over-communicating and being transparent with his team. [39:10] Blayne suggests that leaders must model a sustainable pace. Transparency about work-life balance gives employees permission to do the same. Brandon adds that leaders should extend the time horizon—understanding that success comes in peaks and valleys and that employees need time to recharge to perform well over time. [44:04] And remember, “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” - Walter Elliot Quotable Quotes "When you're enduring, you're holding on. When you're persevering, you're moving forward." "Self-awareness is knowing when you’re on the warning track before you hit the wall." "The enemy gets a vote. No plan survives first contact, and that’s why adaptability is key." "Pride is the enemy of growth. Perseverance payoff is growth." "If you can’t take 60 minutes to step away, you’re setting yourself up for failure." "It's not about less intensity, it's not about less excellence, it's about perspective. And if you can provide that for your people and model it, then you can get people to work really hard, really long and do really hard stuff knowing that it's okay that there's not an end. Because we can do this in a sustainable way." "Plans are necessary, but adaptability determines success." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Blayne Smith LinkedIn | Brandon Young LinkedIn | Website | The Applied Leadership Podcast can be listened to and watched at the following links: Spotify - Apple Podcasts - YouTube - Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram |
Elizabeth Lotardo, author of “Leading Yourself: Find More Joy, Meaning, and Opportunities in the Job You Already Have (Despite Imperfect Bosses, Weird Economies, Lethargic Coworkers, Annoying Systems, and Too Many Deliverables),” is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor. In this conversation, Elizabeth offers valuable insights on self-leadership, personal accountability, and employee engagement, emphasizing the importance of taking ownership of your work experience rather than waiting for external circumstances to change. She unpacks the three essential traits of self-leaders, explores the dynamic between corporate and personal responsibility in fostering engagement, and highlights the critical role of emotional intelligence in professional development. Additionally, Elizabeth discusses the evolving impact of AI on the workforce, strategies for receiving and applying feedback effectively, and the importance of strong networks for career growth. Listen in at The Leadership Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts to gain practical, actionable strategies to take control of your career and create meaningful, fulfilling work experiences. Key Takeaways [04:03] Elizabeth wrote Leading Yourself after noticing how many professionals underestimate their power at work. People often focus on what they can’t control—like their boss or the economy—rather than what they can. She discovered that self-leadership is a predictor of both professional success and personal happiness. [06:00] While companies benefit from engaged employees, Elizabeth argues that individuals have personal responsibility for their engagement. Instead of waiting for leadership or HR to improve things, employees should develop tools to sustain their own engagement. “If you’re waiting to be engaged until your boss changes, you’re paying a personal price for that,” she says. [07:19] Self-leaders share three traits: Mastering their mindset – They create confidence and purpose instead of waiting for it. Elevating their behavior – They actively improve how they show up at work. Building intentional relationships – They expand their network inside and outside their organization. [12:45] Elizabeth highlights the importance of sitting with feedback rather than immediately rejecting it. “We assume we must either accept or reject feedback, but strong leaders take time to process it first,” she explains. She suggests looking for the “note behind the note” to understand the deeper insight behind criticism. [18:29] Elizabeth sees self-leadership and emotional intelligence as deeply connected. Leaders with high emotional intelligence understand themselves, navigate relationships effectively, and take ownership of their career. She predicts that these skills will become even more critical as AI and automation reshape work. [22:36] Elizabeth advises people to focus on what they can control, even in overwhelming situations. When handed a difficult goal, instead of fixating on external challenges, break it down into personal actions. “What do you uniquely own? That’s where your energy should go,” she says. [29:03] Building relationships should not be accidental. Strong self-leaders proactively expand their networks. This not only helps with career growth but also provides the right support system when facing challenges. [32:42] Elizabeth dedicates her book to her son with the message: “You are never powerless.” She urges listeners to remember that while they can’t control everything, they always have the ability to control their response and mindset. [34:00] And remember, I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. - Aristotle Quotable Quotes “If you’re waiting to be engaged until your boss changes, you’re paying a personal price for that.” “Self-leaders don’t wait for confidence, purpose, or permission—they create it.” “People assume feedback must either be accepted or rejected. But strong leaders sit with it first, unpacking what’s behind it before deciding how to act.” “Being intentional about your relationships is just as important as being intentional about your work.” “The people who embrace AI and learn how to use it will have a competitive advantage. The ones who resist it will fall behind.” This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Elizabeth Lotardo LinkedIn | Website |
Kristel Bauer is a corporate wellness & performance expert, keynote speaker, TEDx speaker & the host of the Live Greatly podcast. She is the author of “Work-Life Tango: Finding Happiness, Harmony, and Peak Performance Wherever You Work.” Kristel shares a fresh perspective on work-life harmony, moving beyond outdated notions of balance. Using the metaphor of the tango dance, Kristel explains how leaders can move with the rhythm of their lives—adjusting, leading, and following at different moments. She discusses how leaders can model self-care, create meaningful workplace connections, and foster a culture that prioritizes well-being without sacrificing performance. She also explores the power of small adjustments—what she calls "checkpoints"—to help leaders and teams navigate work and life with greater fulfillment. If you’ve ever struggled with burnout, guilt about work-life boundaries, or felt pressure to “do it all,” this episode will offer a fresh perspective. Key Takeaways [01:43] Kristel Bauer shares her background in integrative medicine and how her experience in psychiatry and functional medicine shaped her understanding of well-being. She discusses the importance of continuous learning and expanding one’s perspective. [04:41] Kristel explains that the traditional concept of work-life balance isn’t practical in today’s world, where technology blurs the lines between work and home. Instead, she envisions work and life as a dance—fluid, dynamic, and adaptable. The metaphor of tango captures the movement, energy, and passion needed to navigate both work and personal life successfully. [07:40] Kristel advocates for inner balance. She emphasizes that leaders should focus on making choices aligned with their values rather than achieving a perfect 50/50 split between work and life. [12:15] Kristel highlights that leaders must first take care of themselves before they can effectively support their teams. She encourages leaders to model self-care, prioritize relationships, and create a culture where employees feel valued. Simple gestures—like checking in with team members informally—can have a profound impact. [17:17] She advocates for informal check-ins between leaders and employees to foster trust and open communication. A simple five-minute conversation can help team members feel valued and understood. [20:22]When addressing fairness in the workplace, Crystal suggests focusing on employee output rather than rigid work schedules. She acknowledges the challenges leaders face in maintaining fairness while ensuring productivity. [23:56] Kristel shares a real-life example of a leader adjusting an employee’s work schedule after learning about their struggles. She emphasizes that small changes can significantly improve employee well-being and performance. [30:07] She advises employees who are unhappy at work to focus on transferable skills and learning opportunities while seeking new opportunities. She encourages people to perform with integrity and intention, regardless of job satisfaction. [34:17] The book introduces "checkpoints" to encourage self-reflection and intentional decision-making. Crystal believes that regularly assessing one's priorities can help people feel more empowered and aligned with their goals. [35:38] Closing quote: Remember,“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony” — Thomas Merton Quotable Quotes "Work-life balance isn’t about a perfect split—it’s about finding harmony between what matters most to you." "Leadership isn’t just about managing tasks; it’s about showing up as your best self so you can inspire others to do the same." "Small moments of connection with your team can make a big impact—never underestimate the power of a five-minute conversation." "True balance isn’t about counting hours—it’s about aligning your work and life with your values." "If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t show up fully for your team. Great leadership starts with personal well-being." "Success isn’t about avoiding challenges; it’s about learning how to navigate them with confidence and adaptability." "You don’t have to love your job to learn from it. Every role offers skills and experiences that can help you grow." "The best leaders create an environment where people feel safe to share, grow, and bring their best selves to work." "Instead of striving for perfection, focus on progress. Small adjustments can lead to big changes in how you feel and perform." "Leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about listening, learning, and creating space for others to thrive." “Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony” — Thomas Merton This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Live Greatly Website | Live Greatly YouTube | Live Greatly Facebook | Kristel Bauer LinkedIn | Kristel Bauer Instagram | Live Greatly X (Twitter) |
Stuart Grazier is a full time entrepreneur and a retired Navy pilot. Stuart is also the co-founder and co-host of The Kinetic Man, a podcast to empower. Stuart opens up about the flawed definitions of success that many people grapple with. He shares the transformative role of community, faith, and vulnerability in shaping a fulfilling life and career. Stuart delves into the importance of tribes, both in personal and professional contexts, and explains how clarity and intentionality can guide individuals toward meaningful growth. Through insightful anecdotes and lessons from his podcasting journey, Stuart provides actionable advice for leaders at all stages. Key Takeaways [04:01] Stu opens up about the societal pressures that lead men to chase worldly definitions of success—power, money, and sex. He emphasizes the need to shift focus toward personal values and purpose, highlighting the loneliness epidemic and its ties to these flawed ideals. [06:55] Discussing life after the military, Stu describes the challenges veterans face in redefining their identity. Losing the structure and tribe of military life can leave veterans feeling isolated. He stresses the importance of intentionally finding new communities to belong to. [09:20] Humans are designed for connection, as seen in both religious teachings and research studies. Stu emphasizes that relationships are key to happiness and that intentional efforts to build community are vital. [14:05] Stu shares his journey of self-discovery through mentorship, reflection, and accountability. He recounts how mentors helped him identify blind spots and guided him toward actionable steps to improve his life and leadership. [21:24] Stu shares small yet impactful habits learned from guests, like taking walks to spark creativity and creating a daily connection with family through shared rituals. [27:16] Stu discusses the evolution of his faith and why living authentically and sharing his beliefs openly is central to his leadership and personal philosophy. [32:40] Stu describes vulnerability as a superpower and explains how spending time in nature fosters deeper reflection and connection. He emphasizes the importance of outdoor activities in maintaining mental, emotional, and spiritual health. [36:32] Stu and the hosts discuss the value of serving others as a way to move through personal struggles. Stu explains that focusing on others can bring clarity, reduce stress, and create a sense of purpose. [39:16] And remember, People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident. - John Maxwell Quotable Quotes "If you don’t change anything, what does your life look like 10 years down the road?" "The shortest distance between two people is vulnerability." "You can’t find clarity without first facing the hard truths about yourself." "Community and purpose are not optional; they are essential." "Failing is okay. It’s how you learn and grow." "Let’s work on ourselves first, starting with tiny, incremental changes." "You never know who needs to hear your story. Holding it back is a missed opportunity." "Nature has a way of opening up the soul and creating space for growth." "Your identity isn’t your title; it’s who you are at your core." "Find your tribe. Life is better when you’re not doing it alone." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Stu Grazier LinkedIn | The Kinetic Man Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Podcast |
Sarah Dalton is the co-author of “The Five Talents that Really Matter,” and in this episode, she breaks down the five core leadership talents: setting direction, harnessing energy, exerting pressure, increasing connectivity, and controlling traffic, explaining how they shape effective leadership. She emphasizes the importance of identifying rare, innate leadership qualities over relying on traditional resume markers. Sarah challenges common hiring biases, encourages structured selection processes, and advocates for building balanced teams through intentional talent optimization. Key Takeaways [02:37] Sarah Dalton shares her background as a partner at Conchi Associates and discusses how her expertise in talent assessment and team development extends to mentoring children in their growth and self-awareness. [03:20] Sarah emphasizes her goal with The Five Talents that Really Matter—to prevent under qualified managers from being promoted by identifying rare and essential leadership talents. [04:54] She highlights common hiring biases, such as selecting candidates based on similarities to oneself, which often results in non-predictive decisions for future performance. [08:20] Sarah introduces the five core leadership talents: setting direction, harnessing energy, exerting pressure, increasing connectivity, and controlling traffic, emphasizing their diverse expressions in leadership styles. [10:07] She discusses the importance of balancing action orientation with reflective thinking, noting how successful leaders manage both qualities effectively. [14:20] Sarah explains the importance of structured selection assessments to avoid hiring decisions based on chemistry rather than true leadership potential. [16:11] About the book that includes specific interview questions designed to identify leadership potential and guidance on how to interpret responses effectively. [18:29] Sarah challenges the notion that a leader’s greatest strength can also be a weakness, emphasizing that the absence of balancing talents is the real issue. [22:19] She describes how the five talents can be applied to team dynamics, advocating for leveraging individual strengths while acknowledging no team is perfectly balanced. [26:24] Sarah stresses the importance of a clearly defined decision-making process to prevent team conflict, especially when one member naturally plays a more deliberative role. [35:26] Her top leadership takeaway: build strong, positive relationships with team members and hold them to high standards by encouraging diverse perspectives and deeper thinking. [38:59] Closing quote: Remember, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." — Michael Jordan Quotable Quotes “Great leadership isn't about promoting those most like us—it's about identifying rare talents that drive superior performance.” “True talent isn't just found on a resume. It's the enduring qualities of thought and character that define long-term success.” “A leader's strength isn’t their downfall—it's the absence of balancing qualities that creates blind spots.” “The most effective leaders know when to take decisive action and when to slow down and think critically.” “The best teams aren't perfectly balanced—they're optimized for the strengths they already possess.” “The quality of your leadership is reflected in how well you develop and empower those around you.” “Hiring decisions should be guided by talent assessments, not chemistry or personal bias.” “A strong leader builds relationships deep enough to understand what drives each individual’s success.” “When facing decisions, ask yourself: Who have I talked to? What have I learned? Have I considered more than one option?” “Leadership isn’t about being perfect—it's about holding yourself and others to a higher standard of thinking.” "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." — Michael Jordan This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Sarah Dalton’s LinkedIn | Sarah Dalton’s Website | Sarah Dalton’s Twitter |
Dr. Debra Clary is a narrative scientist and author of “The Curiosity Curve.” In this episode, Debra discusses the transformative power of curiosity in leadership and organizational culture. She shares her unconventional journey from aspiring stand-up comic to corporate executive at Fortune 50 companies, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, persistence, and storytelling in leadership. Debra explains how curiosity can be learned and measured, highlighting its positive impact on leadership performance, employee engagement, and innovation. She recounts experiences from her career and personal life, including her one-woman show “A Curious Woman,” which explored lessons from her corporate career with humor and vulnerability. Listen in to hear how you can foster curiosity in your teams, create psychological safety, and embrace feedback as a tool for growth and transformation. Key Takeaways [03:23] Dr. Debra Clary shares her background as a stand-up comic before transitioning into the corporate world. Her father encouraged her to pursue her dreams while also giving honest feedback about her comedic talent, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and persistence. [05:15] Debra highlights how curiosity can bridge divides, citing a personal experience on a train in Italy that made her realize Americans often prioritize speaking over listening. She emphasizes that genuine curiosity can help people understand different perspectives and reduce conflict. [08:16] Debra developed a curiosity assessment tool after being asked if curiosity is innate or learned. Her research found that curiosity can be developed and directly correlates with leadership performance, employee engagement, and innovation. [11:22] She discusses how societal norms often suppress curiosity, but it can be reignited through self-awareness and practice, like asking questions and exploring new ideas. Debra shares a case study where a CEO’s low curiosity impacted the entire company's innovation efforts. She stresses the importance of psychological safety and open feedback to prevent leadership from stifling creativity. [22:23] She emphasizes the power of storytelling for leadership, noting that effective communication involves multiple touchpoints and a consistent message. [26:45] Debra performed a one-woman show, A Curious Woman, to share lessons from her corporate career with humor and storytelling, using vulnerability as a tool for connection and growth. [29:08] She pursued a doctorate while working full-time, driven by curiosity about leadership and organizational culture. She balanced her studies with her professional and personal responsibilities, demonstrating resilience and discipline. [37:06] Debra concludes by emphasizing that curiosity has the power to transform relationships, organizations, and even the world, urging listeners to embrace it as a tool for positive change. [37:53] Closing quote: Remember, “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” — E.E. Cummings Quotable Quotes "Curiosity has immense power to transform relationships, families, teams, organizations, and even our world." "If we could truly listen to others without judgment, we could break through conflicts and divisions." "Curiosity can be learned, and it directly impacts leadership performance and employee engagement." "Negativity can kill curiosity, but positivity and curiosity can both be contagious." "A leader's role is to influence and inspire action through effective communication." "The most important thing a leader can do is have a compelling message that drives change." "We become conditioned to be incurious through societal norms and professional specialization." "Self-awareness and psychological safety are essential for fostering curiosity in teams." "Curiosity, paired with discipline, can be the driving force behind personal and professional success." “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” — E.E. Cummings Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Debra Clary’s LinkedIn | Debra Clary’s Website | Debra Clary’s Twitter |
Dr. Marie Helene Peltier is a leadership psychologist, and author of “The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health.” In this episode, she unpacks the science and practical strategies behind resilience, offering insights into how mental health and leadership are deeply interconnected. From creating personalized resilience plans to building resilient teams, the conversation explores how leaders can thrive under stress and navigate challenges effectively. Dr. Peltier emphasizes actionable steps like tailoring stress management techniques to individual needs, integrating resilience into team discussions, and using strategic tools to balance professional demands with personal priorities. She also covers the importance of values-driven planning, the role of proactive resilience, and how leaders can “bounce forward” through adversity. Key Takeaways [02:48] Dr. Peltier begins by discussing the deep connection between mental health and leadership. She explains that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence how we lead, make decisions, and interact with teams. Resilience is critical for leaders to navigate demands effectively and sustain peak performance. [05:08] When addressing behavioral changes, Dr. Peltier advises distinguishing between coaching and psychological support. Coaches should focus on actionable strategies while referring clients to specialists when deeper mental health issues arise. [08:35] She highlights the benefits of regular physical activity (cardio, strength training, meditative practices), nutrition, and time in nature. These actions create a strong foundation for resilience, but leaders often overlook them due to their demanding schedules. [12:51] Dr. Peltier advocates starting with values to prioritize actions and using tools like a SWOT analysis to identify gaps in resilience resources. She encourages leaders to create realistic, context-specific plans that align with their unique challenges and demands. [19:23] Resilience isn’t just individual—it’s systemic. Leaders should bring resilience into team discussions, proactively preparing for high-demand periods and creating strategies to handle stress collectively. [27:45] Dr. Peltier reframes resilience as both a decision and a plan. While the willingness to be resilient is essential, strategic preparation ensures that leaders have the tools to act when challenges arise. [34:23] Dr. Peltier advises leaders to prepare for increasing demands, including technological changes like AI integration, by strengthening their personal and team resilience. [35:47] And remember, Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms to bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures. You should focus on emphasizing the positive. Jean Chatzky Quotable Quotes "Resilience is our ability to go through that adversity here, which could be acute or chronic, and come out even stronger." "A lot of the time, the ways in which we behave today don’t emerge randomly out of nowhere." "If resilience was a mathematical equation, these variables would account for most of the variance." "Sometimes we can just learn a new way, experiment with it, it works, and that in itself will actually shift whatever was there internally." "Whatever works for you, assuming it’s healthy, do this. Let’s just start there." "Resilience isn’t just about individuals; there are actions we want to take as leaders, but we also want to focus on the team and organization." "We tend to just receive the demands here and then turn towards our team and do the work. That moment of saying, wait a second, let me ask my leader for help, is often missed." "Keep looking for what that resource could be for you. Don’t just say, well, I don’t have the finances, so not doing anything." "Resilience is a decision, but it’s also a plan. And just a decision to be resilient isn’t sufficient—it’s a great start, but insufficient." "Leaders must identify their values, look at demands and resources, and prioritize what actions will help them thrive." "As these things come up, we will need to face these demands and embrace them with even more resilience." "Resilience is our ability to grow through adversity and bring our best decisions and best thinking to the table." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Marie Helene-Pelletier Website | Dr. Marie Helene-Pelletier X | Dr. Marie Helene-Pelletier LinkedIn | Dr. Marie Helene-Pelletier Instagram | Dr. Marie Helene-Pelletier YouTube | Dr. Marie Helene-Pelletier Facebook |
Jim and Jan dive deep into the concept of “Glue Guys” (or “Glue Gals”)—the individuals who often go unrecognized but are crucial in holding teams and organizations together. They explore the traits, roles, and impact of these unsung heroes across various settings, from sports to corporate environments. Jim shares insights into how these individuals contribute behind the scenes, and expands on this idea, explaining that in sports, captains who are not necessarily stars often embody these roles. This segues into a broader discussion on how these traits appear in organizations, emphasizing that leaders should identify and reward such individuals. They also touch on how glue people are essential in sales roles. Jim explains that great salespeople not only connect with customers but also navigate internal systems, exemplifying the characteristics of glue people by fostering trust and collaboration. Jan and Jim outline steps to identify glue people, understand their unique contributions, and create environments where they can thrive. By aligning their efforts with organizational values and acknowledging their often immeasurable impact, leaders can build stronger, more cohesive teams. Key Takeaways [01:34] Jim explains the term "Glue Guy" as someone who may not be the leader but is critical in keeping a team united. These individuals often work behind the scenes to ensure harmony and productivity. Despite their importance, they are frequently overlooked for promotions or recognition. [03:49] Jan reflects on the Kansas City Chiefs, pondering who their glue player might be. Jim expands on how glue people in organizations often act as mediators, ensuring smooth communication and conflict resolution across departments or teams. [08:22] Jim recounts the story of Billy Caldwell, a historical figure known as a “Great Negotiator.” His ability to bridge cultural divides and foster trust among conflicting groups exemplifies the role of a glue person. [16:39] Jim highlights how sales professionals embody the qualities of glue people. They connect parties with different objectives, fostering long-term relationships and mutual success. [20:01] Jan suggests leaders actively identify these individuals within their organizations and assess the unique contributions they bring. Recognizing and rewarding their efforts is essential for sustaining high-performing teams. [22:34] Jim and Jan encourage leaders to create environments that nurture and support glue people. By understanding their behaviors and aligning them with organizational values, leaders can foster engagement and loyalty. [25:20] And remember, “Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” - Stephen Cove Quotable Quotes "The glue guy or glue gal kind of keeps the team together." "Who are the people who are the glue guys within your organization? And are you doing enough to recognize them?" “The glue guys tend to be a little more mission focused first, the mission ahead of self, and self comes second but not completely selfless.” "Glue people tend to be able to speak everyone's language. They tend to have good empathy.” "Glue guys are like Rosetta Stones—they bridge gaps between groups, fostering understanding and trust." "The best salespeople are really glue guys." "The glue guy or glue gal kind of keeps the team together. And so it's not necessarily the de facto leader, doesn't even have to be the captain, but it's the kind of people that often go overlooked that kind of like keep the peace within a team, keep the peace within an organization, maybe kind of, you know, are doing a lot of work behind the scenes or like the duck's feet paddling below the surface of the water to make sure everything looks good, you know, on the surface." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
Wayne Turmel is a co-founder of the Remote Leadership Institute, and co-author of The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate. Wayne provides insights into the evolution of the workplace, the challenges of remote and hybrid work, and how leaders can adapt to these seismic changes. Wayne emphasizes the importance of intentionality in remote leadership and explores how technology, communication, and accountability shape successful remote teams. He introduces practical frameworks like the “3 Cs” of culture: Communication, collaboration, and cohesion. He explains why trust is at the heart of remote work, and covers the pitfalls of micromanagement, the necessity of proactive behavior in teams, and the role of leaders in navigating the complexities of hybrid work. Key Takeaways [03:15] Wayne reflects on the technological advancements that have revolutionized remote work. He mentions how tools like Zoom, Slack, and Teams replaced older platforms like Skype for Business, transforming communication and collaboration. He explains that the pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote work, turning what was once a prediction into a global reality. [05:12] Wayne explains that trust is essential for remote work to succeed. He outlines three key elements: a shared mission, effective use of technology, and accountability. Trust enables team members to rely on one another, and without it, remote teams can struggle to function. [06:41] Wayne highlights the need for intentionality in remote leadership. Unlike in-person settings, remote leaders can’t rely on casual interactions or physical cues to gauge how their team members are doing. Instead, they must proactively check in, build relationships, and create opportunities for engagement. [13:03] Wayne introduces the “3 Cs” of culture: Communication, Collaboration, and Cohesion. He explains how teams can intentionally design their culture by focusing on how they communicate, how work is done, and how team members connect. He shares practical examples, like creating informal Slack channels for casual conversations, to foster connections. [18:23] Wayne emphasizes the importance of proactivity. Great teammates go beyond their job descriptions—they step up during meetings, reach out to struggling colleagues, and contribute ideas. Proactivity builds trust and strengthens team dynamics, which is critical in remote settings. [25:40] Wayne argues that micromanagement undermines trust and creates unnecessary stress. Instead of focusing on how much time employees spend logged in, leaders should evaluate their teams based on outcomes and contributions. Micromanagement often leads to frustration and disengagement, both for leaders and employees. [31:42] Wayne notes that 70% of white-collar work now involves writing, yet many employees haven’t been trained in effective communication. As remote work relies heavily on emails, chats, and written reports, he encourages leaders to invest in improving their team’s writing skills to ensure clear and effective communication. [44:36] Wayne believes the future of work isn’t just about where people work but how they work together. He stresses the need for intentional strategies that balance productivity, flexibility, and employee engagement. For leaders, adapting to these changes requires focusing on outcomes, fostering trust, and maintaining a clear vision. [46:49] And remember, “We should be in constant evolution and adapt to the new without ever losing our essence or our integrity.” - Pedro Capo Quotable Quotes "Trust is the glue of remote work; without it, teams can’t thrive." "Remote leadership requires intentionality in every interaction." "Culture doesn’t happen by chance; it’s built through communication, collaboration, and cohesion." "Micromanaging remote teams is a fast track to frustration—for both leaders and employees." "Great teammates are proactive, productive, and long-term thinkers." "Leadership isn’t about where people work; it’s about how they work together." "The world has changed, and so must our approach to work." "The future of work isn’t just remote; it’s intentional." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Wayne Turmel Website | Wayne Turmel LinkedIn | Wayne Turmel Facebook | Wayne Turmel X |
Helen Hanison is the author of “Unstuck: A Smart Guide to Purposeful Career Redesign.” Helen discusses why many professionals feel stuck in their careers, emphasizing the ingrained societal pressure to persevere even in unfulfilling roles. She highlights how individuals often ignore their values and continue along a path that no longer aligns with their sense of purpose. For leaders, Helen explores how fostering open conversations with team members about their aspirations and aligning roles with individual strengths can combat stagnation and create meaningful engagement. Helen defines "purposeful" career redesign as a structured, three-act process of alignment, ideation, and transformation. It starts with self-awareness, identifying personal values and strengths, and ends with practical experiments to test new career directions. She underscores the role of self-awareness in career transitions, advising professionals to reflect deeply on what truly matters to them. Helen also provides advice for leaders feeling stuck, advocating for small, deliberate steps toward change while maintaining authenticity and connection with their teams. Key Takeaways [02:16] Helen shared that many of her defining career moments became clear only in hindsight. She described how pivotal experiences often go unnoticed until they are viewed in context. These moments now drive her mission to help others get unstuck. [06:07] Helen explained that Unstuck is a culmination of her experiences and learnings from navigating her career. She described it as a “roadmap” for designing purposeful careers. [09:15] Helen discussed how societal pressures, like the need to persevere, often keep people stuck in unsatisfying careers. The pandemic, she noted, became a catalyst for reassessment and gave people permission to rethink their paths. [21:09] Helen broke down her approach into three acts: Alignment, Ideation, and Transformation. She emphasized the importance of aligning strengths and values, brainstorming possibilities, and testing ideas before making big changes. [25:17] Helen stressed the value of having a coach or mentor. She highlighted that while some can navigate change alone, having a thought partner can accelerate transformation and provide accountability. [34:53] Helen addressed the challenge of being promoted into roles that may not align with one’s strengths. She advised leaders to reconnect with their values and seek support to navigate transitions. [41:02] Helen encouraged listeners who feel disconnected from their careers to take action. She outlined the first steps of career redesign: understanding what you enjoy and value most, and starting small to build momentum. [43:12] And remember, "Growth is painful, change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong." - Narayana Murthy Quotable Quotes “Perseverance is a virtue, but staying in a career that violates your values is not.” “Purposeful career redesign starts with understanding what you enjoy most and value most.” “When you align your career with your values, the fear of change starts to lose its power.” “Coping for 20 years in a career that doesn’t serve you is not living—it’s surviving.” “The career ladder is outdated; think of your career as a series of meaningful projects instead.” “Perseverance can be a trap when it keeps you stuck in something that violates your values.” “The first step to getting unstuck is radical self-awareness—know your strengths, values, and what fuels your purpose.” “To create meaningful change, leaders must help their teams move beyond ‘more better’ to something new and exciting.” “Aligned career transformation isn’t about big leaps—it’s about small, deliberate steps that reduce risk and build clarity.” “A supportive leader creates a legacy not by holding onto people but by facilitating their growth, even if it means they move on.” “Your career should light you up, not weigh you down. If it doesn’t, it’s time to reassess and realign.” “Leaders who align their values with their actions inspire their teams and create a ripple effect of positivity.” This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Helen Hanison Website | Helen Hanison LinkedIn | Helen Hanison Instagram |
Andy Hilger recently completed a 25-year career with Allegis Group, his last six years serving as the president of the global staffing and services company. He currently serves as a guest lecturer at Duke University and American University, and writes a regular LinkedIn blog on leadership. Andy shares insights on finding fulfillment in the workplace, learning through failures, and the evolving role of leadership in a rapidly changing world. Andy discusses his early career struggles, from overcoming rejection to dealing with imposter syndrome. He reflects on the importance of embracing failure, recounting his experiences of being cut from school basketball teams and how it shaped his outlook on resilience and grit. Transitioning into business, Andy emphasizes how businesses can act as a force for good, outlining the potential for companies to balance purpose with profit. Andy touches on critical themes such as accountability, agency, and creating a culture of trust in the workplace. Andy delves into how leaders can use empathy alongside clear expectations to foster engagement. Andy shares his approach to personal growth, highlighting the importance of cultivating purpose over chasing traditional markers of success. He advises young professionals to embrace learning, prioritize meaningful work, and navigate careers with agility and curiosity. Key Takeaways [01:25] Andy opens up about what’s not in his public bio. He shares how being cut from his 8th and 9th-grade basketball teams and facing repeated rejections in his career taught him resilience and the value of grit. “The failures are what shape us more than the accomplishments.” [06:03] Andy discusses how businesses can be a force for good. He explains that while nonprofits do great work, they often lack scalability. Businesses, with their resources, have the ability to drive meaningful change by aligning profits with purpose. “Money is critical, but it should fund purpose and mission.” [10:08] In his work with students, Andy encourages them not to wait for a position of power to start making an impact. He teaches them that they can begin shaping the organizations they join and the impact they have, starting today, by recognizing their own agency and acting with urgency. [12:34] Andy shares a pivotal early career moment when he was encouraged to deliver feedback to a superior. This experience taught him the value of creating a culture where feedback is not just accepted but expected. “Giving feedback isn’t optional; it’s an obligation.” [19:38] Andy spoke to 500 freshmen at West Virginia University and found them curious and eager to make a difference but uncertain how to do so. While some stereotypes about their generation hold, he found them engaged and motivated. They were stressed about internships, choosing majors, and managing financial pressures. Andy advised them to focus on learning and meaningful experiences rather than specific career outcomes, believing the true value of education lies in skills and relationships developed over time. [25:24] Andy expresses concerns about AI’s impact on society. He warns against the industry’s focus on maximizing profit at the expense of ethical considerations. “We need to prioritize wisdom over intelligence to ensure technology serves humanity.” [35:51] Reflecting on his journey, Andy explains how shifting from an imposter mindset to one of growth helped him navigate challenges. He encourages leaders to foster environments where others can make that same transition. [43:51] Andy discussed how businesses need to adapt to meet new expectations. He believes companies should move away from traditional hierarchies and create flexible environments. Hiring for adaptability and continuous learning is crucial. Leaders should focus on providing meaningful work and ensuring that their companies deliver value to customers, as knowledge quickly becomes outdated. [46:32] And remember, "It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit." — Denis Waitley Quotable Quotes “The resume is a glossy view, but the failures are what shape us more than the accomplishments.” “We are more a culmination of our failures than just the things that end up on the resume.” “Money can’t be the end goal; it has to fund purpose and mission.” “Profits are the oxygen that allows businesses to live their mission.” “Leadership isn’t a prize; it’s an awesome responsibility.” “Leadership isn’t about waiting for a title; it’s about starting where you are to make an impact.” “Learning to love learning is the most important skill in today’s dynamic world.” “No one will care what you majored in; learning to love learning is the key to success.” “Wisdom must guide intelligence; without it, we risk serving the tools we create.” "Focus on your learning potential, not your earning potential." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Andy Hilger LinkedIn | Andy Hilger X |
Felicia Shakiba, CEO at CPO PLAYBOOK, and Podcast Host, has also led several international HR teams as the Fractional Chief People Officer for clients in industries such as fintech, biotech, ad tech, and more. Felicia discusses today’s most pressing leadership challenges. Felicia shares insights on leadership in a rapidly evolving landscape influenced by AI, the importance of executive coaching, and the critical role of culture in driving engagement and performance. Through her experiences with diverse organizations, Felicia explores the intricacies of fostering unified and agile teams, especially in hybrid settings. She also delves into aligning people strategy with business objectives, and the future of learning and development. Felicia’s candid take on bridging gaps between HR policies and frontline needs, building flexible and engaging company cultures, and maintaining authenticity offers valuable lessons for leaders at all levels. She also highlights the significance of personalized growth paths, employee engagement, and professional development in ensuring that teams stay motivated and connected. Key Takeaways [05:25] Felicia explains how AI is changing L&D by converting static content into interactive learning modules, offering immediate feedback, and providing real-time data insights. She notes that while AI enhances learning efficiency, it lacks the ability to interpret subtle cues like body language and emotions, which are crucial in executive coaching. [08:07] According to Felicia, HR’s top-down approach often feels out of touch with frontline managers’ immediate needs. She believes HR should partner with managers to create relevant programs, making it clear that HR’s role is to support and listen to those directly leading teams. [09:42] Felicia emphasizes that general training is useful for foundational learning but becomes ineffective for leaders seeking to grow specific skills. She customizes her coaching to focus on three to four key competencies, helping leaders navigate complex decisions and preparing them for future responsibilities. [19:03] Felicia advocates for using engagement data to inform decisions about work models, rather than guessing. She explains that high engagement scores can validate remote work, while low scores may indicate the need for in-person strategies to boost team cohesion and satisfaction. [23:40] Felicia notes that side hustles are often a response to stagnant growth opportunities within organizations. To retain talent, she suggests companies provide transparent career paths and actively support professional development, which can lead to higher engagement and loyalty. [31:19] Felicia explains that leaders pursuing cultural transformation often want to eliminate silos, improve communication, and inspire innovation. She advises that a successful transformation should align culture with strategic goals, ensuring employees feel empowered and connected to the mission. [36:30] Felicia shares research suggesting that diversity can enhance financial performance and prevent groupthink, though causation is difficult to prove. She emphasizes that diversity in gender, race, and expertise fosters fresh perspectives, contributing to long-term success and adaptability. [44:29] And remember, “It's not all about talent. It's about dependability, consistency, and being able to improve. If you work hard and you're coachable and you understand what you need to do, you can improve." - Bill Belichick Quotable Quotes “True coaching requires understanding beyond data; it’s both scientific and artful.” “Building a strong company culture across remote teams is about creating virtual ‘water cooler’ moments that keep people connected.” “HR should serve as a support to managers, not a barrier; their role is to help create programs that managers actually need.” “People are drawn to innovative cultures; they’ll stay if they feel they’re growing and valued.” “Cultural transformation is more than values on paper; it’s about shifting how people connect, communicate, and work together.” “Diversity isn’t just about representation; it’s about preventing groupthink and driving innovation.” “People need personalized development, especially leaders, who have unique competencies and challenges to address.” “It’s not just about moving up; it’s about building skill paths that align with both individual and organizational goals.” Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | CPO PLAYBOOK Website | Felicia Shakiba LinkedIn | Felica Shakiba YouTube |
Leslie Zane, Founder and CEO of Triggers® Brand Consulting, and author of "The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life." Leslie explains that our instinctive, unconscious mind makes up about 95% of our daily choices, and marketers who focus on this instead of logical appeals see the strongest brand results. Leslie unpacks the concept of growth triggers, small but powerful cues that embed positive associations with a brand and override past negative perceptions. She also reveals why emotional marketing has limited long-term impact and urges brands to adopt strategies that leverage familiarity and instinct to grow lasting loyalty. Leslie touches on the Age of Instinct, a term she uses to describe today’s emphasis on behavioral science and AI in decision-making. With marketing now focused more on the unconscious mind, Leslie believes that the future of branding is driven by the brain’s associative power. She breaks down the difference between “uniqueness” and “distinctiveness” in marketing, advocating for strategies that balance fresh ideas with a sense of the familiar. Leslie’s insights challenge traditional marketing rules and provide a roadmap for leaders looking to grow authentically by aligning with the natural ways the human brain makes decisions. Key Takeaways [03:24] Leslie explains that Kahneman’s research emphasizes the unconscious mind’s major role in decision-making, responsible for about 95% of our choices. However, the marketing industry mistakenly interpreted this as needing emotional appeals, which don’t lead to long-lasting brand loyalty. Leslie stresses that emotional connection is an outcome, not an input, for effective persuasion. [07:59] Leslie shares that in the 90s, her work on instinctive decision-making was met with resistance, as behavioral science was not yet widely recognized in the business world. She felt isolated as she advocated for a focus on instinctive mind, a concept that took 30 years to gain mainstream acceptance. [16:31] Leslie describes the brand connectome as the network of associations tied to a brand that resides in the unconscious mind. Brands grow stronger as they develop positive, distinctive, and familiar connections over time, ultimately leading to instinctive consumer choices. [20:04] Leslie says “growth triggers” act like a brand’s “miracle grow.” These are sensory cues, like McDonald’s “fresh cracked egg” imagery, that add positive associations to a brand quickly, reversing negative perceptions and strengthening consumer loyalty. [25:09] Leslie notes that persuasion within a company requires treating ideas like brands. To achieve internal buy-in, she suggests building familiarity over time rather than introducing fully formed ideas. Involve key influencers in early stages, allowing people to “co-create” the idea, which increases acceptance and support. Leslie emphasizes that frequent exposure to an idea builds comfort and familiarity, making it more likely to be embraced. [28:31] Leslie discusses how the current era of AI and behavioral science emphasizes the unconscious mind’s influence in business. As AI advances, it enables marketers to connect with consumers on an instinctive level, signaling a shift toward the Age of Instinct in decision-making. [32:40] Leslie highlights that while behavioral science and AI are powerful tools for persuasion, they raise ethical concerns. She stresses the importance of ethical marketing practices, as companies may manipulate consumers without their awareness. Leslie warns that as AI technology progresses, it is essential for the industry to remain vigilant, ensuring human control and prioritizing consumer well-being to prevent overstepping ethical boundaries. [39:18] And remember, “Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.” - Henry Winkler Quotable Quotes "Emotional connection should be the outcome, not the input." "The instinctive mind calls the shots in branding and decision-making – that’s where marketers need to focus." "Familiarity beats uniqueness – a brand’s strength lies in building familiar, positive associations." "Instinct is the most powerful force for changing human behavior – leverage it to make your brand unforgettable." "Growth triggers act like 'miracle grow' for brands, adding positive associations that change consumer perception." "The brand connectome is a mental network – the larger and more positive it is, the stronger the brand loyalty." "Marketing to the conscious mind won’t drive long-term loyalty. Our unconscious choices hold the power." "Distinctiveness, not uniqueness, makes a brand memorable – give consumers something fresh that still feels familiar." "Stop trying to persuade people; instead, align with the mind’s natural instincts and your brand will grow." "We’re in the Age of Instinct, where behavioral science and AI unlock new ways to connect with consumers." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Leslie Zane Website | Triggers® Brand Consulting Website | Leslie Zane LinkedIn | Leslie Zane Facebook | Leslie Zane X |
Tony Martignetti is the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Inspired Purpose Partners. He is the author of “Climbing the Right Mountain: Navigating the Journey to An Inspired Life.” Tony shares how meditation and therapy helped him rediscover purpose during a dark time, and he shares insights on leadership and self-awareness. Through his “grounded leadership” approach, Tony advises leaders to stay intentional and true to their values, especially in challenging times. To cultivate compassion, Tony recommends vulnerability and authentic engagement with teams. He shares advice on overcoming fear when stepping out of comfort zones and encourages reconnecting with past contacts to spark new opportunities. Key Takeaways [06:34] Tony describes a period in his life when he felt disconnected from himself and burnt out in a corporate role that didn’t align with his true identity. This challenging time led him to meditation and therapy as tools to restore “color” and purpose to his life. He shares how practices like meditation can increase self-awareness, helping individuals reconnect with their values and passions. [11:36] As a leadership coach, Tony emphasizes “grounded leadership”—an approach to staying intentional and focused, especially during periods of rapid change. Grounded leaders understand their core values and make deliberate decisions rather than reacting to external pressures. This framework encourages leaders to reconnect with who they are, why they lead, and the purpose that drives their actions. [14:41] In his book Climbing the Right Mountain, Tony addresses purpose-driven leadership and how leaders can assess whether they’re truly on the right path for themselves and their organizations. He shares a practical exercise, asking leaders to review their upcoming week. If nothing excites them, it may signal disconnection from their values, prompting a reevaluation. Purposeful leadership doesn’t always mean drastic career shifts; sometimes, it involves a simple mindset change to realign with one’s “why.” [21:40] Tony recalls working under Henry Tamir, a CEO who embodied compassionate leadership. By centering every decision on the wellbeing of patients, Tamir inspired a purpose-driven culture within the organization. Tony explains that authentic compassion in leadership requires vulnerability and genuine concern for team members, beyond superficial gestures. [26:50] Tony speaks to the fear leaders often face when considering a move out of comfortable roles, particularly for those in mid-career. He recommends a balanced approach, leveraging experience in ways that provide security—such as consulting or board work—while still pursuing fulfilling challenges. He believes that settling without pursuing one’s potential leads to regret, encouraging leaders to make bold but strategic decisions. [32:20] Tony's biggest leadership takeaway from his journey is that no one succeeds alone. He highlights the importance of having a supportive network of people who believe in you, even before you believe in yourself. This support helps overcome personal limitations and fosters expanded perspectives and growth. [36:29] Tony challenges listeners to reconnect with old contacts, emphasizing that leadership is ultimately about fostering connection. In his experience, reviving past relationships can open doors to new possibilities and enrich one’s personal and professional life. Connection, Tony believes, is essential not only for growth but for building a fulfilling, purpose-driven career. [37:44] And remember, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club” - Jack London Quotable Quotes "I need to leave this room to change this room." "If you're willing to feel everything, you can have anything." "You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." "Expand your vision, narrow your focus." "We don’t go it alone. We have people on the journey, even if we don’t recognize it." "Just because the world around us is moving fast, doesn’t mean we have to make fast decisions." "Compassionate leadership is so important; it’s putting the patient at the center of every decision." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | X |
Myles Corson is the Global and America Strategy and Markets Leader for Financial Accounting and Advisory Services at EY. He also hosts the EY Better Finance Podcast, which focuses on various financial topics and trends affecting businesses today. Myles shares insights on the importance of “doing the math,” explaining how effective finance leaders filter valuable information from overwhelming data sources to drive consistent performance. Myles discusses how companies can adapt to disruptions like economic shifts, geopolitical instability, and advancing technology. He emphasizes that strong finance functions must balance short-term and long-term performance, especially when navigating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) priorities alongside shareholder demands. He also covers how finance leaders can utilize AI and digital transformation tools in innovative ways, moving past traditional models to enhance efficiency and market adaptability. Myles reflects on what he’s learned from hosting the EY Better Finance podcast, noting the essential skills that set great CFOs apart, especially their ability to communicate complex ideas with clarity and build trusted relationships within the executive team. He concludes with a look at EY’s ongoing research, such as the DNA of the CFO report, and the significance of alignment between personal and functional transformations in fostering organizational resilience. Key Takeaways [03:51] Myles agrees with Jim on the importance of numbers, noting that CFOs face a data overload, making it difficult to separate critical information from noise. Successful CFOs, he adds, prioritize clarity and focus on key metrics to drive performance. [05:00] Myles addresses the issue of achieving a “single point of truth” in company data, particularly within finance. He sees AI as a tool for improving data consistency but underscores the CFO’s role in guiding organizations to focus on key KPIs for clear, actionable steps. [07:10] Myles agrees with Jan that establishing decision-making criteria based on company values and mission is crucial. He highlights that data strategy and governance are essential, with CFOs evolving from data stewards to data architects. [09:32] Myles describes how CFOs can balance traditional finance duties with strategic business partnerships. He emphasizes that finance transformation should focus on adding value, not just cutting costs. [11:14] Myles comments on the need for companies to adapt to disruptions with a clear strategic vision. He shares how agile, cross-functional leadership became a key factor during the pandemic and encourages CFOs to leverage this approach in the future. [15:55] Myles acknowledges the challenge of balancing ROI, DEI, and ESG initiatives, especially when there are competing priorities. He highlights that top CFOs deliver both short-term results and long-term investments, with a strong focus on culture and adaptability. [22:38] Myles compares the AI hype cycle to the early days of the internet, expressing his belief that AI’s real value lies in transforming processes rather than providing small improvements. He advises leaders to align AI applications with clear outcomes. [33:18] Myles emphasizes the importance of storytelling and communication skills among top CFOs, recounting a guest’s two essential questions for finance teams: "Do you trust us?" and "Do you value having us at the table?" [36:50] Myles concludes with insights from EY’s ongoing research on CFO transformation, stressing the need for alignment across personal, functional, and enterprise goals to achieve successful change. [40:18] And remember, "The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation." - Adam Smith Quotable Quotes "The math has to be there; add up the math. If you sit there and just pay attention in meetings, how many times the math just doesn’t add up." "Successful CFOs have that clarity; they know what drives performance in their businesses, and they make sure the math stacks up." "The challenge isn’t the individual issues; it’s the compounding effect and the magnitude of impact." "Transformation is a tool, but it’s about outcomes. What are the outcomes we’re trying to drive toward?" "A missed opportunity isn’t measured on the balance sheet." "If you understand the outcomes and choose the right tools to deliver those outcomes, that’s when you’ll be successful." "Four out of five investors tell us they would trade some short-term performance for longer-term investment because they want confidence in sustained performance." "Too often, transformation is seen through the lens of cost reduction, but it’s really about focusing on what matters." "What we need is a moment of commitment as a leadership team—and you have to commit to what the outcomes are and stick to it." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Myles Corson Website | Myles Corson LinkedIn |
Joseph McCormack, founder of the Sheffield Company and author of “Quiet Works: Making Silence the Secret Ingredient of the Workday.” In this episode, he dives into the impact of noise on productivity and leadership. He argues that constant distractions from digital devices and the "badge of busyness" undermine thoughtful leadership. In his latest book, he emphasizes that quiet time isn’t simply a break from work but a critical part of it. He explains that silence enables leaders to engage in deliberate thinking, make clearer decisions, and improve operational efficiency. He also explores how balancing collaboration with intentional quiet work can foster innovation and resilience among teams, equipping leaders to provide calm, decisive guidance amidst high-pressure situations. Key Takeaways: [01:27] Joe introduces his focus on helping leaders combat distractions and manage the overwhelming amount of noise in today’s fast-paced world. He stresses that finding clarity requires slowing down, even in high-stress environments like those in the special operations community. [04:48] Joe explains how noise—distractions from digital devices and constant interruptions—hinders leaders' ability to think clearly and make intentional decisions. He advocates for brevity and quiet time as key strategies for cutting through clutter. [09:29] He suggests scheduling quiet time as a necessary appointment, not a luxury, allowing leaders to think without distractions. Even brief moments of reflection, such as five or ten minutes, can have significant impacts on decision-making and creativity. [13:59] Joe highlights that not all tasks are emergencies, even though many leaders feel they are constantly in crisis mode. He advises leaders to delay non-urgent tasks, regaining control by saying “not now” instead of an immediate "yes." [17:16] Joe recounts an interaction with a special operations commander, who despite being extremely busy, set a calm and deliberate tone, demonstrating how slowing down and remaining composed instills confidence in others. [26:50] He encourages setting boundaries in collaborative workspaces, such as using headphones or signs to indicate when deep work is needed. Establishing boundaries helps leaders protect time for quiet work without seeming unapproachable or disconnected. [33:34] Joe shares his personal experience realizing the value of quiet during the writing of Noise. He stopped writing to integrate quiet time into his routine, finding that even brief moments of silence led to better decision-making and clarity in communication. [35:57] Final challenge: Joe encourages listeners to start with small quiet moments—such as sitting in silence at a stoplight or beginning a meeting with two minutes of quiet—emphasizing that leaders will find value in these practices. [39:27] Closing quote: Remember, “All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.” ― Blaise Pascal Quotable Quotes “To lead is to be deliberate. Asking yourself, am I deliberate? Do I think about my people? Am I focusing on what really matters today?” “Practice the 'seven to seven' rule - avoid checking phones before 7am and after 7pm” “Start meetings with two minutes of quiet for agenda reflection.” "You actually have to slow down to keep up.” "Give yourself a minute and do nothing. That’s why people have great ideas in showers. Just do nothing for a minute... Silence gives you clarity." "Quiet isn’t a technique. It’s an appointment. It’s not how I do it, it’s that I do it." "It’s precious to know what’s important, what matters, how do we achieve victories of clarity? That’s where you win or you stop trying and you quit." “All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.” ― Blaise Pascal Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Joe McCormack’s LinkedIn | Joe McCormack’s Website | Joe McCormack’s Twitter |
Kevin Kruse is the Founder and CEO of LEADx and he is a bestselling author of 13 books on leadership, emotional intelligence, and personal development, including "52 Strategies to Build Relationships, Increase Resilience, and Achieve Goals." Kevin is also a speaker and entrepreneur, known for his expertise in leveraging technology and emotional intelligence to inspire the next generation of leaders. Kevin reflected on the eight years since launching LEADx, reaffirming the mission to inspire the next 100 million leaders while transitioning from AI-powered executive coaching to human coaching due to early challenges. He highlighted emotional intelligence (EQ) as a key predictor of success, especially in a world increasingly dominated by AI, and discussed his new book's unique feature: a free EQ assessment. Kevin shared insights on managing emotions to improve personal and professional relationships, predicting that AI will soon mimic human emotional responses. He also touched on the importance of self-awareness in leadership, noting that his book offers 13 strategies to help individuals enhance their leadership effectiveness. Kevin stressed the value of building relationships and approaching networking with curiosity. Key Takeaways [02:04] Kevin reflected on the past eight years since the launch of LEADx, noting that while many things changed, the mission to spark the next 100 million leaders remained the same. He mentioned transitioning from an AI-powered executive coach to human coaches due to initial challenges with technology. [04:43] Kevin emphasized that emotional intelligence (EQ) has always been the key predictor of success, particularly in an age dominated by AI, where soft skills will differentiate individuals as devices gain advanced intelligence. [06:01] In discussing his new book, Kevin highlighted that while it builds on established emotional intelligence science, its unique aspect is providing a free EQ assessment via a QR code, enabling readers to start their EQ development journey without purchasing the book. [08:59] Kevin elaborated on the book's bold promise of life transformation within a year, suggesting that understanding and managing emotions can significantly enhance personal and professional relationships, leading to positive outcomes. [11:13] When discussing the potential for computers to possess emotional intelligence by 2029, Kevin expressed his belief that advancements in AI would enable machines to convincingly emulate human emotional responses, blurring the lines between human and machine interaction. [12:03] Kevin noted the rapid progress in AI's ability to create content indistinguishable from human work, asserting that while some people may manipulate emotional intelligence, AI could soon do the same in a more sophisticated manner. [14:57] Kevin humorously predicted a future where individuals might form emotional connections with AI, likening it to the current trend of pet ownership, hinting at the changing dynamics of human relationships in an increasingly digital world. [17:02] Kevin emphasized the importance of serving others and making a difference in their lives. Kevin mentioned that he aims to leave a positive impact by saying, "I just tried to leave the place a little bit better in my path." [18:25] Kevin highlighted how stress often reveals the best or worst in people. Kevin encouraged listeners to respond thoughtfully to pressure rather than reacting impulsively. Kevin shared that self-awareness is crucial for managing emotions effectively. Kevin noted that taking a moment of pause between stimulus and response can lead to intentional actions, enhancing leadership capabilities. [21:15] Kevin pointed out that his book offers 13 strategies focused on improving self-awareness. Kevin explained that these strategies help individuals understand their personal growth and leadership effectiveness. Kevin agreed with the pie theory of success, stating that performance is just one component of promotability. Kevin argued that relationships and emotional intelligence significantly influence career advancement. Kevin recognized the value of networking and being genuinely interested in others. Kevin noted that curiosity can reframe networking from a daunting task to an enjoyable experience. [25:14] Kevin expressed that he feels pleased rather than proud of his accomplishments. Kevin highlighted that his children's success brings him joy, and he appreciates the teamwork he experienced during a memorable trip in the woods. [28:41] Kevin advised early and mid-career professionals to focus on building strong relationships. Kevin concluded that by being curious and helpful to others, good things will follow over time. [30:34] And remember, “Leadership is all about emotional intelligence. Management is taught, while leadership is experienced.” — Rajiv Suri. Quotable Quotes “EQ trumps IQ even more than before.” “The only way to succeed at work when all the devices that cost pennies are genius IQ is by your ability to relate to others.” “Emotional intelligence, the soft skills stuff, have always been the number one predictor of success.” “By better understanding our own emotions, more empathy, and understanding of others' emotions, it will help us in our relationships and decision-making to bring the best possible future into our hands.” “Too many people act like they care when they don't. Many people are friendly when they're trying to sell you something.” "We all need to sort of train ourselves to respond to things, not react to things." "Understanding ourselves is a journey that doesn’t end. There are so many facets to ourselves, and we change as people." "If you show up and genuinely care about people, your exposure will be there because people always remember that person who cared about them." "In the backdrop of exponential technological advancement, the way we win is to lean into our human stuff, our relationship stuff." "Dig your well before you're thirsty. And you dig that well by being curious, by being helpful to a lot of people." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | LEADx Website | Kevin Kruse's Personal Website | LinkedIn Profile | Books by Kevin Kruse |
Rupal Patel is a former CIA analyst turned international speaker and corporate consultant. She is the author of the international best-seller, “From CIA to CEO: Unconventional Life Lessons For Thinking Bigger, Leading Better, and Being Bolder.” Rupal has also been named one of the "Most Influential Women of 2023” by Startups Magazine. Rupal shared her journey of embracing her unique identity as a daughter of Indian immigrants and her passion for soccer. She emphasized the importance of "owning your weird," which has helped her overcome feelings of being an outsider. Rupal shared lessons from her time at the CIA, highlighting an unconventional leader who valued collaboration over hierarchy. This approach built loyalty and trust, demonstrating that leadership isn't about fitting traditional molds. She discussed the limitations of data in decision-making, acknowledging that while the fear of failure is universal, everyone has a responsibility to engage proactively in leadership, regardless of their role. Addressing the fear of failure, Rupal noted that larger organizations often become risk-averse, despite fewer real consequences compared to intelligence work. She believes leadership is everyone's responsibility, urging individuals to take ownership regardless of their role. Rupal reflected on a personal failure where she was overlooked for a briefing opportunity, learning the importance of self-advocacy. She also stressed the need for diversity and expanding our sense of community while acknowledging how different experiences, like gender, shape leadership. Key Takeaways [02:06] Rupal Patel shared a personal detail about herself: she is a massive soccer fan, having played since the age of five and now follows the sport closely. She often incorporates soccer-related anecdotes and metaphors into her work, reflecting her passion for the game. [05:05] Rupal discussed the concept of "owning your weird," emphasizing its significance in her life as a daughter of Indian immigrants. She explained that she often felt like an outsider due to imposed labels and societal expectations, but through reflection, she learned to question those beliefs and embrace her unique identity. [11:01] Rupal illustrated unconventional leadership through an example of a chief of station she worked under at the CIA, who was collaborative and prioritized the best person for each job over hierarchy. This approach fostered deep loyalty among team members, showcasing that effective leadership doesn't conform to traditional stereotypes. [13:22] She highlighted the chief's ability to manage relationships effectively, demonstrating confident humility in interactions with congressional delegations and local officials. Rupal noted that she fluidly adapted her leadership style, leading from the front or behind as needed, which enhanced her effectiveness across various contexts. [15:11] Rupal shares the mentality we need to have to operate better in ambiguity. She emphasized that no data set is perfect for predicting future outcomes, explaining that data only helps analyze past events. She stressed the need for leaders to accept the limitations of data and focus on identifying gaps in information to make informed decisions. [19:48] Rupal acknowledged that the fear of failure is universal in both the CIA and the private sector. She noted that the larger an organization becomes, the more rigid and risk-averse it tends to be, despite the fact that mistakes in business often carry less serious consequences than in intelligence work. [24:22] Rupal asserted that leadership is everyone's responsibility, regardless of one's role in an organization. She encouraged individuals in support functions to take ownership of problems and outcomes, asserting that proactive engagement is essential to contribute meaningfully to the organization's success. [28:29] Jim asked Rupal to share a meaningful failure that shaped her leadership. Rupal described being overlooked for a briefing opportunity despite her contributions, highlighting the importance of advocating for herself. [33:26] Rupal noted that the person who delivered the briefing lacked self-awareness and was focused on the opportunity, reflecting how such individuals often thrive in organizations by surrounding themselves with those who reinforce their shortcomings. [35:58] In response to Jim's question about diverse groups working together, Rupal urged listeners to expand their views of community and seek commonalities beyond superficial differences while acknowledging that experiences can vary significantly based on factors like gender. [41:22] Rupal emphasized that parents can pursue their ambitions without sacrificing themselves. She shared her experience of accepting a TED talk on her daughter's 6th birthday, highlighting the importance of showing kids that they can still follow their dreams and be individuals even while parenting. [47:12] And remember, "Don't worry about not fitting in. The things that make people think you're weird are what make you unique, and therefore your greatest strength." — Bridget Jort Sorensen Quotable Quotes “Every individual has a unique set of skills, a unique combination of strengths and blind spots that in many ways need to be worked with as opposed to ignored or made to feel like they have no place in that context.” “It’s about accepting who you are not feeling like you constantly have to work on yourself and fix things about yourself.” “We have this strange human need to box people in... every single one of those labels comes with its own level of expectation and baggage.” "Fundamentally, it comes back to this acceptance of the reality that there is no such thing as a perfect data set." "Leadership is everyone's responsibility." "We all need to expand what we think our tribe looks like, because it is... very superficial." "You can make whatever it is that you are trying to build or do or achieve something that works for you and not have to sacrifice parts of yourself." This is the book mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Rupal Patel LinkedIn | Rupal Patel Instagram | Rupal Patel X | Rupal Patel Website |
Dr. Melissa Givens is a retired colonel with over 25 years of service in the U.S. Army, specializing in emergency and disaster medicine. She holds both an MD and an MPH (Master of Public Health) and is experienced in military and special operations medicine. Dr. Melissa also served as the medical director of the Ryan Larkin Field Hospital, established during the COVID-19 pandemic at Columbia University’s Baker Athletic Complex. She reflects on her time as a military physician in Iraq, highlighting the challenges of maintaining order in high-stress environments and the importance of collaboration over ego. She discusses how tone, energy, and non-verbal communication are crucial in trauma situations, and how breaking down hierarchies can improve teamwork and patient care. Melissa recalls how the anonymity of full protective gear during COVID-19 reduced posturing and fostered greater collaboration. Addressing leadership development, she encourages medical students to embrace leadership early, make decisions with incomplete information, and overcome their desire for certainty. She also emphasizes creating an open environment within all teams, allowing for dissent and input from all members. Key Takeaways [01:33] Melissa, a mother and experienced leader, talks about balancing professional and personal life. She emphasizes how important it is to be a parent her kids can be proud of, which serves as a grounding principle in her life. [03:21] She reflects on her experiences as a military physician in Iraq, dealing with a unique "red line" designed to separate emergency doctors from trauma surgeons in high-stress environments. The goal was to create order but often exacerbated tensions, highlighting the importance of collaboration over ego. [07:17] Melissa describes the critical importance of energy, tone, and non-verbal communication in trauma situations. Being aware of how these factors impact both patients and medical teams is crucial, as is creating an environment of trust and clear communication. [12:40] She discusses how breaking down hierarchies in medical settings, such as addressing colleagues by first names rather than titles, can foster better teamwork and communication, leading to improved patient care. [09:15] Melissa recounts a fascinating experience during COVID-19 in a field hospital. The anonymity created by full protective gear eliminated the usual posturing and egos that can sometimes dominate medical teams, fostering greater collaboration and a singular focus on patient care. [18:30] When discussing gaps in leadership development, Missy mentions the importance of encouraging medical students to embrace leadership roles early, avoid hesitation, and overcome their desire for certainty. She emphasizes the value of making decisions with incomplete information—an essential skill in medicine and leadership. [20:35] Melissa shares an entertaining story about leadership and problem-solving under pressure, involving a boat trip to see hippos in Africa. When the motor failed, she had to think quickly to save the team from an approaching hippo, using nothing but the boat’s floorboards to row. This story highlights the importance of being accountable and prepared for the unexpected in any leadership situation. [24:11] Melissa emphasizes how creating a welcoming environment for a trauma team, allowing for dissent and encouraging open dialogue, leads to the best outcomes. She believes clear roles, articulation of plans, and encouraging input from all team members are critical to effective collaboration. [31:48] Melissa advises that leaders approach situations with curiosity rather than judgment, especially when being second-guessed or dealing with Monday-morning quarterbacks. This open mindset fosters trust and continuous improvement through after-action reviews. [33:20] Reflecting on work-life balance, Melissa shares her motto, inspired by her college powerlifting coach: "If you're nothing sore every day for the rest of your life, you're not working hard enough." She encourages leaders to challenge themselves in various aspects of life but also emphasizes the importance of rest and recovery for growth and balance. [35:37] Closing quote: "When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under pressure." – Peter Marshall. Quotable Quotes "If you're not sore every day for the rest of your life, you're not working hard enough." "Approach all things with curiosity." "Check your ego at the door and act accordingly." "Creating that welcoming environment where there is room for either dissent or insertion of new ideas is really what I've seen make the most successful trauma teams." “Don’t make these assumptions. Be accountable." "You need to challenge yourself intellectually, emotionally, cognitively, and physically, and always be aspiring for that growth state." "When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under pressure." – Peter Marshall. Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Missy Given’s LinkedIn | Missy Given’s Website |
In the episode of The Leadership Podcast, Jan and Jim discuss a recent study from the Center for Creative Leadership that highlights key leadership challenges at all leadership levels: Poor time management - competing priorities and confusing busy with results Poor people skills - and a lack of self-awareness Inability wield power & influence across the organization Inability or unwillingness to to delegate (aka still doing “old” job) Widespread disengagement Cultures by default versus design. Jim critiques the study, highlighting the blurred distinction between leadership and management, and emphasizes that leaders must delegate and trust others to succeed. Also discussed is disengagement and trust issues, linking team engagement directly to managerial influence, and the growing trend of side hustles. Jan and Jim stress the importance of relationships, simplifying business processes, and preparing thoroughly for meetings. They also reflect on how leadership traits, like communication, curiosity, and trust, are essential for building strong teams and organizational success. They emphasize that growth and development come from allowing mistakes and cultivating future leaders, while maintaining a balance between compassion, fairness, and operational efficiency. Listen in for a discussion that is sure to spur more discussion. Key Takeaways [01:22] Jan starts the main discussion, sharing that the Center for Creative Leadership released a study identifying the top leadership challenges for different managerial levels. He categorized the challenges into three pillars: leading self, leading others, and leading the organization. The key issues highlighted were time management and people (for self), disengagement (for others), and organizational processes. [03:06] Jim adds that the study revealed a common challenge: the ability to influence without authority, which is especially tough at the senior level. He emphasizes how important it is for leaders to truly know themselves and trust others, noting that trust issues are often rooted in leaders' unwillingness to delegate. [04:06] Jim critiques the study, saying it blurs the line between leadership and management. He highlights that frontline challenges like time management and operational processes are more about management than leadership, while the executive-level challenges align more closely with leadership. He believes that leadership and management are distinct but equally important. [07:09] Jim criticizes the second half of the study, noting that it felt like two separate studies mashed together—one based on AI analysis and the other from leadership experts. He acknowledges that while the recommendations weren't bad, the execution of combining the studies felt sloppy. [08:09] Jan expresses skepticism about the validity of the study, pointing out that busy senior leaders are unlikely to fill out assessments. He argues that leadership problems depend heavily on the size and type of company, and a study based on more personalized interviews would have been more insightful. [08:54] Jan focuses on disengagement and trust issues, noting that 70% of team engagement is influenced by managers. He also comments on the increasing trend of side hustles among workers, a lack of trust in the workplace, and how companies often complicate things unnecessarily. [10:13] Jan and Jim discuss how relationships, rather than transactions, drive business success. They reference Peter Drucker's belief that a company is only about marketing and innovation, and that everything else is a cost. Jan emphasizes the importance of simplifying business processes and planning for the future. [11:51] Jan advises that leaders should approach meetings with deliberate plans, rather than winging it, as effective negotiation and leadership require preparation and follow-up. He observes that many leaders fail to allocate time for planning and reflection, which compromises their effectiveness. [13:13] Jim shares his critical take on the article's structure, arguing that leadership qualities are universal across all levels of management. He believes there are five essential leadership traits that apply to all leaders - self-reliance, clarity, relationships, communication, intentionality, and self-reliance as the most important. [16:45] Jim explains that communication is more about listening, being curious, and showing genuine interest in people, rather than focusing on just outward expression. He mentions how great politicians are remembered for making individuals feel like they were truly heard, which helps build strong relationships. Jan shares a lesson about knowing when not to say anything or intervene as a leader, recalling a client situation where skip-level meetings led to unintended consequences. She emphasizes the challenge of staying connected without overstepping. [18:46] Jim reflects on how an executive’s presence can sometimes disrupt the environment, making it harder for employees to have open conversations. He highlights the importance of timing and mindful involvement in the workplace. [19:41] Jan raises concerns about the burden placed on employees when others take time off or need accommodations, leading to extra workload and declining morale. She touches on the complexity leaders face in balancing fairness, compassion, and operational efficiency. [21:10] Jim points out that what employees say they want, such as more vacation or benefits, may not be what they truly need. He suggests that sometimes, more guidance, challenges, and communication lead to better engagement and happiness. [21:34] Jan references a quote from Dan Pink, explaining how employers often confuse "hygiene factors" like pay and policies with intrinsic motivators. She emphasizes that while pay and policies shouldn't be problematic, what really drives engagement is helping employees feel appreciated and that they belong. [22:39] Jan and Jim conclude by discussing the importance of trust in leadership. Jan notes that growth and development come from allowing mistakes, which need to be accepted as part of the process. A successful leader not only delivers results but also cultivates future leaders. [24:17] And remember, the race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running. Quotable Quotes "There's management, which is important, then there's leadership, which is different and also important. When you have two of those in equal measure, you're really effective." "If I want people to trust me, I have to trust them." "People buy from people they like, period." "A company is one of two things: it's marketing and it's innovation. Everything else is a cost." - Peter Drucker "You personally need to be squared away for you to lead others. Very difficult to lead others if you're a hot mess." "Clarity of purpose, problem, and potential. You need to know where to focus your time to solve problems and reach potential." "Relationships are everything. If you don't have good relationships, it's very difficult to hold people accountable." "Great leaders are great communicators." “Communication is much about listening and being curious and interested in people than it is about what you say or state.” “Communication is a collection point for what's in everyone's head, not just an outward projection of what’s in mine.” “Sometimes what we think people want or what they tell us they want aren’t what they need.” “The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.” “We think if we fix pay and policy, we improve morale, when in fact, people want to feel appreciated. They want to know they matter and belong.” “A leader has to grow other leaders. You can't say you achieved results and not have a replacement and say you were successful.” “We need to be more aware of what people need to achieve better engagement and performance. It’s not always more money or more vacation.” Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
Alison Jones, an industrial psychologist, leadership transformation strategist, and author of "Character Leadership," discusses her approach to cultivating character in today’s leaders. She emphasizes leading from the inside out, focusing on integrity, purpose, and serving others over ego-driven leadership. She also shares insights on the five essential states of leadership—awareness, acceptance, abundance, authenticity, and appreciation—and her SMART model for managing remote and hybrid work. Additionally, she highlights the importance of intentionality, authenticity, and courage in leadership, and shares a powerful story from her volunteer trip to Zimbabwe. https://bit.ly/TLP-432 Key Takeaways [01:42] Alison shares her excitement about getting a testimonial from Joe Theismann, a former NFL quarterback she admired. Then she briefly touches on Theisman's career-ending injury, and reveals her deep love for elephants and her involvement in conservation efforts, a passion her sister pointed out through her home's elephant-themed decor. [05:05] Alison describes character-driven leadership as leading authentically from within, prioritizing integrity, purpose, and serving others. While leadership varies by individual, she emphasizes that strong character is essential for sustainable, positive leadership. [09:19] She outlines five key leadership traits: Awareness, Acceptance, Abundance, Authenticity, and Appreciation. She said that these traits foster character-driven leadership by focusing on personal growth, integrity, and gratitude. To shift from scarcity to abundance, she recommends creating a safe environment where leaders can take risks and learn from mistakes. [14:59] She discusses three leadership states: victim, where life happens "to" you; victor, where things happen "by" you with a focus on personal success; and vessel, the ideal state, where leaders act as channels for positive impact, using their talents to serve others selflessly. [18:47] Alison shares her SMART model for remote work includes creating a dedicated workspace (Space), prioritizing exercise (Movement), engaging in social activities (Activities), maintaining healthy eating and hydration (Refrigerator), and managing time with clear work hours and breaks (Time). [25:35] She contends that bonuses don’t guarantee employee happiness or engagement, and effective leadership rooted in character is crucial for genuine productivity and retention. With high disengagement rates and turnover costs, she notes that employees increasingly prioritize mental health and work-life balance over financial incentives. [28:24] She shares that she went on a volunteer trip to Zimbabwe in 2018, where she experienced the leadership of Bright during a bushfire. Despite the danger, Bright led the volunteers to fight the fire, earning her deep trust and admiration through his integrity and vision, and that event profoundly impacted her view on leadership. [36:30] Closing quote: Remember, “A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.” — Wayne Dyer Quotable Quotes "Character-driven leadership is about who you are as a person, not just what you do or the external results you achieve." "Leadership from the inside out is a focus on serving others and the greater good." "If it's not coming from a root of strong character, it's not sustainable." "Being a vessel leader means you're someone through which positive impact flows." "Creating a culture that encourages risk-taking and innovation is key to developing an abundance mindset." "Awareness, acceptance, abundance, authenticity, and appreciation are the five essential states of leadership." "Leading with character isn't just about doing the right thing; it's a strategic imperative." “A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.” — Wayne Dyer Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Alison Jones LinkedIn | Alison Jones Website |
Kwame Christian, CEO, number one negotiation podcast, two-time bestselling author, top booked negotiation keynote speaker shares his insights on negotiation emphasizing the shift from being a doer to an empowering leader. Kwame discusses the importance of self-reliance in negotiations, advocating for vulnerability and honesty to build trust. He also highlights the need for preparation to avoid unethical decisions and the value of fostering a culture where difficult conversations are encouraged. Lastly, he stresses the importance of emotional intelligence, empathy, and adaptability in both personal and professional negotiations. Key Takeaways [04:59] Kwame discusses the challenges he faces as a leader and communicator in his business. He acknowledges that his previous challenges revolved around resilience, pain tolerance, and being a doer. Now, with a larger team, his focus has shifted to empowering his team and being more strategic. [06:34] Kwame believes that effective negotiation requires self-reliance and emotional security. He emphasizes the importance of understanding one's own needs and desires, as well as being vulnerable and compassionate with oneself. [12:08] He argues that people should be mindful of their biases and judgments, especially in virtual meetings. He suggests that turning on the camera can help avoid potential psychological pitfalls and create a more productive environment. He also emphasizes the importance of negotiating for the process, including the use of cameras, at the beginning of a meeting to ensure everyone is on the same page. [18:25] He emphasizes that in today's toxic and polarized society, people are often reluctant to engage in conversations with opposing views due to fear of betraying their own side. [25:12] Kwame notes that negative, extreme content thrives because media algorithms favor outrage, while positive stories flop. Although they don't have a solution, he suggests leaders focus on fostering constructive conversations within their own households and organizations, despite the divisive external environment. [26:58] He explains that in difficult conversations, we often rely on egocentric persuasion focusing on what would convince us rather than empathetic persuasion, which considers the other person's perspective. [30:34] Kwame explains that unethical behavior, like lying, often results from lack of preparation and fear in difficult conversations. To avoid this, he recommends preparing in advance, anticipating pressures and questions, so you can respond truthfully under stress. [36:54] Closing quote: Remember, “I believe firmly that in making ethical decisions, man has the prerogative of true freedom of choice.” — Corliss Lamont Quotable Quotes “Trust is important.” “Prepare for difficult conversations to avoid ethical dilemmas.” “Take time to understand personal motives before engaging in sensitive discussions.” “Communicate conversation goals effectively to the other party.” "It's really important now more than ever for us to be very clear about what communication looks like within our organization, what respect looks like in our organization, and the fact that we encourage people to dissent and have constructive conversations." "Empathetic persuasion focuses on the other person, shines the spotlight on them, and understands how they are seeing, thinking, and feeling about the situation." "When you actually sit there and think about what’s the value of the conversation, you can recognize that a lot of these conversations are not strategically aligned with reality." “I believe firmly that in making ethical decisions, man has the prerogative of true freedom of choice.” — Corliss Lamont Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Kwame Christian’s LinkedIn | Kwame Christian’s Website | Kwame Christian’s Twitter |
Ted Brown is President & Partner at Lockton Companies, and the founder of The Valor Bridge Foundation, which merged with Salute Colorado in 2021. He now serves as Chairman of the Board for Salute Colorado. Ted discusses the importance of self-awareness in decision-making and emphasizes the need to be comfortable with uncertainty. At Lockton, he believes in empowering individuals to determine their career paths and aligning work with their strengths for long-term fulfillment. He highlights the importance of a strong leadership team based on authenticity, servant leadership, and cultural fit, and stresses that leadership should be merit-based, not political. Ted reflects on the value of "aggressive authenticity" in leadership, especially for younger generations, and stresses the importance of developing future leaders to ensure company culture endures beyond a single leader. Finally, he warns against the dangers of ego in leadership, encouraging a focus on servant leadership when developing others. Key Takeaways [02:51] Ted shares how his father's emphasis on hard work and adversity, shaped by losing his own father young, influenced him during summers working on a ranch and sparked his desire to serve in the military. After 9/11, Ted tried to enlist in the Navy to become a SEAL but withdrew due to personal reasons, a decision he regretted deeply. At 37, too old to enroll, he channeled this regret into action by interviewing veterans and creating a 12-week program to help veterans transition to civilian life, focusing on personal identity, leadership, and networking with mentors. This initiative has been highly rewarding and impactful. [07:36] Ted discusses decision-making, explaining that it starts with self-awareness. In both personal and business contexts, decisions require understanding one’s values, timelines, and impacts on people and culture. He emphasizes that decisions rarely have all the information available, so it’s important to be comfortable with uncertainty. [10:57] Ted touches on leadership potential and career fulfillment at Lockton. He explains that while the company offers resources like executive coaching and personality tests, not everyone follows the same path. They need both long-term contributors and those seeking advancement. It’s about empowering individuals to determine their career trajectory. [13:08] Ted agrees with Jan that companies today need more personalized development approaches. While a general framework is necessary, tailoring growth to each individual’s strengths leads to better career fulfillment. He believes that aligning 75% of one’s work with their natural strengths is key to long-term satisfaction and organizational stability. [16:20] Ted discusses the importance of a strong leadership team that is comfortable in their skin, authentic, and servant leaders. He explains that when people are miscast in roles, they become limiting factors. Ted stresses the need for leadership teams that fit well within the culture and how advancement should be based on merit, not politics, to avoid limitations. [19:39] Jan asks Ted about the role of consequences in reinforcing company culture. Ted explains that, initially, their company rewarded bad actors for financial performance, but the focus has now shifted to authenticity, servant leadership, and having an impact beyond financial success. Leaders lead by example, picking up the heaviest burdens and being the first to admit mistakes. [22:44] Ted reflects on "aggressive authenticity" as a leader, especially in front of younger generations who want to see themselves in their leaders. Authenticity, he believes, comes from sharing personal stories, admitting mistakes, and earning trust by following through on commitments. He encourages leading by removing obstacles for the team. [24:51] Jim raises a concern about leadership cultures falling apart after a leader leaves. Ted emphasizes the importance of investing in others to ensure the culture outlasts a single leader. Leaders should focus on developing their teams so that future leaders can make the company their own while keeping core principles alive. [28:09] Ted concludes by highlighting the dangers of ego in leadership. He suggests that self-interest can ruin leadership potential, while servant leadership focuses on the impact and value delivered to the organization. Ted advises being okay with giving credit to others and developing people who may one day surpass you in the company. [30:17] And remember, You shall, I question not, find a way to the top if you diligently seek for it; for nature hath placed nothing so high that it is out of the reach of industry and valor. - Alexander the Great Quotable Quotes "It's an honor to serve those who served our country and sacrificed. That's the least I can do, but it's definitely been a rewarding journey." "You have to understand who you are first and what is going to fulfill you in your life and your career. That requires a process." "Turn regret into action." "Be comfortable being uncomfortable with making decisions without 100% of the information." "Fulfillment doesn't necessarily mean happy. It means that you're being challenged and having tough, hard conversations about meeting or exceeding expectations." "Career fulfillment comes down to leveraging and utilizing your God-given strengths 75% of the time." "Empower people to embrace who they are and leverage that for their own advancement, and you'll end up with a lot of longevity in an organization." "It's almost easier to make decisions in business than it is in life." "Your culture becomes the worst behavior you tolerate." "Trust is earned when you actually get to that finish line." "If you're not demonstrating that behavior, you can't enforce the expectations. You will lose the culture." "In order for things to last, they have to be legacy-minded principles and philosophies." "One of the things that can absolutely ruin leadership potential is ego." "The second you free yourself of self-interest and you focus truly on the impact and value that you can have to an organization, that's how you can become a great servant leader." "Relevance is fueled by ego." "Be okay giving all the credit to those around you. Be okay putting people in positions that someday could be your boss. If you do that, you're going to be a big part of something that's way bigger than yourself." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Ted Brown LinkedIn | Lockton Website | X | Valor Bridge Foundation, now merged with Salute Colorado |
Ford Saeks, CEO of Prime Concepts, is a renowned entrepreneur, author and LinkedIn influencer with over 25 years of experience. He stresses the importance of critical thinking and adaptability in addressing organizational challenges, particularly AI disruption and data security. Ford highlights AI's growing role in tasks like appointment scheduling and outlines key business growth strategies focused on client acquisition, transaction value, and operational efficiency. He encourages leaders to address AI’s security and ethical issues through proactive training and privacy measures. Ford warns of AI’s potential risks, such as deep fakes and data misuse, likening its impact to the internet. He also emphasizes the need for high-touch customer interactions, effective onboarding, self-correcting leadership, and evolving beliefs, while cautioning about AI's influence on relationships and biases. Key Takeaways [01:55] Ford reflected on the pivotal moment when the cassette program influenced his life, emphasizing the importance of being a critical thinker and open-minded. He noted that many organizations fail to address their true challenges, which often lie beneath superficial labels like "culture" or "leadership." [05:16] Ford discussed current challenges faced by CEOs, including AI disruption, data security, and economic changes in the workforce. He highlighted the growing need for cybersecurity and the impact of AI on job roles, noting that AI can now perform tasks like scheduling appointments with human-like precision. [09:17] Ford outlined key areas for business growth: acquiring high-value clients, increasing average transaction values, nurturing repeat and referral sales, and improving operations. He stressed the importance of focusing on high-value clients and operational efficiency to avoid pitfalls like apathy after a sale. [12:27] Ford argued that business development and sales are interconnected, with AI likely impacting both areas. While AI will handle repetitive tasks, he predicted a return to high-touch customer experiences as organizations strive to maintain authentic relationships. [15:46] Ford discussed the importance of rethinking mindset, influenced by Carol Dweck's book "Mindset." He explained that changing one's thought process can lead to different results and emphasized the need to question assumptions and seek varied perspectives to solve problems effectively. [20:10] Ford advised leaders to address security and ethical concerns with AI. He recommended treating AI as a highly capable tool, monitoring it closely, integrating AI training into onboarding, and setting clear usage policies. He suggested setting privacy settings, creating AI champions within the company, and organizing group sessions to explore AI solutions. [22:52] Ford indicated it’s too late to keep AI use internal; organizations are already using AI. He advised assessing internal AI use, setting privacy settings, and staying updated on AI developments. [24:09] Ford expressed concerns about enforcing privacy settings effectively, given AI’s potential threats like deepfakes. He stressed that while privacy settings are important, they might not fully address data misuse. Ford noted that data security is an ongoing challenge with AI. He highlighted the risk of data cloning and hacking despite privacy settings. Ford compared AI’s impact to the internet, predicting it will be transformative and significantly affect all aspects of business and society. Ford observed that many people still underestimate AI’s potential, even with its years of presence. [28:08] Ford emphasized that effective onboarding involves paperwork, socialization, and training. He also advocates for team-building activities to foster a positive culture. Ford admitted to needing self-correction to improve his company's culture, having previously dealt with high turnover and a toxic environment. [35:54] Ford spoke on "prosperity consciousness," stressing the need to challenge and evolve one’s beliefs for personal and professional growth. Ford warned of AI's potential impact on relationships and the need for careful discernment in its use. Ford highlighted the importance of questioning personal biases and beliefs, sharing a personal example of how past experiences can distort current perceptions. [41:30] Ford recommended taking time for self-reflection and disconnecting from daily distractions to better focus on what truly matters. [43:48] And remember, I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything, at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities, not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them, timing is everything. - Dan Millman Quotable Quotes "If you're asking the wrong question, the answer doesn't matter." "The scariest people to me are the ones who think they know everything but don't know what they don't know." “Learning how to be a critical thinker and be open minded and being able to be like a diamond and add facets. So when someone gives me new information, it's not that I have to change, I get to add a facet to that diamond, making that diamond more valuable.” "Top CEOs right now are challenged with a variety of things in an organization... The disruption of AI... there’s no best practices and it’s a wild west." "AI is now being used to hack sites and they can do it at scale. It’s going to be harder and harder to know what’s real and what’s not real." "Anything that can be done repetitively is going to get done with AI." "AI is going to be used for high tech, but organizations should really look at the customer experience. How can they still use high touch to maintain authentic relationships and empathy?" “AI won't replace humans. It'll replace humans using AI.” “Deep Fakes are going to be one of the biggest things, knowing what's real and what's not.” “If you look at the younger generations and their motivations... it's not about getting seduced by the generations as much as culturally how people are communicating.” “The workforce is changing, communications are changing, how people communicate in conflict.” “I just think that with AI, you're going to see a lot of that really corrupting how people work, how they live their social interactions. They're going to lose complete skill sets because AI is going to be able to replace a lot of it and they're not going to learn how to talk to people.” "We only think of high touch when it comes to customers. We don't think about the high touch that we actually need in the workplace to influence and inspire people." "Onboarding really comes down to three things. You want to do the paperwork. That's number one. You want to socialize, make sure they feel comfortable in socialization. And then number three is training." "AI can act as my life coach, relationship coach, and business advisor. It's going to infiltrate our lives in ways that are both exciting and scary." "You have to question your cognitive biases, question your logical fallacies, and be willing to be wrong." “Confirmation bias is a fancy way of saying we all argue for our own limitations." "The leadership challenge is harder now than ever. Social media and isolation from COVID have altered our social skills." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Ford Saeks Website | Ford Saeks LinkedIn | X (Twitter) | This is the book mentioned in this episode
Jim Vaselopulos and Jan Rutherford discuss what makes a great leadership book including the value of storytelling in making concepts relatable for the audience. They also discuss the importance of evidence-based concepts, and the significance of lasting and practical advice that transcends time. The best leadership books aren't necessarily leadership books. “The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading. But a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep braided with truth and beauty. ” — Pablo Neruda Key Takeaways [02:06] Jim and Jan discuss what makes a great leadership book, preferring evidence-based works over parables. Jim values data-driven insights, while Jan appreciates storytelling for its lasting impact, noting that different styles resonate with different readers. [06:18] They both share that a great leadership book should offer practical, timeless advice, with a preference for shorter, more digestible formats. [12:49] Jim and Jan discuss how to write impactful leadership books. They said Jennifer Garvey Berger found success by simplifying her content and making it more engaging. They emphasize the importance of practical advice, real-world applications, and effective storytelling. They also appreciate niche topics that offer fresh insights, like Valerie Friedland's work on linguistics. [17:13] They both highlight the need to balance employee and employer perspectives in leadership. They emphasize that effective leadership involves not just setting direction and pace but also considering the tone and impact on people. [21:34] Jan highlights the value of being open to changing one’s views and learning from diverse sources. He also concludes with a story about historian Stephen Ambrose advising a young aspiring historian to gain real-world experience. [23:56] They discuss the value of curiosity in leadership and suggest that a good leadership book should inspire curiosity in its readers. They reflect on their own experiences with writing and invite listeners to share their favorite books and ideas for future topics. [27:17] Closing quote: Remember, “The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading. But a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep braided with truth and beauty. ” — Pablo Neruda Quotable Quotes "A useful outcome of any leadership book is does it make you more curious? And if it does, to some degree, mission accomplished." “The best leadership books aren't necessarily leadership books." "If you're talking about leadership, you better be facing your own hypocrisy because nobody's got it all figured out ever." “Those leaders constantly test themselves and reframe their life story.” "Different things speak to different people." “A new way to communicate an idea is always interesting in a leadership book but it also needs to last." “The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading. But a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep braided with truth and beauty. ” — Pablo Neruda Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jan Rutherford’s Linked In | Jan Rutherford’s Twitter | Jim Vaselopulos Linked In | Jim Vaselopulos Twitter |
Michelle Hollingshead is an entrepreneur, author of “Meaning Indicator: Finding Significance through Challenge, Work, and Love.” Michelle delves into the power of vulnerability, inspired by her personal experiences and the loss of her brother post-9/11. Her book echoes Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, focusing on resilience and intentionality. She stresses the importance of choice and compassion through life's trials. Michelle explores the delicate balance between challenge and care in coaching, highlighting that love can coexist with direct feedback. She emphasizes that true love involves nurturing potential and moving on when necessary. Michelle introduces the concept of "and" from her book, which helps manage life's complexities, and reflects on her mother's influence and the need to balance professional ambitions with family life. Michelle discusses leadership and personal growth, emphasizing the balance between results and relationships and the evolution from command-and-control to inspiring participation. Michelle shares insights into how life stages influence leadership perspectives and her journey as an empty nester exploring new directions. Key Takeaways [01:44] Michelle discusses embracing vulnerability, influenced by personal experiences and the loss of her brother after 9/11. Her book, "Meaning Indicator: Finding Significance through Challenge, Work, and Love," inspired by Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning," explores resilience and intentionality. Michelle emphasizes the power of choice and compassion in life's challenges. [07:06] Michelle discusses the balance between challenge and care in her coaching experience, emphasizing love as caring for oneself, others, and the world. She explains that love in the workplace can coexist with honest, direct feedback and that sometimes the most loving action is for both parties to move on. Michelle highlights that love is about helping others realize their potential. Jim references a past guest who noted the Greek language's multiple words for love, aligning with Michelle's view of love as deep, honorable caring. Michelle's research on meaning in life revealed people often discuss challenges more than love, though they rank love higher in surveys. [17:40] Michelle explains the concept of "and" from her book, highlighting how it helps navigate life's complexities. She acknowledges those motivated by work and solving problems but also notes the tension when work overshadows other aspects of life. Michelle shares how her mother's passion for programming influenced her, wishing she had shared this passion when they were younger. [19:16] Michelle discusses her research on the "greater good" archetype from Carolyn Taylor's work, highlighting how leaders navigate competing stakeholder needs and make thoughtful trade-offs. Jim raised an interesting point about the tension between significance and happiness, referencing his observations from different cultures. This sparked a discussion on how meaningfulness often involves stress and contemplation, while happiness focuses on satisfying basic desires. Jan shared an inspiring story about Jim's leadership during a challenging expedition in Patagonia, emphasizing how he thrives under pressure and excels at delegating. [22:53] Michelle dives into the intricacies of leadership and personal growth, emphasizes the balance between results and relationships in leadership, noting the evolution from command-and-control to inspiring willing participation. Michelle reflects on the importance of understanding what drives individuals, highlighting the dynamic nature of personal motivations. They discuss the transformative impact of life stages, such as becoming parents or empty nesters, on leadership perspectives. Michelle shares her journey of balancing professional ambitions with family life, and now, as an empty nester, she explores new personal and professional directions. [28:29] Michelle shares how her father-in-law, Mickey, impacted her life. Despite his cancer diagnosis, Mickey was at peace, reflecting on his great life and embodying leadership through results and relationships. Michelle felt grateful to capture and share his life through this process. [31:33] Michelle reflects on the significance of her book, emphasizing that the things that matter most now are the same as those that will matter in the end. Michelle notes that her book is a short read, perfect for recalibrating during a plane flight. Jim and Jan express their gratitude for Michelle's insights and the opportunity to have her on the show. [32:34] And remember, Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself - Viktor E. Frankl Quotable Quotes "Leaders go first. I need to be doing my best to walk my walk and role model." "People don’t need my perfectionism. They need my compassion." "Sometimes the most loving thing is for everyone to move forward." "The word I chose for love was caring for self, others, and our world." "Seeing that aliveness in people who are passionate about what they do is very compelling." "Widen the lens, and just having that awareness." "Challenge, work, and love are ways people find significance in life." "Even as an empty nester, I'm reorienting myself to my own relationship with work and discovering new focuses." "The things that matter most in the end are what matter most today. This is an opportunity to reconnect with what is significant for you." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Michelle Hollingshead Website | Michelle Hollingshead LinkedIn | Michelle Hollingshead Instagram | This is the book mentioned in this episode
Kelli Thompson is an award-winning leadership and executive coach, keynote speaker, and the critically-acclaimed author of “Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck.” In Kelli’s two-decade career leading teams in primarily male-dominated industries, she received industry awards for her ability to build programs that cultivated the pipeline of future leaders. Kelli explores how both women and men give away their power. She critiques outdated definitions of executive presence based on masculine norms and advocates for a more individual-focused approach. Kelli shares insights on balancing authenticity with professional expectations, including dress codes, and introduces her “Situational Savviness Matrix” for effective communication. She offers advice on salary negotiations and determining if it’s time to leave a situation by evaluating values, skills, and energy. Kelli previews her upcoming TED talk on the dangers of idolizing leaders and how it stifles personal intuition and leads to corporate issues. She concludes by defining confidence as trusting yourself despite fear. Key Takeaways [02:53] Kelli shared that she's a certified storm spotter and originally wanted to be a meteorologist. She studied meteorology in college but decided against the career due to its demands. Kelli also discusses weather prediction, comparing it to leadership. She notes that while we can't control circumstances, having the right tools is essential. [06:54] Kelli explores how people give away their power, often by not knowing what they stand for. She shares her own experience of following others’ advice, which led to an unfulfilling career and personal life. Kelli emphasizes the need to define your values and have the courage to say no to anything that doesn’t align with them, inspired by the Hamilton quote: "If you don’t know what you stand for, what will you fall for?" [09:10] Kelli discusses how women might give away their power by saying "yes" to fit in or climb the ladder, while men might do so by suppressing traits that don’t fit traditional norms. She highlights that men who are empathetic or collaborative may struggle with their careers and personal well-being when they hide these qualities. [10:40] Kelli discusses helping clients find clarity by focusing on core values. She starts with core values and works to define non-negotiables and how they want to be perceived. Kelli uses tools like the Enneagram to uncover motivations and blind spots, helping clients identify strengths and talents. This clarity leads to better decision-making and confidence. Kelli also shares the inspiration behind her Clarity and Confidence Women’s Leadership Program, created to provide tools and strategies for overcoming systemic challenges and personal doubts. [15:55] Kelli explores the outdated definitions of executive presence often based on traditional masculine norms. She notes that the modern workplace, created by men for men, still reflects these old standards. Kelli advocates for redefining executive presence to honor individual styles and values. She shares her experience of balancing directness with respect and love, showing how to align personal authenticity with effective leadership. [18:27] Kelli discusses the challenge of balancing authenticity with professional expectations, especially regarding dress codes. She recounts her experiences from banking and pharma, where strict dress codes were enforced. Kelli suggests evaluating if you can conform to an organization's dress code before joining. She stresses that while organizations may prefer certain behaviors, the real focus should be on whether these behaviors drive results. Kelli also explains that executive presence often relates more to building relationships and influencing others than to superficial standards. [22:40] Kelli explores the role of adaptability in executive presence, stressing that what works in one region may not in another. Kelli shares her experience with phone sales, where directness didn’t work in the South, and introduces her “Situational Savviness Matrix” to balance directness and politeness. She concludes that executive presence is broad, and focusing on specific behaviors is more effective than the general term. [25:58] Kelli explores salary negotiations. Kelli stressed the value of "situational savviness" and detailed how employees should prepare by gathering salary data, quantifying accomplishments, and making a clear ask. She noted that raises may take time and require approvals. Kelli discusses the courage needed to handle requests and the option to set specific performance goals for future raises. [30:45] Kelli discusses the crucial questions to ask when deciding if it's time to quit something. She outlines key questions to ask before quitting: Is this situation aligned with my values? Is it using my best skills? How does it affect my energy levels? Is it moving me closer to the leader I want to become? If many answers are negative, it might be time to quit. She also explores why people stay in toxic environments, highlighting fear of regret and the unknown. Kelli advises making informed decisions by asking tough questions and understanding your values before making a move. [36:51] Kelli previews her upcoming TED Talk, set to address the harms of putting people on pedestals. She explains how idolizing leaders based on experience or charisma stifles personal ideas and intuition, leads to corporate scandals, and creates feedback gaps. Scheduled for November at Creighton University, her talk will be about ten minutes long and available online in February 2025. [40:27] Kelli Thompson talks about the performance element in leadership and how being intentional about how people feel when led is crucial. She defines confidence as the ability to trust yourself and act despite feeling nervous. Kelli challenges listeners to take one tiny step towards a goal while feeling terrified, as confidence comes from taking action. [42:28] Closing quote: And remember, I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is to be on my own side. Be an advocate for myself and others like me. — Maya Angelou Quotable Quotes "A big part of not giving our power away is defining what we stand for and having the courage to say no to everything that isn’t that." "Showing up in a way that honors our unique approach but also honors our values is key to aligning with the type of leader we want to become." "The strongest arguments for salary increases always include market research, demonstrated performance, and a clear ask." "Sometimes the hell you know feels more comfortable than the hell you don’t." "We don’t change until the pain of our current circumstances outweighs the fear of the unknown." "Confidence is the ability to trust yourself and to take action on that. The actions of confidence come first; feelings of confidence come second." "Leaders become jerks because they don’t get the feedback they need. We put them on a pedestal and silence our ideas." "You have to do the thing while also feeling nervous. Confidence is a side effect of taking action." These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Kelli Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Kelli Thompson Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | X (Twitter) |
Jaime Taets, CEO and founder of Keystone Group International, and author of "You Are Here" and "The Culture Climb" discusses the challenges of leading in a post-pandemic world, highlighting the importance of conscious leadership, and adapting to constant change. Jaime emphasizes the need for leaders to create cultures that value strengths and impact, prepare for ongoing changes, and foster environments where employees feel connected to the organization's purpose. She also addresses the generational shifts in the workforce and the significance of managing change effectively. Key Takeaways [03:51] Jaime discusses the current dire state of workplace culture as a result of a perfect storm of factors accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. She explains that declining employee engagement, which had been gradually worsening for over two decades, was amplified by the pandemic, forcing companies to rapidly adapt to shifting employee values and priorities. This exposed their unpreparedness for the dramatic changes in the workforce. [05:52] She talks about leaders struggling to cope with increased pressure and uncertainty, while lacking the necessary skills to inspire and motivate their teams. Simultaneously, she states that employees are disengaged and unclear about the organization's direction. [08:23] She believes organizations struggle to meet conflicting employee demands and different generations have varying expectations, making it challenging to please everyone. She argues that ineffective leadership is a root cause, with many leaders promoted based on performance rather than leadership skills. [12:45] Jaime says organizations struggle with rapid change and differing employee needs. She also stated that poor leadership, often prioritizing performance over people skills, hinders progress. [19:33] Jaime believes resilience is the cornerstone of strong leadership. Overcoming challenges, rather than being deterred by them, shapes individuals into effective leaders. She also says societal pressures often hinder personal growth, but a mindset shift is crucial to view obstacles as opportunities for development. [27:35] Jaime believes social media, while initially beneficial, now negatively impacts mental health by fostering unrealistic comparisons. This leads to a longing for a simpler life, reminiscent of past eras. [32:19] Jaime shares her personal journey of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro inspired by her upcoming book, "Surviving Greatness." The book explores the challenges of achieving success and the subsequent need for personal growth. [37:54] Closing quote: Remember, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ” — Lao Tzu Quotable Quotes "Culture is the leader's choice." “Our cultures cannot thrive and produce the business results that we're looking for if our leaders don't know how to manage their own energy." "Everyone has a story, and we're more similar than we are different." "The most successful people have had the hardest roads going there." "The comparison issue is just absolutely robbing us of living our lives and what makes us happy." "If you don't shift your own perspective, it's really going to be someone else who tells you what your perspective should be." "We haven't given leaders the time or space to learn how to lead like that." “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ” — Lao Tzu These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Jaime Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jaime Taets’s LinkedIn | Jaime Taets’s Website | Jaime Taets’s Instagram |
Scott Mautz, author of "The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors," defines and describes what it is to be a mentally strong leader. Scott defines mental strength as the ability to remain calm, in control, and intentional, contrasting it with signs of mental weakness. He emphasized the importance of managing emotions and being intentional in leadership, adapting flexibly to different situations. Throughout the discussion, Scott highlighted tools from his book aimed at improving leadership effectiveness and managing expectations. He also touched on the impact of coaching on mental strength development and navigating societal changes affecting workplace dynamics. Key Takeaways [03:18] Scott revealed a surprising detail about his past: he did stand-up comedy in college and grad school for beer money, almost professionally. However, he chose to follow his passion for leadership instead of pursuing comedy full-time. Scott integrates humor into his leadership style, using it to lighten the mood, diffuse tension, and unite people. He believes that "the shortest distance between two people is laughter." [04:52] Scott discusses his book "The Mentally Strong Leader" defining mental strength as the ability to remain calm, in control, and intentional. He contrasts this with signs of mental weakness, emphasizing that lacking these qualities indicates low mental strength. [06:05] Scott explores how intentionality in leadership can be a delicate balance, noting that being overly intentional may lead to tone-deafness, while lacking intentionality can result in uninspired leadership. He emphasizes that mental strength includes managing emotions and approaching work with intention, adapting flexibly to meet the demands of different situations. [07:21] Scott identifies signs of mental weakness in leaders and defines mental strength as the capacity to manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively during challenges. He emphasizes self-awareness and self-regulation as crucial for leadership, impacting organizational outcomes. Jim adds that effective leaders balance being demanding and inspirational, setting clear expectations while promoting positivity and realism. Scott agrees, emphasizing tools from his book, "The Mentally Strong Leader," for effective expectation management. [15:48] Scott draws an analogy between mental muscles and physical muscles, akin to a workout regimen. His mental strength self-questionnaire offers a personalized score, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement in mental muscles such as boldness and decision-making. This tool supports leaders in maintaining balance and commitment to their mental strength development journey. [19:23] Jim queried Scott on the impact of coaching in developing mental strength, drawing a comparison to sports coaching. Scott suggested initiating with a mental strength self-assessment and employing scientifically grounded tools from his book. He advised revisiting progress after three months and seeking guidance from a coach or mentor if advancement slows down. [21:54] Scott discussed his book's focus on emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, emphasizing the misconception about confidence and the role of doubt. He introduced the doubt continuum, stressing that managing doubt is key to genuine confidence. Scott warned against extremes like overconfidence and fear paralysis. Jan linked this to societal challenges of tribalism and asked about leadership balancing uniqueness and adaptability. Scott highlighted leadership as fostering more leaders through learning agility and embracing individuality while evolving. [25:47] Scott and Jim discussed how societal changes are impacting workplace dynamics, comparing these challenges to "adult puberty." Scott highlighted the importance of mental strength in today's career pressures, similar to emotional intelligence. Jim reflected on past generational work differences, noting higher expectations today could lead to greater disillusionment. Both agreed on the growing importance of resilience in adapting to changing career landscapes. [30:16] Scott and Jim explored the nuances of difficult conversations, emphasizing preparation and understanding power dynamics. Scott highlighted the importance of fortitude in these interactions, while Jim discussed strategies for managing up, focusing on influence, endurance, or departure. [36:13] Scott reassured listeners not to feel daunted by the process of becoming mentally stronger, emphasizing that everyone starts at a baseline. He suggested using the mental strength self-assessment to identify areas for growth and highlighted the effectiveness of the tools and habits in his book, validated through real-world applications. [37:21] And remember, Striving for success is healthy, but believing you need to succeed the first time around may backfire. Mentally strong people believe failure is part of the process toward a long journey to success. By viewing failure as a temporary setback, they're able to bounce back and move forward with ease. - Amy Morin Quotable Quotes "The shortest distance between two people is laughter." "Mental strength is the ability to regulate, not only your emotions, but your thoughts and your behaviors and actions as well. Productively, of course, especially in times of adversity." "Mental strength is the leadership superpower of our times. It is the next EQ that you're going to be hearing about for the next ten years, because it's a level above EQ in empowerment."" "The opposite of mentally strong is not mentally weak. We all have a baseline of mental strength that we could work from." "You have to have self-awareness about how you are, but more importantly, you need to have self-awareness of how you affect others." "The best leaders spread hope in reality, and they lay out what they expect, and they're super clear about their expectations and what they demand." "Times are calling for mental strength more than ever. It really is why I believe it's the next EQ for us all." "We're victims of our own success. We can talk about having this fulfilling, magical career in the work life that people are like, oh my gosh, it's actually work." "Having difficult conversations is a different form of fortitude because it's really hard." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Scott Mautz Website | Scott Mautz LinkedIn | Scott Mautz X (Twitter) Facebook | Instagram | This is the book mentioned
Dr. Greg Hammer retired professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, pediatric intensive care physician, pediatric anesthesiologist, mindfulness expert, and # 1 best selling author of “GAIN Without Pain.” Greg discussed the GAIN method (Gratitude, Acceptance, Intention, Non-Judgment) to promote happiness and mental strength through brain flexibility. He compared stoic philosophy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, emphasizing self-compassion and positive mental health habits. He also discussed non-judgment in coaching, focusing on empathy. Greg highlighted the importance of being present and listening actively. He explored faith's broader role in coping and happiness beyond specific religions. Key Takeaways [03:02] Dr. Greg discussed why self-care is crucial for healthcare professionals, especially post-pandemic. He introduced his book, "Gain Without Pain: The Happiness Handbook for Healthcare Professionals," emphasizing resilience to prevent chronic stress. Dr. Greg explained the acute stress response and highlighted strategies for building resilience through self-care to maintain mental well-being in challenging times. [03:57] Dr. Greg explained the acute stress response, where the body releases adrenaline and cortisol in reaction to threats, a survival instinct from ancient times. In modern life, these responses can lead to chronic stress and health problems. He stressed the importance of resilience in managing stress effectively, given the constant stressors in today's world, to maintain long-term health and well-being. [10:13] Dr. Greg discussed the stellate ganglion block and cognitive behavioral therapy for stress relief. He introduced the GAIN method—Gratitude, Acceptance, Intention, Non-Judgment—as essential for happiness. Dr. Greg explained how these practices use neuroplasticity to rewire the brain, emphasizing gratitude for daily blessings, accepting life's challenges, and living intentionally in the present moment. He gave practical examples of each, showing how they can reduce suffering and strengthen mental resilience. [20:50] Dr. Greg compared stoic philosophy to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), noting their focus on controlling what's possible and letting go of what isn't. He questioned why people often neglect beneficial actions, attributing it to self-judgment and a tendency to feel undeserving of happiness. Dr. Greg highlighted the role of intentionality in changing these patterns, emphasizing techniques from CBT that promote self-compassion and positive mental health practices. [23:57] Dr. Greg and Jim discussed non-judgment in their coaching practice. They highlighted the difference between discerning behaviors and labeling people as good or bad. Dr. Greg shared insights from his meditation practice, emphasizing seeing oneself and others without judgment. [29:17] Dr. Greg reflected on his experiences as a pediatric intensive care physician, highlighting lessons in leadership and presence. He stressed the importance for physicians, especially younger ones, to prioritize presence and active listening, which he believes significantly impacts patient care and family satisfaction in critical situations. [32:58] Greg discussed the role of faith during tough times, agreeing that it's about believing in something bigger than ourselves, like a sense of interconnectedness or higher purpose, rather than specific religious labels. They highlight how this broader view of faith can help people cope and find happiness, emphasizing its universal relevance beyond individual beliefs. [35:34] Greg shares a story highlighting our tendency towards negativity bias and the need for self-compassion. They emphasize the potential of neuroplasticity to cultivate positivity and happiness. [40:58] And remember, "Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes." - Thich Nhat Hanh Quotable Quotes “Happiness is much lower down on the list of evolutionary pressures, let's say. So we've evolved in order to preserve our survival. “Suffering equals pain times resistance.” “We're very judgmental by nature and we judge ourselves more harshly than we judge others.” "Our brains have something called neuroplasticity. That means that we can change those neural networks, those patterns. We can actually rewire our brains, which is really important, because our brains have become hardwired in ways that may have been adaptive for survival, but are not good for our peace and happiness." "Develop a practice where you could sort of wipe the slate clean before you go into that room and be present with the family first." "Happiness really resides in the present moment." “Gratitude is essential for happiness." “But being present and open and making eye contact and being there for and with that person and their family, I think that's what people really want and need.” "We are all made of the same stuff...embracing the idea that we're more than just these little individual selves is intrinsic to happiness." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Greg Hammer Website | Dr. Greg Hammer Facebook | Dr. Greg Hammer Instagram | Dr. Greg Hammer YouTube | Dr. Greg Hammer LinkedIn | Dr. Greg Hammer X (Twitter) | This is the book mentioned in this episode
Jan Rutherford, founder of Self Reliant Leadership®, takes a deep dive into the themes of self-reliance and leadership resilience. He shares insights from his collaboration with Jacquie Jordan, a co-author on his book “Becoming a Self-Reliant Leader: How Grit and Disciplined Duty Forge Indomitable Teams”. Jan explores the foundational principles of Self-Reliant Leadership: leading oneself, leading others, and leading the organization, stressing the continuous adaptation and refinement of these interrelated skills. Jan shares personal insights from his background in Special Forces and leading wilderness expeditions, emphasizing the importance of solitude and reflection for effective leadership. Jan highlights practical strategies for fostering resilience and adaptability in leaders, emphasizing the need for clear expectations, accountability, and effective communication within teams. Jan reflects on his journey as a leader, acknowledging the challenges and transformations he's experienced. He emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and facing one's own hypocrisy in leadership, a concept inspired by one of his mentors. Key Takeaways [03:36] Jan Rutherford, founder of Self Reliant Leadership, discusses the importance of self-reliance in leadership. Inspired by the book "My Side of the Mountain" as a child, Jan learned the value of self-sufficiency. A challenging experience during special forces training further solidified his belief. Leaders, according to Jan, need to be well-rounded individuals taking care of themselves mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This self-reliance allows them to make tough decisions and lead effectively even in difficult situations. However, Jan also emphasizes the importance of relying on others for help when needed. [07:26] Self-reliance is a core concept for Jan's leadership philosophy. It translates into three pillars: leading self (taking responsibility), leading others (setting expectations), and leading the organization (alignment and focus). Jan emphasizes the importance of constantly reflecting and adapting these principles. He uses an analogy of climbing a summit - preparation, teamwork, and a clear vision are all crucial for success. Jan also shared a story from a past expedition where nervousness manifested as humor. [12:31] Jan also talks about what leaders can do to foster greater resilience and adaptability in themselves. [14:32] Jan talks about effective leadership communication. Leaders should set clear expectations and solicit feedback to improve performance. Negotiation is key to gaining commitment from employees. Leaders should also understand the importance of balancing tasks with building relationships with their teams. [20:55] Jan discusses the challenges of personalized leadership. Leaders need to tailor their approach to individual employees while still maintaining fairness. Effective leaders should spend more time developing individual relationships with their team members. [22:22] Jan discusses how to handle HR policies that restrict personalized leadership approaches. The leader is advised to push back on HR and use their power to implement what they believe is best for their team. [24:35] Jan discusses the importance of self-awareness in leadership. He also talks about the challenges of modern leadership and the importance of helping people find purpose and meaning in their work.Jan also shares how having a co-author of his book, Jackie Jordan, brought a valuable outsider's perspective to the project. [35:40] Say nothing which is not true, nothing which is not kind, nothing which is not useful, and nothing which is not necessary. - W. S. Darley Quotable Quotes “You gotta get up on the hill. You know, we are not paid to be busy. We got to get some alone time and reflect and figure things out.” “If you’re not squared away, if you’re not self reliant, you can’t lead. Because when it’s your turn to lead, you’ve got to exhibit discipline, and you’ve got to sacrifice, and you know, you got to muster everything.” “Slow down to speed up.” “We get so caught up in our head trash that sometimes like, oh my gosh, this is the end of the world. Is it really the end of the world? No, it’s not.” “Don’t ask people for feedback. Ask them for advice and suggestions.” “The biggest challenge is the need to personalize leadership approaches yet be perceived as fair.” “We are not high and mighty. We are flawed. You know, we are works in progress. We are facing our own hypocrisy.” “There's a big difference between good tired and bad tired. And I think our obligation as leaders, coaches, whatever we do, is to send people home at night good tired, not bad tired.” Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jan Rutherford LinkedIn | X (Twitter) YouTube |
Karin Hurt, founder and CEO of Let's Grow Leaders and author of "Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict," discusses the impact of post-pandemic stress on workplace dynamics. She highlights rising conflict levels based on global surveys, leading to reduced innovation and retention. Karin introduces her book's "GOAT Phrases" (Greatest Of All Time) - 12 powerful phrases that can be used for effective conflict resolution, focusing on connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment. She advises on recognizing when to disengage from conflicts and choosing suitable communication methods. Karin discusses team-building strategies, including mock presidential debates, and distinguishes between organizational and interpersonal conflicts. She emphasizes addressing conflicts within broader organizational contexts and using structured approaches like the "Inspire Method" for accountability conversations. Key Takeaways [01:42] Karin talks about her new book, "Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict," is available now. Karin shares an interesting tidbit from her past as a "madrigal singer," a form of Renaissance choral music requiring high collaboration. Additionally, she recounts a remarkable experience of being struck by lightning at age 20, which she humorously attributes to her high energy levels. Karin’s insights into leadership and her unique experiences promise a fascinating discussion. [05:21] Karin discusses the importance of effective communication in resolving workplace conflicts. She highlights the challenges of negative work relationships and the research on the rise of conflict after the pandemic. She introduces the concept of "conflict cocktails" which include factors like post-pandemic stress and unclear expectations. Karin also explores the concept of "GOAT" phrases, which are the greatest of all time powerful phrases for conflict resolution. These phrases focus on four dimensions: connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment. [10:48] Karin dives into the power of phrasing in communication. While words themselves only make up 7% of the impact, phrasing can significantly influence how our message is received. Karin emphasizes that even the most powerful phrases won't work if nonverbal cues contradict the message. Body language and tone are crucial for effective communication. Her book offers specific phrases but acknowledges the importance of adapting them to the situation and remaining open to the conversation. [13:07] Karin shares her insight about David Brooks' book "How to Know a Person" emphasizes the importance of adaptation and overcoming limitations to be successful. This aligns with the executive coaching principle that "what got you here won't get you there." She discusses how to deliver critical feedback effectively using phrases that build connection and curiosity, avoiding accusatory labels that shut down conversations. [15:05] Karin discusses how to move people from complaining to solutions. The key is to understand what the person really wants and to empower them to take control. An example is given of a woman who felt stuck in a corporate culture but was encouraged to focus on her own agency and influence. She also highlights the importance of veterans and the US military. [19:10] Karin explores the challenging topic of when to recognize and quit a conflict. She reflects on the realization that some conflicts are unresolvable or not worth resolving. Karin suggests evaluating personal well-being and values alignment when deciding whether to continue or disengage from a conflict. She shares poignant examples, including a nurse's decision to leave a toxic work environment despite initial doubts, highlighting the necessity of prioritizing mental health and values alignment in conflict resolution strategies. [22:59] Karin discusses thresholds in workplace conflict, highlighting how remote work has affected communication dynamics. She stresses the importance of choosing appropriate mediums for delicate conversations, emphasizing face-to-face or high-bandwidth methods for critical discussions like terminations. Karin warns against using asynchronous tools like Slack or email, which can inadvertently escalate conflicts by signaling avoidance or indifference. This approach aligns with Marshall McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message," underscoring the need for thoughtful communication to resolve conflicts effectively. [25:34] Karin critiques common team-building pitfalls. She discusses how activities like golf outings often miss the mark in addressing deeper team issues and can exclude non-participants. She advocates for purposeful team-building aligned with organizational goals and values, emphasizing inclusivity and genuine connection over "forced fun" activities. [36:02] Karin addresses misconceptions about solving organizational challenges solely through recruiting. She highlights the necessity of ongoing development and support for employees, citing Gallup's findings on low engagement levels. Emphasizing empathy and curiosity, Karin advocates for understanding employees' emotional states to enhance communication and productivity. She stresses the importance of clear expectations and sensitive responses in fostering a positive workplace environment, urging leaders to actively support their teams' growth and well-being. Karin shares her favorite powerful phrase, "What would a successful outcome do for you?" highlighting its ability to uncover deeper motivations in conversations. [39:50] And remember, peace is not absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. - Ronald Reagan Quotable Quotes “We have four dimensions of effective collaboration or better workplace conflict: Connection. Are we connected as human beings? Clarity. Do we have a shared understanding of success? Curiosity. Are we genuinely interested in one another's perspectives and what's possible? And then commitment. Do we have a shared agreement?” “Encourage courageous conversations.” "When you avoid the conflict, you lose out on the innovation and all of the problem solving that comes when people feel confident, have the psychological safety to really show up and share what they're thinking." "Most people have more power in their circumstances than they think." "Encourage people that they have more power than they think in most circumstances." "There is a lot of money wasted on leadership development and team building that's not purposeful." "A lot of times we run around thinking we're influenced and we don't realize how much influence we have." "If you did not hold somebody accountable and you let them be a bad performer, you are not being kind to anybody in that scenario." "Show up curious in the conversation and move to commitment." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Let’s Grow Leaders Website | Karin hurt | LinkedIn | Karin Hurt X (Twitter | This is the book mentioned in this episode
Monica Rothgery, author of "Lessons from the Drive-Thru: Real-Life Wisdom for Frontline Leaders,” discusses her journey from being an Army officer to becoming the first female COO of KFC US. She shares insights from her career, emphasizing the importance of frontline leaders in shaping a business's success. She also highlights the challenges faced by frontline managers, the value of genuine investment in team members, and the lessons learned from her time managing a Taco Bell in Chicago and leading operations in Thailand. She underscores the necessity of adaptability, empathy, and leveraging personal uniqueness to inspire and lead effectively. Key Takeaways [02:53] Monica discusses her career milestones, including her time as a quartermaster officer and her 30-year tenure at Taco Bell. She also explains her advocacy for frontline leaders and the importance of their roles. [08:03] Monica shares her initial mistakes in leadership and how she learned to engage and care for her team. She also mentioned the importance of genuine investment in team members and understanding their needs. [14:15] She discusses the importance of engaging and empowering frontline leaders. Her belief that engagement starts with the individual and is an inside job. [18:15] Monica discusses the role of frontline leaders in shaping the future workforce and the importance of their development. Monica discusses the impact of AI and robotics on frontline jobs and the need for companies to unlock the potential of each leader and focus on their specific roles. [27:56] She also emphasizes the importance of developing skills to adapt to technological advancements in the workplace. Monica's advices the young workers and aspiring leaders on finding purpose and meaning in their work. She also mentioned the significance of the first boss in shaping an individual's career and work ethic. [33:56] Closing quote: Remember, “I don't fear that a man will wear out as quickly as he will rust out.” — Colonel Sanders Quotable Quotes "Be yourself. Find your place where you're welcomed, where you're supported, where you can thrive." “It's about understanding what motivates people and then using their strengths to find ways to leverage them in the workplace." "Frontline leaders have some of the most important leadership jobs in every country.” “Make a list of all the momentary benefactors in your life and express some gratitude for them.” "The spotlight has to be on the team." “It's just tough to find the people to keep a restaurant open. I think that's a huge challenge.” “One thing that companies have to do is unlock the potential of each leader.” "The parent's job is to instill confidence, teach the kid how to maybe go to an interview, equip that child to go out into the world as a self-sufficient functioning member of society". “I don't fear that a man will wear out as quickly as he will rust out.” — Colonel Sanders These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Monica Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Monica Rothgery’s LinkedIn | Monica Rothgery’s Website | Monica Rothgery’s Twitter |
Shawn Dawley, an executive and former combat pilot, dedicated 25 years to military service, visiting 80 countries across six continents. He holds a bachelor's degree in aeronautics and master's degrees in business, political science, and military studies. Overcoming a challenging childhood, he excelled in the Air Force, demonstrating that leadership potential can emerge from any background. Shawn champions the importance of critical thinking, empathy, and trust in both military and business leadership. He believes that corporate structures should not overshadow the human element of leadership and stresses the significance of investing in people, developing future leaders, and fostering a growth-oriented culture. As a speaker, Shawn has evolved from struggling with public speaking to offering insights on authenticity, emotional intelligence, and the neuroscience of decision-making. Key Takeaways [02:39] Shawn, a leadership speaker and coach, shared a story about his childhood which was difficult due to death and abandonment. Despite this, he enlisted in the Air Force at 17 and found success through hard work. He credits the Air Force for providing him with the opportunity to succeed and for shaping his leadership skills. One of the most important lessons he learned in the military is the importance of objective, critical thinking. This skill has been essential for his success in the corporate world and other aspects of his life. [08:24] Shawn discusses leadership in the military vs business world. He argues that despite some key differences, both require leading people. He emphasizes the importance of human connection and empathy in leadership, regardless of the field. Shawn also highlights the difference in leadership development between the military and business. The military actively trains leaders, while businesses often neglect this crucial aspect. Shawn believes investing in people is the most important responsibility of a leader, and that building a strong team ensures a smooth transition when leaders move on. [14:45] Shawn discusses his journey to becoming a successful public speaker. He emphasizes that public speaking is a skill that can be learned and improved through practice. He highlights the importance of preparation and spending quality time crafting a speech. Shawn also talks about building the business model around his public speaking career. He acknowledges the challenges of starting out and the importance of persistence. He credits mentors for helping him with the business aspects. [19:47] Shawn discusses a common problem leaders face: spending too much time on administrative tasks. He argues that leaders should delegate these tasks to free themselves up for strategic thinking. According to Shawn, the most important thing leaders should do is integrate. This involves looking across the entire organization and considering external factors like regulations and competition. Leaders need to be freed from administrative duties to focus on this crucial role. [24:20] Shawn argues that our brains are wired to feel before we think. This can be helpful in situations requiring a quick response, but it can also lead to emotional reactions in the workplace. Shawn suggests that leaders should acknowledge this neurological reality and focus on helping employees manage their emotions. He believes creating opportunities for employees to learn from their mistakes can be a valuable tool for growth. [31:52] Shawn discusses transitioning from military to civilian life. He argues that the key to a successful transition is avoiding comparisons to the previous role. Instead, one should focus on appreciating the new role for what it is and finding value in the new situation. Shawn also emphasizes the importance of emotional buy-in during transitions. Even if a transition plan seems logical on paper, people won't feel settled unless they trust the change and believe in its purpose. [35:34] Shawn argues that there are no new leadership principles. He encourages leaders to be human and acknowledge that they won't always have all the answers. Leaders should focus on having good intentions and acting in the best interests of those they lead. People will forgive mistakes as long as they see the effort and good attitude behind the decisions. [37:40] And remember: Inspiration exists but it has to find us working. - Pablo Picasso Quotable Quotes “Progress will never rest in the hand that has no head.” “The gift of meritocracy allowed me to do some things, I would say as I left the military, went into the corporate world, spent time in academia, if there's one thing, and I don't think the military has a monopoly on it, but this absolute demand for objective, critical thinking that military operators require has served me well, because when you are, let's say, mission planning for a combat sortie, it is to your detriment to engage in the delusion of wishing things into existence that you want to be or wishing things away that you find unpleasant. And so you just have to just mercilessly try to dissect the battle space as it is and then develop courses of action that will fit into that environment.” “ Leadership is a very fundamental, primal human condition.” “The mark of a true leader is that when he or she leaves, not only does the place continue to operate as under his or her command, I think if it does, even better. I think that there's some bit of legacy that you must still have to those folks.” “Public speaking is a skill and like any skill, it is acquired and improved.” “We are building a more and more complex society, which can, I think, incline us towards more and more technical solutions. And I think sometimes we get so busy keeping the trains running on time that we forget, okay, at the end of the day, how do I earn the trust of people that I am leading and influence them to do more than what they thought capable?” "There are, I think, some fundamental differences between leading, let's say, a military organization in combat versus being an executive responsible for profit and loss of a business unit or a company. There are some just fundamental characteristic differentials. But what I have found is that at the end of the day, behind that title, behind that role that the people entrusted to your care hold are people." “I would encourage leaders, as one who's still going through this myself, to give yourself license to be human. We often think now that I'm the leader, it's incumbent upon me to be the rock, to have all the answers. And that's a lot for a single human being to carry." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Shawn Dawley Website | Shawn Dawley LinkedIn | Shawn Dawley Facebook | Shawn Dawley Instagram | Shawn Dawley YouTube |
Talmage Boston is a lawyer, historian, and the author of the captivating new book "How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents." For the past 15 years, Talmage has balanced his legal career with a fervent passion for history. By dedicating his mornings to historical research before donning his lawyer hat, he has become an expert on the most influential figures in American history: the U.S. presidents. In his book, Talmage unveils the hidden traits that separate great presidents from the merely good. He explores the power of persuasion, the importance of self-awareness, and the art of targeting messages to the vast American middle ground. Discover surprising insights, such as which presidents excelled at one-on-one interactions and which ones captivated large crowds. Key Takeaways [03:36] Talmage discusses his lifelong passion for history and discusses his new book "How the Best Did It." The book examines leadership traits of eight US presidents and is aimed to be applicable in daily lives. Three key traits for successful presidents are persuasion, self-awareness, and targeting messages to the moderate majority. [12:01] We discuss the power of self-influence and share a compelling story about Stephen Ambrose and Dwight Eisenhower. [16:05] We discuss the role of crisis in shaping presidential legacies. While crises can provide opportunities for presidents to showcase their leadership, it's not a requirement for greatness. Theodore Roosevelt is an example of a highly regarded president who expanded the office's influence without facing a major crisis. We also explore how different presidents handled crisis. [22:05] We discuss the importance of acknowledging both the strengths and weaknesses of historical figures. Learning about the flaws of presidents like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan can help us understand their accomplishments in context. We also explore the role of first ladies in presidential history. Ronald Reagan's wife Nancy is highlighted as a unique case of a first lady who played a significant and influential role in her husband's presidency. [28:45] We e explore how great presidents restore optimism in America, vital for national confidence and progress. Leaders like Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, and Reagan balanced ambitious goals with realistic actions, inspiring people to believe in a brighter future. We contrast this with presidents who struggled to instill confidence, underscoring the impact of leadership on national morale. [33:15] We reflect on the responsibility of leadership and the sacrifices necessary for politicians to serve effectively. Discussing insights from Sebastian Junger's book "Freedom," we highlight the reluctance of many capable individuals to enter politics despite their potential to lead. Guests like John Avalon and Nikki Haley, both seasoned in public service, exemplify the need for courageous leaders willing to navigate the challenges of misinformation and political scrutiny. Drawing on James Baker's metaphor of catching javelins for President Reagan, we emphasize the importance of a capable team to support and guide leaders through the complexities of national governance. [35:59] We delve into the search for common ground in a divided America. Reflecting on recent events like the eclipse and the unifying power of sports, Jim and I discuss what it will take to bridge our nation's divides. We explore ideas from leaders like Stan McChrystal who advocate for national service as a unifying force beyond politics. We ponder whether future leaders can rise above today's partisan rhetoric to focus on effective governance and genuine dialogue. [40:53] And remember, those who do not remember the past are contempt to repeat it. - George Santayana Quotable Quotes "They all had great self awareness, and that means they knew their strengths, and they knew their weaknesses. As for their strengths, they were always thinking in terms of ways that they could use them for the greater good. But with the self awareness to know their weaknesses, they would bring into their circle people who were strong in the areas where they were weak in order for that not to be a problem." "It's not absolutely necessary to have a crisis during your presidency to be considered great." "That's ultimately about either being optimistic or pessimistic. And you're right in that most of these greatest presidents made people feel like we had a president who knew what he was doing, who had a solid, sound direction for the country, both in the present and the future. And when people have confidence in their leadership, then they necessarily have confidence in their country and their future and so forth." "Government doesn't work when you're targeting your policies to please either the extreme right or the extreme left." "Those presidents who have not had that capacity to get people excited about their dreams make it more difficult to be an effective leader." "We just have to hope that our country can survive another four years of one of them having a second term, and then hopefully they'll both be put out to pasture forever." "People have got to accept the fact that where we are is not going to improve unless high-powered people decide to enter politics." "Certainly with so many inaccuracies being spewed forth on a daily basis by our media and by other people involved in politics who twist everything, whether it's true or untrue, with little regard for fact-checking, certainly makes everybody stop and pause." "You can't take on this kind of major national responsibility as president without surrounding yourself with really smart, capable people who can catch the javelins and who can keep you functioning and keep you positive." This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Talmage:: Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Talmage Boston LinkedIn | Talmage Boston Twitter |
Todd Rose is the co-founder and CEO of Populace, and founder of the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality. Todd is also a bestselling author of "Collective Illusions," "Dark Horse," and "The End of Average." Todd explains how the abandonment of human distinctiveness during the industrial age has left a lasting impact on our potential and fulfillment. He emphasizes that true individuality is crucial for cultivating personal potential and living fulfilling lives. He explores the tension between individualism and collectivism, asserting that individuality should not be mistaken for selfishness. He then shifts to the challenges leaders face in balancing fairness and personalization. Todd highlights the importance of autonomy in realizing individuality and cautions against the authoritarian potential of individuality without autonomy. Todd expresses concerns about the potential for a divided education system where some students are trained as cogs in the machine while others are nurtured to develop their individuality and agency. Todd talks about his Dark Horse Project, which explores how people achieve fulfillment and excellence by following their unique paths. Key Takeaways [03:30] Todd discussed why individuality is central to his work and the importance of human distinctiveness and its impact on potential and fulfillment. He also compared standardization to personalization in various fields. [06:03] Todd emphasizes the impact of the Industrial Age on individuality, psychological drives for categorization versus self-expression, and a critique of Frederick Taylor's scientific management and its effects in relation to societal transformation, human identity, and labor efficiency during the industrial revolution. [07:28] He talks about the importance of personalizing leadership while maintaining fairness, the challenges of balancing individual needs with organizational goals, and the evolving expectations of employees in the workplace. [10:45] He discusses the transformation needed in education and workplace institutions, the shift from material abundance to psychological and spiritual fulfillment, and the role of leaders in navigating paradigm shifts and fostering individuality in the context of adapting to changing societal values and promoting holistic well-being in both educational and professional settings. [14:16] He shares the challenges of giving employees more autonomy while maintaining control, the comparison of bottom-up versus top-down approaches in leadership, and the importance of clear outcomes and flexible processes in modern workplaces in relation to fostering innovation, productivity, and employee satisfaction within organizational structures. [26:47] Todd gives an example of personalized health utilizing the glycemic index and machine learning. He also shares his personal experience with personalized nutrition, highlighting the potential of technology to scale personalization in various fields by leveraging data-driven approaches to optimize individual health outcomes and enhance personalized experiences across different domains. [35:32] He introduces his book “The Dark Horse project and book”, emphasizing the transformation of individuality into fulfillment and excellence. He also shares his personal anecdotes, highlighting the impact of the Dark Horse mindset on Todd's family and their journey towards embracing uniqueness and achieving personal success. [41:57] Closing quote: Remember, "If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything." - Claude McKay Quotable Quotes "The biggest mistake we've made in the industrial age is the abandonment of the appreciation for human distinctiveness." "Harnessing your individuality is a pretty central element to really leading a fulfilling life." "The flaw with the industrial age is that in the past, it was sort of intuitive that we were categorized in the same way that we thought it was intuitive that the earth was flat." "Whereas like a Frederick Taylor, we led to a very paternalistic society that we've lived in for quite a while, which is in some ways antithetical to liberal democracies." "The biggest driver of a sense of meaning is pursuing a goal freely chosen." "It's very hard to transform institutions that are captured." "Innovation in terms of being left behind is really important." "We can get scale through personalization." "Individuality is a fact, and it's really important." "If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything." - Claude McKay These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Todd Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Todd Rose LinkedIn | Todd Rose Website | Todd Rose Twitter |
In this episode, Valia Glytsis, founder and CEO of The Paradox of Leadership and author of "Unraveling Ambition," shares her journey of understanding leadership. Valia highlights the importance of aligning personal values with actions, questioning fear-based versus truth-based ambition, and emphasizing inner work and generational shifts in leadership. She explores the intersection of trust, spirituality, and leadership, advocating for listening without an agenda and embracing uncertainty. Valia emphasizes the role of ambition in adding value and suggests regularly questioning habits and perspectives for personal growth and alignment with one's true self. Key Takeaways [03:20] Valia shares that before having kids, she and her partner enjoyed testing luxury hotels worldwide, blending their love for leadership and luxury. Reflecting on her journey to understand leadership, she realized it's about how one shows up, not just a job title. This led her to "unravel" inherited habits and beliefs, like untangling knots. Valia also questioned her ambition, understanding that constant striving for more didn't bring happiness. By exploring these ideas, she gained a deeper understanding of herself and leadership, merging these insights into her personal and professional life. [06:55] She shares how her Greek heritage imposed societal expectations, shaping her behavior to be a "good girl," daughter, and friend. Valia realized much of this was inherited rather than chosen, creating a complex knot of expectations. This led her to question what we inherit versus who we truly are. She believes true freedom comes from aligning personal values with actions, based on self-defined values rather than imposed ones. By unraveling inherited patterns and living according to her own values, she feels on the path to freedom. [09:32] Valia notes that fear-based ambition is about meeting external expectations, like taking care of family, while truth-based ambition is driven by a desire to make an impact or express creativity. She believes true leadership starts from within, with self-awareness and alignment with personal values. Without this inner work, external leadership is superficial. Valia also sees a generational shift in leadership, with modern leaders focusing more on alignment and collaboration rather than just reaching agreements. [16:12] She explains that judgment and curiosity can't coexist. When you become curious, judgment fades. Similarly, fear can be eased by focusing on gratitude and asking what you’re learning from the situation. Fear often leads to outward attacks, but curiosity dissolves judgment, creating space for collaboration. She recommends asking, "What am I missing here?" to stay humble, curious, and centered, which helps reduce negative reactions. [17:43] Valia shares that a key idea from her book is moving from always trying to understand everything to embracing trust. In her personal journey, she faced many things she couldn't fully understand, like family issues and health scares. This led her to see trust as essential, especially in leadership. Trust involves moving from the head to the heart, letting go of the need to rationalize everything, and believing there's a bigger purpose. This mix of trust and humility allows for a deeper, more holistic experience. [21:17] She emphasizes the importance of slowing down to listen without an agenda, which makes people feel truly seen and heard. She reflects on her book's evolution, noting that the original manuscript felt irrelevant after the COVID-19 pandemic and becoming a mother. This led her to rewrite it with a new perspective, keeping some elements while adding more relevant content. The title "Unraveling Ambition" emerged as a reflection of her experiences and the changing world around her. [22:53] Valia talks about the difference between managing and leading. Managing involves control and organization, while leadership is more about embracing uncertainty and trusting the process. She likens it to a scavenger hunt, where each experience leads to the next, revealing new insights. For her, spirituality and leadership intersect in the realm of uncertainty and trust. Valia enjoys leadership more when there's freedom and trust instead of strict control. She also discusses how people usually only change when they're extremely happy or in a lot of pain. Tracking your energy levels can help guide you towards joy and away from the comfort zone. [25:20] She believes ambition feels good when it adds value and makes things better. If ambition comes from habit, it can be tiring and lead to burnout. Since becoming a parent, her ambitions have changed, but she hasn't lost them. Setting boundaries and taking care of herself helps her energy spread to other areas of her life. She sees a connection between ambition, spirituality, trust, and leadership. Sometimes ambition comes from a spark within, leading to exciting journeys of exploration and growth. [28:15] Valia suggests taking time to question habits, perspectives, and preferences to see if they truly belong to you. By approaching these aspects with curiosity and asking if they're really yours, you can choose what's best for you. She believes doing this regularly can lead to personal growth and alignment with your true self. [29:19] And remember, character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved. -Helen Keller. Quotable Quotes "Leadership has nothing to do with the role or the job or the company. It's just how you show up." "Happiness doesn't necessarily live on the other side of ambition." "When you can match your values with your actions, you're on the path to freedom." "Leadership starts from the inside. If you're not true and aligned, the outside is just a facade." "Looking for alignment creates something together, while agreement feels more like one wins, one loses." "Curiosity neutralizes judgment. It diffuses fear and opens up a co-creative space." "What am I missing here? What am I not seeing? These questions bring you back to center, fostering humility and curiosity." "What if trust were a language? Drop into trust rather than always intellectually needing to understand." "Slowing down to speed up allows us to listen without agenda, fostering real curiosity." "Life's experiences are like a scavenger hunt, each clue leading us to the next, embracing spirituality in leadership." "Change often stems from extreme joy or extreme pain. Tracking our energy helps navigate towards growth." "Ambition in service leads to a sense of purity and fulfillment, while habitual ambition can lead to exhaustion." "Unraveling what we take for granted in ourselves fosters personal growth and authenticity." "Embrace the spark within and be willing to reevaluate habits and beliefs with curiosity." This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Valia: Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Valia Glytsis LinkedIn | Valia Glytsis Instagram | Valia Glytsis Website |
In this episode, communication expert Matt Abrahams shares his insights on effective leadership communication through his "four I's" framework: Information, Impact, Invitation, and Implications. He underscores the need for clear, audience-tailored communication, emphasizing empathy and curiosity. Matt discusses the balance between personal authenticity and team support, highlighting the crucial role of feedback and ongoing self-improvement. Drawing on his martial arts background and stories involving his son, he advocates for adapting to various contexts and honing delivery skills. Matt concludes with encouraging listeners to proactively develop their communication abilities. Key Takeaways [02:30] Matt talks about his experience as a martial artist for 40 years. He says it has kept him healthy and taught him important life skills. He mainly practices a form of karate and also studies Tai Chi. He also mentions he liked the movie “The Karate Kid” partly because of Elizabeth Shue, who was an important part of his life at that time. [03:38] Matt emphasizes the importance of communication in leadership. He says leaders should focus on clear, meaningful communication that is tailored to their audience. Matt notes two challenges: knowing too much about a topic and being too passionate can hinder effective communication. He suggests using empathy and curiosity to understand the audience better. He also highlights the need for good intergenerational communication in the workplace. Different generations work together, so leaders should adapt and respect different perspectives. [06:20] Matt believes managers should help people improve their work. He suggests turning tough conversations into opportunities to solve problems together, which encourages collaboration and reduces defensiveness. Matt emphasizes using a structure, especially in high-stress conversations. He introduces the "four I's" framework: Information, Impact, Invitation, and Implications. This framework helps keep conversations clear and focused, making them easier to handle. [10:36] Matt believes good leadership involves balancing personal authenticity with helping the team. He compares this to the yin-yang dynamic, blending different approaches. Sometimes leaders should take charge, while other times they should let others lead. Matt supports Kim Scott's idea of radical candor. He thinks creating a culture of feedback is important, including positive, neutral, and constructive feedback. Leaders should ask for specific feedback, express gratitude, and show they can change based on the feedback. He also emphasizes that regularly seeking input in the right way leads to better communication and growth. [15:20] Matt explains that the root of "communication" is about connecting with others. He stresses the importance of taking time to connect, which saves time by preventing problems later. In crisis communication, Matt advises managing oneself, aligning messaging, and staying consistent. Being open, proactive, and practicing for crises helps organizations handle them effectively. [19:40] Matt emphasizes the importance of being genuine and connecting to what you communicate, even if you don't fully agree. Nonverbal cues like body language and voice tone are key in conveying authenticity. He stresses the need to practice delivery to avoid filler words and ensure clear messaging. Matt acknowledges that language evolves over time, and generational communication patterns may differ. He tries to respect these differences and focus on the intent behind people's words. If asked, he offers advice, but he generally remains open to different communication styles. [22:03] Matt believes trust comes from connecting with others, which involves slowing down, listening, and giving honest feedback. He acknowledges the pressure to move quickly but says effective leaders take time to understand people and build relationships. In martial arts, Matt sees a connection with communication in observing, listening, and connecting. He prefers working with small startups to build strong communication processes from the start. Matt also emphasizes that communication isn't just about speaking but also includes listening to understand what you're responding to. [26:58] Matt shares a story about learning from his son that using certain slang terms can seem inauthentic. This shows the importance of recognizing patterns and adapting communication to the context and audience. He stresses the need for authenticity and flexibility in communication, adjusting our approach based on what we observe. Matt believes practice, reflection, and feedback are key to improving communication. He suggests reflecting daily and weekly on what worked and what didn't, and asking for feedback from others to learn and improve. Leaders should encourage reflection on communication in meetings and seek input from others to enhance overall communication quality. [31:26] Matt likes the quote, "Every journey begins with one step," and applies it to communication. He notes that even experienced leaders can feel nervous about communicating, and improvement takes time. Matt encourages everyone to work on their communication skills because they can always get better. He believes leaders should communicate well and set a good example for others. [34:27] And remember, there are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting and public speaking. -Jean de la Bruyere Quotable Quotes "Communication is operationalized leadership. It's how we lead, and it's critical to spend time focusing on it." "Understanding your audience is key: ensure your content is relatable and relevant to those you're addressing." "Empathy and curiosity are the antidotes to the curse of knowledge and passion. They help us appreciate where our audience is coming from." "Generational differences require a collaborative approach to communication: not just 'communicate to,' but 'communicate with.' "Structure and frameworks are vital in high-intensity conversations, providing a roadmap and helping to package up messages effectively." "Blending what helps the organization and what is true for ourselves can lead to authentic leadership." "Building a culture of feedback is crucial: be specific in your requests and demonstrate a willingness to change." "Communication is about making connections—take the time to connect meaningfully with others." "In crisis communication, proactive measures like aligning messages and practicing drills are essential for success." "Buy what you're selling. Find a connection between your message and your beliefs to communicate authentically." "Nonverbal communication is key: your body language, tone, and gestures shape how people perceive your intent and message." "Practice is crucial in communication—don't just focus on the message, but also how you deliver it." "Generational language patterns may seem annoying, but they help connect people within groups. Stay open-minded and focus on the intent." "Trust comes from connection and commonality. Slow down, listen, and give honest feedback to build strong relationships." "Effective leaders take time to understand others and build trust, which in turn accelerates progress and success." "Martial arts emphasize observation, listening, and intimacy. These skills can be applied to everyday interactions." "Communication is not just broadcasting. Listening is a crucial step in effective communication." "Pattern recognition is key to effective communication: recognize the context and expectations to respond appropriately." "Authenticity matters: forcing language that's not true to yourself can hinder connection and mutual understanding." "Spontaneous speaking is like being an athlete: rely on training and skills to navigate different situations effectively." "Reflection is critical for improvement. Practice, reflection, and feedback help you grow as a communicator." "Daily reflection can help you recognize patterns in your communication and address areas for improvement." "Seek feedback from others to understand your communication better and make meaningful changes." "Leaders should encourage communication reflection in meetings to improve quality and send a message about its importance." "Communication anxiety can be daunting, but one step at a time leads to improvement. Confidence grows with practice." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Matt Abrahams LinkedIn | Matt Abrahams Website | Matt Abrahams Instagram | Matt Abrahams YouTube |
In this episode, Jim and Jan explore the importance of saying "no" in the workplace. They highlight how setting clear boundaries and aligning decisions with both personal and organizational values can help leaders manage their time and workload more effectively. Empowering lower-level employees to say "no" can also reduce friction and enhance organizational efficiency. Additionally, they discuss how balancing commitments and making mindful choices contributes to improved focus, productivity, and long-term success. Key Takeaways [01:28] Jim talked about his company name, Rafti Advisors, which connects to his Greek heritage. Rafti is a town in Greece where his father was born and had to leave due to war. Jan added that he grew up in a small village in Ireland and he and Jim made mistakes when they were young. They agreed these experiences helped them grow. They emphasized the importance of giving grace to people making mistakes today, especially since cameras are everywhere now. Mistakes have consequences, but they help people learn and improve. [03:38] Jim and Jan discuss the impact of hearing "no" and how it influences personal and professional experiences. Jim highlights the emotional weight of "no" and how it can vary based on context, such as a child asking for permission versus avoiding obligations. Jan adds that hearing "no" plays differently in personal decisions and organizational settings. In companies, there can be friction between front-line and support staff due to different priorities, with support staff often focused on risk avoidance. This can lead to frequent use of "no." Both agree that "no" can have a strong influence on decision-making in many areas of life and work. [06:15] Jim and Jan discuss the importance of saying "no" in organizations to manage resources and maintain focus. Jim emphasizes that leaders need to decide when to say "no" to prevent lower-level employees from becoming a "no department." Jan shares insights from executive coaching, highlighting the need to influence decisions and find ways to navigate challenges. Both agree that knowing when and what to say "yes" helps clarify when to say "no." They reference baseball player Ted Williams' advice on focusing on pitches you can hit, illustrating the importance of clear decision-making. [10:33] Jim and Jan talk about setting boundaries and managing time at work. Jim mentions a Wall Street Journal article about saying no by setting limits and using outside commitments as excuses. He shares a story about someone working too much and missing time with family. Jan adds that excessive meetings and admin tasks make it difficult to manage time. They agree that poor meeting management and unclear agendas waste time. They also note that changes in the job market have shifted power to employees, leading to new workplace dynamics. [18:06] Jim visits an old workplace and sees most of it demolished. Reflecting on the past, he emphasizes the importance of relationships and leaders helping people find purpose and grow. This focus on relationships is key for good leadership. Jan agrees, noting that leaders must advocate for their team and say "no" when necessary. Being a good leader isn't just about being nice; it's also about setting boundaries and supporting the team's needs for growth and development. [22:01] Jim and Jan discuss how it's important to tell people "not yet" instead of just saying "no" if the timing isn't right. They suggest providing context and explaining when an idea might be possible in the future. Jan shares how he manages networking requests by declining politely due to his busy schedule. He explains his need to focus on current commitments and projects and wonders how others perceive this approach. [24:15] Jim and Jan discuss how receiving a polite decline, such as someone being too busy, shows the person is organized and knows their priorities. They agree this approach is respectable, even if some might see it as distant. Jan says being able to say "no" is about knowing what you value and prioritizing tasks. Saying "yes" to the right things and "no" to others helps manage time. Jim adds that prioritizing tasks doesn't mean other things are unimportant; it just means focusing on what is most urgent. [24:15] Jim and Jan emphasize the importance of making decisions at the right time, comparing it to picking ripe fruit. They stress the need to align with others and consider the best timing. They reference Dan Pink's book on timing and mention people have more control over their time and responses than they might think. They thank their sponsor, Darley, for its support. They stress the importance of knowing your values and where to focus your time for effective priority management. Careers consist of many short chapters that require adaptability. [28:30] Jim and Jan discuss the importance of saying "no" to stay focused and productive. Jim explains that saying "no" doesn't mean missing out but helps prioritize tasks and control time. He shares a story about two authors at a billionaire's party, highlighting the value of knowing what is "enough" in life. Jan agrees and stresses the importance of knowing what you truly value to make decisions about when to say "yes" or "no." They acknowledge the challenge of wanting to say "yes" but note that understanding your priorities can help navigate these situations. They reference authors Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller, discussing the importance of seeing the world differently. Overall, they agree that the topic of saying "no" is ongoing and relevant to everyone. [32:40] And remember, our life is the sum total of all the decisions we make every day, and those decisions are determined by our priorities. -Myles Munroe Quotable Quotes "All those mistakes and dumb things we did when we were younger got us to where we are today." "We need to provide grace and patience to those who are currently being 'knuckleheads' as we were once there ourselves." "It's harder for people to do stupid things now because there's a camera everywhere. Grace and understanding are more important than ever." "No can be a powerful and emotional word, understood by everyone." "Making decisions with a pros-and-cons matrix can be limiting. Instead, consider your core values and priorities." "Leaders face decisions with moral, ethical, and legal implications. These aren't black-and-white choices but shades of gray." "Support staff often play a crucial role in mitigating risk and may seem like they're always saying 'no' because they’re focused on avoiding mistakes." "Setting boundaries is essential for managing your time and energy effectively." "You don't have to say yes to everything; learn to prioritize what truly matters." "Meetings should have a clear purpose and agenda; otherwise, they're just a waste of time." "Empowering people means giving them the freedom to make decisions without excessive buy-in." "A great leader helps people find purpose and meaning in their work." "The best way to grow an organization is by growing and developing people." "A good boss advocates for their team and provides them with the resources they need." "Saying no is a powerful tool for maintaining focus and protecting your time." "Sometimes we need to say 'not yet' instead of 'no' for good ideas for better timing." "Time is the most precious thing; where you spend it matters." "Knowing your values helps you say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things." "Saying no can lead to being more productive and achieving more." "When you know what you value, you can prioritize your time effectively." "The power of no comes from understanding your goals and being able to say no when necessary." "Knowing what you value can lead to a healthier work-life balance and increased productivity." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
In this episode, Tatiana Kolovou discusses how she manages her social media presence, focusing on family content on Instagram and Facebook while maintaining a professional image on LinkedIn. She also shares her love for Greek cuisine and hobbies like indoor cycling and creating playlists. Tatiana emphasizes the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone for personal growth and highlights effective communication strategies, inclusive leadership practices, and the significance of emotional intelligence. She also mentions the value of seeking and appreciating feedback and tailoring communication to suit the audience's needs. She advocates for balance in life, growth through challenges, and kindness towards others. Key Takeaways [03:13] Tatiana shares her values, balancing personal and professional content across her social media platforms. She keeps her Instagram and Facebook for family moments and celebrations, while maintaining a professional image on LinkedIn by sharing learning opportunities. Though she occasionally posts personal content on LinkedIn, she finds that authentic and real posts perform well due to the platform's algorithm. [04:36] Tatiana shares her favorite Greek dish, "Lahandolmades.” She also mentions that she enjoys indoor cycling and creating playlists but keeps these personal interests off LinkedIn to maintain a professional focus. She also discusses the concept of training in the "discomfort zone," highlighting the importance of pushing oneself beyond comfort for growth and self-awareness. Tatiana emphasizes the value of daily challenges, weekly new opportunities, and monthly learning experiences for personal development and effective communication. [8:59] Tatiana emphasizes the importance of training in the discomfort zone and developing communication skills through practice. She suggests standing instead of sitting to project energy, and recommends recording oneself for feedback on intonation and energy. She admires William Shatner's performance during an eclipse event at the age of 92, noting his mastery of pacing, energy, and pausing. Tatiana also believes in captivating audiences through stories and energy, even without video. She mentions the need for continuous practice to improve communication skills and stay focused. [13:35] She highlights the importance of inclusion in organizations, urging leaders to establish a culture that aligns with common values and attracts people for more than just money. Tatiana mentions the need for accommodating different communication styles and clear direction to maintain trust. She also warns against bullying and fear-based leadership, promoting cultural humility and openness to allow others into the in-group. Leaders should seek feedback, listen, and be empathetic to grow their organizations. [18:16] Tatiana emphasizes the importance of not coddling team members, stating "different is not deficient." Leaders should be curious and open to newcomers, while outsiders must also be flexible and curious. She stresses the value of letting younger people struggle a bit to learn and grow, such as through cultural exchanges or joint projects. She advocates for simulating struggles in controlled environments to prepare individuals for real-world challenges, allowing them to process, reflect, and grow from their experiences. [23:44] Tatiana highlights the importance of emotional intelligence to avoid damage control. She emphasizes self-awareness, social awareness, and feedback for growth. Tatiana values building relationships and trust, advising people to invest time in making connections. She recommends arriving early to meetings and complimenting clients to strengthen relationships. [27:24] Tatiana discusses the importance of emotional intelligence in communication and leadership. She shares a story about coaching her son, Alexei, on managing his emotions. Tatiana emphasizes the Greek concept of "Philotimo" or "love of honor," doing the right thing even when no one is watching. She advises leaders to practice cultural humility, emphasizing listening and asking questions rather than making assumptions. This approach fosters trust and builds stronger relationships. [30:03] She discusses balancing active engagement ("dance floor") and reflection ("balcony") in life. She finds herself reflecting more as she juggles career and family responsibilities, reassessing decisions and trust. Tatiana emphasizes the value of reading to broaden perspectives and the need for honest, direct conflict resolution. Tatiana notes the challenge of avoiding exclusion in teaching and handling conflict, emphasizing the importance of understanding individual needs to provide constructive feedback and guidance. [35:45] Tatiana coaches individuals to ask specific questions when seeking feedback, such as, "Did I come across with more energy?" This approach elicits more helpful responses. She emphasizes being open to feedback and showing appreciation for it, as people rarely offer feedback freely. Tatiana shares about honor, noting that while it doesn't have a price, it brings gratitude and respect to those who possess it. She also highlights the Greek connection between honor and price, emphasizing the importance of knowing when to apply each. [37:51] Tatiana challenges people not to assume that difference is bad, and instead encourages empathy and understanding. She urges individuals to embrace differences and put themselves in others' shoes. She advocates for taking time daily to observe oneself and to focus on giving more than taking. Tatiana's challenge is to pay it forward when possible, fostering a culture of care and kindness toward others. [38:44] Tatiana emphasizes understanding the audience's values and interests before delivering a message. She advises adapting communication style (email, phone call, or video) to suit the audience. She also stresses the importance of tailoring the approach to meet the audience's needs for more effective communication. [43:02] Remember, the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. -George Bernard Shaw Quotable Quotes "Challenge yourself daily by stepping out of your comfort zone. Ask for something unexpected once a week, and every month, embrace learning something new, even if it makes you feel like a beginner." "Mastering this skill requires continuous practice and pushing through discomfort. The more you do it, the better you become." "If you have the energy to speak with conviction and enthusiasm, you don't necessarily need video.” “Success lies in how engaging and captivating you can be, regardless of the medium." "Being different doesn't mean being deficient.” “When the in-group views outsiders as 'different,' it can discourage newcomers from joining." "The culture you establish defines your organization.” “Those who join are drawn in by some aspect of that culture." "Standing instead of sitting can help you project energy, but it can be tiring." "Show empathy to those on the outside and listen closely, especially as your organization grows." "Facing struggles is essential for growth; without challenges, people may become overwhelmed when difficulties arise.” "Being emotionally intelligent is an invaluable asset—it saves time and prevents harm in challenging situations." "To develop emotional intelligence, seek strong, genuine feedback from someone who can offer candid advice." "Investing time in building relationships and trust fosters smooth interactions and eliminates the need for task-oriented shortcuts." "Leaders who practice cultural humility admit they don't have all the answers. They listen, ask questions, and avoid assumptions." "Take a moment to pause and reflect on your actions.” "Honor is priceless—it earns you gratitude and respect.” "Embrace diversity and practice empathy.” “Recognize and appreciate others' perspectives by putting yourself in their shoes." "Tailor your message to your audience and focus on their needs." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Tatiana Kolovou LinkedIn | Kelley School of Business Website | Tatiana Kolovou Instagram | Tatiana Kolovou Twitter |
In this episode, Kelly Byrnes from Voyage Consulting Group shares valuable tips about leadership and career growth. She underscores the significance of leaders recognizing their impact on others and the need to cultivate trust within their teams. Kelly also discusses strategies for senior leaders to avoid burnout by staying attuned to their emotions. She advocates for integrating leadership development into daily routines and ensuring personal aspirations align with true happiness. Kelly highlights the crucial role of kindness and respect in workplace success. She provides practical tips for personal growth, such as visualizing your ideal day. Additionally, Kelly conveys that true fulfillment comes from living in accordance with your values, both professionally and personally. Key Takeaways [02:13] Kelly shares that her love for business started when she was a kid playing with Barbies. Instead of typical weddings, her dolls were busy running the show and setting up shops. Even at eight, she had a job at a nearby store. She also mentions that her passion for business has been there from the start, making her journey pretty cool. [04:55] Kelly notes that leaders often underestimate their impact on their teams, from their words shaping morale to overlooking trust dynamics. She believes this lack of awareness stems from leaders' focus on business goals and their desire to support their teams, rather than a negative intention. Kelly stresses the importance of self-awareness in leadership, emphasizing it as an ongoing journey to understand one's influence on others. She also highlights the prevalence of burnout among senior leaders, caused by overwhelming workloads and new expectations for emotional support. [11:47] Kelly emphasizes using influential psychology books like Cialdini's "Influence" and Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" with care and purpose. She advocates for respectful and honorable leadership that balances performance goals with compassionate interactions, avoiding manipulation and burnout. Kelly also believes in setting clear expectations while treating individuals with empathy, fostering high performance without resorting to coercion or excessive coddling. [16:24] Kelly emphasizes promoting critical thinking skills by challenging individuals to consider alternative perspectives and generate multiple solutions. Instead of simply accepting initial answers, she encourages deeper exploration by asking probing questions like "What about this?" [18:00] Kelly emphasizes the importance of being mindful of how others perceive you based on your actions and choices, urging deliberate and intentional behavior. She believes that integration is key to successful development initiatives, advocating for programs that are woven into everyday work and aligned with strategic goals. Additionally, she highlights the value of facilitators who have practical experience and can offer both practical guidance and aspirational goals, empowering individuals to aspire to greatness and providing opportunities for growth and challenge. [21:26] Kelly stresses the importance of understanding individual preferences and needs, highlighting listening as a key leadership skill. She discusses potential updates to her book on professionalism, noting shifts towards emphasis on communication, work-life balance, tech proficiency, and collaboration with diverse teams in the modern workplace. [23:47] Kelly advises individuals to shift their focus from themselves to others, especially in unfamiliar or high-pressure situations such as boardroom meetings or client interactions. She suggests taking a more understated approach, avoiding the urge to draw attention to oneself and instead focusing on observing and getting to know others. By practicing empathy and understanding others' preferences, individuals can build genuine connections and effectively communicate, following both the golden rule (treating others as you want to be treated) and the platinum rule (treating others as they want to be treated). [25:58] In her book, "All In and the Five All In Strategies," Kelly advises readers to find joy in the present rather than postponing it for the future. She emphasizes the importance of having a vision for one's life and suggests envisioning an ideal day and considering preferred work activities. Kelly shares an exercise she did in 6th grade of listing 100 life goals, revisiting it annually. By pursuing goals intentionally and embracing challenges, individuals can find fulfillment beyond happiness. Kelly believes that triumph comes from overcoming obstacles and encourages embracing life with courage and optimism for an extraordinary experience. [37:10] Kelly reflects on her lifelong list of goals, including riding a camel, which she set in 6th grade. Despite growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, where camels aren't common, she seized the opportunity during a volunteer day at the local zoo. Although initially met with skepticism, Kelly's determination led her to assist the camel caretaker, eventually earning her a chance to fulfill her childhood dream. This experience illustrates Kelly's belief in the power of intentionality and perseverance in achieving life goals, whether it's meeting new people or embarking on adventures. [28:35] Kelly generously offers to share the first half of her "My Fulfilling Life" digital workbook with anyone who emails her. This workbook focuses on visualizing one's life and includes exercises such as listing 100 life goals and identifying personal strengths. Kelly's childhood experience of affirming self-worth influences this workbook, which aims to help individuals create a fulfilling life. [34:35] And remember, mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. -Jon Kabat-Zinn Quotable Quotes “Culture becomes the worst behavior you tolerate.” "The way you treat people has to be different." "Leaders underestimate the impact they have on people; their words and moods set the tone for teams." "People look to leaders for career guidance and inspiration, yet leaders often miss this influence." "Self-awareness isn't about fixing flaws but understanding our effect on others and regulating responses." "Don't settle for the first things off the top of your head. Ask 'What else?'" "Spiritual values influence who you are, what you think, and how you behave." "Listening is probably the most undervalued skill in leadership." "It's about understanding what signifies value to each individual, not just imposing one's own perspective." "Work-life balance is now a priority, with boundaries and scheduling expectations." "Diversity in teams requires the ability to collaborate with people from varied backgrounds." "Be deliberate and intentional about what you share and show, as it contributes to how people judge and assess you." "Look for facilitators who have practical experience and align with your company's needs." "Be less focused on yourself and more focused on others in professional settings." "Observe, listen, and get to know others before asserting yourself." "Don't try to be the center of attention; take it easy and be understated." "Enjoy life now, rather than constantly putting off happiness for the future." "Regularly review and refine your life goals to stay intentional and focused." "Fulfillment comes from pursuing triumphs, not just fleeting moments of happiness." "Taking risks and embracing challenges lead to a more extraordinary life experience." "Don't fear life's curveballs; anticipate the greatness that lies beyond them." This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Kelly: Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Kelly Byrnes LinkedIn | Kelly Byrnes Website |
In this episode, Nick Jain, CEO of IdeaScale, discusses the value of humility, emphasizing that great ideas can originate from anyone at any level. He outlines the idea generation process, highlighting the importance of keeping it simple and inclusive. Nick touches on the role of software in decision-making, recognizing its benefits and the dangers of its misuse. Using practical examples, he explains how effectively implementing customer feedback and maintaining organizational flexibility while adhering to core values are crucial. Additionally, Nick champions inclusivity in generating ideas, advocating for a systematic approach that complements organizational objectives. Key Takeaways [02:26] Nick shares that he is active on LinkedIn and has a less active Twitter account, where one can find personal photos including those of themselves, their spouse, and pets. He also shares his primary hobbies, which involve home repairs and his pursuit of becoming a semi-professional poker player. Nick explains the limited utility of card counting in the game compared to blackjack, highlighting the challenges of counting cards in modern casinos with multiple decks. [04:01] Nick explains that to make the most of everyone's ideas, leaders need to let go of their ego and be open to using simple tools like paper or technology. He emphasizes that good ideas can come from anyone, not just the boss. From his own experience, Nick shares how he's learned from feedback on his own ideas, even when they didn't work out. He also considers whether leaders struggle because they're afraid of losing control or because they're too proud to admit others might have better ideas. [7:10] Nick explains how ideas actually get done. First, someone throws out an idea. Then, everyone chimes in to vote on which ones they like best. Next, Nick, who knows his stuff, helps pick out the winners. And when they start making those ideas happen, if something doesn't quite click, they tweak it until it does. That's how they make sure only the cream of the crop becomes reality. [09:43] Nick explains that their software helps people make smart decisions about ideas by considering factors like ROI and costs. But he admits that even with good systems, bad actors can sometimes cause problems. He says it's impossible to be perfect, but the goal is to keep mistakes low. For small groups, simple tools like idea boxes work fine, but for big organizations, high-tech solutions are needed. Nick also compares their platform to social media, where seeing others' ideas succeed encourages more participation. [14:29] Nick shares an example involving a major fast food chain that sought ideas from their global customer base through Ideascale to develop new menu items. They received thousands of ideas, vetted them with in-house experts, and successfully launched new menu items based on customer suggestions. When asked whether this signaled a shift in the business strategy, Nick suggests it was more about adding tactical menu items rather than fundamentally changing the business. He explains that while most customers use Ideascale for tactical problem-solving, some also employ it for strategic decision-making and business plan changes. [18:46] Nick reflects on the organization's approach to absorbing feedback from customers, employees, and constituents. While they actively listen to input from all levels, he admits they're not perfect in translating feedback into actionable change without becoming overly reactive. Nick then shifts to discussing the feedback he received when taking over as CEO, acknowledging the need to adjust his leadership style while also staying true to his vision for the organization. He shares the company's journey of adopting a business-oriented approach to running a software business, which initially faced resistance but ultimately proved successful, leading to growth and profitability. [23:07] Nick highlights the importance of balancing the goals of buyers with the engagement of end-users in their software development. He stresses the necessity of inclusivity in idea generation, even if it means sifting through impractical suggestions. Nick advocates for a structured approach, defining clear goals and incorporating staging questions to filter ideas based on organizational objectives. [25:44] Nick discusses the flexibility of their software in managing ideas within organizations, allowing different approaches from conception to execution. He personally advocates for inclusivity, encouraging participation from all members. While AI seeding of ideas hasn't gained much traction, they've successfully implemented AI to improve idea communication, particularly for those who struggle with writing or language barriers. [31:08] Nick outlines two key evolutions in our industry. Firstly, there's a shift from just innovation to a broader engagement ecosystem, incorporating employee feedback to enhance engagement and retention. Secondly, the technology now spans the entire idea lifecycle, from conception to implementation, including whiteboarding and project management integration. Regarding AI, while I've delved into its algorithms, I wish I had known easier learning methods. [32:49] Nick reflects on leadership diversity, highlighting his own mathematically oriented style compared to his predecessors. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing different leadership strengths for success. Regarding engagement, he underscores the significance of creating an environment where individuals feel empowered to share their ideas, often missed in hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations. As for the British term "maths," Nick speculates it may stem from the idea that mathematics encompasses multiple disciplines, hence the pluralization. [36:38] And remember, for good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate. - Margaret Heffernan Quotable Quotes "Any organization or leader striving to tap into their team's collective intelligence, must be ready to release their ego." "Acknowledging the brilliance beyond the corner office is crucial for organizational growth." "Even my own campaigns sometimes falter, teaching me the value of humility in leadership." "Turning ideas into reality requires multiple essential steps." "In some respects, perfection is unattainable; however, minimizing errors aligns with organizational objectives." "Open the floodgates to ideas – diverse, varied, and sometimes contradictory.” “True innovation emerges when we embrace both the diversity of people and ideas in our crowdsourcing efforts." “It's about striking a delicate balance between what the paying customer wants and what truly excites and engages the end-users." "Feedback is a journey of adaptation.” "Open the floodgates, let everything come in. There will be good ideas, there will be bad ideas, some will be from diverse people, some will be from non-diverse people. Let everything come in, and good ideas will flow to the top." "If you can't quantify or define it, then you can't measure it and stick to a framework." "Foster a culture of idea sharing and collaborative iteration." "It's really important for organizations to realize that there's bright people with great ideas around the organization.” Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Christiana Smith Shi LinkedIn | Nick Jain Website |
In this episode, Jim Peters, co-founder and president of Citizen Engineers, shares his leadership experiences and how he leverages AI tools like AssemblyAI and Myaskai to learn from nearly 400 leaders. He recounts how bike trips with his kids imparted valuable leadership lessons. Amid personal challenges, including his wife’s diagnosis and his job loss, Jim stresses the significance of downtime and resilience. He applies these insights to his business, emphasizing work-life balance and compassionate leadership. Jim advocates for continuous learning and living a life filled with meaning and compassion in the workplace. Key Takeaways [02:26] Jim shares that he remembers taking his kids, aged six and eight, on annual bike tours around Washington and Oregon for nearly a decade. These trips, lasting one to two weeks, were full of adventure. One of his standout memories is climbing to Anthony Lakes, where he and his wife let the boys decide if they wanted to push on to the top of the mountain. The boys were enthusiastic, teaching Jim valuable lessons about setting direction, pace, and keeping the experience fun. [07:02] Jim values taking time off and encourages others to do the same. He treasures memories with his family and has taken three sabbaticals during his career. Jim also learns a lot from podcasts featuring nearly 400 leaders. He mentions that these podcasts help him grow as a leader and improve his emotional intelligence and management skills. [9:07] Jim shares that he listens to podcasts to learn from experienced leaders and improve his skills. In 2021, he faced a personal challenge when his wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. This taught him to focus on what he could control, choose gratitude, and live a meaningful life. He took a sabbatical in 2022 to spend time with his wife and reflect on his values. After returning to work, Jim was unexpectedly terminated, which taught him resilience and helped him understand others' experiences. Now, he enjoys his work with his business partner and finds joy in helping others. [16:00] In 2023, Jim had extra time and used it to dive deeper into podcasts about leadership. He made a list of questions he wanted answers to, like how to measure effective leadership and manage difficult conversations. Jim found taking notes while listening challenging, so he used an AI tool called AssemblyAI to convert podcasts to text. This allowed him to listen faster and copy relevant information. He listened to two podcasts daily, using the AI tool to support his research and learning. [21:59] Jim mentions that his goal was to become a better leader and human by capturing insights from podcasts. He collected detailed notes and summaries from nearly 400 leaders and wanted to use them to improve himself. Instead of manually going through all the data, Jim decided to use an AI tool called My askAI, which let him upload his data and ask it questions. This AI tool gave him access to responses based solely on the podcast insights he provided, helping him quickly find answers and insights from the podcasts without having to remember which specific episode they came from. [25:45] Jim uses an AI tool called My askAI to explore his podcast notes and ask questions about leadership. He asks about topics like effective leadership, managing conversations, and tips for new leaders. The tool pulls responses from the nearly 400 leaders he studied. The tool combines podcast texts into documents and sometimes provides shorter answers, but Jim can request longer or simpler explanations. Though not perfect, Jim values the tool's speed and variety of insights. It helps him improve his questioning skills. [29:30] Jim shares using AI tools. He uses them to research leadership insights from podcasts and in his new business, Citizen Engineers, which he started in 2023. He and his business partner prioritize work-life balance and use AI tools to speed up tasks like writing policies and answering business questions. Jim uses AI tools like ChatGPT, My askAI, and Photoshop for different tasks in his business. He tests various tools and shares his findings on his blog. He mentions that he sees AI as a partner in his work and continues to explore how it can help his business. [32:42] Jim shares insights from 400 podcasts that shaped his business, emphasizing the importance of putting humans at the center of work. He learned from guests like Donato Tramuto and Dr. Ciela Hartanov that compassion and care for employees are key. Jim noticed that guests often focus on business goals without stressing compassion for employees. As an engineer, Jim initially didn't focus on compassion, but now values it as essential. In his business, Citizen Engineers, compassion is a core value. They aim to create a workplace that supports employees while still running a successful business. [34:48] Jim initially used AI tools to improve himself as a leader, but he decided to share the benefits with others. He hopes the tool helps people revisit useful insights from podcasts. In his business, Citizen Engineers, Jim focuses on helping others grow in their careers and become compassionate leaders. The company emphasizes compassionate leadership in transportation, believing it's key to delivering positive results for communities and clients. [37:29] And remember, by three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.- Confucius Quotable Quotes "Leadership lessons from biking with young kids: set direction, pace, and tone while keeping it fun." "We involved our kids in decision-making during bike tours, and it led to unforgettable adventures." "Traveling with our kids taught us the importance of pacing ourselves and embracing each moment." "Taking time off for family and sabbaticals is crucial for building lasting memories and personal growth." "The podcast's interviews with nearly 400 leaders have provided me with invaluable insights on leadership and emotional intelligence." "Going through personal challenges has taught me resilience, gratitude, and the importance of focusing on what I can control." "My wife's cancer diagnosis led us to live a 'wide' life focused on giving back and embracing joy." "Using AI tools helped me explore the podcast's insights more efficiently, allowing me to learn from 400 leaders and apply their lessons." "Commitment to continuous improvement and a desire to become a better human and leader has driven me to research and capture the wisdom of great leaders." "AI-assisted research provided me with the ability to ask questions and receive insights from 400 different leaders." "I did all this work selfishly to become a better leader, and now I'm sharing it to help others find the insights they need to grow as leaders." "AI is a partner, not an overlord. I'm using it to speed up processes and free up time for deeper, more meaningful work." "Compassion is at the center of work, and it's our top value at Citizen Engineers." "Let’s bring compassion to the workplace and help others, continually learn, and challenge ourselves to live a wide life." "Great leadership is about setting clear values, embracing change, and prioritizing human-centered approaches." "Finding grace for others, just as we find it for AI's growing capabilities, is part of compassionate leadership." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jim Peters LinkedIn | Citizen Engineers Website |
In this episode, Christiana Smith Shi, former Nike President of Consumer Direct and author of "Career Forward Strategies from Women Who've Made It," shares insights from her book on adopting a long-term mindset for career planning, rather than focusing solely on short-term objectives. She addresses the specific hurdles younger women encounter at the start of their careers and underscores the need to tackle these challenges to foster gender equality in leadership roles. Christiana differentiates between "fake it till you make it" and impostor syndrome, highlighting the need for confidence alongside acknowledging areas for growth. She offers actionable guidance on job applications, encouraging women to overcome self-doubt and rethink qualifications, and discusses strategies for negotiating salaries and benefits to help close the gender pay gap through evidence-based negotiation. Key Takeaways [0:19] Christiana shares a surprising aspect of her background – her proficiency in Swedish folk dancing. She talks about her latest book, "Career Forward: Strategies from Women Who've Made It," emphasizing a forward-thinking mindset for long-term career planning. Christiana discusses challenges faced by younger women entering the workforce and shares a real-life success story. [08:27] Jan recounts a scenario of career overwhelm, leading to Christiana to talk about the concept of "turning into the skid" for career resilience. Christiana stresses facing challenges, conducting self-assessment, and making informed decisions. She also shares practical advice including time management and navigating the balance between high standards and avoiding perfectionism. [13:47] Christiana distinguishes "fake it till you make it" as a confidence-boosting tool for new situations, emphasizing the need for self-awareness and skill development. Christiana discourages the use of impostor syndrome, inviting a rejection of the negative label and embracing learning curves. [16:01] Christiana addresses the hesitation women often feel in job applications. Advising a shift in perspective, she encourages a broader interpretation of qualifications. Christiana emphasizes understanding hiring executives' perspectives and reframing qualifications to showcase applicable skills. [19:15] Christiana discusses challenges individuals, especially women, face when seeking a raise. Christiana emphasizes a fact-based approach, advocating for documentation of expanded responsibilities and benchmarking compensation. She highlights the importance of timing, considering the company's context, and the need for allies to affirm contributions. [25:41] Christiana recounts a defining career moment during partner election at a consulting firm. Faced with work-life balance challenges, the firm encouraged her to propose a solution, resulting in the creation of a successful part-time program. Christiana underscores the impact of assumptions on decision-making, urging individuals to turn assertions into questions and seek feedback from trusted networks to maintain a strategic orientation. [32:20] Christiana reflects on her distinguished career, highlighting key lessons: taking responsibility and adapting recognition. She shares a pivotal moment of learning to own mistakes and acknowledges leaders who take responsibility for their teams. Transitioning from professional services to industry, she emphasizes the changing currency of recognition and adapting leadership styles to acknowledge efforts across diverse teams. Christiana encourages the value of research, meaningful feedback, and the ability to act on feedback for career growth. [37:45] Christiana challenged listeners, particularly women in early or middle careers, to set their career GPS. She encourages individuals to define their impact, identify preferred skills, values, culture, and people. The challenge is to commit to deliberate actions each year, moving towards those career goals. [39:16] And remember, A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy. A wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim. - Maya Angelou Quotable Quotes "Your job is not your career." "Your career is a journey; think about managing toward that goal as you move ahead." "Steer into the skid because then you regain control of the car. It's counterintuitive, and it isn't your first instinct, but it is the only way to regain control of the car." "You're there for a reason, that the people who put you in that position did not make a mistake." "Fake it till you make it if you need to, but back that up with a plan to fill in the gap so that you get comfortable quickly doing what you're supposed to do." "Impostor syndrome is a negative downward spiral. It is actually labeling yourself as not belonging where you are, as not being qualified to do what it is that you're there to do." "For women, there is this reluctance to appear toot your own horn. All those things. And I can't tell you how many times I've said to women, "You are nowhere near being self-promotional. You need allies. You need sponsors. You need mentors. And those people, when you're not in the room, can also be the ones that are making sure that a light gets shown on your accomplishments." "Having a little bit of a ratification coming in from others is also super helpful." "I value leaders who take responsibility. If you screw up, you move on to the next thing and the reward is you're getting more money, you're getting promoted, you're moving on." "Learning that the currency of recognition had changed and adapting my style so that I acknowledged effort, impact, and results across a much bigger population of employees than I had ever dealt with." "Take responsibility for things; you're also taking responsibility for fixing them. That way you're not going to leave or abandon or dump the team that screwed up." “Hold yourself accountable every year to thinking about specific actions that you want to commit to yourself that you will take over the next year to continue to move yourself toward that career goal." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Christiana Smith Shi LinkedIn |
In this episode, Rick Tocquigny, a distinguished mentor, founder, and the voice behind the “Success Made to Last” podcast, as well as an accomplished author and Pulitzer Prize finalist, delves into the profound realization that serving others holds greater significance than mere personal success. This insight became particularly poignant following the loss of close family members. Rick places high value on asking meaningful questions and sharing narratives of resilience. He underscores the critical role of passing down life lessons to preserve family histories, drawing on examples like his mother's experiences during World War II. Furthermore, Rick highlights the imperative for startup leaders to align their actions with their core values from the outset, ensuring cohesion and adherence to these principles, especially in financially challenging times. He also sheds light on the importance of collaboration and strategic planning in the early stages of a startup, asserting that while monetary concerns are paramount initially, the synergy of a united team is equally crucial for success. Key Takeaways: [04:52] Rick shares that he started caring more about helping others after losing some important people in his life. He realized that making a real difference is more important than just being successful. Helping others and leaving a good impact became his main goal, even if it's not noticed by everyone. Rick also believes that it's all about making the world a better place, no matter what happens. [11:11] He mentions that he appreciates a thought-provoking question and discusses the significance of curiosity and deep questioning. Rick also highlights that he finds inspiration in stories like "My Side of the Mountain" that explore survival and self-discovery. Drawing from their time at Procter & Gamble, he stresses the importance of asking insightful questions to uncover meaningful stories. [16:22] Rick explains that his project of sharing life lessons began after losing his parents in 2003 and 2005. He realized the importance of preserving family stories, like their mom's experience in World War II, which inspired him to encourage others to do the same. While some veterans might be hesitant due to PTSD, Rick urges people to record stories for future generations, even if it means ensuring accuracy by gathering facts. [19:16] He shares a touching story from his book about a teacher in Arkansas who rearranged her classroom, leaving her students confused. Eventually, she revealed that the desks and chairs were provided by veterans. This gesture was a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made by veterans for the freedom enjoyed every day. Rick then emphasizes the importance of honoring and remembering the contributions of veterans and their families. [23:54] Rick explains that if an organization's core values don't align with its strategic direction, they won't contribute to success. He also mentions the importance of integrating core values into daily operations and decision-making processes. Without this integration, core values can seem superficial and meaningless. Furthermore, if employees don't believe in the core values, they won't influence behavior or contribute to the strategy. [26:40] He reflects on leadership in startup environments, emphasizing the importance of aligning core values from the beginning. Rick stresses the need for leaders to exemplify collaboration and alignment with core values, especially in startup scenarios where resources may be limited. He suggests that podcasts should focus on speaking to entrepreneurs starting their own businesses rather than Fortune 500 executives, as these individuals are navigating the real-world challenges of building a company from the ground up. Rick also highlights the significance of strategy and culture in shaping the success of a startup, noting that while culture is important, practical concerns like making payroll take precedence in the early stages of business development. [32:48] Rick expresses gratitude for his mentors who have influenced his understanding of success and significance. He mentions Preston Paddon, known for his role in negotiating the NFL contract with Fox, who taught them the importance of resilience and rolling with rejection. Finally, Rick highlights Frank Blake, former CEO of Home Depot, who shared a valuable lesson about aligning personal interests, skills, and market demand to guide career choices. He also emphasizes the significance of considering passion, proficiency, and market demand in career decisions. [31:20] He talks about how everyone feels lonely sometimes and wishes for deeper connections with others. Rick mentions that despite success, many people feel something is missing or have regrets about not spending enough time with loved ones. He also notes that everyone has their own struggles and imperfections, and some people spend a lot of time trying to be perfect in their careers, without success. He says that societal pressures, like those seen on LinkedIn, can add to feelings of inadequacy. Rick then suggests being more understanding of others' struggles instead of expecting perfection. [33:05] Rick reflects on the misconception that retirees simply party a lot, suggesting instead that they often uphold traditional family values, faith, and patriotism. He shares a personal regret about moving away from their parents to pursue a career opportunity with PepsiCo, realizing in hindsight that they sacrificed valuable time with their young children and missed out on the support of his parents. Rick expresses regret for prioritizing career ambition over family connections, and wishes he had made a different choice. [35:17] He encourages others to prioritize listening and collaboration in their relationships, following the ratio of two ears to one mouth. Rick emphasizes the importance of embracing collaboration to maximize everyone's skills, echoing advice from their mentor. He advocates for approaching life with a mindset of "spontaneous structure," balancing structure with spontaneity to engage in meaningful conversations and experiences. Rick also urges people to seize opportunities, even if it means taking risks or facing challenges, and to prioritize making a positive impact on both themselves and others. [46:17] Closing Quote: Remember, a human being would certainly not grow to be 70 or 80 years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life's morning. -Carl Jung Quotable Quotes: "Success is commonly associated with reaching a high level of wealth and often status, a self-centered role." "Significance is about making a positive difference, leaving a legacy, and contributing to the betterment of society." "Don't expect anybody to say thank you to you." "It's about giving back without anybody noticing and just feeling good about it and doing something for somebody else." "Giving your time and effort to others actually has a positive physical effect on you." "Everybody can get more when they give." "The audience is the hero." "You just have to get to that wisdom within a person or their personal experience." "Take the time to ask these people before they're gone about their stories." "Record history in a fun and factual manner." "Keep the history of your families going." "Get as many of the facts in as possible." "Walk the talk yourself first as a collaborator and a person who leads alignment." "We are all broken people, and we are all on this personal journey and odyssey." "Some people wander through life like the mountain lion by your house who doesn't know exactly where he's going, but he needs his next meal." "People need people and they need friends." "Take more time for friends and family; less time for work." "Everybody is a sinner, so no one's perfect." "Approach any relationship as a collaboration and how you can get the best out of everyone's skill set." "Roll with it, have more fun, laugh more, and consider structuring your life under this kind of new way of doing things." “You got one life to live. Go live it and have fun and go make a difference for yourself, but make a difference for others first." These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Rick: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Rick Tocquigny LinkedIn | Success Made to Last Website | Robert Hargrove Website | Success Made to Last Instagram | Success Made to Last Twitter |
Robert Hargrove, the mind behind Masterful Coaching and a leader at the Harvard Leadership Project, delves into his coaching origins, advocating for a goal-centric approach that drives significant outcomes while redefining success. He highlights how, despite the challenges posed by organizational structures, there's a universal aspiration among individuals to thrive and impact positively. Robert underscores the critical role of authenticity and self-assurance when engaging with top executives, urging his audience to ambitiously envision beyond the usual limits. Further, he points out that the core of effective coaching lies in compassion and earnest support for both personal and professional development. Key Takeaways: [04:59] Robert shares the transition of his journey, recalling his early days organizing leadership weekends, driven by a passion to foster leadership skills. These became the foundation of his work in personal transformation seminars, leading to opportunities to implement similar programs in corporate settings, catalyzing cultural shifts and visionary leadership within organizations. [9:16] He talks about coaching and how it's changed over time. He believes coaching is about helping people achieve big goals, not just getting better at what they already do. Robert thinks coaching should focus on winning and getting results, like in sports, rather than just learning skills. In the end, he is still passionate about coaching as a way to help people reach their dreams and make big things happen. [15:23] Throughout his career, Robert shares that he has noticed a big change in what counts as success in business. It used to be all about making quick money for investors or climbing the corporate ladder. But with his approach to coaching, he's trying to change that. Inspired by thinkers like James McGregor Burns, Robert sees coaching as a way to lift people's goals and motivations, especially those in power like CEOs. His aim is to help them connect with their highest values and ideals, making a real impact in their lives. [16:45] In his coaching practice, Robert considers the question of what "winning" means to individuals and businesses. While he believes in letting people define success for themselves, he also emphasizes the importance of elevating their understanding of what constitutes true success. He engages in dialogue with others, encouraging them to share their perspectives on this matter. [19:14] He shares that the key to fulfillment for many seems to lie in discovering their passion, becoming a leader in their field, and making a meaningful impact on the world or within the organization. Robert also mentions that people inherently desire to excel and make a difference, but often encounter obstacles within organizational hierarchies and bureaucracies. Over his years of coaching, he has observed that many individuals express frustration with their bosses as a significant challenge. This highlights the importance of leadership coaching as a means to address such issues and empower individuals to unlock their full potential. [22:57] Robert recounts working with a dynamic leader passionate about sustainability, but who lost confidence and became overly deferential upon promotion to CEO in a larger division. Despite coaching efforts, the leader chooses security over personal growth, prioritizing approval from higher-ups and conforming to corporate hierarchy. [25:20] He shares his current focus on working with influential figures, including political leaders and celebrities, using their coaching skills for high leverage. Robert expresses a desire to collaborate with others, including the listener, to coach individuals on their list of influential people, aiming to expand it further and potentially advertise his services. He also introduces a new program called "Create a Legendary Company," which aims to help CEOs and entrepreneurs build companies that positively impact lives and generate significant revenue. Robert outlines seven business drivers for achieving exponential growth and emphasizes the importance of adopting a "TEN X MINDSET" for substantial improvement. [30:09] Robert shares insights on executive presence, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and confidence in interactions with high-ranking individuals. He stresses the need for normalcy in conversations and appearance, highlighting that executives should approach discussions with CEOs or other leaders just as they would with family members. Additionally, he suggests that starting one's own business can instill a sense of confidence and swagger, contributing to executive presence. [34:21] He encourages listeners to dare to dream beyond conventional boundaries, urging them to embrace the limitless potential of their imaginations. Robert emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals, noting that many individuals struggle to articulate their aspirations. He also highlights the essence of coaching as rooted in kindness and a genuine desire to help others. Regardless of financial compensation, he expresses a deep-seated love for assisting people in their personal and professional growth. [35:39] Closing Quote: Remember, intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death. -Albert Einstein. Quotable Quotes: "Better leaders, better world." "I want to help people become the leaders that the world needs." "Life's journey involved understanding the interplay of nature, nurture, and the transformative power of self-reflection." "Leaders develop by leading people to actually make something happen that wasn't supposed to happen, making vision reality." "The ultimate statement of your consciousness as a leader is your ability to produce extraordinary, intangible results." "Coaching is about going for an impossible dream." "The coach is usually someone who carries himself with a lot of dignity, a little bit of swagger, and interacts with people with toughness and compassion." "Coaching is really about elevating people's aspirations and motivations." "Capitalism needs to be an agent of social change." "Three P's: purpose, people, and profit." "Becoming a leader in their field to lead their field." "Life is politics, and we can't divorce ourselves from it." "Grow your leadership and your business simultaneously." "If you're connected to higher vision and values, you will radiate moral authority." "Conduct yourself with leadership maturity.” "Respond rather than react under stress and pressure." "Dare to dream beyond the wildest possible of your imagination." "The basis of coaching is kindness.” "Remember to always encourage and support others in their dreams and goals." This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Robert: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Robert Hargrove LinkedIn | Robert Hargrove Website | Robert Hargrove Website | Masterful Coaching Instagram |
Justin Walker, a Navy veteran transitioning from solopreneurship, highlights his multifaceted hobbies like playing musical instruments, despite not being an expert. He introduces the concept of the "attitude and effort cycle," underscoring the importance of maintaining a positive outlook and diligent effort, regardless of motivation levels. In discussing leadership, Justin stresses the need for self-awareness, proactive behavior, and clarity to mitigate uncertainty, making connections between military and corporate leadership. He advocates for regular leadership assessments and acknowledges the environment's role in building team cohesion. Further, Justin's view on success has evolved to embrace a comprehensive approach, prioritizing personal health, family, and embracing the journey. He advises leaders to concentrate on shaping the environment rather than exerting direct influence on people. Key Takeaways: [03:08] Justin shares what he does during his leisure time, such as playing the piano, guitar, and singing, despite acknowledging his lack of expertise. He reflects on his upbringing in a small Kansas town, where he recognized a need for change, and steering clear of a monotonous lifestyle. Shaped by his environment and personal choices, Justin's inclination to avoid stagnancy appears to stem from a combination of nature and nurture. [06:25] He discusses the term "attitude and effort cycle," explaining the importance of either having a positive attitude or putting in effort to kick-start the cycle. Justin notes that even when lacking motivation, putting in effort can lead to a positive attitude over time. He also mentions an "attitude gap" in pursuing long-term goals, where motivation may wane but gradually returns as the goal nears completion. Justin also shares that his interest in discipline and ambition led him to explore the military as a way to develop and amplify these qualities, acknowledging that it was one of many paths for growth. [11:44] Justin shares a personal opinion on the widespread desire to play musical instruments, suggesting that many people fantasize about being able to play like a rock star. He believes that those who recognize the importance of making time for personal growth are more likely to pursue their musical interests. However, Justin acknowledges that priorities differ, and for some, making money might take precedence over exploring musical talents. [12:52] He discusses the importance of focus and the ability to navigate ambiguity in both personal endeavors, like learning a new song, and in the business world. Justin also highlights the challenges of being in the middle space of leadership, emphasizing the need for self-awareness and the ability to reduce ambiguity. He stresses the importance of taking initiative and not waiting for permission to figure things out. [22:22] Justin draws parallels between operating on Amazon and the military, highlighting the challenges of navigating complexity within a large organization. He discusses two leadership approaches: technical problem-solving, akin to changing a light bulb, and adaptive problem-solving, addressing behavioral challenges. Coming from a military background, Justin emphasizes the shift in focus from technical to behavioral issues in a non-military environment, requiring guidance, coaching, and time for behavioral changes to manifest. [26:43] He emphasizes the importance of regular check-ups and creating brief interactions in leadership to understand individuals on a deeper level. Justin highlights the opportunity for leaders to explore various aspects of an individual's life, such as mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, familial, and communal, appropriately. He also encourages leaders to adjust the environment to facilitate these conversations on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Justin also discusses the impact of high turnover and how structuring the environment, as seen in military practices, can foster stronger connections among team members. [30:45] Justin reflects on his transition and the role writing played as an outlet, particularly on LinkedIn. He started by writing raw and straightforward articles, garnering significant feedback and engagement. Motivated by the positive response, he then continued writing for three to four years, accumulating around 50 or 60 articles. Eventually, Justin decided to blend these articles into a book, emphasizing their skill of simplifying complex ideas. Despite advice from some not to publish the raw and straightforward book, he still went ahead, and it turned out to be the best decision. The book's honesty and authenticity helped him secure roles in bigger businesses, contrary to the initial concerns about potential backlash. [37:22] He shares his perspective on success, emphasizing its evolving nature and the importance of embracing the journey. There is also a huge significance of personal health and family care, suggesting that success should extend beyond societal expectations and include moments of relaxation and enjoyment. Justin reflects on his own journey, noting the impact of past decisions that have positioned him to have greater freedom in their current life. He also touches on societal pressures and the potential misalignment between individual goals and external expectations, urging leaders to focus on controlling the environment rather than trying to influence people directly. [39:37] Closing Quote: Remember, without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. -Benjamin Franklin. Quotable Quotes: “Life's questions aren't always answered by the five whys; sometimes, it takes asking twenty and going way back to unravel the melody of one's existence.” “The true journey lies in finding comfort within the consistency.” "Life's journey involved understanding the interplay of nature, nurture, and the transformative power of self-reflection." “The key is to put in the effort, and the attitude will follow.” "Remember that valleys are temporary, so don't make decisions at the bottom.” "Discipline is a skill set, not an innate trait. It takes time and energy to develop.” "Interest is the spark, but discipline is the fire.” “Put in the effort consistently, and you'll find the attitude to sustain you through the toughest climbs in your journey.” "The journey of exploring an instrument requires focus, dedication, and a willingness to confront ambiguity.” “The willingness to explore into the unknown fosters adaptability.” "Step one in mastering the middle space is acknowledging the ambiguous environment and the conflicts that arise.” “The key is to know where you stand, reduce ambiguity, and execute with purpose.” “Middle management is not about limitations; it's about empowerment and influence.” “Control your environment, set boundaries, and explore directions that align with the core priorities of the business.” "Leadership is about more than emails; it's about understanding your team on a deeper level.” "As a leader, recognizing your influence over the work environment is key to building strong relationships.” "Success involves embracing the journey, recognizing the value of balance, and understanding that success goes beyond chasing external benchmarks.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Justin: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Justin Walker LinkedIn | Justin Walker Website |
Mitch Matthews, a top success coach and host of the Dream, Think, Do Podcast, introduces his approach focused on ambitious dreaming, strategic thinking, and taking action. He underscores the importance of giving clients room to dream, followed by thoughtful planning and actionable steps. Mitch questions the prevailing hustle culture, promoting a balance between ambition and contentment, anchored in joy that aligns with core values. He advocates for valuing experiences over achievements, setting goals that foster feelings like joy, and rejects the notion of focusing on just "one thing," encouraging experimentation and learning instead. Additionally, he highlights the responsibility of true leaders in understanding and supporting team members through their personal struggles. Key Takeaways: [05:32] Mitch shares about his program helping people dream big, think better, and take action. Despite initial hesitancy around the word "dream," the guest emphasizes its significance in the process. He highlights the importance of creating space for clients to dream, followed by thinking and doing. The focus is on experimentation and learning from experiences to help individuals discover their purpose. [8:51] He shares a story of someone who didn't achieve their dream outcome initially but found fulfillment by incorporating more of what they enjoyed. The example of Shawn Askinosie, a trial attorney turned chocolate maker, illustrates the importance of experimenting and taking small steps toward one's passions. Shawn's intentional exploration led to the launch of a successful small batch chocolate company, showcasing the power of experimentation and gradual steps in discovering one's true calling. [13:24] Mitch reflects on the contrast between the hustle culture's emphasis on constant activity and the idea of contentment. Challenging the notion that contentment is incompatible with ambition, he touches on the pursuit of consistent joy, which, unlike happiness, is rooted in core values and identity, transcending external circumstances. Mitch also emphasizes the importance of experiencing joy as a key aspect of personal fulfillment and success. [15:07] He discusses the concept of "reset week" and introduces a strategy called the GET Method to chart a course for the year. Mitch emphasizes starting with gratitude, as it induces a positive state change. Instead of focusing solely on achievements, the approach involves considering what experiences one wants to have in the coming year. He also notes that many goals are driven by the desire for specific experiences, such as joy and satisfaction. By prioritizing these experiences alongside goals, individuals can enjoy the journey without solely fixating on checking items off a to-do list. [18:21] Mitch reflects on the notion of waiting for the "one thing" and advises against this mindset. He shares his experience as a recovering perfectionist, highlighting that perfectionism is often misinterpreted as procrastination. Perfectionists may struggle with completing tasks until they find the perfect way, leading to delays. He also emphasizes the need to overcome perfectionism by acknowledging that there isn't just one perfect way, but rather multiple experiments and trials that can help individuals figure things out through momentum and learning along the way. [21:54] He expresses a positive view of therapy, emphasizing its benefits and likening it to a necessary cleansing process. Mitch advocates for seeking a good therapist, comparing the therapeutic journey to dating and highlighting its value even in different seasons of life. Therapy often looks back to address past hurts, while coaching primarily focuses on looking forward, helping clients identify and achieve their desired future. [25:33] Mitch stresses the importance of true leaders understanding their team members and assisting them in addressing personal challenges. He advocates for transparency and openness about seeking therapy or counseling, highlighting that discussing mental well-being is now more widely accepted and celebrated, especially among successful individuals. [27:24] He emphasizes that being an introvert doesn't mean disliking people or being bad with them. In fact, introverts can make excellent coaches, as they often redirect the spotlight onto others by asking questions and focusing on their needs. The key is to understand how you restore and recharge after a challenging day. [29:49] Mitch explains that he personally dedicates at least an hour each morning to spend time in nature, regardless of the weather. He highlights the importance of understanding how each person restores and recharges, emphasizing that not everyone needs to follow the same routine. For him, nature and spending time with his big dog play a crucial role in restoration. He advises individuals to identify how they restore and incorporate those activities into their daily lives. Additionally, he suggests introverts schedule appointments with their inner introvert on their calendars and create moments for solitude and self-care. [32:27] He encourages embracing a new tribe while keeping the old one if it contributes positively. Mitch shares his experience transitioning from a corporate career to entrepreneurship, that there is a need for like-minded connections. He advises to intentionally surround yourself with a few new individuals on a similar path. Mitch also mentions that he started his Dream, Think, Do Podcast in 2015. [35:54] Mich shares that he is celebrating 400 podcast episodes, sharing insights from both famous and everyday individuals facing challenges despite their achievements. He stresses that success doesn't eliminate life's complexities, mentioning Jillian Michaels as an example. Mitch also shares advice for leaders to engage in conversations that upgrade their tribe through dedicating just 15 minutes a day to intentional exploration, emphasizing the cumulative impact over a year. [42:38] Closing Quote: Remember, the purpose of life is a life of purpose. -Robert Byrne Quotable Quotes: "Dreaming doesn’t come easy." "Leadership is developing the ability to lead one-on-one and to lead groups of individuals who are all in disagreement." "Dream first, think second, and then take action." "We can never predict exactly how things will unfold, so we highly value experimentation and learning along the way, recognizing that sometimes things unfold as planned." "Don't just quit." "Take small steps of faith over time, experiment, and discover things." "Seek consistent joy, as happiness can be transient and tied to circumstances. Identify the things that make you feel complete." "Joy is bigger than your circumstance." "Quit waiting for that one thing; start discovering things." "Things always change, so you need to look at everything to make the best decision." "I'm not perfect at it yet, but I'm improving every day." “To have great life experiences and achieve joy, peace, and satisfaction, you must also eliminate some of that junk.” “A true leader helps their people.” “One of the best ways to assess whether you're an introvert or an extrovert is on how you restore.” "Introvert people doesn't mean you don't like people." “Introvert people tend to ask questions as a defense mechanism to get the focus off of us.” “To have a new tribe doesn't mean you have to jettison the old tribe.” "When you start doing new things, surround yourself with people who are doing something similar." Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Mitch Matthews LinkedIn | Mitch Matthews Website | Encouraging the Encouragers Website | Mitch Matthews Twitter | Mitch Matthews Instagram |
Eric Kapitulik, founder and CEO of the Program Leadership, highlights the dual roles of being an effective team member and leader across various teams. Stressing the importance of excelling in both, he notes that while organizational values differ, establishing clear values is crucial. He points out that effective communication and developing a culture of accountability are key to success. Eric emphasizes that maintaining long-term success, regardless of external factors, requires a steadfast commitment to promoting a culture of accountability individually and within teams. As the conclusion of the podcast, Eric relays a moving and powerful story from his experience as a young leader. Key Takeaways: [03:13] Eric reflects on the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and shares the varying levels of resilience observed in people and organizations. He acknowledges the importance of teaching resilience, but emphasizes the deficiency in its practical development. Eric stresses the need for intentional stress inoculation, pushing oneself beyond the comfort zone, both physically and mentally. [5:51] He shares his own distinction between labeling experiences as "challenging" instead of using the word "hard." Eric also shares that the only truly "hard" experience in his life is someone’s death, but with other challenges, viewing them as opportunities for growth and improvement rather than genuine hardship. He acknowledges the universal nature of facing challenges and highlights the importance of embracing them as chances to grow and get better. [8:10] Eric mentions that, while he is the program's founder, he attributes its success to the collaborative efforts of the team. He recognizes that with effective communication and leadership skills, the program evolved and now collaborates with 160 athletic teams annually. [12:14] He acknowledges the challenges of creating stable plans, as circumstances tend to change every six months, in discussing long-term planning. Despite having financial goals for the program, he emphasizes the importance of standards over goals. While goals focus on performance, standards revolve around behavior. The uniqueness of the program lies in the need to embody their advice authentically. Rather than solely concentrating on goals, he explains the significance of daily behavior in achieving success; when standards are consistently upheld, desired outcomes naturally follow. [14:48] Eric explains the systemic nature of goal-setting within organizations, driven by the benefits of achievement and consequences of failure. Leaders are encouraged to identify and communicate their organizational values, which become the foundation of the company's culture. Daily standards, aligned with these values, are considered crucial for reinforcing the desired culture. He then highlights the challenge of claiming a culture, such as discipline, without consistent daily adherence to established standards. Eric gives focus on the significance of organizations being true to their stated values, implementing standards that support them, and fostering a culture of accountability for sustained success. [17:44] He mentions the importance of reinforcing positive behavior in addition to holding individuals accountable for not meeting standards. Eric advocates for fostering courage in everyday situations, such as addressing bullying or having children take responsibility for their actions. He also shares the need for consistent debriefs within organizations to assess what's going well, what needs improvement, and promote a continuous improvement mindset. [24:30] Eric emphasizes the importance of both individual and team roles in achieving success. He explains the dual responsibilities of being a great teammate and leader on various teams, and there is a need to excel in both roles. However, he acknowledges that values may differ across organizations but also stresses the importance of having clear values. He shares the key factors for success, which are effective communication and fostering a culture of accountability. Long-term success, regardless of external factors, requires a non-negotiable commitment to a culture of accountability at both the personal and team levels. [27:44] As he reflects on his past mistakes, Eric acknowledges the profound impact of a specific realization—being the man one would want their daughter to marry. This shift in perspective becomes a pivotal point for Eric, and addresses the need to overcome the impulse to prove oneself right, and there must be value of open discussions and being receptive to improvement. Although the journey towards improvement must be embraced, he still encourages a mindset of continuous growth and learning. [35:21] Eric reflects on one of his experiences in his military days, he reinforces the importance of demonstrating courage in the face of fear. Eric urges leaders to embrace moments that make them nervous, emphasizing the value of making choices aligned with one's principles to avoid living with regret. He draws parallels to personal growth and change, and the transformative power of courage in leadership. [37:18] Closing Quote: Remember, no person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. - Calvin Coolidge Quotable Quotes: "We need to be deliberate about stress inoculation, both as individuals and as a team.” “We must expose ourselves to uncomfortable situations, holistically, to expand our comfort zones and enhance our resilience.” "Everything we do on a day-to-day basis is challenging." "The only hard thing for us is death, but the rest are challenges." "If you can't effectively communicate, you can't lead.” "Standards are behavior-based; goals are performance-based." "Goals reinforce what we want to achieve, while standards reinforce how we are expected to behave while achieving them." "There are benefits for achieving goals, and there's systemically consequences if we don't." "As leaders, find out your value system as an organization." "Things always change, so you need to look at everything to make the best decision." "The keys to success include figuring out values, establishing standards that reinforce those values, and fostering a culture of accountability around them." This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Eric: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Eric Kapitulik LinkedIn | The Program Website | Eric Kapitulik Twitter | The Program Twitter | The Program Instagram |
Dr. Richard Winters, Mayo Clinic's Leadership Development Program Director and author of “You're the Leader. Now What?: Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic,” discusses the dynamic challenges of healthcare leadership. He highlights issues like global healthcare professional shortages and emphasizes the need for teamwork amidst constant change. Dr. Richard advocates for understanding and leading diverse teams, focusing on tackling challenges such as resource scarcity and disagreements. In his book, he outlines actionable steps for leaders, promoting forward-thinking within constraints and encouraging openness to exploring varied life paths and personal fulfillment. Key Takeaways: [01:38] Dr. Richard is an emergency physician at Mayo Clinic who also engages in leadership programs. Despite an unconventional journey into medicine as a former punk rock skateboarder, he values the dynamic schedule of emergency medicine over standard clinic hours. Acknowledging the challenges, he emphasizes the importance of community and collaboration in providing effective emergency care. Grateful for the efforts of first responders, Dr. Richard recognizes the crucial role they play in critical situations. [05:30] He addresses challenges in hospital practice, emphasizing global shortages of healthcare professionals. In his leadership insights, he highlights the dynamic nature of healthcare, with constant changes and teamwork requirements. Reflecting on his career, Dr. Richard notes the shift from individual care to collaborative leadership, stressing the importance of understanding and leading diverse teams in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape. [09:42] Dr. Richard shares his book’s focus which is on the challenges in healthcare leadership—scarce resources, disagreements, and the need for solutions. He advocates a forward-looking approach, urging leaders to think what they like to do given limitations. He also refers to the Cynefin framework by David Snowden for decision-making in uncertain situations, particularly highlighting the importance of transitioning from crisis to complex environments in healthcare leadership. [11:36] He explains the dual challenge of dealing with both well-known best practices and unknown, dynamic situations in leadership. Leaders must navigate between conventional approaches and the need to address new pressures. Dr. Richard shares the dynamic nature of leadership, especially for physician-scientist leaders, focusing the shift from trusting data to effectively conveying narratives. He highlights that leadership involves not just external adaptation, but also internal growth and the challenge of balancing authenticity with the demands of the role. [14:40] Dr. Richard explores the liminal space in leadership, navigating dichotomies within departments, organizations, and professions. He emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between individual and collective stories, acknowledging the ever-evolving narrative in leadership. Connecting values like respect and integrity to specific behaviors, he also stresses the significance of leaders embodying organizational values in their actions. Dr. Richard explains the significance of healthcare leaders translating values into tangible behaviors to cultivate a positive organizational culture. [21:39] He shares the challenge of aligning business and healthcare interests and emphasizes the importance of individual well-being. He critiques traditional wellness programs and advocates for a focus on psychological well-being components like purpose alignment, autonomy, personal growth, and positive relations. Dr. Richard also emphasizes the need for organizational commitment to measuring well-being as a vital sign and promoting a culture that values collective decision-making, autonomy, and purpose alignment. [29:04] Dr. Richard stresses the importance of being willing to explore different paths in life, while encouraging leaders and individuals to consider alternative options. He also focuses on the need for open conversations about personal fulfillment, even if it means exploring unconventional paths like opening a surf shop in a cold climate. Dr. Richard uses the metaphor of a garden to illustrate that humans are not confined to one place and can find fulfillment in different areas. [31:51] He reflects on the commonalities of change across various industries, acknowledging the profound transformations driven by technology and AI. He emphasizes the ongoing inflection point in different sectors, marked by consolidations, evolving job roles, and the integration of data. Dr. Richard also expresses excitement about the potential opportunities in healthcare due to increased data sharing and innovative leadership approaches. He gives focus on the importance of leaders challenging tradition, being bold, and skillfully guiding organizations through change. [34:15] Dr. Richard also reflects on the evolving landscape of healthcare, giving focus on the significant advancements driven by AI and technology. He acknowledges the challenges of navigating a heavily regulated industry and addresses the need for regulatory adaptation to facilitate innovation. Dr. Richard envisions a transformative shift in healthcare delivery, while stressing the impact of remote monitoring and patient-centric models. He believes that it is important to embrace discomfort as a catalyst for growth and learning, and encourages leaders to navigate daily challenges with curiosity and resilience. [36:17] Closing Quote: Remember, the life so short a craft, so long to learn. -Hippocrates Quotable Quotes: "Leadership isn't just directing from above; it's about actively understanding and helping the team." "Leadership is developing the ability to lead one-on-one and to lead groups of individuals who are all in disagreement." "The most important on being a leader, is being able to lead yourself as you navigate and figure out your own path." "Our most effective leaders must grasp how to analyze data, comprehend hard facts, and navigate complex situations." "Many organizations share similar values, but often these values are not reflected in their behaviors." "The key to changing the culture is ensuring that it's not only about values but also about the behaviors that embody those values." “Values plus behaviors is equal culture.” "Those daily stories are what truly inspires me." "If I notice people don't feel safe speaking up or sharing perspectives, I take action." "Things always change, so you need to look at everything to make the best decision." “It's essential for humans to figure out where our efficacy is and what we can do to make sure that we're happy, engaged, have well-being, and fulfilled.” “We need individuals who can deal with crises and can steer an organization forward when the organization is unsure.” “We need individuals who have the ability to bring people with different perspectives together.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Dr. Richard: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Richard Winters LinkedIn | Dr. Richard Winters Website | Mayo Clinic Website | Dr. Richard Winters Twitter |
Amberly Lago, bestselling author of "True Grit and Grace: Turning Tragedy into Triumph," podcast host, peak performance coach, and founder of the Unstoppable Life Mastermind, describes her inspiring transformation from a backup dancer to a renowned thought leader, focusing on resilience and self-acceptance. She overcame a severe motorcycle accident and a debilitating nerve disease and introduced the concept of "pacing" to build resilience, emphasizing the importance of gratitude, community, and perseverance. She advises against lingering on regrets and stresses the importance of setting boundaries in the entrepreneurial journey. Her story illustrates a shift from seeking external validation to recognizing her intrinsic self-worth, contributing to the rapid success of her podcast and book. Key Takeaways: [01:50] Amberly shares that she had a breakthrough as a backup dancer in an MC Hammer music video, realizing her dream in her early career. She mentions that her experience instilled qualities of grit and resilience, and she developed deep admiration for accomplished dancers. Collaborating with choreographers she respected brought immense joy and fulfillment. Despite changes in the dance industry, her passion for learning from and working with inspiring individuals remains unwavering in her current role in thought leadership and self-development. [06:34] She mentions that she never discussed grace until experiencing a severe motorcycle accident and undergoing numerous surgeries to save her leg. As a former dancer and athlete, she was accustomed to pushing through pain, emphasizing grit and toughness. After finding out she had a nerve disease, she struggled to hide the pain and ended up feeling really upset, even turning to alcohol. Eventually, she learned to be kind to herself and handle the pain better. This made her want to talk about being emotionally strong, even to tough crowds, and encourage people to deal with and understand pain in different parts of life. [08:21] Amberly shares her journey of resilience, stemming from a nerve disease, and introduces the concept of "pacing." Pacer, an acronym, includes Perspective, Acceptance, Community, Endurance, and Rest. She emphasizes gratitude, self-acceptance, and the transformative power of community for resilience. She also speaks about the significance of endurance, aligning passion with perseverance, and prioritizing rest in the entrepreneurial journey. Amberly then encourages unplugging, finding joy, and strategic recovery for fostering creativity and overall well-being. [14:26] She shares her excitement about rebranding her podcast after five years. She acknowledges the challenges but emphasizes the meaningful connections and opportunities it has brought to her business. The podcast has allowed her to interview notable guests, including May Musk and Jamie Kern Lima, and create a community that resonates with her audience. The joy she derives from making a positive impact on people's lives through the podcast is a driving force behind her commitment to it. [16:28] Amberly shares not to dwell on regrets or negative thoughts about her past challenges. She acknowledges the difficulties she faced after a life-changing accident that impacted her career and family dynamic. She mentions that despite a six-year journey of hospital visits, therapy, and overcoming depression, she found strength through gratitude. Expressing that gratitude has been her medicine, she recounts a moment in the hospital when focusing on the positive aspects of her life shifted her perspective. [20:13] She shares the importance of grit in the entrepreneurial journey, highlighting the need for boundaries to prevent overworking. Drawing on personal experiences, she distinguishes between grit and resilience, stating that grit, while involving work ethic and perseverance, becomes resilience when combined with community and connection. Resilience, in her view, is the ability to choose joy and happiness despite setbacks, to repeatedly get back up, and to adapt to challenges. She metaphorically links resilience to navigating curves, underlining the importance of slowing down when needed. [24:23] Amberly reflects on her journey of self-discovery, noting that her self-worth was initially tied to her career success and appearance. When these were stripped away due to the accident, she had to dig deep and humble herself, eventually realizing that intrinsic worth isn't determined by external achievements. The experience taught her to appreciate the resilience of the human body and spirit. She shares that the accident led to a profound shift in perspective, fostering a sense of self-worth independent of external validations. [27:22] She mentions that within a year, she launched a podcast, secured influential guests, and published her first book, a testament to the power of belief and encouragement. She shares the importance of leaders seeing potential in their team members, even when individuals might struggle to envision their own success. It's the leader's responsibility to articulate and cast a vision, guiding others toward their full potential. [29:45] Amberly reflects on the challenges she faced during her recovery from addiction. Attending twelve-step meetings and undergoing therapy, she emphasizes the difficulty of the process, acknowledging the importance of confidence. Grounded in self-acceptance, she proudly identifies as a recovering alcoholic while also embracing her role as a motivational speaker and top podcast host. Despite facing negative comments, she remains unfazed, emphasizing her gratitude, resilience, and grounded sense of self. [32:38] She shares insights into her journey of self-acceptance and resilience after a life-altering motorcycle accident. She highlights the transformative moment when her doctor treated her deformed leg with care and appreciation, inspiring her to learn to love herself again. Discussing the challenges teenagers face with social media and self-image, Amberly emphasizes the importance of self-love and parental influence. Despite budget concerns, she is determined to create a meaningful and impactful experience for attendees. [40:52] Closing Quote: Remember, we should not judge people by their peak of excellence, but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started. -Henry Ward Beecher. Quotable Quotes: "There is a way to PACE through pain." "PACER stands for Perspective, Acceptance, Community, Endurance, and Rest." "Acceptance is the key to any transformation." "When you fully accept and embrace who you are, self-confidence and courage naturally emerge, empowering you to take decisive actions for a fulfilling life, make optimal business decisions, and prioritize your health." "Grit without connection and community is merely resistance." "We experience burnout when we forget why we're doing what we're doing." "It's crucial for leaders and entrepreneurs to find time for rest and recovery." "Gratitude changes everything." "You need grit to be successful because being an entrepreneur is not easy." "Resilience is your ability to choose to move forward and have the courage to lead a life of joy and happiness." "You have to discover who you truly are." "We are all worthy as is." "It is helpful to have someone believe in you before you can believe in yourself." "I don't just teach them how to be a speaker; I give them a platform." "If you can do it and find joy in the journey, we will ultimately reach a better place." This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Amberly: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Amberly LagoLinkedIn | Amberly Lago Website | Unstoppable Website | Amberly Lago Instagram | Amberly Lago Twitter |
Mark Rangell, Chief Operating Officer at Ryte and a digital health and technology strategy consultant, shared the story of his friendship with Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselapolus. He highlights the role of curiosity in fostering connections, leading to friendships, business partnerships, and joint investments. Mark discusses the aspects of growing a business, emphasizing the importance of a diverse team with shared values and the use of specific tools and processes. He describes a scaling approach that focuses on principles and responsibilities, enabling team members to understand their roles and align with the company's goals. Mark believes that successful scaling involves particular techniques, a unified team, and the right motivations for individuals. Reflecting on his career's various "acts," including figuring things out, leading turnarounds, and working with a healthcare AI firm, Mark underscores the importance of storytelling over writing books. He advises a mindful approach to stress management, focusing on happiness and controlling what one can. Key Takeaways: [02:54] Mark shares that he recently joined Allegiance Stadium's guest experience team, taking on the role out of a mix of community service and curiosity about the Raiders organization. Despite only working a few games, he now knows every tunnel in the stadium and enjoys full access on game days, including the Super Bowl. Describing the role as a form of leadership, he appreciates troubleshooting and engaging with people from diverse backgrounds. [05:45] He narrated how he met Jan Rutherford, who was once, a client during his time at Geneva Pharmaceuticals in Colorado. They quickly evolved into a personal friendship that was strengthened over family outings and casual get-togethers. Their connection extended to Chicago, where Mark and Jim, meanwhile, both in the technology sector, formed a small, trusted group through the Chicago Technology Association. This group provided a safe space for leaders in small to mid-sized companies. [11:06] Mark explains that effective networking should be genuine and rooted in an authentic appreciation for others. He stresses the importance of curiosity in understanding individuals, leading to friendships, business collaborations, and shared investments. Mark also mentions that successful networking is rooted in caring for people, genuine interest, and effective listening, stating that success and sales naturally follow authentic connections. [17:12] He shares about scaling a business, emphasizing the importance of diverse individuals aligned by mission, vision, and values. He highlights the significance of tools and processes, citing a scaling mechanism adopted over 20 years ago with a "bill of rights" and corresponding obligations. This approach empowers individuals to question and understand their roles within the organization, ensuring alignment with overarching goals. Mark believes that successful scaling involves techniques, a cohesive team, and the right motivations for individuals. [19:55] Mark explains that adapting to change is crucial for effective leadership. He highlights the need to adjust communication styles based on evolving trends, emphasizing the importance of techniques that stand the test of time. Drawing parallels with sports analytics in football, he stresses that sticking to outdated methods can lead to defeat, underlining the necessity of adaptation in various contexts. [21:27] He reflects on his journey, realizing the entrance of what they term "act six" at the age of 60, breaking down their career into different phases. The first phase, or "act one," was the formative years he spent at IBM and in other roles, focusing on figuring things out and climbing the product management ladder. The second phase involved a turnaround situation where he, along with a group, addressed financial mismanagement. [26:12] In acts three, four, and five of Mark’s career, he faced both successes and challenges, including being a first-time CEO and establishing a successful consulting firm. Act six, the current phase, emerged unexpectedly through networking. Motivated by the potential impact of AI in healthcare, he joined a healthcare AI firm. He emphasizes his motivation for joining, driven by a desire to contribute to the AI industrial revolution and improve healthcare outcomes. From a leadership standpoint, Mark emphasizes the importance of diversity, curiosity, and collaboration within the team. [31:57] Mark acknowledges that facing challenges, discomfort, and even clinical depression has been part of his journey, often triggered by business-related factors. He then explains the inevitability of encountering uncomfortable situations and advises adapting to them rather than seeking them out. Mark also reflects on his experiences, stressing the importance of finding points of difference, pursuing happiness, and surrounding oneself with people who bring joy. He defines success as one's happiness and moral compass, emphasizing that financial success follows hard work and luck. [35:38] He mentions that he values storytelling over writing books and encourages a conscious approach to managing life stress. Mark emphasizes controlling variables within one's control, letting go of stress in uncontrollable situations, and focusing on happiness for oneself and others. Reflecting on past challenges, he urges a perspective shift, advising not to sweat the small stuff and to navigate challenges resiliently. He then expresses optimism in the next generation's ability to make positive changes and leave a better world. [39:22] Closing Quote: Remember, if you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. -Anthony Robbins Quotable Quotes: “Networking should come naturally to you.” “Networking has to be genuine, and you have to genuinely appreciate people.” “If you authentically care about people and engage in meaningful activities, success, sales, and other achievements naturally follow.” “The key is to genuinely like and care about people, actively listen, and show interest in their perspectives.” “Scaling a business involves bringing together individuals with diverse qualities.” “In scaling a business, connect individuals authentically through a shared mission, vision, and values.” “Successful scaling requires effective techniques, a robust team, and individuals with the right motivations.” "There will be times in your life when you face challenges." "You must be prepared to respond to inevitable and uncomfortable situations.” “Success is defined by your happiness.” "Financial success will follow if you work hard, catch a few breaks, and are fortunate.” “If your guiding principle is happiness, and you're sincerely a kind person willing to dedicate some time to assist others, even if there's no immediate transactional benefit, then you're on the right path.” “You will encounter challenges, which will build the resilience needed to navigate through them.” “People learn from stories.” “Control variables within your control.” “If you can do it and find joy in the journey, we’ll ultimately reach a better place.” Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Mark Rangell LinkedIn | Execullence Website | Ryte.ai LinkedIn |
Dr. Preston Cline, co-founder and director of the Mission Critical Team Institute, shares insights from his historical challenges and emphasizes leadership qualities such as inquiry, curiosity, kindness, and dialogue engagement. He discusses the challenges faced by today's generation, emphasizing the importance of instilling curiosity and optimism while practicing information discipline. With a background in education, Dr. Preston specializes in navigating extreme uncertainty and addressing issues related to the transfer of tacit knowledge. He also delves into team-building strategies and the importance of cognitive diversity. Dr. Preston is a proponent of reshaping the internal dialogue of young female leaders and underscores the significance of asking questions, including those that might seem "dumb," to uncover valuable insights. Key Takeaways: [03:20] Dr. Preston shares the time period marked by the war on crack and the AIDS epidemic, Draconian measures were implemented, including a three-strike rule and a 75-foot rule. This meant that individuals in proximity to a drug raid, even if unrelated, could face legal consequences. He emphasizes inner-city challenges in addressing juvenile delinquency, highlighting the complex interplay of socioeconomic factors, race, gender, and physicality. [04:57] He mentions that the key quality of effective leaders is leading with inquiry. He added based on his experience that successful leaders are characterized by kindness, generosity with their time, and a penchant for engaging in dialogue. Dr. Preston advocates for the strategic use of curiosity, suggesting that "weaponizing" it can be a valuable asset. Additionally, he incorporates David Cooper's work on appreciative inquiry on the significance of thorough investigation and understanding of questions to overcome biases and hidden agendas in responses. [07:00] Dr. Preston shares an impactful story from their experience at MCTI, highlighting the importance of narrative in teaching. He mentions Claire Murphy, the director of the story, emphasizing the neuroscience of narrative and its distinct impact on the brain compared to factual information. Dr. Preston reflects on the lesson learned from his boss, Phil, which is the importance of taking action and contributing to positive change, rather than waiting for ideal circumstances. [10:25] He shares an impactful experience, working at a camp for kids with cancer. Amidst emotional challenges, Dr. Preston learns a valuable lesson about facing difficult realities collectively and finding hope in unexpected places. He draws a historical parallel to post-World War I Britain, highlighting the unintended consequences of a generation raised in a protective environment. He mentions the importance of not blaming the current generation, but rather taking the responsibility to teach essential life skills. [16:14] Dr. Preston shares that the current generation is the first to experience a situation perceived as worse than the previous one. Calling the attention of leaders, there is a need to instill a sense of curiosity and optimism in the face of challenges. Regarding leadership, Dr. Preston warns against public complaints, noting that such behavior portrays leaders as victims rather than inspirers. Leaders are urged to practice information discipline, being mindful of the emotional impact of the content they consume and transmit, while maintaining the importance of positivity, hope, and inspiration. [20:21] He shares his background in education that focuses on teaching individuals how to navigate extreme uncertainty. At MCTI, he addresses the tacit knowledge transfer problem, where being skilled at a task doesn't guarantee effective teaching. Working with instructor cadres in various fields, including medicine, fire, special operations, NASA, and law enforcement, he shares his aim which is to help operators become articulate instructors. He also added that MCTI conducts courses and training to enhance instructors' abilities in conveying tacit knowledge efficiently and effectively. [22:07] Dr. Preston shares that the approach to building and training teams depends on the nature of the problem set they are addressing. Teams are formed in response to specific challenges, either ordered or unordered. For ordered problems, contingency planning is crucial, and training focuses on prepared responses. Meanwhile, unordered problems, like emergencies, require teams to be adaptable and possess diverse cognitive skills. He also mentions the tactical swarms, such as those in trauma situations, involve individuals with distinct roles who come together quickly. He emphasizes cognitive diversity, encouraging varied thinking, and the tolerance for "weirdness" to avoid cloning and enhance team capacity. [26:31] He shares that the key to empowering young female leaders and enhancing overall conceptual potential is reshaping their inner dialogue to boost confidence and encourage them to speak up. Dr. Preston also mentions that despite possessing intelligence and creativity, women often face barriers to having their voices heard, both internally and externally. When becoming instructors or leaders, he shares the approach that needs to shift towards leading with questions, which is to help others develop their problem-solving capacity rather than just offering solutions. [32:07] Dr. Preston suggests asking dumb questions to understand the situation better. He explains the power of seemingly "dumb" questions, revealing overlooked issues and offering valuable perspectives. Dr. Preston then encourages embracing the superpower of asking questions that others may shy away from, emphasizing kindness amid the challenges the world faces. [33:26] Closing Quote: Remember, in character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotable Quotes: “If you can weaponize your curiosity, that's a superpower.” “Always lead with inquiry.” “Your brain encodes narrative differently than it encodes facts, so we teach through story.” “Too many young people entering the leadership are often waiting for Superman to arrive.” “Hope can come anywhere.” "We need to inspire people to become part of the solution rather than identifying as victims." "When you publicly complain about a problem, what you are explicitly stating is that you see yourself as a victim." "Your role as a leader is to inspire and to have a vision for what is possible." "Observe closely what individuals are consuming and, subsequently, what they are transmitting in terms of positivity, hope, inspiration, and the like." “Every team is created in response to a problem set.” “There is no team that exists in isolation.” “We should train people for contingencies.” “If you're not willing to tolerate a certain amount of weirdness, then you end up cloning your people, and you're going to reduce your capacity.” “Inquire and lead with curiosity.” “Sometimes, dumb questions are the most powerful question.” “Be kind to each other because the world is a bit of a mess right now.” Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Preston Cline LinkedIn | Mission Critical Team Institute Website | Mission Critical Team Institute Instagram |
Karen Tiber Leland, an author, coach, and Sterling Marketing Group's founder, emphasizes the importance of a strategic and thoughtful approach in personal and business branding. She notes the evolution of personal branding, highlighting its shift towards responsibly showcasing contributions rather than mere self-promotion. Karen provides expert strategies for attracting ideal clients and effectively creating branding, especially in business. She underlines the significance of CEOs actively participating in social media to foster consumer trust. Advising CEOs, she recommends focusing on practical experience and skills rather than just certifications, to better demonstrate expertise and attract suitable clients. Additionally, Karen underscores the lifelong significance of learning and the necessity of an open mindset, asserting that the capacity to learn is not limited to any age group. Key Takeaways: [03:06] Karen shares the importance of a strategic, thoughtful approach in personal and business branding, cautioning against one-size-fits-all methods. There is a caution against the tendency to confuse tactics with strategy, urging a clear understanding of brand definition, strategy, and tactics as distinct components. She mentions that defining a brand involves more than just a logo or tagline, with various facets to consider, and asserts that understanding the business and customer is the crucial first step in this process. [07:38] She mentions that with technological advancements, especially in the realms of the internet and AI, executives, and entrepreneurs are compelled to build a robust personal brand. Karen notes the broad impact of a strong personal brand on investor relations, talent retention and recruitment, and customer trust. She stresses the CEO's need to be active on social media, as it is likely to build trust in the company among customers. Karen highlights proactive reputation management in the AI age, emphasizing the need to train platforms like Google about identity and values. [10:35] Karen tackles the issue of false expertise claims in inaccessible fields like marketing, coaching, and sales, recognizing the challenge consumers encounter in discerning genuine experts from those making false claims. Even with tools like ChatGPT, Karen highlights the importance of maintaining a unique voice and perspective in content creation. She stresses educating consumers about valuing experience over certificates and short-term programs. She believes taking a stand for one's knowledge is crucial, attracting the right clients and deterring those who may not appreciate true expertise. [15:33] She mentions the unrealistic expectation of completing an entire to-do list in a day, instead, prioritizing the two or three top tasks that will define a successful day, considering additional tasks as a bonus. She challenges the illusion of completing everything and advocates for realistic prioritization. Additionally, Karen notes a common issue among CEOs and entrepreneurs, where they engage in tasks that could be delegated, often driven by a need for control. [19:50] Karen talks about the changing work expectations for Gen X and Gen Z individuals, emphasizing the importance for companies to adapt by redefining work to include remote options, stressing the need for leaders to acquire or refine skills for effective remote team management. Discussing remote work challenges and benefits enables global hiring but poses issues with time zones and cultures. With this, she suggests boosting online meeting interactivity, maintaining efficiency, and fostering connections through emails and calls. [25:06] She shares her passion for trail riding and how engaging in such activities contributes to their happiness and overall well-being, highlighting that there are valuable lessons she had learned from horseback riding, theater, and art, which they integrate into their coaching sessions as analogies or metaphors. Karen emphasizes the importance of being a satisfied and healthy individual when coaching others. Her diverse experiences have contributed to her creativity and effectiveness in supporting individuals and companies in expressing their uniqueness through personal and business branding. [29:56] Karen shares the significance of lifelong learning and having an open mindset, regardless of age, advocating for continuous learning for everyone. The significance of acquiring the skill of learning itself, noting that being a lifelong learner keeps individuals interested and growing. She also touches on the concept of a growth mindset and how it is easier to work with individuals possessing it, even if they lack specific technical skills, as opposed to those with a fixed mindset. [34:51] Karen shares the '1% improvement' strategy, emphasizing that small enhancements, like refining a LinkedIn profile or acquiring new skills, can lead to cumulative personal and professional growth. Karen discusses the evolving landscape of personal branding, noting that it's no longer about bragging, but responsibly communicating one's contributions. She also explains that in a world driven by visibility and engagement, individuals must take responsibility for sharing achievements to make a meaningful impact. [38:17] Closing Quote: Remember, you don't need a corporation or a marketing company to brand you now: you can do it yourself. You can establish who you are with a social media following. - Ray Allen Quotable Quotes: “When rebranding, clearly define the brand, its strategy, and tactics for a successful transformation.” “A personal brand used to be a luxury, but is now a necessity.” “Train Google across the Internet on who you are and what you stand for, or you're not going to be found.” “It's not just about reactively managing your reputation, it's about managing your reputation proactively.” “Having a distinct voice and a distinct point of view and distinct information will separate you.” “Use AI as an assistant, don't use it as a replacement.” "You have to thoroughly consider the correct strategic and tactical approach when doing a business branding.” “Be willing to take a stand for who you are, what you've done, what you know, and back it up.” “The key is to learn to prioritize what matters most.” “Leaders should train themselves or get trained in skills for handling virtual teams.” “You have to learn how to create interactivity so that people aren't just sitting there for hours just listening statically.” “It's hard to be coaching people if you're not happy and healthy yourself.” “Analogy makes a huge difference.” “Oftentimes, the most powerful examples for people are things that are outside the business.” “One strength of a CEO is the willingness to learn.” “You have to learn how to learn.” “The key is being open to learning. This is what creates movement and growth, creates value, whether it's in business or life.” “1% improvement makes a big difference.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Karen: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Karen Tiber Leland LinkedIn | Sterling Marketing Group Website | Karen Tiber Leland Instagram |
Mark Williams, CEO and managing partner of Brokers International shares insights from his book, "Lead, Don't Manage: 12 Lessons in Creating a Leadership Culture Based on Core Values," which addresses gaps in leadership attributes. Mark shares the top three leadership mistakes and their root causes, including issues related to hiring and the impact of technology on workload and burnout prevention. He also discusses complexities of managing productivity in a technology-driven world, featuring a quirky theory of assigning numbers based on project-handling abilities. Key Takeaways: [02:10] Mark shares a crucial lesson he learned from his military days: the difference between respecting a leader and personally liking them. Jim and Jan asked him if today's younger workforce would willingly work for someone they respect but don't necessarily like. Drawing on his experience as a professional and parent, Mark shared insightful perspectives. He also reflected on whether the current generation is ready for challenges, comparing their experiences with the resilience of past generations. [06:16] He shares his career journey from stockbroker to CEO and discusses his motivation to write his book, "Lead Don't Manage". He identifies a gap in leadership skills, inspiring him to compile twelve essential lessons in "Lead, Don't Manage: 12 Lessons in Creating a Leadership Culture Based on Core Values." He also talks about the challenges of middle management in today's streamlined companies. [15:40] Mark shares the top three leadership mistakes we're all making. Jim raises a big-picture question on the root cause behind these mistakes. Mark identifies the wrong person in the right seat as a common issue, often originating from hiring missteps. He also shares his insights about the impact of technology on workload and the challenge of finding the right pace to prevent burnout. [24:35] Marks talks about the complexities of managing productivity in the evolving landscape of technology and data-driven decision-making. He also talks about the struggle of finding the sweet spot between individual productivity and management capability. He discusses a quirky theory of assigning people numbers based on their project-handling abilities. [33:41] He share a personal experiences of repeating mistakes and discusses the intersection of effort, grace, and the desire for change. [37:47] Mark expresses his desire to make a positive impact on people's lives and shares a guiding personal quote: 'If I can help you get where you want to go, I end up getting where I want to go.' It's the ripple effect of positive influence and how small acts of kindness or guidance can lead to impactful outcomes. [39:41] Mark talks about the realities of work-life balance and leadership. He shares insights on burnout, emphasizing the importance of setting boundaries. He also discusses the impact of technology on our lives, and Mark leaves listeners with a powerful challenge: know your strengths and be open to seeking help where needed. [41:28] Closing Quote: Remember, the test of leadership is not to put great into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. - James Buchanan Quotable Quotes: "As leaders, sometimes you have to make difficult decisions, and they're not always liked, but that doesn't mean everyone's going to like it." "I think today people expect everything to be warm and fuzzy, and oftentimes as leaders, sometimes you have to make difficult decisions." "It's harder to be a middle manager today than it used to be." "There's a lot to navigate in a company, especially the larger the company, the more opportunities, usually for internal growth." "If you're not making mistakes, you're not working. Just don't make the same mistake twice." "Communication is incredibly important, and a lack of communication can be horrible." "Technology has made people's jobs harder. Instead of accepting all the advances and making your life easier, we're putting more on people." "Balance, not burnout." "I think as a leader, if you're not granting your employees the ability to make a mistake, you're doing something wrong. There's a lot of trust in knowing that an employee can make an error, and it's not the end of the world. It actually can be a really good thing." "I think those of us that do go back that far, we do have to remember we are asking a lot of people, and it is overload sometimes. And it is really up to us as leaders to figure out what pace is actually doable." "Learn to know what you're really good at and be open to the things you're not and manage yourself that way. There are lots of things that I do really well and there's lots of things I don't do really well. And I know them, I know a lot of them and I'm willing to take criticism." "Understand and know what you're good at and be willing to get help on what you're not, and you'll be a much better leader." "The test of leadership is not to put great into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Mark Williams LinkedIn | Brokers International Website | Mark Williams Website | Mark Williams Podcast |
Stan Phelps, an author and speaker, uses color symbolism in his 'The Goldfish' series to represent marketplace dynamics. He suggests goldfish as a metaphor for market growth, emphasizing the importance of internal growth in a business. Stan advises companies to differentiate themselves from competitors through unique characteristics and stresses the importance of managing remote teams and setting clear expectations. He underscores the role of purpose and intent in delivering superior customer experiences, advocating for small, value-driven actions and balanced messaging to build trust without seeming inauthentic. Key Takeaways: [05:23] Stan Phelps shares the difficulty organizations face, emphasizing differentiating through the "why" and "how" of their operations. Customer experience becomes paramount, asserting that a brand is now defined by customer perceptions and recommendations. He advises centers on providing added value and ensuring a streamlined, low-maintenance experience for customers. This approach, derived from studying numerous organizations, is likened to a dating theory of seeking high value and low maintenance. He also suggests strategic brand strategies as a means of standing out in the marketplace. [09:46] He emphasizes the interdependence of brand, customer, and employee experiences, prioritizing employees for a positive workplace culture. Stan mentions that engaged and happy employees are crucial for creating enthusiastic customer advocates. He also introduces the concept of the "Green goldfish," symbolizing that, especially for younger generations, monetary compensation is important but not the sole focus. Beyond financial rewards, creating an environment that fosters a sense of belonging and personal growth is deemed crucial for employee satisfaction and career fulfillment. [16:36] Stan Phelps emphasizes that effective leaders grant freedom and flexibility while managing expectations and establishing guardrails to ensure a unified direction. Acknowledging the benefits of flexibility for both employees and the company, he suggests finding a balance by setting boundaries. Additionally, regarding compensation, Stan advises against solely focusing on this factor, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach to employee satisfaction, including onboarding and continuous support in their new roles. [18:51] He acknowledges that in the era of remote work via Zoom, the challenge for leaders is to cultivate company culture when physical presence is limited. He proposes a nuanced approach, suggesting occasional in-person gatherings, balancing mindful togetherness with individual flexibility. Stan highlights the importance of these moments for fostering serendipity, mentoring opportunities, and strengthening bonds. [21:22] Stan Phelps draws parallels between the growth factors of goldfish and organizations, highlighting five key reasons for their growth. Firstly, the size of the bowl or pond correlates with the market size in business—the larger the market, the greater the growth potential. Secondly, growth is impacted by the number of competitors, with an inverse relationship—fewer competitors often lead to more growth. The third factor, previously challenging but influenced by external events, is the quality of the surrounding environment, akin to economic factors in business. The fourth reason relates to a goldfish's early months, mirroring an organization's critical initial period. Lastly, he mentions the large number of siblings a baby goldfish has, connecting it to organizational growth dynamics. [25:38] He explores the human dynamic of intent and competence, explaining that people instinctively assess others by asking two questions: the intent towards them (friend or foe) and the ability to carry out that intent. He also mentions the overuse of discussing "why" in business, asserting that actions speak louder than words. [36:00] Closing Quote: Remember, he who learns but does not think is lost; but he who thinks but does not learn is in danger. - Confucius Quotable Quotes: “It's about finding signature ways that you can stand out in the marketplace.” "Great leaders provide people with freedom and flexibility while also managing expectations effectively." “Leaders keep people all going in the same direction.” "It goes beyond the market economy and transactional mindset, urging to do a little bit extra." "I believe the biggest myth in business is meeting the expectations of the customers we serve." "You either exceed expectations or fall short." "I believe that emphasizing value and maintenance are two significant factors in differentiating the experience you provide." "The quality of the surrounding environment you're in also influences your growth." These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Stan: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Stan Phelps LinkedIn Stan Phelps Twitter | Stan Phelps Instagram | Stan Phelps Website |
Nir Eyal, a consultant, educator, and author of "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life," delves into his personal journey with distractions and parenting. He highlights the crucial role of mastering distraction control for success in various life aspects. Eyal points out that despite the vast availability of information in today's world, the real challenge is to overcome personal distractions. He advocates against a generic approach, suggesting instead that individuals make deliberate choices that reflect their personal values. A key focus of his discussion is on internal triggers, noting that about 90% of distractions are self-originated. Eyal identifies discomfort as a primary cause of distraction and underscores the importance of becoming aware of and managing these emotional states for better self-regulation. Key Takeaways: [06:45] Nir Eyal shares that he published the "Indistractable" book before COVID-19, grateful for completing it amid global chaos. Criticizing simplistic advice blaming technology for distractions, he stresses its integral role in the modern world. He also shares that the book covers distractions, especially while working from home, emphasizing that 90% come from within. Nir Eyal challenges the idea that distraction is a recent issue, citing Plato's writings 2500 years ago. Distractions are not solely due to technology, but a longstanding, complex challenge with deeper roots, requiring a more empowering solution. [12:15] He shares his realization that the power to be "indistractable" is crucial in every aspect of life, including mental health, physical health, business, and relationships. Nir Eyal argues that controlling attention is essential for acquiring new skills and being productive. The title of the book, "Indistractable," reflects this focus on mastering attention to shape one's life. He then addresses the concept of being "hooked" and clarifies that it's not in opposition to being "indistractable", believing that it's possible to leverage psychological tools to create positive habits. He also acknowledges the potential risks of overusing well-designed products, particularly in the realm of media and social platforms. [18:08] Nir Eyal emphasizes the difficulty in building addictive products and highlights his book's contribution to applying consumer psychology to habit-forming products. He also discusses his goal of helping individuals turn their values into time and execute their priorities effectively, clarifying that their focus is not on dictating how people should spend their time, but on assisting them in aligning their actions with their values. He argues that the most dangerous distraction is the one unnoticed by individuals, illustrated by personal experiences of getting sidetracked by seemingly productive tasks that deviate from the original plan. [26:23] Nir Eyal clarifies that the issue with to-do lists is not in using them, but in the way people traditionally use them. He also talks about the importance of moving beyond simply listing tasks and emphasizes the need for a prioritization process. The problems with traditional to-do lists are the lack of constraints, leading to an endless list, and the tendency for people to measure their self-worth based on completed tasks. Nir Eyal challenges the notion of measuring productivity by what is finished, suggesting that the key metric is whether individuals do what they said they would do without distraction. He promotes the "indistractable" method, advocating for focused, distraction-free work in specific time intervals. [36:56] He introduces the technique of schedule syncing, especially beneficial for those dealing with interruptions from superiors. Nir Eyal describes the process of creating a time box calendar, allowing individuals to physically show their boss how they plan to spend their time. This proactive approach seeks the boss's assistance in prioritizing tasks rather than bluntly saying no. He emphasizes the effectiveness of schedule syncing not only in corporate settings but also in personal relationships, sharing how it has positively impacted their marriage. [41:59] Nir eyal shares the changing landscape where information is large, but some challenges come with it such as overcoming distractions. He contradicts a one-size-fits-all approach, but instead encourages individuals to make conscious trade-offs in line with their values. [48:08] Closing Quote: Remember, the difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit, but we can replace bad habits with good ones. -Steven Pressfield Quotable Quotes: “I write books not because of what I know, but because of what I want to know.” “Let's not glorify the past.” “Distraction is not a new problem.” “Anybody who's blessed with opportunities finds themselves struggling with how to prioritize their time and their attention and their life.” “You cannot be productive unless you know how to focus.” “How we spend our time is controlled by how we control our attention.” “Indistractable is about how we break bad habits.” “You can't just trust what people say because people will say one thing and do something else.” “The most pernicious form of distraction for leaders is the distraction that you don't even realize is distracting you.” “If you don't take care of yourselves, you can't take care of other people, you can't make the world a better place.” “You can't call something a distraction unless you know what it distracted you from.” “The problem is that despite knowing what to do, people don't do it.” “The root cause of the problem is an uncomfortable sensation.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Nir Eyal: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Nir Eyal LinkedIn | Nir Eyal Twitter | Nir Eyal YouTube | Nir Eyal Facebook | Nir Eyal Instagram |
Martin Gutmann, an author and professor at the Lucerne School of Business, challenges traditional views on leadership with his concept of the "action fallacy." He argues that effective leadership often involves subtle, unnoticed actions rather than just visible, dramatic ones. Gutmann emphasizes the importance of historical skills in the digital era, particularly in scrutinizing and distilling information. He also highlights the value of strategic inaction in leadership, as exemplified by Churchill's delay of the Normandy invasions. Additionally, he notes that while emotional intelligence is important, not all impactful leaders visibly exhibit it. His perspective broadens the understanding of leadership, recognizing the significance of quieter, less conspicuous contributions. Key Takeaways [03:57] Martin sheds light on his intriguing book, "The Unseen Leader: How History Can Help Us Rethink Leadership." He talks about the concept of the "action fallacy," challenging the common misconception that effective leaders are defined by dramatic actions. He shares insights into the disconnect between historical scholarship and contemporary leadership narratives. Using examples like Churchill, he highlights the importance of recognizing unseen leaders who strategically navigate challenges rather than creating chaos. Martin also explores the less-known explorer Roald Amundsen, emphasizing his overlooked achievements due to a lack of sensational crises. [11:07] Martin discusses the intriguing dynamics of crisis management and leadership recognition. He draws parallels between special operations and the business world, exploring the tendency to reward leaders when situations go awry. He emphasizes the need to celebrate those who adeptly navigate and mitigate crises, challenging the prevailing culture that often glorifies crisis-oriented behavior. Martin also touches on the paradox of success going unnoticed and reflects on the story of Lawrence of Arabia, exploring misconceptions and contrasting narratives of characters. [13:27] Martin shares the captivating story of Gertrude Bell, an often-overlooked leader in the post-World War I Middle East. Despite being the driving force behind the creation of Iraq and achieving remarkable feats in archaeology and translation, Bell's contributions have been overshadowed by the more cinematic narrative of Lawrence of Arabia. He delves into Bell's leadership style, emphasizing her pen-and-paper approach and strategic diplomacy in contrast to Lawrence's adventurous exploits. [17:22] Martin unveils the nuanced leadership of Winston Churchill during World War II, challenging common misconceptions. Jim and Jan also express amazement at discovering previously overlooked aspects of Churchill's role, emphasizing the deliberate crafting of the narrative portraying Britain standing alone in 1940. Martin highlights Churchill's strategic communication skills in influencing U.S. involvement and draws parallels to modern political strategies. He also touches on the power of storytelling in shaping history and explores how the Internet age has democratized historical perspectives. [19:24] Martin discusses the challenges historians face in navigating the vast sea of information, from scarcity in ancient times to the overwhelming abundance today. He talks about how emerging digital tools and AI are reshaping historical scholarship, emphasizing the need for historians to adapt their skill sets. He then shifts to talk about the relevance of historical disciplines for contemporary business professionals, highlighting the importance of adopting investigative mindsets and discernment in distilling relevant information. Martin underscores the significance of applying lessons from historical narratives to enhance decision-making in the modern business landscape. [25:31] Martin challenges the traditional notion that action is always the hallmark of effective leadership, arguing for the virtue of strategic inaction. Drawing on historical figures such as Churchill, Martin talks about exploring instances where restraint and reflection played pivotal roles. Jim and Jan ask about the importance of emotional intelligence, Martin then discussing how self-awareness of one's traits can impact leadership effectiveness. Martin encourages everyone to reassess the leaders they celebrate, this episode advocates for recognizing and promoting individuals whose subtle yet profound impact is often overlooked. [37:09] Closing quote: And remember, who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. — George Orwell Quotable Quotes “The first is that the leader who haphazardly ventures into the water, almost drowns, flails around, and then somehow miraculously makes it onto the other side, that's going to be the more interesting example to look at.” “The first thing to point out is that sometimes there is a crisis that you have done nothing to generate, and then you need to respond.” “There are certain persons who are very crisis prone, either because they seek out a crisis or they learn to reframe everything as a crisis.” “We're in a position of responsibility, and we're in a position where we can set an example, I think we need to start not only celebrating these crisis prone individuals, but also celebrating the people who avoid crisis, who mitigate them, and who might not be the loudest people in the room all the time.” “We pay more attention to a crisis, and we like people who are willing to stand firm in a crisis.” “If you want to learn about unseen leaders, people who exerted influence but maybe not in a position of authority within a hierarchy, there are going to be even fewer sources available.” “There may be other people who are having a greater impact that might just be harder to spot in your organizations. “ “Emotional intelligence is a key competence for leaders to cultivate.” “There are certain scenarios in which reacting quickly and immediately is the right course.” “Inaction is really the right action, and we should celebrate it.” “You have to go back and examine some of the original sources to come away from it with a different perspective on the events and his role in those events.” Here are the books mentioned in this episode: Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Martin Gutmann LinkedIn | Martin Gutmann Website |
As CEO of LaneTerralever (LT), Chris Johnson views AI as a tool augmenting human roles, not replacing them. Chris observes a chasm in the business world - a divide between those who harness AI with clear intent and those who remain oblivious to its sweeping impact. He forewarns of potential unemployment for individuals who shy away from embracing AI and its learning curve. He recognizes AI's benefits but also stresses the need for strategic oversight due to concerns about explainability and accuracy. Discussing AI in hiring and employee resistance, Chris underlines the importance of change management strategies for successful AI integration. He also touches on the challenges of trust and authenticity in an AI-driven world and explores how AI can enhance skills in sales, emphasizing its role in complementing human abilities. Key Takeaways: [3:31] Chris discusses the current state of AI, particularly generative AI, within their team. They highlight both excitement and fear surrounding AI's capabilities. He stated that AI is not a threat to jobs, but rather it empowers those who know how to use it. Chris also shares the importance of learning to use AI tools strategically and creatively. While AI can handle repetitive tasks, individuals still need to understand how to leverage these tools for maximum efficiency. He shares the need for a continual learning mindset, as AI technology evolves rapidly, and younger individuals are more open to adopting new technologies, while older ones may be resistant due to established work habits. [7:03] He expresses concern about how the automation of tasks in professions like accounting and law might impact the learning curve for younger professionals. It is a question whether AI reliance could hinder the development of in-depth knowledge gained through hands-on experience and mistakes. Chris also shares the capabilities of large language models like GPT, highlighting their proficiency in processing contextual information. However, there is still need for verification, as these models may not recognize when they provide incorrect or misleading information. [12:37] Chris mentions that AI tools are affordable, with some versions even free. The real divide is in individuals' willingness to learn and adapt to these tools. He predicts a widening gap between those who embrace AI for efficiency and quality work and those who resist change. There is an impact on white-collar jobs is, emphasizing that AI is entering professions like accounting and marketing. In executive briefings, Chris observes a lack of investment in AI technologies and aims to raise awareness about their capabilities, such as coding, executing tasks, and data analysis. [17:00] He shares that he introduced ChatGPT 4 to their company, providing licenses for all employees. However, they faced challenges in adoption and realized it was a leadership issue. They are now focusing on change management through regular teaching sessions to help employees use the tool effectively. Chris also encourages others to try ChatGPT Plus and experiment with the tool before starting tasks. He mentions the importance of time-saving potential, especially for tasks like writing emails, where the tool can generate a substantial portion, allowing users to edit and refine the content. [21:28] Chris shares that AI champion as an empowering force for entrepreneurs, reducing barriers and facilitating independent business operations. However, he expresses concern about the surge in low-quality AI-generated content flooding the internet. This abundance poses challenges for reliable information, impacting search engines and customer reviews. Chris, then, advises caution, urging teams to cross-verify information from multiple sources to navigate the influx of potentially unreliable content. [28:37] He addresses AI concerns such as copyright and regulations, emphasizing open communication with clients and educating them about AI's benefits while respecting their comfort levels. Chris shares an example of a cybersecurity startup using ChatGPT to train sales teams in crafting effective emails, demonstrating AI's practical application. With the AI's transformative power, he mentions the importance of leadership in guiding ethical and effective use for enhanced efficiency and client relationships. In discussing customer experience challenges in siloed organizations, he shares the need for strong executive leadership to align departments around the customer for a seamless experience. [37:04] Chris proposes two strategies for improved ROI: broadening discussions to include retention economics and analyzing the full customer lifecycle using data, with a focus on post-purchase customer experience (CX). For growth and staffing, he suggests AI proficiency can facilitate growth without increasing staff or, alternatively, allow staff reduction while maintaining productivity. In managing workload and preventing burnout, Chris intervenes personally in identified hotspots, introducing AI tools to enhance efficiency and relieve stress, emphasizing empowerment for effective AI use by teams. [40:57] He outlines three impacts of AI on companies: individual efficiency, organizational efficiency, and innovation. Individual efficiency involves behavioral change for effective AI use. Organizational efficiency is demonstrated through automating tasks, like a client automaker's spreadsheet process. Chris also stresses tool creation for leveraging AI in organizational efficiency. Additionally, they highlight the long-term advantage of innovation, using AI for a competitive edge through unique solutions and data understanding. Reflecting on AI's current state, he acknowledges its early stage, stressing the need for a learning mindset to navigate the rapidly evolving field. [42:16] Closing Quote: Remember, AI is not going to replace humans, but humans with AI are going to replace humans without AI. -Karim Lakhani Quotable Quotes: “The positive way to look at it is if you get to a point of growth, there is a path to growing without adding headcount.” “ We work with clients, and say, we do this, and our product is the greatest.” “As leaders, it's changing that behavior to get them to actually use it in the right way.” “Don't rely on the first article that you see about something because it may or may not be real.” “Don't go to just one customer review site, go to five before you buy something,” “Don't trust one source.” “But if you don't try, you don't ever know what it can or can't do.” “We're going to supply you with all the tools you need, but you still have to actually engage and use the tools that we're giving you.” “It's how are we going to lead people along and change behavior to get them to use those tools so they get the benefit and power from it.” “That's when I realized that was a me-problem if two people weren't using it right, that's a them-problem when everybody's not using it right.” “The starting point is just an understanding of what's possible.” “Make sure that the facts, figures, concepts that it's bringing into you are actually valid.” “If you're relying on their understanding of the world, that you're not giving it to it.” “And until you try it, you don't really know.” “You need to be strategic and creative.” “AI is not coming for your job, but a marketer who knows how to use AI is coming for your job.” Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Chris Johnson LinkedIn | Chris Johnson Website | LaneTerralever Twitter |
Dr. Benjamin Ritter, founder of Live for Yourself Consulting, emphasizes the importance of humor in public speaking and maintaining a balance between calmness and charisma. He highlights the significance of standing out in leadership and embracing awkward situations to build confidence. Ben defines executive presence through three pillars: vision, credibility, and presence, and links it to a filtered level of emotional intelligence, focusing on authenticity and adaptation to organizational norms. He discusses building positive relationships, adapting, and situational leadership within organizations. Sharing his journey of overcoming social awkwardness, Ben contrasts this with his clients' fears and stresses the importance of identifying and addressing client pain points. He gives practical advice on personal development, such as minimizing media consumption and focusing on impactful content. Lastly, he advises employees to seek regular one-on-one meetings with leaders and suggests that job candidates inquire about a company's current focus during interviews. Key Takeaways: [02:21] Dr. Ben shares the importance of humor when speaking in front of the crowd. He also stated that it is important to maintain calmness while giving value to charisma in their professional life. Dr. Ben discusses his adaptability in soccer, being a "Swiss army knife”, praising adaptability but stresses the importance of standing out and occasionally being unconventional for leadership development. He also talked about the idea of intentionally embracing awkward situations to build confidence. [05:40] He discusses clients seeking to develop executive presence for success. Dr. Ben stresses the importance of defining it based on organizational expectations. Executive presence is broken down into three pillars: vision, credibility, and presence. These encompass actions, speech, and appearance. He also explains that executive presence is a filtered level of emotional intelligence, emphasizing authenticity while adapting to organizational expectations. He also mentions the importance of building positive relationships, adapting, and situationally leading within an organization. [12:35] Dr. Ben defines executive presence as the ability to influence and persuade without authority. He also discusses qualities of effective sports team captains, emphasizing the importance of quiet yet commanding composure and leading by example. Dr. Ben also mentions an article on self-leadership, where clarity is identified as the first pillar, crucial for avoiding feeling lost and achieving intentional goals. [20:35] He shares about personal growth, recounting how overcoming social awkwardness involved intentionally facing discomfort. Dr. Ben contrasts his experiences with clients who fear basic actions. He emphasizes the significance of identifying pain points, connecting with clients, and leading them towards beneficial solutions. Dr. Ben also mentions the importance of sales, especially for those looking to build side businesses. [25:55] Dr. Ben emphasizes the importance of effective self-promotion, linking it to self-belief. Discomfort with self-promotion often stems from a lack of confidence in one's own value. He also exchanges lessons learned with Jim and Jan from hosting podcasts, including the realization that alcohol impairs podcast quality and the discovery of personal speech fillers during editing. Dr. Ben believes that famous individuals often have less interesting talk tracks, while real gems come from everyday stories. [30:03] He offers practical advice on learning and personal development, like reducing media intake and focusing on impactful content repeatedly. Dr. Ben talks about the challenge of remembering key information and stresses the value of embedding learned concepts into daily life. Organizations prioritizing employee satisfaction only during prosperous times and suggests the need for improved metrics. Dr. Ben advocates for a shift in perspective, with employees taking a more proactive role in their careers and organizations creating environments conducive to employee engagement. [31:58] Dr. Ben emphasizes the employee's role in engagement, encouraging them to demand one-on-one meetings with leaders. In interviews, candidates should inquire about a company's current focus or what they are trying to address. Dr. Ben's clients seek the freedom to actively pursue their career ideas, challenging the perception that employees can't authentically show up at work. [36:08] Closing Quote: Remember, if you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values, they're hobbies. -John Stewart Quotable Quotes: “If you're trying to become a leader, make sure you turn that charisma on all the time.” “It's also important to stand out and to not always be the one that is following the lead and instead to help people be the leader.” “Let's figure out how to have a conversation with your manager to define what their expectations are.” “It's about creating alignment, being a champion and an advocate for the organization while also building a brand.” “Credibility is a combination of your skills.” “It's like being a leader without having, you don't need authority to be that leader.” “Self-leadership is the only true leadership in the world.” “The most important leader in your life is you” “No matter how incredible a leader you are, the people that you're supposedly leading are ultimately the ones making the decision.” “Without clarity, you tend to see people getting stuck, feeling lost, doubting themselves, investing in things that aren't really where they want to go.” “Don't drink alcohol and do podcasts. You think you're funny, but you're not.” “The most famous people with their talk track are the least interesting people to talk to, and that the real stories are where the real gems are.” “No matter what someone's story is, it tends to come down to a lot of the same things.” “If you find one book that makes a difference, read that book consistently until it stops making a difference.” “An organization should be an environment where employees can successfully engage towards their interests.” “If you were in an interview, your job is to ask enough questions to figure out what they're looking for and what they're trying to solve.” Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dr. Ben Ritter Website | Dr. Ben Ritter LinkedIn | Dr. Ben Ritter Twitter | Dr. Ben Ritter Instagram |
Ed Batista, an executive coach and Stanford lecturer, discusses self-coaching, highlighting its relational aspect and the value of writing for self-reflection. He underscores the necessity of personalizing documentation techniques and references Stanford's successful "touchy-feely" course, explaining its organizational impact. Ed addresses the crucial role of coaching in today's divisive climate, focusing on the challenges leaders face in navigating polarizing social and political issues and providing guidance on effective leadership and team management through strong communication. Key Takeaways: [2:44] Ed describes his significant life transition from living in San Francisco for 30 years to unexpectedly moving to a working sheep and cattle ranch in Marin County due to the pandemic. Various factors, including the change to virtual work, retirement from teaching at Stanford, and a reassessment of priorities, led to this shift. He reflects on the challenges and educational experiences of rural living and shares the difficult decision to step away from teaching a course they founded at Stanford, "The Art of Self Coaching," but later on, realize that it was the right choice. [7:10] He explains that self-coaching is a self-directed process, but not a solitary one. Ed believes that while reflection is crucial, it is equally important to engage with others in the process. His teaching approach, which involves giving students readings and prompting them to integrate the material with personal experiences through writing. He then encourages students to recognize the need for both solitary reflection and engagement with others, as the latter is essential for discussing challenges and seeking help. [9:33] Ed shares about the value of reflective writing, such as journaling, for personal development. He mentions that traditional diary-style journaling can be tedious and unsustainable, leading many to abandon the practice. Subsequently, he advocates for a more personalized and sustainable approach, emphasizing that the act of writing itself, regardless of whether one revisits the content, has numerous benefits. Ed also provides insight into their experience with a course called "Interpersonal Dynamics" at Stanford, also known as "touchy-feely”. He provides a historical context, detailing the course's evolution and its enduring impact on individuals and organizations. [17:09] With the increasing challenges in this world, including social, political, and economic issues, Ed explains that there is a need for coaching, particularly among leaders. In the current environment, leaders may find it challenging to navigate these complexities and may feel compelled to issue statements or commitments that prove difficult to fulfill. With this, the need for leaders to address these challenges in coaching relationships is crucial, because coaching provides a safe space for leaders to acknowledge the pressure they face, discuss the complexity of issues, and explore different perspectives. [20:11] He discusses the challenges faced by leaders in addressing social and political issues within the current tumultuous and polarized environment. Ed highlights the complexity of these issues and the pressure leaders feel to adopt simplified stances that may not align with the best interests of their businesses. He also emphasized the importance of acknowledging the nuanced needs of various stakeholders, including employees and customers. Ed also diverted into the topic of impacts of virtual work on social connections, suggesting that even in virtual settings, finding ways to create in-person experiences can foster social cohesion, and how to address problems in the workplace. [30:19] Ed Bautista contrasts one-on-one coaching, highlighting its high fidelity and settled mindset, with challenges faced by leaders in group settings, especially in virtual environments. He stresses the importance of camera use, in virtual meetings, and recommends one-on-one interactions within group contexts for deeper insights. Ed provides advice on group facilitation, emphasizing a leader's intervention when necessary, and the consideration of external facilitators. Ed advises workplace leaders to offer support, coaching, and clear expectations while cautioning against prematurely assigning leadership responsibilities. [38:44] He talks about the challenges individuals face when transitioning from individual contributor roles to leadership positions. There is a need for a shift in mindset, especially for those who were valued for their technical expertise. He also highlights the emotional difficulty in relinquishing the role of the "smartest person in the room" and adapting to a new way of adding value as a leader. Ed also notes the misconception of overworking as a way to add value and stresses the importance of understanding where one truly adds the greatest value, focusing on high-impact tasks rather than routine activities. [44:44] In discussing organizational culture, Ed Batista highlights the interplay between empathy and accountability. He critiques high-accountability environments lacking empathy, comparing them to boot camps without a sense of safety. Conversely, he warns against overly empathetic cultures with low accountability, likening them to unsustainable daycares. Ed advocates for a balanced approach, encouraging organizations to cultivate cultures that are both high in accountability and high in empathy. Despite acknowledging challenges, he emphasizes the potential benefits of finding equilibrium between these two elements. [44:46] Closing Quote: Remember, each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen. - Pete Carroll. Quotable Quotes: “If you're deliberate about trying, then you give yourself a fighting chance.” “It is a matter of understanding the sort of ruthless power law, the Pareto curve in life that says if you're tackling the tasks that allow you the greatest value, and you get them right, everything else on your to-do list is probably irrelevant.” “We can bring people together from across vastly different geographies.” “Empathy is about understanding where they're coming from.” “We wound up creating an environment in which people felt obligated to stay silent or mouth the official position.” “If we feel that sense of interpersonal connection, and have a greater sense of social cohesion, there's greater trust.” “How do we create enough media in person experience to ensure that people feel a sense of social connection?” “As a business, we're not ignoring the social and political context that we're operating in, but we're recognizing that we need to shift our stance somehow.” “The worse the state of the world is, the more leaders benefit from good coaching.” “We gain by virtue of writing down thoughts and feelings about experiences, even if we never reread it.” “Construct writings in a way that's going to be sustainable for you and that's going to work.” “You've got to determine what are the most important questions and answer them for yourselves.” “We need some time, time for solitary reflection, and we also have to come back and engage with other people and integrate that.” Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Stanford “Touchy-feely” course | Ed Batista LinkedIn | Ed Batista Website | Ed Batista Instagram | Ed Batista Twitter |
Jim and Jan discuss modern leadership challenges: information overload and excessive meetings. They stress the need for present, attentive leadership, focusing on situational awareness and problem-solving rather than getting bogged down by irrelevant tasks. Giving proper attention as a leader is key for informed decision-making. They advocate simplicity and problem-solving amid distractions, highlighting the value of experience over education. Practical tips include staying focused, minimizing distractions, and organizing tasks by prioritizing goals. Encouraging creativity, self-reliance, and disciplined time for innovative thinking is crucial. They also note the role of humor in shifting perspectives and the importance of meditation, feedback, and interaction to find solutions as a leader. Key Takeaways: [02:13] Jim and Jan discuss the challenges of excessive stimulation and the ease of tasks like scheduling meetings, which can lead to distractions. There is also a huge impact of technology on information flow, comparing it to friction because of the force of either pulling or pushing. Jim and Jan also mention that it is crucial to stay focused amid distractions, emphasizing the leadership's role in not only directing attention but also providing attention. Leaders should also be good listeners and questioners, highlighting the value of providing focused attention as a display of respect. [05:36] They identify eight crucial areas for leaders, including emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and accountability, acknowledging the challenge of balancing work, team development, and personal life, emphasizing the need for prioritization due to time constraints. Jim and Jan suggest adding contextual awareness and using multiple perspectives, referencing the metaphor of looking through different lenses. The importance of understanding various viewpoints and the context in decision-making is also critical in drawing parallels with successful hedge fund managers who interpret information effectively for informed decisions. They also propose to add curiosity to the list of leadership qualities, emphasizing the importance of questioning established practices. [10:57] Jim and Jan recall a workshop insight about job interviews being about the employer's problem and about an interview that talks about the job instead of speaking about themselves. They stress the importance of staying focused on problem-solving and not getting distracted. Jim and Jan share the need to simplify life and work, instead of making strategic choices complicated and eliminating distractions that don't add value. Most of the time, companies or individuals are more emphasized with how high the education a person has achieved instead of looking deeper into their experiences. [15:10] They share insights from a skilled craftsman and how observing his precision is fascinating, while talking about the challenge of changing behaviors compared to the tangible results seen in craftsmanship. Jim and Jan present five practical tips for staying focused: eliminate distractions, stop multitasking, practice mindfulness, take short breaks, and organize tasks. There must be a modification to first identify distractions and emphasize self-awareness in managing them with giving the importance of understanding personal distractions, silencing notifications, and recognizing the value of short breaks and organizational strategies. [23:01] Jim and Jan discuss task organization from a leadership perspective, noting their preference for paper systems and recognizing the need for flexibility in how individuals organize their work. They caution against prescribing specific organizational methods for teams, emphasizing the importance of allowing personalization to avoid disempowering team members. They also share insights from an article by Dan Coleman in HBR, highlighting the characteristics of focused leaders who can command their attention, control impulses, and weed out distractions while allowing their minds to roam freely. [27:28] They share the counterintuitive nature of weeding out distractions to foster broad exploration of ideas, critical for leadership and vision-setting. They mention a powerful question they once heard: "What are you pretending you don't understand?" where it means there is a need for self-reliance and problem definition. It is also better if a group or an individual uses whiteboards and visual tools for brainstorming and problem-solving, for this will urge the importance of creating an environment conducive to free thinking. In addition, they advocate for discipline in carving out time for undisciplined thinking, a seemingly paradoxical concept, or suggesting changing physical contexts to stimulate different perspectives, whether by going to a remote location, using different tools, or trying alternative methods to encourage fresh insights. [28:32] Jim and Jan reflect on the role of humor in leadership, acknowledging the grain of truth embedded in sarcasm and the power of humor to change the tone of a situation. They share the importance of time as a precious resource and encourage listeners to consider how they can make time for a life of service. To highlight the ongoing quest for effectiveness in leadership, it is better to have feedback and interaction as well. [31:28] Closing Quote: Remember, millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. - Bernard Baruch Quotable Quotes: “We're all a work in progress.” “Your answers may actually come out from the bit of truth embedded in the humor.” “Humor can be a tool to help you think a bit differently, and to change the tone of a situation.” “Focused leaders can command the full range of their own attention.” “Identify what a distraction is for you and just walk through.” “Be focused to eliminate distractions. Stop multitasking, practice mindfulness, take short breaks, and organize your tasks.” “You don't see results immediately in the form of observable behaviors like you can with craftspeople.” “Simplify your life.” “We get distracted with the complexity of a situation, and it blinds us from the simplicity that should serve as the answer that's going to save our time and effort.” “You need to figure out what that is and stop doing all the other stuff that doesn't move the needle.” “It's about the need the customer has.” “You need to be able to look at things through multiple lenses at the same time or to be able to bounce in between them, because then you miss too much.” “I think if you ask a good question, and then you listen, that's such a great display of respect. “The way to earn respect is to give it.” “We're overemphasizing education over experience.” “It's not just about directing attention, it's about providing attention.” Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
Lon Stroschein, a bestselling author, spearheads the "normal 40" movement, guiding individuals to reclaim life control. His journey from the corporate world to a more fulfilling existence addresses challenges of midlife change, focusing on financial security and self-image. Lon advocates introspection before career shifts, emphasizing courage in starting anew rather than quitting. He urges exploration of passions, even those seeming destined to fail, as they might hold true passion. Lon's trajectory, from executive coaching certification to discovering his love for coaching, signifies his transition. He highlights external triggers for life changes, financial concerns, marital agreements, and the importance of communication and guidance. Additionally, his own experience stresses the significance of attending to loved ones amidst corporate demands. Key Takeaways: [03:00] Lon shares the biggest fear a man can have before dying. It is when you have everything materially but do not have fulfillment in life. He stated that he started to discover what road he wanted to take when he realized what life he can have to fulfill his passion. You might have things that you are doing, but are not sure if that's the thing you really want to do for a lifetime. Lon also shares that discovering your path comes from your gut but at some point, it won't be easy to do. By doing what you want, you might also need to leave something behind and become someone else and bet on your new career, defining it as a trade because you don't know what amount you will receive after giving something. [08:56] He is a successful professional, but he shares that he found himself questioning the meaning of his well-established life. Despite a great job and accomplishments, he felt a lingering emptiness during his daily routine. As he drives to his office in his car, he often wonders if this was all there was to his next 15 years. Lon also discusses that he retreated into self-reflection, wrestling with gratitude for his achievements and the yearning for something more because of his urge to passion. The story unfolds as he navigates this internal journey, seeking meaning beyond the checkboxes of success. [12:55] In sharing his experience, Lon highlights two major hurdles in making the tough decision to leave a stable job. First, there's the financial challenge, where individuals have to consider risking the income they've come to depend on, often feeling a responsibility to their family. The second hurdle revolves around the carefully crafted professional image, encompassing business cards, office titles, and social media presence. He also shares that transitioning from a well-defined role to uncertainty means not just risking financial stability, but also challenging the identity built over the years. Making this leap involves trading the security of income and a familiar image for the uncertainties of the unknown. [19:46] He emphasizes on commencing with clarity and engaging in profound conversations with oneself, family, and friends to understand personal identity and potential. He stated that starting something aligned with your envisioned future before quitting is the optimal strategy, although he acknowledges that his journey involved quitting first. Lon shares the trigger for change often surfaces when the Sunday evening pit in your gut becomes a persistent indicator that there might be a better path forward. He advises slowing down, earnestly exploring potential futures, and identifying endeavors worth investing time in. [27:44] Lon shares that he conducts weekly "ramble" sessions on their website, engaging in one-hour conversations with people who sign up. They ask a set series of questions, particularly focusing on the emotions participants are experiencing. Many express feelings of being on autopilot, frustration, control, uncertainty, stress, annoyance, isolation, and a sense of being stuck. He mentions that participants share their desires and life situations, leading the individual to pose a critical question about what their spouse wants for them, not from them. This often uncovers assumptions and prompts a realization that they haven't discussed their future with their spouse. [29:29] He recalls countless instances when he was asked to do something, responding with a casual "maybe," but deep down had no intention of pursuing it. Lon shares the realization he had with regard to the importance of aligning actions with their passion and mission emphasizing the need to show up for the "maybe" moments, acknowledging that it's a sufficient starting point. By showing up, you can explore whether the idea is worth pursuing or if it needs to be discarded. There should be excitement and enjoyment in embracing the possibilities that a "maybe" holds, they encourage others to give it a chance and experience the thrill of uncertainty. [31:49] Lon shares a powerful personal story in his book. While on the brink of celebrating a significant professional achievement, the sale of their company, a critical family crisis unfolds. His daughter reaches out for help due to suicidal thoughts. This is when Lon realized that it is important to balance work achievements with a family crisis and the need to prioritize familial connections and be attentive to subtle calls for help within one's household, even amid professional pursuits. By this, he aims to inspire readers to reassess priorities and recognize the significance of family well-being amid career pursuits. [43:52] Closing Quote: Remember, be miserable or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice. - Wayne Dyer Quotable Quotes: “A certain number of years is not a prerequisite to knowing that this isn't where your future is.” “Go beyond business.” “The hardest professional decisions you make in your life is to leave what you've become great at and take a bet on yourself for what you want to live as.” “This is key- two things, it's not going to solve itself and nobody's going to show up and fix it for me.” “You will have to leave something behind, lay something down and become someone else.” “Take a chance or a bet on yourself in a new path - all of that is a trade.” “Get to where you are by intention, hard work, and by all plans.” “Talk to someone before you feel like you just can't take it anymore, and you have to trade.” “To inspire change, you have to share deeply and intimately of things that you've experienced, endured, lived through, and learned from.” “Find someone who's done it and ask them to talk.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Lon Stroschein: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Lon Stroschein LinkedIn | Lon Stroschein Website | Lon Stroschein Twitter |
Marc Polymeropoulos served for 26 years in the intelligence community in field and leadership assignments. He is an expert in counterterrorism, covert action, and human intelligence collection. Marc discusses the theme of building connections, and emphasizes the significance of internal, team, and personal relationships. He highlights the key to relationship mastery: empathy, active listening, and a shift from self-focus to team care. Marc shares insights into the art of making friends for a living, especially in recruiting agents, navigating the highs and lows of building trust. He introduces leadership principles such as the "glue guy" and "win an Oscar," emphasizing the value of every team member's contribution. Key Takeaways [03:13] Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA pro with 26 years under his belt, specializing in counterterrorism. Marc digs on his recently devoured book, highlighting its theme of building connections in the agency, with a focus on internal, team, and personal relationships. Marc spills the beans on the key to relationship mastery: empathy, active listening, and a shift from self-focus to team care. Jim throws in Stephen Covey's "The Speed of Trust," questioning the feasibility of quick trust-building in the spy world. Marc keeps it real, emphasizing the delicate balance between speed and the time needed for trust to truly stick. [06:43] Marc spills the beans on the art of making friends for a living, especially in the tricky world of recruiting agents.He shares the highs and lows of building trust, from family introductions to navigating personal connections in the espionage game. Teamwork is a different vibe here—think more competition than camaraderie. Going from a solo operator to managing a team brings a whole new set of challenges, shifting from a "me" to a "we" mindset. Marc keeps it human, spicing up the spy talk with personal stories. It's like your favorite spy thriller, but with a dose of realness and a dash of humanity. [15:17] Marc reveals a gem from his leadership principles – the "glue guy." It's all about recognizing that everyone on the team matters, from the case officers to the IT and finance folks. Marc shares how, over time, he learned that true success comes from valuing every contribution, not just the visible ones. He recounts a story from the world of baseball, emphasizing the importance of the unsung heroes – the backup catcher who never took the field but caught every bullpen. Marc introduces another leadership principle – "win an Oscar." [18:29] Marc discusses the challenge of leadership – blending authenticity with the need to inspire. Drawing from CIA experiences, he emphasizes the importance of acknowledging tough situations without succumbing to negativity. He also touches on the evolving concept of truth, referencing a Bible verse at the CIA entrance. Marc reflects on their espionage skills, offering insights into navigating the complexities of discerning truth in today's data-driven world. [23:25] Marc has real advice for business. He stresses the CIA's focus on honesty and integrity, not just in missions but also how colleagues treat each other. He shares personal stories about integrity in action and the importance of speaking truth to power. He touches on high-stakes situations, the need for openness in teamwork, and the grounding principles that shape their work. [26:50] Marc sheds light on a side of high-stakes worlds rarely discussed—the human element. He discusses the importance of wellness and resiliency, drawing parallels between his experiences and those in military expeditions. Marc emphasizes the need for patience in careers, highlighting the struggle with issues like alcoholism and divorce. He introduces the concept of a "combat leadership chassis," urging individuals to focus on what they can control for better mental health. [28:03] Marc shares insights on the transition from hands-on leadership to strategic roles. He highlights the challenges of moving from tactical to executive positions, emphasizing the shift from day-to-day details to broader strategic decisions. Marc reflects on the importance of addressing budget presentations, resource meetings, and intelligence priorities in his senior executive role. [31:08] Marc shares a powerful story of overcoming adversity during a counterterrorism operation. He reflects on the loss of colleagues and his decision to return to Afghanistan to avenge their deaths. Marc emphasizes the importance of honoring those who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. [35:02] Closing quote: And remember, written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. — John F. Kennedy Quotable Quotes "Relationships are everything. I was really good at the end, maybe not so great along the way, but here are the things I learned. What do relationships mean? Well, it means you have to have empathy. You have to have the ability to listen." "Bad news is not like fine wine. It doesn't get better over time." "It's not failing. It's failing and then learning from it. Failure is unacceptable. Failing is okay. That's adversity. That's how you grow and that's how you learn." "That makes me a hell of a recruiter because, again, it's that personal side. But guess what? My two-year or three-year tour is up, and you need to institutionalize that arrangement. So, again, this agent is not spying for me, Marc Polymeropoulos. He's spying for the CIA, for the US. Government. So I have to turn this person over to another officer." "First line managers struggle so much at CIA because all of a sudden it's like, hey, it's not about you. No more cable traffics. Marc Polymeropoulos saved the world. It's more of what did the unit do?" "Everybody matters. It's that power of contribution, and it's that everybody matters. And again, going back to the beginnings of my career, where it's harder to get into the CIA than it is to get into Harvard, it costs a quarter million dollars for the US. Government to train me into this kind of lethal machine." "It means you're on display all the time. You never have a day off as a leader. And I have to be careful with this because you also have to kind of caveat that with you have to be authentic." "But building trust does take kind of repeated instances of doing the right thing. The opposite of that is you can also lose it right away." "Do the right know, just be honest, be ethical, have integrity, and that, in essence, will build trust. And so that, to me, were kind of words that I live by." "You got to take care of yourself, your body, follow the path of these elite athletes who have been doing this for a long time." "Revenge is something that we're not supposed to talk about or use as any kind of motivation for kinetic activities." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Marc Polymeropoulos Twitter | Marc Polymeropoulos LinkedIn | Marc Polymeropoulos Website |
Harris III, an illusionist and storyteller, spent much of his life traveling the world performing his unique brand of magic and storytelling for more than two million people on five continents. His book, "The Wonder Switch: The Difference Between Limiting Your Life and Living Your Dream," discusses rediscovering wonder and transforming your life. He highlights the concept of "starting with wow" and the intersection of wonder, and storytelling as crucial roles to effective leadership, stressing the need to reconnect with our initial sense of wonder to find purpose and beat burnout. He advocates for curiosity in leadership, emphasizing the difference between "wow people" who focus on vision and "how people" who analyze problems, while this would also increase creativity to people. He promotes a shift in leadership perception, encouraging individuals to take charge of their stories and challenge the status quo, which he termed as WoW (Wonder-oriented Worldview) level leadership. Harris III asserts that worry is a misuse of imagination, and wonder is the antidote to apathy. Key Takeaways: [2:48] Harris III points out that magic often doesn't receive the recognition it deserves as an art form, particularly in the realm of social media. With the limitations imposed by COVID-19, magicians and illusionists had to adapt to continue making a living. Some turned to revealing the behind-the-scenes of magic online, transforming it into humor or pranks. Additionally, Harris III mentions Simon Sinek's book, 'Start with Why,' which emphasizes that effective leaders inspire action in others rather than simply leading them. [4:42] He discusses the "Start with Wow" book, highlighting its perspective that leadership is intertwined with communication, both with others and oneself. The book emphasizes the significance of revisiting the purpose behind your actions, bringing you back to a grounded state. It underscores that wonder is the pathway to achieving something remarkable. The book suggests that unexpected opportunities may arise when you least anticipate them, and staying vigilant is crucial. In times of losing focus or forgetting your initial motivation, the advice is to return to the mindset of wonder, symbolized by "wow." [10:30] Harris III details how curiosity is essentially a wonder in action, describing it as a genuine physiological state that sparks interest in our surroundings. The connection between wonder and storytelling is highlighted, where wonder inspires belief in the potential of new narratives, and storytelling influences behavior. Emphasizing that effective leadership begins with self-leadership, he stresses the importance of fostering curiosity without facing ridicule. Leaders are encouraged to understand that curiosity doesn't mandate blind belief, and it's acceptable to question things even without personal observation. [18:16] He talks about two kinds of negative people: the "wow" people, who are usually pessimistic, and the "how" people, who try to handle their own fears. In meetings as an example, they tend to divide the two, usually choosing how people. But, to come up with a great end, the two must collide - wow playing the role of vision while how plays the role of mission. Harris III relates it to a Ping pong game, where wow will do the action of wonder and how ill do the action of executing. [25:51] Harris III shares the significance of collective creativity within a group. Emphasizing that team members utilizing their creative thinking can result in superior outcomes. He also delves into the notion that a leader's most valuable asset is their imagination, aligning it with the concept of storytelling. Although everyone is inherently born with a natural inclination toward wonder, there is a tendency to lean towards a how mindset. Furthermore, creativity is not an exclusive trait but a fundamental quality inherent in all individuals, as imagination is an ever-present and open aspect of our nature. He draws a distinction between anxiety as a product of imagination and worry and irrational fear as misapplication of imagination. [29:41] Harris III offers his perspective on leadership, focusing primarily on self-leadership, asserting that everyone has the capacity to lead themselves and others. This involves taking charge of your actions and not leaving things to fate, actively pursuing your goals instead of waiting for circumstances to dictate your path. Harris III distinguishes between leaders and managers, noting that leaders are accountable for the future, whereas managers handle present responsibilities. He defines great leadership as excelling in self-leadership, encapsulated in what he terms "WoW level leadership," comprising self-leadership, team leadership, and marketplace leadership. [43:05] Harris III shares his 30-second thoughts if given the chance to speak in front of a crowd: Roald Dahl famously said that those who don't believe in magic will never find it. And that's because we think that seeing is believing. And if seeing is believing is true, that means that we will be able to believe once we see. But seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing. Because what we believe has the power to change what we see. Wonder is the state in which we have permission to believe. And if we can live wide awake to a state of wonder, we can always start with WoW. And if we start with WoW in leading ourselves and the way we lead others, and the way we lead in the marketplace at large, we can create a better future both for ourselves, for others and the world. Because great leadership, wow level leadership, always starts with wow. [49:45] Closing Quote: Remember, he who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe is as good as dead. His eyes are closed. - Albert Einstein Quotable Quotes: “Wisdom and wonder are intertwined” “Leaders believe and invited us to step up in leadership” “The quickest way to find our way back to it is to start with wow. Understand that that wow gives birth to your why, and it can help you pave the way.” “You were meant for more. So lean in, pay a little bit closer attention” “It's the wow moment that whispers to us and says, there's more going on here than meets the eye.” “Wipe the fog from your glasses so that you can see a little bit more clearly because something is trying to wake you up to a new reality.” “Understand that curiosity is simply wondered in action.” “Great leadership in the marketplace is the result of leading a team, that all starts with leading yourself.” “Only in a state of wonder where our brain loosens its grip on those stories and opens us up to the possibility of what could be.” “Curiosity is essential, not just in leadership, but in every form of coaching. When we are cynical instead of curious, when we are worried instead of in wonder, what ends up happening is we push off the stories we're being invited into.” “Cynicism is the fear posing as confidence. What you see is not always what you get.” “Human beings are not very good at determining what is real or true based on what our senses perceive. Our senses are so easily fooled, and even our emotions can easily lead us astray.” “Believing isn't about seeing; it's navigating reality through the lens of our own stories.” “When we choose to believe something, it's what we choose to believe, which is a narrative that changes the story.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Harris III: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Harris III LinkedIn | Harris III Website | Harris III Twitter | Harris III Instagram |
Jim and Jan talk about how difficult it is to maintain focus in a world that moves quickly. They state that a lack of time and resources is causing people to feel overburdened, busy, and frustrated. The paradox of choice, which holds that having too many options causes indecision and dissatisfaction with decisions made, as well as the addiction to busyness, and the difficulty of effectively managing time. Burnout and frustration can also result from being overly busy and realizing that you are not making any progress. They also stress how crucial it is to prioritize, simplify, and base decisions on what offers the best value for your time, money, and energy. Limiting the number of meetings per day and establishing boundaries with calendars are two more doable solutions to deal with these problems. Jim and Jan also talk about the importance of understanding the value of crisis leadership, that being in a constant state of crisis is not productive. They address the idea of availability. They share the importance of staying focused and finding fulfillment in one's career, and emphasizing the need for clear values and goals to maintain focus. https://bit.ly/TLP—388 Key Takeaways: [1:21] Jim and Jan talk about the reality of today’s working environment, where people are spending their life too much on their tasks until it leads them to frustrations. They also added that a lot of people are workaholics and keep themselves busy to the point of losing focus on their goals. People, especially young professionals, might be losing track as they are trying to be a jack of all trades. They also added that it is calmer to respond rather than reacting to anything, and learning not to say ‘yes’ to everything. [4:59] They share about the nature of multitasking, in which you can’t do more than one task at the same time, but it is more like bouncing from one to another. Jim and Jan also share the pillars of self-reliant leadership: Lead self, Lead others, and Lead the organization. Further, they also discuss the importance of making a decision. They explain that the more choices you have, the more you can’t come up with a very good decision. By having too many options, you will never find your true happiness regardless of what you chose because you will always wonder what would be the scenario if you chose the other option. [11:32] Jim and Jan share that when aiming the goal of maintaining focus, you have to include discipline. It is imperative to look at your calendar and organize what you need to do- from the least to the most priority. Fully loading your schedule will lead you to frustrations and the missed opportunity of recharging yourself. The advantage of limiting your schedule will also give you time to prepare and follow up the things you have to do. [15:07] They mention the way people should respond to things and other people. They also share the seven villains of chaos: Con - he is the leader of the chaos that helped you to get where you are but end up not helping you anymore. Jack of all trades - the one who wants to do everything and do multitasking. Gorilla - the strong one but makes a mess in everything. Miss opportunity- is the distraction and gets you far away from what is important. Siphon - he is the pain in the neck. The jumbler- is someone that throws a bunch of crap against a wall and hopes it sticks. And the overload - is someone that masks everything they do with data, but it paralyzes you into a state of analysis paralysis. [24:30] Jim and Jan talk about being content and fulfilled at the same time. You have to remain focused and set aside the things that do not have value or your least priorities. They also mention that it is hard to maintain focus if you are not aware of what you really want, and you don’t know what you value. It is imperative to know your goals before taking the path. [29:46] Closing Quote: At the end of the day, you can't control the results; you can only control your effort level and your focus Quotable Quotes: “Saying yes to everything, never saying no, will let your time control you” “You have to control your reaction and respond to things rather” “You are not paid to be busy” “The more options you have, the harder it is to decide and to decide well.” “When we talk about focus, it is about is prioritizing” “The more options you have, the less happy you will be no matter what you decide on, because you're always going to wonder if you made the right decision” “Good enough is the best. The best isn't the best.” “It's hard to be focused if you don't know what you value, and you don't know what you want.” This is the book mentioned in this discussion: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
Larry Kaufman is the author of “The Networking Connecting Giving (NCG) Factor: A Formula for Building Life-Changing Relationships from College to Retirement.” He is a connector, giver, and rainmaker who lives his life to help others succeed. He is also a senior-level Sales & Operations Leader and has been a globally-published speaker and trainer on LinkedIn for more than a decade. Larry shares his insights about the nature of networking, which is to know people rather than purely focusing on business. He highlights the significance of approaching interactions with a genuine curiosity about others and actively seeking ways to offer assistance. Additionally, Larry shares his perspective on networking events, noting their continued relevance as long as there is a clear goal or purpose for attendance. Key Takeaways: [03:40] Larry shares his personal views on what networking should look like. It should be focused more on getting to know more and sharing stories with people. In that way, you are also selling what you are capable of doing and what you have, but not focusing solely on exchanging cards to get the other people’s attention. He emphasizes that networking is more about building relationships and not purely marketing. [06:51] He shares some tips on how to build rapport with other people such as asking personal questions, just as long as they are comfortable enough to share. You can also ask them things that are not usual to business terms, like what do they value or want, or something related to their outside business world. He also reiterated that by asking them personal questions, you are able to get them out from what they really feel because we don’t have a solid idea on what they are going through. [13:02] Larry advises young professionals on how they should conquer their fears in a networking industry, on what they can give, or how they should do it effectively. Young professionals do not have to do it alone, so they should not be afraid to ask for help, especially at the onset of their career. In regard to asking for help, Larry also added that it should not only be done at the start of their career but should be up until retirement which he also included it in his book. [20:07] He mentions a practical strategy for beginners in networking, which is that talking to one person in a month is not a bad start. He also reiterated that this also works at any level of one’s career. They can do this by checking people that surround them and have to add one person to their network at a time until you manage to increase it little by little. Larry also mentions that for today’s generation, there are a lot of tools that can be used to communicate with other people such as zooms, FaceTime, and any other social media platforms. [29:29] Larry also shares how to be indispensable and the importance of this to a company. Being indispensable can be by showing other people that you are a shoulder they can lean on. It also means you are there to support them all the way and by getting to know them, you can easily understand their needs and can provide them what you can give. [39:20] Closing Quote: Remember, “No one has ever become poor by giving”.- Anne Frank Quotable Quotes: “ If you lead with yourself, you will live with yourself.” “Don't call me to fix your tire, but I can call someone to fix your tire. It may not stay on, but I would respond.” “The more I learn about people personally and professionally, I find ways to be helpful.” “People must not be too quick to talk about themselves, but nothing to do with the other person,” “Giving comes back in many ways, it may be never from that person, but it comes back in other ways.” “You don't have to be a connector and a giver alone, you can ask” “You can be a mentor, you can volunteer your time to a charity, you don’t have to play the world’s perceptions” “Meeting one new person that we could add to our network is already powerful” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Larry: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Larry Kaufman LinkedIn | Larry Kaufman Website | Larry Kaufman Twitter |
Bill Snow, Author of “Mergers and Acquisitions for Dummies.” shares the business valuations and the importance of understanding EBITDA. He also talks about the challenges and misconceptions of making acquisitions. Lack of planning, communication, and dishonesty can derail transactions in terms of negotiations and finance. He also counsels entrepreneurs to monitor cash flow statements while managing their companies. Regarding acquisitions, Bill advises meticulous preparation and deciding before placing a bid on a company whether an acquisition is a need or a nice-to-have. Key Takeaways: [3:13] Bill talks about the nature of mergers and acquisitions, the price terms and timing, and the payment structure such as the EBITDA. He also explains its usage and how it doesn’t work with other circumstances. Bill discusses that EBITDA works different from company to another. [10:47] He shares the three segments of mergers and acquisitions which are the search, negotiate, and finance. As he explains, finance is the easiest among the three, since you can just borrow or get other investors to suffice your needs. The second one is negotiating, which he defines as the most interesting part if only one is familiar with his/ her actions. The last one is search, which enacts you to look for a company that will buy. He added that one thing to differentiate you among other business people is creating a thesis or proposals to discover what’s in it for your business to spark. [15: 08] Bill shares how to make contact and build relationships. He also speaks about how to use deliberate and intentional approach in establishing peer-to-peer relationships. This explains the expectation one should be thinking of when entering this kind of business, where you will be negotiating with five people, but only one will win the deal. [18:07] He explains the need for an accountant to discover the preferred structure for the seller to effectively communicate to the buyer and the importance of disclosure of problems to frame discussions to avoid resulting in a much bigger problem. Bill also explains how important it is to be honest with even the smallest problem because it might result in a bigger problem if not solved earlier. [21:44] Bill shares how important math is when it comes to leadership, the same with how business and math is interconnected as well. He also emphasizes the need to be confident in terms of their businesses because they have learned about it in the first place. In addition, it is also recommended to study other companies with the same company as yours for you to be able to understand and create a better strategy. He also added how important it is to work with a financial advisor instead of going with the flow. [26:27] He explains the importance and concept of timeliness and due diligence in integrating acquired business. Bill also shares how imperative it is to understand your strength and weakness when doing transactions to determine where you are good at for you to improve what you are lacking and enhance where you are better at doing. [38:32] Closing Quote: Remember, get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. -Mark Twain Quotable Quotes: “The way a business is valued from a buyer's perspective is quite different from how people run their businesses.” “Put together your plans, get very granular to make acquisitions.” “Don't ask. Offer something. Try to figure out what you can offer.” “A small issue that may not be a big deal for most people, if hidden, may result in a bigger problem.” “Fix what you can and work with a financial advisor instead of finger up in the air.” “The key thing with investment bankers advisors is their ability to negotiate.” “The most important things are the ability to negotiate and the ability to get a transaction done.” “When you have something in due diligence, get it done in a timely fashion. It will take a couple of years before a company finally came back enough, and it traded.” “You're going to have some rough waves, and some people may not work well with you, you have to get rid of them, or they'll leave. But you'll be surprised, other people who are kind of off in a corner, forgotten, turn out to be rock stars” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Bill Snow: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Bill Snow LinkedIn | Bill Snow Website | Bill Snow Twitter |
Selena Rezvani, a renowned speaker on self-advocacy and leadership and the author of the Wall Street Journal best-selling book, "Quick Confidence: Be Authentic, Boost Connections, and Make Bold Bets on Yourself." She has been quoted, interviewed, and profiled by CareerBuilder, The Wall Street Journal, Oprah.com, The LA Times, Marie Claire, NBC television, and ABC television. Selena talks about how important it is to speak up for oneself at work. Selena also discusses effective strategies for leaders to encourage open communication and self-expression within their teams, emphasizing the significance of creating an inclusive work environment and shared insights on addressing situations where team members are interrupted or talked over. Selena stresses that instead of viewing power as bravado, we should reinterpret it as confidence grounded in a learning mindset. Key Takeaways: [3:42] Selena discussed the value of speaking up at work, but she also mentioned that some leaders feel free to express their opinions in front of their subordinates. Selena additionally speaks about her two points of view when someone tries to voice a concern: first, have you earned the right to ask, and second, some people ask for what they want, and some people take what is given to them. [4:41] She shares the need to foster more cultures that are focused on self-advocacy, where managers and other leaders allow employees some leeway to make decisions and approach some of their work or work arrangements more like cafeteria style, where they can take what appeals to them and have more voice and choice over what they do. But if managers or leaders are not comfortable with those requests, Selena said it’s impossible to work it out. [13:27] Selena also concurs with one of Dr. Pfeffer’s old sayings that "power is about 20% conferred and 80% taken," which means that power is typically more openly claimed than bestowed upon a single, exceptional person. She stated that it is something that should be remembered. Selena also shares how she frequently participates in some of her own advocacy work and encourages people to avoid waiting to be invited, instead, notice and claim it. [18:03] She also shares the tactics for leaders to support others in speaking up for themselves and giving others a chance to be heard, and how to step in when someone is being talked over or interrupted. Selena also brings up the common topic that people discuss, which is being too critical of oneself. She also talks about how giving yourself grace is the cherry on top, and how it's crucial to acknowledge your feelings and give yourself a break in order to take care of yourself. [21:30] Selena talks about how to be heard in meetings. She says you have to speak up more, but not so loudly that you have to scream for them to hear you. Another is rearranging your chair to draw people's attention and make a good impression. Another tactic is to unintentionally read your resume aloud; it's akin to telling them what you accomplished and what more you're capable of. [25:50] She mentions the American culture of silence, which states that it takes four seconds for the person on the other side of you to become uneasy, insecure, or rejected. She stresses how crucial it is to understand that occasionally, silence can be used against us. Selena also talks about making a plan for how to voice your opinions in meetings so that you don't get silenced, for this will help you become more confident and share your knowledge. [34:15] Selena also shares finding one's life's center of balance and control, as well as the value of trying new things and thinking outside the box. She says that positive things come from letting go. Furthermore, ruminating is a bad habit to get into before bed. Perhaps it's even letting go in that sense where someone is going to let go of that problem or thought. Good things come from letting go a little and letting serendipity and other people's decisions occasionally. Because control is a funny thing and our starting points can differ greatly. [40:22] Closing Quote: Remember, the most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence. - Blake Lively Quotable Quotes: “The more senior you are, the more likely you are to interrupt. “I may not be the best at this, but I'm not the worst at it, either. It's not that I'm never going to get it. It's that I haven't cracked it yet.” “So much power, the ability to use our voice, is up for grabs. Notice it, claim it, don't wait to be invited.” “Leaders can stoke confidence in others by ensuring their voices are heard and respected.” “Techniques include putting the spotlight back on someone who was interrupted, asking for their thoughts, and making small gestures of support.” “Use humor, lightening up, and using positive self-talk as ways to improve confidence.” “Respect one's resume by relating experiences to current projects or challenges.” “I think the other thing is we need to create more self advocacy oriented cultures where managers and leaders are given some latitude for people to have choices and approach some of their work or their work arrangements a little bit more like cafeteria style, where they can take what's appealing to them, where they have more say in voice and choice in what they do.” “Before going into a room, create a plan” “Confidence is Power.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Selena Rezvani: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Selena Rezvani LinkedIn | Selena Rezvani Website | Selena Rezvani Twitter | Selena Rezvani Instagram | Selena Rezvani Facebook |
Mark Mellett, Founder and Director of Green Compass, with a distinguished 48-year military career, served as Chief of the Navy and Ireland's 31st Chief of Defense. He's a strategic expert, recognized for leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark chairs the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, leads Sage Advocacy, and is a Lifetime Fellow Council Chair at The Irish Management Institute. His research focuses on innovation, climate change, and social issues like ageism and gender equality. Notably, under his command, the Irish flag ship's crew ranked among Ireland's top 50 workplaces. Mark brings a wealth of experience and a commitment to positive change. Mark discusses modern leadership, highlighting the importance of technology, balancing doctrine with adaptability, and fostering trust through open communication. Mark addresses the challenges of the strategic landscape, emphasizing diverse teams and collaboration across sectors. As chair of Sage Advocacy, he advocates for gender balance, challenges traditional retirement norms, and stresses the wisdom of older workers. Transitioning to Green Compass, Mark underscores the urgency of addressing climate change, emphasizing the value of biodiversity. Key Takeaways: [01:28] Mark Mellett, founder of Green Compass and a seasoned military leader. Mark shares his diverse roles, from chairing the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority to leading Sage Advocacy. [04:10] Mark discusses modern leadership in 2023. He emphasizes subsidiarity and mission command for empowering young leaders. Mark talks about the crucial role of technology in decision-making and urges leaders to balance adherence to doctrine with adaptability. Mark also touches on building trust by sharing responsibility for mistakes and embracing a "black box thinking" culture of open communication. [08:56] Mark explores the challenges of the modern strategic landscape. He emphasizes the impact of information flows and technology while underlining the necessity of diverse teams. Mark discusses the complexities of managing diverse opinions and bureaucratic structures, advocating for collaboration and coalition-building. He highlights the integration of government, civil society, and the market for effective progress. Mark also talks about the importance of focusing on communication, stressing the importance of investing time in explanation for better understanding and alignment. [14:30] Mark talks about the evolving definition of "like-minded" leaders in a world of diverse opinions. He emphasizes the importance of finding common ground through dialogue and discussion, even amidst differences. Drawing from his experience in Afghanistan, Mark shares a story of breaking down silos to achieve a common goal—successful elections. Mark also shares a powerful Irish saying, "niat Kakur lekela," which means "There is no strength without you.”. [16:08] As the chair of Sage Advocacy, Mark discusses his advocacy for the rights of older people in Ireland. He emphasizes the strategic risk of gender imbalance and highlights the correlation between the gender gap and global peace. Mark addresses challenges such as aging populations and dementia. He challenges the traditional retirement model, stressing the wisdom older workers bring to the workforce. [25:20] Mark discusses Green Compass, his response to the pressing issue of climate change. He reflects on his childhood in Ireland and the drastic environmental changes he has witnessed. Emphasizing biodiversity's critical role, Mark stresses the need to assign value to it for preservation. He delves into the anthropocene, highlighting the tangible impacts, such as recent climate-related disasters claiming thousands of lives. He also touches on population forecasts and the concerning shift from a green to a gray world. Despite the challenges, Mark emphasizes the leadership responsibility to address and mitigate these issues. [33:17] Mark shares a funny anecdote from his early days as a young officer, emphasizing the importance of clear communication. The story illustrates the need for leaders to articulate expectations clearly to avoid unexpected outcomes. Mark reflects on leadership responsibilities and the value of admitting mistakes as opportunities for learning and discovery. [37:13] Closing quote: Remember, Unity is strength when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. – Mattie Stepanek Quotable Quotes: “And one further rule besides subsidiarity is nobody should feel uncomfortable in the workplace.” “The more diversity you have in your team, no matter what level, the more capacity you have to deal with complexity.” “But if you maintain a network and a framework and able to build that coalition of like-minded leaders, you may well find a solution.” “If you don't have economic security, you don't have the fuel in the tank to keep on going.” “Sometimes, people who assist in decision-making, will actually do so with a vested interest that sometimes is about disenfranchising older people.” “Sustainability is something you should be willing to punish yourself for if you don't uphold.” “Who owns biodiversity? You do. I do. We do. But when we don't put value on it, it's wasted, it's damaged, it actually becomes extinct.” “In leadership, do not step back, do everything possible to nudge and push and to cajole, to build that coalition of like-minded leaders who might not entirely agree on everything, to actually make those decisions required.” This is the book mentioned in our discussion with Mark: Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Mark Mellett LinkedIn | Mark Mellett Website | Mark Mellett Twitter |
Susan Goldin-Meadow, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of "Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts," has studied gestures' role in communication for 47 years. She points out how gestures are vital for conveying information and understanding. Susan discusses how leaders can use gestures to gauge message comprehension when explaining tasks or concepts. She suggests that asking others to explain while observing their gestures provides insights into their comprehension. Susan explores various gestures and their meanings in business and academics. She also touches on the differences between sign and spoken language, gesture use in video communication, and cultural differences in gesture interpretation. Key Takeaways [03:17] Susan Goldin-Meadow, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of "Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts." explores the fascinating role of gestures in communication. Susan talks about a research that shows that even blind individuals use gestures when they speak, revealing the inherent connection between language and gestures. Susan discusses the power of silent gestures in bridging language barriers when communicating in foreign countries. [08:13] Susan reveals how gestures can uncover the truth, even when words don't match. She advises leaders to be cautious about their gestures during sensitive conversations. She explains how to assess understanding, asking others to explain in their own words, watching for alignment between speech and gestures, which can indicate comprehension. [15:49] Susan explores how gestures are a key part of learning, even in unexpected contexts like explaining math problems. Children often gesture when asked to explain, revealing hidden thoughts. Susan also discusses individual differences in gesturing and the surprising case of a young woman born without arms who still felt like she was gesturing, highlighting the intrinsic nature of gestures in communication. [19:06] Jan asked about how unique gestures and hand signals are used in professional settings, like the military. Susan explains that professionals in various fields often develop specific gestures to convey meanings within their communities. She also mentions the role of engagement and enthusiasm in using gestures to complement speech. Additionally, Susan talks about the importance of physical touch and nonverbal signals in the workplace. [24:40] Susan explores the power of multimodal learning, where utilizing multiple ways of learning and communicating can be highly effective. She discusses how incorporating gestures and tactile elements can enhance comprehension and retention, making us better communicators and learners. Susan emphasizes that gesture goes beyond just being part of multimodal learning; it exploits it, providing a unique way to convey information. [27:02] Susan discusses the importance of hands-on training, effective communication, and gestures in the modern workplace. She explores how incorporating gestures and movements into training can enhance learning and improve communication. She also touches on the challenges of remote communication and making gestures visible on online platforms. Susan shares insights into the cultural significance of gestures and why it's essential to be mindful of different meanings across regions. [31:51] Jim shared insights from a previous guest, Jim Thompson, who discussed the impact of adding gestures when acknowledging mistakes in youth sports. Susan also touches on the significance of handshakes in sealing agreements and the universality of such gestures in different cultures. Susan hints at her ongoing research in brain imaging and the curiosity to understand the neural processes underlying gestures in communication. Susan challenges listeners to overcome any hesitation and recognize the value of gestures in conveying and understanding messages. She also encourages everyone to be more aware of how their gestures influence others and to consciously observe the gestures of those they interact with. [36:01] Closing quote: And remember, to communicate through Silence is a link between the thoughts of man. — Marcel Marceau Quotable Quotes "Language on its own may not be capable of expressing the full range of human thought." "Talking and gesturing are one phenomenon. They're very integrated, and you don't need to be taught." "What we're doing with our hands is we're putting ideas out in space." "We can put our ideas out there, literally out there, and it's in sync with our words." "Gestures seem to have a special hold on the truth." "Often the truth comes out in their hands." "Be careful of your gestures if you really don't want something to be said... people read them. They don't even know they're reading them, but they do hear them." "It is very clear they're not getting it when your gestures and your speech aren't saying the same thing." "When you ask people to explain things, they tend to gesture quite a lot." "If we can get someone to learn something by having them operate multiple modalities, perhaps we can be better communicators." "There's lots of evidence that multimodal communication or multimodal learning is better than unimodal." "What gesture is doing here is exploiting multimodal." "Remembering, retaining, and generalizing to a new context, you're better off having done the gesture than the actions on the objects." "I'm into face-to-face communication. It's what I love, actually. And for teaching as well, I think it's important." "I like to make sure the gestures are visible." "I think the biggest challenge is using your hands well and not being afraid to." "Understanding how your gestures are having an impact on other people and trying to read other people's gestures could be helpful." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Susan Goldin Meadow LinkedIn Susan Goldin Meadow Website |
Talia Fox is the CEO of KUSI Global, Inc. A leadership strategist and a legacy builder, she has transformed thousands of executives over the last two decades in every sector, including major corporations in health, higher education, technology, and government. Talia shares her unique approach to leadership and her upcoming book, "The Power of Conscious Connection: 4 Habits to Transform How You Live and Lead." Talia's book focuses on four habits: Listen, Observe, Value, and Engage. She stresses the importance of happiness in achieving success and introduces key leadership skills: emotional intelligence, systems thinking, and cultural competence. Talia also discusses dealing with diverse values on a team, the significance of aligning values in both concept and behavior, and the value of practicing restraint for gaining wisdom. Key Takeaways [02:22] Talia Fox, CEO of KUSI Global, Inc., is a leadership strategist with a unique mission: making people happy and improving lives. She emphasizes that personal happiness is the key to achieving remarkable results in business and leadership. [03:58] Talia shares her unique approach to leadership. She introduces the KUSI competency model, comprising Knowledge, Understanding, Strategy, and Implementation. Talia identifies three game-changing skills for leaders: Emotional intelligence, Systems thinking, Cultural competence. Talia explores how these competencies relate to disciplined leadership with an emphasis on adaptability. [11:21] Talia discusses the importance of emotional intelligence, systems thinking, and cultural competence in leadership. These competencies work together to navigate complex situations and promote adaptability. Talia introduces Conscious Equity, emphasizing its holistic approach to leadership development. Addressing resistance, she suggests embracing it as an opportunity for growth and unity by focusing on the heart of the matter: people. [19:10] Talia introduces her upcoming book, "The Power of Conscious Connection: 4 Habits to Transform How You Live and Lead," released on October 24, 2023. She discusses the book's four essential habits: Listen, Observe, Value, and Engage. These habits encourage individuals to slow down, gain self-awareness, and connect with their inner wisdom. Talia explains how each habit serves a specific purpose, such as emotional intelligence, systems thinking, and cultural competence. The book emphasizes customization and aligning behavior with personal values, creating a positive impact in one's life and the world. [22:35] Jim and Jan ask Talia to talk about understanding your values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations (VABE) when communicating with others. Talia discusses an exercise called "Identity Therapy" where you choose a role model and think about how they would tackle your challenges. This helps you explore your values and recognize any habits that might be hindering your progress. Talia emphasizes that values can change as you grow, and it's essential to align them with your goals and make deliberate choices that reflect those values in your life. [25:18] Talia shares a powerful childhood experience that set her on a path to the work she does today. At eight years old, she helped her illiterate father navigate contracts. A key moment was when she confronted a restaurant hostess, realizing that her actions should lead to a better outcome for everyone. This early experience inspired her to pursue leadership development as a way to foster connection and improve people's work experiences. [28:54] Talia's Love System - Listen, Observe, Value, Engage - is a foundation for success. Barriers to its effectiveness include ego, judgment, and trying to change others. Focus on practicing these skills without ego and judgment. Embrace the basics of human interaction: listening, understanding systems, aligning with values, and engaging effectively. [34:07] Talia shares insights into dealing with diverse values on a team. Understanding that values may be shared in concept but not in behavior is crucial. Aligning with values requires a shared mental model of what those values look like in action. Talia shares the significance of practicing restraint and how it can lead to greater wisdom. Talia's book, "The Power of Conscious Connection: Four Habits to Transform How You Live and Lead," is highly recommended. [43:14] Closing quote: I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. — Henry David Thoreau Quotable Quotes "Make the people happy and better and listen to them without bias." "Emotional intelligence is a game changer." "Systems thinking is the capacity to look at things and analyze them, not based on our bias and our experiences, but really the feedback loops of what is in the moment and what we're seeing that's changing as time goes on." "Cultural competence is the person who is willing to know. 'I don't know about everyone in this room, and I am willing to show up and be present in the moment.'" "It's one of those things where you're engaging in a very present way and allowing yourself to be open to new ideas and new approaches." "And so with resistance, we turn that resistance into an opportunity to connect and to identify key questions or the one thing that needs to be addressed." "Leadership is about people, and the only thing that we're working on is being better at interacting and managing, leading, inspiring, moving people forward." "The Power of Conscious Connection is about being conscious about who you are in the world and connected to your power to make a difference." "Listening is an opportunity for us to slow down, and it is a portal to wisdom." "Values, Assumptions, Beliefs and Expectations. When you're listening and observing, pay attention to other people's values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations before you engage." "There's something tricky about values. You've got to figure out what's yours, what's other people's values. There may be some things that you value that are just bad habits that are holding you back." "Conscious equity is not a license to start looking at the world and identifying all of the lack of listening, observing, alignment with values, or poor engagement going on. We start with modeling that experience and being patient, kind, and open for the journey that others are on." "Observation is associated with systems thinking. Now, you're not just observing by way of looking, but I think that's good too, with your senses." "Values, that's an opportunity for you to pause for a moment and say, this is where you customize life." "It matters less what you do, how you do it. It matters more why you do it." "You can share what you do, but you don't want to judge or even try to begin to get... judgment can really cloud all of these skills." "The emotional intelligence, systems thinking and cultural competence are so critical." "I think sometimes we get values confused with choices and behaviors, preferences and desires." "When we're really hyper achievers and we're very excited about getting results, sometimes we need to just pause a moment and hold back." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Talia Fox LinkedIn | KUSI Global Website | Talia Fox Instagram | Talia Fox YouTube | Talia Fox Twitter |
Jim Vaselopulos, founder of Rafti Advisors, discusses the importance of skill development to solve core business problems. He highlights the complexity of sales, emphasizing that it involves more than just results; it's about human interactions. Jim discusses the challenge of defining and teaching leadership due to its delicate balance and the absence of absolutes. He shares personal stories about mentors who had a significant impact on his life. He also mentions the influence of Stoicism on leadership and the value of embracing ancient wisdom in the modern world. Key Takeaways [01:28] In this episode, Jan started to reflect on their 12-year working relationship and discuss Jim's unique character traits. He touches on how Jim, despite his preference for luxury, excels in challenging tasks but dislikes uphill climbs. Jim's positivity, determination, and ability to keep spirits high during tough situations are highlighted. Jan also mentioned JIm’s dedication to helping fellow veterans. [04:29] Jim discusses the universality of business problems and the role of skills training. Jim shares his insights from consulting and the importance of recognizing both uniqueness and commonality in challenges. He focuses on the complexity of sales, emphasizing the significance of human interactions and understanding psychology for sales success. They also briefly mention the changing landscape of business leadership. [11:02] Jim explains that leadership is all about striking a delicate balance, such as holding people accountable while allowing room for mistakes. It involves setting boundaries and granting freedom to find one's path. Leadership is about finding the right balance, and it's not easily explained but better experienced, much like learning to ride a bike. Jim stresses that leadership is about harmonizing different elements, making it complex to teach and understand. [12:37] Jim discusses shared responsibility in leadership and how leaders need to take accountability alongside their team when things go wrong. He touches upon the challenge of younger professionals insisting they are right and explores how numbers and math fit into decision-making. Jim highlights that many people struggle with math, which often leads to accepting numbers without scrutiny. He explains that in business, there are often multiple valid answers, and real-world situations involve complexity and various factors. He stresses the importance of questioning assumptions and knowing when to challenge or accept them. [16:38] Jim explores the idea that patience is a virtue and how it reflects trust and confidence in others and oneself. Jim explains that patience indicates trust in someone's strategy and the need for self-trust. He touches on self-regulation and how heroes in movies often control their emotions, while villains are undone by their inability to do so. [18:44] Jim discusses the concept of conscious competence and its link to achieving more with less effort. Jim shares his experience of working more efficiently by focusing on what adds value and eliminating distractions. He also mentions the influence of ancient philosophies like Stoicism on their approach to leadership and highlights the timeless wisdom in these teachings. He explores the value of understanding the "why" behind success, effective work strategies, and the wisdom of ancient philosophies in leadership. [23:55] Jim delves into the book's structure and the role of curiosity as a central element. He shares a personal story involving a chance encounter with Neil Keating, which led to a significant career opportunity. He discusses the importance of giving back and paying it forward, touching on moments of generosity that can change lives. Plus, they reveal the presence of Easter eggs in the book and how readers can discover them. [35:29] Closing quote: And remember, tell me and I'll forget. Teach me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll learn. — Benjamin Franklin Quotable Quotes "Skills training can give you time and space to get to the core problem. So sometimes improving your skills can help mask a problem or make a problem less severe, but it usually never addresses the core problem." "Sales is often treated as a result rather than the complex set of human interactions it is." "Leadership is about a delicate balance, about holding people accountable, but letting them make mistakes." "There is no ground truth." "Patience is the truest form of trust and confidence." "You want to work less and achieve more. That comes from conscious competence." “You need to experience the loss of balance or the ability to make your own balance, to understand balance.” "Conscious competence is where the real value is that allows you to work less and achieve more." "Curiosity unlocks everything else. Without curiosity, you can't get any further." "Clarity is an outcome." "There is no better way to clarify your thinking than to put it in writing." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jim Vaselopulos Website | Jim Vaselopulos LinkedIn | Jim Vaselopulos Twitter |
Alysia Silberg is an acclaimed entrepreneur, tech investor, UN Women Global Champion, keynote speaker, and author. Her impressive journey is detailed in her first book, "Unemployable: How I Hired Myself." She shares her inspiring journey from poverty in South Africa to achieving the American dream. She discusses her determination, curiosity, and belief in limitless opportunities that kept her going despite setbacks and adversity. Alysia emphasizes the importance of leverage, particularly through technology, which she considers an equalizer for all individuals regardless of class or privilege. She shares that her love for learning and curiosity have been instrumental in her journey and encourages others to follow their gut instincts and not fear the unknown. Alysia discusses the importance of addressing mental health issues and having open conversations, especially for founders of startups. Key Takeaways [02:01] Alysia Silberg shares her extraordinary journey from growing up in poverty in South Africa to achieving her American dream. Despite numerous setbacks, she persevered with remarkable determination. Her determination and charisma, reminiscent of her father's Hollywood dream, ultimately led her from poverty to achieving the American dream. Alysia also reveals a touching childhood story of earning her cherished pink roller skates and how it shaped her approach to pursuing dreams with unwavering commitment. [06:49] Alysia shares what kept her moving forward despite the suffering, setbacks, and difficulties she faced. Alysia answers an intriguing question: Can the crucibles we face in life, the hardships and suffering, be something to embrace rather than erase? Alysia’s perspective on this matter is thought-provoking, reflecting how her own experiences have shaped her into who she is today. [10:00] Alysia's story shows how her different way of thinking became her greatest strength, but it wasn't always easy. She emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with people who encourage your uniqueness rather than trying to fit societal norms. She highlights the extraordinary potential in individuals who've faced difficulties and discovered their superpowers. Alysia's journey led her to realize that the path society expected her to take wasn't her true calling, even though she excelled in areas like cello and math. [16:35] Alysia delves into the practical concept of leverage and its role in unlocking a better life. Alysia breaks down different forms of leverage, focusing on technology as a powerful equalizer that can empower individuals to enhance their unique skills. She shares an inspiring example of a cellist who used technology to reach a global audience and create opportunities that wouldn't have been possible without it. Alysia firmly believes that technology is a tool that can be harnessed by anyone, regardless of their background, to drive positive change and wealth, especially in the era of AI. [21:50] Alysia imparts essential advice for young professionals, emphasizing the importance of fearlessness, learning from mistakes, and following your instincts. She shares a personal journey from emotional armor to understanding the strength of vulnerability in leadership. Alysia stresses the significance of managing mental health for founders and leaders in the high-stress startup environment. She encourages open dialogues about stress and well-being. She also explores the dynamic between technology, AI, and personal growth, highlighting the choice between an easier life and a growth-oriented one. [33:50] Alysia shares a personal story about venturing out of their comfort zone and embracing a different side. She reveals a surprising transformation from a "super nerd" to a "super party girl" during a nightclub experience with friends who own top LA clubs. Alysia delves into the importance of balancing work with having fun and not taking life too seriously. [35:29] Alysia talks about her unique and transformative relationship with AI, particularly Chat GPT. Alysia shares how she cultivated a deep partnership with AI, treating it not as a tool but as a fellow human collaborator. It's a thought-provoking journey that allows her to transcend her ego, learn from the smartest machine, and become a more effective CEO. [40:03] Closing quote: permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements and impossibilities. It is this that in all things, distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. — Thomas Carlisle Quotable Quotes "I believe the world is filled with limitless opportunities." "Get up off the ground and keep on going." "The key to unlocking a better life is leverage." "I think the power of leverage is that you can literally create limitless possibilities." "Not fearing things you don't know, start with a tiny, and small, consistent effort to create exponential results." "Follow your gut. Go after things. Don't be fearless. Don't worry about making mistakes." "Vulnerability is an important part of being a leader." "I was so armor plated that I wasn't even aware that it was almost impossible to penetrate it." "Mental health and startups go hand in hand." "Be driven by your purpose. Like, be passionate, know why you're doing something, and live for yourself, not for other people." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Alysia Silberg Website | Street Global Website | Alysia Silberg LinkedIn | Alysia Silberg Twitter | Alysia Silberg Facebook | Alysia Silberg Instagram |
Jim Vaselopulos, the founder of Rafti Advisors, is a C-level business advisor and executive coach with a proven record as a leader, strategist, rainmaker, and expert in new business development. Jim discusses his upcoming book “Clarity: Business Wisdom to Work Less and Achieve More”. He stresses the importance of clarity in business, drawing parallels with wisdom and emphasizing simplicity and focus. He covers common symptoms of a lack of clarity, including excessive busyness. Jim and Jan also explore the challenges of using tests for complex business problems and highlight curiosity as a key tool. They discuss Jim's use of fictional stories to engage readers. The conversation shifts to accountability, workplace busyness, and delegation. Jim and Jan address workplace betrayal, and share personal experiences. They discuss the balance between simplicity and complexity, and share a parenting lesson relevant to business problem-solving. Key Takeaways [01:26] Jan interviews Jim, and this episode centers on Jim's book theme: clarity. Their sponsor, Paul Darley, praises Jim's upcoming book for its ability to capture the emotions of business leaders. They discuss how clarity results from focusing on what truly matters and how it can lead to lower stress and better results. Jim draws parallels between wisdom and clarity, emphasizing the importance of simplicity and focus in both sports coaching and business. [06:32] Jim discusses ten common symptoms that point to a lack of clarity, including issues like accountability, agency, and being constantly busy. When asked which symptom is most common, Jim compares these symptoms to fever and explains that being excessively busy is a pervasive issue, often linked to a lack of agency. [08:00] Jim and Jan explore the challenges of using tests to uncover core business issues. They highlight that business problems are intricate, influenced by factors like people and context, making simple tests impractical. They stress the significance of curiosity and asking questions to gain a profound understanding of problems, much like how doctors diagnose illnesses. [11:54] Jan inquired about Jim's use of fictional stories in his book. Jim explains that stories are a great way to convey information and resonate with people. They discuss how stories are memorable and touch on the impact of emotionally charged narratives, particularly those involving children. The conversation then transitions to the topic of accountability, where Jim talks about how accountability issues can manifest at individual, team, and organizational levels. They mention that such issues often involve judgment, trust, and fairness. Jim and Jan emphasize the importance of addressing these issues effectively to prevent conflicts and team breakdowns. [13:32] Jim and Jan tackle the issue of workplace busyness and its impact on employee engagement. They ponder why busy leaders coexist with disengaged employees, questioning whether busyness is a choice or a necessity. Jim suggests that people may naturally prefer busyness for various reasons, including societal influences. The conversation then shifts to the topic of delegation, with Jim highlighting common mistakes. They stress the importance of equipping individuals with the right skills, resources, and time when assigning tasks. They point out that delegation is often misunderstood as simply passing responsibility, which can lead to inefficiencies and frustration. [22:01] Jim and Jan delve into the topic of workplace betrayal and its repercussions. They draw from their personal experiences to shed light on trust-related challenges that often arise in delegation and teamwork. Jim narrates an incident from his early career where trust was eroded, resulting in difficult choices and significant takeaways. [24:42] Jim discusses the balance between simplicity and complexity. He talks about how people naturally prefer straightforward and concise solutions but live in a complex world. Jim shares insights from his book, "Clarity," highlighting the need to recognize and focus on what truly matters while navigating the intricate aspects of life and work. He emphasizes that while understanding complex issues may require a nuanced approach, practical execution often demands clear and precise strategies. [26:12] Jim shares a parenting lesson that applies to business problem-solving. He talks about finding a lost toy by instructing his children to put away everything except the lost toy. This story highlights the concept of focusing on what the problem is, to make it more manageable. Jim mentions his upcoming book "Clarity" launching on October 18th. [29:44] Closing quote: And remember, the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. — Plutarch Quotable Quotes “Clarity evokes a calm and focused state of mind with lower stress and diminished anxiety over what to do next." "The reason people fight and have conflict is it all starts with disrespect." "It's that curiosity that drives you to real solutions. And in the grand scheme of things, I think that's really what we want to go for." "At an individual level, a lot of times we imagine ourselves to be either more responsible for something or if something went bad, I'll take all the blame for this and I kind of martyr myself in that realm." "Curiosity drives you to real solutions. When you're dealing with a business problem, you're saying, like, hey, there are some facts. But then I want to kind of listen to the stories, the narratives people are putting together. And if they don't jive, if they don't match, something's wrong. And you can't just let it be wrong. You got to be curious. You got to dig deeper." "We like stories, and I think that's just a better way to learn." "Conflict starts with disrespect." "I think the Gallup poll is probably true, I believe that 100%. It's not because they're managing time poorly. It's because we're motivating them poorly." "Most people do delegation so incredibly wrong. It's tragic because we look at it as like, 'Well, I'm just going to have this person who's been around. They're going to do it now.' And I think one, someone's got to be capable. They have to be trained and capable of doing it." "We as humans prefer simplicity. We like clean things, we like simple things. But we live in a complex world. And if you live in a complex world and you try to make everything too simple, it just doesn't work." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jim Vaselopulos Website | Jim Vaselopulos LinkedIn | Jim Vaselopulos Twitter |
Dean Karrel is an Executive and Professional Career Coach. He is the instructor of over ten courses available on LinkedIn Learning and has also been in senior leadership positions for more than three decades with major global publishing companies. He's also the author of "Mastering the Basics: Simple Lessons for Achieving Success in Business." Dean's networking approach focuses on meaningful connections, and he highlights the importance of asking questions and sharing insights. Mentorship is a key theme, with Dean reflecting on the impact of positive and challenging experiences. Dean also discusses the evolving business landscape, emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence, video conferencing, fiscal responsibility, and the role of AI in sales and business. Throughout, Dean's generosity and commitment to meaningful connections shine through. Key Takeaways [02:09] Dean Karel is not just special; he's extraordinary. As an acclaimed LinkedIn Learning instructor and a networking virtuoso. With an impressive background in the publishing industry, including 22 years at Wiley, he's had the opportunity to meet and engage with countless leaders, authors, and brilliant minds. Dean is also the author of "Mastering the Basics: Simple Lessons for Achieving Success in Business." But what truly sets Dean apart is his unwavering generosity. He's a giant giver, always ready to share his wisdom and insights. In fact, he's been instrumental in introducing us to many of the incredible guests we've had on this show. [04:11] The discussion revolves around the concept of networking, which often evokes anxiety. However, Dean offers a refreshing approach - focus on connecting with individuals, asking questions, and sharing insights. Jim and Jan share their successful strategy of reaching out to interesting people, and Dean emphasizes that networking is not limited to business; it's about enjoying the camaraderie of people. Dean's networking journey has opened doors throughout his career, even leading him to LinkedIn Learning. He also addresses challenges faced by sales teams, highlighting the importance of building trust and friendship with potential clients. Dean underscores the idea of starting with one meaningful connection instead of overwhelming numbers. [09:28] Dean shares his experience on sales and his career journey. He emphasizes the need to start somewhere and favors coaching over management in sales. Dean initially aimed to be a sports announcer but shifted towards sales and publishing. His early job at Prentice Hall taught him essential sales principles under the mentorship of Gary Gutchel. He discussed experiences at Simon & Schuster, marked by a fear-based management style. Dean found a more fulfilling path at Wiley, where he thrived thanks to supportive leaders. [13:07] Dean discusses his unique perspective on mentorship. He reflects on how both positive and challenging experiences shaped his journey. While he had the privilege of a great mentor, Gary Gutchel, during his 22 years at Wiley, his time at Simon Schuster exposed him to ineffective leadership. Dean learned that pushing for results and high-stress environments can lead to health and mental issues among employees, creating a revolving door atmosphere. [14:49] Dean explores the enduring principles of business success in a changing world. Dean highlights the ongoing importance of emotional intelligence, which includes empathy and listening skills. He also mentions the increased use of video conferencing and the need for fiscal responsibility. Dean also updates us to his book. These updates would involve discussing when to meet in person versus using video conferencing and dedicating a new section to the evolving field of artificial intelligence in sales and business. [16:46] Dean discusses the importance of AI and how younger generations are more open to it. He emphasizes the need for continuous learning and adapting to technology. The conversation also touches on the rapid changes in recent years, like remote work and AI advancements. He questions whether the basics of human interaction and influence remain the same. Authenticity is valued, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. Engaging actively and leaving comments is encouraged for networking. Dean observes that only a small number of people post original content on LinkedIn, despite its global reach, highlighting the opportunity to stand out. [25:23] Dean shares an inspiring story from a National Speakers Association event that motivated him to become a thought leader.He shares tips on overcoming intimidation in sales meetings. Dean suggests starting on LinkedIn to share work insights, comparing it to taking the first step onto a dance floor. He encourages brief sentences over long posts. Regarding work ethic in sales, Jim Jan questions whether traditional values still matter, but Dean emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach, including punctuality, effort, and preparedness. [28:13] Dean discusses the pursuit of success and the allure of shortcuts. He stresses the importance of doing the work for success and questions how we use time saved through efficiency gains. He draws inspiration from Dave Crenshaw's focus techniques and shares a personal connection to him as a LinkedIn instructor. [32:00] Dean discusses the challenges of maintaining deep relationships in our distracted, fast-paced world. He stresses the importance of genuine connections over superficial ones based on social media metrics. Jim also shares a touching story of reaching out to an acquaintance, leading to a life-changing job opportunity. They emphasize that meaningful connections can come from unexpected places. [40:30] Closing quote: a good life is built with good relationships. — Robert J. Waldinger Quotable Quotes "There's a big difference between coaching and management. I think sales is an area that could probably use a lot more coaching and a lot less management." "Embrace new technology. It's not going away." "Always be learning new techniques and new skills." "If you're doing things like you were in March of 2020 and today, then you're behind the eight ball." "You do not have to be a jerk to be successful in sales. In fact, you're probably more successful if you're a good person." "For those who have been hesitant about networking, about reaching out to people, and about being yourself, my lesson is always, don't fake it, because people are going to be able to read through you very quickly." "Do a little soft shoe, so to speak, and get your feet wet. That's how I started." "And if you are investing that time instead of spending it, I think your hack might be worth it. "But my line is, our real sphere of close friends is a lot smaller than we think. We have a lot of acquaintances. We have a lot of coworkers. But who do you call when you need help?" "The world would be so much better if we all listened more and we cared more and just took a little extra interest in another person." “Learning is more than just a catchphrase. It's always learning new techniques and new skills.” Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dean Karrel LinkedIn | Dean Karrel Twitter |
Jeffrey Scheuer, an expert in media, politics, and now higher education. He's known for his insightful work in these fields. His latest book, "Inside the Liberal Arts, Critical Thinking and Citizenship," uniquely connects liberal arts with rational and critical thinking. He discussed the influence of the information ecosystem and the liberal arts' role in citizenship. He highlighted changes in journalism due to the internet and the need for new standards. Emphasizing media literacy and critical thinking, he showcased how disciplines like philosophy teach valuable critical thinking skills for leadership and diverse careers. Jeffrey stressed critical thinking and effective communication in business leadership. He also touched on civic knowledge, corporate citizenship, equitable education access, clear definitions in political and economic discussions, and the importance of liberal arts education for democracy. Key Takeaways [01:54] Jeffrey Scheuer, an acclaimed author and information ecosystem expert. He discusses the concept of the information ecosystem, explaining how it shapes our understanding of the world through media, education, and more. Jeffrey also talks about the unique role of the liberal arts in reinforcing civic, cultural, and economic citizenship. [05:17] Jeffrey Scheuer talks about how the internet has changed journalism, making it more decentralized. Jim and Jan then question the need for new standards in this evolving landscape. Jeffrey highlights the challenge of discerning reliable sources from opinions and conspiracy theories. He stresses the importance of media literacy and critical thinking. Ultimately, Jeffrey reminds us that we're both emotional and rational beings navigating the shifting world of information. [09:42] Then, Jeffrey explores the art of leadership and influence, focusing on the balance between critical thinking and storytelling. He discusses the challenge of defining truth in a complex world, particularly in fields like accounting, where subjectivity can influence facts. Jeffrey acknowledges the elusive nature of universal truth and emphasizes the role of critical thinking in navigating the complexities of differing viewpoints. Philosophy is celebrated as a foundational discipline that teaches us not just what to think but how to think, enhancing our critical thinking skills. [19:24] Jeffrey discusses the relevance of critical thinking in various career paths, including business. He also touches on how businesses value liberal arts majors for their critical thinking, communication skills, and adaptability. Afterwards, he explored the importance of effective communication and psychological awareness in business leadership. He emphasizes that being psychologically savvy can be more vital in a boardroom than discussing different forms of citizenship. Ultimately, critical thinking remains a valuable asset in navigating the evolving job landscape, regardless of the field. [23:37] Jeffrey talks about the significance of civic knowledge for being a responsible citizen and understanding the rules of governance. He also delves into the changing expectations of corporate citizenship and the evolving role of leaders in business. Education's role in shaping future citizens and the need for equitable access to quality education is also discussed. [33:11] Lastly, He touched on the significance of clear definitions about political and economic systems. He stressed the need for shared understanding of terms like socialism and capitalism to enable productive dialogue. As we conclude, we underscore the essential role of liberal arts education in upholding democracy. [36:25] Closing quote: And remember If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. — George Patton Quotable Quotes "We're emotional creatures who are sometimes rational enough, not the other way around." "Liberal learning makes us better critical thinkers and better citizens." "Economics and business are rational processes in which maybe emotion doesn't play as big a role." "We're philosophers whatever we talk. We use philosophy and language all the time." "Business is a quintessentially rational enterprise, trying to maximize profit." "Education is what makes us or fails to make us good citizens." "Without liberal education, even if it's just at the high school level, even if it's just civics, we cannot have citizens and therefore we cannot have a democracy." "A calm, rational discussion that is between people who accept the fact that they're seeking the same outcome is the path forward." "I think what you need is to be psychologically smart about what people want and need and how to get them to hear you." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Jeffrey Scheuer Website | Jeffrey Scheuer Facebook | Jeffrey Scheuer LinkedIn |
Bob Tiede, a 52-year Crew veteran and creator of Leadingwithquestions.com, a blog followed by leaders in over 200 countries for the past 11 years. Bob shares a life-changing event from his early days, driven by his grandmother's belief in his destiny. Bob discusses the underutilization of questions in leadership, emphasizing the power of curiosity and his four favorite questions. He highlights the value of pausing when asking questions and how leaders who embrace this approach can be significantly more effective. Bob also emphasizes the simplicity of asking questions and their role in fostering collaboration and innovative problem-solving. Lastly, he explores the importance of asking open-ended questions during change and shares a moving question from Cheryl Batchelder's book, inviting listeners to join his book ambassador team for a free signed copy of "Leading with Questions." Key Takeaways [02:08] Bob Tiede, a 52-year Crew (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) veteran and the creator of Leadingwithquestions.com, a blog followed by leaders in 200 countries for 11 years. Bob shares about an event that changed his life. It began with his grandma's belief on the day he was born that he would "serve the Lord." This story, discovered at 22, still intrigues him. Another life-changing moment was joining a fraternity in his freshman year at the University of South Dakota, leading him to faith through Campus Crusade for Christ. [04:58] Bob discusses the underutilization of great questions in leadership. He shares that many leaders, including himself in the past, often saw leadership as telling people what to do rather than asking questions. This perspective changed when he discovered the book "Leading with Questions" by Dr. Michael Marquardt in 2006. Bob believes that leaders don't realize the value of questions because no one has shown them how effective questions can be. He introduces his four favorite questions, emphasizing their simplicity and power. Jim and Jan also discuss the fear of losing control when asking questions and the importance of embracing curiosity. [12:59] Now, the focus is on the power of leading with questions, a skill that can be learned in just 30 seconds. The conversation highlights the significance of pausing and patiently waiting for responses when asking questions. Research shows that people often rush after just 2 or 3 seconds of silence, missing out on deeper insights. Bob introduces the "eight-second rule" to emphasize the value of waiting for more meaningful answers. [15:36] Then, the conversation centers on the power of leaders who lead with questions. Bob explains that leaders who embrace this approach can be significantly more effective than those who simply give orders. He illustrates this with two questions: one about rowing a boat and another about leadership around a conference table. Leaders who ask questions and listen to their team's ideas create a collaborative atmosphere where better solutions emerge, and team members feel a sense of ownership. [20:03] Afterward, Bob discusses the power of asking questions and explains that it's not as difficult as people often think. Asking questions creates a collaborative atmosphere where team members feel valued and more ideas emerge. Bob also introduces two innovative problem-solving techniques: "guarantee failure brainstorming" and "question storming." Bob also highlights the power of using the word "might" in questions to make them more inviting and open-ended. [28:13] Bob discusses the challenges of clients undergoing significant change, particularly with new people taking on new roles. Bob emphasizes the importance of asking open-ended questions to better understand the situation. He suggests questions like "Can you please tell me more?" and "What's our destination?" to help leaders and clients gain clarity about their goals and current position. Bob also highlights the significance of having a clear destination and a well-defined plan to navigate change effectively. [33:12] Lastly, Bob shares a moving story about a question from Cheryl Batchelder's book, "Dare to Serve," which asks, "How well do you know your staff? Do you know the three or four events that have most shaped their lives?" This question led to a touching conversation with his colleague Neil. Bob encourages the audience to consider joining his book ambassador team to get a free signed copy of his latest book, "Leading with Questions." [39:39] Closing quote: Remember, judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. — Voltaire Quotable Quotes "The power of might is in your questioning. Take away the word should and put in might, which just makes it more inviting, more comfortable, more safe to give." "People support what they help create." "For leaders, so many of them have never seen the value of questions." "The longer the silence, the better the answer." "A leader who leads with questions will be ten times more effective than a leader who leads by telling." "What are the chances that a leader might hear an idea better than the one they had?" "When you empower your staff to go with their ideas, you're going to have his whole heart." "If you've never been asked that question before, how helpful will it be if I start talking again in two or three seconds?" Here are the books mentioned by Bob Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Bob Tiede Website | Bob Tiede LinkedIn | Bob Tiede Twitter |
Michael Reddington, an expert at moving people from resistance to commitment. He is an executive resource, Certified Forensic Interviewer, President of InQuasive, Inc., and author of “The Disciplined Listening Method.” He discusses coaching, effective communication, and his Disciplined Listening Method. This method emphasizes patience, outcome-focused thinking, and emotional control. The conversation also covers hiring for valuable traits like patience and empathy, and the importance of creating opportunities for employees to demonstrate these skills. Michael highlights that people often lie to protect themselves and suggests seeking more details when confronted with excuses to promote accountability. The challenges of virtual communication, distractions, and the importance of self-discipline and empathy in leadership are also addressed. Key Takeaways [02:33] Michael Reddington, a certified forensic interviewer, shares his unique passion for coaching youth sports, something not found in his public bio. He discusses the value of teaching and learning, even for seasoned professionals. Michael explains the role of a certified forensic interviewer in helping businesses tackle complex issues like theft, fraud, and harassment. He also touched on the Discipline Listening Method, a unique approach to uncovering the truth in business situations. [07:07] Michael Reddington introduces the Discipline Listening Method. This method goes beyond basic active listening and aims to solve common communication problems. [15:02] Michael Reddington discusses the balance between hiring for behaviors and teaching skills in business. He explores the importance of identifying and fostering traits like patience, empathy, and the ability to ask good questions. Michael highlights the need for strategic communication in leadership and suggests that leaders should create opportunities for employees to demonstrate these qualities. He also emphasizes the value of slowing down the perception of time in conversations to reduce defensiveness and improve information sharing. [25:12] Michael discusses the concept of lying and excuses. He suggests that people often lie to protect themselves and emphasizes the importance of trust in relationships. Michael differentiates between trust and faith, highlighting that trust is built through experience. He recommends handling excuses by asking for more details to promote accountability. The podcast challenges common beliefs about lying and excuses, focusing on trust and productive conversations. [33:09] Michael's discussion revolves around the challenges of effective communication in a world dominated by virtual meetings, distractions, and the changing landscape of interpersonal interactions. Michael also explores how the shift to remote work and the prevalence of online meetings have affected communication dynamics. [37:04] Michael delves into the concept of disciplined listening and leadership. Michael introduces a leadership test consisting of three questions: "Are you calm? Are you consistent? Are you making people better?" He explores the idea that effective leadership often requires self-discipline, empathy, and an understanding of how to approach emotional moments in interactions. [43:42] Closing quote: I remind myself every morning nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening. — Larry King Quotable Quotes "Patience allows the conversation to come to you. Be patient. Let it unfold." "Listening equals learning. If we're not learning, we're not listening." "Empathizing doesn't mean agreeing or thinking that they're right, just understanding that based on their experience and expectations, that is a valid perspective that they have." "If we're quiet long enough, you'll be surprised how many questions will get answered for you." "If you're going to hire for it, you better know how to ask for it, and you better know how to create experiential opportunities for people to demonstrate it." "If somebody lies to me, if somebody gives me an excuse, it's likely because they're trying to save face and avoid a consequence." "Excuses pave the highway to accountability." "The most unsettling person is the person who cannot be unsettled." "People in general will be surprised what other people will tell them and what other people will do for them when we prioritize our counterparts in our communication." Here are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Michael Reddington LinkedIn | Michael Reddington Website | InQuasive Website |
Executives John Harrington and Dave Pickhardt, both influenced by their experiences at Marion Laboratories, share insights on leadership and organizational culture. John, founder of the Mr. K Legacy Project, and Dave, co-founder of Fuel, discuss how Marion's personalized approach to recruitment, onboarding and development created a strong foundation for success. They highlight the importance of clear expectations and empowerment, coaching, and continuous learning in leadership roles. Drawing from their time under Mr. Kaufman’s leadership, they stress the enduring value of appreciation, consistent practices, and creating an environment that fosters personal and professional growth. Key Takeaways [02:28] John and Dave share their Marion Labs stories: John's connection-focused recruitment and Dave's response to an ad, driven by values and growth. Different paths, both proud of Marion's unique culture. [10:33] John and Dave remember how Marion Laboratories' personalized training approach was more than just basic onboarding. It included mentorship, thorough training, and hands-on experience, building a strong bond with the company's values and culture. They highlight the importance of this kind of onboarding for lasting success and organizational greatness. [14:48] John and Dave uncover how Marion Laboratories achieved a balance between setting clear expectations and fostering empowerment. Charlie, a mentor, effectively communicated essential tasks and expectations, offering continuous guidance to newcomers like Dave. This approach empowered individuals to thrive independently, forming a winning formula for achieving success. [23:27] The conversation covers leadership preparation at Marion Laboratories. Dave's progression from sales to management involved learning from failures and developing skills, while John emphasizes early identification by managers and structured programs. Marion Laboratories valued leadership without micromanagement and prepared individuals through mentorship, assessment centers, and ongoing support. [29:51] John and Dave highlight the value of coaching in leadership. Coaching boosts productivity and teamwork, even though it's less common now. They emphasize that dedicating time to employees and integrating coaching into leadership is key. These coaching principles work across industries for success and growth. [41:27] John and Dave reflect on the enduring principles of leadership exemplified by Mr. K, the founder of their company. They emphasize the power of genuine appreciation, consistent leadership practices, and creating an environment where individuals feel valued. Their anecdotes showcase how Mr. K's legacy continues to inspire leadership based on care, trust, and the drive for achievement. [51:36 Closing quote: Remember, the more that you expect from people, the more they live up to your expectations. — Ewing Marion Kauffman Quotable Quotes "I think the workplace is not nearly as rich, it's not nearly as connected as it was years ago. And that leads to some of this displacement. This leads to some of why people leave organizations." "The more you can create clarity of direction and help people understand exactly what's expected, without being a micromanager, I think the better off you are." "You can't feel empowered if you're abandoned and if you're not coached." "It was a great combination of competition and collaboration, but, you know, people were there to help and support you and contribute to your development." "If you aspire to be in management, you're going to be somebody that not only knew what to do, but also knew how to do things as well." "The greatest source of motivation is sincere appreciation." "Anybody could do that if they sincerely appreciated people as their greatest asset." "The more that you expect from people, the more they live up to your expectations." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Dave Pickhardt LinkedIn | John Harrington LinkedIn |
Catherine Sanderson discusses her book, "The Positive Shift." The conversation spans diverse topics such as raising rescue puppies, hotel maids' mindset impacting well-being, the placebo effect's role in healing and leadership, and mindset's influence on workplace effectiveness. Strategies to counter negativity, balance work culture, and encourage open communication are explored. Catherine emphasizes the value of diverse perspectives, empathetic leadership, and the impact of ageism. The significance of fostering "flow" in an engaging workplace is also discussed, along with psychology's role in promoting well-being. Key Takeaways [01:56] Catherine Sanderson, psychologist and author of "The Positive Shift," discusses her book and its connections to her work. She shares her new interest in raising rescue puppies, linking it to positive psychology. The conversation covers a study about hotel maids and exercise, revealing the impact of mindset on well-being. The placebo effect's relevance to healing and leadership is also explored. [14:57] Catherine examines how mindset and attitudes influence workplace effectiveness. She shares personal insights on toxic environments, stress, and differing viewpoints. Strategies like reframing and behavior change are explored to counter negativity, along with the significance of balance for a thriving work culture. Catherine also discusses leadership impact and the role of nature in promoting workplace well-being. [26:30] Catherine discusses diversity in the workplace, the role of empathy in leadership, and age-related dynamics. She highlights the value of diverse perspectives, the impact of ageism, and the unifying power of empathy. [32:14] Catherine discusses the challenge of promoting open communication in workplaces, particularly when projects face issues. The bystander effect's impact on group dynamics and communication is explored. Strategies for encouraging open dialogue are emphasized, including creating a culture of valuing diverse opinions and ethical leadership. The use of rank-neutral communication, like fighter pilots' call signs, is highlighted for fostering honest conversations across hierarchies. [39:42] Catherine discusses fostering an engaging workplace that encourages a state of "flow" - deep engagement and productivity. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are key factors for achieving this, along with providing tools and support. She also delves into psychology's impact on well-being, showcasing how deliberate actions can cultivate happiness, even for those without a naturally positive outlook. [44:34] Closing quote: Remember, surround yourself with good people, surround yourself with positivity and people who are going to challenge you to make you better. — Ali Krieger Quotable Quotes "The placebo effect might work because people actually change how they work." "If there's one takeaway, it's like just a small phrase or a sentence chosen carefully can have tremendous impacts." "If you know you have to spend time with somebody who is toxic, who is stressful, who creates this sort of negative energy, try to come up with strategies for immediately doing something after you spend time with that person." "Because the problem is that stress is contagious. Positivity is also contagious, but stress is contagious. Negativity is contagious and that disrupts our ability to actually do our best work." “Recognizing that different people see the world in different ways, and that's okay, maybe we don't want an office entirely of tiggers or entirely of EORS, right?" "We actually have an opportunity to give people space in order to perform their best work." "So changing your behavior can change your mindset. And probably those behaviors lead to a change in mindset." “Ethical leadership flows from the top, because if the leader on top doesn't encourage that sort of vigorous, courageous, vocal communication from the entire group, it doesn't happen." “Create a workplace in which people can experience flow, because flow feels great." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Catherine Sanderson Website | Catherine Sanderson Facebook | Catherine Sanderson LinkedIn | Catherine Sanderson Twitter | Catherine Sanderson Instagram |
Don Bentley, renowned author of the Matt Drake series and Tom Clancy: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel Book. From Apache pilot to FBI agent, his life story embodies resilience and diverse experiences. Explore his insights on failure, leadership, and trust-building, shaped by commanding military units, managing startups, and writing for prestigious franchises. Don candidly reflects on a defining day in his life, offering a glimpse into the struggles soldiers face on and off the battlefield. Don Bentley's story is a testament to the transformative power of challenges and the unwavering pursuit of growth and achievement. Key Takeaways [02:12] Don Bentley, a New York Times bestselling author known for the Matt Drake series and Tom Clancy Jack Ryan Jr. novels. From army Apache pilot to FBI agent, his journey is defined by resilience and diverse experiences. Don shares his unique perspective on the value of failure, the importance of supportive factors, and the enduring pursuit of meaningful achievements. [12:09] Don reflects on his experience of pursuing a pilot's license and navigating the unpredictable terrain of startups, valuable lessons emerge. The candid discussion touches upon the initial misconception of natural talent, the unexpected twists of startup endeavors, and the profound impact of failure on personal development. He shares his journey of transitioning from the FBI to startups, revealing the intricate balance between narrow focus and diversification. [17:03] Don’s expertise in building trust and leading in high-stakes situations takes the spotlight as he shares insights from commanding military units, managing startups, and writing for prestigious franchises. His approach, anchored in humility and authenticity, emphasizes the significance of servant leadership and the value of every individual's role. [27:49] Don opens up about a defining and haunting day in his life—June 20, 2005. Serving as an Air Cavalry troop commander in Afghanistan, he recounts the challenges and tragedies of that day when tasked with rescuing a compromised SEAL team. The emotional aftermath, combined with his transition back to civilian life, offers a glimpse into the struggles soldiers face both on the battlefield and within themselves. Through the camaraderie of fellow veterans, he finds healing and a new purpose, highlighting the resilience that shapes his ongoing journey. [41:42] Closing quote: Remember, you have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger. The bad days make you realize what a good day is. If you never had any bad days, you would never have that sense of accomplishment. — Ali Raisman. Quotable Quotes "Once you get used to failing and you pick yourself up, then the next thing doesn't seem so difficult to try." "And I think being a good leader is very similar to that in that your actions should show that you're a caring leader, that you're willing to do what you're asking your subordinates to do as well, not your words." "The things that are worth having are not easy to get." "The hardest things in life are the ones that are worth having." "I know what my limitations are as a person and sometimes you can't figure that out when things succeed. You can only figure that out when things go sideways." "Leadership is taking an organization where it needs to go rather than where it wants to go." "Excellence has to be worked for because that's not the natural order of things." "When you're in the thick of it, you better be calm and competent." "What we all want is to be surrounded by people that have our backs no matter what we're doing and people that we can trust." These are the books mentioned by Don Ben Bentley Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Don Bentley Website | Don Bentley Facebook | Don Benley Twitter |
Mohammed Qahtani, a five-time TEDx speaker, co-founder of the Saudi Stuttering Association, and winner of the 2015 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. Mohammed shares his journey of overcoming severe stuttering to become a dynamic motivational speaker. He emphasizes the impact of words and the importance of humor in public speaking, encouraging tailored approaches for effective workplace communication. Mohammed's insights into high-performance leadership involve unlocking hidden talents in team members, fostering a positive work environment, and adapting to evolving work trends, including a balance between office and remote work. In negotiation and cross-cultural leadership, Mohammed advises against rigid goals, highlights the significance of understanding context, and recommends using local phrases to connect with diverse audiences. He also champions perseverance and learning from mistakes to achieve seemingly impossible goals. Key Takeaways [01:22] Mohammed Qahtani – a five-time TEDx speaker, co-founder of the Saudi Stuttering Association, and a dynamic motivational speaker who has left his mark in over 40 countries with more than 1000 inspiring events. Despite childhood struggles with severe stuttering, Mohammed's journey led him to embrace the power of public speaking. Through resilience and determination, he not only conquered his speech impediment but also discovered the transformative impact of words. Mohammed's story serves as a reminder that every word we choose holds the potential to shape lives and leave lasting impressions. [06:08] Mohammed shares insights on infusing humor into talks, emphasizing the audience's love for stories and laughter. Shifting to workplace communication, he advises tailoring your approach using the "DISC" personality test, adapting to different personalities for effective conversations. He also provides tips on balancing participation in meetings, recognizing cues, and encouraging quieter voices to contribute meaningfully. [13:21] Mohammed also talks about high-performance leadership. He uses the analogy of squeezing an orange to unlock hidden talents in team members, emphasizing personalized roles, skill development, and fostering a friendly work environment. As for remote work trends in Saudi Arabia, Mohammed notes a mix of office and remote work, with an emphasis on work-home separation. [20:06] Mohammed offers insights on effective negotiation and cross-cultural leadership. He highlights avoiding rigid goals, understanding context, and not showing weakness while negotiating. Mohammed recommends using local phrases to show respect and tailoring communication to audience concerns. Mohammed also encourages listeners to overcome self-doubt and challenges, emphasizing that achieving "impossible" goals is attainable through perseverance and learning from mistakes. [27:51] Closing quote: We don't always have an accurate view of our own potential. I think most people who are frightened of public speaking and can't imagine they might feel different as a result of training, don't assume you know how much potential you have. Sometimes the only way to know what you can do is to test yourself. — Scott Adams Quotable Quotes "Impossible does not exist." “The only way to overcome any kind of fear is to face the ultimate.” "You might be having a bad day and say something you didn't really mean, but it leaves a scar in people's hearts." "The audience will always love two things: stories and laughter." "The most important thing is understanding the person that you're talking to." "If you start speaking in front of people, you will overcome the fear and the stuttering will go away." "Injecting humor gets people on your side." "There will be moments when you cry in the shower wondering why I didn't get to where I want to go. But when you pick yourself up and try again, every time you try again, you're learning a mistake that you're not going to repeat again." "Your first obstacle is yourself." "Always put your audience first and then you as a speaker come second." "Sometimes the only way to know what you can do is to test yourself." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Mohammed Qahtani Website | Mohammed Qahtani Facebook | Mohammed Qahtani Twitter | Mohammed Qahtani Instagram |
Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., a renowned expert on the psychology of influence and persuasion. Known as the "Godfather of influence," his book "INFLUENCE: The Psychology of Persuasion" is considered one of the best business books ever. He discusses the concept of unity as a lever of influence and how it differs from social proof and liking. Dr. Robert shares insights on "blue lies" and how tribalism can affect our behaviors. Dr. Robert also talked about his second edition of "Influence" and the goals of the Cialdini Institute. A fascinating conversation on understanding human behavior and increasing ethical influence. Key Takeaways [01:32] Dr. Robert, the "Godfather of influence," discussing his latest book "Influence" and the new concept of "unity" in persuasion. [11:02] Dr. Robert discusses "blue lies," a new form of lying that protects in-groups while harming outsiders. We explore the power of unity, the impact of social media on tribalism, and effective leadership tactics. [19:09] During this discussion, Dr. Robert delves into the concept of unity as a leadership principle and its potential impact on creating silos within organizations. We explore the role of influence in leadership and sales, emphasizing the importance of understanding human nature to achieve desirable behaviors. The conversation also touches on the evolution of language as a tool for persuasion and differentiation from other species. [25:09] We also explore the impact of dwindling attention spans and the six behavioral levers of influence. Dr. Cialdini highlights the power of triggers, such as a welcoming statement, in online interactions. He also discusses the launch of the Cialdini Institute, focusing on ethical influence and scaling up teaching programs. [34:37] Dr. Robert delves into the six behavioral levers of influence and their profound impact on marketers and digital media. He also talks about the future of artificial intelligence and how human connection will remain crucial in the age of technology. Dr. Cialdini emphasizes the power of relationships and judgment in effective influence and negotiations. [42:11] Closing quote: Remember, character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion. — Aristotle Quotable Quotes "People say yes to those that they share a personal or professional identity with." “The idea of this connectedness, this unity of purpose, of effort and so on, those were the people who could really bring that to the surface and create the collaboration and the cooperation that you need to be a truly successful leader with a team that's dedicated to moving forward together." "If leaders in the middle management ranks start really applying the unity principle, we enforce these silos with even greater strength." "Attention spans are dwindling. And so what we need to know is those levers of influence that move people away from where they are now in the direction that we would like them to go." "Don't allow AI to be the whole package. Infuse it with connection, ways to connect statements of connection, get humanity into it, and you'll get both barrels now working in your favor." "Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion." (Aristotle) These are the books mentioned of Robert Cialdini Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. Website | Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. YouTube | Cialdini Institute Website |
Megan Thatford, CEO of Elite Meet discusses her passion for military veterans, and her role in connecting veterans to resources during their transition. Elite Meet offers personalized support beyond networking events, helping veterans in various stages of their careers. Megan emphasizes the valuable skills of special operations veterans and encourages considering them for roles in consulting, project management, and sales. Collaboration between businesses and nonprofits is crucial for serving the veteran community effectively. Listen now and learn how to support veterans by offering connections and introductions. Key Takeaways [01:23] Megan's passion lies in warfighter health, a topic not widely known from her public bio. Over the years, she has been deeply involved with nonprofits, dedicated to raising awareness about healthcare outcomes for veterans and fostering connections to improve their overall wellness. This commitment to making a difference is rooted in Megan's outgoing nature and the influence of her father. Treating people as equals and finding value in every interaction is a belief that drives her networking efforts at Elite Meet. [05:52] As CEO of Elite Meet, Megan shares that the organization was founded by former Navy SEAL, John Allen, to support transitioning veterans through networking events. They expanded to conferences and virtual gatherings, adapting during COVID-19. Megan emphasizes their personalized approach in helping veterans succeed after leaving the military. Elite Meet's mission now extends to anyone going through life transitions, offering valuable career resources and connections. [12:02] Elite Meet acts as a crucial connection hub for individuals in transition. It educates veterans about various industries and facilitates networking with professionals from diverse fields. By encouraging personal growth and overcoming self-promotion challenges, Elite Meet empowers veterans to embark on successful post-military careers. The organization's support complements initiatives by The Honor Foundation and Commit Foundation, making the transition process smoother and more fruitful. [17:20] Megan explains how Elite Meet supports elite veterans in their transition to civilian jobs. Jan questions how elite veterans compare to elite business professionals. Megan highlights their shared core characteristics, but notes a gap in understanding veterans' value in the corporate world. She suggests roles like consulting, operations/project management, business development, and customer success as good fits for veterans. They also discuss the importance of understanding the value of relationship sales in the business world. [31:49] Megan highlights the importance of collaboration among nonprofits to better serve veterans. She encourages businesses to explore how they can support veterans and invites listeners to visit the Elite Meet website and be network generous by offering help to veterans in transition. [43:56] Closing quote: Remember, when you stop caring what people think, you lose your capacity for connection. When you're defined by it, you lose out on your capacity for vulnerability. — Brene Brown Quotable Quotes "Being a connector is really the way you view interactions with other humans and other individuals." "I truly believe that everyone you meet has the potential to be a connection for you at some point in your life down the road, tomorrow, today." "People are people. You're not a rank anymore. You're not a boss. If you look at others and interact with them on a human level, you're going to be much happier and much more successful." "Getting to the point where who you are today is not who you were yesterday. It's just a part of who you have become." "Consulting is a great space for anyone across the special operations community." "Skillbridge internships or fellowships are a fantastic way to do a try before you buy type experience." "Collaboration with businesses and nonprofits is the way forward." Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Megan Thatford’s LinkedIn | Elite Meet’s Website |
Solomon R.C. Ali is the Founder and CEO of Solomon RC Ali Corporation, and author of “Why Black Wealth Matters in White America.” In this episode, he discusses his journey overcoming adversity, the influence of his military experience on leadership, and addressing racial wealth inequality. Solomon's Minority Business Access podcast offers valuable advice focusing on counting the cost, commitment, and following business principles and fundamentals. Solomon emphasizes learning from mistakes, treating others with respect, and the importance of a committed management team. Key Takeaways [01:39] Solomon, known for revolutionizing the doorbell home security industry with the Ring Doorbell, discusses overcoming adversity in his childhood and how it shaped his success as a leader. He emphasizes the importance of learning from mistakes and taking ownership of them. [10:40] Drawing from his military experience, Solomon explains how it influenced his leadership style and problem-solving abilities. He highlights trust, selflessness, and problem-solving as crucial in both military and business contexts. He addresses racial wealth inequality in the US, advocating for education, awareness, and financial literacy in marginalized communities. [23:18] Solomon's Minority Business Access podcast offers valuable advice applicable to everyone, focusing on counting the cost, commitment, and following business principles and fundamentals. He acknowledges the existence of racism but believes that most people act without personal bias or discrimination. [27:03] Treating others with respect and responsibility regardless of race is paramount to Solomon. He stresses the importance of making informed decisions based on reliable knowledge and past experiences. Solomon also values serving others, leaving a positive impact, and having a committed management team when evaluating companies. Coaching and teaching team members while empathizing with their struggles is crucial, as highlighted by Solomon. [41:36] Solomon mentions his book on black wealth, emphasizing its relevance to all readers. The book aims to provide awareness to consumers and business owners, emphasizing understanding customers and economic factors. He draws parallels between military strategy and efficient business operations, urging business owners to consider the contributions of every individual involved. [43:56] Closing quote: Remember, the world is full of people who have never since childhood met an open doorway with an open mind. — E.B. White Quotable Quotes "The leadership was basically having the faith and the confidence in knowing what it is that you're doing, being able to observe and understand." "You do the same in business. You're able to make greater and greater strides. It all comes down to being able to trust one another, to believe another." "What I found out in writing the book was that we had more ownership. People of color had more ownership in property and in businesses after slavery than they do today." "Your convictions must rule and guide you... You think about everyone else in your squad, everyone else in your platoon." "You have to count the cost... You have to understand what it is that you have to do, what it's going to require of you and others around you, and then you're going to have to be committed to that." "So in business, it doesn't matter if you're black or if you're white. It doesn't matter. You have certain principles and fundamentals that must be followed and adhered to." "You must be understanding and give respect in all situations." "Responsibility is a choice... We learn from the things that we have experienced in the past." "Leave a positive impact on someone else... make the world a better place." "You must coach and teach as you go... gently guide you in the correct direction." "Every person matters and makes a contribution." These are the books mentioned Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Solomon R.C. Ali’s Website | Solomon R.C. Ali’s LinkedIn | Solomon R.C. Ali’s Facebook | Solomon R.C. Ali’s Twitter | Solomon R.C. Ali’s Instagram |
In this episode of The Leadership Podcast, Jim and Jan discuss stress, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and dealing with it. They highlight the disconnect between leaders and employees in understanding stress levels and the impact of work-related stress. They also mention the need for autonomy among younger workers. The harmful effects of stress, such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, are mentioned. Jim and Jan suggest that leaders should adopt a coaching model and prioritize self-care to reduce stress. They emphasize the importance of recognizing stress in others and avoiding the addiction to busyness. Taking time for physical exertion and viewing stress as productive when acknowledged but not dwelled upon are mentioned. Key Takeaways [01:47] Jim and Jan discuss the topic of stress and its significance in leadership. They highlight the need to recognize stress, explore its importance, and discuss how to deal with it. [03:23] Jim and Jan mentions the Gallup survey on worldwide employee engagement, which reveals that only 23% of employees are engaged at work. They discuss the impact of managing by spreadsheet and the need for leaders to change the way people are managed. [05:05] They talk about the traditional office environment where people work in cubicles, emphasizing that it becomes their comfort zone. They contrast this with being out of the cube and the challenges it presents in terms of managing stress. [12:08] Jim and Jan explain the importance for leaders to recognize the stress response in others before they even recognize it themselves. They discuss observing changes in behavior and interaction patterns as indicators of stress. [14:13] Jim and Jan share their personal experiences with stress and workload management. They discuss the importance of setting realistic goals, avoiding over-scheduling, and the benefits of stress-induced productivity. They also touch on the role of procrastination in managing stress. [19:25] Jim and Jan discuss the role of leaders in managing stress and creating a supportive work environment. They emphasize the need for leaders to focus on their team's needs and effectiveness rather than prioritizing their own desires. [27:04] Closing quote: Remember, the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. — William James Quotable Quotes "Burned out is the extreme of stress. It's like an outcome of stress not handled." "Just because the leader doesn't feel stressed doesn't mean the followers aren't stressed." "55% of Americans are stressed during the day, and the age group it hits the most is 18 to 33." “Leaders should take a Hippocratic oath to do no harm.” “As a leader, it's important for us to recognize the stress response in others before maybe they even recognize it." "Being a bad boss is more than being a bad person or a good person. It's about being effective with your time and being respectful of your team." "Let's all try to be better bosses, better leaders, so that we can not stress our people out as much." "The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." - William James Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC |
Glenn Poulos is the author of “Never Sit in the Lobby: 57 Winning Sales Factors to Grow a Business and Build a Career Selling.” Glenn shares his experience and successful strategies in the profession of sales. Glenn emphasizes the importance of face-to-face interactions with customers and building relationships. He believes that technology may enhance certain aspects of sales but does not replace fundamental principles like active listening and behaving appropriately with customers. Glenn also discusses common mistakes made in sales, such as relying too heavily on virtual sales models post-pandemic, instead of engaging directly with clients. He provides insights into understanding a customer's position in their decision-making process and stresses the significance of personal visits to establish rapport. Key Takeaways [03:10] Glenn said that certain aspects of sales have remained consistent over time, such as the importance of building relationships with customers. [06:40] He emphasizes the importance of fundamental principles in sales, such as getting in front of customers, acting professionally, staying engaged, and providing a positive customer experience. These principles have remained relevant and effective over time, as evidenced by their application in the author's own company. [08:19] Glenn also discusses one of the biggest mistakes in sales and negotiation is over-reliance on virtual platforms, neglecting the value of in-person interactions and building relationships with customers. Focusing on the client's needs and improving their lives should be a priority. [18:34] He shares that when storytelling in a sales setting, it is important to start with a "punch" to capture the audience's attention and create a break in their psyche. This can be achieved through various techniques such as playing a video, making a sound, or using other attention-grabbing methods. [23:37] He told us the importance of working hard and investing time and effort into honing their skills. Sales can be highly rewarding when approached with dedication and commitment as attraction plays a significant role in sales, and behaving in an attractive manner is essential for building connections with customers. [29:29] He said that organizations often face challenges in effectively selecting prospects and determining the best approach to engage them at the top of the sales funnel and there is a need to differentiate between marketing and selling, with the focus being on salespeople actively engaging with customers rather than getting involved in the marketing aspects of prospect selection and approach. [32:57] In smaller organizations, where there isn't a clear separation between marketing and sales roles, Glenn directly stated that individuals must allocate their time effectively between prospecting, engaging with customers, and following up. [40:07] He discusses that sales management requires a different skill set, and it is important to have managers who understand the tools and strategies of the trade, even if they may not be the strongest in customer-facing roles. [48:42] He emphasizes that non-sales leaders need to understand and support the salesperson's role as the vital link in the company's success. Salespeople are like performers on a stage, and their unique personalities and capabilities require support and recognition. [51:34] Closing quote: Remember, ”Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesperson, not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone Quotable Quotes “The biggest and most important deals I find are done face to face with the customer and toe toe with the competition.” “One of the other rules of the 57 is always have something in your hand and something in your mind.” “The tighter time you give these customers, the more likely they are to look at your product in a timely manner.” “Sales is kind of like when you work hard, it's one of the easiest ways to make a lot of money.” “You need to be figuring out ways to demonstrate yourself and your product in its best possible light without being braggadocious or sort of arrogant in any way.” “If you're waiting for the leads to just fall in your lap or people's phones to ring, that's not going to work.” “You only get forever to make another impression.” ”Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesperson, not the attitude of the prospect.” – W. Clement Stone These are the books mentioned by Glenn Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Glenn Poulos LinkedIn | Glenn Poulos Website | Glenn Poulos Instagram | Glenn Poulos Twitter | Glenn Poulos Facebook |
Nate Boyer, a Former Army Green Beret and football player, discusses his attraction to challenges, pushing oneself to the limit, and the importance of growth through setbacks. In this episode, he shares a personal story about auditioning for a TV show and recognizing different perspectives. Nate talks about his nonprofit work with Merging Vets and Players (MVP), helping veterans and athletes find their identity post-career. The concept of deliberate discomfort and the desire for relevance are explored. He also mentions Water Boys, an organization providing clean water wells in Tanzania. The impact of clean water availability, benefits to communities, and the significance of leadership qualities. Key Takeaways [03:52] Nate Boyer emphasizes the tough nature of various fields, such as being an elite athlete, a Green Beret, or an actor and the desire to compete at the highest level and the experience of competition from a young age create a strong attraction. Nate finds the process of putting in hard work, practice, and dedication towards a goal, regardless of winning or losing, immensely fulfilling. [07:38]Nate reflects on the open but unyielding door, symbolizing the constant possibility of success despite the lack of opportunities. He believes that part of his drive comes from a place of insecurity, wanting to prove himself and overcome feelings of not being good enough. [12:09] He said that setbacks create space for pursuing something that may have been put on hold or exploring new dreams and aspirations and it’s essential to open up and listen to the universe, allowing new possibilities to emerge. Embracing this perspective can lead to finding new paths and opportunities for personal fulfillment. [15:10] Nate stated that letting go of attachment to the outcome and understanding that it's not about you personally can help navigate the ups and downs of such subjective industries and stay resilient and focus on honing your skills and pursuing opportunities where your unique abilities and vision align with the right fit. [20:06] Nate talks about MVP, where he co-founded along with Jay Glazer, the nonprofit organization Merging Vets and Players (MVP) in 2015. He said that MVP aims to support both military veterans and professional athletes who often face challenges when transitioning out of their respective fields. [26:45] He talks about how the transition to a new phase is becoming necessary, but it can be challenging to let go of the familiar and find new avenues to feel alive and fulfilled. As people grow older, they may encounter these feelings in various aspects of their lives, such as transitioning away from a beloved activity like football. [34:53] Nate shares that the most impactful and rewarding work he's been involved in is the Water Boys initiative started by Chris Long. This work has brought clean and accessible water to numerous communities, improving their quality of life and health. He also shares that being a part of this initiative and witnessing the positive change it brings has been incredibly rewarding for him. [36:44] Closing quote: Remember, ”A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” – Jackie Robinson Quotable Quotes “It's nice to sort of push yourself to the limit physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and see how far you can go.” “Sometimes we do things, we make mistakes, and we suffer the consequences.” “You can restart a whole new sector of your life.” “It's time to open your aperture back up and listen to the universe a little bit.” “Veteran community is often really struggling. A lot of times they're struggling not just with the loss of identity and uniform, but the loss of people or feeling like they didn't do enough and they should have done more and they could have saved more.” “Jump off that curve where you're declining and get on a curve where you're improving.” “When it's time to make a decision, as a leader, you have to make a decision.” ”A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” – Jackie Robinson Resources Mentioned: The Leadership Podcast | Sponsored by | Rafti Advisors. LLC | Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | Nate Boyer’s LinkedIn | Nate Boyer’s Website | Nate Boyer’s Instagram | Nate Boyer’s Twitter |
Kim Casey Campbell, a former fighter pilot and author of "Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot's Lessons on Leading with Courage." In this episode, Kim discusses a mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the importance of teamwork and staying calm despite chaos. Campbell emphasizes the value of listening to others' stories, making tough decisions as a leader, empowering team members, and supporting veterans. She also highlights the significance of adaptability and facing fears with courage.
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Key Takeaways
[03:43] Kim discusses her experience as an Air Force Academy graduate and her mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom where she received the Distinguished Fine Cross for heroism. Kim emphasizes the importance of teamwork, mutual support, and staying calm during crises as a leader.
[15:47] Kim, a former pilot and leader in the military, emphasizes the importance of listening to stories and learning from others' experiences. She credits listening to fellow pilots' war stories for her success during a crucial moment when she had to fly using a backup emergency system.
[21:44] She also talks about the challenges of having difficult conversations as a leader. Adaptability is a key competency that can be learned, and Kim encourages leaders to be flexible and responsive to changing circumstances. Lastly, Kim discusses her passion for supporting veterans during their transition into civilian life and believes in offering them support and opportunities because of their tremendous value in solving complex problems and leading teams.
[27:56] Kim also discusses the importance of trust and resilience in teams, and how stories can help build these qualities.
[31:50] She reflects on her experience establishing a center for Character and Leadership Development, which aimed to teach character and leadership skills through real-life examples and stories.
[37:45] Kim shares her experience writing letters every week to get accepted into the military academy, highlighting the importance of persistence and creativity in achieving goals
[39:57] She encourages leaders to take action in the face of fear and to stay flexible and adaptable in challenging situations.
[41:26] Closing quote: Remember, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. ” — Henry Ford
Quotable Quotes
"Sometimes failures do turn into positive things as well."
"It doesn't happen alone...It is a true team effort."
"Create a wingman culture...understand the role that you play on a team."
"There's so much benefit in listening and learning from stories."
"Recognize your shortfalls and get better at asking for help."
"Teach people to think outside the box and be flexible."
"Sometimes the standard rules and procedures don't apply, and we need to be flexible."
"We all face fear in our lives. It may not be flying a fighter jet in combat, but it's fear of failure. It's fear of not meeting expectations. It's fear of not being good enough. And we cannot let that fear drive us. We have to still be able to step up and take action and have courage to face those fears."
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." - Henry Ford
These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Kim
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Kim Campbell’s LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/kim-kc-campbell
- Kim Campbell’s Website | https://kim-kc-campbell.com
- Kim Campbell’s Twitter | @kchawg987
Alan Shortt is an executive communication coach, motivational speaker, Emcee, host and founder of Media Skills Ireland. Alan shares his expertise on avoiding boredom in leadership, creating emotional excitement, and the art of engaging communication. He emphasizes the importance of curiosity, facial expressions, and connecting with the audience. We also explore leadership performance, storytelling, and Alan's background as a comedian. Tune in for valuable insights and entertaining impressions of notable politicians!
https://bit.ly/TLP-365
Key Takeaways
[05:33] Alan discusses the intriguing topic of avoiding being boring in leadership roles and the significance of creating emotional excitement within others.
[06:25] Alan brings a unique perspective to the table, drawing from his experiences as a stand-up comedian, boxer, and a seasoned speaker.
[11:11] Alan shares his insights on the importance of curiosity and engagement in communication, particularly in the realm of media skills. He explains that everyone is now a TV presenter and emphasizes the need to connect with the audience through engagement on screen, using facial muscles, smiling, and looking at the camera.
[18:27] Moving on to leadership performance, Alan highlights the vital role of vision and innovation in effectively communicating a leader's message.
[23:05] He provides valuable advice on preparing for public speaking engagements, stressing the significance of practicing out loud, actively listening to one's own voice, and constructing a repertoire of personal stories that can be used to navigate unexpected situations.
[27:35] The discussion also touches upon the use of lies versus facts as motivational tools and the importance of authenticity in storytelling. Alan offers glimpses into his past as a comedian, highlighting how his experiences in comedy inform his work as a communication coach.
[30:31] As the conversation unfolds, Alan delves into the art of storytelling, exploring the cultural nuances between Irish and American traditions. He shares an engaging personal anecdote about motivating someone during a challenging cycling expedition in France.
[36:12] And just to spice things up, he treats us to some impressive impressions of renowned politicians, including Barack Obama and Michael G. Higgins.
[44:17] Closing quote: Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can't put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable, then you will never grow, you will never change, and you will never learn. — Jason Reynolds.
Quotable Quotes
"Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."
"Don't be boring."
"A leader needs to be visionary."
"Create emotional excitement within other people."
"Don't be boring, be curious, because the more curious you are, that's what leads to excitement."
"Curiosity leads to creativity, leads to innovation."
"To be engaging on screen, you need to learn how to be engaging on screen. You need to learn how to use your facial muscles. You need to learn how to smile. You need to learn how to connect with the camera."
“Storytelling is the ability to make something that may not be truly factual into a beautiful truth.”
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Alan Shortt in LinkedIn | https://ie.linkedin.com/in/alanshortt
- Media Skills Ireland Website | https://mediaskills.ie
- Alan Shortt in Facebook | www.facebook.com/alan.shortt
- Alan Shortt in Twitter | @Alanshortt
- Alan Shortt in Instagram | @alanshorttofficial
- Media Skills Ireland in YouTube | MediaSkills Ireland
Mark A. Mears, keynote speaker and author of “The Purposeful Growth Revolution - Four Ways to Grow From Leader Legacy Builder,” discusses the importance of conscious capitalism. He emphasizes the importance of accountability beyond numbers, using the LEAF model (Leadership, Engagement, Accountability, Fulfillment). He shares his personal experience leading a turnaround and introduces the concept of paying it backward. He also suggests replacing annual performance appraisals with purposeful growth plans.
https://bit.ly/TLP-364
Key Takeaways
[02:21] Mark Mears talks about his involvement in Conscious Capitalism and how businesses can make a positive difference in the world through purposeful growth.
[06:06] He explains his LEAF model (Leadership, Engagement, Accountability, Fulfillment) and emphasizes the importance of accountability beyond just focusing on numbers by breaking down goals into lead and lag measures. He also stresses the need for transparency and engagement to build trust within teams.
[10:26] Mark emphasizes the importance of identifying the right metrics for a business. He introduces the concept of "think, feel, do, and relate" as the four outcomes to consider.
[18:27] Mark shares a career failure that led to an epiphany for his book concept, emphasizing the importance of fulfillment in achieving growth and success. He shares his personal experience of leading a turnaround for a restaurant chain but being let go after achieving success. This led him to develop the concept of paying it backward, which involves creating a nurturing environment where people feel valued and empowered to be their best selves.
[28:00] Mark discusses the importance of understanding who you serve and how it leads to your motivation, superpowers, role on a team, and key metrics of performance. He suggests that leaders should act as coaches rather than managers and focus on personal growth plans for each team member. Mark advises listeners to learn how to love by listening, observing, valuing, and empowering others in their career.
[31:12] Mark also talks about the need for leaders to communicate clearly and listen better in order to align different perspectives towards common goals. He suggests replacing annual performance appraisals with purposeful growth plans that consider all four sub-brands (personal, internal, external, employer) for an organization's success.
[38:22] Closing quote: No legacy is so rich as honesty. — William Shakespeare
Quotable Quotes
"I don't want to just make money and retire. I want to make a difference and inspire."
"Businesses actually have the resources to help make a positive, lasting difference in the world."
"Necessity is the mother of invention."
"LEAF (Leadership, Engagement, Accountability, Fulfillment) is a symbol of growth and rebirth."
"Those of us who are great doers tend to get promoted and now we have to learn how to be leaders."
"We could do better in creating a more humanistic environment."
"Bringing love into the workplace. Listen, Observe, Value, and Empower."
"Until the robots or the zombies or chat GPT takes us away, we're all still human beings and we need to be treated like one."
"Being clear on what we stand for is important and having a clear understanding of where each of our team members are coming from."
"Your how represents your gifts or the role you play on the team to create maximum value."
"No legacy is so rich as honesty." - William Shakespeare.
These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Mark
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Mark Mears on LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/markamears
- Mark Mears Website | www.markamears.com
- Episode Mentioned: TLP262: The Heart of Business with Hubert Joly
Dan Horwich, a ‘Pay It Forward’ executive and President and Executive Director of CAMP IT Conferences, shares his philosophy on building meaningful relationships. In this episode, Dan emphasizes the importance of leading with kindness and empathy, as well as making introductions for others without expecting anything in return. As an expert networker, he provides valuable insights and advice for transitioning veterans. Dan encourages listeners to focus on helping others and emphasizes the significance of surrounding themselves with a network of good people. Furthermore, he stresses the importance of approaching human interactions with a kind and gentle spirit, highlighting the positive impact it can have on both personal and professional relationships.
https://bit.ly/TLP-363
Key Takeaways
[03:36] Dan shares a powerful and personal story that influences his approach to networking. He recounts how his grandfather's life is saved during the Holocaust through a compassionate act of networking. This experience deeply impacts Dan, leading him to prioritize gratitude and helping others. It reinforces his existing networking practices but also prompts him to move faster and consider how he can assist those he meets.
[08:05] Dan discusses the importance of relationship networking and serving others without expecting anything in return. He advises focusing on giving rather than getting and emphasizes the happiness and influence that come from helping others. He introduces a four-bucket rule for networking and encourages surrounding oneself with kind and coachable individuals. Dan emphasizes proactive networking and making quality introductions for others to build a strong network.
[12:10] In our discussion, Dan emphasizes the importance of giving as much as you receive in networking and mentorship. He acknowledges that not everyone may reciprocate, but they focus on appreciating the introductions they receive. By constantly making introductions, they build relationships and expand their network. Despite occasional frustration, joy and personal growth outweigh any negative feelings.
[14:11] Dan emphasizes the importance of attitude and emotional intelligence for successful tech leaders. He highlights resilience, humility, and a giver's mindset as key qualities. Dan encourages building relationships and treating others with respect. He cautions against closed-mindedness and stresses the need to understand the business value of technology. Building rapport and trust with business leaders is essential in the tech industry.
[18:43] For Dan, around 10 to 20% of tech leaders truly excel in their roles, exhibiting qualities such as emotional intelligence, empathy, and open-mindedness. However, there is ample room for improvement and growth among the majority. Success in tech leadership is determined by factors like business partnerships, personal survival, and the esteem held by their team. It's important to recognize that not everyone brings their best selves to work due to personal challenges.
[20:50] Dan highlights the importance of understanding between sell-side and buy-side attendees. He coaches sponsors to see attendees as humans first, considering their personal concerns and goals. By enabling and empowering others, meaningful relationships are formed. Dan advises attendees to recognize sellers as potential networking resources for career growth. Mutual sensitivity and respect foster successful interactions.
[23:56] During the discussion, Dan shared his approach to understand sellers and buyers' needs.
[26:17] When asked what advice he would give to his 25-year-old self, Dan emphasizes the importance of surrounding oneself with good humans, making logical decisions, and focusing on substantive matters instead of superficial achievements. Dan highlights the significance of kindness and integrity in building successful and fulfilling relationships. He also shares stories of questionable advice he received, urging the importance of maintaining integrity even at the cost of personal gain.
[31:42] Dan discusses how his perspective on a good life has evolved over time. He emphasizes the importance of impacting others, enabling their success, and surrounding himself with good people. He contrasts the temporary happiness from material possessions with the lasting fulfillment that comes from helping others. According to him, “A good life involves achieving personal goals while prioritizing relationships, health, and gratitude.”
[35:26] Dan provides a challenge to listeners to help others amid tough times. He advises shifting focus from negativity to making introductions and checking in on people. By assisting positive individuals, one can find joy and opportunities. Dan encourages daily check-ins with two or three people, fostering a supportive network and improving personal circumstances.
[38:04] Closing quote: In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit. — Anne Frank
Quotable Quotes
“It's about giving, not about getting."
"You do it without expectation... The more your heart compounds with happiness, the more you build a sphere of influence and a sphere of kindness."
"You should always be making introductions for other people, quality introductions, good humans. Because as you do that, you then become the sphere of influence. And then people, by their very nature, whether they feel indebted or not, they're still going to want to help you."
"The frustration is outweighed by the joy. So when you're able to give so much, you end up becoming a lot happier."
"Attitude over aptitude over technical aptitude."
"The best tech leaders that I know are resilient, humble, and have a giver's mindset."
"If you show the attendees how they can get promoted, you build a connection. It's not about the message you want to give them, it's about the message that they're going to receive."
"It's just understanding where people are at, what's important to them. And if you connect those dots, then you build a connection."
"You shouldn't go out there to impress people. You should go out there to enable and empower people."
"When both sides take the approach of getting to learn from each other and realize this is a human interaction, that helps."
"Surround yourself with good humans."
"Try and look through everything from a lens of logic."
"Focus on the things that are real and substantive."
"If you really want to have a happier life and a more successful, more fulfilling life, you surround yourself with good humans."
"Kindness was seen as a weakness."
"Money is important in a lot of ways, but it's not going to make you happy in tough times."
"Build a foundation of good humans and surround yourself with good humans."
"Just do it. Do it."
"A good life is the impact you have on others, on enabling others and empowering others."
"Surrounding yourselves with good humans and you're able to laugh and you help others, it goes back to that compounding of happiness."
"Good life is accomplishing certain goals."
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Dan Horwich LinkedIn | Dan Horwich
- Camp IT Conferences Website | https://campitconference.com/
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
Jim and Jan discuss the importance of compassion and courage in having difficult conversations. They emphasize the need for empathy, mutual solutions, and bi-directional dialogue. Jim and Jan also provide tips for creating a positive environment for such discussions, including clear expectations, empathy, and core values. They highlight the impact of small actions and encourage listeners not to be neutral in situations of injustice.
https://bit.ly/TLP-362
Key Takeaways
[02:18] Jim and Jan delve into the significance of having the courage to engage in difficult conversations. They also touch on the fear that comes with these conversations and how it can be a warning sign to address.
[09:47] Jim and Jan stress the need for empathy and finding mutual solutions in these conversations instead of just pointing out problems. They also acknowledge that difficult conversations are a two-way street and require forgiveness and bi-directional dialogue to be effective. They highlight the importance of approaching tough conversations with respect, understanding, validation, active problem-solving, and follow-up.
[17:33] They discuss the challenges of having difficult conversations in organizations and offer tips on how to create a more positive environment for them. This includes setting clear expectations, using empathy and questions to facilitate collaboration, and focusing on core values like kindness, honesty, fairness, discipline, curiosity, and gratitude.
[23:18] The importance of running effective meetings is also discussed as a key factor in reducing the burden of excessive meetings while increasing productivity and engagement. They advise to treat people with respect and seek meaningful connections through shared values and purpose when engaging in communicating.
[28:37] Jim and Jan also give three things that you would have to remember when it comes to these tough and difficult conversations. Also, some closing thoughts for Jim and Jan about having a difficult conversation.
[35:31] Closing quote: Remember, if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. — Desmond Tutu
Quotable Quotes
"If you care enough, you'll have the courage. If you don't care, the fear will override."
"Fear is such a strong signal to our logical brain."
"I just always try to put myself in the other person's shoes. Just say, like, hey, let me just play this out. If I were to receive this message, how do I think I'd react?"
"Tough conversations can be challenging, but approaching them with empathy or spec and a focus on finding solutions can greatly improve the outcome and foster positive relationships."
"We have to take responsibility for it being misinterpreted and ensure that our intentions come across in our words and deeds."
"Difficult conversations are not one way, they're a two-way street."
"We can create a positive environment where difficult conversations aren't difficult."
"Let's not react, but let's respond with thought."
"When we let our emotions and reactions govern how we hear and address things, it doesn't serve us well."
"Difficult conversations can occur in meetings, and collaboration is important."
"What's not being said is as important as what is being said."
"Expectation setting for people is a difficult conversation."
"Put yourself in the other person's shoes and have it be a process that you're collaborating on something rather than telling."
"My three would be similar: respect, use questions to help that person self-discover, and use questions to brainstorm on possible solutions together."
"The better we get at asking really good questions I think that's the road to righteousness."
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." - Desmond Tutu
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- TLP 309: This Author Has Written More About Meetings Than Anyone
- TLP124: How to Make Difficult Conversations… Easier
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
Col. Terry Virts (ret.) served as a U.S. Air Force test fighter pilot, is a NASA veteran of two spaceflights and a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Harvard Business School. In 2019 he directed his first film, One More Orbit. His second book, How to Astronaut, continues to amass excellent reviews. He is currently involved in several film and television projects, serves on corporate boards, consults to the entertainment industry, writes and promotes public policy.
He is a celebrated thought leader, speaker and author whose seven months in space included: piloting the Space Shuttle; commanding the International Space Station; three spacewalks; and performing scientific experiments, while working closely with multiple international partners. Virts worked with Russian Space Agency cosmonauts during some of the most stressful U.S.-Russian relations since the Cold War.
While in space he took more than 300,000 photos – more than on any other space mission. The images are an integral component of the National Geographic IMAX film A Beautiful Planet, which Virts also shot and stars in. His first book for National Geographic, View From Above, combines his best photography with stories about spaceflight alongside his perspectives about life on earth and our place in the cosmos.
Terry shares the importance of feedback, cultural understanding, and fair treatment when leading diverse teams. He discusses topics such as debriefing, stress management, and skills-based training. Gain insights into balancing productivity and well-being, prioritizing tasks, and overcoming fears. Don't miss the valuable advice for handling emergencies.
https://bit.ly/TLP-361
Key Takeaways
[01:53] Terry talks about his experiences as an entrepreneur and the challenges of selling ideas in comparison to being a leader in the military. During his time commanding the International Space Station with an international crew, he learned that feedback is important and helps to resolve conflicts between team members from different cultural backgrounds.
[05:36] He also emphasizes the importance of understanding where people are on the experience spectrum and treating everyone fairly regardless of their position or length of service.
[11:23] Terry shares his experience working with people from different cultures and the importance of a culture that values accountability while not punishing mistakes.
[16:58] He also emphasizes the value of debriefing and learning from mistakes to improve safety in industries like aviation.
[23:19] Terry discusses how stress can impact performance during missions, highlighting the need for moderate stress levels to optimize productivity. Additionally, he talks about pre-mission training and team-building exercises such as National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
[25:25] Terry touches on the importance of skills-based training, including medical skills necessary when someone falls ill during a mission. He talks about medical procedures in space and how to handle potential emergencies like appendicitis.
[31:22] Terry also discusses leadership styles and ways to balance getting things done while also taking care of their team's well-being.
[40:01] The discussion revolves around the concept of being a "lazy" commander. Terry refers to a quote by Steve Jobs, highlighting the idea of hiring smart people not to be told what to do, but to receive their guidance. The importance of prioritizing tasks, working smarter instead of harder, and being a little bit lazy as a leader were key takeaways from the conversation.
[45:43] Terry shares the three steps to handle emergencies: maintain control, analyze the situation, and take appropriate action. He also gives advice for business leaders facing adversity and emphasizes the importance of prioritizing tasks in order to avoid making things worse.
[47:33] Closing quote: Remember, the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you. — Neil deGrasse Tyson
Quotable Quotes
"If you're a leader, try and see things from other people's point of view, a skill we must have."
"You kind of have to know where people are on the experience spectrum... People mature at different rates."
"You need to be open to feedback also and not make it too awkward or strange."
"If you've got a CYA culture in your organization, you have to look at how you're holding people accountable."
"If people make mistakes... you can use people's mistakes in a positive way, that can be really good for your industry."
"You figure out what you need, and then you train that need so that people know what they're doing."
"If you can take your team and travel overseas, that's when you get to know people, you can hang out and do things outside of work, that's important."
"There's a terminal velocity by which a team can come together."
"You need to have some kind of moderate amount of stress to perform optimally."
"Part of what we have to do as leaders is to get stuff done, and the best way to do that is through the commitment of people who are willing and engaged."
"The best commanders are a little bit lazy."
"I hire smart people so they tell me what to do."
"When working in a big bureaucracy, choose one specific goal you want to accomplish and focus on achieving it."
"Sometimes you just need to chill out and let things happen."
"Be like water, find the path of least resistance."
"Work smarter, not harder."
"Don't crash into the ground. Do your analysis then take your action."
"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." - Neil deGrasse Tyson
These are the books mentioned in our discussion with Terry
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Terry Virts Website| www.terryvirts.com
- Terry Virts on Twitter | @astroterry
- Terry Virts on Instagram | @astro_terry
- Terry Virts on LinkedIn |Terry Virts
- Terry Virts Facebook | www.facebook.com/astrovirts
- Terry Virts Book | View From Above: An Astronaut Photographs The World
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
Aidan Higgins is the author of "Lead from you: We need aware, authentic and emotionally intelligent leaders. Leading from their best selves." Aidan shares his insights on the importance of self-awareness, authenticity, and emotional intelligence in modern leadership. He discusses how childhood can shape the definition of success and the value of humor in leadership. He also shares practical tips on observing oneself to detect changes in emotion or behavior and finding a balance between productivity and calmness. The episode ends with a reminder to change one's awareness of oneself in order to bring about personal growth.
https://bit.ly/TLP-360
Key Takeaways
[00:05] Aidan Higgins, is a leadership coach at Adeo Consulting and the author of "Lead from you". He believes that personal awareness and leadership awareness are the same thing and that leaders need to be conscious of their thoughts, emotions and how they act out, so their beliefs, thoughts, and emotions become their actions.
[12:07] The conversation is about leadership and the need to adapt to changing times and technologies. There is a focus on the need for collaborative leadership rather than a top-down approach. The issue of control is also discussed, with the suggestion that some leaders need to learn to let go of control in order to achieve better outcomes.
[16:10] Effective leadership is not just about having good intentions but also about understanding one's definition of success and the impact of childhood training. Many leaders strive for succes and may not even enjoy their achievements. Self-awareness is essential to achieving a balance between productivity and calmness.
[20:49] Aidan also covers the importance of work ethic and discipline in the past, the role of having fun in bonding and interjecting humor in the workplace, and the challenges that leaders face in creating a good atmosphere for their team outside of work.
[33:39] Aidan talks about the importance of overcoming addiction to being busy and finding a balance between productivity and calmness, which allows for more powerful and productive work.
[35:08] Aidan shares a story about a successful leader who initially resisted change but eventually embraced it and brought the whole organization along by creating posters and explaining the "why" behind the changes. Aidan finds joy in seeing the leader's transformation and success.
[40:02] According to Aidan, commitment, openness, and trust were the three independent words that allowed the team to be successful in achieving their goals.
[41:50] Aidan challenges us to be more self-aware and authentic in leadership by observing one's actions and thoughts, questioning why things are done a certain way, and being mindful of self-talk. The goal is to understand oneself better to achieve personal growth and avoid being controlled by external factors.
[45:43] Closing quote: Remember, what is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself. — Abraham Maslow
Quotable Quotes
"Control was always an illusion.”
"If the pressure is on so much, or you're in an environment where you cannot fail or you cannot take a risk, you can't move forward."
"Character is who you are. Reputation is what people think of you, which you have no control over."
"Not everybody has good intentions."
"Appropriate humor in the right place at the right time is very useful, and having a sense of humor about things and about people and all that is very helpful."
"Those without a sense of humor are not liked as leaders."
"The truth without compassion is cruelty."
"Stop and observe yourself."
"You are not your thoughts."
"If you're in the middle of a fog of anxiety or depression, you're not in the present."
"You can't see opportunities because you're not in the present."
"Watch the self-talk as well as another good indicator of the sort of mindset you're having."
"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself." — Abraham Maslow
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Adeo Consulting Website| www.adeo.ie
- Aidan Higgins on Twitter | @aidanhiggins
- Aidan Higgins on LinkedIn | Aidan Higgins
- Adeo Consulting Facebook | Adeo Consulting Ltd.
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
Linguistics professor, Valerie Fridland, explores the evolution of language and offers insights on how we can use it more effectively in the workplace. From the use of filled pauses and uptalk to the gender-based biases that affect language perception, Valerie provides a fascinating look at the role of language in our lives. Also discussed are the benefits of embracing language evolution, and how it can improve communication and connection in our personal and professional lives.
https://bit.ly/TLP-359
Key Takeaways
[01:11] Valerie Fridland, a linguistics professor and author of "Like, literally, Dude: Arguing For Good In Bad English," challenges the notion of "correct" language and encourages us to embrace language evolution. Her personal experience as a parent highlights the importance of understanding language in the real world.
[03:51] Valerie talks about speech patterns and language usage, including uptalk and discourse markers. People have specific likes and dislikes when it comes to language, including certain words or phrases that they find annoying or grating. However, many of these preferences are actually based on regional dialects or historical linguistic changes and may not be as important or incorrect as people think.
[14:38] Valerie talks about how filled pauses, such as "ums" and "uhs," which are typically considered to be bad public speaking habits, are actually beneficial for speakers and listeners.
[20:10] Men and women process language similarly, but societal expectations and cultural models can influence the types of language they prefer. Young women are often the initiators and spreaders of language change. Different linguistic styles exist, but it's not about gender, it's about individual preference and social roles.
[25:14] Valerie also discusses the differences in language and style between generations, genders, and ethnic groups, and how these differences can affect communication in the workplace. While it's okay to have a preferred style of communication, it's also important to come to a compromise and be open to new ideas.
[35:19] Tips from Valerie that we can implement to make our workplaces more inclusive of everyone linguistically. Leaders should be aware of their own language biases and avoid making assumptions based on linguistic characteristics such as voice pitch or discourse markers. By being more inclusive of diverse linguistic styles, leaders can create a more welcoming and productive workplace for everyone.
[39:19] While social media and other forms of communication may be disseminating information faster than ever before, the actual changes in language are relatively slow compared to historical changes. Additionally, Valerie discusses and gives examples of how the speed at which we speak and the perceived charisma of a speaker is a complex interplay of various factors, including speech rate, pitch, intonation patterns, and the use of vocal fry. Varying the tempo and intonational variability can contribute to charismatic speech.
[47:04] Closing quote: Remember, slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work. — Carl Sandberg
Quotable Quotes
"Language is a window into our minds and how our minds work."
"Language is constantly changing and evolving, and it's a really fascinating thing to study."
"We can learn a lot about our society and how we view things through our language."
"The social beliefs we have about language and the linguistic reality are completely opposite."
"Filled pauses, or 'UMS' and 'UZ,' are actually a superpower for speakers and listeners."
"UMS are signals of hard cognitive effort, and they help us process complex information."
"UMS also signals to listeners that we're not done speaking and helps with turn-taking."
"Language is a tool that we use to convey our thoughts and emotions, and it's important to understand how it works."
"Language is not just about communication, it's also about identity and how we perceive ourselves and others."
"Candor has to be in different contexts for different reasons."
“Language is fun, and amazing. Language is a connection and communication. And sometimes we forget that we're not there to be perfect speakers, we're there to be connected speakers. So focus on connection and communication. You can't go wrong.”
“Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work.” Carl Sandberg
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Valerie Fridland | www.valeriefridland.com
- Valerie Fridland on Twitter | @FridlandValerie
- Valerie Fridland on LinkedIn | Valerie Fridland
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
Sean Conley, Chief Learning Officer for Baker Hughes, discusses the importance of creating a people-first culture while still achieving results for your business. Sean talks about the importance of creating an environment where people want to learn and change their behavior through repetition and trial-and-error. He also touches on the challenges of our educational system and the need to create white space in calendars for growth and development amidst busy schedules. Join us as we explore the insights shared by Sean on the importance of investing in learners, fostering inclusion, and creating a culture of appreciation and effective communication.
https://bit.ly/TLP-358
Key Takeaways
[01:02] Sean Conley, shares his 40 years of experience in learning and development, and he still finds himself passionate about what he does every day. He believes that this passion is crucial in helping others bring out the best in themselves and growing as a leader.
[05:44] Sean discusses the importance of creating a learning environment where employees are given the choice to opt-in rather than being forced to participate in learning and development activities. He also discusses the importance of marketing and enticing employees to want to learn, rather than trying to push them into it.
[13:17] Sean encouraged people to pursue their interests and passions using the many available resources for learning, rather than just focusing on memorizing information. Behavior change should be the focus of learning.
[15:49] Create white space for personal growth & development, focus on changing individual behavior rather than the whole organization, help people understand various ways to learn, it's about time focus not just management, recharge when needed, encourage learners to create their own white space.
[18:11] Sean believes investing in frontline leaders is key for organizational success, setting habits and behaviors that follow them. Senior management should focus on developing talent rather than learning new skills, creating an ecosystem for growth and development and leaving a legacy by developing successors.
[20:45] Sean talks about how an organization can't grow if its people can't grow. Growth opportunities should be given when the learners are ready. It's important to focus on behavior change and application of learning to shape an organization.
[24:45] Sean answers the question, “What are we getting right and what are we getting not so right about inclusion?”. While there is progress in discussing inclusion in organizations, it's important to not only include those who are present but also consider who is not in the room and ensure everyone has a voice and is part of the dialogue.
[26:42] Sean discusses the importance of diversity of the mind in the workplace and how learning is a key part of shaping the culture of an organization. Different individuals have different learning styles and as such, learning programs need to be designed to cater to different types of learners.
[30:59] Sean agrees that leaders should start with ensuring that everyone in the tribe feels appreciated and valued for their contribution before addressing issues of belonging and inclusion. Sean also acknowledges the challenge of being a busy leader but sees it as a great reminder to prioritize appreciation in both business and personal life
[35:19] Sean admits to still working on improving his communication skills and the art of telling, asking, and listening. He stresses the need to ask better questions and not simply react, but to listen intently to pull more information out. This highlights the idea that communication is an ongoing process that requires continuous improvement.
[36:46] When is it okay to break the rules?According to Sean, “Rules are just made up by people and they're made up at a time. So sometimes (it's not really) I won't say break(ing) the rules, but we get to question them sometimes.”
[40:41] Closing quote: And remember, “He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” - Confucius
Quotable Quotes
"By investing in yourself and by growing yourself, you actually show up better for your customers."
"Learning comes with behavior change."
“Getting your brain going and learning something is better than none."
"It's not time management, it's time focus."
"Learning environment is part of how you shape a culture in an organization."
“Be courageous. It's the only place left uncrowded.” - Anita Roddick
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Sean Conley on LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/conleyglobal
- Baker Hughes Website | www.bakerhughes.com/
- Baker Hughes on LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/company/bakerhughes
- Baker Hughes on Twitter | @bakerhughesco
Stephen Drum, retired Navy SEAL master chief and author of "Life on the X: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Meeting Any Challenge with Courage, Confidence, and Readiness", discusses the values and commitments necessary for effective leadership. This is Steve’s second time as a guest on The Leadership Podcast, and in this episode he discusses the importance of being authentic in one's values and purpose along with the significance of focusing on the basics to achieve success. The use of After Action Reviews (AARs) is also highlighted as a way to continuously improve performance by identifying opportunities for growth. Join us as we dive deeper into this conversation about leadership, feedback, and the application of military principles to business leadership.
Key Takeaways
[04:26] Stephen Drum talks about the meaning behind the title of his book "Life on the X.” The X represents the critical point of execution on a combat mission, the most dangerous and difficult point. By preparing and training for this point, success can be achieved in less dangerous situations.
[06:38] The first section of the book discusses commitment, values, purpose, attributes, and character.
[09:53] Stephen believes leaders need to focus on the basics, being crystal clear on the desired end state and checking for comprehension. They caution against getting too caught up in technology and processes before identifying the necessary resources for a project or endeavor.
[12:40] Stephen believes that brilliant basics consist of giving resources, setting clear expectations and accountability, and coaching depending on an individual's skills and experience. He also emphasizes the importance of contingency planning and emotional control.
[24:48] Stephen explains that the concept of After Action Reviews (AARs) depends on the position and organization, but some clients gravitate towards it while others are focused on the production and don't have time. Steve suggests making the process efficient and identifying opportunities to leverage the experience. Steve finds that clients embrace this approach.
[27:20] During a meeting with a client, Stephen realized the client's note-taking gave him confidence they would follow through on the discussed actions. He believes taking notes is important in memorializing information and it helps people remember and take things seriously.
[30:30] Stephen also talks about the challenges of giving effective feedback. Research shows that feedback is often not as effective as we think because people tend to get defensive and blame others or misremember. As a leader, it's important to give future-focused, succinct feedback that only addresses things that can be changed.
[34:16] Stephen explains feedback in the military serves different purposes, such as accountability and documentation, but can also be used to replicate the stress of combat. The military also practices intrusive leadership, which involves getting into people's personal lives to provide support and resources.
[38:14] Stephen reflects on how in special operations, there are peaks and troughs, whereas in the business world, it's go time all the time, and without self-care, burnout is inevitable.
[40:55] People tend to push too hard and can't keep up that pace. Separating work and family can be healthy for some, but for others, it's better to have a more intense focus on work or other activities. In the military, there's no time off during a deployment, and even holidays are not completely free of work. In the business world, it's important to find ways to foster creativity and give employees a break from the grind of their daily work.
[42:29] Identify their next big moment or key opportunity and develop an architecture for success, which aligns with the theme of his book.
[43:36] Closing quote: Remember, “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind, next to honor. ” — Aristotle
Quotable Quotes
"As the leader, you have to be crystal clear on the desired end state."
"We sometimes give into or fall prey to the allure of technology or certain sexy processes."
"You're engaging more parts of your brain when you want to memorize something."
"If it's serious and important enough, you're going to take the time to put pen to paper."
"Feedback is not nearly as effective as you think it is, or that you need it to be."
"If you're receiving feedback and it basically could be construed as negative or overly constructive, you're going to get defensive."
"Identify what your next big moment or key opportunity is and figure out how you're going to develop the architecture for success."
"A lot of people want to work from home, but for many people, it's healthy to have a separation, to go to work and be focused on that and then come home and focus just on that."
"The mind, body, soul is critical. The body piece, rest, nutrition, physical activity, how that contributes to emotions and cognitive ability."
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Stephen Drum | stephendrum.com
- Stephen Drum on LinkedIn | Stephen Drum
- Stephen Drum on Facebook | www.facebook.com/stephen.drum.967
- Stephen Drum on Instagram | @stephen.drum
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
With his unique brand of edgy leadership, Dr. Todd Dewett is one of the most in-demand keynote speakers in the world, an internationally sought-after expert, a four-time TEDx speaker, and has been quoted in TIME, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Business Week, Forbes, CNN, and many more outlets. He is the author of “Dancing With Monsters, a Tale About Leadership, Success, and Overcoming Fears.” In this interview, Todd talks about the challenges of work including: facing our fears to build confidence; the generational challenges, boundaries, and when quitting should be considered. Listen in to hear how to deal with your mistakes, how to find “fit,” and the importance of outside counsel.
https://bit.ly/TLP-356
Key Takeaways
[1:56] Todd’s bio. (See at the end of the show notes.) Todd comes to The Leadership Podcast through a mutual friend, Dean Karrel; both are phenomenal LinkedIn Learning instructors. Todd and Jan share a publisher.
[3:29] Todd is a proud father of two; a sophomore in high school and a sophomore in college. They’re the best thing he’s ever done. Todd and his wife are besties and business partners. She is going through a battle with cancer and they don’t know what’s going to happen. Todd strives to understand it and be useful to her as she tries to beat this thing.
[5:25] Todd likes most to speak about universal experiences; to take a thing we all know and give it a fresh perspective. Wanting to quit is a universal experience. Is it bad or good? It depends. Giving up too easily is a problem for some people. But quitting isn’t simply bad. It can be strategically very useful. If something is not working out, it may be time to stop investing in it to invest in something better.
[7:58] If fear is common at work it may be due to a poor culture or poor managers. But even in great work cultures, fear of what to say and how to act in a new situation is wired into us. We want to please people and be liked. Fear at work is an important topic to explore. Work is affecting people’s physical and mental health in ways that are not productive. We need to learn how to mitigate the experience of fear.
[10:33] Fear can manifest as indecision. We walk through a large system of interlocking expectations from ourselves, our parents, our partners, our peers, our supervisors, others at work, and our family. We don’t always know how to navigate it successfully. Sometimes it’s indecision, sometimes it’s rash poor decision-making, and sometimes it’s overreaching.
[11:03] What is the reasonable, measured way to deal with that normal anxiety we feel in the middle of all those expectations? Good coaching and some thought will get you through that. The real problem is people who haven’t done the work to narrow down the possibilities and don’t know what their career goal is at all so they defer the decision to someone else.
[12:31] Todd delivered a TEDx talk at Texas A&M, long after his Ph.D. there. It was based on his experiences as an employee and a professor, that lots of people love to talk about creativity and innovation but the gap between the concepts and the practice of embracing them is enormous. When people innovate or tweak a process, they receive pushback and criticism. Change may be seen as a threat.
[14:28] Confidence is both a personality trait and a skill that can be built over time. Todd recommends the repetition of engaging these risks and learning from them in an environment that is supportive of innovation. People like Todd have a job because much of what people do doesn’t naturally mesh with their environments. They don’t fit without some effort.
[16:21] The pandemic accelerated thinking about these issues and it came at a time of a generational shift we’ve never seen. There are five generations represented in the workforce. The definition of success is slowly shifting toward what makes the employee happy and find purpose, more than what others think.
[16:49] The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting seem to support that shift. Millennials and Zs do have different professional values in terms of wanting to be a partner and be heard rather than being subordinate and following orders. They want more leisure but also want to feel more purpose than earlier generations. People respond fantastically well when they believe they are heard.
[18:26] The key to “fit” is objectively getting the skills that you need to do the work you want to do, and finding people that you enjoy, no matter the thing you’re working on. The skills and the people both feed into your experience of “fit.”
[19:36] Todd agrees that there is both a corporate responsibility and a personal responsibility to provide meaning to work. He says, “Never believe the simple narrative.” Millennials and Zs find it shocking that when starting a job, it is important to learn the norms, the rules, the expectations, and what it takes to be a top performer there, before demanding to be heard. It goes both ways.
[22:19] People are aging out of the labor force faster than workers are entering it. Jobs have changed over the last 30 years. We lost many jobs and replaced them with service jobs. It may be harder to find purpose and alignment with a low-paying service job than it did with a high-paying manufacturing job.
[23:54] No one’s perfect all the time. We have moods, moments, and external factors that impact us. Even on our best days, we’re imperfect. One of the themes in Dancing with Monsters is that “You’re wonderfully imperfect but still perfectly capable of doing amazing things.” Talk about it more than less. It leads to empathy, authenticity, and vulnerability.
[24:21] The world of our fathers and grandfathers placed an uncrossable line between the personal and professional. There are some holes in the wall now, but it hasn’t come down. Humans want to have authentic human connections that are meaningfully fulfilling. But instead, we put on a polished, professional version of ourselves that we hope will keep us out of trouble and maybe even get us ahead.
[25:04] You don’t have to hide. Most people through conversation can make teams meaningfully better. We need to be validated a little more, understood a little more, and be better listeners. We learn that everybody’s imperfect, and that’s OK. The key to great teams isn’t finding the best talent, but talent is still required. The key is chemistry and getting the best joint performance out of the people that you do have.
[26:45] Leaders are sometimes going to go too far. It’s normal. What do they do to show vulnerability? Don’t run from it. Own that. If apologies or statements are needed, make them sooner than later. But first, assume you do not see yourself and the situation perfectly. Find people who have insights into what just happened and ask them for their insights. They see you differently than you see yourself.
[27:25] Take time to think about a path forward for using the error to make yourself better. Todd shares a story of embarrassing himself as a young professional speaker by bombing onstage in front of thousands of people. He used it as an opportunity to check his emotions, step back, examine the things he did wrong, and make a plan to fix them and not repeat the same mistakes. He used it to make himself better.
[29:02] Writing a monster story is unusual in the leadership space. It came from a mistake! Two years ago, for the third time, Todd wrote a novel, and “It was not good.” He is done trying to scratch that itch! The story involved a vampire in an office and he still loved the idea. After thinking about Patrick Lencioni and others, Todd got excited about a fable and started writing his book. Six hours later, he had the first draft.
[30:49] Whatever your generation may be, the “more” that you search should be defined by you, whether it’s just about work, or larger issues in life, Todd still says, “More is always possible.”
[32:32] Millennials and Zs have seen all kinds of financial adversity. No one understands success without understanding failure. Todd says he had so many big, fat, ugly failures in his career, it’s hilarious! If you have one or two moderate successes people think good things about you. It’s the halo effect. Todd loves talking about failures.
[35:02] Leaders want to be aspirational but sometimes don’t live the values. The gap between rhetoric and reality causes a massive cultural problem in organizations. Todd promotes more realism with high levels of candor and kindness. When employees make mistakes, discuss the mistakes with kindness and candor and admit your own mistakes. With kindness and candor, you can deal with reality a lot better.
[37:27] We’re not great at understanding ourselves or others as much as we think we are. Outside counsel is essential in any success story, for sure! Growth starts when you leave your comfort zone. That’s just a truism. Allow your boss and allow yourself to push yourself, into areas that make you a little uncomfortable. That’s where growth comes from.
[38:49] Todd’s closing thoughts: “Having what it takes to become an effective leader and finding success in your career, is not about what you’re born with, it’s about the skills that you build. And with the right effort and the right people around you, any of us can find those things and build those things. It is within our reach. I love sharing that with people.”
[39:37] Closing quote: Remember, “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” — Rosa Parks
Quotable Quotes
- “Proud father of two; I’ve got a sophomore in high school and a sophomore in college and they’re the best thing I’ve ever done, no matter how much I might talk about a book or a course.”
-
“Lots of people, if not everyone, love to talk about creativity and innovation but the gap between the allure of those concepts and the practice of embracing them is enormous beyond words!”
-
“We tend to see people respond … tremendously well when they believe they’re being listened to. … The research suggests that teams and organizations tend to respond a lot better.”
- “The key to ‘fit’ is objectively trying to go find the skills that you need to do the work that you want to do. That’s Part 1 but Part 2 really is finding people that you enjoy no matter the thing you’re working on.”
- “Most people through conversation can make teams meaningfully better. … We just need to be validated a little more, understood a little more, and be better listeners.”
- “The key to great teams isn’t finding the best talent, although talent, of course, must be present. The key is chemistry and getting the best interlocking performance out of the people that you do have. That’s chemistry, and it tends to be a better predictor of success than just base-level talent.”
- “Growth starts when you leave your comfort zone. … Allow your boss and allow yourself to push yourself, performance-wise, into areas that start to make you a little uncomfortable. That’s where growth comes from.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Todd Dewett, Ph.D.
- Todd Dewett on LinkedIn Learning
- Dean Karrel on LinkedIn Learning
- Dancing With Monsters, A Tale About Leadership, Success, and Overcoming Fears
- Brené Brown
- Kim Cameron
- Patrick Lencioni
- Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt
- Lee Benson
Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of IMA and the author of three books. His most recent book is “Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life.” Vitaliy was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. In this interview, Vitaliy contrasts his experience growing up in the Soviet Union with his experience in the United States, and how different his mindset was in each place. He also discusses how Stoic philosophy has been very helpful. He discusses how his essay about Tchaikovsky aims to help others who may be struggling with creativity. Listen in for a vibrant discussion on intention, communication, and vulnerability.
https://bit.ly/TLP-355
Key Takeaways
[1:53] Vitaliy’s bio. (See at the end of the show notes.)
[2:22] Vitaliy loves investing, writing, classical music, and spending time with his family, Vitaliy’s father is a fantastic artist and Vitaliy has a small gallery of his work.
[3:49] How Vitaliy sees the differences between Murmansk, Russia, and Denver, Colorado. Denver has lots of sunshine. In the winter, Murmansk has a few minutes of sunshine a day. When Vitaliy lived there, it was Soviet Russia. Freedom of speech and the free market did not exist in Russia. All businesses were owned by the government. Here we have an abundance of food and a lack of scarcity.
[6:56] Vitaliy shares thoughts on how Russians and Americans communicate. He read How to Win Friends and Influence People when he was 18 in Russia. He hated the book and felt it was teaching him how to be fake. He read it again 20 years later and was shocked by how brilliant it is. He is re-reading it with his 17-year-old daughter and she loves it. She has an American mindset.
[8:06] When Vitaliy came to the U.S. he found that Americans are very indirect and smile all the time, contrasted with Russians who are sometimes painfully direct. Vitaly was fired from his first American job. The man firing him was smiling at him, which was a confusing signal. Vitaly fine-tuned himself to a balance between directness and indirectness. He tries not to criticize people so his message is clearly received.
[9:10] If Vitaliy has a criticism, he first tries to make sure to tell the person positive things. Then he structures the criticism as constructive feedback. He learned that from Dale Carnegie and living in the U.S. for 30 years. Vitaliy says if he had continued to communicate in the Soviet Russian style, he could not have achieved anything in the U.S.
[10:43] Vitaliy’s intentionality comes from the conscious choice to be mindful. To have a work/life balance you just have to be mindful about having the balance. Vitaliy knew he wanted to be a good father to his children. He made a mindful choice to spend more time with his children. He chooses to drive his children to school before going to work on a busy day.
[12:38] Vitaliy has a value to be a good father. To live up to the value he has to be mindful about being with his children. If he just went on autopilot, he would just default to the easiest things to do which for him is working 10-hour and 12-hour days. To be mindful, he stops after eight hours. When he gets home and has dinner with his kids, he’s not looking at his phone. He’s present with them, giving them attention.
[14:26] To live a meaningful life, figure out exactly what you value and spend your time according to your values.
[15:32] Vitaliy sees value in simplicity.
[16:50] As Vitaliy was working on the last chapter of his book, he put it on pause to study and write on Stoicism. He studied Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca. Epictetus taught a framework that some things are up to you and some things aren’t. What is up to you are your values and how you behave. Everything else is external and is not up to you. Don’t try to control what is out of your control.
[19:03] Vitaliy’s 17-year-old daughter just got her first job at a coffee shop. She finds a co-worker annoying. Vitaliy asked her if she expected every co-worker to be perfect. It’s not up to you how other people are. Vitaliy finds this framework to be simple and elegant; if you embrace the Stoic philosophy it will reduce the volatility and negativity in your life.
[20:27] When he learned Stoic philosophy, Vtaliy realized he had made choices in the past unconsciously that were aligned with Stoic philosophy. Adopting Stoic philosophy intentionally has changed his life. He wrote that section of the book as much for himself as for the reader.
[21:51] Every three to four months, Vitaliy sends his clients a 30-page letter in a story-telling format. As an experiment, once he sent the letter in a condensed format of brief bullet points. Eighty percent of his clients preferred the long letter. It was easier for them to read in stories than in bullet points.
[23:33] You want to be very careful on the receiving side of storytelling and people who are terrific speakers. They appeal to your emotions. Stoics break down the message to its bare bones, to the bullet points. There is a conflict between Stoics and Sophists. Vitaliy acknowledges he is a Sophist in storytelling. At the same time, his values are Stoic. Sophists hijack the message and they may not have good values.
[24:56] When Vitaliy encounters terrific communicators, he is very cautious to make sure the way they communicate does not impact his decision-making.
[26:17] Music is an incredibly important part of Vitaliy’s life. He has written essays on the music that was important to him at any year of his life. Vitaly gets up every day at 4:30 or 5:00 and writes for two hours while listening to classical music in his headphones. Those two hours every day are very special to Vitaliy. Listening to classical music while he writes has helped his creativity tremendously.
[28:07] Vitaliy’s kids made him appreciate chess. It’s one of the few games he likes playing with them. His daughter invited him to play after watching The Queen’s Gambit. After a game, they review the moves, trying to find the solution for the best move possible at any point. It makes an intellectually honest discussion. Jan notes it’s like a military after-action review (AAR). Both become better players.
[30:34] Writing music is a very creative activity. When you listen to classical music, think about how difficult it was for the composer to write it. Tchaikovsky left behind many letters to his brother and his friends. His letters describe how he struggled to compose his music. Vitaliy’s book came about because he had been writing an essay about one of Tchaikovsky’s pieces of music.
[31:45] Vitaliy read Tchaikovsky’s letters and realized that the suffering the composer went through was so similar to the suffering Vitaliy goes through as a writer. He wrote an essay comparing the struggles of Tchaikovsky to the struggles a creative writer goes through.
[32:11] When Vitaliy finished the essay, he realized other struggling writers could be helped by reading it. Over the years, he had written many essays that could help others. So he put them together in a book.
[32:45] When you study the lives of composers, you listen to music very differently. You feel the pain they felt as they were writing. You realize that you will have some very difficult times creating, and as long as you love writing, pain is just part of the journey. The lives of the composers made Vitaliy appreciate classical music so much more. There is an incredible amount of hard work, pain, and struggle in creativity.
[34:52] Vitaliy finds that parenting and leadership have parallels. But leadership mistakes don’t haunt you for the rest of your life! Vitality exposes his kids to new things all the time. They watch YouTube videos on various subjects. He introduces them to new books all the time. They discuss different topics and he doesn’t talk down to them. He is interested to know what they think.
[35:56] As a parent and as a leader, it’s important to be vulnerable. You admit that you don’t have all the answers. When you communicate, spend most of the time in the scientist mode. Whatever you’re looking at is a theory. You are trying to discover truth.
[36:59] When you make a mistake you admit it. Then your employees will be more comfortable admitting they made mistakes as well.
[37:45] Vitaliy shares a link where you can hear his podcasts and read his articles.
[38:23] Closing quote: Remember, “Do not act as if you had 10,000 years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.” — Marcus Aurelius
Quotable Quotes
- “If you insult a person first and then you give them a message, that message will never arrive.”
-
“My daughter and I are reading [How to Win Friends and Influence People] together … and she loves the book!”
-
“Being around your kids while you are reading Financial Times on your iPhone is not being around your kids. Attention is a currency of time. So it’s when I give them that attention, when I’m present, that’s very, very important.”
- “There is so much value in simplicity.”
- “If you waste your energy trying to control things that are not up to you, you’re going to have one miserable life. You’re going to have this emotional rollercoaster of being upset.”
- “I would argue that if you embraced Stoic philosophy, what it does, it would just reduce the volatility; it would reduce negativity in your life. And by reducing negativity, it’s going to make your life calmer; more peaceful.”
- “Listening to classical music when I write has helped my creativity tremendously. Studies were done on the subject. And they … showed that when you listen to music, … it forces your left brain and right brain to work at the same time. It basically increases your creativity.”
- “I have found that there are a lot of parallels between being a parent and being a leader … [but] I guess if you screw up as a leader those mistakes don’t haunt you for the rest of your life.”
- “When you study the lives of composers, … you’re going to start listening to music very differently. You’re going to feel the pain Tchaikovsky felt when he was writing. … You’re going to appreciate as a creator that at times you’re going to have a very difficult time creating.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Vitaliy Katsenelson
- Investment Management Associates
- Soul In the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life
- The Intellectual Investor podcast Vitaliy Katsenelson
- Vitaliy Katsenelson on Contrarian Edge
- Murmansk
- How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
- Warren Buffet
- Stoicism
- Epictetus
- Marcus Aurelius
- Seneca
- Ryan Holiday
- Sophists
- The Queen’s Gambit
- After Action Review
- Tchaikovsky
Vitaliy Katsenelson Vitaliy Katsenelson is CEO and Chief Investment Officer of IMA and the author of Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life. Vitaliy was born in Murmansk, Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1991. After joining Denver-based investment firm IMA in 1997, Vitaliy became Chief Investment Officer in 2007 and CEO in 2012. He’s an award-winning writer with two books on investing and countless articles in publications such as The Financial Times and Barron’s. Vitaliy lives in Denver with his wife and three kids where he loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Soul in the Game is his third book and his first non-investing book.
Steve House is Founder of Uphill Athlete and a proudly retired professional climber and mountain guide. Jan has known him for years. For 21 years, Steve was a professional climber. In 1999 he became only the ninth American to achieve IFMGA certification, which is the highest level to guide all over the world. He has guided trips all across the world. In this discussion, Steve shares his journey from mountain sports to high-altitude climbing, to a nearly fatal fall, to coaching. Besides coaching mountain athletes, his current challenge is getting his pilot’s license. Steve talks about the purposes of mountain sports and how separation from daily distractions while moving your body through nature guides you on your journey.
https://bit.ly/TLP-354
Key Takeaways
[1:53] Jan shares Steve’s bio. (See at the end of the show notes.) [4:19] Steve thanks Jan and Jim for the invitation to The Leadership Podcast. As a professional athlete, there’s not much that’s not in his public bio. He’s almost a private pilot and is less than a month from taking his final practical exam. He describes a recent incredible flight and the energy flying gives him.
[7:09] When Steve was 20, he was studying in college to be an aeronautical engineer. Then he got hijacked by climbing. Now he has the chance to come back and do something he has always loved.
[8:17] In 2010, Steve was doing a training climb preparing for an expedition to do a new route on the west face of K2 with an expert fellow climber. He had a bad fall of around 100 feet. He broke 24 ribs. Two ribs were smashed into innumerable pieces. He had multiple pelvis fractures, knocked all the spinal processes off his vertebrae, and had many internal injuries.
[9:18] Steve lay on his back for about two hours. He knew he had hemopneumothorax. His breathing grew shallow as his chest cavity filled with blood. What came out of that was a lot of self-reflection. He had to come to terms with his drive to become the very best at what he did. That was his mission statement.
[10:45] As Steve reflected, at age 39, he was trying to figure out if he would function again. He had to think about what his values were, and what he cared about and wanted to do. Was it time to change his mission statement? He hadn’t accomplished everything in climbing but he decided he had accomplished enough. He could be proud of what he did do, and he was going to pivot to other values and other goals.
[11:57] In elite sports, you’re boxed off from the world. You eat, sleep, train, and go climb. You save all your energy to be better. It’s how you achieve individual greatness. But you’re not part of a team. Steve saw his crisis as a time to reflect and redirect.
[13:48] Steve thinks that due to the intensity with which he pursued his goals, he required an intense jolt to trigger reflection. Anything less wasn’t going to work. He notes that most of the people he climbed with are dead. That’s how risky and dangerous climbing is. Steve has only a handful of friends from that era that are still alive. Steve realized he was going to join those who were no longer alive if he continued.
[15:29] As a mountain sports trainer, Steve is in a position to help athletes get past the binary narrative of success or failure. There’s a much greater range of possible experiences. We have often seen that the one that came in first cheated or used performance-enhancing substances. The whole paradigm is broken. There is another way to experience sports. Mountain sports do not have a history of competition.
[17:02] Steve would tell his younger self he was always going to feel like an imposter, and that was completely OK, and that everybody else does, too. That feeling was one of the things that were hardest for him to overcome. It goes back to childhood. He was the scrawny little kid that wasn’t good at sports.
[18:49] One of the things that Steve learned from childhood was grit. He loved gritty experiences from a very early age. When he was 10, he backpacked his first 50-mile hike. When he was 11, he climbed Mount Hood. These were just things they did as a family or with his father. He enjoyed it.
[20:37] Steve and his Uphill Athlete team talk about Campbell’s Hero’s Journey paradigm and try to figure out what step their client is on for that journey. The goal is to help them through that one step. Everyone is on the same journey, at a different step.
[23:22] Uphill Athlete doesn’t exist to motivate people but to educate and inspire. Coaching is education and teaching people how they can apply endurance training methodologies and see the changes in their bodies. It takes a couple of months for people to get fully bought in and see their progress. When they get to that epiphany, they are committed to the journey for life and remain in the Uphill Athlete community.
[25:17] Going back to the imposter syndrome, Steve is often surprised that he knows the answer. And the only reason he can know the answer is because he lived it through 20 years of being an athlete. These are things you cannot learn in a physiology textbook.
[26:05] What holds people back is their minds, their fears, their insecurities, and the pieces that they don’t understand, or can’t conceptualize well. Those are the questions Steven can clear up easily, but he is always surprised.
[27:37] Steve tried to teach a man with a Ph.D. in exercise physiology how to coach but it was impossible because he didn’t understand what it felt like in his body to do what was written on the training plan. He couldn’t relate to the people even though he’d run circles around everybody on the science.
[28:27] When Steve interviews people to be coaches, he’s looking for people who have a unique superpower. He doesn’t need 15 people that all know the same thing. He needs people that have different backgrounds and experiences and are willing and eager to share with other people and also learn from them. They have to be far enough along on their journey that they can take feedback constructively.
[29:17] When you have a team that can do all of those things, it’s incredible. Steve’s team includes physical therapists, medical doctors, masters in high altitude physiology, and coaches that have coached every endurance sport you can imagine. They have great energy between them.
[30:29] Some people Steven hires have well-defined superpowers. Some younger people don’t know their superpower. Steven describes how he leverages coaches to develop the superpower in people within a relationship that is entirely a safe place for them to ask those “dumb questions.”
[33:39] Steve has a lot of athletes that do not have a set goal. They want to learn and experience and be in a community of like-minded people. Steve tells them it’s OK not to have an Everest goal. Sometimes it’s enough to engage with people as you learn.
[36:10] Arthur Brooks’s new book, From Strength to Strength, is about finding clarity in the second chapter of life.
[36:47] Steve uses the phrase, “naming the uncertainty.” Write down what you don’t know. Let that sit. People come back to him in a month and say it was great to let that sink in. There are more than two chapters for a lot of people.
[37:38] Mountain sports have an important role to play in people’s journeys. Being in the wilderness in small teams and overcoming obstacles lets the noise go away. So much more happens out there than we give it credit for. People are not getting pings out there moving their bodies through nature and letting their subconscious minds do the work. Steve has solved writer’s block many times with a long walk.
[43:52] Steven’s final thought: “It’s joyful to learn something. It’s joyful to become fitter. It’s joyful to climb a mountain. … Walking up a summit ridge and standing on top of a mountain is ultimately no different than walking into the grocery store and going to the cereal aisle. But what is different is if you’ve been to the top of the mountain, you have an appreciation for all the rest.”
[45:34] Closing quote: Remember, “People say, ‘Are you insane?’ But the most successful climbers are the most calculating, with the most refined sense of risk. They’re hyper-conscious of safety. They’re the least insane people I know.” — Jimmy Chin
Quotable Quotes
- “I’m almost a private pilot. … I’m less than a month away. … I just had an amazing flight. … I flew from Slovenia down into Croatia, landed on an island, … flew back to Slovenia, landed … in the mountains in Slovenia, Took off from there, and returned to the home airport.”
-
“[After a difficult accomplishment], at the end of the day, you just feel so full of energy and experience and awe.”
-
“In 2010, I was doing a training climb. I was preparing for an expedition to climb a new route, … and … I fell around 100 feet. I broke 24 ribs, … I had multiple pelvis fractures, … [and] internal injuries. … I lay there for about two hours. I had a hemopneumothorax.”
- “We don’t always need a crisis. Sometimes it just takes a long walk in the woods. But I think that reassessing our values and making sure that they align with our purpose and our mission is probably something that all of us have to do many times throughout our lives.”
- “This whole thing of like, ‘If you’re not first, you’re last,’ invalidates pretty much everyone’s experience except one person’s.”
- “I loved gritty experiences from a very early age.”
- “I’m often surprised that I know the answer. And the only reason I can know the answer is because I lived it through 20 years of being an athlete. These are things you cannot learn in a physiology textbook.”
- “I’ve written four books now and I can’t tell you how many times writer’s block has just been solved by a long walk — and with no purpose. A walk with no purpose.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Steve House
- Uphill Athlete
- Vince Anderson
- Central Pillar of the Rupal Face
- Piolet d’Or (Golden Ice Ace)
- Reinhold Messner
- Campbell’s Hero’s Journey
- Krebs Cycle
- Tom Higley
- From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, by Arthur Brooks
- Crucible Expeditions
Steve House Bio
For 21 years, Steve was a professional climber. His most famous ascent was with Vince Anderson. They did the central pillar of the Rupal Face and won the Piolet d’Or (Golden Ice Axe). Steve has done first ascents and new routes in Alaska, the Rockies, and the Alps, and is a famed climber. Renowned mountaineer Reinhold Messner called him the best high-altitude climber in the world. He’s been an ambassador athlete for Patagonia, Grivola, Sportiva, Zeal Optics, and Coros Watches. Steve retired from professional climbing at the end of 2020 to dedicate himself to his family and Uphill Athlete. He currently lives in Austria with his Wife Eva and two sons. Steve has been a professional mountain guide since 1992. In 1999, he became only the ninth American to achieve IFMGA certification, which is the highest level to guide all over the world. There are less than 200 certified in the U.S. to this day. He has guided trips across the world.
Gena Cox, Ph.D. discusses her new book that provides powerful insights for leaders to drive inclusion: “Leading Inclusion: Drive Change Your Employees Can See and Feel.” In this conversation, Gena stresses the value of human relationships, and how organizations have vast opportunities to optimize the human experiences for their employees. Gena reveals how a system that doesn’t embrace inclusion will lose employees who don’t feel included. Listen in for how curiosity can help your team feel even more connected.
https://bit.ly/TLP-353
Key Takeaways
[2:00] Dr. Cox tells how she is the luckiest person in the world. Her grandmother had a grade school education but was an entrepreneurial wizard. From watching her grandmother grow her neighborhood store, Gena learned the value of the human relationship in terms of getting things done. Gena’s secret is that much of what she talks about comes from observing her grandmother and her customers.
[2:56] When Dr. Cox was growing up, she wanted to be a journalist. She still sees journalists covering things around the world and imagines herself doing that. She supposes that journalists, like others, have a big “why” about how they can make the world better that lets them keep going.
[4:22] Dr. Cox has been trained not to make assertions without evidence to support the assertions. She had known for a long time about the importance of respect. But it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 when she interviewed leaders and surveyed employees about what they think leaders don’t understand about inclusion, black employees said they felt leaders were distancing themselves and avoiding them.
[5:54] When Dr. Cox did the content analysis to see the themes emerging from those comments, she came up with the word “respect.” These comments were all about things where people wanted to be seen, heard, and valued.
[7:07] It is important not to just think about these issues in the present, but to look centuries back. In our country, there are social dynamics that have existed for generations within a community where there are significant power imbalances. These imbalances correlate with race, ethnicity, and socioeconomics. Ignoring those factors can lead to misunderstanding the experience of employees from those places.
[8:21] Dr. Cox wrote one chapter about history at the beginning of her book. It makes a difference if leaders understand the broader context before they try to address specific initiatives or priorities in their organizations because they might miss the mark, otherwise.
[9:19] Dr. Cox works with leaders on inclusion and with individuals to think about how they can be the best that they desire to be. It takes two sides of this equation to tango to get the outcomes that we desire. Dr. Cox shares a case of a client feeling discriminated against in their career progress. Dr. Cox suggested they look for what they could do to get past the barrier and jump the hurdle.
[10:28] Dr. Cox offers three ideas that can help each of us make that difference for ourselves. 1. Have a big “why” for what kind of influence and impact you desire to have. 2. Have a track where you are working on custom master classes. Learn as much as you can that will help you get to your goal. 3. Amplify and brand yourself within our job. Dress and behave for the job you want.
[11:53] If your current job does not allow you to do all that, you might have to do it on a parallel track and keep it moving until you can use what you learn to move forward overall.
[14:06] Dr. Cox thinks there is a lot of misinterpretation and reinterpretation that takes place about leaders like Martin Luther King. Dr. Cox does not talk a lot about what specific people have said. Some people hearing a quote may miss the main idea. Inclusion tops diversity. It’s not just about getting more representation of a particular group. DE&I is really effective leadership of 100% of employees.
[16:38] Dr. Cox talks about effective leadership to create situations where every single person in a team, group, or organization feels that he or she can put in the appropriate efforts and get the expected outcomes. We all have to have a part in making that happen, especially managers.
[17:49] After George Floyd was killed, corporations started offering implicit bias training and hiring Chief Diversity Officers. Those two solutions are just tactics. They need to be added to a strategy that says “Here is what we are solving for.”
[18:34] The most important thing leaders can do to minimize the risk of doing things that are not effective is to start by talking to employees about what is their day-to-day experience. Then they will tell you what you should focus on first.
[19:20] Dr. Cox would like leaders to attach fewer restrictions to the research-based insights, such as the size of the survey group. The research is too new to be buttoned down. Dr. Cox points to the value of qualitative data or the stories that people tell in this area. These stories haven’t been told before so leaders don’t understand the solutions they should implement.
[21:28] Dr. Cox asked about three years ago in a LinkedIn article why, with regard to DE&I, organizations are not utilizing the same strategy and problem-solving techniques that they apply to every other problem. Because of the emotional component, including fear and anxiety, about the topic, leaders are failing to use the same kinds of judgment skills that they might have used for something else.
[22:22] What research have you done? Have you gone to a solution without research or understanding what’s going on so that your actions might work? Are you just throwing a dart at a board and hoping that something will stick? You would never do that if you were implementing a new initiative to support your customers or clients because you would know how high the risk would be.
[23:18] The number one topic on the minds of boards of directors and leaders today, apart from making money, is talent. Under talent is the shortage of talent. Why is there a shortage of talent? People come up with a variety of explanations. The data Dr. Cox sees is that there is a significant portion of the workforce that feels alienated from their leaders and colleagues and dissatisfied.
[24:31] The latest research says that 50% of Black American employees say that they are thinking about or preparing themselves to leave their current job. There has been more data over the past couple of years because of the pandemic.
[24:55] Dr. Cox asks leaders to think about why there is so much dissatisfaction and whether it is true in their organization. If so, what are the elements in their organization that could be causing it? If not true, what could they learn about it? They’re about to have this problem. What can they do to make it better for employees?
[25:26] This leads to conversations about compensation, speaking up, well-being, mental health, and a variety of issues that should be at the tip of the spear.
[26:31] Rehumanizing the workplace means emphasizing the idea that effective leadership is a pie chart. There’s a piece for task performance and a piece for human performance. All the outcomes organizations are driving to achieve have a human component.
[28:23] Leaders are telling employees to “come back to the office and do it this way,” instead of considering alternative ways to work. There’s a significant gap between what employees desire and what the leaders at the top think employees desire. Rehumanizing the workplace means connecting with the employees.
[32:50] Dr. Cox doesn’t want to believe that with MBA programs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, organizations aren’t focusing on the human experience. But she believes they are not focusing sufficiently on the human experience. The management of humans has not been balanced with task performance. Dr. Cox wants to do away with the term “soft skills” which are understood to be less than “hard skills.”
[34:40] In an HBR article, “5 Strategies to Infuse D&I into Your Organization,” Dr. Cox writes about mitigating implicit bias at the systemic level. It involves looking at data the organization has about existing patterns within the organization of selection, promotion, career mobility, and visibility of people who have a variety of characteristics.
[36:15] Leaders often think they are leading organizations where things are better than employees might imply that they are. Diversity is not just hiring diverse people. If new employees walk into situations where the environment is not ready for them or receptive to them, they are not going to stay. It’s important for you to figure out, “What does it feel like to work in my organization every day?”
[37:15] Leaders don’t know how their managers behave, day-to-day, or recognize how often those behaviors are having a damaging impact. They don’t put enough emphasis on setting expectations for manager behavior. Leaders need to ask, “Over the years that you have worked for this company, how often have you raised your hand to share an idea and been swatted down?” Optimize the talent you have!
[38:21] If you run an organization with customer-facing people, you want to know how the customer is being treated. You should also want to know what experience your employees are having when they’re interacting with your customers, and not assume that the customer is always right! Inclusion is understanding the day-to-day experience of all the employees that you currently have.
[40:09] Dr. Cox has spent at least 10 years measuring employee experience, advising leaders about how to use data coming out of employee surveys. Respect is a concept that everybody understands. Nobody seems to know what belonging means.
[40:49] Dr. Cox says leaders only need to ask three questions in a survey: Do you feel respected? What is it about your experience that makes you feel respected? Do you feel disrespected? What is it about your experience that makes you feel disrespected? What can we do to enhance your feelings of being respected? A three-question survey is as powerful as a long survey if you know what you’re measuring.
[42:25] Do not overcomplicate the issue. The only outcome that matters in this conversation is what are the experiences that employees are having and are they continuing to have good or bad experiences. What accounts for the variability between good and bad experiences, and what you can do as a leader, knowing and understanding that, to make these things a little more equitable and consistent?
[43:39] Dr. Cox speaks of potential clients who ask her to talk about something and when it gets to a point where it’s uncomfortable, they hadn’t planned for the discomfort, and then rather than move forward through the discomfort, they back away and don’t want to do the thing they should be doing. Dr. Cox is disappointed that some leaders haven’t thought through what they believe.
[44:34] On the plus side, while a lot of the things organizations are doing are destined not to have any impact when it comes to inclusion, more leaders are talking about these issues and are inching forward to a place where leaders can be engaged in trying to understand these issues rather than avoiding them. Dr. Cox is having these conversations more than ever before, even when some people are running away.
[48:01] Dr. Cox’s last thought: “I have a three Cs model. … Curiosity leads to Connection and that Curiosity and Connection are necessary in order to get to Comfort. Comfort, I think, is what we all seek.”
[49:03] Closing quote: Remember, “Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Quotable Quotes
- “While I call myself an organizational psychologist because that’s my formal training, the secret that most people don’t know is that a lot of the stuff that I talk about is stuff that I learned in the little … corner store just by observing my grandmother and her customers.”
-
“When I was growing up, I wanted to be a journalist. I didn’t even think about psychology, And still to this day, when I see journalists covering all kinds of things around the world, I say, ‘Gosh, I could do that. I can do that.’”
-
“Dr. King taught us that whether we are talking about race, gender, LGBTQ+, ethnicity, neurodiversity, or other ways that humans naturally vary, we can’t sit idly by and wait for others to provide the inclusion we seek. Each of us can help ourselves and others.”
- “I talk about effective leadership to create situations where every single person … in an organization, feels that he or she, when they show up, have a chance to be able to put in the effort that is appropriate and get the same outcomes that would be expected.”
- “Something about the emotion of this issue is causing people to fail to use problem-solving skills that they actually already possess.”
- “Are you optimizing the talent that you already have? Most people will say, when I ask ‘What is missing here about why I don’t feel included?’, it tends to fall into the category that ‘I’m not seen, heard, or valued.’”
- “By inclusion, I simply mean understanding the day-to-day experience of all the employees that you currently have.”
- “I remain eternally optimistic about all of this because of Gen Z and their willingness to speak for us, for everybody, about what that good human experience feels like.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Gena Cox
- Gena Cox on LinkedIn
- Leading Inclusion: Drive Change Your Employees Can See and Feel, by Gena Cox, Ph.D.
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- “5 Strategies to infuse D&I into Your Organization,” HBR
Charlotte Allen is the Founder and CEO of Rebel Success for Leaders. In today’s turbulent environment that demands new levels of collaboration, Charlotte works to create a world where change is fun and innovations are successful. She has over 20 years of leadership experience and is a best-selling author. Her latest book is “Rebel Success for Leaders: Lead, Grow, and Sell Fearlessly.” Charlotte brings clarity to topics including change, project failure, competing priorities, customer-centricity, and what being a rebel brings to leadership. Listen in for insights about STEM experts, influence, collaboration, and success.
https://bit.ly/TLP-352
Key Takeaways
[1:49] Charlotte tore her ACL in a ski accident a year ago in 2022. After a lot of physical therapy, she got back on the slopes a year later, to the day.
[3:01] Charlotte explains why 70% of business change and innovation projects fail. People tend to have an aversion to change of any kind. We power through it, hoping it’ll be over soon, without focusing on the vision of what we want it to be and how to get there.
[4:39] Change and innovation each bring something new into the world but innovation has a positive aura around it. It’s the warm, fuzzy bunny version of change. But the number of innovation projects that get to market is not that different from the number of successful change projects.
[6:11] Failure is an important thing to describe. When we launch an initiative within a corporation, we often have organizational fallout. Parts of the organization did not get the communication. Parts are not happy. Some employees are asked to leave as a result of the change initiative. The failed initiative may get repeated. KPIs for initiatives need to be set up in a way we can measure them.
[8:46] If the leadership is not clear on where the team is going, there will be a challenge to success. If there is no clarity within the team about how to operate, communicate, and work together, there’s going to be a problem with success. We are extremely driven by tools, metrics, and the latest model, without looking at how people are unable to deliver their best work within the boundaries leaders put them in.
[10:10] Competing priorities, the squirrel syndrome, and siloed departments lead to failed projects.
[11:21] Charlotte discusses the problems that complexity brings. Complexity is not a friend of successful change.
[12:53] STEM people in an organization are not getting the same amount of training and leadership development as the sales team, but they are the experts expected to lead change initiatives. They need to learn two languages, the language of deep experts and the language of change, leadership, and development. But not everybody wants to be in every chair on an org chart.
[17:45] There is a large predisposition in STEM workers to get into their work, which they are very good at. They come to a time in their career when they wish they had had more exposure to business elements. Folks that can do the translation between deep expertise and business are unique. We need to be searching for them, training them, and putting them into positions where they can lead.
[19:58] Publicly-traded companies have to report out; metrics, KPIs, and spreadsheets are a required part of business.
[20:26] In 2023, Charlotte believes leaders will spend more time with, invest in, and develop their people. These efforts can result in fewer people leaving and have positive effects on efficiency and employee satisfaction and engagement. Leaders are seeing that, partly because of changes during the pandemic. There is a large social movement for building community. You don’t build community with spreadsheets.
[23:01] Comfort is the enemy of progress. People stay in a toxic environment because it’s a known job, and change is more frightening. There are so many other options out there. You, as a person, have gifts beyond what you are currently delivering. If you are in a toxic environment, there is no way that you can perform at your best.
[24:53] About being a rebel: if not doing something will not get you fired, then consider it. If not doing something, or doing something, is going to get you fired, think hard about that particular action. Charlotte chose the book title Rebel Success For Leaders for a reason. She has always been able to do two important things: drive a path out of complexity and translate among dissimilar groups, such as silos.
[25:47] Charlotte learned that you need to be unique, having the thing that only you can deliver to your business or your professional life. That is your rebel. You need to connect that with market success, timeline success, or the solution you need to deliver to the bottom line. In business, we spend most of the time on the success part, little time on the rebel part, and almost no time on connecting the two parts.
[27:38] Success comes from a framework more than a recipe. A recipe is a precise pattern. A framework includes the key parts of a structure that allows you to change and operate within with enough of a scaffolding that you’re not going to freefall. The Forbes HR Council published an article in 2022 that said we are at a global deficit of leaders in every area who are good at change leadership.
[29:00] Forbes identified five abilities leaders need to excel at — adaptability, agility, innovation, collaboration, and customer-centricity. Think of these five skills as the scaffolding. How do you have enough mobility within that to move forward and be good at change regardless of the situation?
[30:42] Charlotte discusses customer-centricity in the area of STEM. She tells STEM technical experts that every person they interact with is their customer. “You are trying to influence them with your expertise and you are trying to change their behavior because of the advice and expertise you are giving them. So they are your customer. I am your customer because I am your boss, your leader, your manager.”
[31:55] That was effective because deep experts tend to speak a lot of “deep expert.” They are used to being the ones that everyone turns to for the answer. They give details. What they rarely do is build a relationship, ask what your problems are, or try to understand your position. When you get an expert to think in a customer-centric way, it tweaks their brain just enough to think in terms of the relationship.
[32:54] This gets them listening, looking for common ground, and communicating. They will deliver their expertise in a customer-centric framework. Customer-centricity is the human connection.
[35:59] Collaboration is when two people decide to work together for a common goal to achieve a certain output. That is another word that is tossed around by organizations all the time. Not all group activity is collaboration. You must be working for a common goal and a certain output.
[37:59] The curiosity of a technical person, when not guided appropriately in interpersonal interactions, tends to be off-putting and feels like an interrogation. When you put the seed in their brain that this is a customer, it starts to affect that conversation in a more positive way.
[39:18] Charlotte’s challenge: “My challenge this year to everyone that I connect with is to think about how change can be fun. … I don’t always want it when it shows up at my door but I usually am very excited about it from that space of curiosity. And change can be a lot of fun once you have that framework that helps you guide your actions and your stability and that sense of comfort that you need a little bit of.”
[40:28] Closing quote: Remember, “We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics.” — Katherine Johnson
Quotable Quotes
- “Failure is an important thing to describe. … When we launch an initiative within a corporation, we often have organizational fallout. There are parts of the organization that did not get the communication; parts that are not happy.”
-
“Complexity is not a friend of successful change.”
-
“We all have passion for the work that we do. A lot of folks in that STEM space have a really deep passion for the work that they’re doing for making a difference, for providing those solutions for their organizations and for the customer base that they support and work for.”
- “Not everybody wants to be in every chair on an org chart. When you find those folks who have the desire and the development opportunities to move spots, then I think there’s really no difference between a STEM person and a salesperson or a CEO, at the end of the day.”
- “There are so many other options out there. … You, as a person, have gifts beyond what you are currently delivering. And if you are in [a] toxic environment, there is no way that you can perform at your best.”
- “The customer-centricity, I honestly believe, is that human connection piece that we are all glossing over.”
- “Collaboration is when two people decide to work together for a common goal to achieve a certain output. That is another word that is tossed around organizations all the time.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Charlotte Allen
- Rebel Success for Leaders
- Rebel Success for Leaders: Lead, Grow, and Sell Fearlessly, by Charlotte Allen
- The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business, by Clayton M. Christensen
- Mark Twain
- Neils Bohr
- Office Space (movie)
- Forbes HR Council
Sarah Wirth is President of Ecsell Institute, and co-author of the best-selling book, The Coaching Effect. Her life passion is understanding what makes people tick. Sarah has spent the last two decades researching, writing, and teaching about what the best leaders do differently. In this interview, Sarah starts the conversation with her affinity for pop culture and the lessons for leadership she finds in movies. She tells how Ecsell Institute started as training for sales leaders and expanded into helping leaders in other areas. Sarah and her team gather and analyze survey data to help leaders improve the performance of their organizations by improving their coaching.
https://bit.ly/TLP-351
Key Takeaways
[2:02] Sarah’s team members say she is a pop-culture guru. She likes movies, TV, books, and music, and she likes to find leadership lessons in them. She did a series on looking for leadership lessons in movies.
[2:28] Past guest Dean DiSibio wrote Reel Lessons in Leadership, where he talks about leadership lessons from movies.
[3:12] Sarah picks Moneyball as a movie with leadership lessons. The character Brad Pitt plays is trying to lead his team in a different direction and lead it differently than anyone has ever led a baseball team. Jan likes Blues Brothers but would pick Succession (TV show). Jim would pick Ted Lasso (TV show).
[6:08] Jan and Jim once asked past guests, “How do you measure leader effectiveness?” That is the purpose of Ecsell Institute. They go to the people that are being led to measure leader effectiveness. Then they compare the results with measurable goals for that position and what the leaders are doing to reach the goals.
[7:25] Ecsell Institute looks at leaders that are achieving their goals versus leaders that are not. Then they look at how those leaders are leading differently, according to their team members. That gives Ecsell Institute an understanding of the behaviors of successful leaders.
[8:58] The Ecsell questions are behaviorally-based. For example, “When you have your one-to-one meetings, does your leader have you define action steps coming out of them? How often?” They are trying to find leadership behaviors to give recommendations to help others become better leaders. People can learn behaviors to emulate.
[11:57] Part of the evaluation is outcome-variable questions, such as whether you see yourself working here a year from now. How happy are you in your job? How much do you trust your leader? Would you recommend your team as a great team to work with? Sarah tells how transparency in sharing the information behind the decisions made has a huge impact on trust.
[13:37] The Coaching Effects Leadership Survey is consistent in terms of what it measures. How it applies to an organization is something Ecsell has a conversation about with the organization, in particular, how specific leadership traits fit into the company culture.
[15:06] Communication and transparency from Ecsell are key to getting employees to trust the survey and how it works. There is even a final question that is not reported to the client, “On a scale of one to 10, how honest were you in giving your responses to these questions?” Some respondents will put a five, especially in low-trust environments.
[17:39] Sarah recommends the Coaching Effects Survey for choosing which leaders to invest in. The high-rated leaders are the ones who are interested in being great at what they do. They are passionate about being good leaders. They’re the ones who want to learn more and improve. Others may have more room for improvement but high-performing leaders have more potential for improvement.
[19:42] A lot of times people get promoted into leadership opportunities because they were good individual performers. Sarah talks to the newly promoted leader and to their manager to understand, does this person have leadership capability? It’s a different skill set. You might get an underperforming manager while losing a great performer.
[20:40] Sarah recommends that managers ask their team members before promoting them, what is it that interests them about being a leader. If they talk about enjoying coaching and mentoring their peers, and helping others achieve success, that shows they are likely to have an aptitude for leadership. If they just want to move up or make more money, that doesn’t indicate an aptitude for leadership.
[22:35] Ecsell was founded to work with sales leaders. It expanded as clients wanted to apply the concepts to other leaders in their organizations. Sarah explains how sales leadership differs from other corporate areas. Salespeople are the athletes of the corporate world. They have to perform all the time. Their performance is measured differently. They have emotional highs and lows. They need coaching.
[23:50] If you have a sales coach that does not manage the salespersons as much on the emotional level as on the task level, you’re going to lose out on so many opportunities to help salespeople perform.
[24:07] Past guest Dan Pink made the point that salespeople are not motivated by money but by winning. Money is how they keep score. Sarah agrees with this. In an 18-month sales cycle, we have to find different ways to tap into that motivation to perform. A good coach can do that. The monetary goals alone will not drive the behavior.
[25:21] Sarah believes it’s a disadvantage for a CEO not to have a sales background. However, a good CEO can learn about sales motivation. Sales teams suffer when they are overmanaged and under-coached.
[27:22] One of the measurements of the Coaching Effects Survey is how consistent that leader is in their behavior. The best leaders are a lot more consistent with their team members. The consistency extends to one-to-one meetings, giving feedback, talking about the team member’s career, and following through on commitments.
[29:37] When you are consistent as a leader, it makes the moments when you are inconsistent stand out more. Your team members are going to want to dig into it and understand it. If you are very consistent, then, when there’s something off, they might think there’s a pretty good.
[30:59] Sarah would coach the importance of consistency starting with questions. She would ask a team member who was behaving inconsistently, “What’s your understanding of what you are supposed to be doing here?” They may not understand the expectations around their role. [31:31] Once she knows the expectations are aligned, Sarah would say “Let’s look at the data. Here’s where you’re meeting it, here’s where you’re not. Help me understand the gap. What’s holding you back from being able to achieve this?” They may need more training or a better understanding of the expectation.
[32:04] Sarah doesn’t want to make assumptions about what’s causing the inconsistency. She wants to diagnose the issue with the person and come up with the problem and ideally, to come up with solutions together about what they can do differently. They buy into the solution, instead of being told what to do to fix their problem.
[33:20] Sarah shares a client experience. A senior leader had thought the managers were doing one-to-ones, feedback, and career discussions, but they weren’t. The data showed clearly that despite the best intentions of the managers, they were not getting the coaching done. The disconnect between the leader’s perception and the reality in the eyes of the team members was a surprise to the leader.
[34:08] So the leader made it a clear expectation. She made their coaching activities and the expectation to do them as part of their year-end bonus structure. If the leaders weren’t doing these coaching activities at a certain percentage, they would lose part of that compensation at the end of the year. The managers took it seriously, raised their coaching, and the company had its best two sales years so far.
[35:01] The managers bought into it because they saw their teams were achieving more. They were motivated to keep coaching, even if they weren’t measured anymore, because they saw that it matters.
[35:54] Sarah explains the reports Ecsell Institute produces for clients. For every question on the survey, they provide your result, company benchmarks, and top-performer benchmarks, so you can see how you are doing compared to your peers and the best leaders.
[36:56] The data shows if you don’t have a strong relationship with your coach, at the core of that coaching dynamic, everything else — accountability, the type of feedback that they give you, how much they push you — all those other things kind of fall on deaf ears. They don’t know that you care and that you’re doing it in their best interest.
[37:30] Sarah shares her thoughts on ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. There are certain things that can be helpful in the coaching process, that we can allow artificial intelligence to do, but at the core of it, the human relationship is so essential to helping somebody perform and grow. Sarah doesn’t think there’s a way that you replace that.
[37:58] There’s always going to be such an important role that good leaders play because they’re the only people that can establish that human connection.
[38:18] Jan just asked ChatGPT “What are the best questions to ask in a 360 for leaders?” In two seconds it responded, “How do I come across to others, in terms of my leadership style?” and “What do you think I need to do to build more trust with my team?” It’s going to be a great tool. Jan thinks it will help us get better. Please listen to Episode 348 for an interview with “guest” ChatGPT!
[39:37] Jim heard that at least at one time if you were underperforming in an Amazon warehouse, a robot would come up to you and terminate your employment. That robot “definitely had a sign taped to its back!”
[40:23] Sarah’s closing thoughts: “At Ecsell Institute, we are continuing to study leadership across the board and one of the places that we’re starting to study it is in high school and looking specifically at leadership from teachers and coaches and how it impacts kids in the classroom or on the court. … So be watching for more research that we have coming out on that, too.”
[41:03] Closing quote: Remember, “Each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen.” — Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks
Quotable Quotes
- “My team members at Ecsell always like to say that I’m a bit of a pop-culture guru. I like my movies, I like my TV, I like my books, I like my music, and I like to find leadership lessons in them. I did a whole series once on how you can look for leadership lessons in … movies.”
- “There’s a scene at the end where they said, ‘The first one through the wall always gets bloodied.’ And I think that’s sometimes very true around leaders that are trying to be innovative and do different things. So [Moneyball] is a good movie for leadership lessons.”
- “There are many models of leadership in Pulp Fiction.”
- “The major way that we measure leader effectiveness is by going to the people that are being led. We feel that is the only way. If you want to get feedback and insight into whether or not somebody’s a good leader, ask the people that they’re supposed to be leading.”
- “Sometimes we just study the outcomes but we don't know necessarily what’s the role that that leader plays in achieving those outcomes.”
- “The leaders that are more highly rated in terms of their team members trust them, what behaviors are they exhibiting differently than the leaders who have low trust ratings? … How much information you share behind decisions that are made has a huge impact on trust ratings.”
- “As leaders, we overestimate a lot how consistent we are because we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and what our plans were. But others judge us by what our behavior actually was.”
- “If you don’t have a strong relationship with your coach, at the core of that coaching dynamic, everything else — accountability, the type of feedback that they give you, how much they push you — all those other things fall on deaf ears because they don’t know that you care.”
- “There’s always going to be such an important role that good leaders play because they’re the only people that can establish that human connection.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Sarah Wirth
- Ecsell Institute
- The Coaching Effect: What Great Leaders Do to Increase Sales, Enhance Performance, and Sustain Growth, by Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth
- Dean DiSibio
- Reel Lessons in Leadership, by Ralph R. DiSibio with Dean A. DiSibio
- Leadership Lessons from Pulp Fiction
- Pulp Fiction (movie)
- Moneyball (movie)
- The Blues Brothers (movie)
- Ted Lasso
- Succession
- Christian Anschuetz
- Dan Pink
- ChatGPT
- “Episode 348: Our Real Interview with Artificial Intelligence Sensation ChatGPT”
Vivian James Rigney is a Seven Summits climber, and author of the book, “Naked at the Knife-Edge: What Everest Taught Me about Leadership and the Power of Vulnerability.” A Dublin native, Vivian shares information about his international travels and how he helps senior executives get past their egos, give up old habits, embrace vulnerability, and better serve their organizations. One tool he uses to teach vulnerability draws on his experience near the summit of Everest, where he learned the necessity of clarity and purpose. Listen in for insights on curiosity, peeling back the layers, and getting to the root of issues, challenges and opportunities.
https://bit.ly/TLP-350
Key Takeaways
[2:25] Vivian is from Dublin, Ireland. He studied business, then traveled the world. He has lived in seven countries, has visited more than 80 countries, and is now firmly planted in New York City. Every time he has launched himself in a new place has been a journey. He has seven books he could write about restarting in each country.
[3:20] Apart from Ireland and the U.S., Vivian has lived the longest in Germany. He learned to speak German and French and he can still speak those languages. He lived in Finland for six winters, and he “can speak to a two-year-old” in Finnish. Vivian believes Mandarin and Finnish are the world’s toughest languages.
[4:35] To make high-impact goals, first be very clear on the goal. Be congruent with the goal. Understand where your value system comes in. If you’re not fully committed to the goal, the words may be right but people won’t see it as a clear goal.
[5:16] Never underestimate the power of subtraction. A list of too many goals diffuses the goals. If you have too many goals, you’ll fail on some. Be honest with yourself about a core list of goals. Say no to less important things. People will understand what the priorities are.
[5:59] Acknowledge progress and celebrate success along the way. People need KPIs and progress reports. Success is not easy. In most cases, there has been a lot of toil along the way. There are people's challenges. So step back and learn from the things that could be done better next time. It helps people to be more authentic. It builds a culture of transparency. It changes the culture for the better.
[7:31] Past guest Simon Sinek stressed, “It’s a journey. It’s a journey. It’s a journey.” You may never get there. Sometimes, once you’ve got there, it’s depressing.
[7:59] High-impact goals benefit and serve others as well as yourself. The people executing the goal do better if they internalize the goal. You can make it clear to them how the end customer is helped by the goals. The minimum should be that your team and people feel connected with the goal. You connect as a leader with your team on an individual level.
[10:08] On fact and assumption: Vivian recalls Denzel Washington in The Great Debaters. To be effective leaders we have to be current. Our nature is to operate from habits. That allows us to deal with what’s happening around us. But we have to be current, which means we have to upgrade what we believe. Are we dealing with information that’s relevant for now or a view we held yesterday?
[10:50] We may be dealing with strong personalities who sound very compelling and sound good, but blow hot air and are not grounded. We constantly have to be asking what is the fact, and what is the emotion. There is a lot of emotion in the world. Distill down honestly what is important. Get past the ego that drives us.
[11:40] Get feedback. Leaders tend to operate in their heads. Do we get perspectives on how others see us and experience us? Their perception is their reality. Use something like a 360-degree survey. Use a sounding board cabinet you can talk to, being vulnerable and open. Being a leader can be a lonely existence. Getting feedback can make you more real and current.
[13:58] After getting past your ego, if you want to bring everyone else in a team to a current reality, Vivian says to be wildly curious. If you think something is off, ask about the situation with no judgment but curiosity to get to the facts, layer by layer, saying “Tell me more about that.” Get everyone to hear themselves and recalibrate their report if necessary. Drill down until you land at a point of clarity.
[17:01] Vivian lays out a path for building a culture of curiosity in your team. After having a conversation about clarity, ask “What did I do differently today?” You may get observations like “You listened, you asked a lot of questions.” This creates shared learning, as people reflect on what you did as a leader. Ask “How did it make you feel to share more, or as I was asking more questions?” It’s curiosity with purpose.
[18:40] Vivian shares some knowledge of the Seven Summits. There is more than one set, with a difference in one of the peaks selected. The people who have done the harder set number in the hundreds.
[19:53] With his clients, Vivian uses a metaphor of a backpack filled with rocks. Letting go of the rocks in your backpack is letting go of strategies and habits you used in past roles that are no longer relevant to your senior role. What used to be ballast is now dead weight. Less is more.
[22:41] Vivian recently talked a senior leader through the rationale of dialing back his intensity. Asking if it was in the leader’s DNA to get up late and lounge around, the leader knew it wasn’t. Being less intense did not mean he would get less done or lose the respect of his team.
[24:34] There’s a basis of fear that has to be overcome. Vivian says it’s the fear of changing the status quo and losing control. Leaders feel they need to stay in control to stay on top of things. That comes at the cost of intuition. To make better decisions faster, tap into your intuition. Controlling too much is slow and inefficient. Releasing control frees you up to harness the strength you’ve built up over the years.
[25:25] The purpose of a coach is to get the most out of the person they’re working with. In a business context, mindfulness is more about letting go of ego and being more authentic, having more impact through followership.
[27:39] Sometimes we need to shed people. We don’t choose our family but we do choose the people around us. You want friends with net positive energy in daily life. You don’t want to have friends that always take energy from you that you need for other relationships. We deserve to be able to give to and receive from everybody.
[30:20] Vivian discusses how to coach somebody to be “more strategic.” Is it that they are strategic but things get in the way, or is it that they are more suited to tactics and execution than strategy? The reality is that they may be in a role they don’t fit.
[33:07] The top challenges facing senior leaders today are loneliness, agility, curiosity, and the data to process and use for faster decisions. The most important thing for leaders today is leading people of different generations, post-great-resignation while being authentic.
[36:15] As a leader, you have ownership of how you recharge and must give the people on your team the same space to recharge. Recharging means different things for different people. If you demonstrate that you value recharging, while allowing your team room to choose how they recharge, it will show your support. Expect optimal performance from your team in the hours they work for you.
[39:20] People may think that climbing Seven Summits makes you a wild, competitive animal that attacks things and figures them out. Vivian writes a detailed story in the book on the power of vulnerability. Everest was difficult for Vivian. On summit day, their guide seemed ill and was mumbling that he couldn’t do it this time. That put Vivian in a dark space with a hugely negative inner dialog.
[40:39] Vivian felt a dark cloud overhead. He believed he couldn’t get up or down and he was sure he would die there. He felt a voice come from deep within him, repeating “Why are you here?” He realized he was climbing to prove himself. The voice asked why he was proving how strong, good, and successful he is. He closed his eyes to make peace with his expected demise.
[41:41] Vivian’s sherpa tapped him on the shoulder and said if they stayed they would die. The sherpa demanded Vivian follow him. Everywhere the sherpa put his boot, Vivian put his boot. He thought he was going down, but he suddenly realized the sherpa was ascending. He followed him to the summit where he appreciated the view from the top but the cloud was with him until he got off the mountain.
[42:37] The learning for Vivian was that we have to know why we’re doing things, not just chasing goals. He appreciates Everest but he regrets not having more clarity in his goal when he climbed it. In many cases, we do things without knowing why. Vivian didn’t need to prove anything. He had already achieved much.
[43:08] As leaders, we have to learn when to let go. We are enough. Ask, “How do I use what I have?” Vivian shares with clients his vulnerability and what he learned from it. It induces them to share their story and they build rapport from that. Examples like that help us to be real. Life is all about real experiences. Vivian uses that in his coaching.
[44:26] Vivian’s thoughts about the inner voice he heard on Everest: “I think that voice is always with us. … We do have to listen to ourselves, to let go of the noise, and we have to do that by disarming the ego. … We try to get people wise and honest themselves, 30, 40 years ahead of the regret, and have fulfilling times from that point forward.”
[46:10] Vivan wrote Naked at the Knife Edge in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic when he felt a vulnerability similar to the vulnerability he had felt on Mt. Everest in 2010. He said it was time to write the book. He wrote it in a few months, then added leadership pieces and reflections to it. It had taken him 10 years to be ready.
[47:33] Closing quote: Remember, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” — Jackie Robinson
Quotable Quotes
- “How do you make goals that are going to be meaningful and resonant? The first thing one has to do is be very clear on that goal. Be congruent with the goal. Understand where your value system comes in with this. Why is that? Because you’re a leader.”
- “Never underestimate the power of subtraction. … People tend to make shopping lists of goals. … A list that’s too long gets in the way. It diffuses the goals.”
- “‘Wildly curious’ means, if you’ve done the introspection on your own head, which is step number one, do it with others. … [Go in] without judgment. … Peel back the layer and say, ‘Tell me more about that.’”
- “When they get to senior leadership levels, … they’re using a lot of tools that they used in the past to do what they do today. … It’s about letting go of strategies from the past and habits from the past, which are no longer relevant. … Less is more.”
- “A decent coach’s sole purpose is not to reinvent the wheel; it’s to get the most out of that person they’re working with.”
- “As a leader, you have to have ownership of how you recharge and the people under you.”
- “In many cases in life, we are doing things without knowing why we’re doing it. In my case, I was trying to prove how good I was. How strong I was. But I didn’t need to prove; I’d already achieved.”
- “I think that voice is always with us. For me, I had chosen not to listen to it earlier, doing previous things. … We do have to listen to ourselves, we have to let go of the noise, and we have to do that by disarming the ego and really letting go.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Vivian James Rigney
- Inside Us, LLC
- Naked at the Knife-Edge: What Everest Taught Me about Leadership and the Power of Vulnerability, by Vivian James Rigney
- Simon Sinek
- Denzel Washington
- The Great Debaters (movie)
- 360-Degree Survey
- Seven Summits
Erin Shrimpton is a chartered organizational psychologist and a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. Erin has a passion for shaping culture that is true to the brand it represents and strategy it supports. In this episode, Erin shares what she’s learned about the workplace experience, and how culture is created and influenced by the behavior leaders model. Listen in for a dynamic conversation regarding the psychological aspects of how the environment, and connections truly shape culture.
https://bit.ly/TLP-349
Key Takeaways
[2:25] Erin was recommended to Jan and Jim by Dean Karrel, another LinkedIn Learning instructor. Jan and Erin have an Irish connection. Jan took students to study abroad in Dublin, Belfast, and Galway to compare and contrast the business and cultural environments between the U.S. and Ireland. Erin was born in Ireland and is based there.
[3:41] Erin loves the Beatles! Particularly, The White Album. Erin considers that everybody has some sort of connection with the Beatles.
[6:05] Erin talks about changing the experience to change the culture. Recent neuroscience research shows that much of the way we behave is shaped by our experiences. Our experience shapes the pathways in our brains, so much more than we knew before. Apply that to what we experience every day in the workplace.
[7:21] Who owns the experiences we have at work? The CEO and senior leaders, HR, IT, Facilities, your manager, and your colleagues. Your colleagues are a large part of your experience. You may be powerless to change the direction of the organization, but you can change your experience with your colleagues. If you’re a great team leader, you can empower them to change their experience, every day.
[9:01] Empowering your team to have great experiences may not change the wider culture but when you work together to change the little things about how you interact with each other, you start to catalyze change, because other teams are looking at you. This changes the culture from the ground up.
[9:35] Jan refers to a recent NY Times article on assessing job satisfaction and why employees leave. A big factor is that the values the employees have are not the same as the values of the organization. When that happens, Jan tells clients there are three choices: they can work to change things, they can accept things, or they can seek employment elsewhere.
[10:34] Erin’s first “port of call” in a similar case is always to examine and see what you can change. There are a lot of things within your control when working in teams. If even your great experiences with colleagues cannot protect you against a toxic culture, Erin encourages people to find another route for employment. That’s only after Erin has investigated with them how else they could change things there. [12:41] In the remote world, it is too early to tell how culture is being affected when people don’t see each other between meetings. Erin is pleased to see organizations getting together outside of their working context for the connection’s sake.
[13:22] Erin sees two big issues with remote work: We’re losing opportunities to watch other people role-model examples and more importantly, we’re losing the opportunity to connect with people in an unstructured, water-cooler-type way. Erin sees the second issue as being damaging to our well-being and mental health. The first issue is detrimental to the organization, the second is a societal issue.
[14:37] Research says that when we’ve got autonomy over our working day, the outcomes for our work and our mental health are much better, but we need to make sure we are connecting in person, as we can, as well. Use intention to create “impromptu” moments. Networking is essential.
[17:08] Erin tells how some younger people (after working virtually) react to one of her in-person workshops with everyone in the room together. They find it nice to be in a group and have banter. But most young people are electing to work remotely. Are they finding moments of connection elsewhere and are they satisfied with that? If they are, do we need to rethink office work?
[18:29] Erin sees local people going out to lunch with friends, even going for a swim, and then heading back to their home office for the afternoon. They are getting connections in their neighborhoods, which is good societally but presents a challenge to organizations seeking to create cohesiveness among their employees. Realize that it takes an effort to create connections with people.
[20:53] Erin tells leaders we are facing two issues at the moment: revolutionizing the way we work and working out how to keep our teams connected. Erin asks them “Can one issue solve the other? Can you ask your team to solve together one thing that’s bothering them now?” When they feel real autonomy to do that, they get going with it and start that meaningful connection, whether it is local or remote.
[23:11] Erin teaches a LinkedIn Learning class, “Use an Entrepreneurial Mindset to Find Success and Fulfilment at Work.” Erin has been intrigued by entrepreneurial thinking since she was a child. When she went into psychology she studied what makes work better for people. Then she assisted in a startup, Innocent Drinks. Everyone there was encouraged to think entrepreneurially. Erin learned how to do it.
[24:14] When Erin went into other organizations and coached organizations for culture change, she noticed entrepreneurial people everywhere. Entrepreneurs aren’t just people who start businesses; entrepreneurs are people who think in a certain way about making something better. She also noticed that entrepreneurs absolutely have to find a way to motivate themselves that is not financially driven.
[24:49] For most entrepreneurs, their “fortune” is a very long way away, so they have to motivate themselves to get up and find work every day that fulfills them that day. That’s what Erin saw in the entrepreneurial thinks she found at work in various organizations. They are able to find an intrinsic reward in their day-to-day work.
[25:17] Being people who are able to find the intrinsic reward in the daily activities of their work, who are able to tolerate the uncertainty of our working lives, and who look with vision into the future are the three main elements Erin talks about in her LinkedIn Learning course. It is a mindset that can be learned. Most people don’t want to start companies but they can find this entrepreneurial mindset helpful.
[26:27] To learn a mindset, adopt the behaviors and the habits. As a leader, be a role model of the habits you want others to adopt. Erin asks leaders, "How are you getting people to solve these problems with you?” To change their behavior, people need to feel some responsibility for the outcome. Jan quotes an old Irish mentor of his, Bud Ahern, who said, “People support what they help create.”
[28:26] Erin shares information about Innocent Drinks, a very innovative brand for its time. Instead of printing “Use By” on the lid, they put “Enjoy By.” They didn’t think about the rules as they were, but about how they could change things. Erin has taken that with her, ever since.
[29:18] Thinking about “how it could be” leads to innovation and creativity. But we are accustomed to operating by rules. We have to have some rules and heuristics because otherwise we would become overwhelmed with the world. Tune in to notice the set of rules by which you operate. Do you need them? How could things be different? Where do you stop breaking the rules, though?
[31:01] It is hard as a leader to encourage rule-breaking but not too much. She compares the rules we used to have for our daily work to our rules for this more flexible environment. We have to learn how to be flexible with the rules and use a bit of deep thought about where the line is drawn and whether to break this rule or not. For leaders, it comes back to role modeling and sometimes admitting fallibility.
[32:13] A leader may need to explain, “I took this risk. I probably went a step too far and here’s why, and here’s the learning I had from it.” It’s a bit of trial and error. You’re not always going to get it right as a leader but it’s worth that risk.
[33:13] We need to be more forgiving as people adjust to what could be our new normal. There is an ongoing level of discomfort we all feel in this transition and we’re not articulating it enough. In 2019, we really had a very different life as a global culture. We don’t know how the future will play out and that’s uncomfortable. Having compassion for this discomfort can go a long way for leaders with their teams.
[34:34] Active listening, taking a team member out for coffee, asking people how they are doing, all go so far. Jan cites past guest Margaret Heffernan who said before the pandemic, we were all about efficiency. The pandemic showed us we weren’t very adaptable. Today, businesses are still trying to be efficient while adapting to the needs of the people who run the business. We need negotiation skills.
[35:31] A psychological contract with your employer is about the expectations you have going into a job and the expectations your employer has for your performance. You have an unwritten psychological contract but over time the contract gets breached because the expectations of the employee and the employer don’t match. This can lead to disengagement, or it can be managed by good communication.
[36:31] If you joined a new organization in 2019, your employment expectations then are much different than your expectations today. We need to be having more open conversations about how our expectations have changed around our working lives, including what employers are expecting of their people. The team needs to understand what the expectations are and how they’ve changed.
[37:54] Even knowing about it, Erin also falls into the trap of mismatched or misunderstood expectations. She will find herself frustrated and then recognize she has an expectation about something that may not be realistic. The first step is to become aware of your expectations. Then find the language and the forum to have those conversations with your manager or colleagues.
[39:24] In the negotiation we are having about the new ways of working you need to get granular about things like managing your boundaries around your working lives. When it is OK to text or email? These details are what make up our day-to-day experiences. Give people permission to disagree or “fight.” It’s encouraged to avoid the dysfunction of complacency. People need to challenge each other.
[40:56] Erin’s Closing thoughts: “Take time out to reflect because we are all so overwhelmed and busy … and so many … things … require a deep reflection and tuning in to what’s going on for us and … to what’s going on for our teams.”
[42:12] Closing quote: Remember, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw
Quotable Quotes
- “I always think that everybody has a connection with the Beatles in some way, shape, or form.”
- “The field of neuroscience has progressed so much in the last 20 years when I did my undergrad in psychology. What we know now is so much of the way we behave is shaped by our experience.”
- “If you think about what is the best definition of culture, it’s ‘How we do things around here.’ So. how do we learn about how to do things? We watch, and we experience what everybody else is doing, don’t we?”
- “One of the things that people often get frustrated with about culture is that they feel completely disempowered to do anything about it. … If you’re thinking ‘There’s nothing I can do,’ that may be true in some context, … but you can change the experience.”
- “If you work in what you might define as a toxic culture, working with great colleagues helps you to kind of buffer against that. But there certainly comes a point, and … this is really important, … where you have to be brave and say to yourself, … this is not good for me.”
- “As a psychologist, I am all for the flexibility, the autonomy, that we are now enjoying with the new hybrid way of working. … I think it is really great for most of us.”
- “Other research says that when we’ve got autonomy over our working day, the outcome for our work is so much better and for our mental health, but … we need to make sure we are connecting in person, as and when we can, as well.”
- “Connection doesn’t happen just because you put people in an office. It happens when they’re working on something meaningful. So that’s the thing to focus on.”
- “Entrepreneurs aren’t just people who start businesses; entrepreneurs are people who think in a certain way about making something better.”
- “A world that affords us flexibility means that we also have to be flexible in it. We have to learn how to be flexible.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Paul Darley
- Audrey Darley Welch
- Dean Karrel
- Erin Shrimpton
- ErinShrimpton.com
- The Beatles (The White Album)
- Yesterday (movie)
- Chris Farley Interviews Paul McCartney
- “Why is assessing job satisfaction so hard?” NY Times
- Innocent Drinks
- Management Science
- Margaret Heffernan
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
ChatGPT is the artificial intelligence talk of the town, and Jan and Jim have experimented with it for a few months and share the questions they asked it, and the responses ChatGPT provided. They discuss how ChatGPT can be a game-changer for leaders to spend more time doing what they do best - develop relationships and exercise judgment. Listen in for how AI can be a new tool in your toolbox, and its potential as a leadership enhancer.
https://bit.ly/TLP-348
Key Takeaways
[1:38] Jan and Jim give a big shoutout to their friend Greg Hinc of County Cork, Ireland. He wrote that he started listening to The Leadership Podcast at about Episode 150, then he went back and listened to them all. He comments on their social media posts. He’s talked a lot about how much he’s learned and gained from it, which means a lot to Jan and Jim. There’s a little gift coming to Greg.
[2:34] If you have listened to every episode like Greg, then Jan and Jim would love to hear from you, as well.
[4:07] Jim’s friend, Jim Mirochnik of Halock Security Labs, introduced him three months ago to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot. After five minutes of interaction, Jim was as excited as when he first learned of the world wide web in 1992. Jim asked ChatGPT a variety of questions and he got back usually well-written answers.
[5:33] To test ChatGPT on a task a human probably couldn’t do quickly, Jim asked it, “Write a Java computer program that will take the input of two people’s names and an adjective describing their relationship and create a poem written in Iambic Pentameter.” Within seconds, it wrote a Java program that was pretty close to being exactly what Jim had asked for.
[6:17] Jim clarified his question and ChatGPT gave him a better result. Then Jim asked it to write the program in Python and it instantly supplied the Python code on half a sheet. It gave a more concise answer than a human coder might have given and it was good code.
[7:01] Jim and Jan share some questions he asked and the answers from ChatGPT from about three months ago.
[7:14] Q. Write a 500-word essay on leadership. The answer came in about 35 seconds and it was amazing. Then Jim asked, “How many words is that essay?” It said 532. Jim asked why it went over. It said leadership is a complex topic and hard to explain.
[7:54] This morning Jim asked it the same question: Write a 500-word essay on leadership. ChatGPT has gotten a lot busier, with more users. The response today took six minutes. It was very well written again and similar to the first response but it was much more concise at 372 words. ChatGPT is having a deep impact on university students and the way they study. It is a fantastically useful and powerful tool.
[8:53] Jan hears people afraid that ChatGPT will take their job. He recently demoed ChatGPT to a CEO. When the CEO asked, Why are there silos developing in my organization? It gave these answers: Lack of communication/collaboration, competition for resources, different goals and priorities, silos created by structure, or resistance to change. That gave Jan and his client five things to explore together.
[10:56] If you only had pliers before, now you have a vice grip. What sticks out for Jan is that he has to ask it very good questions and then, exercise his judgment and decide what to look at. [11:27] What Jan did with his CEO client was look at different goals and priorities. They have a retreat planned where each attendee will bring a list of five important priorities and will make sure everyone is clear on roles and responsibilities and where there is overlap. Jan — not ChatGPT — will facilitate the discussion. Jan sees it as an awesome tool.
[12:03] Some people get better and quicker responses than others when searching on Google because they know how to ask questions the right way for good search results. That skill is super important with ChatGPT. You get better by practicing and using it.
[12:45] There are some things that it can do quickly that might take weeks for a human to do. Jim asked, What are the top five themes articulated in The Leadership Podcast?
[13:41] ChatGPT answered, “As an AI language model, I don’t have personal opinions but I can provide you with an overview of some of the most commonly discussed themes on The Leadership Podcast, based on the content available on their website and podcast. Here are five possible themes: Leadership …, personal development, team dynamics, innovation and disruption, business and industry insights.”
[14:27] ChatGPT took about a minute to make that analysis. It had indexed and searched the entire site for The Leadership Podcast, so it knows about it. Jim had asked it the same question two months ago before it was able to search websites. Now it can. Its functionality is increasing at a geometric pace.
[15:16] ChatGPT is a fun, powerful tool, and its answers are exceptionally well done. Another question was, Can you measure leadership? It came up with a similar answer to a discussion with guest Sarah Wirth - The Leadership Podcast Episode 351.
[16:28] Jan asked ChatGPT When I interview Jim Vaselopulos from Rafti Advisors for my podcast, what should I ask him? ChatGPT responded, “As a business strategist and leaders consultant, Jim is able to provide valuable insights on various topics related to business management leadership. Here are some questions to ask during the interview. …”
[16:51] “ … How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted business strategies in leadership and how can organizations adapt to these changes?”, “Can you share a memorable experience from your career that taught you an important lesson about leadership?”, “What inspired you to become a strategist and leadership consultant?”
[17:22] “Can you share a particularly successful project you had with a client and what made it successful?” These are good generic questions. They provide a good starting point. Jim cites Atomic Habits, by James Clear. If you want to run, start by putting your shoes on. Then you generally follow through. ChatGPT is a tool to help you jumpstart a report or analysis. It can help you get moving.
[18:53] Jan is working with an organization with five good values that has not articulated its values into observable behaviors. One of the values is accountability. Jan asked ChatGPT, What three observable behaviors would you assign to the value of accountability? ChatGPT’s response was, “Honesty and transparency, reliability and follow through, adaptability and continuous improvement.”
[19:26] Under “continuous improvement,” ChatGPT added, “They take feedback constructively, they recognize mistakes or failures can be opportunities for growth and learning, they’re willing to adjust their approach …” Jan asked if you, the listeners, know what the values mean in your organization? Don’t follow a robot blindly, but ChatGPT gives a great starting point for a discussion on values.
[20:25] Jan says, oftentimes, those [company] values are ambiguous, the culture is by default, and the values and standards cannot be upheld because there’s no agreement on what they mean. There’s no common vocabulary. That’s something every organization could do today. Look at your values and agree on behaviors to associate with them. Can we be more clear on what we want our folks to do?
[21:12] Three years ago, Jim and Jan were asked to go out to the Air University in Montgomery, Alabama. They gave a speech summarizing The Leadership Podcast and the guests they had interviewed and the overarching theme they could find. One of the themes that still continues since then was curiosity. The most successful leaders had the trait of being curious. ChatGPT didn’t come up with that!
[21:59] The Leadership Podcast is about curiosity. Learning to use a tool like ChatGPT is about being curious. What are you curious about?
[22:28] Jan asked When I interview Jan Rutherford from Self-reliant Leadership for my podcast, what should I ask him? ChatGPT responded “Can you tell us a bit about your background, how you became interested in self-reliant leadership?” and “What are the key traits and characteristics of self-reliant leaders?” It didn’t ask a single COVID-19 question, ask about stories or mention entrepreneurs.
[23:06] ChatGPT had picked up on those topics on Jim’s website, not on Jan’s. There were relevant questions for each Jan and Jim from their websites.
[23:18] Another question for Jan was “Are there any common misconceptions or misunderstandings about self-reliant leadership that you would like to clear up?” That’s a good question. During this episode, Jan and Jim were curious, tested their assumptions, and learned something!
[23:40] Curiosity is such an important theme. ChatGPT is a vehicle to supercharge your curiosity and enlighten yourself in ways that you couldn’t without reading books that you may not have time to read.
[24:27] Simon Sinek was a guest on the show and they asked him, “Where does personal responsibility and a sense of real duty to each other start to play a role, especially now (during the pandemic)?” So Jan asked ChatGPT that question.
[24:42] ChatGPT had interesting answers, ending with “To foster a sense of personal responsibility and a duty to each other, it’s important to prioritize empathy, compassion, and kindness. We can start by listening to and understanding the needs and concerns of others, being willing to make personal sacrifices for the greater good, and taking action to support our communities in meaningful ways.”
[25:09] Jan plays Simon’s answer: “Trust is a two-way street. Just think of any relationship: friendship, marriage, or anything. Trust is always two ways. In a business context, where there’s formal hierarchy, it is the leader’s responsibility to create the environment in which trust can exist.”
[25:41] (Simon continues) “To build a circle of safety and create an environment in which people feel safe to raise their hand and say, ‘I made a mistake,’ or ‘I need help,’ or ‘I don’t understand,’ without any fear of humiliation or retribution. Without any fear that they’ll be on some shortlist by the end of the year. However, it’s everyone’s responsibility to step into that circle of safety.”
[25:59] (Simon continues) “Compare it to a personal relationship. It’s very important for at least one person in the relationship to start to create an environment in which the other person feels safe to express themselves or be themselves. But it’s still the responsibility of the other person to take that risk to express themselves or be themselves.”
[26:16] (Simon concludes) “It’s the same in business. It’s all fine and good for us to create the environment but people have to take the risk and say, ‘Hey boss, I need help,’ or ‘I made a mistake,’ and to realize that there’s no humiliation or blowback if you do that. In fact, you get his support.”
[26:36] The ChatGPT is not about to replace Simon Sinek. He’s wonderful to listen to, he’s articulate. He hit on a lot of the same themes that were in ChatGPT’s answer. Jan finds that interesting. We know this AI today is going to be exponentially better. In less than a year, it may use a voice and cadence to come close to Simon Sinek. Leaders and business people now have another tool in their toolbox.
[27:39] We’re still going to need to build relationships; we’re still going to need to be able to exercise judgment. If curiosity is a value in your organization, what does that mean? Are we teaching people to ask better questions and to listen better? Or are we saying go to Toastmasters to learn to be a great speaker and articulate? The emphasis has been on using our mouths instead of our ears!
[28:10] To do a school term paper, you come up with an outline and then flesh it out. In practical business, people don’t start with an outline. Powerpoint is the closest thing to an outline for presentations. Make one good point instead of five average points. Two good points and seven bad ones ruin a presentation. ChatGPT can help you sharpen your point and get at it.
[29:38] What are the keys to having difficult conversations? ChatGPT answered with seven bullet points taking up three-quarters of a page. Jim lists the bullet points: “Prepare, choose, listen actively, be clear and direct, focus on the issue, offer solutions and options, and follow up.” The supporting information is spot-on. It doesn’t have too many extra words or fluff statements.
[30:23] What are the most common mistakes people make when delegating? “Not delegating at all, over-delegating, poor communication, micro-managing, lack of follow-up, not providing sufficient resources, and taking credit.” You have to recognize the efforts and achievements of the person you delegated to.
[31:27] For as scary as this new technology can be, we need to adopt it, embrace it, and understand that it’s going to affect all of us in some way, shape, or form. Whether you realize it or not, your employees are using it! Jim shares a client story about it.
[32:14] Jan just had a conversation about trust. He cites past guest Margaret Heffernan: Social capital is what happens between people; that relationship. You want to work with people you like, people you respect, and people you trust. Trust takes time and everybody’s busy.
[33:28] Jan refers to Lisa McLeod, a sales thought leader, who says “If you can’t understand how you’re making people’s lives better, you can’t sell anything.” It would be so sad to go to work, with whatever tools you use, and not think at the end, “How am I making people’s lives better?” See the interview here: https://selfreliantleadership.com/blog/2021/05/06/lisa-mcleod-on-selling-with-noble-purpose/.
[34:10] Jim asked a young salesman what his value proposition was. The salesman listed the product features but Jim wanted to know how the salesman was making his customer’s life better. Jim tells a friend’s story about the pressure-washing cheerleader who lifted his low spirit with kindness and joy.
[36:55] Past guest Barry Schwartz told about cancer-ward janitors who weren’t there to clean messes but to provide a better experience for patients. That floor had the best cancer-survival rates because of the janitors who brought them kindness and preserved their dignity.
[37:39] Jan recalls how past guest Christophe Morin of SalesBrain uses props. As a prop, Jan holds up an insulated mug his wife got him for Valentine’s Day. Jan asks ChatGPT How does a coffee mug that stays warm improve someone’s life? “A mug that stays warm can be a convenient addition to a person’s daily routine. They can take their time enjoying their drink without having to worry about it getting cold.”
[38:53] ChatGPT also says that drinking a hot beverage has been linked to various health benefits, such as improving digestion, boosting metabolism, and reducing the risk of certain diseases. “With a mug that stays warm, one can ensure they’re consuming their hot beverage at the optimal temperature to reap these benefits.” Our business is selling something. Do we understand how it improves someone’s life?
[39:20] Is ChatGPT a menace? It might be. Is it something that can improve our life? Jan thinks it will be able to speed up things. It will get us to a point where creating an outline or coming up with some ideas, we’ll let somebody else do that and we’ll focus on the things that only we can do; exercise judgment, cut and paste, modify, edit, or think, and step back. It will help us get better at asking questions.
[40:11] What Jan hopes ChatGPT does is allow us to spend more time with each other and improve the relationships we have between people, not on a computer all the time.
[40:54] Jim asked ChatGPT to write the Darley ad, and it did! Jim reads the ad.
[41:37] Microsoft is incorporating ChatGPT into Bing.
[41:51] Jan and Jim would love to hear your feedback on this episode and on ChatGPT. How are you using it? This is a game-changer. Comment on LinkedIn or on Facebook or comment on the episode page. Jan and Jim will respond.
[42:28] Closing quote: Remember, “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
Quotable Quotes from ChatGPT
- “As an AI language model, I don’t have personal opinions but I can provide you with an overview of some of the most commonly discussed themes on The Leadership Podcast, based on the content available on their website and podcast. Here are five possible themes: Leadership … , personal development, team dynamics, innovation and disruption, business and industry insights.”
- “As a business strategist and leaders consultant, Jim is able to provide valuable insights on various topics related to business management leadership. Here are some questions to ask during the interview.”
- “To foster a sense of personal responsibility and a duty to each other, it’s important to prioritize empathy, compassion, and kindness. We can start by listening to and understanding the needs and concerns of others, being willing to make personal sacrifices for the greater good, and taking action to support our communities in meaningful ways.”
- “[Before a difficult conversation], prepare, choose, listen actively, be clear and direct, focus on the issue, offer solutions and options, and follow up..”
- “[Mistakes when delegating are] not delegating at all, over-delegating, poor communication, micro-managing, lack of follow-up, not providing sufficient resources, and taking credit.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- ChatGPT
- Jim Mirochnik
- Halock Security Labs
- Skynet
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, by James Clear
- Air University, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama
- Sara Wirth
- Simon Sinek
- Toastmasters
- Margaret Heffernan
- Lisa McLeod
- Barry Schwartz
- Christophe Morin
- SalesBrain
- Microsoft
Nicole Kalil is the Confidence Sherpa. She’s the author of “Validation is for Parking,” and a leadership strategist, respected coach, speaker, and host of the “This is Woman’s Work” podcast. Nicole sees that women and men approach confidence very differently. She discusses how appearing confident is very different from being confident. Real, authentic confidence produces executive presence, and is a catalyst for effective leadership. Listen in for new insights on confidence and how it affects team success, and professional fulfillment.
https://bit.ly/TLP-347
Key Takeaways
[1:25] Jan and Jim want to know if you have listened to every episode of The Leadership Podcast. If you have, please drop them a line. They may have something for you!
[2:27] Nicole is a partner to her husband, a mom to her nine-year-old daughter, a hotel snob, a wine and cheese enthusiast, and a reluctant Peloton rider.
[4:23] Nicole wrote Validation Is For Parking to discuss confidence through a feminine lens. At the time she wrote the book, 92% of business books were written by men. In her finance job, all her mentors were men. Nicole felt an imbalance. She wrote the book with women in mind. Her intention isn’t to be exclusionary. She hopes people who identify as any gender will read it and have good takeaways.
[6:29] Nicole took the filters off and wrote what she felt and knew, having women in mind, and sharing stories she felt would be most relevant or help people feel less alone. She wrote it almost as a journal and then realized someone was going to read it! It felt important to her, in writing a book about confidence, to put it all out there and be authentic and true to herself.
[8:22] In work environments, confidence is when you trust yourself firmly and boldly. When you walk into an environment where you’re “the other,” you may spend a lot of your energy trying to navigate how to fit into the culture and the environment, and in doing that, you tend to lose some of your authenticity; you tend to lose some of yourself. That impacts your confidence.
[9:11] When negotiating for a salary increase or a promotion, women are coming to those conversations with less confidence than their male counterparts because the way they would do it authentically or naturally is different from the way that is being encouraged, supported, trained, or recognized in the culture and environment. Jan cites past guest Jeffrey Pfeffer on the seven rules of power.
[10:24] How are we defining power? Nicole defines power as showing up with true and vulnerable emotions, not as inauthentically looking confident or powerful.
[12:53] The boss is the keeper of the culture. If your being authentic doesn’t fit in the culture, this is the opportunity for the boss to say, “This is just not the right place for you.”
[13:16] If you’re accentuating something about yourself so much that it’s repellent to others it may be worth questioning if you are actually showing up authentically at all. You’re probably doing that in reaction. Nicole shares an experience from when she was trying to fit in. Looking back, she sees that was not her authentic self.
[15:34] There isn’t one right, definitive answer to just about anything. We come to every situation, conversation, or event with our beliefs, values, experiences, and interpretations, and we think that those experiences, interpretations, and values are right or true with a capital T. What one person believes is right and true may not be right and true for everybody.
[16:31] Nicole is trying to practice being more empathetic, better listening, being more open, and communicating, “This is the way I see it and I’m open that there may be another way to see it,” and being curious about that.
[16:49] Nicole sees all of those things as a practice in being and becoming a better leader. They make us better relationship-builders, and developers of others, and create safer, healthier, and more productive environments.
[18:24] Leadership and allyship are very closely connected. Be curious, listen. When you ask a question, believe what people are telling you is their perception or interpretation, and try to have empathy around that. All of us have the opportunity to create more balance.
[18:57] Understand that the masculine approach to success in business is alive and well. There is the opportunity to bring in, recognize, and reward the more feminine side, as well, within yourselves and your organization, and your culture. Be aware and pay attention.
[19:26] It helps people to have someone they trust and have a good relationship with. Be a coach to others when they say something that they may have meant in one way, but that might have been interpreted in another way. Most people can be very forgiving if they know you’re coming from a good place. Knowing where you’re coming from makes all the difference in the world.
[22:21] Nicole discusses executive presence. It’s external; what we show to the world. We have an impact on how people see us. Nicole distinguishes it from confidence. Confidence is about firm and bold trust in self. Confidence in others is trust in them. Confidence leads to executive presence and that leads to leadership. [24:02] If you bypass confidence and go for executive presence, you can look confident but at some point, if the internal component isn’t there, it’s going to become painful to you and obvious to others. Don’t be focused on how you look to others but on who you are and what you bring to the table; what it is you can, and choose to, trust in yourself.
[25:24] Nicole discusses the gender component of confidence vs. competence. Women tend to over-rotate on competence. They believe they need to do it all, have it all, and look the part; get all the designations and check all the boxes. It’s very much about how it looks. But you cannot be competent at anything you’re doing for the first time. Competence takes time.
[26:00] Confidence is a choice we can make any time we want. Confidence is on the road to competence. Competence will then circle back and increase your confidence as you go. But there’s always something more to learn and skills to develop before you are fully competent. Instead of “Fake it till you make it,” Nicole says, “Choose it until you become it.” Choose confidence continually.
[26:55] Women, especially, feel they need to be 100% ready before taking big actions. But 100% ready is not available to any of us when it comes to doing something new. We do most meaningful things with a combination of excitement, fear, readiness, and doubt.
[27:34] For a lot of women it’s letting go of the unachievable expectation that you’re going to be 100% anything. Trust that you’ll figure it out as you go. Trust that if you don’t do well, you’ll be OK; you’ll learn something to take to the next thing you do. Trust that you’ve done what got you here, and you can apply your unique talents, strengths, and abilities to this new thing and you will get there. Trust in yourself.
[29:03] Nicole saw integrity as strong moral principles or being honest. Her background is in finance, where being honest is important, and doing what’s best for your clients. In terms of a strong moral standing, who decides what that is? Do personal things bleed into the definition? Nicole had a struggle with the word, which forced her to look at the definition.
[30:08] Nicole loves the second definition of integrity: the state of being whole and undivided. That’s what we need to be talking about, is being so true and trusting in ourselves that we show up with all that we are, we own everything that we’re not, and we choose to embrace all of it. And that would lead us to bring our full and best selves to the leadership table, to our businesses.
[30:52] Nicole sees power and magic in knowing who we are, owning who we are not, choosing to embrace all of it, and showing up as our full and best selves. That’s how we should be talking more about integrity.
[31:46] We’ve over-rotated in society and we try to “save” people every time they express that they are not meant for something. We think everybody can be anything they want to be. That’s not an available option for any of us. And, unfortunately, we think that we should do and be everything. What we end up doing is watering down our unique abilities and unique talents by trying to be everything.
[32:32] Nicole refers to Essentialism, by Greg McKeown (a previous guest). We don’t stay in our lane because we don’t spend any of our time figuring out what our lane is. In order to do that, we need to know what our lane isn’t. There is power in owning what and who you are not meant for; what and who may not be meant for you. Being able to discern that will put you on track for what you are meant for.
[33:16] Purpose is not one thing but we all have a purpose. It’s confidence-boosting to sift out the things that are not meant for you.
[34:42] The biggest “Aha” that Nicole would tell her younger self is how much her failures, missteps, mistakes, fears, and doubts built her confidence and contributed to her success and purpose, more than her achievements, successes, wins, and things that came easily. It doesn't hurt any less when she’s in it, but when she’s experiencing bad feelings, she tells herself all that’s missing is the benefit of hindsight.
[35:26] Nicole reminds herself that she doesn’t yet know why the negative thing is happening, but she trusts that it is serving a purpose. It’s a gift, a lesson, a redirect, or an opportunity. There’s some other way to see the thing that’s happening that is going to work for her betterment. She trusts that in those moments. She wishes she would have failed more often and risked more, earlier on.
[36:40] Letting your children or employees fall is a struggle, but they go through it for their growth. You want to protect. You want them to be happy. Nicole and her husband are clear that they want to protect their daughter as much as they can from things that fall under health and safety that are very difficult to recover from. On other things, it is better to just let it play out and get messy.
[37:44] Nicole tells her daughter that she loves her all of the time. It’s constant and does not need to be earned. She doesn’t need to prove herself to get it. The love is constant even in the messiness, failure, and mistakes. She can figure all the rest of it out. She encourages her daughter to hold onto her own confidence when it gets challenged.
[39:08] Nicole’s challenge to listeners: “Separate all the advice, advertisements, and things on social media that tell you that the way you gain confidence is by fixing how your confidence looks to others. If it’s external, it’s probably not confidence-building. Go back to ‘Confidence is when you trust yourself.’ … Ask yourself, ‘Is this going to help me trust myself more?’ If the answer is yes then go do it!”
[40:25] Closing quote: Remember, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quotable Quotes
- “So much of what we learn about what it is to be professional, what it is to be successful, what it is to be a leader, or what it is to be confident comes from the masculine lens. I worked in finance and almost exclusively, all of my mentors, trainers, and teachers were men.”
- “When you walk into an environment where you’re ‘the other,’ … a lot of people spend a lot of their energy trying to navigate how to fit into the culture and the environment, and in doing that, we tend to lose some of our authenticity; we tend to lose some of ourselves.”
- “We are often being taught how to look confident. Very rarely taught how to be or become confident.”
- “I have a fundamental belief that leaders are keepers of the culture and if somebody being their authentic self doesn’t fit in a culture, then it’s probably the opportunity to say, ‘You’re not bad, we’re not bad, this is just not the right place for you.’”
- “The older I get the more I realize that there isn’t one right, definitive answer to just about anything.”
- “We are all coming to every situation, conversation, or event with our own beliefs, values, experiences, and interpretations, and unfortunately, we are thinking that those experiences, interpretations, and values are right or true with a capital T.”
- “[Let] people know ‘I’m going into this uncomfortable place. I might say things wrong; I might do things wrong. But my intention is only ever, always to get better. I’m open to feedback. If I make mistakes [please] pull me aside and tell me about it.’”
- “Confidence is about trust; firm and bold trust in self. So when we talk about being confident, that’s what I think we are talking about.”
- “One hundred percent ready is not a thing that’s available to any of us when it comes to doing something new or that we haven’t done before.”
- “That’s what we need to be talking about, is being so true and so trusting in ourselves that we show up with all that we are, we own everything that we’re not, and we choose to embrace all of it. And that would lead us to bring our full and best selves to the leadership table.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Nicole Kalil
- NicoleKalil.com
- Validation Is For Parking: How Women Can Beat the Confidence Con, by Nicole Kalil
- This is Woman’s Work podcast
- Peleton
- The White Lotus
- The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know, by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
- The Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt, by Russ Harris
- Jeffrey Pfeffer
- 7 Rules of Power” Surprising—but True—Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
- Greg McKeown
Ed O’Malley is the Founder of the Kansas Leadership Center, President and CEO of the Kansas Health Foundation, and the author of four books, including his latest, “When Everyone Leads.” Ed discusses how leadership differs from authority, and that authority is required to lead. He explores the disruptive aspects and the risks of leadership. Ed explains the type of problems authority solves and the challenges that require unleashing the leadership of the whole team to move forward. Listen in for how to move forward when faced with daunting challenges. https://bit.ly/TLP-346
Key Takeaways
[3:25] In Ed’s book, When Everyone Leads, the key is getting people to separate leadership from authority. In some situations, the reliance on authority gets in the way of progress. We need people to know that even if you’re not the captain of the team or boss, the toughest challenges require your leadership, also. The book is about how you unleash that in everybody.
[4:45] Ed talks about over-reliance on authority. Authority is necessary, but it’s not sufficient for making progress on our biggest problems. Challenges between people need to be resolved by the people involved.
[6:14] On our toughest challenges, none of us know exactly the way forward. Trust that the collective is stronger than one person’s idea. If we unleash the leadership of others, so they feel empowered to exercise that leadership, then we start making more progress.
[6:49] If we assume that we have the answers and we know the best way forward, that conveys a lack of trust in the collective. The toughest challenges get solved by people working together.
[8:46] The book is about the toughest challenges. A prerequisite for unleashing leadership in more people is to help people break apart the idea of leadership from the idea of authority. They are different things and people know this intuitively. Ed uses the example of Rosa Parks showing leadership by choosing her seat on the bus.
[10:20] Ed wants people to be conscious of the differences between authority, leadership, people holding positions of authority, and people exercising leadership. Sometimes people in authority exercise leadership. Sometimes People not in authority exercise leadership. Sometimes nobody does. If people see it separately, it opens up a conversation about what the exercise of leadership looks like for them.
[11:22] Jim cites Jim Detert, author of Choosing Courage, regarding the courage it takes to step up and face big problems.
[12:08] Julia McBride, Ed’s co-author on the book, would say it’s all about clarity of purpose. Those who exercise effective leadership are clear in their deep purpose, and clear on the purpose for the meeting they’re walking into and the role they play in that meeting. They’re clear on the purpose of the project they’re a part of.
[12:46] A lot of people’s purpose is to keep their boss happy. Our toughest challenges are usually about something a lot bigger than that. Leadership is motivating others to make progress on daunting challenges and it hardly ever happens.
[14:24] Ed cites the work of authors Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky who pioneered the concept of the Zone of Productivity, where there is enough conflict that people are uncomfortable enough to change the status quo, but there is not enough conflict to shut people down. If you don’t have enough conflict, nothing is changing. If you have a lot of heat at work, consider if progress is being made in the work.
[15:32] If the conflict or heat from the top is not leading to progress, then it’s time to ask questions and intervene in the lack of progress.
[16:52] An executive team needs a common language to talk about the dynamics of productivity.
[17:30] Leadership is always about disrupting things. Ed quotes Marty Linsky, “Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb.” When you’re intervening up, you can’t anger the boss too much; you might be out! But If you’re just keeping the boss 100% happy, you might not be doing anything that looks like leadership.
[18:02] Jan recalls Jeffrey Pfeffer’s 7 Rules of Power. It’s evidence-based, controversial, and makes people very uncomfortable. Two of the rules are “Break the rules,” and “Show up in a powerful way.” These are hard to do. You’ve got to know how far you can push a boss before you’re damaging yourself.
[18:36] Ed goes back to being clear about purpose. If your purpose is to get along, be secure, and not rock the boat, you will not get close to exercising leadership. If your purpose is “I want the best value for my clients,” or “I’m a sales leader and I’m taking the organization from this level to that level higher,” then you’ll be willing to disrupt the norms. Leadership is always disruptive and risky.
[19:18] Ed says all of our research is showing if you get lots more people exercising leadership and intervening to create more progress it makes it more likely you’ll get the progress. It’s too tough for one or two people to do alone because it’s too disruptive.
[20:01] A chapter in the book explores the clash of values. Our toughest challenges are often about value clashes. You may have a value of gaining market share and a clashing value of playing it safe and not developing new products because you have a legacy product that has been winning for so long. Leadership is always about helping a system elevate one value over another. There is loss in that.
[21:31] Anyone can ask powerful questions. Ed explains that a powerful question comes from deep curiosity and it’s open-ended. A question that has an exact technical answer is not a powerful question, it’s a fact-based question. Powerful questions help everyone learn. “What’s our greatest aspiration for our organization?”, “What concerns us the most?”, “What makes progress so hard on those things?”
[22:56] Big open-ended questions are powerful and are often game-changing. Powerful questions often make us uncomfortable. They should force us to slow down a little bit and reflect differently.
[24:33] Ed interviewed a sage one time who told him, “Ed, that’s a great question! And it’s a great question because it doesn’t have any answers!” If there’s an easy answer, it might not be a good question.
[25:01] If what you’re working on isn’t a daunting challenge; if it’s run-of-the-mill stuff; if you’ve got a deadline and the work is technical, and you’ve got to meet it, you’re going to drive everybody crazy if you’re walking around asking big, open-ended questions all the time! It’s when you’re trying to focus people on the things that matter most that these powerful questions are so needed.
[26:10] Less senior people may be granted some grace in asking open-ended questions to reveal less knowledge of the organization’s purpose. More senior people may ask powerful questions that tend to shape expectations: “How will we respond to some inevitable failure in our attempts to do X?” This introduces the concept of being adaptive.
[28:49] The book discusses technical problems vs. daunting adaptive challenges. If you have the authority, say, “We’re solving this technical problem this way.” But it is a mistake to treat a daunting adaptive challenge as if it were technical. Those types of challenges where the problem is poorly defined and the answer is unknown cannot be solved by your authority alone. You won’t get progress.
[30:34] Jan tells about Bill Dean. They would be at a problem situation and Bill would say, “OK.” It meant he acknowledged, he understood, and they would step back and pause before trying to find out what the issue was. He said OK, and everybody knew it was going to be OK. Jan learned to step back when people are hitting the Panic button. Ed says, on the toughest challenges, help people to go slow.
[33:32] Have the awareness to discern when you’re facing something adaptive where you don’t know the way forward. In that situation, progress is about creating a system that can be iterative, that can be experimental, that can take smart risks, learn from them, and take bigger risks. If the situation doesn’t call for that and we bring it, we’re just going to create more problems.
[34:10] There are a lot of big ideas in the book. One is knowing the difference between the technical problems and the adaptive challenges. They require you to lead differently. Another idea is that your authority is a resource but it is not enough to solve adaptive challenges, so you unleash leadership for others in an iterative, learning environment where risk-taking is expected.
[36:25] There are expectations on those in authority. Ed repeats that leadership is disappointing your people at a rate they can absorb. People have expectations of those in authority and history is full of examples of what happens to people in authority if they disrupt those expectations too much. Live within the expectations, but push against them, as well.
[37:04] Ed explores how those in authority successfully used leadership during the pandemic to be firm and specific about the process they would use to solve the issue without going into what the outcome of the issue would be. They used authority to help people feel safe and that there is some order to things. They talked about the timeline for bringing the best people together to solve the problem.
[38:16] Jim compares how Jessica Chen from the previous podcast episode described the same situation of describing the process you are going through to arrive at an answer when dealing with ambiguity. Jim recommends listening to that episode, as this is a big and important concept. Ed agrees, it is important, but it is hard to practice. Go back to knowing whether it is an adaptive challenge or a technical problem.
[39:31] If it’s a technical problem and you are in authority, use your authority to solve the problem. For listeners who aren’t in authority, Ed reminds you to break apart authority and leadership. If you connect them, it lets everybody off the hook, and it’s the CEO’s job. That puts too much pressure on those in authority. They can’t deliver. The truth is, in the big tough challenges, we’ve all got a part in the mess.
[40:25] Jack Welch said, “You can’t scale complexity.” Ed’s book leads toward simplifying our approach. Jan recommends listeners read Ed’s book. It’s easy to read and laid out in a way that’s very pragmatic.
[42:06] Ed’s challenge to listeners: “I think we’ve got to get the bat off our shoulder and take some swings. … Learn how do you take those swings with confidence and skill so you can get a few more hits than you would otherwise.”
[44:12] Closing quote: Remember, “Unity is strength… When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” — Mattie Stepanek
Quotable Quotes
- “We need people to know that even if you’re not the captain of the team, the boss, the CEO of the company, or the mayor of the town, the toughest challenges require your leadership, also.”
- “I think we have an over-reliance on authority. Authority is useful; it’s necessary, but it’s insufficient for making progress on our biggest challenges.”
- “A prerequisite for unleashing leadership in more people is to help people break apart the idea of leadership from the idea of authority. We’ve got to get people to see them as two different things. They are totally separate. And I think that intuitively, people know this.”
- “Authority is a role; it’s a position, and leadership is an activity. And sometimes those in authority exercise it. But most of the time they don’t. And sometimes people not in authority exercise leadership. But a lot of times, they don’t.”
- “The book is counter-cultural, in that regard. We’re trying to create a new norm for what leadership even is.”
- “Leadership is always about disrupting things.”
- “Leadership is so rare because it’s risky; … it’s disruptive, which is why all of our research is showing if you get lots more people exercising leadership; intervening to create more progress, it’s … more likely you’ll get the progress. It’s too tough for one or two people.”
- “Big open-ended questions are powerful and they’re often game-changing.”
- “If what you’re working on isn’t a daunting challenge; if it’s run-of-the-mill stuff; if you’ve got a deadline and the work is technical, and you’ve got to meet it, you’re going to drive everybody crazy if you’re walking around asking big, open-ended questions all the time.”
- “It’s when you’re trying to focus people on the things that matter most that these curiosity-based, open-ended, powerful questions are so needed.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Ed O’Malley
- Kansas Leadership Center
- Kansas Health Foundation
- The Colorado Health Foundation
- When Everyone Leads: How The Toughest Challenges Get Seen And Solved, by Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride
- Todd Satterson
- U.S. Navy SEALS
- Jim Detert
- Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work, by Jim Detert
- Ron Heifetz
- Marty Linsky
- 7 Rules of Power: Surprising—but True—Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
- Jeffrey Pfeffer
- Jessica Chen
- Jack Welch
Jessica Chen is an Emmy Award winner, keynote speaker, former journalist, and CEO of the global business communications agency Soulcast Media. She is a top LinkedIn Learning instructor with over two million learners on self-awareness, personal branding, and executive presence. In this conversation, Jessica shares her knowledge of the essential qualities linked to emotional intelligence. This episode contains counsel for leaders on communication, storytelling, and self-confidence.
https://bit.ly/TLP-345
Key Takeaways
[2:50] Jessica recently became a new mom. Her little boy just turned one. Becoming a mother was a huge life transition for Jessica. She read parent books about it, but when the baby was born, Jessica learned you’ve just got to roll with the punches, taking care of a baby.
[5:55] Jessica teaches executive presence as how you make other people feel. It depends on the situation and the people. It is learning the soft skills of emotional intelligence. Unconscious bias leads to differences in application between men and women leaders and young and old leaders. Having self-awareness, and speaking clearly and precisely can help you show up and be heard as you want.
[8:38] Building credibility is learning how to talk about the things that you have done and owning that. That’s a part of showing up.
[10:17] Do you deal with a difficult boss? It’s hard to do good work when you’re micromanaged. Jessica asks, how can you reduce this communications friction? Ask yourself, “What does my manager care about?” Speak their language, consider to whom they are accountable, make them look good, and anticipate what they need. Care about what your manager cares about. Then they will feel you get it.
[12:19] If your boss is a bully, that is a terrible position to be in. If you have identified that your boss is completely treating you unfairly, that is not the right environment for you. Ask yourself what are your options.
[14:27] If you have lots of substance but very little style, Jessica has some tips for you. Put some color in your speech. Growing up as a woman in a traditional Asian family, Jessica was not taught to put color in her conversation. She was taught to do the work without disturbing anybody. That way of working is not going to help you build the visibility you need in a workplace with charismatic people.
[15:24] Style is what makes you memorable. We all have to do good work and perform in our job. It’s expected. What makes you memorable is your ability to add some color, meaning energy. The words that you choose to say and the energy and emotion you use can make you stand out with color and style. Finding your color and style makes you memorable.
[16:55] Jessica talks about brand. Jessica calls it your career brand. All of us need to think about building a career brand. It’s not about social media, although she says LinkedIn is a fantastic place to build your career brand and thought leadership. Thought leadership is important in people seeing you as an expert.
[17:47] For listeners not on LinkedIn, consider how you can build thought leadership within your team and organization. Seek opportunities to contribute to a workplace blog. Or simply be more visible by getting on board with some projects so people in other departments can see you.
[19:33] A person at a company can make a story good by humanizing it. Who are the people that the numbers in your presentation represent? Behind every customer number is a person with experience and a journey. Humanize the metrics to share the difficult journey the customer went through. Don’t just report the issue, find somebody to report the issue through.
[22:35] To influence your team to adopt a new process, tell the process through someone’s lived experience. Use a made-up name with a real event.
[24:03] Jan and Jessica both acknowledge and thank Dean Karrel at LinkedIn Learning for connecting them. Dean is the ultimate connector, asking for nothing in return.
[26:23] In the working world, you need to take a lot of information and condense it. The schools should teach conciseness and precision in our speaking. If you’re speaking too long, pause and ask yourself this question, “What’s the point I’m trying to make?” Then get back on track and get to the point. You can say it out loud: “What I’m trying to say here is, A, B, and C.”
[29:13] Jessica shares an aphorism: “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” In communication, capturing people’s attention should be your priority. Think about what your audience wants to hear and what they care about. You may have 10 things to share, but what are the three things you want everyone to walk away with? It takes more work to winnow it down, but it is well worth it.
[31:03] Good presenters connect their points seamlessly. They communicate the link between the points. It’s up to the presenter to talk about that. Use transition words, like “In addition,” or “this brings me now to this point.” Present the relationship between A, B, and C clearly.
[33:02] Jessica prefers to prepare carefully rather than be thrust into a high-pressure situation where she has to think on her feet. But she had experience in her journalism days of being thrown into a breaking news situation and having to report the story as it unfolds. Sometimes on the scene, it is sufficient to report what you have already done. That may be what people want to know.
[34:03] Communicating the process is a part of communicating and people appreciate it.
[36:20] Jessica taught a LinkedIn Learning course on Speaking Up at Work. If she could go back and add one thing to that course, it would be along the lines of building an inclusive speaking environment. How can we all take a proactive approach to making others feel more comfortable speaking up? How can we pave the way for the more quiet person to raise their hand? The loudest person often gets the attention.
[38:34] Western society values people who are able to speak up. Eastern culture doesn’t tend to put as much value in verbalizing thoughts but the people still have thoughts. Folks who are working with Asians or other minorities on their teams need to be open-minded about some of these assumptions. Being quiet doesn’t mean they don’t care or they’re not engaged. They still want to contribute.
[40:00] It can be detrimental to generalize. There are so many different Asian ethnicities. In general, Asian men and women both tend to be humble and show respect and pursue harmony. Being quiet doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of value to give.
[41:28] Past guest, CEO Colleen Abdoulah had a rule at her company, “Hold your views lightly.” Jan and Jessica agree that having self-awareness and open-mindedness about the people in the room and not assuming certain things about them. There is a diversity in thinking and a diversity in processing. That can help us be more inclusive speakers.
[43:19] Jessica sees people struggling with confidence in how they show up in the workplace. They don’t feel confident speaking up in a meeting and being perceived the way they want to be perceived. Jessica’s specialty is teaching the communication tool to show up and speak up better. She tells them she is happy they are acknowledging this friction and are taking steps to build their confidence.
[44:29] The only way to become more confident is to put yourself in these positions and continuously practice while doing it consciously.
[46:38] Jessica’s advice to senior workers who are reluctant to speak up: “These days, there’s always such a reaction to people saying things. … Trust your experience. … Clearly demonstrate your understanding of a thing you want to express. Qualify and quantify what you want to say and then package it in a way that shows your expertise. People will listen. … Own it and provide examples.”
[49:21] Jessica’s challenge to listeners: “I truly think communication is one of the most important skills for workplace success, regardless of what level you are at. I would challenge the listeners to think about ‘How can I improve my communication skills this year at work?’ … Whatever it is, there’s always going to be great ROI if you invest in your communication skills.”
[50:33] Closing quote: Remember, “Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Quotable Quotes
- “If I’m doing a presentation and I want to get my team excited … [I] can leverage some of the soft skills to get them to feel that way.”
- “All of us need to think about building a career brand. But it’s not in the way of social media, especially if you’re working in a typical office. … Though, I will say LinkedIn is a fantastic platform to build your career brand.”
- “Ask yourself, ‘What’s the point I’m trying to make here?’ … Clarify and get back on track. … Sometimes you’ve just got to remember to reign yourself back in.”
- “Every good presenter is able to connect their points seamlessly.”
- “How can we all take a proactive approach to making others feel more comfortable speaking up? How can we pave the way so that the more quiet person on your team feels comfortable raising their hand?”
- “The only way to become more confident is you just have to put yourself in these positions and continuously practice while doing it consciously, of course.”
- “Communication is one of the most important skills for workplace success, regardless of what level you are at. … There’s always going to be great ROI if you invest in your communication skills.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Jessica Chen
- Soulcast Media
- Jessica Chen on LinkedIn Learning
- What to Expect When You’re Expecting, by Heidi Murkoff
- Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager, by Anthony E. Wolf
- Jeffrey Pfeffer
- How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
- Dean Karrel on LinkedIn Learning
- The National Western Stock Show
- Deepa Purushothaman
- Colleen Abdoulah
Jamie Ryder is the founder of Stoic Athenaeum. He’s on a mission to make philosophy sexy and down to earth. He’s focused on breaking stigmas about mental health and leadership. He says that everyone has a philosophy they live by every day and the more they understand their philosophy, the more they will know how to communicate with others. Listen in for wisdom on stepping back for a wider view to move forward.
https://bit.ly/TLP-344
Key Takeaways
[1:57] When Jamie was young, he wanted to be either a wrestler or a writer; two different types of storytelling. He always liked the larger-than-life characters of wrestling. When he was 16, he trained as a wrestler in Manchester. But while wrestling was fascinating, he had more aspirations to write stories.
[4:32] Jamie believes philosophy needs to be lived. He has never been trained in philosophy academically. He describes the attraction Stoic philosophy holds for him, including the mental health aspect of it. Everybody has a philosophy or values they show up in the world with, that makes them who they are. It’s something that you live and breathe.
[5:54] Jamie believes there are therapeutic mental health benefits to philosophy.
[6:44] Philosophy permits you to be vulnerable with yourself. There is always an amount of uncertainty you will have to deal with. Stoicism helps Jamie identify the things he can or can’t control and navigate uncertain situations, such as the pandemic.
[7:17] Jamie recommends two practical exercises: “The Premeditation of Adversity,” attributed to Seneca, and “The View from Above,” by Marcus Aurelius. The Premeditation of Adversity builds resilience. Imagine the worst-case scenario and prepare for it. It helps Jamie calm down any anxiety he has about upcoming events. The View from Above is to take a high-level perspective of a situation.
[10:01] Give yourself permission to carve out time to practice The Premeditation of Adversity before events and The View from Above after events.
[12:00] By studying philosophy, Jamie learned that values are intrinsic in us and we have the power to make experiences make sense to us. By looking at different philosophers and schools of thought, Jamie instilled their activities and lessons into his life. Philosophy is a lot of small acts you do again and again. It becomes accessible and habit-forming as you repeat the exercises.
[13:43] Jamie would recommend that you start exploring philosophy with Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. You don’t need to know philosophy or Stoicism to understand Meditations. Marcus Aurelius was journaling for himself, 2,000 years ago. You can see he was trying to be an honorable person. If he had a bad day, he tried something different. On the second reading, it took on new meaning for Jamie.
[15:09] Jamie also recommends Letters from a Stoic, by Seneca. Seneca was writing to his friend, distilling lessons he’d learned over a lifetime. You can pick one letter to read a day, and you will find something that resonates with you today from 2,000 years ago.
[15:36] Stoicism was Jamie’s gateway into philosophy. He has also studied Skepticism, Existentialism, and Epicureanism. Another book recommendation Jamie gives is The Essays, by Michel de Montaigne. What de Montaigne wrote about a few hundred years ago are the same issues people face day in and day out.
[18:09] Jamie explains the symbiotic relationship between creativity and curiosity.
[20:10] Stoic philosophy involves stepping back and slowing down, which is different from typical business goals. At its crux, it’s about trying to focus on what you can control and what you can’t control. It means taking a break from things.
[21:45] Jamie shares tips for creative writing for business: have a tone-of-voice guide beforehand and then you can push the message across social media, emails, and wherever you need to be to communicate that message. Create it in a voice that makes sense to you and has a connection to the audience you are trying to build community with.
[23:30] Michel de Montaigne created the genre of philosophical writings known as essays. He created boundaries around himself where he could be alone, take a moment to breathe, and be himself.
[26:36] Writing tips: Start with writing a stream of consciousness. This goes back to de Montaigne. Create an environment where you feel comfortable, such as going for a walk or an activity that you are happy to do. Take a step back, then go back to it. Read as much as possible and pick out ideas you might not have thought about before. Distill it down into what you are trying to create on the page.
[28:05] To learn storytelling, start with authenticity. “This is my story. I’ve been through this and it makes sense to me. It communicates to the audience, as well.” It needs to have substance and reflect your values and principles. If there is a cause you support, you need to have the substance behind it, as well. Use ethical rhetoric to support a cause that has substance.
[29:13] Cicero used rhetoric to great effect. Aristotle introduced the three proofs: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos.
[30:28] Leaders need to be concerned about their people; they need to learn to lead themselves so they can lead others. Logos is for persuasion. Ethos is your character. Pathos is connecting with people and empowering them to share their emotions or connect with their customers. Others have different views. [32:18] Jamie’s storytelling advice to leaders: Ask questions and learn from the stories of people around you but “You need your personal values that work into that to create your unique and authentic story, as well. … I would just always remember that it’s always a learning experience.”
[34:49] Closing quote: Remember, “A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.” — Michel de Montaigne
Quotable Quotes
- “When I was young, I either chose to be a wrestler or a writer; [they’re] different types of storytelling. … I chose to be a writer but I will always appreciate what [wrestling] taught me.”
- “There is a tendency to say that philosophy can seem quite high-minded or academic, … where it’s not, because it is something that you live and breathe.”
- “Prior to the pandemic, I felt quite burnt out about a few things, but then, while discovering the subject of philosophy, it clicked, in the sense that it’s something that you can control within the Stoic aspect. … From a mental health aspect, it made a lot of sense for me.”
- “I would always recommend Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, because that, to me, is a book that you don’t even need to know what philosophy is, or Stoicism is, to really get to it. In context, Marcus was literally just writing to himself 2,000 years ago.”
- “It’s about balance, as well. … Sometimes you do need to take that step back and just reassess.”
- “[To write effectively,] create an environment for yourself where you feel comfortable. … Read as much as possible, … picking ideas from things that are outside your comfort zone, … and then just distilling it down.”
- “It starts with authenticity. … Creating that sense that ‘This is my story,’ or “I’ve been through this.’”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Jamie Ryder
- Stoic Athenaeum
- WWE
- The Premeditation of Adversity
- Seneca
-
Marcus Aurelius
-
Limitless with Chris Hemsworth
-
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
- Letters from a Stoic, by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- Skepticism
- Existentialism
- Epicureanism
- The Essays, by Michel de Montaigne
- Mike Lerario
- Donald Robertson
- Schopenhauer
- Cicero
- Aristotle and the three proofs
Patrick Bryant is a serial entrepreneur, professional speaker, and co-founder and CEO of software product agency CODE/+/TRUST. After co-founding Go To Team, Patrick launched six multi-million-dollar companies, in media, and software. Patrick shares wisdom gained from his experience in start-ups, his origin as a journalist, what he accomplished in video, and the CODE/+/TRUST “BHAG” for powering startups around the U.S. He discusses culture, scaling, storytelling, and how the first thing for an entrepreneur to do is to start.https://bit.ly/TLP-343
Key Takeaways
[1:15] If you have listened to every episode of The Leadership Podcast, please contact Jan and Jim to let them know. They would love to hear it and there might be something in it for you!
[2:27] Most people don’t know that Patrick owns a rolling paper company that he started after investing in a cigar company. Most people know him from software, media, and other things, like speaking.
[3:40] Patrick’s always getting into unexpected situations. He just keeps showing up for work and looking for interesting things. He’s curious and asks questions. His original profession was journalism and he learned to study industries and areas of interest to him. Many times, it results in a business idea. When he sees an opportunity, he strikes it.
[6:07] Patrick believes entrepreneurship is the number one change agent in the world. It is amazingly helpful to society to do something new and do it right.
[7:19] There are businesses that are built to scale and others that are not. In a field, you may have grass, bushes, and a large oak tree. The large oak tree did not start as a blade of grass! It takes time to know the “species” of businesses. Patrick started the video company, Go To Team, 25 years ago. It has 16 offices around the U.S. It hit a $1 million valuation when it was 10 years old. That felt great to Patrick!
[8:43] Another company that started the same week as Go To Team is Google. In 10 years, Google had been publicly traded and people were using its name as a verb! Patrick wondered what he was doing wrong. He started to study innovation scale — how to build companies and products that are built to move quickly in a big way and be sold around the world. That pushed Patrick toward software.
[9:58] Scaling is different between software and service companies. A service company can go a long time with continued operation, but not a lot of growth. A software product requires investments and a certain level of sales. If the sales don’t come, it’s over. The money’s gone and the investors aren’t going to pour more money into the company. There is risk involved in software.
[12:43] Journalism, television, and all media have changed greatly since the start of the internet. There is confusion and fragmentation. Patrick foresees us slowly getting back to moderation and looking for experts and gatekeepers we can trust to provide us with the content we want in the way we want it. We don’t yet have the new Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw.
[15:39] Patrick’s company, CODE/+/TRUST, sells code and trust. They help people start software companies. Their “BHAG” is to power 500 software startups in every state in the U.S. and be an official software development firm for entrepreneurs. They want to connect with good ideas, spend a lot of time on them, grow them, feel good about what they produce, and help entrepreneurs make money.
[18:41] First and foremost, get one thing right. You can have multiple ways to attack a problem but you can only have one mission. The mission and values cannot change.
[19:15] Patrick is working on a TEDx speech for March on the schizophrenic nature of advice to entrepreneurs. For instance, Winston Churchill’s message of never giving up contrasts with the advice to fail fast. All leaders need to understand this: mission and values do not move. We are not giving up on our mission. Tactics and goals that don’t get us there need to be stopped.
[21:51] Patrick’s big “Aha” moment is that not all advice is equal. Advice from your Grandma on how to live a good life might be great, but her advice on how to run your business might not be great. Where does the advice come from? How does it work with your core values?
[23:14] Advice can be great for one individual that’s not great for the next one. Patrick is a value investor. He likes to buy stocks that are low, for the long term. That’s what he reads about. Blogs about day trade opportunities are not useful advice for him. Patrick says that if every CEO learned the right way to take advice, they would be the last 10% of “amazing.” It’s one of the hardest things.
[25:34] Patrick separates User Experience from Customer Experience or navigating the software from working the sales funnel. Patrick focuses on providing customers with what they need, not what they want. Henry Ford said that if he asked his customers what they wanted, they would have said, “a faster horse.” We have to have the view that we know some things about where the customer wants to go.
[27:05] Patrick’s business partner, CTO at CODE/+/TRUST, does software design. He’s opinionated and will stand his ground in a positive way with customers because he believes he knows where the customer is trying to go. Designers must come to the discussion with views on what they believe for the customer. Patrick shares the surprising results of a Lay’s Potato Chip survey and taste test.
[28:59] The Lay’s experience illustrates the way that we have to come to the process, which is customer first, but educated on how to make it as simple and clean and smooth an experience for them as possible, almost regardless of what they think.
[30:38] Event.gives is a company of Patrick’s in the non-profit space. Attendees fill out their profiles and can then move from event to event without re-entering their data. Nonprofits argued that it is their data, but Patrick points out that individuals own their data, and they are the ones with the right to release it to the non-profit. Always go back to the individual and what their rights and choices are.
[33:20] Software and media for kids have the added responsibility of providing them with reasonable opportunities for learning. Patrick always tries to start at the core mission, protecting people’s privacy, and allowing them the right to control their data.
[34:53] As a journalist, Patrick learned that it’s all about telling stories. Master storytellers influence in positive ways. The slogan for Go To Team for years was Passionate Storytellers. Storytelling is a helpful skill that allows you to communicate the data that you want and to emotionally connect with people. The goal is to be ordinarily extraordinary in your storytelling so people connect with your message.
[36:29] Patrick explains how to use storytelling to make products socially contagious by connecting the brand to the customer’s lifestyle.
[37:32] Do not put your story in an email! How you tell your story depends on who the audience is. Patrick has run a video company for 25 years. He recommends using video to tell your story. It connects to people in a much more important way than the written word. Engaging with people in person and telling your story on stage is incredibly emotional and powerful. Connect with people in person.
[39:30] Making people laugh and tugging at their heartstrings brings them along with the story. Use emotion to motivate people, educate them, and make them get excited.
[41:59] Patrick refers to himself as a made entrepreneur. He doesn’t have to go to work tomorrow and his basic life needs will be taken care of. Like many of his peers and friends, Patrick enjoys the fight. He enjoys being in the company. He enjoys starting new things. He enjoys the idea stage and helping others and finding connections with the product-market fit. He keeps coming back for that super joy.
[42:55] When a company gets to have between 10 and 20 employees and people start asking Patrick about policies, that’s his sign to go and start a new company. He doesn’t want to write policies and procedures around when you get off of work and what days are holidays. He doesn’t think that way. Starting another company re-energizes him to go attack the next idea.
[43:51] As Patrick grows a company, and adds people, he’s thrilled by it. He loves it. The mission still stands and the values are great. He can’t wait to see the team execute on the goal. But it’s no longer energizing for him. Starting the rollercoaster over is what he loves.
[45:27] Patrick’s closing thoughts, to anyone in a transition stage, just get started. Look for something that you can develop expertise in. What one thing can you do to sell that expertise and move forward an idea in that particular industry, right now, today? “That’s my core advice, just get started.”
[47:59] Closing quote: Remember, “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” — Steven Covey
Quotable Quotes
- “Well, I don’t know how you could follow my path. I had the interesting time of being on the Mall two years ago, here in Washington D.C., where I am today, for January 6. I think of myself as a little bit of a Forrest Gump. I don’t know how I get into some of these situations!”
- “I’m just curious. I ask people questions. As a journalist for many years of my life, … I just learned to study and get my head around industries and areas of interest of mine. And many times, that results in a business idea. And when I see opportunity, I strike it.”
- “Just start something, just talk to someone, just learn what someone needs. … I just don’t understand why entrepreneurs … can’t just take an opportunity and run with it. … So that’s my number one piece of advice … find something you’re interested in and get started.”
- “I believe entrepreneurship is the number one change agent in the world. I say it on stages around the United States. I just believe that as entrepreneurs, we are doing something profound and exciting when we are developing a new product … or bringing out a new process.”
- “The best way to make money is to make somebody else more money. That, to me, is where relationships come in and you’re helping someone move forward as an entrepreneur.”
- “If you show up to help other people and do the good, right thing, you will have business for as long as you can see it because people will acknowledge and trust you and want to work with you on what they need.”
- “You can have multiple goals; … multiple tactics; … multiple ways that you’re attacking a problem but you can only have one mission. You can have core values that support how you’re going to move forward with that mission. The mission and the values can’t change.”
- “Advice can be great for one individual that’s not great for the next one.”
- “The way that we have to come at the process … is, customer first, but educated on how to make it as simple and clean and smooth an experience for them as possible, almost regardless of what they think.”
- “With storytelling and laughter, camaraderie, and building a culture that people really want to be there; they really want to help move the mission forward, you can get people going 60, 70 miles per hour without a lot of effort.”
- “Every time I get to a place of success, I immediately start thinking, ‘Man, it would be cool to go back to the beginning. How can we do this again?’ It’s just so much fun to start the rollercoaster over!”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Patrick Bryant
- CODE/+/TRUST
- Go To Team
- Shine Rolling Papers
- Monica Lewinski
- Liberty Fellowship
- The Aspen Institute
- Walter Cronkite
- Tom Brokaw
- BHAG
- Colin Gray at Purdue
- The Experience Economy, by Joe Pine II and James H. Gilmore
- Joe Pine
- Jim Gilmore
- Lay’s Potato Chips
- Event.gives
- Seth Godin
- EBITDA
Jay Goldman is a New York Times best-selling author of “The Decoded Company.” He is also the CEO and Co-founder of Sensei Labs - focused on technology, design, and the art of leadership. The conversation in this episode covers decision-making, connections, the six values of Sensei culture, and putting customers first. Jay urges leaders to have regular conversations with employees and use data to understand them better. Jay considers empathy to be the most important trait of a leader and he elaborates on its importance.https://bit.ly/TLP-342
Key Takeaways
[2:34] Jay has a 13-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. For Jay, parenting and leadership are very close; he uses some of the same principles with his children and in his one-on-one work discussions.
[3:39] The book, The Decoded Company, was published in 2014. In the years since then, the world has changed a lot. Much of the book is still relevant, but in hindsight, Jay says they should have put more emphasis on culture. It should be a headline item. That has become more true as Jay continues to grow Sensei Labs, which was spun out of Klick to capitalize on the technology they talk about in the book.
[5:34] Jay compares a company’s culture to a garden. The leader makes sure the garden gets enough sunlight, water, and nutrients, weeds the garden and protects it from pests. Leaders can’t directly make the garden grow. They can create all the right conditions for it to grow. If you want certain behaviors, create an environment that encourages those behaviors. It’s dangerous to try to fix people.
[8:16] There are more small decisions than big decisions. Your physical space in an office has a big impact on culture. It’s hard to radically change your office space. Day-to-day moments can have just as big an impact. There are many times more of them than there are of the big decisions. Big decisions need to be followed up with lots of small decisions.
[10:52] When COVID-19 hit, Sensei Labs was still within the offices of their parent company, Klick. Klick allowed them to stop paying rent, which was very helpful for a small business. In the summer of 2021, as COVID-19 was letting up, Sensei Labs discussed as a team if they needed to take an office. The Toronto group was missing the moments of connectivity, collaboration, and having lunch together.
[12:13] After funding, Sensei Labs had almost doubled in size. International associates had never worked in an office together but they wanted the connection shared by the Toronto group. Sensei Group built an office with collaboration rooms but no private offices, desks for everyone there on a day, and multi-use spaces for large meetings and holiday parties. They are not mandating people back to the office.
[15:04] Sensei Labs doesn’t say “remote” for people outside the office. Teams pick a day to come in together. They use Teams calls for those who cannot attend that day. They also use Teams calls on cross-team meetings or customer meetings. All meeting rooms are set up for Teams, with good microphones, audio, cameras, and video. Sensei Labs is all hybrid, rather than divided into tiers.
[16:21] All “hoteling” desks have a proper monitor and Logitech webcam. There is an events space with a screen that rolls down from the ceiling, a webcam, a projector, and an audio system, so people not present can have the full experience of partaking in the event. There are multiple presenters, some in the building, and some participating by video. All these things help integrate the teams.
[17:30] All of that said, you can’t replace the in-person experience, or going out for a coffee or lunch together. Jay loves to see a cross-functional group who have carried in lunch and are eating together. Those are collisions, as Steve Jobs called them, where you get an exchange of ideas and connections between different teams that wouldn’t otherwise form. Those are hard to recreate on Teams or Slack.
[18:50] At Sensei Labs, there is a big emphasis on helping each other in a culture where that’s rewarded and recognized. The founders were intentional when they carved Sensei Labs out of Klick to build a culture that was unique to Sensei Labs, built around Enterprise SaaS, customers, and partners.
[20:28] As they started, they came up with six values that represent Sensei culture: being Selfless, being Empathetic, being Nimble, being Skilled, being Entrepreneurial, and having Integrity. They built everything they do on the people side of the business around those Sensei values. They have a matrix of every role in the organization with the values, and observable behaviors expected from each role.
[21:23] The matrix also shows how to get promoted in terms of what you should be thinking about in observable behaviors for each of the Sensei values for any role. When Sensei Labs does promotions, they evaluate on the Sensei values. The Sensei values are part of their open recognition channel in Teams. Everyone can post recognitions of others and tag them with Sensei values. It’s all intentional.
[22:32] Over the last year, Sensei Labs has strongly emphasized CARE requests. Sensei President Benji Nadler came up with the acronym CARE, for Customers Are Really Everything, to reorient everyone’s thinking about customer requests to make them the highest priority.
[24:08] An organization that does not give its people regular feedback about results is doing its people a disservice and will not get the results that it wants. In The Decoded Company, there is the Rule of Five Degrees. If you take a boat across a lake, and you’re five degrees off course at the start, it’s an easy correction then. But five degrees off course on the other side of the lake could be miles out of the way.
[25:05] If an organization gives performance reviews annually, it’s already crossed the lake. Regular five-degree course corrections throughout the year could prevent an employee from being miles off course at the performance review. Regular feedback corrects behaviors and bridges the gap between behaviors.
[26:18] As a privately-held company, Sensei Labs is free to make long-term decisions. Jay picks values even over performance because, in the end, that will have the biggest impact on the business. Staying true to those values will affect whom they hire.
[28:14] Sensei Labs operates as a separate organization from Klick and the Sensei teams do not work on Klick’s projects. Sensei is proudly part of the Klick group of companies but there is no need for a tight alignment between the two. There is an overlap in how the two companies express and define their values. Klick has a pyramid of cultural values with the bottom level being their foundational values.
[29:00] Jay describes how the layers of the Klick value pyramid match the key inflection points of career advancement. Sensei used the best parts of the Klick values in developing the Sensei Labs values acronym. Sensei looks at the key inflection points of the first time an individual contributor becomes a leader, and the first time a leader becomes a leader of leaders. Those points require different thinking.
[30:54] Leadership has a science component. The science of leadership goes back to Taylorism measuring productivity with a stopwatch and optimizing the Ford assembly lines. There’s the possible Hawthorne effect of performance rising because it is measured. The science is how you use the data within an organization to optimize it for talent, centricity, and engagement, the premise of Decoded.
[31:48] Jay explains how leadership is an art, requiring a high degree of empathy. You need to be able to understand the individual members of your team and what drives them. Jay values empathy as the most important trait of leadership. Empathy requires engagement, conversations, and knowing each other. It requires some vulnerable moments that establish psychological safety between you and your team.
[34:30] People learned hard skills in school and had to figure out the soft skills for themselves. It dodges the responsibility for teaching the part of leadership that is probably more impactful. Jay explores the mistake technology companies often make in promoting engineers into managerial roles with no EQ or managerial skills. That mistake removes a skilled individual contributor and installs an ineffectual leader.
[36:54] Instead, create a pathway that allows skilled engineers to remain in their craft but to become leaders, take on more responsibility, and make more money. Both Sensei Labs and Klick have parallel tracks for people leadership and craft leadership. As individuals advance, their time is leveraged so that an hour of their time creates more than an hour of value for the organization.
[39:54] The use of Big Data has changed immensely since Decoded was published. The principle is the same, but if they wrote the book today, their take would be very different. Data is more prevalent in business today.
[40:20] Most businesses today spend huge amounts on data to understand their customers. They do not use any of the same resources to understand their people. Jay argues that you will have a higher leverage effect by engaging in your team, creating a virtuous cycle of having the best talent on your teams, more customer happiness, more revenue, and hiring even more skilled team members.
[42:03] There is a difference between ambient data and self-reported data. Self-reported data is always biased. Teams constantly use tools and that creates a digital body language about what they are working on and who they’re connected with and other factors. That data is available through analysis. Jay calls this data a sixth sense. Have guidelines about using the data, so it’s not uncomfortable.
[43:35] There has been good research on 16 indicators that somebody may be thinking about quitting their job. If you could look across those 16 relative attributes of an employee, “Jim”, you could see changes that indicate that something has changed in ”Jim’s” life. Measuring a baseline and looking ad deviations can be telling. How do you react if you suspect “Jim” is thinking of leaving?
[45:18] If “Jim,” is a valued member of your team, and you want to make sure that “Jim” is not a flight risk, this might be an indicator to have a conversation. “Just checking in and making sure that everything’s OK. How are you feeling? Can we talk about a career progression or a new project for you to take on?” If you are happy that “Jim” is thinking of leaving, you might start looking at replacements!
[46:13] You’ve got five senses. If you can use data as a sixth sense, to augment those five with an extra set of analytic abilities to help you make better decisions faster, that leads to a better outcome.
[47:40] Can this ambient data be hacked? Jay would hope people worked in an environment where they didn’t have to prompt the conversation by wearing an interview suit to work. Every organization is a collection of people. Anytime you have a collection of people, you end up with norms and values, whether by design or default. Sometimes you may find shortcuts to get to a desired conversation.
[48:38] Mark Raheja taught Jay a management hack in the form of the question, “Is it safe to try?” In most organizations the default is safety. Proposing anything radical means a fight to get to the point of experimenting with it because you are triggering the organization’s autoimmune system. But ask people to come up with a reason it’s not safe to try it. If they cannot, then go ahead with the experiment.
[51:19] After six months in his first job out of school at IBM, Jay asked about promotions. His manager told him everybody gets promoted on their first and second anniversary, and in the third year, promotions are earned by merit. Jay recalls, “I started looking for a job that day. And to me, that is the oldest-school thought pattern around what management looks like.”
[55:19] Closing quote: Remember, “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” — Bill Bradley
Quotable Quotes
- “Often in a parenting conversation with one of the kids, I’m repeating things that I might have recently said in a one-on-one to someone on my team, and probably more often, in one-on-ones, I find myself repeating things I’ve said in parenting moments.”
- “It starts to get difficult when you start to say, ‘I want behaviors that I don’t see and my options are either to replace people or fix people,’ and I think that’s a dangerous path.”
- “Your physical space in an office environment has a big impact on culture. … It’s harder to … radically change the configuration of it. … All those day-to-day moments can have just as big an impact and there are many times more of them than there are of the big decisions.”
- “In many ways, we are the trailblazers who are out ahead, thinking about culture, thinking about people, and thinking about leadership. And then, there are other places where we’re happy to take a back seat and one of those places is mandating people back to the office.”
- “We have a matrix of every role in the organization and all of the values … that everyone has access to. So you can look up any role, and any value, and see what the observable behaviors are that we expect out of that role as well as where you might get promoted to.”
- “We have an open recognition channel in Teams. Everyone can post recognitions of each other. They tag them with some of the values. … At our Town Hall a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the people who’ve had the most recognition posts for each of the values.”
- “Being selfless is about being there for each other and helping each other out and helping our customers and partners as well. These are both internal and external.”
- “We have the luxury of being able to make long-term decisions when we can and so I would pick values even over performance because, in the end, that is what is going to have the biggest impact on the business. Staying true to those values will affect who you hire.”
- “We have always looked at the key inflection points of the first time an individual contributor becomes a leader and then the first time they become a leader of leaders. Those are two points at which you have to think very differently about … your success.”
- “Your best engineers are at least 10 times as good as your worst engineers.”
- “Anytime you have a collection of people, you end up with norms in that group. You end up with cultural values, whether by design or default.”
- “In most organizations, the default energy is toward ‘No” and toward safety. … If you propose something radical and new, in almost every organization, you are going to have to fight a fight to get to the point where you can even experiment with this. … Ask ‘Is it safe to try?’”
- “I do think the tech industry has lots of problems, but it also has lots of great things about it.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Jay Goldman
- The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know Your Customers, by Leerom Segal, Aaron Goldstein, Jay Goldman, and Rahaf Harfoush
- Forbes Technology Council
- Sensei Labs
- Klick
- Microsoft Teams
- Logitech
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Benji Nadler
- Mark Raheja
- Taylorism (Scientific management)
- Hawthorne Effect
- Daniel Pink
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
- Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, by Bill Dereseiwicz
- Chat GBT
- IBM
Jeremy Foster is the Chief Financial Officer of Austin-based Talroo.com, the data-driven job and hiring advertising platform that helps businesses reach the candidates they need to build their essential workforce. Jeremy shares insights into the key indicators of business valuation: 1) The necessity of leaders knowing the language of finance; and 2) The differences between startups, growth companies, and mature companies. He covers why alignment of the stakeholders is important for a company’s successful scaling, and when to use blitzscaling, if at all. He explains analytics and shares examples from his past and present work, in an educational overview of the interplay between finance, data and decision-making.
https://bit.ly/TLP-341
Key Takeaways
[2:14] Jeremy started in marketing and then ended up leading operations and retail banking for a 15-branch community bank in New Mexico and West Texas. His background was not in accounting or finance. That changes how Jeremy tends to approach the numbers.
[2:41] Jeremy explains how he evaluates a business by looking at three numbers: the lifetime value of the customers, the customer acquisition cost, and the total addressable market. Marketing is a key component of each of those numbers.
[4:36] Jeremy has worked with startups and scaling businesses. He’s seen a broad spread of financial knowledge within company leadership. Sometimes an executive team has problems because of their different levels of understanding. Do you understand GAAP and income statements? What are revenue, gross profit, and EBITDA; the basic terminology. Some executive teams don’t know these terms.
[5:33] The next big question is which financial statement is the most important to look at, the cash flow or the P&L statement? It depends on whether you are a startup or an established company. There’s a transition the executive team needs to make from a stage of perpetually raising capital to a stage of starting to generate capital and focus on unit economics, and understanding sound investments.
[7:51] Super-mature businesses are balance-sheet-driven. These are companies like banks, oil, and gas, that have balance sheet sensitivities they need to pay attention to.
[8:06] Get an executive team all on the same page with a basic background in finances and then focus that alignment in education first on whichever financial statement is the most important to the business, according to what stage your business is in.
[9:27] There’s an element of leadership that’s getting people to follow you and there’s an element of knowing what the right direction to go is. The math of business is useful in helping you figure out what the right direction is.
[9:45] The first step in identifying the right direction can be self-study. Sometimes it’s about understanding the terminology. Sometimes, it’s about looking at your business and thinking about what’s most important for your business. The easiest way to do that is to rely on the ability to identify a bottleneck. What’s the most immediate limitation on the business? Is it sales, product, or capital?
[10:58] The first thing is to recognize the most immediate pain point in your business. Decompose it. Understand what the most important numbers are in that pain point. You don’t have to understand all the numbers in the business at once. You can learn over time. Start by figuring out what’s most important.
[11:59] Jeremy explains scaling and growth. A scaling business differs from a startup in that as the business gets bigger, it juggles an increasing number of variables. Part of becoming a scaling business is looking in advance. If you want 100 new customers how much staff do you need to onboard new and maintain existing customers? Look for limitations and plan to remove them before you hit them.
[14:06] Past guest Margaret Heffernan identified planning for limitations as adaptability. Jeremy notes that the amount of flexibility you have is contingent upon your availability of capital. Blitzscaling has its drawbacks. If you hire too much staff, then when the capital is drained, you will have massive layoffs and you may lay off the wrong people if you don’t know the metrics. That puts you in a death cycle.
[15:44] Growth can be self-financed or it can come at the cost of additional capital. Blitzscaling is valid in winner-take-all markets. An example of this is Netflix. Their model is streaming video, so they had to grab as many customers as possible before others captured the market. They had to raise capital through growth and figure out how to make customers sticky. They enabled streaming through Xbox.
[16:54] Often, blitzscaling is not the right approach, especially if you raise too much capital at too low of a valuation, which may hurt your investors. Prove profitability first and then raise capital at a higher multiple a little bit later.
[18:56] Marketing analytics is used by companies like Facebook to choose what ad to show. Talroo uses analytics to identify the right job candidates for employers that are looking to hire essential workers. The analytics calculate the likelihoods that a job seeker will: apply for a job, be a good fit for the job, and be selected by the employer. With the right characteristics, you can start to reach the right people.
[19:37] There’s a space for analytics in most businesses. With analytics, you will gain a level of additional insight into what your team needs, what your customers need, and what your shareholders need. Understanding where those numbers that matter to you are is where analytics starts. Jeremy gives an example of how his former employer, Kasasa, used analytics and rewards to drive consumer behavior.
[22:45] Analytics work best if you know what factors drive your business. It can also help you figure out specifics of what drives your business. Jeremy cites the problems with having too many dashboards or too few dashboards and the benefits of having an appropriate number of dashboards. Analytics will tell you where to go next if you pay attention, but you have to be thoughtful about what you’re building.
[26:28] When you talk about pricing, ask yourself if you are reaching the combination of the right targets that are willing and able to pay that price and if that is price sufficient for you to make money after you’ve acquired those customers. And are there enough of them to grow the business well? Jeremy shares some facts about the cost of acquiring customers, their lifetime value, and marketing cycles.
[28:20] A business is considered investable or backable by private equity or venture capital if it is going to make three times as much as it cost to pick up that customer. … What sometimes VCs and PE groups don’t pay attention to is how fast that cycles. Having multiple cycles in a year multiplies the profit.
[29:14] More about pricing: Sometimes getting extra traction on the sales front isn’t about charging less, sometimes you can deliver more value. Sometimes all you have to do is take risk away. Jeremy relates a Kasasa case study. When you de-risk a transaction, sales friction goes away.
[33:16] As companies scale, they have to broaden their understanding of their stakeholders. What do the customers want? How do you deliver value? It is easier to work with private equity and venture capital if they’ve seen the metrics. To be a partner, they can’t operate blindly; they need transparency. If you skip wage increases, consider the customer churn that will follow as employees leave.
[35:53] Jeremy shares some aspects of conversations that were held at Kasasa, post-acquisition. They were discussing how to balance their white-label segment against their branded segment. They needed to understand the concerns of customers moving from one to the other as they navigated early conversations with the private equity group.
[37:00] The PE group was focused on long-term growth. They were the right partners. It’s important to have the right partners with the same objectives as the company leadership and previous owners who are investing. You want that alignment. If the idea is revenue growth at any cost, everybody better agree on that. If the alignment is to grow profitability x% year over year, everybody needs to be aligned.
[39:01] Talroo sees a very high level of demand for essential workers. That’s a strong vertical for Talroo. Jeremy doesn’t foresee a full-fledged labor recession. There is softening in tech sectors in terms of need for workers, which Jeremy attributes to earlier overhiring of workers by a lot of large businesses. Most of the pressures in the labor economy are still present. There are a lot of people retiring or recently retired.
[40:19] One of the biggest problems the U.S. faces over the next decade is a shortage of labor because we’ve been below our replacement rate. We don’t have enough workers. It’s important to retain your talent, or partner with Talroo to find new talent! One of the places where analytics gets overlooked a lot is in understanding who your best performers are. Which people is it most important that you retain?
[41:41] It’s still going to be important to lead well the people that you have.
[42:34] Jeremy has been a key part of three major restructurings in the last 13 years. It’s awful for everybody involved and it should be awful. If it’s not awful, something’s wrong with your culture. Restructuring should be a last resort. You can sometimes avoid them by staffing the right people in the right places. Sometimes you get it wrong.
[43:45] Part of leading is looking at the metrics to know when to make those decisions. Part of leading is looking at people first when you’re making those decisions so that you’re making the right choices. Part of leading is knowing that your team members are vital, too. You have to do what you can to provide a soft landing for the people you have to lose. Provide as much transparency as you can upfront.
[46:34] Jeremy’s last message for listeners: “People look at numbers and people as exclusive and they’re not. They should both provide you with insight into the other. So, when you talk about the hard side of leadership and the soft side of leadership, they’re both sides. There’s a lot to be said for figuring out how to use them to work together, to make you stronger on both sides of that equation.”
[47:26] Closing quote: Remember, “Academic qualifications are important and so is financial education. They’re both important and schools are forgetting one of them.” — Robert Kiyosaki
Quotable Quotes
- “When you think about what drives the value of a business, … it boils down to three things: What’s the lifetime value of your customers? What’s your customer acquisition cost? … and … What’s the total addressable market? … [Pay attention to] those three numbers.”
- “You want to figure out how you can build a business that’s going to continue to grow without perpetual capital-raising and the perpetual dilution that comes along with it. Sometimes it can take some time for the executive team to make that transition.”
- “If you raise too much capital at too low of a valuation, you might have hurt your investors. You might have to get really big to get the same return for your investors that you would have if you’d proven profitability and then raised at a much higher multiple a little bit later.”
- “When you talk about pricing, … are you reaching … the right targets that are willing and able to pay that price, and is that price sufficient for you to make money after you’ve acquired those customers? … Are there enough of them to grow the business well?”
- “A business is considered investable or backable by private equity or venture capital if you’re going to make three times as much as it cost you to pick up that customer off of that business. … What sometimes VCs and PE groups don’t pay attention to is how fast that cycles.”
- “It is way easier to work with private equity and venture capital if they’ve seen the metrics. … For the most part, venture capitalists and private equity managers are there to make money for their investors but they want to do it in partnership.”
- “One of the biggest problems that the U.S. faces over the next decade is a shortage of labor because we’ve been below our replacement rate. We don’t have enough workers. … It’s really important to retain your talent.”
- “You do have to balance the needs of the company against the needs of the employee. But if you can do that, then a lot of times, just operating with compassion, and some transparency and some honesty, can go a long way.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Jeremy Foster
- Talroo.com
- E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southwest
- Margaret Heffernan
- Reid Hoffman
- Kasasa
Mike Evans is the Founder of GrubHub, and the author of “Hangry: A Startup Journey.” Mike founded GrubHub in his spare bedroom and grew it into a multi-billion dollar food delivery business that’s a household name. After leaving GrubHub, he founded Fixer.com, an on-demand handyperson service focused on social impact, and providing full-time work for well-trained tradespeople. Mike shares what he learned from raising a startup to IPO, biking across America, and writing “Hangry.” He believes it is necessary to create a business not just to make a profit, but to be powerful levers for social change.
https://bit.ly/TLP-340
Key Takeaways
[2:27] Mike loves cycling and getting around places by bike, but not quickly. After the GrubHub experience, he rode his bike across the country. Later, Mike and his wife rode across Austria. They hope to ride across another country soon with their daughter. Mike tells what he likes about electric bikes.
[4:41] As GrubHub grew from a few employees to 2,500 employees over 12 years, there were two things that increased his anxiety and made it challenging to live.
[5:14] The first challenge was the fact that there are a lot of competing interests: shareholders, employees, diners, and restaurants and it was hard to balance them all. There’s no scenario where everybody wins 100%. There are tradeoffs. It was a tightrope walk to do. Mike started seeing the company making different choices as it grew beyond him. That was challenging to see.
[6:09] The second challenge was hiring. As a business leader, you either hire your friends, or the people you hire become your friends. Sometimes you have to make decisions that are not the best outcomes for your employee-friends. When you have to let people go that you like, you cannot recover those friendships. They’re gone. You can’t fire somebody and then go hang out with them.
[6:37] It should be hard to fire someone. You can’t be good at firing people and be a good leader. It should never get easier. You should care a lot about the people you work with. The competing interests, and having to fire friends took a toll on Mike over the course of a decade.
[7:53] Contentment is fleeting, especially for entrepreneurs who start from a place where “something is broken in the world and I’m really annoyed by it.” Mike doesn’t think contentment was ever in the cards for him. An entrepreneur has to see the world with an expectation that it could be better than it currently is, which is not a good recipe for contentment.
[9:45] Mike believes it’s important to have a personal definition of success that other people or factors don’t define. Other people won’t necessarily agree with it. Mike tells how he defined success all the way up through GrubHub’s IPO. Other people told him the IPO was his success, but that wasn’t Mike’s definition. Your definition of success gives you a North Star for one aspect of your life, business.
[11:11] You also need personal definitions of success for your relationships, family, faith community, and civic community. Then you need to do the hard step of making tradeoffs between them. Work/life balance is elusive because it’s impossible to achieve. You have to make tradeoffs. The best you can do is say “I have a clear-eyed picture of what I want from a family perspective,” and make choices explicitly.
[12:03] If you don’t choose explicitly, things happen to you instead of you making choices. That’s what causes imbalance, frustration, anger, and disappointment. Your definitions of success change during your journey. As you approach your goals, the goalposts move. It’s a destination and a journey. It’s not one or the other. As we do hard things, we change, and therefore our goals change.
[12:54] Sometimes we fail. If you’re not going to be able to accomplish a goal, continuing to have it as a goal is only an exercise in frustration. Be able to say “This isn’t working; I’m going to go try doing something else.” Whether you succeed or fail, your goals change. Success is a larger concept; it’s the accumulation of goals over decades.
[13:54] Mike compares how he feels about goals today with what he might have felt at age 24. One of the themes in his book is Think Bigger. Don’t set your goals low. When Mike launched GrubHub, he just wanted to pay off his student debt. He missed the opportunity to embed the value of “Do right by restaurants, no matter what,” in the DNA of the company. At 24, he only wanted to make money.
[14:37] If Mike had struggled at age 24 with the decision about doing right by the restaurants, there might have been a better outcome over the decades.
[16:17] Starting GrubHub and taking it through the IPO involved thousands of decisions of Mike letting go. On Day 1, Mike owned 100% of GrubHub with 100% of the responsibility for it. On the day Mike kicked off on his bike ride across the country, he had 0% of the responsibility. He had a few shares in GrubHub for six more months. His hack was to give up first the thing he hated most — scanning menus!
[18:14] Mike’s first hire, a graphic designer to scan menus, went on to create the brand which ended up in two Super Bowl ads. He started scanning menus but had an opportunity from being in a high-growth startup. He ended up having to delegate. Once you hire your first employee, you get your first investor. Lean in on that and enjoy it!
[19:31] Accepting reality is a paradox for an entrepreneur. You have to have enough arrogance to say “The world is broken, it needs to be fixed, and I’m the only person who can do it,” and you have to have the humility to listen to your customers and employees about what you’re doing right and wrong, and how to adjust. Arrogance and humility do not “play nice” together. Mike doesn’t always get it right.
[20:28] If you put a document in front of five people, they’re all going to start editing it. Don’t put a press release in front of anybody but the people who have the responsibility of doing the press release. One way to keep micromanagement from happening, to allow people to delegate, is don’t put the work product in front of them before it’s done. Don’t give people editing access.
[20:54] Not micromanaging starts with not being in there to edit things. Trust people to do their work. Tactical things like that help you to let go of the small decisions.
[21:33] Mike’s book has a humble tone, but the exclamation point at the end is, “I had a fricking IPO, folks!” Mike captures in the book the paradox of arrogance and humility needed to run a startup well.
[23:18] Mike had done week-long backpacking trips and liked being out in nature. On one of those trips with his wife, he went to Grand Tetons National Park and camped. He saw people riding in on bikes and setting up tents. It was the TransAmerican Trail cross-country bike tour going through the park. Mike thought biking and carrying a pack on a rack was a way better idea than hiking with a backpack!
[24:14] The bike tour sounded like a very accessible adventure. It was accessible because he did it in 90 fifty-mile bike rides, not one 4,500-mile bike ride. His first day was just 25 miles. One thing Mike learned is that it starts with the first mile. The best training for Week Two is Week One. The best training for Week One is to go slow. Don’t try to eat up the miles in your first week.
[24:54] Anyone physically able can ride 10 miles on a bike. You can do that and you can take lunch and you can do that again. And that can be your whole first day. You build up until you’re riding 100 miles in a day. The decision for Mike was just following something he was interested in doing. He quit his job to ride his bike across the country. It was a very clear decision for his life.
[26:18] Mike kept a journal of his bike ride, on MikeEvans.com. He used those notes in Hangry to write about his bike trip. The trip reinforced something for Mike: the idea that you don’t do it all at once. When he looks back, yes he did a 4,500-mile bike ride. Day to day, he woke up every morning and made the decision to start pedaling a mile.
[26:51] Long-haul hikers say, “Don’t quit at the end of a long day. Wait till the morning, when you’re fresh.” A lot of people feel like quitting when they’re tired. When you wake up in the morning you see you can do another day. That was true for Mike in business, as well. He kept at it because he had a bigger mission he was trying to accomplish.
[28:14] Mike’s purposes for his bike trip were to reflect on what he had accomplished, how he did it, and how he felt about it, and to consider what he was going to do next. That led to the creation of Fixer, the on-demand handyperson business. The handypersons are full-time employees, trained from scratch. He wanted to create a business with social benefits built-in: great employment with a path into the trades.
[29:11] Mike’s first decision for the bike trip was to buy a recumbent bike because he wanted to look at the horizon instead of the ground. He already had a tent. He rented a van and drove it down to Virginia Beach. One thing that helped is that the Adventure Cycling Association publishes TransAmerica Trail bike route maps so he ordered a set of maps and joined their online community to talk about the ride.
[31:51] Starting a business is ugly and hard. It’s filled with self-doubt and recriminations. To succeed, you have to make tough choices and a lot of people judge you for those choices. Mike also judges GrubHub and where it went after he left from the IPO and how it became a poster child for the gig economy and not great for restaurants. That is frustrating to Mike.
[32:21] It felt to Mike that it was important to tell the whole story and how businesses are huge levers for social change, whether you want them to be or not. When Mike was intentional about that at GrubHub, it was beneficial for restaurants. When that intentionality left the business, it was not as good for restaurants.
[32:40] Mike’s goal with Hangry is to show the idea of changing the world by creating a business. He wanted to make it accessible and he wanted to elevate the importance of being intentional about creating the change you want to see in the world through the business. It’s not a thing you can do after the business is done, through charity work. You have to create the business as a lever for social change.
[33:21] Hangry is mostly about trying to take what Mike learned and letting other people learn from it and live their lives, whether as an entrepreneur, a business leader, or an executive in a company and do their work in such a way that the communities in which they operate benefit from what they’re doing.
[34:11] The book is called Hangry, so Mike isn’t happy and pleasant the whole time. He’s snarky about exclusionism. Silicon Valley is great at drawing circles and saying “You can’t come in.” Cyclists do it, too! There are lots of groups that draw a circle and say, “You’re not allowed inside this circle.” Mike says that Silicon Valley is particularly good at excluding anybody who’s not a white male. There’s a better way.
[34:52] Democratizing the startup culture, democratizing the process, and demystifying the hero narrative that people use sometimes, make it more accessible to people. There’s an urgency to making our world a better place for our children and grandchildren that sort of raises the bar for what success looks like at a business. It can’t just be making money anymore.
[36:27] The catalyst for creating Fixer.com was trying to get a handyperson and having to use “the phone app” on his phone. He wondered who uses that anymore! He started looking into it. The work that tradespeople do in the economy right now is typically great. Scheduling, communication, and billing are not done well. They’re inaccessible.
[37:23] It’s hard for people to enter the trades unless they have an uncle or father who shows them how to do things. It continues the bias against women entering the trades. Entry-level handyperson jobs are good-paying jobs. They’re also stepping stones to becoming an electrician, a plumber, a roofer, or a mason. It was the same problem he saw with food. You can’t order things online and it’s annoying.
[37:54] He wanted to make handypersons more accessible, but he found there just aren’t enough tradespeople. So he figured that by training people from scratch, they would get quality and wrap it in modern packaging. You schedule online and ask for someone to be there at 11:00 a.m. and the handyperson shows up by 11:00 a.m. They’re highly trained, and they clean up after the job.
[38:45] Mike uses the service himself, even though he’s pretty handy.
[40:00] Fixer.com has hundreds of applicants for every job position that they open. They target people who are working in food service, grocery, and retail and invite them to have a career instead of a job. Fixer.com pays people while training them. It’s easy to get people on board. People in the service field don’t have the flexibility to set their hours and schedule, which is hard in this job climate.
[40:48] The adoption of working from home as a norm is damaging to people who don’t have that flexibility and it creates a two-class society. Seventy-five percent of the people at Fixer.com are tradespeople, not office workers. At some point, they will have 10,000 tradespeople as full-time employees. Mike is concerned about issues of equity and expectations around time.
[42:34] Mike explains why he picked a business model that’s hard and hard to copy. It is intentional and it makes his company the competition that everyone else worries about. He’s building a multi-billion dollar business that will be hard to compete with.
[43:51] Mike’s listener challenge: “I would love it if everybody would buy the book. … If you want the summary line, it’s this idea that businesses affect the communities in which they work, and being intentional about what that impact is, is really, really important.” You’re going to be juggling competing priorities, but it’s still useful even if you're considering a socially beneficial impact for every decision.
[45:19] Closing quote: Remember, “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.” — Daniel Burnham
Quotable Quotes
- “I’m not like one of these fast people who are always racing along the Lake Path in Chicago. Seeing the country; getting places at 10 mph is great. … After the GrubHub experience, I rode my bike across the country.” — Mike
- “Electric bikes are great. They really create access for people who might not otherwise physically be able to do it. And so I think they sort of democratize our bike trails. I’m a big fan of electric bikes.” — Mike
- “It should be hard to fire people, anyway. … You can’t be good at firing people and be a good leader. I think those two things are totally mutually exclusive. It should always be hard. It should never get easier. You should care a lot about the people you work with.” — Mike
- “The difference between an entrepreneur and a miserable grump is that the entrepreneur actually does something about it. So, I’m not sure it was ever in the cards for me to be content.” — Mike
- “[An entrepreneur] has to see the world with an expectation that it could be better than it currently is, which is not a good recipe for contentment.” — Mike
- “I think it’s really important to have an internal, personal definition of success that’s not defined by some external factor.” — Mike
- “Sometimes we fail. If you’re not going to be able to accomplish a goal, continuing to have it as a goal is only an exercise in frustration and self-punishment. So being able to say, ‘This isn’t working, I’m going to go try something else,’ is also important.” — Mike
- “People often ask me ‘What’s the most strategic hire that you can do first?’ … Forget that! Hire somebody to do something that’s the most annoying thing to you. And then you start to get the benefit of ‘I don’t have to do every little thing.’” — Mike
- “Don’t put a press release in front of anybody but the people who have the responsibility of doing the press release. One way to keep micromanagement from happening, to allow people to delegate, is don’t put the work product in front of them before it’s done.” — Mike
- “The tone of the book is humble. I tried to be self-reflective in the book, but the exclamation point at the end is, ‘I had a fricking IPO, folks!’ which is not a humble thing. I’m kind of bragging.” — Mike
- “Anyone physically able can ride 10 miles on a bike. You can do that and then you take lunch and you can do that again. And that can be your whole first day. And then by the time you hit the Rockies, a 100-mile day is like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve been doing this for weeks!’” — Mike
- “There’s an urgency to making our world a better place for our children and grandchildren that sort of raises the bar for what success looks like at a business. It’s not just making money anymore. It can’t just be that.” — Mike
- “Picking hard business models, that are necessarily hard, to create value for customers is a really good defense against competition. What we’re doing is hard and so it’s hard to copy. And that’s very intentional.” — Mike
- “The thing that really sucks about competition is it’s not in your control. But … you can choose to pick a business model where you have to have some grit and some hard work and some thoughtfulness and some talent to make it work. … And then you are the competition.” — Mike
- “Businesses affect the communities in which they work, and being intentional about what that impact is, is really, really important. … it’s still useful even if you can’t make every decision toward a socially beneficial impact if you’re considering it for every decision.” — Mike
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Mike Evans
- MikeEvans.com
- GrubHub
- Fixer.com
- Hangry: A Startup Journey, by Mike Evans
- Race Across America (RAAM)
- The Appalachian Trail
- The Pacific Coast Trail
- Grand Tetons National Park
- TransAmerica Trail cross-country bike tour
- Adventure Cycling Association
- Blue Ocean Strategy
Mano Watsa is the President and Owner of PGC Basketball, the largest educational basketball camp in the world. PGC Basketball has taught over 125,000 players and coaches how to be leaders on and off the court. Mano brings his sports and business experiences to the podcast with stories and advice on thinking like a coach, communicating, and making a difference in people’s lives. Listen to learn how to focus on the thing you can do best.
“Part of the beauty of the game is your individual contributions combined with working together as a team … where five players become like a fist, not five individual fingers … and they play together as one.” - Mano Watsa
https://bit.ly/TLP-339
Key Takeaways
[2:51] Mano’s journey has been a joy, but anytime you’re pursuing a vision, there are all sorts of challenges along the way, as well as opportunities. It’s often the challenges that don’t surface publicly. Mano has never seen a successful team or individual that has not had to overcome adversity, and he is no different.
[4:20] PGC Basketball's founder, Dick DeVenzio, who played college basketball at Duke University and went on to play and teach the game across the world, created the Point Guard College with the point guard in mind. The point guard has to be the coach on the floor. They have to be able to run the show for their team and get their team to work together and play together. They have to “think the game.”
[5:01] PGC teaches players to be the smartest player on the floor by equipping them with how to think like a coach, how to make good decisions that lead to winning basketball, and how to lead their team. Jan and Jim recall guest Sam Walker’s book, The Captain Class, on how the greatest sports teams in history have one thing in common, captains who were the coach on the floor.
[6:13] Mano says PGC teaches players not only how to lead by example but to be effective communicators, inspire their teammates, hold teammates accountable, challenge them, and raise the standard for their teammates. Anyone leading a company, team, or family, is the point guard for that company, team, or family.
[8:23] Jeremy Lin came to the NY Knicks and started the Linsanity era. Overnight Jeremy Lin was on the cover of nearly every magazine and was a household name as the first Asian-American in the NBA. Suddenly he’s scoring 38 points against Kobe Bryant at Madison Square Garden. He had a successful 10-year NBA career.
[9:08] Toward the end of Jeremy Lin’s NBA career, Mano had the privilege and opportunity to support him in the realm of mindset and his approach. Mano has been inspired by Jeremy Lin’s story, his passion, and his commitment to the game, giving back to the game and making a difference in the world. Jeremy Lin is now playing professionally in China.
[10:18] John Wooden won 10 national championships at UCLA and was named Coach of the Century. John Wooden epitomized what it means to be a coach and make a difference in the lives of young players. Mano and his business partner at the time, Dena Evans, had the privilege once of spending a remarkable morning with Coach Wooden. They immediately wrote down all they had learned from him.
[12:30] Jason Sudeikis revealed that having John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success on the wall of Ted Lasso’s office is purposeful.
[13:30] Five players that work together can be more effective than five talented individuals who don’t work together. Individual performers can significantly influence the outcome of the game, but they also depend on the performance of their teammates to determine the outcome of the game. It’s a beautiful thing to see players willing to pass up a good shot for themselves for a great shot for a teammate.
[15:38] Michael Jordan was the best player in the world. His teammates said they found it difficult to play with him because his standards were so high. He had competitive greatness. He was at his best when it was needed the most. It’s helpful on a team to have a player that drives everyone toward winning. You need others who complement that person’s nature to make sure everyone gets along.
[19:30] Mano helped the Mully Children’s Family organization in Kenya build a sports gymnasium. There are over 2,000 children under their care. Mano has been over there with them multiple times and loves their work. When he sees where these kids have come from and their optimism, even with what they lack, it gives Mano a perspective of gratitude and wanting to make a difference in the lives of others.
[21:05] Denny Crum, former coach of the University of Louisville, was honored recently. One of his players stated that they never saw him get upset. He never yelled at his players. They called him Cool Hand Luke. He was always encouraging and supportive. He was a teacher to his team.
[22:01] PGC founder Dick DeVenzio taught to use a six-to-one ratio of encouragement to constructive criticism. It’s a lofty standard. As a coach or leader, it’s so easy to see where others may be falling short but people thrive off encouragement. Connect with team members before correcting them. Always make deposits before you make withdrawals. As leaders and parents, think about the “bank account.”
[24:15] Great coaches don’t try to make everything a priority. If you try to make everything a priority, nothing is a priority. You can’t be great at everything, on the court or in business. But you can be great and world-class in something. You have to let some things go and focus on others.
[25:02] Great coaches don’t single players out unnecessarily. This goes for leaders and parents, too. Praise publicly and criticize privately. Good coaches and business leaders do a good job of not embarrassing and humiliating their people. They praise publicly and if they have to give criticism, they do so quietly and privately.
[25:43] Great coaches don’t hold back when they’re wrong. They’re willing to admit mistakes. That takes humility and vulnerability, in practice and games. Get beyond your ego. Be willing to admit you don’t have it all together.
[26:56] At PGC, they follow a commitment-based culture. Part of Mano’s commitment statement is that he’s a joyful work in progress. Accepting himself as a joyful work in progress allows Mano to admit mistakes and admit that he will always be a work in progress.
[27:38] Past guest, Michael Bungay Stanier, told of a Legos bridge-building problem. Most people added pieces to solve the problem but the most expedient solution was to remove a piece. What’s on your plate? What are you going to take off your plate? Mano notes that when we say “yes” to something, we say “no” to every other alternative. That helps him to be discerning about what he says “Yes” to.
[29:18] Mano decided recently that if it’s not a “Hell, yeah!” it’s a “No.” One of the mistakes Mano made in the early years of growing PGC was wanting to pursue every opportunity. In attempting to pursue every opportunity, they didn’t maximize any given opportunity. Mano learned as he grew as a leader to stop good things to focus on a great thing.
[31:54] As coaches or business leaders, you can’t give all the encouragement that your players or staff need. To fill the gap, PGC introduced celebrations. Every staff meeting, no matter how many meetings are in a day, starts with 60 to 90 seconds of gratitude. It’s an opportunity for somebody to acknowledge a thing or project that the team or an individual has done well. People encourage each other.
[34:50] Mano frequently tells his staff, “If you’re winning at work but losing at home, you’re losing.” Mano and PGC care about the staff as human beings and want them to win at home. If someone is not winning at home, their work will be compromised because everything bleeds over. When you’re at home, shut off work, slow down, and be present with family.
[36:04] After reading In Praise of Slowness, Mano stopped college coaching to focus on PGC. He wanted to be present for his family. Another decision he made with his family was to limit the participation of their children in sports and activities. Their highest value was in spending dinner time together as a family and playing together. They prioritized family time over competitive sports.
[39:02] Mano’s listener challenge: As business leaders, we must ensure that we’re doing everything possible to support our employees and teams. One of the ways we can do that is by helping to ensure that they’re able to bring their best possible selves to work each day.
[39:24] For employees to bring the best version of themselves, they need to feel cared for, supported, and encouraged, and they need to be given space because if we’re just driving them hard all the time, we’re going to wear them down, especially in this world where many people just don’t feel settled. We can create a good environment while pursuing goals and lofty objectives and still helping our people.
[41:21] Closing quote: Remember, “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” — John Wooden
Quotable Quotes
- “I’ve never come across a winning team, or anyone who’s been highly successful in anything, that hasn’t had to overcome significant adversity. And I’m certainly no different than that, in terms of adversities.” — Mano
- “We like to think that a point guard isn’t just a position on a basketball court. Somebody leading a company is the point guard of their team. A quarterback is the point guard of their football team. … If you’re leading a family, you are the point guard of your family.” — Mano
- “The point guard has to be able to influence behavior in order to get desired outcomes. They have to be able to lead and communicate effectively.” — Mano
- “The beauty of the game [of basketball] is that five players who work together can be more effective and more successful than five talented individuals who don’t work together.” — Mano
- “In basketball, it’s a small enough team that you can significantly impact the outcome of the game by your individual performance but you can’t entirely impact the outcome because you have to be dependent on your teammates.” — Mano
- “Part of the beauty of the game is your individual contributions combined with working together as a team … where five players become like a fist, not five individual fingers … and they play together as one.” — Mano
- “There are so many life lessons that come out of the game when players are willing to put aside their individual agendas for the betterment of the team.” — Mano
- “You need a range of diverse personalities to really make a team as effective as it can be. But to have somebody that drives winning and drives outcomes is really, really valuable.” — Mano
- “People thrive off encouragement. No one has ever received too much appreciation or too much encouragement. And one of the principles that we teach to coaches … is connect before you correct.” — Mano
- “Every good leader … looks for opportunities to celebrate, to acknowledge, to praise, to encourage, and appreciate far more often than they do providing any constructive criticism.” — Mano
- “It actually builds trust when we’re willing to be vulnerable when we’re willing to demonstrate that level of humility. It’s hard because it requires getting beyond ourselves and it requires getting beyond our ego.” — Mano
- “One of the things I’ve realized, both in business and in my personal life: I just don’t have it all together.” — Mano
- “When we say ‘yes’ to something, we’re actually saying ‘no’ to every other possible alternative.” — Mano
- “If it’s not a ‘Hell, yeah!’ it’s a ‘no.’” — Mano
- “What gets scheduled gets done.” — Mano
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Mano Watsa
- PGC Basketball
- Dick DeVenzio
- The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams, by Sam Walker
- Jeremy Lin
- NY Knicks
- John Wooden
- VIP’s Cafe
- John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success
- Ted Lasso
- Michael Jordan Documentary The Last Dance on Netflix
- Michael Jordan
- Phil Jackson
- Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, by James H. Gilmore
- The Mully Children’s Family
- Denny Crum and Louisville Basketball
- Michael Bungay Stanier
- In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed, by Carl Honore
Leigh Ann Rodgers is the CEO and Founder of Better Teams, and is driven to positively impact corporate culture and cultivate happy, high-performing teams. She is also the host of Leading Better Teams podcast. In this episode, Leigh Ann shares thoughts on accountability, bonding/connection, and why virtual teams require extra work to build connections. Listen in for how to build strong virtual connections!
https://bit.ly/TLP-338
Key Takeaways
[1:58] Leigh Ann volunteers three days a week at a local animal sanctuary for farm animals. There are pigs, horses, donkeys, goats, and cats. It’s a beautiful little farm tucked into a forest. Leigh Ann feeds them and puts the hay out. It’s a peaceful place. Leigh Ann does the afternoon shift. The early morning shift scoops the poop, so Leigh Ann is happy to go in the afternoon.
[4:06] If members of a team are not being accountable to each other, the first thing to find out is why they are not. Leigh Ann says most of the time there is fear. It’s a risky thing to hold a peer accountable. It may lead to them not liking you, retaliation, or conflict.
[4:57] How do we create a culture and create trust where people want to hold each other accountable and want to be held accountable? It would be a culture where team members don’t see accountability as a threat but as a way of teaming together to help everyone be the best that they can be.
[6:04] One person can influence a team to a degree, depending on their status within the team.
[7:17] The leader establishes the culture. The leader can tell the team that it is expected for them to have difficult conversations with each other instead of coming to the leader. It starts with the leader setting the tone and the expectation for open, candid conversation, with good intention, to help each other be their best. That requires real feedback. The leader also needs to reward that behavior.
[9:55] If team members are unwilling to hold each other accountable, Leigh Ann loves the ADKAR model for changing behavior. Leigh Ann focuses on the first three aspects: Is the person Aware of their behavior? Do they Desire to change? Do they Know how to change? That’s where Leigh Ann starts to figure out why a person is not willing to engage in difficult conversations.
[11:50] One of the principles in Leigh Ann’s Better Teams training is Readiness. The first element of Readiness is having the right equipment, tools, and resources. If you don’t have those, advocate for yourself. The second element is competence and skill sets. Advocate for the competencies you need. It may involve getting a mentor. The third element is being adaptive, flexible, and agile. Can you pivot?
[12:59] Leigh Ann relates being adaptive to stress levels. People are fairly adaptive but when stress levels get high, we begin to get less adaptive and flexible. When there’s a lot of uncertainty, we start to crave certainty, which makes any new change feel bigger than it even may be. Recognize when your stress levels are high and advocate for ways to increase certainty so you can be flexible.
[14:18] Instead of advocating for the organization to provide something for you, it is better for you to provide the tools, training, skills, and more to better yourself for the job you have or future roles. Advocating for yourself may become a barrier to doing something for yourself that is well within your capability.
[15:09] Leigh Ann clarifies the difference between you managing your self-improvement and advocating for yourself to have the company provide an important solution that will benefit the company while benefiting you. What you can do without guidance or leadership, do independently.
[16:38] Jan notes that past guest Kim Cameron, spoke a lot about abundance versus scarcity. As we come out of a pandemic, we hear more from our guests about abundance than scarcity. Maybe people are more open-minded than they were. Jan invites you, the listener, to connect on social media about trends you are seeing. And Jan is proposing a prize if somebody listens to all past episodes of the show!
[18:11] Jan cites an HBR 1998 article on trust in the virtual team. Trust in virtual teams has been a topic for a while.
[18:34] Leigh Ann says some teams are getting human connection right, and some are not doing as well. People need to feel bonded to the people they are working with. Many people miss being in the office with other people. It takes so much more effort to build a meaningful connection on a group call. When you disconnect from the call, you disconnect from the people.
[19:56] Before the podcast started recording, Jan, Jim, and Leigh Ann were connected, talking about themselves. They were connecting and building rapport before starting the podcast. When meeting virtually, ask about each other.
[21:30] Some individuals and teams want deeper connections and some do not. It has to be managed case by case. Leigh Ann is reading about oxytocin in the book Habits of a Happy Brain. Oxytocin makes us feel connected and bonded. It is released when you come together and start to feel that you know who people are a little bit more and you feel safe with each other.
[22:43] When teams get together and do some sort of meaningful team exercise where they’re really getting to know each other in a safe way and as they want to, it creates that sense of bonding that may not be there if you’re just coming together running down a spreadsheet. We need to create spaces for teams to actually share what they want to about themselves and create that sense of connection.
[23:13] Leigh Ann suggests building, even virtually, times for teams to come together with a little structure for teams to share and learn about each other. A simple example is to ask team members to bring with them an object that symbolizes something that they value highly.
[23:50] Leigh Ann remembers someone bringing in a medal from running in a triathlon, and how running was part of her health journey. Another person brought in something that symbolized a medical challenge they had and a conversation that helped people on the team understand the person better. The team suddenly saw each other in a new dimension which made them more human to each other.
[24:51] Another exercise is a DiSC® communication workshop. What are the different ways in which we like to communicate? Are you direct? Do you like to ask questions?
[25:19] Doing some really meaningful team exercises like this allows people to get to know each other. Not necessarily sharing all their deep, dark family secrets, but it’s a way to learn about each other and what makes people tick, and create that sense of bonding and closeness we don’t get from typical business meetings.
[26:18] You can get people together for celebrations. We tend to celebrate success and meeting goals. We celebrate outcomes. Dr. Carol Dweck focuses on growth mindset. How do we celebrate the effort, even if we fall short of the goal? We should celebrate growth, effort, and learning in addition to outcomes. It’s also important to celebrate individual contributions and specialties each person brings.
[29:04] On the farm where Leigh Ann volunteers, each of the 25 volunteers brings something unique. One volunteer loves to paint. She painted sayings all over the farm and created the farm calendar. One volunteer is meticulous with order and structure. It’s important to celebrate the unique contributions of each person on your team. That makes them feel special and increases their serotonin, by the way.
[30:32] Leigh Ann tells how she beat the doldrums. Although she loves what she does, she noticed last year she was getting “the blahs.” She had to do some soul-searching to figure it out. She had stopped learning and growing and needed some new things to play into her strengths. She did a lot of learning and coaching with people, reading, and writing that helped her energize again. She got curious!
[32:40] Jan and Jim noticed that at the beginning of the pandemic, leaders were energized by the crisis. After 18 months, the same leaders were fired. They couldn’t react anymore, they had to step back and think. They had to be proactive. We’re still in that stage, where people are planning and budgeting and projecting what will happen. Jan directs people to what they value.
[33:33] Leigh Ann often asks people to ask themselves “What do you want?” and “What do you need?” That’s the beginning to find out how you get to that.
[34:23] Leigh Ann’s listener challenge: Put pen to paper, think about, and first ask yourself, what do you want and what do you need? If you’re not sure, grab a coach to help you think that through. Do some self-reflection and figure it out. Second, ask how you get out of your way. Third, ask how you prioritize and plan to get there. Leigh Ann has sessions starting in January that can help you through this.
[36:13] Closing quote: Remember, “Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi
Quotable Quotes
- “How do we create a culture and create trust where people want to hold each other accountable and want to be held accountable? And they don’t see it as a threat. They see it as a way of teaming together to help everyone be the best that they can be.” — Leigh Ann
- “In general, people are fairly adaptive but when stress levels get really high, we begin to get less adaptive and flexible. When there’s a lot of uncertainty, we start to crave certainty, which makes any new change feel bigger than it even may be.” — Leigh Ann
- “We’ve got to figure out ways to create spaces for teams to actually share what they want to about themselves and create that sense of connection and bonding and I think we’ve got to build that in, even more than just, ‘How are you doing?’” — Leigh Ann
- “Doing some really meaningful team exercises … allows people to get to know each other. And not necessarily for sharing all their deep, dark family secrets, but it’s a way to learn about each other and what makes people tick, and create that sense of bonding.” — Leigh Ann
- “Take time to put pen to paper and think about what you want and what you need. … And if you’re really not sure, grab a coach. A coach can help you think that through, as well, but do some self-reflection and figure that out.” — Leigh Ann
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Leigh Ann Rodgers
- Better Teams
- Team Consultant Academy
- Leading Better Teams podcast
- Change management (including ADKAR)
- Kim Cameron
- Organization — Trust in Virtual Teams, HBR
- Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels, by Loretta Graziano Breuning
- DiSC®
- Carol Dweck, Ph.D.
Jason Field is an Executive Coach, Outdoor Professional, Expedition Leader, and Past President and CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates. He’s a board member, an entrepreneur, and a veterinarian. His focus is to develop great leaders to be force multipliers for their teams. The discussion covers a team’s responsibility, decision-making, the principles of problem-solving, and the role of process to obtain and maintain focus on the customer. The discussion also includes insights from Jason on his role as a guide for hikes into the Grand Canyon. Jason encourages you to work hard, follow your interests, and chase experiences.
https://bit.ly/TLP-337
Key Takeaways
[2:43] Jason has been married for 16 years. His son just turned 14 and is starting to surpass Jason in capability in just about everything they do together.
[5:05] Adaptability and creative thinking are desirable attributes in many organizations but may be in tension with process and structure. Adaptability and creative thinking are behavioral expressions of a culture. These traits are not desirable in every case, such as when making suture needles, for example, that need a lot of process rigor to come out exactly the same way every time.
[5:56] If adaptability and creative thinking are desired outputs, you need leadership levers like the Galbraith Star Model™. You design adaptability and creative thinking into the organization. You look at strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people to get the behaviors of adaptability and creative thinking as outputs.
[6:22] Adaptability and creative thinking go with belief systems and values. You start with the people you bring into the organization. If you bring people in who are highly rule-oriented, it’s going to be hard to pull adaptability and creative thinking out.
[7:30] The Gore company emphasized the power of small teams with the most knowledgeable associate taking responsibility for decision-making. Decision rights don’t come from being a leader. A leader in a small team has the responsibility of facilitating a decision-making process and pointing to the most knowledgeable associates. This all requires the team to have organizational strategic clarity.
[8:22] You complement small teams with process. If the idea is to be adaptable and draw upon the creative thinkers on the team, you need processes that will move relevant information to the teams in a timely manner so they can act according to the best information.
[8:39] Processes should do two things: enable and expedite decision-making and mitigate risks. In the case of teams, it’s mainly about expediting decision-making.
[8:51] Rewards make sure you are celebrating business wins when you see teams operating in that adaptable mindset and drawing upon their creativity.
[9:20] The Pairin Survey identifies people with high objective and analytical scores versus people with high intuitive and conceptual scores. Most teams are strong in objective and analytical scores for solving problems. Intuitive and conceptual scores relate to being good at understanding the root causes and seeing trends and patterns.
[10:14] Having the right leader at the right time means being able to draw upon both individuals with strong analytical skills and individuals with strong intuitive skills, that can draw out insights from others, depending on the problem or opportunity that’s being presented.
[10:58] Jim points out how Jason had clarified an assumption in the first topic of adaptability and creative thinking: Are they desirable in every scenario? Then Jason talked about when they are not helpful and when you need them. How do we encourage people to ask the right questions and clarify their assumptions?
[11:53] Jason tells how active listening works for him. He suggests that it’s a powerful thing for leaders to step back and ask themselves what an individual is trying to get across to them and ask the right questions and get the right assumptions on the table as they engage in problem-solving.
[13:07] When Jason has an employee engagement, he is trying to inspire them while deriving information for himself. It’s a two-way street. For engaging people, first, demonstrate an interest in what that individual or team is doing. Draw people to the higher purpose of the strategy of the organization. Demonstrate that you care about them.
[14:20] Jason and Jim role-play a conversation. Jim is an engineer working on a product development team and Jason is an executive who pops into the office and asks what Jim’s working on. As they talk, Jason shows interest, asks follow-up questions, points to organizational strategy and tying to the customer, uses active listening, adds personal encouragement, and offers help for resources.
[17:28] Deconstructing the role-play, the leader makes sure the person knows the leader is listening by repeating and validating what the person says, taps into the personal impact of how the person feels, and how the leader can help. These things are attributes of an energizing discussion. The leader asks how the person knows they are being successful, looking at their place in the organization.
[19:20] The best way to inculcate the core values into the organization is to demonstrate them. You’ve got to walk the talk. Jason says that it’s a competitive advantage to being a purpose-driven organization that’s incorporated its values into the fabric of its operation. Jason leans pretty hard on that type of work. This assumes you’ve done the hard work to identify values that are true to the organization.
[20:37] When you have your organizational values, incorporate them into your mission, vision, and strategy. Those are the pillars upon which your organization’s direction is built. Then draw on those components and demonstrate the values in your products, services, and decision-making frameworks in the organization. At the end of the day, those values characterize your brand.
[21:59] Integrity is one value Jason sees a lot. Integrity may be subject to interpretation. Integrity has a dependence upon the values that sit behind it. Make sure you know how your key stakeholders are interpreting integrity. Military veterans often say integrity is choosing the hard right vs. the easy wrong.
[23:55] When the board and leadership align with the core values and demonstrate them, that brings alignment around the value of integrity. Brand strategist Tom Storey told Jason that value is “A promise made and kept by the entire organization and experienced by our customers.”
[24:39] Keep those values front and center in your decisions so you create experiences that reinforce them. Celebrate the individuals, teams, and products that demonstrate the values you hold dear. That’s how you start to embed those values into organizations.
[26:25] Jason shared his thoughts about personal responsibility. Can it be taught? There is a “nurture” component in surrounding people with others that demonstrate accountability and commitment to an outcome. The peer environment might be the strongest driver of personal accountability. The Special Forces environment creates a very high expectation of dependency on one another.
[27:30] Leaders can draw out that discretionary effort in a way that’s rewarding to the individual. Use a rewards system that addresses various levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The financial component can elevate people to a limited degree to rise to challenges. The personal recognition of catching people doing things right is energizing. Help people understand their place on the team and in the organization.
[28:43] Be purpose-oriented. Show how products and services contribute to a greater good and make a difference in the world. Jason’s favorite rewards system is giving people the freedom to operate individually, drawing on their strengths to make a difference in the organization.
[30:23] There are individual incentives and team incentives that can be used to encourage performance. Jason leans toward understanding what you are trying to create and whether you are relying heavily on team-based outcomes or you need individuals to get into the lab and grind away toward solutions and outcomes. Jason’s bias is to revert to the power of teams. But Bob Gore invented Gore-Tex individually.
[31:07] You can’t look past individual accomplishments and assume the team will come together and deliver a better outcome because it’s a team. There are different environments and different problems that call for different solutions. To the extent you can see that, as a leader, is how you should build your incentive structure
[32:08] What derails leaders? Jason says it’s losing sight of the market and getting disconnected from sales. It’s easy to become internally focused and pull internal levers to optimize an organization, moving away from the market and the customer. You might drive value creation in the near term but miss market signals for long-term opportunities. Optimize for the near term and Invest for the long term.
[34:08] One of the most important lessons Jason learned, mid-career, as he was transitioning into product leadership was clarity of purpose and the role process plays. Jason was working in medical devices and the stakes are high in that product category and a lot of risk. The division leader went to all meetings when there was a product issue that could have a patient impact.
[35:45] The division leader always brought clarity by asking what is the process telling us, and is the process benefitting us? If the process isn’t giving us clarity as to what the answer might be, we probably don’t have a good process in place. Jason’s takeaway was the role process plays in helping to understand the root cause of what’s going on. If the process isn’t giving the answer, make some changes.
[36:28] The final answer never comes from the product. What is all the data telling you, and how does that translate into the impact on the customer? In medical devices, of course, patients are the most important. Keep what is most important to your organization front and center in decisions when things don’t go as planned.
[37:30] Jason has been an outdoor enthusiast his entire life. In the past year, he started guiding in the Grand Canyon. It has been absolutely fascinating. When you’re a guide in that setting, people are out of their element and hold guides in high regard. Jason hosts a picnic lunch and insists on doing all the cleaning. It sends the message that he’s there to serve and a reminder of the power of service.
[39:09] People hiking into the Grand Canyon have varying levels of physical fitness. The two things to be most concerned about on the hike are dehydration and heat exhaustion. You need people to be on point and listening, from the very start of the trailhead. It is very hard to keep people focused and get to where you want them to go. Pace matters. There are no easy hikes into the canyon and out.
[40:18] You have to get the right feedback mechanisms in place. Verbal communication can be one of the worst ways to get feedback on a hike. You have to set up mechanisms to get guest feedback. Are they stumbling? How much water are they drinking? Jason counts water bottles. Organization leaders also have to be aware that much is non-verbal. Set up feedback mechanisms. Pay attention.
[43:16] Jason offers three core elements that come together to create a high likelihood of success: Work hard, follow your interests, and chase experiences. If Jason hadn’t chased the experience of a crucible with Jan, he probably wouldn’t be doing outdoor leadership experiences and executive coaching now. He thanks Jan for that. It was walking the talk.
[44:40] Closing quote: Remember, “There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.” — Howard Thurman
Quotable Quotes
- “What Gore has really done well, historically, is emphasize the power of small teams. Not only small teams but, in addition, … emphasis on the most knowledgeable employee … taking responsibility for decision-making. … Decision rights don’t come with being a leader.” — Jason
- “If the idea is to be adaptable and really draw upon the creative thinkers on the team, you have to think about processes that are going to move information to those teams in a timely manner so they’ve got relevant information.” — Jason
- “Depending on the problem or the opportunity that’s presented, you want to be able to draw upon those individuals that have the deep analytical skills or those that can kind of characterize the problem and draw out the insights from others to orient the team.” — Jason
- “Integrity has a dependency on all the other values that sit behind it.” — Jason
- “Celebrate those individuals, those teams, and those products that are demonstrative of the values that you hold dear. And that’s how you start to embed this into organizations.” — Jason
- “When a leader is willing to pick up a broom or pick up trash, the message that sends to the organization is pretty cool.” — Jason
- “A lot of times when you ask those questions, you don’t always get honest answers, so you’ve gotta have those other cues that are feeding you information.” — Jason
- “The hard work comes easy when the interest level is high.” — Jason
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Jason Field
- W.L. Gore & Associates
- Bob Gore
- Gore-Tex
- Chris Warner
- Crucible Expeditions
- The Galbraith Star ModelTM
- Pairin.com
- Michael Simpson
- Tom Storey
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Mike is the author of “Leadership in Balance and Management in Balance,” the founder of Crispian Consulting, and a retired Army officer. Mike shares his thoughts on balance and equilibrium, and what that means for management versus leadership. Contained in this episode is essential advice for newly-minted leaders, and a discussion on learning tools. At the end of the episode is a great “both/and” challenge!
https://bit.ly/TLP-336
Key Takeaways
[3:05] Mike played rugby as a Military Academy cadet. He had a lot of fun with his teammates. Rugby helped him develop into the person he is.
[4:05] Jim met Mike as a keynote speaker, speaking about balance and being a fulcrum. Jim took a lot of notes. Mike defines balance for leaders and managers. It’s not things being equal, it’s the equilibrium of a work/life balance. Mike talks about managers spending up to 80 hours a week at work. That doesn’t leave equal hours to spend with your family. When you’re home, give them your undivided attention.
[6:23] Mike teaches “both/and” as an alternative to the “either/or” way of looking at problems. The vast majority of things in life are not dilemmas where you must make one or the other choice. Most questions involve equilibrium or equipoise. Apply the right amount of each choice to where it balances. Mike says to be the fulcrum. Be the point on which balance is achieved.
[7:49] Mike writes about four central domains in leadership: Communication, Adaptability, Focus, and Influence. You can find an equilibrium but the environment is constantly changing so your equilibrium will also change. Mike works with people to be ready for change. A key part of the model is situational awareness. What’s going on in the environment that’s different from your natural tendency?
[10:11] Mike admits there were times as an Army officer when he should have given more direct orders. Instead of telling people why something was important to do, he needed to tell them how to do it. He didn’t always recognize what the situation demanded of him so he couldn’t be the fulcrum.
[12:14] While doing the Audible version of his first book. Leadership in Balance, Mike realized that the four central domains have descriptive names. Communication is the Foundational Domain, upon which leadership is built. The other three domains rely on effective communication. Focus is the Purpose Domain. Adaptability is the Action Domain. Influence is the Mission Domain.
[14:27] Mike’s second book, Management in Balance, is out now. It covers four domains, Time, Material, Risk, and Change.
[15:08] Mike addresses the mindsets of abundance and scarcity. What is your attitude about an abundance of risk, versus a scarcity of risk, or an abundance of material, versus a scarcity of material? Mike quotes former Green Beret Kevin Owens: “The most innovative people I know are poor.” The conditions are the conditions, so we have to deal with the condition, whether abundance or scarcity.
[16:50] Are you seeing risks that are not there? Are you not seeing risks that are present and are you becoming reckless? The balance comes into play in that as a manager you have to deal with the current condition honestly and as it exists but you have to prepare yourself and your team for that shift that is going to come. Supply chain issues are examples of shifts. Adjust to conditions as they change.
[19:39] Using an Army metaphor, you need to position yourself where you can best influence the action. You might need to stand back a bit to have a wider view and receive news from outside organizations. Or you might go to the front lines to direct people who don’t know what to do. That’s one of the ultimate leadership calls. The same principle applies in a business context.
[20:29] Being the fulcrum is creating the ability for equilibrium by managing resources and assigning tasks. Mike says ultimately, time management is task management; how you prioritize and assign tasks. That’s the nexus of leadership and management. Position yourself as a leader/manager where you can do the most to create equilibrium in these areas. Be open to signals coming from the environment.
[21:33] Empowerment and subordinate development consist of pushing decisions down as far as you can send them. Stan McChrystal taught MIke to get the authority down to where decisions can be made most effectively. Mike notes that Ukraine is using that model now, based on U.S. assistance from 2014. Mike asks, are you doing it well, are you doing it right, and are you doing it in a way that makes sense?
[23:04] The fulcrum creates balance based on where it’s positioned along the lever. You, the leader/manager create balance by how you influence, position yourself, lead, and manage in these domains access your organization.
[24:28] Mike discusses newly promoted “player-coaches.” Both of Mike’s books are intended for new managers and also senior leaders who are responsible to promote new managers and leaders and he invites leaders to make these decisions thoughtfully and intentionally.[26:07] The first thing anyone entering into a new position needs to decide is whether they want a job or a career. Get it wrong and you will be miserable to be on the wrong path. And senior management needs to be able to look at you and see if you have leadership potential and the desire for a career. Are you willing to make the physical, emotional, and mental sacrifices that leadership requires?
[29:20] Sometimes we get frustrating answers from asking the wrong questions. Sometimes our ego stands in the way of asking the better question because we don’t want to know the answer. Or we overlook that we might have been wrong previously. Surround yourself with smart people. Put together a smart team with at least one person who asks, “What are we missing? What is another possibility?”
[30:29] Always look for the third option. Don’t let decisions be either X or Not-X. Having one more option forces you to think more deeply about the problem and how that plays out as a solution. Most of us quickly make decisions based on experience. Step back and ask some other smart people what they’re seeing. Reframe the problem. Mike tells how he addressed an IED problem to improve mobility.
[34:03] Remember that everything you do as a team or an individual is a performance cycle. A performance cycle has four steps: Plan, Prepare, Execute, and Review. Don’t skip the Review step, especially if you succeed, because it will help you plan better for the next performance cycle.
[37:21] Mike’s next book focuses on management and leadership as a “both/and” proposition and will speak to executives. Mike discusses the risk to mission, the risk to people, and the risk to reputation. You have to know where those three types of risks are lurking. Manage to mitigate that risk to your people, your mission, and your reputation. Look for opportunities to find acceptable risk and grab market share.
[40:43] Mike wrote the second book to define management, setting the stage for his next book, covering leadership and management. New managers always ask Mike whether management or leadership is more important. The better question is, how are they different and when do you do each? The domains for the Management/Leadership equipoise are: What, How, When, and Why?
[42:45] Mike’s challenge for listeners: Find the “both/and.” When you think you’re on the horns of a dilemma, step back for a minute and ask, “Is this really an either/or proposition, or is there some question of equilibrium that needs to be found between these competing demands?” If you do that, you may find that you are more effective and a lot happier in your role.
[44:07] Closing quote: “There is no decision that we can make that doesn’t come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.” — Simon Sinek
Quotable Quotes
- “A lot of people, their thoughts immediately go to things being equal; … a balanced scale. … Balance is not about things being equal. Balance is about finding equilibrium; a work/life balance.” — Mike
- “The equilibrium comes in when you’re home, giving them your undivided attention, putting your work aside, and getting involved in the things they’re involved in.” — Mike
- “The vast majority of things are a question of balance, equilibrium, equipoise: to take these things that are in contention with each other and apply the right amount of each to where it balances.” — Mike
- “That’s why the ‘be the fulcrum’ thing comes into play. That’s my reminder to everybody that you’ve got to be the point on which balance, equilibrium, is achieved.” — Mike
- “As an Army officer, … I wanted to be more indirect in how I influenced people. I was very much, ‘This is what you’ve got to do and this is why it’s important,’ not, ‘this is how you’re going to do it.’ … There were situations where I should have been more like that.” — Mike
- “I've been asking a lot of clients lately, ‘What’s the most important thing that you do, and are you getting better at it every day?’ And almost invariably, it boils down to their ability to communicate.” — Jan
- “Limiting resources can make people very resilient. The most innovative people I know are poor.” — Former Green Beret Kevin Owens, quoted by Mike Lerario
- “If you’re in the retail business now, you’ve seen this roller coaster. You had a lot and all of a sudden, maybe people didn’t have money, and then people got money and they’re buying all your stuff and the supply chain gets impacted because there are 50 ships backed up.” — Mike
- “[Speaking] as an Army guy, one of the most important lessons is that you need to position yourself where you can best influence the action. In some cases that might mean that you’re standing back and you have a wider view of the battlefield.” — Mike
- “The fulcrum creates balance based on where it’s positioned along the lever. You, the leader/manager create balance by how you influence, position yourself, lead, and manage in these domains access your organization.” — Mike
- “I’m a firm believer that, especially with decision making, you have to find a third option, always. If you’re looking at the decisions as, ‘I’ve got to do A or I’ve got to do B,’ or ‘I’ve got to do X or Not-X,’ you’re going to fail. … You have a higher probability of failure.” — Mike
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Mike Lerario
- Crispian Consulting
- General Stanley McChrystal
- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal et. al.
- Leadership in Balance: THE FULCRUM-CENTRIC PLAN for Emerging and High Potential Leaders, by Mike Lerario
- Management in Balance: THE FULCRUM-CENTRIC PLAN for New and Reluctant Managers, by Mike Lerario
- Rand Corporation
- Audible
- Kevin Owens
- Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by L. David Marquet
This episode is about the importance of finding the underlying causes for today’s common leadership challenges. It’s about not making the mistake of treating symptoms versus the underlying root cause. Learn how curiosity can inspire and provide insight. Often, the objective, analytic thinking that propelled you to the C-suite now needs to be paired with intuition and conceptualization for you to see the trends and patterns of issues. If you’re not a CEO, you can learn to think like one and increase your value to the organization. Listen to the end for the listener challenge!
https://bit.ly/TLP-335
Key Takeaways
[1:26] This week’s topic: focusing on the problem. Jim recently talked to a client who had set a goal. The goal was a solution to a problem, for example, buying a new system that would run the company and fix everything. While talking about the solution, the client was not talking enough about the problem. Solving the problem is the goal. Does this solution, or another solution, solve the problem?
[3:01] Jim thinks this is important because as consultants and coaches, Jan and Jim’s job is to dig into the problem, not just provide a solution. Jim worked with Bard Press on a book, and his contact, Todd, kept reminding him to focus on the problem. Jan and Jim recently interviewed Dre Baldwin who also said to focus on the problem! So this is a timely topic.
[3:47] Jan quotes guest Brian Caulfield saying, “Sell the problem, not the solution,” as the most quotable quote of the podcast. When people look at problems, they often neglect to look for the root cause. They come up with an “either this or that” solution; the best solution might be “this and that.” Jan refers to Peter Senge and the Fifth Discipline, using systems thinking to figure out the problem.
[4:45] The Pairin Behavioral Surveys that Jan has run find that 95% of the time, people score very high in Objective-Analytical and very low in Intuitive-Conceptual. Intuitive-Conceptual is about understanding the root causes of things and being open-minded.
[6:18] When Jim does sales training, he goes back to Sandler for the Dummy Curve. When you get a new salesperson, who doesn’t know a lot about the product, but they’re successful right away, for two reasons: They don’t know enough about the product to talk about the product, so they ask a lot of questions centered around the problem. That creates an affinity with the customer.
[7:48] Does the product solve the problem? No one cares how the product works if it solves the problem. Focus on the problem. When you don’t know how the product works, you have no choice but to focus on the problem. You ask questions that define the problem better. If the sales force knows too much, they want to show their mastery and talk more. That ruins the sale.
[8:25] The Dummy Curve is that you come in, you have success, and then you lose it the more you learn. Jim coaches leaders not to train new salespeople too much on the product. Talk to them about the problem that their product solves. Coach them on the business problems people have that invite your product and solution. Have them be more curious about those.
[9:25] Jan sees this episode as emphasizing the power of the question. Jan has been coaching about coaching and asking difficult questions. A better approach to a difficult conversation is “Hey, Jim, how do you think that meeting went?” rather than “Hey, Jim, you know what you did in that meeting?” The higher up we go, we need to be better about the questions.
[10:16] Jan coached someone about presenting to a high level in the organization. The presenter was rehearsing what to say to influence a decision. Jan asked, “What objections and resistances do you expect?” They discussed how answers to objections could be questions and they considered sample questions. Questions don’t have power unless you’re curious about the problem and the root cause.
[11:40] Talk about task conflict and not personal conflict. Depersonalize the difficult conversation. Focus on the issues. What is the problem that we need to solve together? Jan brings up an example of heating service people who got to the root cause of his problem. If you understand the root cause, you can at least put a bandage on it. Without knowing the root cause, that’s about all you can do.
[14:47] Some reasons people are content with a bandage instead of getting to the root of the problem are that they don’t have time, they don’t care, competing priorities, or having so many problems crossing their desks that they don’t notice how big one specific problem is. They don’t have curiosity, or they have a bias toward quick action. Jan compares it to being seen by a dismissive doctor.
[18:01] Jim refers to his upcoming book. The first part of the book is about diagnosing business symptoms. We sometimes mistake the symptom for the problem. Jim shares a story from the book about his father, having abdominal pain in his 60s. The doctor refused to look at the pain as the problem but recognized it as a symptom of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. She saved his life with surgery.
[22:08] Jan explains the levers of change: people, incentives, structure, and process. Leaders are rewarded for being problem solvers so the incentive is to solve problems fast. At a certain point, when they start taking on high levels of responsibility, the job shifts from doing to thinking. Jan tells people to think like a designer. Look at each lever. It’s not always an issue for coaching to solve.
[24:25] If you’re not the CEO but you want to be a valuable employee, think like a CEO. Help the CEO see what they might not be seeing. CEOs need to look at the broad performance of the organization and see the patterns, then dig and understand what’s behind those patterns. Past guest, Jim Gilmore, author of Look, wrote about seeing through binoculars, field glass, and microscope. CEOs need a field glass.
[26:35] People are worried about budgeting for the next year and they’re all worried about low sales numbers. They’re looking for things to cut from the budget instead of asking what it would take to increase their sales for the next year. Jan always asks where the assumptions behind the budget are coming from.
[28:07] Jan notes that scaling means doing more with less by getting more productive and becoming more efficient. Jim asserts that the companies that don’t panic during downtimes but invest wisely can grow at great paces compared to those who batten the hatches and shrink. Always seek to understand the problem before solving it.
[29:30] Look at the number of companies that were created and grew prodigiously in the Great Depression. The Great Depression was awful. The tech giants of today did not panic during the dot.com bust. They doubled down and grew. There are opportunities all the time but if you’re fixated on a solution, you will not see the opportunities that surround you.
[30:39] Jim offers an audience challenge: Pay close attention over the week. Listen twice as much as you talk and listen for where you hear either yourself or other people so enamored with a solution that they are missing the real point of understanding the problem. If you recognize that moment, redirect the conversation; ask a question to understand. You will find a more productive outcome on the other side.
[32:03] Jan reflects that Jim’s audience challenge will take temperance, self-discipline, and self-awareness to understand your effect on other people. Jim and Jan invite you to get in touch with your feedback on these Jim and Jan episodes and suggestions for what subjects you would like Jim and Jan to talk about next.
[33:18] Closing quote: Remember, “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton
Quotable Quotes
- “When we spend too much time talking about the solution, the trap we fall into is that we limit the possibilities for what the real solution could be because we’re not spending enough time talking about the problem.” — Jim
- “What course of action is going to be the best path toward the future?” — Jim
- “It goes back to the Fifth Discipline — what Peter Senge wrote about systems thinking.” — Jan
- “I say to leaders, ‘What got you here is your ability to see patterns … and make quick decisions. … But those quick decisions are based on paradigms and biases. As a high-level leader, you need to suspend that, have … an open mind, and figure out what’s causing this.’” — Jan
- “Talk to [new salespeople] about the problem that your product solves. Coach them on the business problems people have with regard to your product and solution.”
- “We need to talk about process and task conflict and not personal conflict.” — Jim
- “Too many times, we look at a symptom and we don’t realize — we think it’s the problem but it’s just the symptom and … the real business problems are masked by those symptoms.” — Jim
- “Everybody’s got blinders on.” — Peter Drucker, quoted by Jan
- “If you’re not the CEO but you want to be a really valuable employee, think like a CEO.” — Jan
- “We all know that scaling means you’re doing more with less. Not because we’re working people harder but because we’re getting smarter, we’re getting more productive, and we’re getting more efficient. Not because we’re driving people like machines.” — Jan
- “Look at the number of companies that were created and grew prodigiously in the Great Depression. … You could say times were different, but they’re not.” — Jim
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Interact with Jan and Jim on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
- Bard Press
- Brian Caulfield
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
- Systems Thinking
- PAIRIN Survey
- Michael Simpson
- Sandler Training
- Peter Drucker
- Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, by James H. Gilmore
- Harry Chapin
Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos, the hosts of The Leadership Podcast, explore core values based on the six cardinal virtues. Follow the discussion in this important episode to be reminded how the cardinal virtues apply in life and at work, and how you and your organization can move forward by going back to the fundamentals of leadership.
https://bit.ly/TLP-333
Key Takeaways
[1:25] Jan and Jim have both received a lot of very positive texts about Episode 332, featuring Richie Norton, who talked about the brevity of life. Jan sees that people are planning frantically for next year.
[3:05] Leaders are making sure they don’t get caught up in emotions but look at the facts. Jim refers to past guest Alan Beaulieu and ITR Economics. The slowdown we’re feeling is a slowdown in the rate of growth, not a recession. Slowing from 25% growth to 9% growth feels like the airbags just came on. Don’t overreact.
[5:20] The numbers come from our words, deeds, and our ability to work through other people. Leaders get people to do things willingly that they would not do otherwise. How we lead depends on our values. Ask what is the most important thing, the second-most important, the third-most important, and so forth. We need to prioritize what we value and translate those values into behaviors we can observe.
[6:47] If we say we value integrity, what is the observable behavior that comes from that value? Is hitting the number that top priority, or are people a priority?
[7:42] It doesn’t matter what you say, it matters what you do. Your culture is a product of your daily decisions and how you treat people.
[8:53] Jim recalls an experience from his first college internship at Glenview Tool Company. The owner, Mike Sciortino told him that a security device can’t prevent all theft but it can help keep honest people honest. Jim says, as leaders, let’s help people do the right thing. Let’s encourage them.
[11:04] Jan shares a recent airline experience where “the system” wouldn’t allow the airline to fix a problem. The system should be for people!
[11:40] Jan explains the six cardinal virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence. Wisdom is built upon curiosity. We have to reward curiosity if we want people to be able to identify problems. Daily, use the statement, “That’s a great question!” Reward questions! It’s important to catch people doing right.
[17:15] Take the focus of questions away from yourself and put it on the other person. Instead of saying, “I don’t understand this, can you explain it to me?” say, “That’s fascinating. Help me understand why you’re going about it that way.”
[18:12] Courage gets a lot of talk these days. The best business translation of courage is honesty. Sometimes we say authentic. Jan coached a client who had been honest to their boss, but their boss just got quiet, as though wounded. If we want the truth, we need to hear it. Jim cites Choosing Courage, by Jim Detert. Courage is related to timing. Sometimes, wait for the right moment instead of blurting it out.
[21:45] Jan’s client recently told him that part of being courageous is not being complicit. Don’t keep quiet about stuff.
[22:39] Employees always have three choices about their workplace: Suck it up and deal with a toxic culture, try to change it, or leave. What do you stand for? What are you willing to compromise on, or not? It’s not like there’s much greener grass in different places, but there is different grass in all the organizations. You don’t have to be complicit in a toxic culture or abusive leadership.
[24:40] Humanity is simple kindness or the Golden Rule. This can be hard because there’s a lot of competition. There’s tunnel vision. Some niceties go by the wayside. But research shows that human kindness works. Humans respond best to positive reinforcement. Humanity is a decision that doesn’t depend on anyone else. Just be kind, even if people are mean to you. It’s doing the right thing.
[28:01] Jan tells of going from being a sergeant to being an officer. He was told, “You don’t have to speak like the soldiers; you can be above that.” It’s a matter of respect. If you try to fit in by speaking the cool lingo, it is inauthentic.
[28:58] Justice is fairness. Organizations are asking people to be fair to one another. But, in personalized leadership, you can’t treat everybody the same, because of their individuality and the work function they have. People want one-on-one time with their leader. In all that, we have to be sure we’re being perceived as being fair. Encourage others in the organization to be fair and equitable.
[33:19] Temperance is self-discipline. Without self-discipline and sacrifice, we can’t tackle big goals. John Wooden taught players how to put on socks and shoes so they wouldn’t get blisters. In business, we are missing so many fundamentals, such as starting and ending meetings on time and being predictable.
[35:00] Jim says discipline is respect. Showing up to meetings on time is respectful of everybody’s time. Discipline with personal and business goals is respect for how important those goals are. If you don’t have self-discipline, you probably don’t have self-respect. Discipline thrives when you have respect. If you don’t have self-respect, discipline falters.
[36:29] Transcendence is spirituality. In work, Jan sees it as being gracious and operating with gratitude. Jim reminds us that in the grand scheme of things, our role is small. How do you relate to the universe and other people and creatures? Barry Schwartz, in Practical Wisdom, told of janitors in a cancer care unit operating with graciousness because the patients were in great need and having a hard time.
[38:19] The transcendent behavior of the janitors improved the condition of the patients, who were at their most humiliating moments. The janitors were looking at the bigger picture than cleaning up a mess. In high-performing organizations, people operate with that level of transcendence. People who win the Medal of Honor are operating with transcendence, also known as Mission, Vision, and Values.
[39:20] Companies are not started for the sake of creating a great culture. A company starts because there is a market need, and they think they can help people. More people get involved and then they think about having a good company, which means having a good culture. People are tribal. The cardinal virtues are the rules to get along with our tribe and be of service to other humans in other tribes.
[40:50] Things feel out of hand because we’ve gotten so far from the fundamentals. As you look at planning, go back and say, “Are we making this too complicated?”
[42:24] Closing quote: Remember, “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” — Maya Angelou
Quotable Quotes
- “As [Richie Norton] reminded us, ‘Life is short’ isn’t a cliché, it’s true. and ‘Don’t defer your dreams.’ Boy, that show resonated!” — Jan
- “We had some sectors that were growing at 25% and now they’re only going to grow at 9%, so it feels like the airbags just came on because we’re slowing down from 25 to 9. … The slowdown is huge but it’s still a rate of growth. … Let’s not overreact.” — Jim
- “[As a leader,] you’re basically saying, ‘Let’s change the trajectory, let’s improve performance, let’s do something different that you wouldn’t have done if I didn’t intercede.’” — Jan
- “Your culture isn’t what you want it to be. Your culture is a product of the decisions you make on a daily basis. … Do [you] respect people? Do [you] listen to them when they have a concern?” — Jim
- “If people aren’t asking questions around you, you might be the emperor without clothes.” — Jim
- “There is a way to ask a question so that it will never be perceived as stupid. … [Instead of ‘I don’t understand this,’ say], ‘That’s really fascinating. What made you think to do it that way?’ or ‘Help me understand why you’re going about it that way.’” — Jim
- “We see what’s going on in big tech right now; it’s all fear. It’s awful. People are afraid to speak up.” — Jan
- “It’s not like there’s much greener grass in different places, but there is different grass in all the organizations. They’re different. There might be a place where the values line up better with what you’re all about. You don’t have to be complicit in a toxic culture.” — Jan
- “Humanity is a decision that doesn’t depend on anyone else. If you’re going to be kind, just be kind, even if people are mean to you.” — Jim
- “As leaders, we’ve got to encourage others in the organization to be fair and equitable.” — Jan
- “We know this: Without a certain amount of self-discipline and sacrifice, you can’t tackle big goals and defer short-term pleasures. It’s really hard. And any organization has really long-term goals.” — Jan
- “No company that I know of was started to create a great culture. … Every company starts because there’s a market need and they think they can help other human beings. And then they get more people involved. And then they say, … ``We should have a good company!” — Jan
- “We are tribal. To me, these cardinal virtues are the rules for us to behave in a certain way to get along with our tribe and to deliver services, offerings, and products to other humans in other tribes. That’s what we’re doing.” — Jan
- “Everything feels like it’s out of hand because we’ve gotten so far from the fundamentals.” — Jan
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
-
Interact with Jan and Jim on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
-
Richie Norton
-
Alan Beaulieu
- ITR Economics
- Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work, by Jim Detert
- Jim Detert
- Kim Cameron
- The Positive Coaching Alliance
- Jim Thompson
- All I Really Need to Know, I learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things, by Robert Fulghum
- Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, by Ryan Holiday
- John Wooden
- Kareem Abdul-Jabaar
- Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing, by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe
- Medal of Honor
- The Marshmallow Test
Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos, the hosts of The Leadership Podcast, explore core values based on the six cardinal virtues. Follow the discussion in this important episode to be reminded how the cardinal virtues apply in life and at work, and how you and your organization can move forward by going back to the fundamentals of leadership.
https://bit.ly/TLP-333
Key Takeaways
[1:25] Jan and Jim have both received a lot of very positive texts about Episode 332, featuring Richie Norton, who talked about the brevity of life. Jan sees that people are planning frantically for next year.
[3:05] Leaders are making sure they don’t get caught up in emotions but look at the facts. Jim refers to past guest Alan Beaulieu and ITR Economics. The slowdown we’re feeling is a slowdown in the rate of growth, not a recession. Slowing from 25% growth to 9% growth feels like the airbags just came on. Don’t overreact.
[5:20] The numbers come from our words, deeds, and our ability to work through other people. Leaders get people to do things willingly that they would not do otherwise. How we lead depends on our values. Ask what is the most important thing, the second-most important, the third-most important, and so forth. We need to prioritize what we value and translate those values into behaviors we can observe.
[6:47] If we say we value integrity, what is the observable behavior that comes from that value? Is hitting the number that top priority, or are people a priority?
[7:42] It doesn’t matter what you say, it matters what you do. Your culture is a product of your daily decisions and how you treat people.
[8:53] Jim recalls an experience from his first college internship at Glenview Tool Company. The owner, Mike Sciortino told him that a security device can’t prevent all theft but it can help keep honest people honest. Jim says, as leaders, let’s help people do the right thing. Let’s encourage them.
[11:04] Jan shares a recent airline experience where “the system” wouldn’t allow the airline to fix a problem. The system should be for people!
[11:40] Jan explains the six cardinal virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence. Wisdom is built upon curiosity. We have to reward curiosity if we want people to be able to identify problems. Daily, use the statement, “That’s a great question!” Reward questions! It’s important to catch people doing right.
[17:15] Take the focus of questions away from yourself and put it on the other person. Instead of saying, “I don’t understand this, can you explain it to me?” say, “That’s fascinating. Help me understand why you’re going about it that way.”
[18:12] Courage gets a lot of talk these days. The best business translation of courage is honesty. Sometimes we say authentic. Jan coached a client who had been honest to their boss, but their boss just got quiet, as though wounded. If we want the truth, we need to hear it. Jim cites Choosing Courage, by Jim Detert. Courage is related to timing. Sometimes, wait for the right moment instead of blurting it out.
[21:45] Jan’s client recently told him that part of being courageous is not being complicit. Don’t keep quiet about stuff.
[22:39] Employees always have three choices about their workplace: Suck it up and deal with a toxic culture, try to change it, or leave. What do you stand for? What are you willing to compromise on, or not? It’s not like there’s much greener grass in different places, but there is different grass in all the organizations. You don’t have to be complicit in a toxic culture or abusive leadership.
[24:40] Humanity is simple kindness or the Golden Rule. This can be hard because there’s a lot of competition. There’s tunnel vision. Some niceties go by the wayside. But research shows that human kindness works. Humans respond best to positive reinforcement. Humanity is a decision that doesn’t depend on anyone else. Just be kind, even if people are mean to you. It’s doing the right thing.
[28:01] Jan tells of going from being a sergeant to being an officer. He was told, “You don’t have to speak like the soldiers; you can be above that.” It’s a matter of respect. If you try to fit in by speaking the cool lingo, it is inauthentic.
[28:58] Justice is fairness. Organizations are asking people to be fair to one another. But, in personalized leadership, you can’t treat everybody the same, because of their individuality and the work function they have. People want one-on-one time with their leader. In all that, we have to be sure we’re being perceived as being fair. Encourage others in the organization to be fair and equitable.
[33:19] Temperance is self-discipline. Without self-discipline and sacrifice, we can’t tackle big goals. John Wooden taught players how to put on socks and shoes so they wouldn’t get blisters. In business, we are missing so many fundamentals, such as starting and ending meetings on time and being predictable.
[35:00] Jim says discipline is respect. Showing up to meetings on time is respectful for everybody’s time. Discipline with personal and business goals is respect for how important those goals are. If you don’t have self-discipline, you probably don’t have self-respect. Discipline thrives when you have respect. If you don’t have self-respect, discipline falters.
[36:29] Transcendence is spirituality. In work, Jan sees it as being gracious and operating with gratitude. Jim reminds us that in the grand scheme of things, our role is small. How do you relate to the universe and other people and creatures? Barry Schwartz, in Practical Wisdom, told of janitors in a cancer care unit operating with graciousness because the patients were in great need and having a hard time.
[38:19] The transcendent behavior of the janitors improved the condition of the patients, who were at their most humiliating moments. The janitors were looking at the bigger picture than cleaning up a mess. In high-performing organizations, people operate with that level of transcendence. People who win the Medal of Honor are operating with transcendence, also known as Mission, Vision, and Values.
[39:20] Companies are not started for the sake of creating a great culture. A company starts because there is a market need, and they think they can help people. More people get involved and then they think about having a good company, which means having a good culture. People are tribal. The cardinal virtues are the rules to get along with our tribe and be of service to other humans in other tribes.
[40:50] Things feel out of hand because we’ve gotten so far from the fundamentals. As you look at planning, go back and say, “Are we making this too complicated?”
[42:24] Closing quote: Remember, “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” — Maya Angelou
Quotable Quotes
- “As [Richie Norton] reminded us, ‘Life is short’ isn’t a cliché, it’s true. and ‘Don’t defer your dreams.’ Boy, that show resonated!” — Jan
- “We had some sectors that were growing at 25% and now they’re only going to grow at 9%, so it feels like the airbags just came on because we’re slowing down from 25 to 9. … The slowdown is huge but it’s still a rate of growth. … Let’s not overreact.” — Jim
- “[As a leader,] you’re basically saying, ‘Let’s change the trajectory, let’s improve performance, let’s do something different that you wouldn’t have done if I didn’t intercede.’” — Jan
- “Your culture isn’t what you want it to be. Your culture is a product of the decisions you make on a daily basis. … Do [you] respect people? Do [you] listen to them when they have a concern?” — Jim
- “If people aren’t asking questions around you, you might be the emperor without clothes.” — Jim
- “There is a way to ask a question so that it will never be perceived as stupid. … [Instead of ‘I don’t understand this,’ say], ‘That’s really fascinating. What made you think to do it that way?’ or ‘Help me understand why you’re going about it that way.’” — Jim
- “We see what’s going on in big tech right now; it’s all fear. It’s awful. People are afraid to speak up.” — Jan
- “It’s not like there’s much greener grass in different places, but there is different grass in all the organizations. They’re different. There might be a place where the values line up better with what you’re all about. You don’t have to be complicit in a toxic culture.” — Jan
- “Humanity is a decision that doesn’t depend on anyone else. If you’re going to be kind, just be kind, if people are mean to you.” — Jim
- “As leaders, we’ve got to encourage others in the organization to be fair and equitable.” — Jan
- “We know this: Without a certain amount of self-discipline and sacrifice, you can’t tackle big goals and defer short-term pleasures. It’s really hard. And any organization has really long-term goals.” — Jan
- “No company that I know of was started to create a great culture. … Every company starts because there’s a market need and they think they can help other human beings. And then they get more people involved. And then they say, … ``We should have a good company!” — Jan
- “We are tribal. To me, these cardinal virtues are the rules for us to behave in a certain way to get along with our tribe and to deliver services, offerings, and products to other humans in other tribes. That’s what we’re doing.” — Jan
- “Everything feels like it’s out of hand because we’ve gotten so far from the fundamentals.” — Jan
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
-
Interact with Jan and Jim on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
-
Richie Norton
-
Alan Beaulieu
- ITR Economics
- Mike Sciortino
- Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work, by Jim Detert
- Jim Detert
- Kim Cameron
- The Positive Coaching Alliance
- Jim Thompson
- All I Really Need to Know, I learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things, by Robert Fulghum
- Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, by Ryan Holiday
- John Wooden
- Kareem Abdul-Jabaar
- Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing, by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe
- Medal of Honor
- The Marshmallow Test
Richie Norton is the author of “Anti-Time Management,” and a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach. He is the CEO of Prouduct, an INC. 5000 company. In this episode, Richie opens up about tragedies that changed the way he lives, works, and spends time with his family. Richie describes work-life flexibility in three parts: Ability, Availability, and Autonomy. His message: Don’t defer your dreams.
https://bit.ly/TLP-332
Key Takeaways
[2:15] Richie Norton walks his dog on the beach every day. He travels the world and works from his phone.
[2:29] The name of his company, Prouduct, means products you’re proud of. At any given time, they make over 100 products. Besides being an entrepreneur, Richie coaches and consults. He is happily married and has seven children including three fosters. His youngest passed away but would have just turned 13.
[3:50] Years ago, Richie was in Nashville working with the Zig Ziglar team on a project. He got a text from the State of Hawaii that a missile was about to hit his house on Oahu. Then a text that said it was not a test. He called home and finally, his son answered the phone crying, “I love you, Dad.” He thought these were his last moments. It was all a mistake. It shook Richie into thinking about other events.
[5:02] Richie’s brother-in-law, Gavin, his wife’s only brother, had been living with their family. He passed away in his sleep at age 21. Life is short. They started living their lives differently and thinking about time differently. Richie’s fourth son, Gavin, named after his uncle, was born. He had a cough. Doctors said he was fine, but it turned out he had pertussis. In the hospital, he slipped away in his mother’s arms.
[6:25] In thinking of these two tragedies, Richie came up with Gavin’s Law: “Live to Start, Start to Live.”
Take the ideas that press on your mind, and start living them. Too many people push ideas aside claiming they don’t have the education, time, or money to make them happen.
[7:11] Richie worked with Stephen M.R. Covey while in his twenties, training executives. Richie thought he was too young for the job but it wasn’t about his experience, it was about continuous improvement and learning.
[8:05] Richie speaks of some life events. His foster children returned to their biological mother. His wife had a stroke and lost her memory. The business deal that took him to Hawaii fell through. His son got hit crossing the road and was badly injured. He is OK now. His wife got her memory back. Richie was shouldering a lot when he changed his life’s trajectory by putting meaning behind these events.
[9:52] With meaning, Richie was able to keep his faith and continue moving forward. His meaning was in asking himself, “How can I live better, not bitter?” When you get stuck on what happened, ask yourself how to assign positive meaning. Approach your work from the dream, not toward the dream.
[10:57] Covey would say, begin with the end in mind. He didn’t say, to begin with, the means in mind. You can change goals, habits, and strengths, which are all just means to an end. The approach of working from the dream and not endlessly toward it is powerful. You can collapse time. It’s a different way of thinking, living, and working. It’s anti-time management.
[12:54] Richie learned that grief is a tunnel, not a cave. Things happen that impact us and the way we see where we’re going and what we have to look forward to. Richie’s purpose is his family. He wants to create the ability to have availability. Purpose is having character, creating relationships of trust, and being available for his family, and those for whom he needs to be available when they need him most.
[15:48] Richie describes work-life flexibility in three parts: ability, availability, and agility or autonomy. When you look at the world through autonomy, availability, and ability, you can see how free you are to make the choices that you do, including the consequences.
[18:28] You have to value your time, not time your values. You can’t sacrifice what you love for success. When you sacrifice what you love for success, you get neither. Infuse your work with your values or you will get a hollow life with hollow hopes. You can have money and meaning. You’ve got to bake it in from the start.
[21:17] The second industrial revolution in the late 1800s came from the concept of time-motion studies. It is now known as Taylorism or time management. It was designed to control and master every aspect of workers. It takes and squeezes everything out of the worker for as long as possible to the point of breaking. Time management is about who controls how you use your time.
[22:32] Anti-Time Management gives you control over your time. In Time Management, others tell you what to do. In Anti-Time Management, you decide. There is a balance between the two approaches. A full calendar is an empty life. An empty calendar means you’re a leader; it’s been handled.
[25:18] The recent pandemic was the first time in history that everyone was experiencing the same thing at the same time. Technology advanced. Companies and talent started learning what was possible. People started seeing the world in a new way. People started distrusting companies and news outlets more than ever before. Of course, the corporations want everyone to come back in!
[26:38] Can productivity increase working from home? It depends on the situation.
[26:47] The leadership quality of the future that will be the most important leadership quality is discernment. When you have these gaps in data and interpretation, we need leaders and talent who can use discernment to fill them in to decide the direction we’re going to go.
[27:50] Never have the switching costs of moving from one company to another been lower. People change jobs every 4.6 years. The company that supports talent in working for their role in the home is going to be the winner.
[29:02] As soon as flexibility becomes a corporate benefit to the employee, it’s not a benefit to the employee anymore, it’s a longer leash.
[29:56] Discernment comes in asking better questions for better answers. Problems are multi-dimensional. With discernment, you can make decisions that no one else saw. Ask open-ended questions. You can develop discernment. Richie has great mentors and surrounds himself with good people that think differently. It helps to listen to great podcasts like The Leadership Podcast.
[33:23] If a chick doesn’t break out of its egg, it dies. Fear, negative pride, and procrastination are like an eggshell that we must break through to be our authentic selves. If you had no fear, pride, or procrastination, what would you be capable of? How would you feel? What would you do? You would be you. We go around trying to avoid past traumas through our decisions.
[36:10] Richie sees that people have fear at work. In corporations, there is 99% work signaling and 1% working. Jan cites Joel Peterson, former Chairman of JetBlue: “24 hours is more than enough time per day.” Richie talks about having a purpose or reason bigger than your fear. At the end of the day, you get what you want, tragedies aside. You’ve got to be willing to do the work.
[40:17] Richie does not like the retirement mentality. It has destroyed generations of people. He wants people to talk about it, as he does in Anti-Time Management. The retirement mentality is to put off what you want to do until you retire. You can do what you want now and find a way to responsibly support yourself your whole life.
[42:06] Richie talks about the marshmallow test. The original study indicated that a child willing to wait 15 minutes for a larger reward rather than accepting a smaller reward now, would do better in life. But later studies showed that was not true. Richie compares the patient child to the obedient employee, willing to wait for rewards. Waiting is great for some things, but not for everything.
[44:36] Your lifestyle is changed by how you get paid. The way you operate, the way you work, and the way you do things in order to earn, dictate your life. If you can work in a way where more gets done in less time, it will expand your ability to live, create, and be hyper-productive. Consider your purpose, priority, projects, and payments: If your payments can align with your purpose, you’re set.
[45:59] Closing quote: Remember, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” — Carl Sandburg
Quotable Quotes
- “I don’t think people work for work’s sake; I think we work for something else, and so I love to help people create that something else and find work to support it.”
- “I held him for a second and handed him to my wife; she was in a rocking chair and I had my hand on his heart and we sang lullabies. He slipped away. There’s nothing like having a human being die in your arms. There’s just nothing like that.”
- “I came up with what I call Gavin’s Law, which is ‘Live to start, start to live.’”
- “People say they have 20 years’ experience when in reality they only have one year’s experience, repeated 20 times. … Let’s go to work.” — Stephen M.R. Covey, per Richie Norton
- “A lot of times [people] get stuck on what happened. … Ask, … ‘How can I assign positive meaning to this?’ Because … if you can, then you can figure out your approach. When you approach something from the dream and not endlessly toward it, you work entirely differently.”
- “Goals, habits, and strengths have become means, that have become ends unto themselves. They’re just means to an end. You can change the goals, habits, and strengths.”
- “The way time tippers in Anti-Time Management treat time is the way Marie Kondo treats clothes and closet space. We look at it with, ‘What brings us joy? What doesn’t? What served us? What hasn’t?’”
- “You have to value your time, not time your values.”
- “I believe that the leadership quality of the future that will be the most important leadership quality is discernment. … When you have these gaps, we need leaders and talent who can use discernment to fill them in to decide the direction we’re going to go.”
- “There are more opportunities than ever. … People are saying to me, ‘How do we get the talent back?’ … Just hold on. … Never in the history of the world have the switching costs of working in one job or another been lower.”
- “If you want to be … the leader that brings in other leaders, … now we have an opportunity to show love, to be egoless, to look for talent where we are supporting them in the role that they’re working for … the role in the home; those are the companies that are going to win.”
- “Any fear that happens, if you don’t have a bigger purpose or a bigger reason, why would you do something about it? People are scared of losing their jobs and they stay.”
- “Change the way you get paid — change your life.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Richie Norton
- Anti-Time Management: Reclaim Your Time and Revolutionize Your Results with the Power of Time Tipping, by Richie Norton
- Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches
- Prouduct
- INC. 5000
- Zig Ziglar
- Stephen M.R. Covey
- Marie Kondo
- Second Industrial Revolution
- Taylorism
- Harry Potter
- “10 Ways to Crush Life (in 2 minutes by Richie Norton)"
- Joel Peterson
- JetBlue
- The Marshmallow Test
Warwick Fairfax is the Founder of Crucible Leadership, a philosophical and practical approach for turning business and personal failures into the fuel for living life on purpose, in service to others. In this interview, Warwick shares the wisdom gained from losing his 150 year-old family business worth two-billion-dollars. He talks about how he became a person of intention and reflection. He discusses how we need to delve into our values and beliefs and live in alignment with them. He shares why character means more than credentials. Listen in for the ultimate lesson on working through adversity and the importance of resilience.
https://bit.ly/TLP-331
Key Takeaways
[1:51] Warwick is a big cricket fan. He looks forward to watching a big upcoming Australian cricket tournament on an obscure cable channel in the U.S.
[3:24] Warwick grew up in Australia in his family’s 150-year-old media business. It felt like it was his duty to go into the company. He went to Oxford, as his father had done. He worked on Wall Street, then got his MBA at Harvard Business School. He was seen by his parents as the heir apparent. He could not choose not to go into it.
[5:38] Warwick believed the company wasn’t being well-run. In his youthful idealism, he launched a $2.25 billion takeover in August 1987. Things went wrong from the start. Other family members sold out and didn’t believe in Warwick or his vision. The company had an unsustainable level of debt. Warwick tried everything to keep it going. In 1990 they filed for bankruptcy. The company was sold.
[7:20] Warwick’s wife is American and the couple moved to America in the early ’90s; they have been here ever since. Warwick’s crucible was devastating. In Crucible Leadership, a crucible is defined as a devastating setback or failure that fundamentally transforms your life. It was excruciating. How could he have been so dumb with a Harvard MBA? Warwick was in a bad pit of despair. He was at rock bottom.
[9:40] Warwick was 26 years old when he launched the takeover. Blue-chip merchant bankers advised him not to do it. So he found less reputable bankers who told him, sure they can do it. They just didn’t tell him that it wouldn’t be sustainable. Warwick ignored the good advice and listened to the bad advice.
[12:38] Warwick credits his stability with his Christian faith which has always been the center of his life. His crucible brought him closer to his beliefs. Warwick believes God loves us all unconditionally. He doesn’t need our stuff or our successes; we’re not our rank or position, we’re valued as human beings, beautifully and wonderfully made. Warwick’s faith is a cornerstone.
[13:32] Warwick’s wife loves him unconditionally. Losing a couple of billion did not change that. In the ’90s, Warwick and his wife started having children. Warwick found meaningful work, such as doing finance at a local aviation services company and business analysis. The love of his family strengthened him. As he says on the podcast, Beyond the Crucible®, you’re not defined by your worst day.
[14:40] You have to dig deeply into your fundamental beliefs and values; are you going to be defined by your biggest mistake or this biggest thing that’s happened to you? When something bad happens to you, you can either be angry and bitter at others or yourself for years, or you can say, “This is awful; this is unconscionable; what I did was stupid; OK, but I have a choice how I move on from here, how I live.”
[15:51] Warwick’s essential problem was that he was living somebody else’s life. You’ve got to live your life and do what you were called to do, regardless of what laudable professions your parents have followed. You love your parents, but you don’t need to do what they did. You’ve got to be you.
[16:52] Failure can be helpful if it leads you to examine yourself. Often, vision comes out of the ashes of your crucible. The key is you’ve got to live your own life. You can’t inherit a vision. You’ve got to own it. You’ve got to feel like it’s your vision. That’s at the core of leading with uncompromised authenticity.
[19:57] When you grow up in wealth, the crucibles are different but they’re there. Warwick always felt extremely stressed by the sense of obligation to go into the family business. Growing up, if Warwick got in legal trouble, he knew it would be front-page news. He could not afford to fail and embarrass his family. Life won’t always be perfect. You don’t need to look for failure or crucibles.
[21:57] Crucible Leadership surveyed around 5,000 people asking how many of them had experienced crucibles of life-changing circumstances over their lives. It was 71%. There’s a 70% chance that people you know have gone through crucibles. Be forewarned before the battle. Have a game plan.
[23:23] Over the years, Warwick has asked executives what their values and beliefs are and to what degree they are living in alignment with their values and beliefs. If they are out of alignment, he asks, would they rather change their values and beliefs, or change how they live? They always want to get in alignment with their values and beliefs. Ask the question. People often miss that they are not aligned.
[25:35] If coaches don’t ask their executive clients about values and beliefs, nobody may ask and the clients may never think about it. They may go through life asking “Why is life so difficult? Why am I having all these crucibles?” Well, it may be self-inflicted. Maybe living out of alignment with their values and beliefs is part of the reason.
[26:23] Warwick offers “must-dos” to lead through a crisis. First, your team must feel heard. That doesn’t mean you do everything they say. Show empathy, appreciate their concern, and explain why you are going in a different direction. If they feel heard, they are OK with a different decision, as long as it is not a moral difference. Your team should know you care about them as people.
[28:47] If you listen to a team, and you’ve never taken input from any of them in 10 years, just saying “I hear you,” is not going to fly. At some point, you’ve got to take some input from your team, or listening is artificial. You need to know your blind spots. If you’ve got bright people on your team, you’ve got to trust them. If they all agree on something else, there’s a good chance that they’re right. Be humble.
[30:34] Ego stops us from doing things that every business book advises. Every Executive coach will say, “Trust your team.” Because of ego, we don’t do it, and it leads to business failure or suboptimal performance.
[31:39] It’s not just about getting to know people but about caring. You can’t teach people to care. If you don’t feel that people are worthwhile and deserve to be cared for, Warwick advises you to step away; resign. Let some other man or woman step into your job who can do a better job. If you have people on your team who demonstrate they don’t care for others, let them go and do damage somewhere else.
[35:20] Warwick states that hiring people that don’t care is bad for long-term company performance. If you don’t provide a caring, nurturing environment, you will not hire good people. It’s as hard to hire good people as it has been in the last hundred years. If you believe in your company’s long-term performance, you’ll hire people who care.
[36:33] Warwick would rather hire someone who cares than someone with the highest academic credentials. Their team will stick with that leader who cares. Hire for character. It’s the right economic choice and business choice. It’s the right ethical and values choice.
[38:44] Warwick reflects on what he as an executive coach might have told his 26-year-old self, but he says it wouldn’t have helped. He would not have been moved from his plan at 26. Sometimes things happen and you have to go through them to learn the lesson.
[39:56] In general, with young people, Warwick would coach them to make sure they understand their values, ethics, and beliefs. He would ask how what they are doing serves their values, ethics, and beliefs. People following a calling in line with their values and beliefs don’t stop at roadblocks. If they need help, they ask for it.
[40:45] Warwick will sometimes ask his team to reassure him before a presentation because he knows the material, but his emotions tell him he might fail. A strong, confident person is willing to admit their vulnerabilities and ask for help, at an appropriate level of sharing. It doesn't make you less of a leader, admitting you’re a little bit nervous.
[42:33] When you go through a crucible, don’t waste it. Learn the lessons. Have After-Action Reports. Learn to do what fits your values, beliefs, and wiring better.
[45:39] Warwick shares his views on business valuation. Executives often wrap their identity in what they do. They wonder if they sell low if that makes them worth less as a person. After they sell, at any price, what are they, since they are not Joe Business-owner? Don’t let your business identity stop you from making a rational business decision.
[47:48] Don’t just have an exit strategy; have a life strategy after selling the business. There are many worthwhile options, such as heading a non-profit, donating your time, creating a new start-up, or becoming a mentor, advisor, or angel investor. Close one chapter and start another chapter. Know your why. You’ve sold your company, not your identity.
[50:24] It’s hard not to see your identity wrapped up in what you do. It’s easy to say; it’s really hard. It’s normal to feel pain when you sell a business. Jan cites Clayton Christensen, “How will you measure your life?”
[51:26] Closing quote: Remember, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass
Quotable Quotes
- “It was my sacred duty to go into the family business because we didn’t just produce widgets, we produced something that was of service to the nation of Australia. … This sense of duty was so hard-wired in me, I could not not go into it.” — Warwick
- “I’m pretty good at giving grace to others; pretty bad at giving grace to myself. … I have a tendency to think if there's a problem in the world, it’s my fault. I tend not to blame others.”
- “They said, ‘Warwick, the numbers don’t add up, don’t do it.’ Well, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.”
- “When you go through a crucible, it either draws you closer to your verities and beliefs or further away.”
- “We say this all the time; we have our own podcast, Beyond the Crucible®, ‘You’re not defined by your worst day.’”
- “You don’t always have a choice about what happened to you but you can choose how you look at your life, moving forward. That’s the essence of beginning to get out of the pit of despair and beyond your crucible.”
- “My dad was sort of the intellectual guy that would have been a better philosophy professor. He was not a business guy at all. I mean, John Fairfax, my great-great-grandfather was a business guy but those genes had long since faded by the time it got to me, fifth generation.”
- “The key is you’ve got to live your own life. … It’s great to love your parents but you can’t inherit a vision. You’ve got to own it. You’ve got to feel like it’s your vision. So that’s probably at the core of leading with uncompromised authenticity.”
- “Unless you ask the question, they don’t even realize they’re living out of alignment with their values and beliefs because they don’t know what [they are]. We, as coaches, can really help our clients by just asking those questions. If we don’t ask, nobody may ask.”
- “Typically founders are not very good general managers. They’re good entrepreneurs but they’re just different skills, so be humble enough to trust your team. It sounds so simple and so easy but ego gets in the way and that’s the problem.”
- “Every executive coach will say, ‘Trust your team.’ This is not new, what I’m saying. But because of ego, people don’t do it. It’s so sad; frankly, it’s stupid. It will lead to business failure or suboptimal performance.”
- “I believe that hiring people that don’t care is bad for profitability and bad for long-term performance of the company. Maybe not short-term earnings per share, but long-term, because people like to work for people who care.”
- “Young people increasingly have choices and if you don’t provide a caring, nurturing environment, you won’t hire them. It’s as hard today to find good people as it’s ever been in the last maybe 100 years. … If you believe in … your company, hire people who care.”
- “If you’re following a calling that you’re passionate about that’s in line with your values and beliefs when you hit those roadblocks, you won’t stop. And when you do hit them, … a brave man or woman asks for help.”
- “You’re more than just your title. You’re more than just a nameplate on your door. If that’s who you think you are, then that’s very tragic because you’re set up for misery and a bit of a fall. So, there’s some soul work, in the broad sense of the word, that you’ve got to do.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Warwick Fairfax
-
Crucible Leadership
-
Beyond the Crucible® Podcast
-
Crucible Leadership: Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance, by Warwick Fairfax
- Cricket Tournaments in Australia
- Fairfax Media
- Oxford
- Harvard Business School
- Douglas MacArthur
- West Point
- Drexel Burnham
- John Fairfax
- The MacKay 66
- Harvey MacKay
- Clayton Christensen
Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz retired from the U.S. Army after 33 years. A career Special Forces Officer, Mark served in a multitude of command and staff assignments, including the United States Security Coordinator of the Israel-Palestinian Authority. In this interview, Mark reveals the importance of having the right advocates in your corner. Mark shares his advice for young leaders, women leaders, and others on being intentional and deliberate with how they approach their careers.
https://bit.ly/TLP-330
Key Takeaways
[3:10] Mark is pleased to be back in his home state of Colorado. Now that he is retired and has the opportunity to speak to civil society, he is focused on advocacy for women in leadership.
[4:28] Strategic influence and influence at the local level come from having the right advocates in your corner. Mark talks about the effects that suspending diplomatic relations between the Trump administration and the Palestinian Authority had in 2019. President Abbas had lost his most important ally and his influence waned, while Netanyahu’s influence increased.
[10:12] Mark learned from his time in Israel that everyone wants a leader who is ethically sound and has the character they want to emulate. It’s all about the people you have the privilege to represent and lead. If you’re not an example they’re proud of, people leave the organization and move on to find other leaders they want to work for and work with.
[13:38] Politics has entered the business conversation. In the military, it is necessary to support the administration, even though the oath is to the U.S. Constitution, not to an administration. In the military, you can voice your opposition at every election. Mark recommends following thbusiness practice: use your voice at the ballot box, not at work, to avoid some real challenges in the workplace.
[17:58] Loosely-bonded political alliances are essential. Mark illustrates that point with his first joint task at NATO leading the ground planning for a NATO mission expansion in Afghanistan. It was a very educational experience to learn the importance of inclusion. It applies also to businesses. Not everybody is going to get what they want but the voice of the collective body is powerful.
[22:33] Empathy at the staff and HQ levels for your coalition partners is an important aspect of success. You are representing your nation’s interests, but you respect the caveats and interests of others.
[26:18] In speaking of developing leadership, Mark describes an event along the Pakistani border that turned a situation from tactical to strategic quickly, for over six months. Mark was on mid-tour leave, but he called his commander to see if he was needed. He was told that someone he had helped develop had the situation in hand. The young operations officer managed a report to generals remarkably well.
[29:27] Mark shares a model for advocacy for women in the military and business. The talent between men and women is similar. Merit is the most important factor. If you aren’t consciously creating opportunities for fair and equal competition for promotion or strategic-level leadership, you let some of your best folks go. Consider the propensity to serve. Keep the standards consistent.
[33:51] People appreciate candid and honest feedback. All candidates are not equal. If someone is not qualified, you owe them that feedback to let them know why. Some preconceptions still exist. On one occasion, Mark explained to a female staff member that he was going to a well-qualified female executive officer to make an important statement to the command.
[36:38] When the Berlin wall came down in 1989, Mark thought that peace was almost here. There are still conflicts. Success against conflict comes through will and resolve, as Ukraine is showing the world. Mark talks about the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. As a nation, we need to understand the psyche of a country and determine what is achievable.
[40:10] Mark discusses negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, and why the Palestinians’ determination not to participate in any normalization dialog didn’t help them. Mark sees opportunities to work privately to create a better environment for the civil society of both Israelis and Palestinians. Mark offers suggestions of steps to take to get on track to reduce the levels of violence and tensions.
[45:23] Mark’s advice for young businesspeople with leadership aspirations is to focus on doing the best you can on the job you have. Build your core competencies. After three to five years, make your desire to take on an entry-level leadership responsibility known to your next-level leadership. That could lead to getting a mentor or sponsor. Management should be on the lookout for bright women and men.
[47:03] After you get your first leadership position, you will run into a lot of firsts. You will want a mentor or advocate because you don’t always go to your boss for help in dealing with things.
[47:53] If you desire to be a leader and develop talent in your organization, you’ve got to identify early those individuals that have the potential to mentor you. The higher in the organization you are, the more important it is to be mentored. As you move up to mid-management, that is when most women stop rising in the organization. The C-Suite needs to watch for women with merit to mentor.
[50:22] Mark is very grateful not only to have had the opportunity to serve as an American soldier but also to have had the support of the American people throughout his career. That support is highly appreciated by everybody who has served and who continues to serve.
[52:37] Closing quote: “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” — George Orwell
Quotable Quotes
- “If you don’t have the right advocates in your corner, it’s very hard to have any influence.” — Mark
- “It’s unfortunate when situations play out where the military is viewed as being politicized. As a senior leader in the military, it certainly disturbed me to see.” — Mark
- “If you’re truly doing your job in terms of talent and leader development, your responsibility is to advocate for those that you see potential in and create opportunities and provide advice, counsel, and sponsorship for those that deserve it.” — Mark
- “There’s no other way [besides DEI that] we’re going to balance equality across the workforce at every level.” — Mark
- “If you desire to be a leader and you desire to develop talent in your organization, you’ve got to identify early those individuals that have that potential. And as you get more senior, it becomes all the more important.” — Mark
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Mark C. Schwartz LTG(Ret)
- Special Operators Transition Foundation Event in Chicago, Summer 2022
- Christian Anschuetz
- Project RELO
- Israel
- President Mahmoud Abbas
- Palestinian National Authority
- President Benjamin Netanyahu
- Iran
- Tip O’Neill
- NATO
- McKinsey Research
- The Taliban
- IEDs
- ISIS
Hasard Lee is an F-35 pilot in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and has flown 82 combat missions. He has the distinction of being the only fighter pilot to employ two different types of jets in combat on the same day. Hasard is a content creator with one of the largest defense channels on YouTube - with over 54 million views and a reach of 290 million people. Hasard has a book coming out in May 2023, The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions. In this conversation, Hasard shares the rules for making tough decisions.
https://bit.ly/TLP-329
Key Takeaways
[2:44] Hasard joined the Reserves in 2020. He still flies once in a while. Most of his time is devoted to writing his upcoming book. Hasard’s father was a physicist in the Department of Energy so they moved from Livermore, CA, to Los Alamos, NM, and Washington D.C. for his job. Hasard went to his first air show when he was five. He has pictures of himself in an F-15 with a helmet on.
[3:59] Hasard got the flying bug when he was five. He memorized all the jets and was passionate about them. When he was 12, a friend of a friend of his father’s took him up in a Cessna 152 and Hasard got a little bit of yoke time. After that, he was hooked and he knew he wanted to fly in the Air Force. He started taking steps in high school to make it happen.
[6:11] The happy place for fighter pilots is in the cockpit, flying. But developing systems for training fighter pilots on the F-35 is one of the best things Hasard has ever done. The F-35 is the most expensive weapons system in history and will probably fly into the 2070s. The training tech included simulators on laptops, VR goggles, and high-end simulators, all setting pilots on the right path for the next decades.
[9:03] Joining pilots of different jets into one program is like a merger. And most mergers fail! Hasard contrasts the competencies of A-10 pilots for close air support for troops on the ground with the F-16 pilots that do much of what the F-35 pilots do, and the F-22 and F-15C pilots. Part of Hasard’s job was to create the syllabus, building from the lowest common denominator of what the pilots knew.
[11:54] Hasard planned his book to be entertaining and to incorporate some of the principles he learned as a fighter pilot. Most chapters have a story from Hasard’s time flying and a story from history or the business world. He breaks it down through ACE: Assess, Choose, and Execute. That’s how fighter pilots make decisions. It’s developed from John Boyd’s OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.
[12:44] Hasard explains assessing and prioritizing the information that comes before you using laws of power: exponential growth, diminishing returns, and knees in the curve; how to make decisions based on expected values; and execution. The number one thing is being prepared. Start with visualization, or “chair flying” from the beginning to the end in your mind, and plan how to handle contingencies.
[18:07] How do you learn to evaluate the odds? With debriefs. A pilot will go fly for an hour and then debrief that flight for two to six hours and pick through everything that has gone right and wrong to sharpen their mental model and make it more in line with reality. Check your ego at the door. Call everything out.
[19:55] This needs to be done better in the civilian world. Spend time with your team and write down lessons learned after every project in some sort of document that everybody can reference. After every flight, Hasard writes down in a little notebook three things he could have done better. Then, the next time he has a similar flight, he reads those notes to prepare. Leaders: are you doing this enough?
[22:43] We’re all leaders. When it comes down to being a good leader, you need four things: Competence in your job and a level of competence in jobs that report to you, Caring, Conviction in the vision of what you do, and in the boundaries you will not cross, and Clarity for solving problems. With these four characteristics, you can get a team to move quickly in a certain direction.
[25:21] Everything is predicated on how well you sleep. You perform better and make better decisions. It’s hard for fighter pilots to get enough sleep because they fly at all hours. A noise machine in the bedroom helps. Sleep is an exponential benefit to what you do. It will help every aspect of your life from your relationships to how well you see the world to solve problems. At least eight hours is optimal.
[28:25] Self-care, such as nutrition, sleep, hydration, physical therapy, and psychology are being emphasized now in pilot training. The evidence is getting out there. It just needs to be a priority. Generation Z is prepared for it by not smoking.
[31:30] Being a fighter pilot is not a one v. one cage match or Top Gun with four aircraft. Pilots work with hundreds of aircraft operating together. They deal with the space domain, the cyberspace domain, people on the ground, and aircraft ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance). It’s a force package of 100-plus assets working to create the best team possible. And the enemy is just as smart.
[33:06] Advice for younger people who want to be fighter pilots: You don’t need to have perfect vision anymore! You can have Lasik or fly with contact lenses or glasses. If you want to be a fighter pilot, apply!
[33:44] Hasard has noticed that in the military, everyone has similar values, along a range. The business world is more of an open ocean and you have to be discerning to figure out where a person is coming from and their intentions, and how well they execute. When you hire someone, they haven’t been through OCS or the Academy and pilot training. They don’t think like the military. Hiring is a challenge.
[36:35] Hasard has a “Never Again story.” When he was a lieutenant learning to fly an F-16 he was doing high-aspect BFM with a colonel with 25 years of experience. Hasard wanted to impress the colonel. He pulled up to vertical at 245 knots — six knots too slow! He fell out of control. He was able to get the jet under control at 2,000 feet. He learned small changes in input can make very large changes in output.
[42:06] Closing quote: Remember, “Clarity affords focus.” — Thomas Leonard
Quotable Quotes
- “There are three important power laws you have to know: Exponential Growth, … Diminishing Return, … and Knees in the Curve.” — Hasard
- “If you can slow down to less than about 250 knots [before ejecting], you drastically increase your chance of survival because speed behaves exponentially.” — Hasard
- “As soon as you put on your helmet, you lose 20 I.Q. points. And what that means is you don’t rise to the level of your expectations, you fall to the level of your preparation. … You have to be prepared … in a training environment even more difficult than combat.” — Hasard
- “If I could talk about all the benefits of sleep without saying it was sleep and just saying it was a pill, I think I’d probably be a billionaire. Because everything is predicated on how well you sleep. You perform better … you make better decisions.” — Hasard
- “[Falling in an out-of-control jet] was a big eye-opening story for me that small changes in input can have exponentially large changes in the output.” — Hasard
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Hasard Lee
- Hasard Lee's YouTube channel
- Hasard X
- F-35
- F-16
- High-aspect BFM
- The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions (Coming in May 2023)
- Cessna 152
- King Air
- A-10
- F-22
- F-15
- The Power of Clarity: Unleash the True Potential of Workplace Productivity, Confidence, and Empowerment, by Ann Latham
- Malcolm Gladwell
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande
- John Boyd’s OODA Loop
- LASIK
- OCS
Whitney Johnson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Disruption Advisors, a talent development company. Whitney is a globally-recognized thought leader. author, keynote speaker, executive coach, consultant, and a popular LinkedIn Learning instructor. In this conversation, Whitney discusses how musicality has lessons for the business world, and the wide applications of the S-Curve.
https://bit.ly/TLP-328
Key Takeaways
[2:35] At her daughter’s prompting during the pandemic, Whitney and her family started watching Korean dramas. The family became obsessed with them. Whitney now studies Korean for two minutes a day on Duolingo. Whitney describes the characteristics of Korean dramas.
[5:22] Whitney majored in music, studying classical piano and jazz. Because of her musical background, when she structures a keynote, a book, or a podcast, she looks for musicality and a musical structure to it. Musical structure and musicality inform the work she does. Also, as an experienced accompanist, she knows how to be second, allowing her to be a good interviewer, and as a coach, to listen well.
[7:04] Brett Mitchell, the former conductor of the Colorado Symphony, said that music is what happens between the notes. Whitney discusses pauses relating to leadership and cites Clayton Christiansen, saying that partway through his career, Clayton Christiansen started a practice of praying before teaching a class. Once he started that practice, he started to have a significant impact on his students.
[8:42] Whitney suggests that before you speak, have a meeting, or a coaching session, you pause and think about the person you’re about to speak to, and how to convey to the person that they matter to you, that is an element of leadership.
[10:33] Wayne Muller, author of Sabbath, pointed out the pauses in Martin Luther King’s exclamation, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
[11:41] Gino Wickman, in The EOS Life, recommends entrepreneurs take sabbaticals. One of Jim’s clients just took a sabbatical and reported that stepping back and taking a break allowed them to reflect and then grow.
[12:20] Whitney has a LinkedIn Learning class, Grow Yourself, Grow Your Leaders, and a book, Smart Growth. Whitney’s view is that we are wired to grow. Virtuous growth is growing in such a way that everyone around you grows as well. She believes that human growth is unbounded.
[13:23] Sociologist Everett Rogers applied the S-Curve to the study of how quickly innovation is adopted. Working with Clayton Christiansen, Whitney realized she could apply the S-Curve to individual change and growth. Growth comes in three stages: slow (launch), fast (sweet spot), and slow (master place). Every time you start a new role or a new job, you go through the curve. This is covered in Smart Growth.
[14:45] Whitney’s LinkedIn course focuses on how to create the conditions where people around you can grow, with the resources they need, and how they can feel connected to what they’re doing and the people they’re working with. Whitney also talks about building resilience and nurturing people. If you can do all those things, you’re creating conditions wherein the people around you can grow.
[16:59] Whitney makes the underlying assumption that if you will grow yourself then, by the contagion effect, the people around you will grow. Then, by default, your business will grow.
[17:49] You can manage your organization as a portfolio of curves. The people at the curve’s launch point will need the most support. They will also have a fresh perspective, opening the door to innovation. You want about 20% of the people in your organization to be new, 60% to be in the sweet spot, and 20% in master, ready for a new challenge. This is a good distribution for innovation.
[20:10] De-prioritize the things you do really well that somebody else could do. Whitney gives an example from a client. If you stop doing the things you should delegate to others, you will have time to do the things only you can do, and you get out of the way for them to work on the steep part of the S-Curve.
[23:06] Every organization needs to have, as part of their vision, growing human beings and helping them reach their potential. The vision starts with the founders, and as people join the organization, they begin to co-create the vision with the founders. Everyone helps each other grow. In the most fluid, powerful organizations, everyone contributes to the creation of the vision.
[26:56] Whitney addresses growth pre-pandemic, in-pandemic, and post-pandemic. A lot of adaptation and resilience have been required. When people are under stress, they go to default stress behaviors. You need to make sure people work together and not against each other. People want to grow but are not always sure how to do it. This goes back to Whitney’s course, Grow Yourself, Grow Your Leaders.
[28:39] Whitney asks Jan and Jim for their thoughts on getting people to work together under stress. Jim states that when people are stressed they need time and space to solve their problems. People are pausing to figure out how to work together. People need time and space to get up to game speed. Executives are not paid to be busy. Pausing is a good way to grow by asking yourself tough questions.
[31:35] Whitney has an assessment that she administers to clients. It includes seven accelerants of growth. The one that ranks the lowest is frequently “Step back to grow.” People are not taking time to pause and reflect. Whitney quotes Tiffany Shlain who asks, “What if we thought of ‘rest’ as technology because the promise of technology is to make you more productive?”
[34:17] Egon Zehnder surveyed 1,000 executives whether they strongly agreed that to transform your organization you need to transform yourself. Before the pandemic, 18% of executives agreed. After the pandemic, 805 of the executives agreed. The only way you have the moral authority to ask people to change is if you, yourself, are changing. The fundamental unit of change is the individual at every level.
[37:52] Whitney lists some people that inspire her, and why: Rashika Tolshan, who wrote about the Queen of England passing away, Brené Brown, Musician Jacob Collier, author Richie Norton, and NFL QB Steve Young. Each of them inspired Whitney with their visions of growth.
[41:35] When Whitney was making her list of influential people, her default was to go to all men. She had to make sure she included some women. She had to be very mindful and deliberate to determine who is actually influencing her and she wanted a diversity of perspectives. Jim highlights the leadership lesson of intentionality.
[42:49] Whitney’s audience homework: On the topic of pausing and resting, listen to these two episodes of Whitney’s Step Back to Grow podcast: Episode 139 with filmmaker Tiffany Schlain and Episode 180. Don’t avoid taking a pause to rest.
[43:57] Closing quote: Remember, “It’s all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” — Queen Elizabeth II
Quotable Quotes
- “Because of being a musician, I think of things in a musical sort of way. When I’m structuring a keynote; … a book; … a podcast, there’s always a sense of, ‘Is there a musicality to it; is there a musical structure to it?’” — Whitney
- “I wrote a piece about the importance of taking a break, that you needed to rest because the ability to rest was going to allow you to recharge so that you could then move forward.” — Whitney
- “For me, growth is our default setting. We’re wired to grow.” — Whitney
- “Every time we start something new, we’re on a new S-Curve. There are three stages. There’s the launch point that feels slow, there’s the sweet spot, … where growth is fast, … and … the master place, where growth is … slow.” — Whitney
- “People who are successful are intentional. It doesn’t just fall in your lap. … Successful people are intentional people and [a high] level intentionality is something to be admired and something for people listening to this podcast to take away.” — Jim
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Whitney Johnson
- Disruption Advisors
- Korean Dramas
- Duolingo
- Tiffany Shlain on Step Back to Grow, Episode 139 with Whitney Johnson
- Step Back to Grow, Episode 180 with Whitney Johnson
- Brett Mitchell
- Clayton Christiansen
- Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, by Wayne Muller
- I Have a Dream
-
Gino Wickman
-
The EOS Life: How to Live Your Ideal Entrepreneurial Life
-
Grow Yourself, Grow Your Leaders, with Whitney Johnson on LinkedIn Learning
- Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company, by Whitney Johnson
- Everett Rogers
- 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week, by Tiffany Shlain
- Egon Zehnder
- Ruchika Tulshyan
- Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience, by Brené Brown
- Jacob Collier
- Anti-Time Management: Reclaim Your Time and Revolutionize Your Results with the Power of Time Tipping, by Richie Norton
- Steve Young
Audrey Darley Welch heads up the partner program for Darley Defense, W.S. Darley & Company’s military distribution business and its largest division. Her team manages the company’s partnerships with key suppliers of tactical and fire-fighting products and services. In this episode, Audrey shares lessons she learned from working in various industries and now at Darley. She tells how she adapts to working in a male-oriented field, how she applies sports metaphors to her team, and what she learned from bad assumptions.
https://bit.ly/TLP-327
Key Takeaways
[2:09] Audrey originally had intended to become a high school math teacher and volleyball coach. But she didn’t realize you had to be a calculus whiz to teach algebra! She decided to go into finance, instead. She is still passionate about sports and coaching.
[3:01] Darley, a family-owned business of four generations, has a family employment policy that requires family members to work outside the business for a period before joining Darley. Audrey had not planned to work at Darley. She started a banking career after college. After three years, she considered joining Darley. For a year she went to board meetings and shareholder meetings and researched Darley.
[3:53] When Audrey decided she wanted to join Darley, she wrote an application essay. The open position was a dealer development person for Darley’s legacy pump division. She got the job and spent a year working in that area but it was not the ideal position for her background in finance and relationship management.
[4:28] Audrey was interested in getting exposure to different areas of the business. She found a position in supplier relationship management in the Defense Division. It was a job she was weel-qualified for and she has been working in the supplier relationship function for the last seven years.
[5:40] Working at a large bank before coming to Darley allowed Audrey to see how big companies do things, their policies, and their structure. She was able to see what her strengths were at work. The largest thing she learned was the discipline and accountability of being part of a professional organization.
[7:03] Audrey feared before joining Darley that she would have to follow her father’s leadership style. He is an extrovert and Audrey is introverted. Audrey’s advice to the next generation would be to be natural. She also advises the next generation to find out what fresh ideas the business needs to set it up for success, respecting the secret sauce, the family. Darley has had 300% growth in the last five years.
[10:01] Audrey doesn’t have a problem with being an offspring, the fourth generation, or being a woman in a male-dominated field. She works well with her male cousins and men in the industry. She goes on pheasant hunts, fishing, and to the Wisconsin supper clubs with the men, so being a woman didn’t make a difference to her career. Audrey describes a Wisconsin supper club, for those unfamiliar.
[12:34] Audrey talks about one’s personal responsibility to pursue professional development. Especially in the family business environment, it’s all about initiative. She doesn’t expect her generation to be nurtured in the business. Each person needs to pave their own way. Audrey recommends a career map with a “From-To” statement and figuring out what kind of experiences you need to get there.
[15:26] Does Audrey want to be President? At Darley, there is no job description for President; currently, the CEO, President, and Chairman are all the same person. So Audrey went ahead and developed a job description for the President as she sees it and as she thinks she would do well in that role, and where they can split off CEO responsibilities. She finds those types of exercises to be very refreshing.
[17:25] Soon, the fourth generation will get together to talk about all the positions and get clarity on succession planning. Everybody at Darley has worn a lot of different hats, and it’s time to separate their roles, especially of the senior leadership team.
[18:51] In a mid-level role like Audrey’s, leadership is tough. She has five direct reports and will soon have six. The company is trying to scale, with top-level goals, and every team is checking that their goals align with the company goals, but managers may not realize they do not align with cross-functional team goals. Audrey shares a misstep she had made with goals that impacted the Sales Team’s goals.
[22:11] Audrey presented to senior management in a virtual meeting the initiative she had developed. When she heard “crickets,” she knew something was wrong. She started getting pushback from sales and business development. Her incorrect assumptions had damaged her trust level across departments. Sales reps started having friction with account managers. Get feedback! Silence is not compliance!
[24:46] Audrey ties a lot of her leadership to sports and the volleyball she played in school. She was the setter in volleyball, setting her teammates up for success. The setter is usually named the captain of the team because they’re running the plays. At work, she considers herself the captain of her team, and the coach. Audrey is concerned about perfecting the fundamentals.
[25:46] Audrey’s volleyball coach had her do 1,000 repetitions against the wall before coming out for a game to start setting people up in the warm-up. She uses repetition at Darley, focusing on strategies and core competencies.
[27:30] Sports metaphors may not work for everybody. Audrey says something that applies to almost all sports is never to sacrifice form for speed. That’s how you get injured. Slow down to speed up.
[28:45] Government contract bids need to be submitted within 72 hours. Audrey says that cutting corners on supplier due diligence can cause problems. Darley’s core value is integrity, and speed is not integrity. Never bypass your core values.
[31:54] Audrey tells how she achieves work-life balance. She has her priorities straight. Even so, when she chooses personal over business or business over personal, sometimes there is some guilt felt. Her husband helps. Figure out work patterns with your partner or whoever is helping you with all this and get into a routine.
[34:38] Audrey does not think remote work will go away. Audrey prefers hybrid to all-remote. About 60% of companies are offering remote work. It’s not a fad. Audrey values in-person collaboration.
She values in-person collaboration time in the office. That can be managed in two-to-three days. Remote doesn’t work for every position. Audrey’s quality of life has drastically improved through hybrid work.
[37:08] Audrey comments on what veterans can do to have a successful transition to business life. Veterans at Darley are very aligned with and connected to the mission, which catapults their careers forward. The biggest challenge is understanding the business world. You need to be flexible and wear different hats. You may be uncomfortable. Getting an MBA before coming to Darley helps a lot.
[40:21] Three points that will help anyone transitioning into the business world: 1. Be curious, 2. Be adaptable, and 3. Figure out ways to be confident without knowing everything about everything.
[41:04] Audrey’s closing thought for listeners: Build your sounding board early. Besides joining forums, having mentors, and tapping the knowledge of the board of directors, it is most important to participate in a peer group to help you get where you want to go.
[42:37] Closing quote: Remember, “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self.” —Aldous Huxley
Quotable Quotes
- “I found out that I’m very detail-oriented and I do like relationship management on the customer side.” — Audrey
- “Are we setting up the future of the business for success with the way that we have it? Right now, we’ve had 300% growth over the last five years.” — Audrey
- “When it comes to building trust and relationships, I’m out there doing the pheasant hunts, and the fishing, and the beer-drinking, and the supper clubs in Wisconsin up near our plant, and all that. So I don’t think [being a woman] really did play a role.” — Audrey
- “I ran through, ‘This is what it means for the division, this is what it means for sales.’ I was trying to highlight all the good things that would come from an initiative like this. … It was like ‘crickets.’ … Sometimes not hearing anything at all can be a message.” — Audrey
- “[Sports] is where it all started. And I still do, I tie a lot of it back to sports, or even just fitness, in general. I was a setter in volleyball, very much the quarterback or the point guard equivalent. You’re setting people up for success.” — Audrey
- “You won’t hear me say I don’t value that in-person collaboration time.” — Audrey
- “We’re a distributor and we sell a lot of different types of products, we call on a lot of different types of customers. … They may not feel as comfortable. … Everybody’s bought into the importance of the equipment we sell.” — Audrey
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Audrey Darley Welch
- Pareto Principle
Dr. Marianne Lewis is renowned for her research on the paradoxes of leadership and is coauthor, with Wendy Smith, of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Greatest Problems. The conversation covers how we can learn to think about paradoxes, and why tension is necessary for balance - and to achieve innovation.
https://bit.ly/TLP-326
Key Takeaways
[2:14] Marianne grew up with a father in academia. She was determined not to be a professor in academia. In her rebellion, she came to the Midwest to find her space. And she loves Cincinnati and is absolutely in academia, studying leaders.
[3:51] Marianne addresses why “both/and” thinking is essential for emotional balance and rational behavior.
[5:25] Marianne refers to James March’s teachings about the complexity and messiness of the world we live in and bounded rationality, meaning there’s just so much one can take in. We do what we need to do to get by in a busy, complicated, messy world that pushes us toward looking at our tensions and dilemmas as “either/or” trade-offs.
[7:08] A few years ago, Marianne and her team built a psychological “instrument” they call a paradox mindset. They’ve studied thousands of people in multiple languages. From their observations, it appears that the way we think is learned. Your ability to manage tensions appears to do with how often you deal with tensions and how much you try to embrace and work through them. More study is to come.
[9:45] Paradox thinking and systems thinking are related. A “both/and” thinker tends to think more in systems, looking for interactions and feedback loops. Systems thinking involves looking at complexity in context and in new ways. “Both/and” thinking adds to looking for the value in tensions as you work through the complexity to find more creative and more lasting solutions to your problems.
[11:18] There are tensions between things and between systems, but the important tensions are between individuals. Marianne has worked in this field for 25 years, 20 of them with Wendy. They found three factors that intensify the experience of tensions:
-
Change. Today is becoming tomorrow faster.
-
Scarcity. As soon as you feel that you’re slicing the pie thinner, you feel tension.
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Plurality. A multiplicity of stakeholders with pressures that differ.
[12:13] We’re in the perfect storm of change, scarcity, and plurality. We are living in tensions in our lives, organizations, and society. The tensions are interwoven across levels and facets.
[13:48] Vicious cycles reinforce errors in our thinking. Marianne talks about three vicious cycles:
-
Going down the rabbit hole, or deep ruts of behavior.
-
Overcorrecting in the opposite direction.
-
Polarization. Shouting, diminishing each other, and doing anything but listening.
[15:47] Get out of the trench by asking, “What are they thinking? What are they seeing? Can we learn?”
[16:43] Virtuous cycles are reinforcing tendencies that help us navigate tensions. Marianne sees two patterns of virtuous cycles. One is Creative Integration, taking the best of two extremes, such as radical innovation and efficiency, and putting them together creatively. Marianne compares this to a mule, stronger than a horse and smarter than a donkey. Creative integration is rare.
[18:13] The second pattern of virtuous cycles, Dynamic Balancing, is more common. Marianne compares this to tightrope walking; looking to the horizon while dealing with the present tensions. Don’t panic in tense moments; keep moving forward. You’ll learn as you do it.
[21:01] Help people understand why embracing tensions and creative friction fosters opportunities for creativity, learning, and older innovations, moving forward. Marianne tells of Paul Polman when he was CEO of Unilever, who said Unilever would double its profits by reducing its environmental footprint. On every issue he discussed, he wanted to have tension on the team. He was provocative and purposeful.
[24:22] “Either/or” and “both/and” thinking are both about decision-making. Uncertainty is potentially paralyzing for “either/or” thinkers. You don’t know what the right solution is and the right solution tomorrow may be different. But the point is to keep making decisions, having the confidence and the humility to know you can move forward, whatever the results are. Keep in mind your higher purpose.
[26:06] The boundary around the tensions is what holds the elements together. Marianne is seeing an existential crisis in academia and business that strikes her as a lack of meaning. We need to be pushing harder on finding that boundary.
[26:43] Is work a transaction of time for money, or does it have meaning and legacy? You serve other people and make their lives better. Leaders need to create an environment where people want to come and bring their best. If a company has a bunch of people in transaction mode, Jan puts it on the leaders. Marianne says it’s key for that leader to tap into why they are there. Make the transactions matter.
[29:02] Marianne addresses the role of leaders to help us out of the malaise in our society, even in this wonderful world. First, ask why we feel that malaise. Richard Farson wrote of the paradox of rising expectations. At the lowest state, there’s no hope. As people realize the potential, as hope grows, the bar raises and people see what could be! The frustrations and protests rise.
[30:20] The frustration should be encouraging to leaders. If your people are silent, either they don’t care or they are so far below the water that they don’t have time or energy to complain. The complaining is because people see that we could be ever better. The world is so polarized because we have very different views of how we get there. You get turf warfare between different sides with different ideas.
[31:09] If we could agree that we all want a better world. There are lots of paths to get there. How do we listen and learn from each other? We need leaders, ourselves included, to make sure that raised bar says it’s about wanting a better world. It’s not about the how, it’s about what we want. Let’s have good debates and get the friction in the room and think about how we get there.
[31:54] Sam Walker, author of The Captain Class, told about a study he did of the most successful sports teams in history. They had captains with unique characteristics that helped build the teams. They dealt with task conflicts and process conflicts but avoided personal conflicts at all costs. When people focus on the task or process, it is productive, not a personal attack.
[33:20] Marianne discusses two sides of conflict: the destructive and the empowering. The difference is your focus: the person, feeling the emotion, or the task, the higher purpose, what you want to get done. When you focus on the person, things escalate in a way that is not productive. Some of us are going to have to model the way with different leadership styles.
[34:31] Marianne is grateful every day to have a colleague like Wendy Smith. One of the reasons their partnership has been so productive is that they are really different. They have all sorts of differences but they found a lot of similarities. They want a better world, they believe in learning and innovation. While they were writing their book, they found themselves in many late-night deep discussions on challenges.
[38:37] Marianne’s challenge to listeners: Start paying more attention to the questions you are asking. Are you asking “either/or” questions? Those questions immediately limit your options. Start asking more “both/and” questions, such as, “How do we make this world more sustainable and more productive?”
[39:35] Closing quote: Remember, “How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress!” — Niels Bohr
Quotable Quotes
- “We tend to define things by what they’re not. We think in terms of contrast. … You’re either ‘A’ or ‘Not-A.’ So we think in terms of opposites, even if those opposites aren’t actually direct contradictions. … The way we think … influences the way we feel.” — Marianne
- “We’re wired to have these heuristic shortcuts, these cognitive biases. … What we feel is completely logical but it might not be.” — Jim
- “People who have a greater paradox mindset, especially when they’re working or living in a world of tensions, … are more productive, more creative, and happier; more satisfied. … They see tensions as opportunities.” — Marianne
- “We use the analogy of a mule, which is stronger than a horse and smarter than a donkey.” — Marianne
- “I think about friction in two ways: 1. It can produce drag, or 2. It can produce traction.” — Jan
- “One way to think about how you hold together your tensions is [to ask] ‘What do you want this to be in the broader world?’” — Marianne
- “I’m sensing an existential crisis. I see it, whether in academia or business, and that strikes me as a sense of lack of meaning. We need to be pushing harder on ‘What is that boundary?’” — Marianne
- “For all the rising expectations going on around us and the frustration, the lack of listening and compassion is painful to me.” — Marianne
- “We wanted to write this book; we did not want this to be a purely business book. These same patterns and tools work at the individual level as a mother, as a friend, and we have seen powerful examples working at the societal level. ” — Marianne
- “I don’t want you to think what I think but I’d love us to be aligned with what we want in the end goal.” — Marianne
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Marianne Lewis, Ph.D.
-
Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati
-
Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Greatest Problems
-
HBR Press
- James March
- Systems Thinking
- Donnella Meadows
- Peter Senge
- Paul Polman
- Unilever
- Richard Farson
- Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership, by Richard Farson
- The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams, by Sam Walker
Dr. Marianne Lewis is renowned for her research on the paradoxes of leadership and is coauthor, with Wendy Smith, of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Greatest Problems. The conversation covers how we can learn to think about paradoxes, and why tension is necessary for balance - and to achieve innovation.
https://bit.ly/TLP-326
Key Takeaways
[2:14] Marianne grew up with a father in academia. She was determined not to be a professor in academia. In her rebellion, she came to the Midwest to find her space. And she loves Cincinnati and is absolutely in academia, studying leaders.
[3:51] Marianne addresses why “both/and” thinking is essential for emotional balance and rational behavior.
[5:25] Marianne refers to James March’s teachings about the complexity and messiness of the world we live in and bounded rationality, meaning there’s just so much one can take in. We do what we need to do to get by in a busy, complicated, messy world that pushes us toward looking at our tensions and dilemmas as “either/or” trade-offs.
[7:08] A few years ago, Marianne and her team built a psychological “instrument” they call a paradox mindset. They’ve studied thousands of people in multiple languages. From their observations, it appears that the way we think is learned. Your ability to manage tensions appears to do with how often you deal with tensions and how much you try to embrace and work through them. More study is to come.
[9:45] Paradox thinking and systems thinking are related. A “both/and” thinker tends to think more in systems, looking for interactions and feedback loops. Systems thinking involves looking at complexity in context and in new ways. “Both/and” thinking adds to looking for the value in tensions as you work through the complexity to find more creative and more lasting solutions to your problems.
[11:18] There are tensions between things and between systems, but the important tensions are between individuals. Marianne has worked in this field for 25 years, 20 of them with Wendy. They found three factors that intensify the experience of tensions:
-
Change. Today is becoming tomorrow faster.
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Scarcity. As soon as you feel that you’re slicing the pie thinner, you feel tension.
-
Plurality. A multiplicity of stakeholders with pressures that differ.
[12:13] We’re in the perfect storm of change, scarcity, and plurality. We are living in tensions in our lives, organizations, and society. The tensions are interwoven across levels and facets.
[13:48] Vicious cycles reinforce errors in our thinking. Marianne talks about three vicious cycles:
-
Going down the rabbit hole, or deep ruts of behavior.
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Overcorrecting in the opposite direction.
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Polarization. Shouting, diminishing each other, and doing anything but listening.
[15:47] Get out of the trench by asking, “What are they thinking? What are they seeing? Can we learn?”
[16:43] Virtuous cycles are reinforcing tendencies that help us navigate tensions. Marianne sees two patterns of virtuous cycles. One is Creative Integration, taking the best of two extremes, such as radical innovation and efficiency, and putting them together creatively. Marianne compares this to a mule, stronger than a horse and smarter than a donkey. Creative integration is rare.
[18:13] The second pattern of virtuous cycles, Dynamic Balancing, is more common. Marianne compares this to tightrope walking; looking to the horizon while dealing with the present tensions. Don’t panic in tense moments; keep moving forward. You’ll learn as you do it.
[21:01] Help people understand why embracing tensions and creative friction fosters opportunities for creativity, learning, and older innovations, moving forward. Marianne tells of Paul Polman when he was CEO of Unilever, who said Unilever would double its profits by reducing its environmental footprint. On every issue he discussed, he wanted to have tension on the team. He was provocative and purposeful.
[24:22] “Either/or” and “both/and” thinking are both about decision-making. Uncertainty is potentially paralyzing for “either/or” thinkers. You don’t know what the right solution is and the right solution tomorrow may be different. But the point is to keep making decisions, having the confidence and the humility to know you can move forward, whatever the results are. Keep in mind your higher purpose.
[26:06] The boundary around the tensions is what holds the elements together. Marianne is seeing an existential crisis in academia and business that strikes her as a lack of meaning. We need to be pushing harder on finding that boundary.
[26:43] Is work a transaction of time for money, or does it have meaning and legacy? You serve other people and make their lives better. Leaders need to create an environment where people want to come and bring their best. If a company has a bunch of people in transaction mode, Jan puts it on the leaders. Marianne says it’s key for that leader to tap into why they are there. Make the transactions matter.
[29:02] Marianne addresses the role of leaders to help us out of the malaise in our society, even in this wonderful world. First, ask why we feel that malaise. Richard Farson wrote of the paradox of rising expectations. At the lowest state, there’s no hope. As people realize the potential, as hope grows, the bar raises and people see what could be! The frustrations and protests rise.
[30:20] The frustration should be encouraging to leaders. If your people are silent, either they don’t care or they are so far below the water that they don’t have time or energy to complain. The complaining is because people see that we could be ever better. The world is so polarized because we have very different views of how we get there. You get turf warfare between different sides with different ideas.
[31:09] If we could agree that we all want a better world. There are lots of paths to get there. How do we listen and learn from each other? We need leaders, ourselves included, to make sure that raised bar says it’s about wanting a better world. It’s not about the how, it’s about what we want. Let’s have good debates and get the friction in the room and think about how we get there.
[31:54] Sam Walker, author of The Captain Class, told about a study he did of the most successful sports teams in history. They had captains with unique characteristics that helped build the teams. They dealt with task conflicts and process conflicts but avoided personal conflicts at all costs. When people focus on the task or process, it is productive, not a personal attack.
[33:20] Marianne discusses two sides of conflict: the destructive and the empowering. The difference is your focus: the person, feeling the emotion, or the task, the higher purpose, what you want to get done. When you focus on the person, things escalate in a way that is not productive. Some of us are going to have to model the way with different leadership styles.
[34:31] Marianne is grateful every day to have a colleague like Wendy Smith. One of the reasons their partnership has been so productive is that they are really different. They have all sorts of differences but they found a lot of similarities. They want a better world, they believe in learning and innovation. While they were writing their book, they found themselves in many late-night deep discussions on challenges.
[38:37] Marianne’s challenge to listeners: Start paying more attention to the questions you are asking. Are you asking “either/or” questions? Those questions immediately limit your options. Start asking more “both/and” questions, such as, “How do we make this world more sustainable and more productive?”
[39:35] Closing quote: Remember, “How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress!” — Niels Bohr
Quotable Quotes
- “We tend to define things by what they’re not. We think in terms of contrast. … You’re either ‘A’ or ‘Not-A.’ So we think in terms of opposites, even if those opposites aren’t actually direct contradictions. … The way we think … influences the way we feel.” — Marianne
- “We’re wired to have these heuristic shortcuts, these cognitive biases. … What we feel is completely logical but it might not be.” — Jim
- “People who have a greater paradox mindset, especially when they’re working or living in a world of tensions, … are more productive, more creative, and happier; more satisfied. … They see tensions as opportunities.” — Marianne
- “We use the analogy of a mule, which is stronger than a horse and smarter than a donkey.” — Marianne
- “I think about friction in two ways: 1. It can produce drag, or 2. It can produce traction.” — Jan
- “One way to think about how you hold together your tensions is [to ask] ‘What do you want this to be in the broader world?’” — Marianne
- “I’m sensing an existential crisis. I see it, whether in academia or business, and that strikes me as a sense of lack of meaning. We need to be pushing harder on ‘What is that boundary?’” — Marianne
- “For all the rising expectations going on around us and the frustration, the lack of listening and compassion is painful to me.” — Marianne
- “We wanted to write this book; we did not want this to be a purely business book. These same patterns and tools work at the individual level as a mother, as a friend, and we have seen powerful examples working at the societal level. ” — Marianne
- “I don’t want you to think what I think but I’d love us to be aligned with what we want in the end goal.” — Marianne
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Marianne Lewis, Ph.D.
-
Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati
-
Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Greatest Problems
-
HBR Press
- James March
- Systems Thinking
- Donnella Meadows
- Peter Senge
- Paul Polman
- Unilever
- Richard Farson
- Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership, by Richard Farson
- The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams, by Sam Walker
Dr. Ciela Hartanov runs Humcollective, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that helps companies, executives, and teams make sense of the forces shaping our future and prepare strategically. In this episode, Ciela discusses the shift that will be needed to turn teaching leadership skills into teaching a leadership mindset. She discusses how and why sensitivity (not emotionalism) is needed more than ever at work. Listen in for an impressive view of the future of work and how that will shape our communities.
https://bit.ly/TLP-325
Key Takeaways
[1:57] Ciela has a passion for the human experience inside of work. She believes it is important to put the human at the center of work. Ciela grew up with a father who was very interested in people and she traveled a lot with him.
[3:29] The idea of work as a transaction comes from the Industrial Revolution and the assembly line. You work these hours, produce these widgets, and you get paid. Before the Industrial Revolution, you worked for yourself to build a life and had jobs inside the community, such as baker and candlestick maker, to build the community together.
[5:37] Society is trying to break the transaction mindset. Because of the pandemic, there has been a reckoning and reconsideration of the employee/employer contract. Everyone’s responsible and we are making agreements together about what that contract is.
[6:52] Ciela says we’ve been sold the idea that purpose is an individual pursuit. We are social beings. Ciela has learned through sociology that we are ourselves because we are reflected through other people. An individual’s purpose and meaning are within the context of society. Ciela is working to put us back within the context of our society. We don’t operate as solo individuals.
[8:01] Before the pandemic, Ciela was worried that loneliness was an epidemic. People were using work to relieve their loneliness. Employers encouraged employees to be more connected to their organization and to have a “best friend” at work. This idea was disrupted by remote work. Individuals need to have their social needs met outside the organization. It's not enough to just be on your own.
[10:05] Ciela doesn’t talk about transformation. She sees what is happening as a renewal of what it means to be alive as a human being. This is a new conversation in society. The Great Resignation is a philosophical conversation about what it means to be a human being and what it means to work.
[11:54] Advances are happening that will impact human beings. But the human condition will always be evergreen. We are still discovering things about the human condition. Those things aren’t new, we just didn’t know them yet. The things that are new are technological advances and tools, like AI.
[12:42] Ciela is studying Emergence and Emergent theory. It is a fundamental human condition that we don’t like uncertainty. We will be experiencing more and more uncertainty. Ciela helps organizations figure out how to tie the thread between the growing uncertainty and our dislike of it.
[15:12] People will learn that adapting to change is an essential skill. Companies can teach their employees how to adapt to new requirements of a job. It is essential to have emotional resilience for the triggers that come with change. When Ciela was at Google, they spent years teaching people how to meditate. Meditation is a tool to regulate emotion inside a complex and challenging environment.
[17:15] Humans are naturally curious and interested. We have it as children. The industrial era has stripped that out of us because it’s not efficient. You can’t measure creativity in the same way as productivity. Celia is writing a book. In her book, she talks about moving from the idea of knowledge work to perceptual work. Perceptual work involves perceiving what is happening around us.
[19:07] After perceiving comes interpreting. This is a human skill, not a machine skill. When we gain insight, our creative mind sees it and considers the way forward to make a move. In uncertainty, making a move is an experiment. This requires rethinking organizational practices and patterns. There’s not a straight path from Point A to Point B anymore.
[21:50] Ciela was on a team at Google that studied the future of leadership. She tells of the insight that led her to organize the study team. She held the position that we need to examine mindsets before we teach leadership skills. It’s like our operating system. If you don’t have the right operating system for the context, you’re never going to be able to demonstrate the right behavior.
[25:06] The team developed six mindsets that matter. Ciela shares three of them: 1.) I must know myself and get over myself to be in the service of other people., 2.) Believe that being in uncertain terrain is progress and progress needs tension., 3.) Know that power is responsibility, and take that seriously when you sit in a leadership seat.
[27:30] Teaching leadership skills before teaching mindset worked in a time of more certainty. We are in a time of uncertainty that requires a shift, a different way of working with leadership. Now we need to teach mindsets.
[28:11] To be an employer of choice, you could offer your employees the ability to gain transferable skills to be able to have a lattice career. Today’s younger employees have more clarity about their values, purpose, and mindset. Ciela would like employers to bolster that and help them gain the skills that are not being taught in school. Organizations have to train skills that are lacking in the talent pool.
[29:36] Ciela is writing a book, Reclaiming Sensitivity, due out in 2023. We generally misunderstand what sensitivity is. Sensitivity is the ability to perceive. Let’s reclaim our innate human ability to perceive, both through our emotional attunement and our ability to plan and get curious — the original definition of sensitivity in its widest capacity. One chapter is devoted to making sense of uncertain terrain.
[34:36] Jan asks if sensitivity will become the rule in Fortune 500 companies. Ciela replies “Yes, and,” because we haven’t evolved to the new era of work. There is a place for execution, and that’s when you are not in a complex domain. But the level of complexity will start pushing further into the organization and we need to shift our mindset to be ready. We’re not there yet.
[38:16] Growing up, Ciela traveled the world with her father. She shares how travel shaped her views on perceiving. Her father taught her to travel like a local. She learned to go inside other peoples’ experiences, versus being on the periphery. Someone in the gig economy must be first understood from an anthropological view before you can have insight and work with them.
[41:07] Ciela talks about a study she did at Google about what makes someone able to shift, adjust and be a transformative leader. She found two things: 1.) They were able to find their stable ground — such as a daily workout, and 2.) They were incredibly good at perspective-taking and perceiving. They could transform because they could perceive but also had stable ground from which to move.
[42:14] Ciela’s closing thought: Leaders feel tired and burnt out. They “don’t have time for innovation; it’s too hard!” Ciela acknowledges there’s a real tension around the pressures of being a leader right now. Don’t let that blindside you from focusing on what matters, which is paving a path for the future. Open your eyes and start perceiving and thinking about the innovative way out of the uncertainty.
[43:43] Closing quote: Remember, “Each person does see the world in a different way. There is not a single, unifying, objective truth. We're all limited by our perspective.” — Siri Hustvedt
Quotable Quotes
- “Once people came off of the farms and working for themselves to build a life, and moved into the assembly line and the factory, then it was an exchange. You work these hours, you work on this timeline, you produce this number of widgets; … and then you get money.” — Ciela
- “If you look before the Industrial Revolution, a lot of what we understood about work was also related to community. So, we each had a job inside the community to build the community together.” — Ciela
- “We had the baker, we had the candlestick maker; we had all the different functions, but the idea inside those functions was that you were building a society and a community together.” — Ciela
- “We don’t operate as solo individuals. Nothing gets done unless there’s a collective effort and a collective meaning.” — Ciela
- “Fresh perspectives are required to thrive in an ever-changing context.” — Ciela
- “We are naturally wired to be curious and interested. We have this innate interest as human beings.” — Ciela
- “I actually think we need a fundamental restructuring so that that new perspective, that fresh insight, can be part of the strategy process; they can be part of the systems and so that it gets encouraged and then rewarded.” — Ciela
- “Unless you believe that tension is a good thing and is valuable, you’re never going to be able to work with it.” — Ciela
- “[Skills] are expiring so quickly and if you want to be an employer of choice you do have to offer the ability for people to gain skills — transferable skills — and be able to shift and to have more of a lattice career versus a ladder career.” — Ciela
- “It’s not a waste of time to bring people into a sense-making exercise because that is how you make progress. Because progress needs tension. And that is a whole different way of understanding how you interact and deal with a complex domain.” — Ciela
- “At the center of all of work are human beings and the experience that we are having.” — Ciela
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Ciela Hartanov, PsyD
- Humcollective
- Project Aristotle
- Reclaiming Sensitivity (scheduled to be published in 2023)
- Stephen Drotter
- Jack Welch
Dr. Ciela Hartanov runs Humcollective, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that helps companies, executives, and teams make sense of the forces shaping our future and prepare strategically. In this episode, Ciela discusses the shift that will be needed to turn teaching leadership skills into teaching a leadership mindset. She discusses how and why sensitivity (not emotionalism) is needed more than ever at work. Listen in for an impressive view of the future of work and how that will shape our communities.
https://bit.ly/TLP-325
Key Takeaways
[1:57] Ciela has a passion for the human experience inside of work. She believes it is important to put the human at the center of work. Ciela grew up with a father who was very interested in people and she traveled a lot with him.
[3:29] The idea of work as a transaction comes from the Industrial Revolution and the assembly line. You work these hours, produce these widgets, and you get paid. Before the Industrial Revolution, you worked for yourself to build a life and had jobs inside the community, such as baker and candlestick maker, to build the community together.
[5:37] Society is trying to break the transaction mindset. Because of the pandemic, there has been a reckoning and reconsideration of the employee/employer contract. Everyone’s responsible and we are making agreements together about what that contract is.
[6:52] Ciela says we’ve been sold the idea that purpose is an individual pursuit. We are social beings. Ciela has learned through sociology that we are ourselves because we are reflected through other people. An individual’s purpose and meaning are within the context of society. Ciela is working to put us back within the context of our society. We don’t operate as solo individuals.
[8:01] Before the pandemic, Ciela was worried that loneliness was an epidemic. People were using work to relieve their loneliness. Employers encouraged employees to be more connected to their organization and to have a “best friend” at work. This idea was disrupted by remote work. Individuals need to have their social needs met outside the organization. It's not enough to just be on your own.
[10:05] Ciela doesn’t talk about transformation. She sees what is happening as a renewal of what it means to be alive as a human being. This is a new conversation in society. The Great Resignation is a philosophical conversation about what it means to be a human being and what it means to work.
[11:54] Advances are happening that will impact human beings. But the human condition will always be evergreen. We are still discovering things about the human condition. Those things aren’t new, we just didn’t know them yet. The things that are new are technological advances and tools, like AI.
[12:42] Ciela is studying Emergence and Emergent theory. It is a fundamental human condition that we don’t like uncertainty. We will be experiencing more and more uncertainty. Ciela helps organizations figure out how to tie the thread between the growing uncertainty and our dislike of it.
[15:12] People will learn that adapting to change is an essential skill. Companies can teach their employees how to adapt to new requirements of a job. It is essential to have emotional resilience for the triggers that come with change. When Ciela was at Google, they spent years teaching people how to meditate. Meditation is a tool to regulate emotion inside a complex and challenging environment.
[17:15] Humans are naturally curious and interested. We have it as children. The industrial era has stripped that out of us because it’s not efficient. You can’t measure creativity in the same way as productivity. Celia is writing a book. In her book, she talks about moving from the idea of knowledge work to perceptual work. Perceptual work involves perceiving what is happening around us.
[19:07] After perceiving comes interpreting. This is a human skill, not a machine skill. When we gain insight, our creative mind sees it and considers the way forward to make a move. In uncertainty, making a move is an experiment. This requires rethinking organizational practices and patterns. There’s not a straight path from Point A to Point B anymore.
[21:50] Ciela was on a team at Google that studied the future of leadership. She tells of the insight that led her to organize the study team. She held the position that we need to examine mindsets before we teach leadership skills. It’s like our operating system. If you don’t have the right operating system for the context, you’re never going to be able to demonstrate the right behavior.
[25:06] The team developed six mindsets that matter. Ciela shares three of them: 1.) I must know myself and get over myself to be in the service of other people., 2.) Believe that being in uncertain terrain is progress and progress needs tension., 3.) Know that power is responsibility, and take that seriously when you sit in a leadership seat.
[27:30] Teaching leadership skills before teaching mindset worked in a time of more certainty. We are in a time of uncertainty that requires a shift, a different way of working with leadership. Now we need to teach mindsets.
[28:11] To be an employer of choice, you could offer your employees the ability to gain transferable skills to be able to have a lattice career. Today’s younger employees have more clarity about their values, purpose, and mindset. Ciela would like employers to bolster that and help them gain the skills that are not being taught in school. Organizations have to train skills that are lacking in the talent pool.
[29:36] Ciela is writing a book, Reclaiming Sensitivity, due out in 2023. We generally misunderstand what sensitivity is. Sensitivity is the ability to perceive. Let’s reclaim our innate human ability to perceive, both through our emotional attunement and our ability to plan and get curious — the original definition of sensitivity in its widest capacity. One chapter is devoted to making sense of uncertain terrain.
[34:36] Jan asks if sensitivity will become the rule in Fortune 500 companies. Ciela replies “Yes, and,” because we haven’t evolved to the new era of work. There is a place for execution, and that’s when you are not in a complex domain. But the level of complexity will start pushing further into the organization and we need to shift our mindset to be ready. We’re not there yet.
[38:16] Growing up, Ciela traveled the world with her father. She shares how travel shaped her views on perceiving. Her father taught her to travel like a local. She learned to go inside other peoples’ experiences, versus being on the periphery. Someone in the gig economy must be first understood from an anthropological view before you can have insight and work with them.
[41:07] Ciela talks about a study she did at Google about what makes someone able to shift, adjust and be a transformative leader. She found two things: 1.) They were able to find their stable ground — such as a daily workout, and 2.) They were incredibly good at perspective-taking and perceiving. They could transform because they could perceive but also had stable ground from which to move.
[42:14] Ciela’s closing thought: Leaders feel tired and burnt out. They “don’t have time for innovation; it’s too hard!” Ciela acknowledges there’s a real tension around the pressures of being a leader right now. Don’t let that blindside you from focusing on what matters, which is paving a path for the future. Open your eyes and start perceiving and thinking about the innovative way out of the uncertainty.
[43:43] Closing quote: Remember, “Each person does see the world in a different way. There is not a single, unifying, objective truth. We're all limited by our perspective.” — Siri Hustvedt
Quotable Quotes
- “Once people came off of the farms and working for themselves to build a life, and moved into the assembly line and the factory, then it was an exchange. You work these hours, you work on this timeline, you produce this number of widgets; … and then you get money.” — Ciela
- “If you look before the Industrial Revolution, a lot of what we understood about work was also related to community. So, we each had a job inside the community to build the community together.” — Ciela
- “We had the baker, we had the candlestick maker; we had all the different functions, but the idea inside those functions was that you were building a society and a community together.” — Ciela
- “We don’t operate as solo individuals. Nothing gets done unless there’s a collective effort and a collective meaning.” — Ciela
- “Fresh perspectives are required to thrive in an ever-changing context.” — Ciela
- “We are naturally wired to be curious and interested. We have this innate interest as human beings.” — Ciela
- “I actually think we need a fundamental restructuring so that that new perspective, that fresh insight, can be part of the strategy process; they can be part of the systems and so that it gets encouraged and then rewarded.” — Ciela
- “Unless you believe that tension is a good thing and is valuable, you’re never going to be able to work with it.” — Ciela
- “[Skills] are expiring so quickly and if you want to be an employer of choice you do have to offer the ability for people to gain skills — transferable skills — and be able to shift and to have more of a lattice career versus a ladder career.” — Ciela
- “It’s not a waste of time to bring people into a sense-making exercise because that is how you make progress. Because progress needs tension. And that is a whole different way of understanding how you interact and deal with a complex domain.” — Ciela
- “At the center of all of work are human beings and the experience that we are having.” — Ciela
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Ciela Hartanov, PsyD
- Humcollective
- Project Aristotle
- Reclaiming Sensitivity (scheduled to be published in 2023)
- Stephen Drotter
- Jack Welch
Jim and Jan discuss the latest crucible expeditions to hopefully inspire and uplift you! Jan has led 21 crucible expeditions to date, and through the diversity of executives and military veterans, they keep providing new insights. Participants come by invitation (or application), and are selected for selflessness, an adventurous spirit, and possessing heroic aspirations to make a difference in the lives of others. Jan’s process is to design the experience, select the participants, get them together, and step back to let them learn and grow as a team, as the magic happens. Participants learn they have more in common than they have differences and strong bonds are formed. Listen in to learn how some of these lessons can apply to your organization.
https://bit.ly/TLP-324
Key Takeaways
[2:03] In this episode, Jan and Jim recap some learnings from two recent back-to-back crucible expeditions that Jan completed. A crucible expedition with Jan is a four-day, three-night wilderness expedition with executives who need a digital detox coupled with military veterans who are transitioning to the business world. The veterans are mostly from the Special Operations community.
[3:02] Participants go rock-climbing and backpacking in the middle of nowhere. Really great people get together for some great conversations. Jan selects the executives and veterans on three criteria: they are people who are trying to be as selfless as possible for the greater good, are adventurous, and possess heroic aspirations to try and make the world a better place, in things beyond power and money.
[3:57] By selecting those criteria, they get a bunch of strangers coming together as a team very quickly. Based on work Jan has done with surveys by PAIRIN, he believes that when people are out there with strangers, unlike with work colleagues, they have nothing to prove, protect, or promote.
[4:24] Jim has been on the Patagonia and Moab crucibles and he attests that they are incredible experiences that move you in ways you would never expect. Jan has done 21 crucible expeditions so far.
[5:34] Jan has found that his talent lies not in charismatic leadership but in designing the environment and culture for the team, stepping back, staying out of the way, and letting the magic happen. Jan shares his critique of an expedition Jim was on a few years ago. He says he should have stepped away more and guided things and discussions through questions.
[7:30] Jan shares a crucible learning for your work. There is one person in charge, and the second person is the accountability partner. If the leader takes a wrong turn, the accountability partner lets them make the mistake and learn from it. We don’t grow and develop without making and correcting mistakes. Let your people at work learn and develop from their mistakes.
[10:09] On the crucibles, you’ve got executives that are making the time and space for their improvement. Jan just spoke to someone who loved the outdoor aspect of the crucible and feels like she needs more time off. Jan tells executives to find the sweet spot between sitting on the hill, figuring out what their team needs, and getting with the team, working with them, and coaching them, first-hand.
[11:44] Executive coaches work to try to get people to move from being “here,” doing “these things,” to being “there,” doing “those things.” It takes self-discipline, sacrifice, focus, delegation, and trust to get there. That’s where accountability partners come in, plus taking time to reflect. Jan tells about the three-hour solo challenge of silent alone-time, thinking for three hours, and reporting on it later.
[13:30] The bedrock of the crucible is that people relate to each other as humans, that they're vulnerable. People are dealing with a lot on the homefront and the things they are struggling with come up in their first meeting. Often it is family stuff. The idea that it’s OK not to be OK comes through. At work, senior leaders have to be strong and act in a certain way to get performance from other people.
[14:49] On a crucible, people let their guard down. They might cry around the campfire or climbing a mountain, even though they never cry. In some ways, their crying and vulnerability bring the team together. It’s a gift to show your real emotions. It’s not a gift stoic people share at work. And everybody on the crucible is equal.
[16:25] Jim summarizes that vulnerability is the resounding theme of a crucible. You are put in a situation where you are physically vulnerable. In the evening discussions, people became more mentally and emotionally vulnerable. Jan believes that whiskey helps. He has seen it. Jim is still close to people from both of his crucible trips in a different way than his golfing buddies.
[18:09] When you go out there as a business executive, having little to no experience with veterans, or the elite operators who go on these expeditions, you might think you have nothing in common with them. You come away with respect that goes both ways. You see the military in a different light. The folks in the military now see civilians in a different light.
[18:56] Only one percent of the population in America has anything to do with the military. It has become a family business. Most of those families are from the South. The military is very insular. You’re around people that think, act, and talk like you. Your world is filled with military acronyms. The military spends money. You’re not in the generate revenue, create demand business.
[20:03] A lot of the leadership and people challenges are very similar between the military and business. In the past two years, twice, a special operations commando who has carried a flag under his body armor on multiple missions decided to give that flag to executive participants from the crucible — they were flags that could have draped a body if the operator had not survived a mission.
[21:37] A crucible changes people’s lives. After the Patagonia crucible, Jim took a fork in the road that he might not have taken before the crucible. Jim says when you spend the time and get to know other people, you’re much more similar than you think. That kind of experience is something to keep in mind when you look at our divisive society. Take the time to listen to people and gain their perspectives.
[22:51] On one trip, sitting around the fire at the end, a leader said it was interesting that “none of us talked about politics or religion. I’m guessing, politically, we go from left to right and in-between. Look how great we got along. This is what Americans should be about.” It was a powerful moment. Each participant was only in the category of human with heroic aspirations beyond power and money.
[24:24] The crucible cannot scale. It cannot be done with big groups in wilderness areas and some people couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. So, Jan is writing a book about it with a co-author who is a past crucible participant and military veteran.
[25:01] There was little diversity in the first expeditions. Jan credits Sheryl Tullis with helping him make the teams intentionally diverse and representative of the workforce. Jan believes that the men bring out the best in the women participants and vice versa. Jan marvels at the self-confidence of some of the recent diverse participants. They know who they are and what they bring to the table.
[27:52] One reason a recent expedition was so good was that there was diversity of age, gender, geography, and company size. The veterans were thoughtful, deliberate, cerebral people, deeply curious about the business world they were going into. These trips are about what happens in the one-on-one discussions as you’re walking down the trail, and in the evening discussions around the fire.
[29:35] U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief Stephen Drum has been on the podcast. He is writing a book and Jim is reading the preliminary manuscript for him. Stephen writes that when SEALS wash out, it is never about physical fitness. It’s always about lacking strength of character, conviction, or values. Some of the strongest people on a crucible are strongest in character.
[31:17] Jan mentions Don Yaeger, a Sports Illustrated writer and author of many books about great athletes. Don says all great athletes hate to lose more than they like to win. The reason Jan became a Green Beret is that he did not quit. He was 18 years old. More than he wanted to win, he did not want to fail.
[32:32] In the business world, at some point things are going to be hard. There’s always something nagging at you that says, “Quit.” If what you are doing is aligned with your values, then you won’t quit. If it’s not aligned with your values, it doesn’t serve you.
[33:33] Steve Drotter, a previous guest of the podcast with old-school values, said, “A career is made from having hard jobs that suck and bosses that beat you up. That makes a career!” Today, it seems the job caters to the employee. There is a supply-and-demand issue. The workplace is not as tough as it used to be.
[34:50] Jan is hearing from the Army and the Marines that young people entering the services have no outdoor experience; no woodcraft or fieldcraft. Jan wonders what’s happening in the business world where people come in without knowing certain things! Jim observes that their writing is atrocious. But now we don’t write long business reports, we write Powerpoints. Expectations have changed.
[36:54] Job conditions wax and wane, and we may go back to a more tough work environment in a few years, where employers have the upper hand, instead of the employees. These are the leadership challenges we have.
[37:38] Jan’s last words: The crucibles are a passion and a privilege. The only way you’re going to change your narrative is to step out of your comfort zone. Whether you go on a crucible or do something else, Jan and Jim encourage you to think about the things where you find purpose and meaning, where you can make a contribution to the greater good, and be bold and make things happen.
[39:14] Closing quote: “Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.” — Plato.
Quotable Quotes
- “We select the executives and the veterans based on three criteria: We’re looking for people that are trying to be as selfless as possible, … We look for people that are adventurous, … and … people who possess heroic aspirations, trying to make the world a better place.” — Jan
- “Most of the time I come back from a trip and I beat myself up. … I evaluate my own leadership, and participation performance, and think, ‘Woulda, coulda, shoulda.’ I do think one thing I’ve gotten better at is doing less.” — Jan
- “What I have found, at least for me, is my talent isn’t necessarily at being the charismatic leader; it’s really being a pretty darn good designer. By that I mean if I design the environment, the culture, for the team, and I step back and stay out of the way, magic happens.” — Jan
- “I will say, even at my advanced age, I’m still a work in progress.” — Jan
- “The lesson won’t be learned the same if you go, ‘Wait, wait, I can fix this!’. I talked to somebody today that said, ‘I do way too many Powerpoints. I should be delegating those and I do way too many because it’s just easier and faster for me to do it.’” — Jan
- “Delegation is usually at the top three of things that people can work on to improve. … People never have the time to delegate. They never have the time and space to do it right or to think they even have the opportunity to do it. And it just is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” — Jim
- “What we’re very intentional about, and what always ends up being the big takeaway, is you’ve got to slow down to speed up. Especially for executives, you’ve got to figure out the sweet spot between going and sitting on the hill and figuring things out” — Jan
- “One of the things that we try to do on every crucible is give people three hours. We call it the solo challenge. In some ways, it’s the hardest thing people do is go be by themselves, doing nothing for three hours except thinking.” — Jan
- “Out there, people just let their guard down. People sometimes will cry around the campfire. Sometimes they’ll cry going up the mountain and they’ll say, ‘I never cry. I — never — cry.’ Did anybody care that you cried? No. … Crying and vulnerability brought the team together.” — Jan
- “You can really build some warm and strong relationships with people you might think are so different from you that you could never, ever have anything in common with them.” — Jim
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- PAIRIN
- U.S. Army Special Operations
- Sheryl Tullis
- Stephen Drum
- U.S. Navy Warrior Toughness
- Sports Illustrated
- Don Yaeger
- U.S. Army Special Forces — Green Beret
- Stephen Drotter
- Jan Rutherford, TEDx
- Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Jim and Jan discuss the latest crucible expeditions to hopefully inspire and uplift you! Jan has led 21 crucible expeditions to date, and through the diversity of executives and military veterans, they keep providing new insights. Participants come by invitation (or application), and are selected for selflessness, an adventurous spirit, and possessing heroic aspirations to make a difference in the lives of others. Jan’s process is to design the experience, select the participants, get them together, and step back to let them learn and grow as a team, as the magic happens. Participants learn they have more in common than they have differences and strong bonds are formed. Listen in to learn how some of these lessons can apply to your organization.
https://bit.ly/TLP-324
Key Takeaways
[2:03] In this episode, Jan and Jim recap some learnings from two recent back-to-back crucible expeditions that Jan completed. A crucible expedition with Jan is a four-day, three-night wilderness expedition with executives who need a digital detox coupled with military veterans who are transitioning to the business world. The veterans are mostly from the Special Operations community.
[3:02] Participants go rock-climbing and backpacking in the middle of nowhere. Really great people get together for some great conversations. Jan selects the executives and veterans on three criteria: they are people who are trying to be as selfless as possible for the greater good, are adventurous, and possess heroic aspirations to try and make the world a better place, in things beyond power and money.
[3:57] By selecting those criteria, they get a bunch of strangers coming together as a team very quickly. Based on work Jan has done with surveys by PAIRIN, he believes that when people are out there with strangers, unlike with work colleagues, they have nothing to prove, protect, or promote.
[4:24] Jim has been on the Patagonia and Moab crucibles and he attests that they are incredible experiences that move you in ways you would never expect. Jan has done 21 crucible expeditions so far.
[5:34] Jan has found that his talent lies not in charismatic leadership but in designing the environment and culture for the team, stepping back, staying out of the way, and letting the magic happen. Jan shares his critique of an expedition Jim was on a few years ago. He says he should have stepped away more and guided things and discussions through questions.
[7:30] Jan shares a crucible learning for your work. There is one person in charge, and the second person is the accountability partner. If the leader takes a wrong turn, the accountability partner lets them make the mistake and learn from it. We don’t grow and develop without making and correcting mistakes. Let your people at work learn and develop from their mistakes.
[10:09] On the crucibles, you’ve got executives that are making the time and space for their improvement. Jan just spoke to someone who loved the outdoor aspect of the crucible and feels like she needs more time off. Jan tells executives to find the sweet spot between sitting on the hill, figuring out what their team needs, and getting with the team, working with them, and coaching them, first-hand.
[11:44] Executive coaches work to try to get people to move from being “here,” doing “these things,” to being “there,” doing “those things.” It takes self-discipline, sacrifice, focus, delegation, and trust to get there. That’s where accountability partners come in, plus taking time to reflect. Jan tells about the three-hour solo challenge of silent alone-time, thinking for three hours, and reporting on it later.
[13:30] The bedrock of the crucible is that people relate to each other as humans, that they're vulnerable. People are dealing with a lot on the homefront and the things they are struggling with come up in their first meeting. Often it is family stuff. The idea that it’s OK not to be OK comes through. At work, senior leaders have to be strong and act in a certain way to get performance from other people.
[14:49] On a crucible, people let their guard down. They might cry around the campfire or climbing a mountain, even though they never cry. In some ways, their crying and vulnerability bring the team together. It’s a gift to show your real emotions. It’s not a gift stoic people share at work. And everybody on the crucible is equal.
[16:25] Jim summarizes that vulnerability is the resounding theme of a crucible. You are put in a situation where you are physically vulnerable. In the evening discussions, people became more mentally and emotionally vulnerable. Jan believes that whiskey helps. He has seen it. Jim is still close to people from both of his crucible trips in a different way than his golfing buddies.
[18:09] When you go out there as a business executive, having little to no experience with veterans, or the elite operators who go on these expeditions, you might think you have nothing in common with them. You come away with respect that goes both ways. You see the military in a different light. The folks in the military now see civilians in a different light.
[18:56] Only one percent of the population in America has anything to do with the military. It has become a family business. Most of those families are from the South. The military is very insular. You’re around people that think, act, and talk like you. Your world is filled with military acronyms. The military spends money. You’re not in the generate revenue, create demand business.
[20:03] A lot of the leadership and people challenges are very similar between the military and business. In the past two years, twice, a special operations commando who has carried a flag under his body armor on multiple missions decided to give that flag to executive participants from the crucible — they were flags that could have draped a body if the operator had not survived a mission.
[21:37] A crucible changes people’s lives. After the Patagonia crucible, Jim took a fork in the road that he might not have taken before the crucible. Jim says when you spend the time and get to know other people, you’re much more similar than you think. That kind of experience is something to keep in mind when you look at our divisive society. Take the time to listen to people and gain their perspectives.
[22:51] On one trip, sitting around the fire at the end, a leader said it was interesting that “none of us talked about politics or religion. I’m guessing, politically, we go from left to right and in-between. Look how great we got along. This is what Americans should be about.” It was a powerful moment. Each participant was only in the category of human with heroic aspirations beyond power and money.
[24:24] The crucible cannot scale. It cannot be done with big groups in wilderness areas and some people couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. So, Jan is writing a book about it with a co-author who is a past crucible participant and military veteran.
[25:01] There was little diversity in the first expeditions. Jan credits Sheryl Tullis with helping him make the teams intentionally diverse and representative of the workforce. Jan believes that the men bring out the best in the women participants and vice versa. Jan marvels at the self-confidence of some of the recent diverse participants. They know who they are and what they bring to the table.
[27:52] One reason a recent expedition was so good was that there was diversity of age, gender, geography, and company size. The veterans were thoughtful, deliberate, cerebral people, deeply curious about the business world they were going into. These trips are about what happens in the one-on-one discussions as you’re walking down the trail, and in the evening discussions around the fire.
[29:35] U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief Stephen Drum has been on the podcast. He is writing a book and Jim is reading the preliminary manuscript for him. Stephen writes that when SEALS wash out, it is never about physical fitness. It’s always about lacking strength of character, conviction, or values. Some of the strongest people on a crucible are strongest in character.
[31:17] Jan mentions Don Yaeger, a Sports Illustrated writer and author of many books about great athletes. Don says all great athletes hate to lose more than they like to win. The reason Jan became a Green Beret is that he did not quit. He was 18 years old. More than he wanted to win, he did not want to fail.
[32:32] In the business world, at some point things are going to be hard. There’s always something nagging at you that says, “Quit.” If what you are doing is aligned with your values, then you won’t quit. If it’s not aligned with your values, it doesn’t serve you.
[33:33] Steve Drotter, a previous guest of the podcast with old-school values, said, “A career is made from having hard jobs that suck and bosses that beat you up. That makes a career!” Today, it seems the job caters to the employee. There is a supply-and-demand issue. The workplace is not as tough as it used to be.
[34:50] Jan is hearing from the Army and the Marines that young people entering the services have no outdoor experience; no woodcraft or fieldcraft. Jan wonders what’s happening in the business world where people come in without knowing certain things! Jim observes that their writing is atrocious. But now we don’t write long business reports, we write Powerpoints. Expectations have changed.
[36:54] Job conditions wax and wane, and we may go back to a more tough work environment in a few years, where employers have the upper hand, instead of the employees. These are the leadership challenges we have.
[37:38] Jan’s last words: The crucibles are a passion and a privilege. The only way you’re going to change your narrative is to step out of your comfort zone. Whether you go on a crucible or do something else, Jan and Jim encourage you to think about the things where you find purpose and meaning, where you can make a contribution to the greater good, and be bold and make things happen.
[39:14] Closing quote: “Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.” — Plato.
Quotable Quotes
- “We select the executives and the veterans based on three criteria: We’re looking for people that are trying to be as selfless as possible, … We look for people that are adventurous, … and … people who possess heroic aspirations, trying to make the world a better place.” — Jan
- “Most of the time I come back from a trip and I beat myself up. … I evaluate my own leadership, and participation performance, and think, ‘Woulda, coulda, shoulda.’ I do think one thing I’ve gotten better at is doing less.” — Jan
- “What I have found, at least for me, is my talent isn’t necessarily at being the charismatic leader; it’s really being a pretty darn good designer. By that I mean if I design the environment, the culture, for the team, and I step back and stay out of the way, magic happens.” — Jan
- “I will say, even at my advanced age, I’m still a work in progress.” — Jan
- “The lesson won’t be learned the same if you go, ‘Wait, wait, I can fix this!’. I talked to somebody today that said, ‘I do way too many Powerpoints. I should be delegating those and I do way too many because it’s just easier and faster for me to do it.’” — Jan
- “Delegation is usually at the top three of things that people can work on to improve. … People never have the time to delegate. They never have the time and space to do it right or to think they even have the opportunity to do it. And it just is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” — Jim
- “What we’re very intentional about, and what always ends up being the big takeaway, is you’ve got to slow down to speed up. Especially for executives, you’ve got to figure out the sweet spot between going and sitting on the hill and figuring things out” — Jan
- “One of the things that we try to do on every crucible is give people three hours. We call it the solo challenge. In some ways, it’s the hardest thing people do is go be by themselves, doing nothing for three hours except thinking.” — Jan
- “Out there, people just let their guard down. People sometimes will cry around the campfire. Sometimes they’ll cry going up the mountain and they’ll say, ‘I never cry. I — never — cry.’ Did anybody care that you cried? No. … Crying and vulnerability brought the team together.” — Jan
- “You can really build some warm and strong relationships with people you might think are so different from you that you could never, ever have anything in common with them.” — Jim
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- PAIRIN
- U.S. Army Special Operations
- Sheryl Tullis
- Stephen Drum
- U.S. Navy Warrior Toughness
- Sports Illustrated
- Don Yaeger
- U.S. Army Special Forces — Green Beret
- Stephen Drotter
- Jan Rutherford, TEDx
- Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Joe McCormack is the author of “BRIEF: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less,” and “Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus.” He founded the Brief Lab in 2013 after years dedicated to developing and delivering a unique curriculum for US Army Special Operations. He actively counsels military leaders and senior executives on effective, efficient communication, and produces the podcast, “Just Saying.” In this conversation, he shares the keys to thinking clearly to get to the root cause of a problem and explain the way forward, simply, concisely, and effectively.
https://bit.ly/TLP-323
Key Takeaways
[2:45] Joe is the sixth of nine children in his Irish Catholic family. His early career includes a period of aerospace marketing in the aviation field before he started a marketing agency.
[4:28] Joe’s executive message about communication is “Less is more.” You don’t need to say much but what you say needs to count. Leaders tend to overwhelm people with information. Be more careful and calculating to be concise. You want to say more but people can’t hear it.
[6:16] Joe explains why people say too much; a lack of time to prepare, the fear of not giving enough information, the fear of looking stupid, and the fear of failing to handle every contingency. It’s never just one of these things; it’s all of them.
[6:45] People need to consider, “What does my audience need?” They don’t need six paragraphs. They’re craving brevity. They want two. Give the audience what they want: two well-written paragraphs. More paragraphs will dilute the message and diminish your impact.
[7:54] When Joe wrote Brief he considered what was the most essential thing to say in the shortest time given. But don’t be too brief. Say what is necessary. When you learn the skills, you can use brevity consistently. There’s a payoff for people that have the skillset.
[10:30] Joe asks people three questions about executive summaries:
- “Have you ever heard the term ‘executive summary’?”
- “Have you ever had a developer deliver one?”
- “Has anybody ever taught you how to build one?”
People’s answers are normally, Yes, Yes, and No. If they say Yes to the third, Joe asks them how to build one. They don’t get it right.
[11:33] Three questions to answer that will make a great executive summary:
- “What are you talking about?”
- “Why are we talking about this right now?”
- “So what now; what next?”
[13:26] Joe teaches people the habit of briefly summarizing their message. It’s different than just knowing it. It’s a habitual way of thinking, speaking, and stopping from talking.
[15:09] Fortune 500 corporations and Special Operations are alike in some ways. They both have high standards and expectations and they need to deliver, either for ROI or mission success. In the military, there is a lot of training. Corporations are starting to adopt more training. Since COVID-19 businesses are looking to attract talent. Communication and collaboration are how businesses work.
[16:59] Collaboration works in moderation. Microsoft came out with a recent study that shows what people want most from their workplace is autonomy. They want to be left alone to think, and then when they collaborate, it’s better. If you don’t give people time to think about a problem, they come up with an answer on the fly. Deep problems don’t get solved on the fly, but only after thinking and then talking.
[22:18] When planning a meeting, take 10 minutes of quiet. Then sit down and create an agenda of what you want to talk about; think about it, write it, and edit it. Then send it and follow it. It works.
[23:09] There’s a time for collaboration, talking, and doing, and there’s a time for thinking. You have to figure out in your role, and what that time allotment is. Once you get that, you’re not doing too much or too little, you’re doing your job. Joe heard of a CEO who said, “I don’t think at work; I’m in meetings all the time.” The CEO needs time to think at work.
[25:34] As leaders, you need to make a quiet appointment with yourselves for a set amount of time every day. During the appointment, write down things that you need to be thinking about; “How do I get feedback from my employees?” or “What’s wrong with my current work situation?” Make the appointment and don’t miss it.
[28:42] Joe’s 15-minute podcast, Just Saying, comes from the classes he teaches to Special Operations teams about concise communications that are effective.
[30:15] Joe’s book, Noise, is about the correlation between clear thinking and lowering noise levels. If you don’t manage the noise, your thoughts are scattered. If your thoughts are scattered, your speech is scattered. Ineffective leaders are scattered because they haven’t thought about what they are doing and why they are doing it. They start by talking. Clear thinking leads to concise communication.
[31:56] When addressing a problem, ask yourself how much you think about it and how well you think about it. Do you dedicate enough time to thinking about your business? Are you constantly getting distracted in your thinking time? If you do 20 minutes of quiet every day, your thinking will be better. You won’t excel at it at first, but make it a daily habit and you will get better at it and get focused.
[34:49] Tips from Brief: You need Awareness: It’s important to be clear and concise. Discipline: Talk and stop talking when needed. Decisiveness: Know when to act and then act. Jim calls these traits a virtuous circle and compares them to the skills of a running back in a football game.
[39:37] People have different ways of thinking. Some people need to think about stuff more and some people are quick to answer. There are strengths and weaknesses to both types of people. Make sure the people around you know your processing style.
[41:15] Joe shares a success story. A client was able to frame and reframe what he was doing, why he was doing it, what the value was to the organization, how he was doing it, and how he was measuring the impact in a presentation to the board. They didn’t cut a dime from his budget. If you can’t state your work in those clear terms, people will default to thinking it’s not that important, and you will get cut.
[44:05] Joe tells of a military client. The skill of being clear, concise, easy to understand, and easy to follow is valuable. In the middle of a briefing, a general asked Joe’s client, who was presenting, “Where did you learn to brief like that?” If everyone else is terrible at it and you’re good at it, all of a sudden, you’re the tallest person in the room. It takes time to prepare for that.
[46:21] When Joe presents to a group he focuses on the audience and how they are alike. The common denominator is they all want the shorter version! They may want to know more but they all crave a clear and concise answer. He provides a clear and concise answer. If they want more, he provides a clear and longer answer. Then, if they want more, he provides the clearest and longest explanation.
[48:06] Jan and Jim spend a lot of time helping people to focus. A previous guest of the podcast, Brian Caulfield told them “Sell the problem, not the solution.” No one has time and everyone is selling a solution. Joe’s Brief method is a recipe for managing time and figuring out the root cause of a problem.
[49:25] Joe’s challenge: Take time and quiet to think about it. Schedule it. Use quiet to your advantage, however much you need. Then talk. Think before you speak. And then do something. Those are separate things. You think about it quietly. You lower the noise. You start to get a root cause. Then you can say the most important thing (not the things). Then watch people say, “I got it! Now I know what to do.”
[52:13] Closing quote: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” — William Shakespeare.
Quotable Quotes
- “To be an elite communicator is to embrace a different standard, which is ‘Less is more. I don't need to say so much but what I say needs to count.’”
- “It’s hard because you want to say more but people can’t hear it.”
- “There’s a famous quote, which is, ‘I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time.”
- “I wrote a 220-page book on brevity. That almost made me insane. Because you start to think about, what really is the most essential thing to say in the shortest amount of time given? That really takes some thought.”
- “If you’re pitching an investor, that investor has this aperture or window of interest and what you say needs to sit inside that window. And that takes a lot of consideration. What does that person care about? What’s the most important thing? Why am I doing this?”
- “What I teach people is the habit of doing [a summary]. It’s different from just knowing it.”
- “There’s quality collaboration and then there’s terrible collaboration. [In a meeting] the collaboration is poor. They talk at each other, they don’t prepare, it’s disorganized, it’s scattered, and people don’t listen.”
- “You ask people when do you prepare for meetings and how do you prepare for meetings and often the answer is, ‘I can’t because I’m in a meeting. I’m constantly collaborating, leaving me no time to prepare for the next meeting.’”
- “If you don’t give people a chance to think about it, they’re coming up with the answer on the fly. Deep problems don’t get solved on the fly. They get solved when you actually have to slow down and think about it. And then you say something.”
- “Great leaders have the humility to say ‘I’m going to think about it. I’m going to have others think about it. I’m going to come up with a solution and then I’m going to explain it in the simplest terms possible and hope it works!’”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
-
Joe McCormack
-
Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less
-
Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus
- The BRIEF Lab
- U.S. Army Special Operations
- Just Saying podcast
- Michael Dowling, Northwell Health®
- Steve Justice
- Skunk Works
- Brian Caulfield
- Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Joe McCormack is the author of “BRIEF: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less,” and “Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus.” He founded the Brief Lab in 2013 after years dedicated to developing and delivering a unique curriculum for US Army Special Operations. He actively counsels military leaders and senior executives on effective, efficient communication, and produces the podcast, “Just Saying.” In this conversation, he shares the keys to thinking clearly to get to the root cause of a problem and explain the way forward, simply, concisely, and effectively.
https://bit.ly/TLP-323
Key Takeaways
[2:45] Joe is the sixth of nine children in his Irish Catholic family. His early career includes a period of aerospace marketing in the aviation field before he started a marketing agency.
[4:28] Joe’s executive message about communication is “Less is more.” You don’t need to say much but what you say needs to count. Leaders tend to overwhelm people with information. Be more careful and calculating to be concise. You want to say more but people can’t hear it.
[6:16] Joe explains why people say too much; a lack of time to prepare, the fear of not giving enough information, the fear of looking stupid, and the fear of failing to handle every contingency. It’s never just one of these things; it’s all of them.
[6:45] People need to consider, “What does my audience need?” They don’t need six paragraphs. They’re craving brevity. They want two. Give the audience what they want: two well-written paragraphs. More paragraphs will dilute the message and diminish your impact.
[7:54] When Joe wrote Brief he considered what was the most essential thing to say in the shortest time given. But don’t be too brief. Say what is necessary. When you learn the skills, you can use brevity consistently. There’s a payoff for people that have the skillset.
[10:30] Joe asks people three questions about executive summaries:
- “Have you ever heard the term ‘executive summary’?”
- “Have you ever had a developer deliver one?”
- “Has anybody ever taught you how to build one?”
People’s answers are normally, Yes, Yes, and No. If they say Yes to the third, Joe asks them how to build one. They don’t get it right.
[11:33] Three questions to answer that will make a great executive summary:
- “What are you talking about?”
- “Why are we talking about this right now?”
- “So what now; what next?”
[13:26] Joe teaches people the habit of briefly summarizing their message. It’s different than just knowing it. It’s a habitual way of thinking, speaking, and stopping from talking.
[15:09] Fortune 500 corporations and Special Operations are alike in some ways. They both have high standards and expectations and they need to deliver, either for ROI or mission success. In the military, there is a lot of training. Corporations are starting to adopt more training. Since COVID-19 businesses are looking to attract talent. Communication and collaboration are how businesses work.
[16:59] Collaboration works in moderation. Microsoft came out with a recent study that shows what people want most from their workplace is autonomy. They want to be left alone to think, and then when they collaborate, it’s better. If you don’t give people time to think about a problem, they come up with an answer on the fly. Deep problems don’t get solved on the fly, but only after thinking and then talking.
[22:18] When planning a meeting, take 10 minutes of quiet. Then sit down and create an agenda of what you want to talk about; think about it, write it, and edit it. Then send it and follow it. It works.
[23:09] There’s a time for collaboration, talking, and doing, and there’s a time for thinking. You have to figure out in your role, and what that time allotment is. Once you get that, you’re not doing too much or too little, you’re doing your job. Joe heard of a CEO who said, “I don’t think at work; I’m in meetings all the time.” The CEO needs time to think at work.
[25:34] As leaders, you need to make a quiet appointment with yourselves for a set amount of time every day. During the appointment, write down things that you need to be thinking about; “How do I get feedback from my employees?” or “What’s wrong with my current work situation?” Make the appointment and don’t miss it.
[28:42] Joe’s 15-minute podcast, Just Saying, comes from the classes he teaches to Special Operations teams about concise communications that are effective.
[30:15] Joe’s book, Noise, is about the correlation between clear thinking and lowering noise levels. If you don’t manage the noise, your thoughts are scattered. If your thoughts are scattered, your speech is scattered. Ineffective leaders are scattered because they haven’t thought about what they are doing and why they are doing it. They start by talking. Clear thinking leads to concise communication.
[31:56] When addressing a problem, ask yourself how much you think about it and how well you think about it. Do you dedicate enough time to thinking about your business? Are you constantly getting distracted in your thinking time? If you do 20 minutes of quiet every day, your thinking will be better. You won’t excel at it at first, but make it a daily habit and you will get better at it and get focused.
[34:49] Tips from Brief: You need Awareness: It’s important to be clear and concise. Discipline: Talk and stop talking when needed. Decisiveness: Know when to act and then act. Jim calls these traits a virtuous circle and compares them to the skills of a running back in a football game.
[39:37] People have different ways of thinking. Some people need to think about stuff more and some people are quick to answer. There are strengths and weaknesses to both types of people. Make sure the people around you know your processing style.
[41:15] Joe shares a success story. A client was able to frame and reframe what he was doing, why he was doing it, what the value was to the organization, how he was doing it, and how he was measuring the impact in a presentation to the board. They didn’t cut a dime from his budget. If you can’t state your work in those clear terms, people will default to thinking it’s not that important, and you will get cut.
[44:05] Joe tells of a military client. The skill of being clear, concise, easy to understand, and easy to follow is valuable. In the middle of a briefing, a general asked Joe’s client, who was presenting, “Where did you learn to brief like that?” If everyone else is terrible at it and you’re good at it, all of a sudden, you’re the tallest person in the room. It takes time to prepare for that.
[46:21] When Joe presents to a group he focuses on the audience and how they are alike. The common denominator is they all want the shorter version! They may want to know more but they all crave a clear and concise answer. He provides a clear and concise answer. If they want more, he provides a clear and longer answer. Then, if they want more, he provides the clearest and longest explanation.
[48:06] Jan and Jim spend a lot of time helping people to focus. A previous guest of the podcast, Brian Caulfield told them “Sell the problem, not the solution.” No one has time and everyone is selling a solution. Joe’s Brief method is a recipe for managing time and figuring out the root cause of a problem.
[49:25] Joe’s challenge: Take time and quiet to think about it. Schedule it. Use quiet to your advantage, however much you need. Then talk. Think before you speak. And then do something. Those are separate things. You think about it quietly. You lower the noise. You start to get a root cause. Then you can say the most important thing (not the things). Then watch people say, “I got it! Now I know what to do.”
[52:13] Closing quote: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” — William Shakespeare.
Quotable Quotes
- “To be an elite communicator is to embrace a different standard, which is ‘Less is more. I don't need to say so much but what I say needs to count.’”
- “It’s hard because you want to say more but people can’t hear it.”
- “There’s a famous quote, which is, ‘I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time.”
- “I wrote a 220-page book on brevity. That almost made me insane. Because you start to think about, what really is the most essential thing to say in the shortest amount of time given? That really takes some thought.”
- “If you’re pitching an investor, that investor has this aperture or window of interest and what you say needs to sit inside that window. And that takes a lot of consideration. What does that person care about? What’s the most important thing? Why am I doing this?”
- “What I teach people is the habit of doing [a summary]. It’s different from just knowing it.”
- “There’s quality collaboration and then there’s terrible collaboration. [In a meeting] the collaboration is poor. They talk at each other, they don’t prepare, it’s disorganized, it’s scattered, and people don’t listen.”
- “You ask people when do you prepare for meetings and how do you prepare for meetings and often the answer is, ‘I can’t because I’m in a meeting. I’m constantly collaborating, leaving me no time to prepare for the next meeting.’”
- “If you don’t give people a chance to think about it, they’re coming up with the answer on the fly. Deep problems don’t get solved on the fly. They get solved when you actually have to slow down and think about it. And then you say something.”
- “Great leaders have the humility to say ‘I’m going to think about it. I’m going to have others think about it. I’m going to come up with a solution and then I’m going to explain it in the simplest terms possible and hope it works!’”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
-
Joe McCormack
-
Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less
-
Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus
- The BRIEF Lab
- U.S. Army Special Operations
- Just Saying podcast
- Michael Dowling, Northwell Health®
- Steve Justice
- Skunk Works
- Brian Caulfield
- Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Dr. Zoe Chance is a professor at the Yale School of Management, and is the author of Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. Her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy. In this conversation, Zoe describes forms of influence and discusses how good relationships lead to good work. She challenges the people to use influence for the greater good, not just for individual purposes.
https://bit.ly/TLP-322
Key Takeaways
[2:11] Zoe, a sci-fi fan, named her daughter Ripley after Ellen Ripley from Aliens.
[5:16] Almost all of us, even the most successful, have negative feelings about influence strategies or tactics, but almost all of us would also like to be more influential. Influence has a bad rap. We think of it as distasteful. With new science, Zoe is bringing back the idea of influence as a leadership trait.
[7:06] People have different definitions of influence and manipulation. Zoe considers influence to be anything that shifts someone’s thinking or behavior, including manipulation, persuasion, behavioral economics, coercion, military might, and incentives. Manipulation is someone trying to influence a person in an underhanded way with a motive that does not align with the well-being of the person.
[8:13] Behavioral economics nudges are mostly imperceptible, but would not be upsetting to people being influenced for their best interest, such as attempts to get people to save more for retirement.
[9:48] Over the past year, up to the rise of bad inflation, employees have had a lot of power, and companies were desperate to hire. There’s been a crisis in the service industry. Now the power is shifting to employers. They want people to be there but, for the most part, they don’t have good reasons for wanting people to be there. Humu’s Laszlo Bock asks, “Why, to look over their shoulder?”
[11:51] Jan, Zoe, and Jim discuss whether most companies need to have their employees in the office, and how the return to the office is being handled.
[13:51] Jim finds that in-person meetings are much more effective than online meetings that are filled with side-text meetings within the meeting. Jim also observes the need to train new college graduates in the culture of the organization. A culture needs to be maintained and groomed like a garden and that happens better in person.
[15:31] Zoe would like to see leaders be better able to create the culture that they want. Bringing people back to the office to experience a negative culture is a horrible plan.
[17:19] Jim contrasts the freedom of travel and the restrictions of the cube farm he experienced early in his career. He didn’t like working in a cube and it affected his career. Now, since the pandemic, everyone has enjoyed freedom, and once freedom has been enjoyed it’s hard for it to be taken away. Zoe says taking freedoms and privileges away will cause a rebellion; she shares an example from a bank.
[20:26] Zoe shares a story featuring the Magic Question “What would it take for that to never happen again?”, and how to use it. It acknowledges that the people you are trying to influence know much more about their life than you do. It’s not perceived as pressure to follow your advice and it can lead to a commitment to the positive outcome you want.
[26:05] Zoe gives a shoutout to the veterans who come through the Yale School of Management. The professors love to have veterans in their classes because they are good listeners, and pay attention to the professors, their colleagues, and their classmates. They amplify other people’s ideas and ask follow-up questions; they only speak when they feel they have something important to share.
[28:16] Zoe tells about her TEDx talk, “How to Make a Behavior Addictive.” She tells how a pedometer injured her body, her marriage, and her relationships. She is vulnerable to technology. Social media is addictive because it’s designed carefully to keep your attention. There is evidence that social media does much more harm than good. Zoe has studied the psychology that makes people want to come back.
[31:28] Zoe explains the manipulative and negative power of variable intermittent rewards. If someone is using variable intermittent rewards to manipulate you, it’s an unhealthy relationship. Social media does that to us constantly.
[35:38] Zoe shares advice for leaders on having difficult conversations involving challenging feedback. Have these conversations as soon as you realize that there’s something amiss, ideally, that day. If you are giving criticism, the longer you wait, the more betrayed the person feels because you’ve been harboring resentment against them. Having the practice of bringing it up as soon as you can is life-changing.
[39:35] How can you have more power within your organization? Internalize the idea that good work comes from good relationships. Reach out to get to know challenging people in other departments and ask questions. “How is this going for you? It’s kind of been a struggle for me and I’d like to understand your perspective.” It’s hard for people not to like you when you reach out and connect with them.
[41:42] Research shows men’s social and professional networks overlap a lot while women’s social and professional networks do not. If you are a woman, Zoe advises you to reach out to women and men at work, especially if you’re not already friends with lots of people at work. You will find a friendly rapport and reciprocity that leads to things happening more easily. Men usually have better networks.
[43:41] As Zoe was writing Influence Is Your Superpower, she asked a group of people about negotiations. Only 40% of men and 17% of women said they like or love negotiating. When she asked another group to describe their most recent negotiation, their adjectives were overwhelmingly positive. About 80% of them had had a good result and felt empowered!
[47:54] Zoe discusses power in an organization. Influence works the same in leadership and relationships. The idea that a leader should never apologize because apologizing gives up power is wrong to Zoe. You build a lot of social capital by apologizing at the right time, in the right way, and by taking responsibility. That’s powerful!
[49:44] Zoe provides an anecdote that listeners can copy about a leader raising his status by sharing the spotlight. Jess Cain VP of Customer Service at Eversource has a 96% employee engagement rating by sharing a short weekly voicemail including a spotlight on two different team members. She has 1,500 members on her team. Jan notes also that people support what they help create.
[53:27] Zoe’s challenge to listeners: Challenge the frame of consumerism. Thinking of ourselves as consumers has caused the climate crisis. Think about using your influence in the grand scheme and not just for your benefit. Be a role model. Zoe is donating half the profits from her book to 350.org.
[56:00] Closing quote: “Think twice before you speak because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” — Napoleon Hill.
Quotable Quotes
- “Almost all of us, … have mixed feelings about influence. … If I ask people … what are three adjectives that come to mind when you think of influence tactics, [it's] yucky, greedy, manipulative. … When I ask … ‘Would you like to be more influential?”, all of them say, yes.”
- “Employees have been more productive at home than they have been at work, … but it hasn’t changed the fact that employers want employees to come back.”
- “Employers that offer more flexibility are going to do much better in the long run, because they’ll be able to recruit the best talent.”
- “As most academics do, we collaborate with people that we never see and that’s partly because we’re introverted and so we’re kind of happy to be in our little cave. But there’s no problem with collaborating with people that you don’t see.”
- “If you want to onboard new people and help them make friends; to have informal conversations and collaborations, OK, that’s great. We just don’t need to all be at the office every single day, or even every single week, right?”
- “Plenty of surveys have shown that leaders are actually out of touch about the real culture of their company. … the actual reality is kind of a crappy culture. It’s horrible to bring people back to the office to experience the crappy culture.”
- “Bringing people back to the office or allowing people to work remotely has a differential impact on women and people of color and various groups. So there’s more equality when we have more flexibility. That’s another reason I’m generally in favor of giving people flexibility.”
- “Every freedom, every privilege, should be so carefully and thoughtfully doled out with the expectation that what you’re giving an employee is going to be in perpetuity, or there’s going to be a rebellion.”
- “When she’s asking this {Magic Question], she’s respectfully acknowledging ‘Listen, you know all kinds of things that I don’t know,” which is always the case with the people we’re trying to influence. They know all kinds of things about their life that we don’t.”
- “The most addictive piece [of social media] … is called ‘variable intermittent rewards.’”
- “We also often don’t really realize what our expectations are until they get violated.”
- “Just internalize the idea that good work comes from good relationships.”
- “There is a ‘liking’ gap of 12%, where people like you 12% more than you think that they do. And this very much includes people who you have some bit of conflict or strife with.”
- “The majority … have this idea of negotiations that … comes from the movies. … We don’t directly observe many negotiations and we’re just not realizing that in our lives, most of the time when we’re negotiating, it goes pretty well. … Negotiation is not as bad as we think."
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- Dr. Zoe Chance
- Dr. Zoe Chance on LinkedIn
-
Yale School of Management
-
Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen, by Zoe Chance
-
Google
-
“How Google Optimized Healthy Office Snacks,” by Zoe Chance, Ravi Dhar, Michelle Hatzis, and Michiel Bakker
-
Aliens
-
Resident Alien
-
Robert Cialdini
- Daniel Kahneman
- Laszlo Bock from Humu
- Gloria Steinem
- “How to Make a Behavior Addictive,” Zoe Chance, TEDxMillRiver
- Jeffrey Pfeffer
- 7 Rules of Power: Surprising—but True—Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
- Eversource Energy
- Jessica Cain
- 350.org
- Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Donato J. Tramuto is an American healthcare executive, global health activist, author and former CEO of Tivity Health. Donato’s first book was released in 2016, “Life’s Bulldozer Moments: How Adversity Can Lead to Success in Life and Business.” His latest book, “The Double Bottom Line,” is an Amazon Best Seller. Donato is a recipient of the prestigious RFK Ripple of Hope and the RFK Embracing His Legacy Award, for his endless dedication to improving the lives of others. In this episode, Donato discusses the nuances of hardship, developing compassion, being yourself, understanding your associates, and using tenderness to establish trust before relying on tenacity.
https://bit.ly/TLP-321
Key Takeaways
[2:20] Donato lost most of his hearing at age eight, for ten years, and had a severe speech impediment until he was 17. The loss of his hearing created in him an enormous sense of compassion for people.
[4:14] For his latest book, The Double Bottom Line, Donato, and his team interviewed 41 world leaders and surveyed 1,500 employees across the country. Their research revealed that compassionate leaders need to do more than understand others’ pain. They need empathy in action to impact others.
[6:24] The Double Bottom Line is not just a business book. Donato shares a life experience. In the book, he tells the reader, “Listen to understand, don’t listen to react.” Donato suggests that if we practice compassionate leadership in our daily lives, we’ll take it into our business lives.
[8:04] Jan recalls recent guest Michael Bungay Stanier speaking about being compassionate, generous, and kind every day. Jan stresses the difference between being compassionate and being nice. Donato says, “If you want to be liked in a company, you’re probably better to go out and get 100 golden retrievers! Compassionate leadership is not just about being nice.”
[9:38] Donato advocates three Ts: approach your organization with Tenderness first, to get the Trust. Then you can use Tenacity. When making tough decisions, don’t start with tenacity. You gain trust by taking the time to understand each person in your organization.
[10:42] As the CEO of Healthways (Tivity), Donato avoided the CEO elevator to ride the regular elevator. He shares an event that unfolded from him asking an employee in the elevator how his day was going. Donato would not have known the employee needed help had he not asked the question. Ask questions to get answers beyond, “I’m OK.”
[11:52] Form deep relationships with your associates. Generation Z and Millennials will form 60‒65% of the workforce and they require compassionate leadership or they will leave. People are reflecting on their lives in ways we have never seen in our lifetime.
[13:07] In Donato’s last year as CEO of Tivity Health, he took a hard line with an executive in front of nine other executives just before a flight. He felt miserable about it. When his plane landed, he got off and called the executive to apologize to her. Because of that apology, their relationship blossomed. With compassionate leadership, you feel better, you don’t take problems home, and you gain credibility!
[15:42] Jim quotes Dale Carnegie, who said, “Be interested, not interesting.”
[16:36] Donato is thrilled to announce that the Boston University School of Public Health is going to convert The Double Bottom Line: How Compassionate Leaders Captivate Hearts and Deliver Results, into a curriculum to teach compassion. Many of the leaders Donato interviewed were not born with compassion. They learned it through someone in their family or a teacher. The book is a resource.
[17:26] There is an opportunity to train our current and future leaders on how to lead from the heart. Donato’s book has assignments at the end of each chapter to help individuals understand the key nuggets of using compassion. Donato’s commitment for the next 20 years is to expand this movement beyond the book and to help leaders see the key ingredients to being compassionate.
[20:22] Millennials and Generation Z are demanding a totally different approach to the work environment. Leaders will have to step up and embrace that change or they will be losing significant talent; they won’t be as competitive or as effective. The success of The Double Bottom Line is a validation of compassionate leadership. Institutions are asking Donato for training. The time is right.
[22:51] Donato proposes a Chief Compassionate Leader Officer for the C-Suite. Boards have got to be willing to ask these questions about culture and trust, to validate that the organization is moving in this direction, as opposed to always looking at a spreadsheet.
[25:36] What is the right amount of empathy, vs. making hard decisions? Empathy overload means getting too deep into the situation, clouding your ability to make hard decisions.
[27:06] When you ask to understand and have gotten to the issue, then you need to come to an agreement and consensus with “and,” not “but.” “I understand your issues, and how do we work together to make sure that your needs are met and the needs of the organization are met?” When Donato has taken that approach, they always got to an end result that worked for both parties.
[30:24] Establishing trust comes before results. Donato asks permission to help. Once he had a board member, who was not behaving well, refuse to receive some constructive insight. She said, “No. You’re not my coach.” Trust was not established. The board member did not have a favorable outcome; she was later asked to leave the board. Ask for permission to provide constructive insight and most will agree.
[32:40] When is it appropriate to address spirituality in the workplace? Donato believes our connection to a spiritual force influences how we behave. If you are a spiritual person, it’s not something to be embarrassed by. The world is increasingly secular. People who do not focus on spirituality may otherwise have positive values that guide their behavior for good. Be who you are.
[34:40] Until 2014, when he received the RFK recognitions, Donato had not shared with anyone that he was gay and had a partner. In front of 2,000 people, 500 of whom were his employees, he thanked his loving partner of 23 years. The audience stood to applaud. The more you are who you are, the more you develop an understanding in the workforce that you’re like the other person in many ways.
[37:07] Do people look favorably upon expressions of faith? If you emphasize too much one facet of who you are, then you make it an issue. Donato shares many facets of himself in case someone has one of those facets in common with him.
[41:20] Start to look at what you and your associates have in common. You will begin to realize that there is very little that is different about you. Take the time to understand the other person.
[43:20] Age discrimination is real. The average CEO is 59 years old. They hire their executive team from the same age group. Until we are willing to diversify the executive team, we will not integrate the values of the different generations to build an incredible team. Donato has just hired a terrific 23-year-old manager and he has learned a lot from her. Ten years ago, he would not have hired one of her age.
[46:55] The organization’s values should not be decided only by the executive team. Donato tells of changing a company’s 10 hard-to-remember values established by executive leadership into five carefully organized and prioritized values developed with the participation of the associates.
[47:34] Don’t choose when to be compassionate. Show compassion to everyone. Be compassionate all the time, just as a pilot flies a plane in a safe manner all the time.
[48:35] Donato’s challenge to listeners: There are many issues affecting us today. Start every single day by asking a friend or family member, “Tell me what you’re experiencing today.” After you’ve listened and you’ve heard them, do something! Kindness and compassion are the new currency of the century.
[50:40] Closing quote: “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — Robert F. Kennedy.
Quotable Quotes
- “The fluency you’re hearing today was not there when I was 17. … I share that with you because I think that part of leadership is being … comfortable with your story. Too many people … don’t really understand the steps that led to the successful position you might have.”
- “You rent your title; you own your dignity.”
- “If you want to be a compassionate leader, you must have empathy in action to have impact.”
- “Listen to understand. Understand what the other person might be going through.”
- “Everyone that you meet most likely is having a more difficult time than you.”
- “You want deep relationships with your associates. And by the way, we are now faced with five generations in the workforce. Generation Z and the Millennials will soon dominate — 60‒65% of the workforce. If you’re not changing as a leader, guess what, you’re going to be losing out.”
- “Part of compassionate leadership is doing some self-reflection. You’re not always going to be right and when you are wrong and you admit to it you will gain an enormous amount of credibility.”
- “My favorite philosopher Yogi Berra once said, ‘You don’t want to make the wrong mistake.’”
- “With five generations now in the workforce, and Millennials and the Gen Z-ers demanding a totally different approach to the work environment, I think that we’re going to have to step up and begin to embrace that change or we’re going to be losing some significant talent.”
- “A significant portion of [the Great Resignation] is related to feeling good, and passionate, and putting a soul in your company. … If the leaders of today cannot embrace that, they’re going to be gone.”
- “We have to be willing to understand that it’s not one facet that attracts people to you, it’s the entire person who you are, and the more willing you are to share those multiple facets, you begin to develop relationships in different venues.”
- “You have got to have the [company] values developed by everyone in the organization, otherwise, they are not going to stick. And that’s what we did. We brought the 10 values down to five. And … we did prioritize them.”
- “You show compassion to everyone and you’re compassionate all the time! You don’t pick and choose when you’re compassionate. It's like asking the pilot ‘When do you fly the plane in a safe manner?’ You always fly the plane in a safe manner!”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
-
Donato Tramuto on LinkedIn
-
The Double Bottom Line: How Compassionate Leaders Captivate Hearts and Deliver Results, by Donato Tramuto
-
Tramuto Porter Foundation
-
Health eVillages®
-
Life’s Bulldozer Moments: How Adversity Leads to Success in Life and Business, by Donato Tramuto
- Michael Bungay Stanier
- Tivity Health (Formerly Healthways)
- Yogi Berra
- Dale Carnegie
Michael Bungay Stanier has written books that have sold about a million copies all told, including The Coaching Habit. He founded a training and development company, Box of Crayons, that has taught coaching skills to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Listen in to see why Michael has been named the #1 Thought Leader in Coaching; and why his work has resonated with thousands…
https://bit.ly/TLP-320
Key Takeaways
[2:00] Jan and Jim met Michael Bungay Stanier through Bobby Herrera, the author of The Gift of Struggle. Michael is the author of the most successful book on coaching of this century, The Coaching Habit. Michael’s latest book is How to Begin.
[3:06] Little-known facts about Michael: he was banned from his high school graduation for a balloon prank, he was sued by one of his law school professors for defamation, and his first professional writing was The Male Delivery, a romance short story.
[6:07] Michael recently wrote on LinkedIn about his mother’s 50-year-old garden. It has a series of microclimates: a vegetable garden, a fern garden, a wisteria garden, and a Wollemi pine. Each area is looked after differently. He compares caring for a garden to caring for the microcultures in an organization’s culture.
[6:18] As a leader you see that things need to change. You’re constantly looking to evolve and grow your organization or strategy. The way you think about engaging all the other people is how change happens in an organization.
[8:36] In Australia, some trees need to be burned before they will germinate. Sometimes you need to burn some stuff down to allow the culture to germinate, refresh, and regrow.
[10:01] Jan quotes a military mantra, “Selection’s an ongoing process. Just because you got to come here and be in this organization doesn’t mean you get to stay.” Michael notes that our natural wiring is to add. One of the most powerful things to do to drive change is to remove. Michael tells of a study involving adding or removing Lego blocks to make the desired shape. Most people added blocks.
[11:05] Most people, when thinking of change in an organization, ask what they need to add. Instead, they would get better changes by asking what 20% of what is happening, what practices, structures, systems, culture, or people, they need to remove! Michael learned of the study by reading Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, by Leidy Klotz.
[12:15] We are also wired to give advice, even when it’s better to ask a question. Michael counsels leaders to stay curious a little bit longer and move to action and advice-giving a little bit more slowly. Michael explains where we go wrong with giving advice.
[14:29] One resistance to having coaching be part of your culture is asking who has time for it. Michael says if you can’t coach somebody in 10 minutes or less, you do not have time to coach them. Being curious does not take a vast amount of time. Michael defines coaching as being curious just a little bit longer. Being curious allows you to figure out what the real challenge is.
[15:28] In most organizations, people are working very hard to solve not the real challenge, but the first challenge. Because we get seduced into thinking that the first challenge is the thing we need to solve. If you build a reputation as the person who always seems to figure out what the real challenge is, you build a reputation as a strategic player.
[16:00] Strategy is knowing what the real thing is and being bold enough to go and try to fix that. Organizations are filled with people who are good at coming up with fast, not very good ideas. If you’re just one of them, you’re not as valuable to your organization. If you’re always the person who asks, “What’s the real challenge we’re trying to solve here?” you become invaluable. Get the diagnosis right.
[16:33] Michael just had a free webinar that asked “What’s the one question that unlocks everything?” The question is, “If I’m going to say ‘yes’ to this, what must I say ‘no’ to?” He quotes Michael Porter, who said, “Strategy is choice. It’s having the courage to make the choice.” Most of us are afraid of making the choice.
[17:21] There are three levels of things you have to say “no” to 1.) Tasks. What are the tasks I need to stop doing? 2.) People. To whom do I need to say no? Whom do I need to disappoint? 3.) The old version of who you are, so you can say yes to the new version of who you are.
[19:38] The book, How to Begin, asks if you understand the prizes and punishments of staying committed to the status quo. People often don’t understand how much they get from the way things are right now, even though they’re overwhelmed. You need to know what you value and hold dear. There is a tension between the work that has impact and work that has meaning.
[21:28] You have to ask what has to be done in this organization for this thing to be a success. What is the work you do that unlocks the best of who you are and has the maximal impact within your organization?
[23:15] What does it mean to set a worthy goal? How do you set the goals that matter to you? How do you set a goal that claims ambition for yourself and the world? Michael suggests there are three key elements 1.) Is it thrilling? Does it light you up? 2.) Is it important? 3.) Have you picked a worthy goal that is daunting to you? Will it take you to the edge of your sense of self?
[25:14] If you have a goal that is thrilling, important, but not daunting, you have plateaued; you are no longer learning. Michael is now an old dog but he still wants to learn new tricks! Neuroplasticity is how you keep your brain alive and push yourself to the edge.
[26:44] Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals are goals of things for management to track. Leadership goals are harder to measure and track.
[30:12] When Michael’s father was dying, Michael shared with his father a book chapter he had just written about him, referring to Rilke’s poem “The Man Watching,” about Jacob wrestling with the angel. Michael saw his father as Jacob, a very good man wrestling something greater than himself and becoming the best of who he was.
[33:37] Michael is writing a book and he is finding a lot of resistance in the writing. He feels he is losing a wrestle with an angel and feels the angel’s thumbs pushing him down. He asks himself what is his worthy goal. Right now, it’s to be with his mother in Australia, to help her with her grief and mourning, and to let go of his need to write his book or anything else.
[36:05] Humility and confidence go hand-in-hand, as Michael explains.
[37:48] Coaches must consider for whose sake they are talking. Is it helping the client or the coach? Is it for the coach to figure something out or is it for the client to figure something out? Is the coach’s talking the best way to serve the client or is it giving the coach status, authority, gravitas, and added value?
[39:09] When should coaches talk? Michael says the more he’s been around, the more he says the best thing to do is allow the person to figure their stuff out so that they’re creating new neural pathways and gaining competence, confidence, self-sufficiency, and autonomy. That’s the better way to coach.
[40:00] Are you asking questions in service of the client or in service of the problem? Michael says to test it out. Ask the person you are talking to, “Does this feel helpful? What feels useful here in all of this, if anything?” The client will know the answers to those questions better than you will. Figure it out between the two of you. Coaching is a relationship. Stop trying to figure it out all in your head.
[42:41] Michael’s closing thoughts: “If you can stay curious and you can stay kind and you can be generous, that just takes you a long way down the path of being a good human being. Curiosity, kindness, and generosity are a really powerful triumvirate.”
[48:19] Closing quote: “Coaching’s not a job, it’s a privilege.” — Lee Corso.
Quotable Quotes
- “Any dominant culture actually has subcultures and microclimates. And you’re not just trying to build a culture, you’re [asking], ‘How do I build these microclimates that are all contributors, culture-adds, to the overall culture of my organization?’”
- “If you’re a leader, one of the mantras you have is ‘Stuff needs to change around here.’ You’re constantly looking to evolve and grow your organization or your strategy in some way. … The way you think about engaging all the other people is how change happens in an organization.”
- “I’m trying to get people in organizations … to stay curious a little bit longer and rush to action and advice-giving a little bit more slowly because most of us are advice-giving maniacs.”
- “There is a place for advice-giving. There is absolutely a place for advice-giving! It’s an act of civilization to trade information. What kills us is when we have leaping to advice as our default response.”
- “When you work in an organization, you’ve got a tension always between work that has impact and the work that has meaning. If you can be really clear on the stuff that matters to you, … then you also have to ask, ‘What needs to be done in this organization for this to be a success?’”
- “If you’re not working on the right thing, it doesn’t matter if your goal is specific, measurable, attainable, timely, or whatever else. It’s like you’re not working on the thing that’s going to have the most impact and bring out the best of who you are.”
- “With a worthy goal, you can do work on one or two worthy goals, not more than that.”
- “I’m trying to write a book at the moment, and I wrote my words today, but, man, I am finding resistance to this book; the dark force in this book is stronger than usual! … I know how to write a book, but this book, I went, ‘What?! This is really hard!’”
- “I want people to say, ‘Look, I know where I’m good, and I also know where I’m not good and I don’t need to be grandiose about either of those things. That’s what I’m working with. That’s the reality that I’m playing with.’ That, to me, has that kind of confidence and humility.”
- “The longer I’ve been around, the more I see that my answers aren’t as good as I think they are. And the more I’ve been around, the more I say the best thing to do is allow that person to figure their stuff out so that they’re creating new neural pathways.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
-
Michael Bungay Stanier on LinkedIn
-
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
-
How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters
-
The Gift of Struggle: Life-Changing Lessons About Leading, by Bobby Herrera
-
The Rhodes Scholarship
-
Animal House
-
Wollemi Pine
- UVA Study involving Legos
- Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, by Leidy Klotz
- Michael Porter
- SMART Goals
- Michael Bungay Stanier video: How To Achieve Your Worthy Goals
-
Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society
-
“The Man Watching,” by Rainer Maria Rilke
-
Harry Chapin
-
Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
David Smith is a wicked problem-solver, collaborative business leader, technologist, and innovative futurist. He has held executive roles in R&D, government, commercial, and academic organizations. David has been named one of the top seven global futurists in the Millennium issue of Business Week. In this conversation, David shares several concepts to help leaders keep up with the present and prepare for the future. He describes wicked problems, and how to bring a team together with the tools to solve them. He is one of two futurists who have been accurate for the first 22 years of the century and is still on track.
https://bit.ly/TLP-319
Key Takeaways
[2:18] David and Jim first met in Austin and found they had a mutual friend in Steve Justice.
[3:46] In David’s youth, as a long-haired roadie, he ran audio for the Beach Boys, the Carpenters, and others. David shares a story from that era.
[6:18] David solves wicked problems, which are complex problems that have no known solution path. He once had a team of about 200 people over a year make a 45-year wicked problem roadmap for high-energy-density storage for the military. We can store energy now, but not yet at the density that we need.
[7:53] Sematech was formed to regain the semiconductor industry back in the United States. They did it. Dave was one of the co-leaders of the first industry roadmap done in the United States. They worked with semiconductor manufacturers, suppliers, academia, and the government to create the roadmap. The commercial sector, academic sector, and government sector acted as a technopolis to enact change.
[9:16] Solving wicked problems involves pulling the various stakeholders of commerce, academics, and the government to work together.
[10:31] David explains the process of seeing fifty years into the future. He was one of seven futurists who predicted that this century would be defined by bio. All technology is becoming biological. At 22 years in, he’s been pretty accurate. Only one of the other futurists is accurate for today. All the other five have fallen off the table. David explains how he used a framework.
[11:20] A leading futurist has changed his future every 14 to 20 months. That’s not forecasting, it’s predicting and then changing his prediction. David uses a method that includes six views of the future: as an extrapolator, a pattern analyst, a goal-setter, a counterpuncher, an intuiter, or an artist. Different techniques are used for each of the views.
[12:27] Use people who can work in different views to optimize out errors. David shares a story of a satellite phone company that went to market using only an extrapolation view to forecast sales. In 12 months, they asked David to work with them and get them on track, because his multiple-view forecast of their numbers had been right.
[15:32] How can global social issues be solved? David explains that his framework can be applied across the U.S. and even as far as Malaysia. People understand the value of different views. He tells why the front windshield of a car is larger than the rear window; where we’ve been is important but where we’re going is more important. You need to know where you’ve been to be optimized for the future.
[18:36] When David interviews people, he asks a standard set of questions and also roleplays. One roleplay involves the interviewee being asked to defend his actions against “one of the world’s leading experts” who disagrees with what the interviewee is doing. That shows David the candidate’s potential for dealing with human dynamics. It reveals competencies and capabilities.
[21:46] David suggests something for leaders: They and everyone in their company need to know that we are in a time of lifelong learning and the way we learn is dramatically changing. David is constantly learning and constantly looking at how to learn. One of the six views of the future is counterpuncher. A counterpuncher does a great job of current awareness. A counterpuncher works scenarios.
[23:28] David looks for weak signals. There’s a lag between inventing something at a university and getting it to the marketplace. David uses tools that let him see what research universities are doing. That gives him the advantage of seeing weak, early signals and spending more time researching. He networks with a lot of people in different industries and he’s always learning. He connects the dots.
[25:12] Leaders sometimes forget that other industries are having to solve many of the same types of problems. Dave suggests looking at horizontal convergence. Often you can connect the solutions and the data well between industries. Follow David on Twitter. He posts several times a day of early indicators of industries, trends, and research.
[26:03] It’s very important to understand that the world is not static. Ask people to help you learn to do new things and prepare for the future. David tells people around the world that he’s an East Texas farm boy. He finds it a great way to get people comfortable talking with him.
[27:06] Before going to a research university, David participated in a pilot education program with 21 students at a college outside of Dallas. It was a one-year inquiry program of learning from original source material without textbooks. It forced them to synthesize. Learning to synthesize, plus having great mentors, gave David the greatest advantage in his career.
[29:24] We live with “systems of systems.” Your one mobile device has voice communication, data, photography, entertainment, GPS, etc. David suggests thinking of mentors as a system. One mentor for your current role, one mentor for understanding the politics of the company, and one mentor outside your company for understanding entrepreneurship. Make connections and cultivate them as you go.
[31:34] Don’t look for a mentor to hold your hand, but one to point to the mountain and let you choose how to climb it to reach the top. Ask for help if you need it, but you need to understand the path yourself. You want a mentor to help stretch your brain, your competencies, and your capabilities. Learn intangibles above technical skills. David would hope you mentor others below you, too. It’s not one-way.
[35:28] David’s hiring advice: Hire people who understand the principle of group intelligence. It’s one of the strongest things David looks for in capabilities. If a rockstar candidate does not work well with others, the impact of that candidate will not be sustainable or optimal.
[36:23] David’s six views of the future are one of the ways he builds group intelligence. When he hires people, he wants to see if they’re the one who always has to be right or if they play well with others.
[36:41] David recommends silent brainstorming to generate ideas. He explains why it brings out better ideas than brainstorming out loud, and how it works, using a customer example.
[39:26] Wicked problems are solved using group intelligence, using a technopolis approach, and using the six views approach. The common theme is using the power of people and the power of group intelligence.
[40:28] Participation in team sports is an indicator of group intelligence. David looks to see if candidates participate in group hackathons to develop a solution over a weekend with people you don’t work with. David also roleplays to see how the candidates get their information and use group intelligence.
[42:28] David agrees with Steve Justice that we need to stand in the future. David says he has to live in the future to survive today. A leader’s job is to help get the roadmap in place for where the company wants to go. A map has multiple possible routes, and it’s not necessarily the leader’s role to pick the route and the detours. It’s to set the vision and help them understand what the future goals are.
[43:28] A leader’s role is to help the organization put roadmaps together for technology, services, products, and capabilities. The roadmaps empower the organization to get to its goals. A 100% top-down leadership in today’s global, connected world would be too complicated for one leader. He needs the group intelligence of his teams, suppliers, and other stakeholders to help build the roadmaps.
[44:52] David’s closing thoughts: Since the beginning of recorded data, the amount of data has doubled every two years. Because of the quantity of the data, most legacy tech systems will fail. People need to be in the mode of lifelong learning, or they will be left behind. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have web developers or eCommerce. Coming up, robotics and autonomous systems will revolutionize the world.
[48:19] Closing quote: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein.
Quotable Quotes
- “When we formed Sematech, our market share in the U.S. had fallen to about 30% globally. That’s a danger point for us. Just like today, … you’re hearing about how the U.S. must regain its semiconductor industry again. Well, we did it back then and it needs to be done again.”
- “[For] wicked problems, … you’ve got to pull these various stakeholders together. And then you have to use approaches to make sure that what you’re doing is accurate. And what has caused many of these to fail is the use of only a couple of different … views to make it happen.”
- “I have a framework where we look at six different views of the future. You’re an extrapolator, a pattern analyst, a goal-setter, a counter puncher, an intuiter, or an artist. What makes this system unique is that there are different techniques which go under each of those.”
- “When we try to tackle hard problems, … we use techniques that go across those different views. … When we do the working groups, I not only want people from the technopolis areas but I want people who have the ability to work in each of the different views of the future.”
- “Where we’ve been is important but where we’re going is more important.”
- “One of the first things I want the listeners to understand is that we’re in a time of life-long learning. And it’s not just for leadership but everyone within your company needs to understand that we’re in a time of lifelong learning. And the ways we learn are dramatically changing.”
- “When you [search], you rarely get any feedback from a university in the search results. But universities are doing a lot of the future science. There’s usually a lead-lag relationship between when something’s invented in a university before it gets to the … marketplace.”
- “I learn when I talk to people. … I ask questions. I put a scenario out there and say ‘Does it work here?’ and try to understand the answer. The ability for me to be able to work across the different industries I do is, I am a dot-connector.”
- “Very often, we get so caught up in our vertical industry knowledge, we forget the other industries are having to solve many of the same problems. Maybe a different set of customers, but face the same types of problems. So you need to begin to look at … horizontal convergence.”
- “We’ve got to change or we would still be plowing fields with pieces of rock.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC
- David Smith on LinkedIn
- David Smith on Twitter
- In-Q-Tel
- CIA
- NSA
- SEMATECH
- Steve Justice
- Skunkworks
- The Beach Boys
- Carpenters
- Dell
- Bob Noyce
- Intel
- World Economic Forum
- Microsoft
- Cisco
- “What Only the CEO Can Do”, by A.G. Lafley, HBR
- Peter Drucker
-
Autonomous Systems
-
Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Elliott Bisnow is the Co-Founder of Summit, whose family of organizations includes Powder Mountain, Summit Series, and Summit Junto. He’s also a startup investor in 50 companies like Uber, Coinbase, Warby Parker, and Albert. Elliott describes his passion for building companies and cultures, connecting deeply with people on his teams, and building events and communities. He believes that what is good for business should be what is good for the community and the world.
https://bit.ly/TLP-318
Key Takeaways
[2:20] Elliott Bisnow is focused on building companies with a great culture, and teams he loves, connecting deeply with the people who work at the Summit businesses, designing and building events and experiences, and meeting the people that come. He loves building communities and getting to understand them. He loves creating teams he wants to be part of. Elliott is a people person.
[4:31] The least important part of any business is caring about profits and making money. Those things come from a well-run business with a great product. Good entrepreneurs, good CEOs, and good leaders are obsessed and focused on the thing that their company is making or selling. Consider why you are an entrepreneur. What are you bringing to the world? Elliott loves designing products.
[6:239] Elliott recalls growing up watching MTV’s Cribs and seeing the Forbes 400 list, which he remembers with negative associations. He remembers the first group of entrepreneurs he met who cared about the product, the customers, and the communities they were serving. He contrasts the old business model of profit-seeking with a new business model focused on the good of the community.
[11:09] Are new entrepreneurs better people or do they just talk more about what they do in the community than the CEOs of the ’90s talked about? Growing up, Elliott never heard of CEOs doing good in the community. He realized he could build businesses that combine profits and purpose. He says, “Profit Enough. What’s good for our business should be good for the community and the world.”
[12:46] It’s a lot more enjoyable to do business when your team is happy, when your community is happy, and when you feel good about what you’re creating.
[13:44] Elliott liked college as a place to start a business because you have your dorm, food, and classes even if the business fails. His first two businesses in college didn’t work. His third idea did work so he quit college and moved back in with his parents. He made every possible mistake as he learned how to run a startup. The key is to take small risks and make small mistakes and learn from them.
[16:56] Elliott builds community by creating things that allow people to self-select into them, being very defined about its mission. However, once people have self-selected into an event, you can find yourself with a lot of similar voices and little diversity.
[19:21] Elliott has kept a notepad on his phone for over 10 years. Anytime he hears something or reads something interesting, he writes a note down. He might write one note in a week or three in a day. He has thousands of notes he re-reads. He receives wisdom from other people in two ways: the first way is by reading one book a week; the second is by meeting people in the flow of life and listening to them.
[21:45] Elliott has an 80% rule about conversations. In 80% of his conversations, he tries to ask questions. He will ask a question rather than answer one. He finds wisdom from ordinary people. Between his conversations and reading books, he’s getting a lot of good ideas.
[24:59] When Elliott realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur, he read a lot of very simple books about people’s journeys to becoming entrepreneurs. Then he was done reading about entrepreneurs and wanted to go be an entrepreneur.
[25:36] Elliott sees that MBA courses would serve people better after the people had experienced some years in business. Elliott spends a lot of time thinking about the books he is going to read. He identifies the types of books he wants to read. He also reads some books for fun. When he meets people that don’t read, he suggests books that are just for fun, to get them to fall in love with reading.
[27:31] You have to be in a good mindset to sit and read a business book. Elliott will skip a few pages ahead if he gets bored. He doesn’t get stuck on pages. Reading is a big part of Elliott’s life.
[28:30] Elliott discusses the virtues of knowing when to quit and cites Warren Buffet who only makes small mistakes because he knows when to get out of a deal. He’s never been in a massive mistake.
[29:27] Elliott’s view on ideas is that it’s quite difficult to come up with good ideas, so you need to create a culture where the most ideas possible can come forward, no matter what they are. That’s a hard environment to maintain when people naturally shoot down ideas or want to take credit for them. Elliott says there’s no limit to what you can achieve if you give other people credit.
[32:03] Elliott describes what it means to be a “favor-economy millionaire.” Build up a network of people with whom you trade for services. Having relationships where you and your network can help each other grow is extremely important.
[35:05] Being an entrepreneur or a leader is hard. Making money is hard. Saving money is hard. Bartering makes it easier to do business. Relationships are like muscles and the more that you work with them, the more you nurture the relationships. Give to people and it will come back many times over.
[36:32] Elliott’s takeaway from his book, Make No Small Plans: Between the life people are living and the life they want to live, there’s a lot of white space. Make No Small Plans, is in the context of the life that you want to live. Step out of anything that’s held you back. Make plans to get to where you want to be.
[40:06] Closing quote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Quotable Quotes
- “When you’re an entrepreneur, you get to create your own culture and your own team.”
- “The least important part of any business is caring about profits and making money. Those things come from a well-run business with a great product. … Good entrepreneurs, good CEOs, and good leaders are obsessed and focused on the thing that their company is making or selling.”
- “At the crux of entrepreneurship is, ‘What is the thing that you’re bringing to the world? Why are you an entrepreneur?’”
- “Just from a personal, selfish standpoint, it’s a lot more enjoyable way to do business when your team is happy, when your community is happy, and when you actually feel really good about what you’re creating.”
- “My main takeaway is that, as long as your mistakes are small, there’s not very far to fall. … In the early days, the key is taking lots of small risks.”
- “There’s a lot of emphasis placed on gaining tips and wisdom from super-famous people but I find that there’s just as much wisdom to be had from every person in the world.”
- “The most important thing about reading is falling in love with reading. And so most people who don’t read, I give them a few books that are just fun.”
- “You have to be in a good mindset to be able to sit and read a business book. And then I've developed a couple of tricks when it comes to reading, like skipping forward and if things are boring, don’t let it hold you back; don’t get stuck on pages.”
- “There are certain things where quitting is a virtue and it’s a good skill to have.”
- “Between the life people want to live, and the life that they’re living, there’s a lot of white space. When I think about Make No Small Plans, it’s in the context of the life that you want to live.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Elliott Bisnow on LinkedIn
- Make No Small Plans: Lessons on Thinking Big, Chasing Dreams, and Building Community, by Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz
- Summit
- Powder Mountain
- Summit Junto
- Uber
- Coinbase
- Warby Parker
-
Albert
-
MTV Cribs
-
Forbes 400
- Allen-Bradley
- Shantaram: A Novel, by Gregory David Roberts
- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barak Obama
- Decision Points, by George W. Bush
- James A. Garfield
- Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression, by Christopher Knowlton
- The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard
- Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way, by Richard Branson
- When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man, by Jerry Weintraub with Rich Cohen
- Ready Player One: A Novel, by Earnest Cline
- The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre
- Daniel Pink
- Warren Buffet
-
Gmail
-
Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Kathy Miller is a senior manufacturing executive, professional coach, business transformation advisor, and co-author of “Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success.” Kathy shares the emotional event that fueled her determination, and the value of prosocial behaviors at work. Kathy also talks about the most meaningful metrics: growth and profitability. She reveals how relationships between leaders and their staff can be maintained, and that showing up authentically is as important to your health as it is for the health of the organization.
https://bit.ly/TLP-317
Key Takeaways
[3:40] Kathy Miller and Shannon Karels co-authored Steel Toes and Stilettos, published in late 2021. The book talks about prosocial behaviors, which are socially accepted actions that benefit other individuals or communities. Kathy explains prosocial behavior as you being able to contribute to something larger than yourself in your current role.
[5:00] Selflessness at work begins with leaders setting the norms in the organization. As leaders display empathy and compassion and connect with employees, employees want to give back. It’s also by taking the workers and connecting them with a larger purpose than the paycheck and benefits, displaying how the work they’re doing connects to the community and makes the world a better place.
[6:29] Kathy recalls campaigns in her organizations that showed how the parts they made helped to feed the world or how the cars they made provided safe transportation for families. The majority of people respond to that very positively. The book includes a lot about leading with examples and cues in the workplace that say what you are doing is meaningful.
[7:14] Peter Drucker wrote that “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” Workers are here to get and keep customers. Lean manufacturing starts with providing customer value. Whatever the profession, people want to leave the world a better place than they found it, at the end of the day.
[10:15] Taking engineering through a co-op school was a practical way for Kathy to fund her way through college. When she first toured a plant with her father, she was exposed to “whooping and hollering and whistling,” but he told her, “People are people,” and “You’re going to be fine,” so she wasn’t intimidated. She immediately fell in love with the automotive assembly plant. It was challenging for her.
[11:52] When Kathy graduated, the plan shut down, after having been in production for 50 years. It was a significant emotional event, very early in her career. All the men followed the last car down the line, not knowing what would happen with their lives. That was one of the things that fueled Kathy to want to go into leadership and help create businesses that wouldn’t have to experience that.
[13:05] Kathy went into engineering and marketing, but she missed the factory, so she went back into operations.
[13:45] When Kathy was young, she was walking in the factory, in the instrument panel area where most of the women worked, and she thought it would be a “safe” place. Some women called her over to show her a box of chocolates shaped like private parts. Later her supervisor saw she was upset and told her that in manufacturing, she could not wear her heart on her sleeve. She learned never to cry at work!
[17:26] With great challenges come great rewards. Jan recalls a guest who said, “A career is made from hard bosses that are terrible and challenges that are impossible! It’s not made from a nice environment.” He was the HR director for Jack Welch.
[18:26] Kathy suggests two fundamental metrics for success: growth and profitability. Growing with your customers means focusing on them and meeting their needs. And you have to be profitable to pay the bills. There are subordinate metrics you have to address, but profitability and growth are the greatest. If they’re moving in the right direction with momentum, it shows you have an inclusive environment.
[19:49] Whatever metrics you take, boil them down so they are meaningful to the people at their level. You want to drive the right behavior. Any metric can be gamed, so look at an overall business system. Everyone in the organization needs to know how their role contributes to the metrics.
[22:14] The almost universal response to the idea of any transformation is, “We are different, unique, and special and that will not work here!” As a leader of a transformation, you have to be able to articulate a vision of the future that people can relate to because most people have not experienced those levels of performance, and those types of systems and processes.
[23:43] There is the danger of a “Program of the Month” fatigue in organizations from all the initiatives that come along. Break out of being just another initiative. It takes a lot of perseverance and communication, not varying from your stated goal. The “secret sauce” is that people will implement what they help create.
[26:03] It’s impossible to personalize the vision to every individual. People have different motivations. When you are the top leader, you are trying to describe what that vision means for the good of the organization. Kathy relates this to her origin story of watching a plant close and how she doesn’t want that to happen on her watch. Leaders have to show a little vulnerability and how it is personal to them.
[27:11] Kathy explains the formal strategy deployment process where the leader shares the vision for the organization and each leader translates it to be meaningful to their area, cascading down to the level of operators. If you’re doing these things correctly, people will see their lives getting better. They’re less frustrated; you’re supporting them and making their work more manageable or better.
[28:02] The chapters in Kathy’s book are named after shoes: baby shoes, cowboy boots, steel toes, flip-flops, etc. Kathy explains why different shoes are needed for different stages. With the supply chain challenges and workforce shortages, the working world is at a reset. For Kathy, that means we need cowboy boots (Chapter 2). We need to reset the vision for the next era.
[31:24] Kathy tells about her relationship with her co-author, Shannon Karels. Shannon was brought into the team to be a transformation expert. Kathy has seen Shannon grow, contribute, and become highly accomplished. They got to be very close and accomplished things together. Now they talk about how they can model for others the great relationship that they’ve had. It’s the best part of sisterhood!
[34:10] Kathy has some guidelines to share on work friendships. The relationship between Shannon and Kathy has grown over time. Now that they do not work together, it has grown a lot more. At work, Kathy is very conscious about not playing favorites. She has great relationships with everybody on her staff and sometimes those involve very hard conversations. Now, Shannon’s son calls her “Aunt Kathy.”
[36:21] Kathy carefully managed the optics of friendships between herself and her staff. It is lonely at the top. She would only confide in peers at other organizations, not in members of her team. Shannon was a member of Kathy’s staff and was treated fairly and equally with the other staff members. They became so much closer when they wrote a book together as equals.
[38:05] Leaders today should pay attention to showing up for work with authenticity, in Kathy’s view. If you can’t show up authentically, ask yourself “why?” Is this a good fit? It’s not healthy if you can’t show up authentically. It’s not healthy for you, your employees, or the company.
[41:23] Jim promises to tell a funny story of how he came to interview at Ford with two black eyes and a broken nose if listeners will put 10 new reviews on Apple Podcasts by the end of the month!
[43:04] Closing quote: “The only way you survive is you continuously transform into something else. It’s this idea of continuous transformation that makes you an innovation company.” — Ginni Rometty.
Quotable Quotes
- “Prosocial behaviors are a component of meaningful work; taking individuals who are providing roles and making sure that they’re connected to the needs of others. It’s just a fancy term for being able to contribute to something larger than yourself in the current role that you’re in.”
- “What you’re doing is meaningful. You might not be able to see it with that part that you’re assembling but you are connected to a greater purpose.”
- “Engineers are people, too, right? We all want to, at the end of the day, make a difference in the world, through our talents and our skills.”
- “I immediately fell in love with the automotive assembly plant. I couldn’t believe that every 60 seconds, a functioning vehicle came off the end of that line. And then, after I’d worked there five years, I was even more fascinated by it, when you see all the challenges.”
- “I saw very early in my life, the impact of a failed business on the lives of so many people. And so, it really taught me, ‘You have to produce results; you have to be successful; you have to give back and create these strong manufacturing businesses.’”
- “If you continue to grow with your customers, it means you’re focusing on your customers and their needs and meeting their needs, and other customers are getting attracted to you. And you have to be profitable because you have to pay the bills.”
- “Metrics need to be visible, and they need to be meaningful, and they need to be connected to the overall mission.”
- “The strategy deployment process [says] ‘These are the levels we need to be a competitive business,’ and then you let the leaders translate that to what that means to their part of the organization, and cascade it … until it gets to a meaningful level at the operator level.”
- “Understand, what is the current state? What are the variables, right now, that we have to contend with and how are we going to move all those variables in a positive direction in this post-pandemic era?”
- “If you can’t marry the values and actions and behaviors of the company with your own moral compass and show up authentically, it’s probably time to ask yourself some hard questions and maybe find somewhere where you can show up … authentically.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
-
Kathy Miller on LinkedIn
-
Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success, by Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller
-
https://opsisters.com
- Shingo Prize
- Prosocial behavior
- Peter Drucker
- Lean Manufacturing
- Systems thinking
- Design thinking
- Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team, by Simon Sinek, David Mead, and Peter Docker
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink
- Bridgeport milling machine
- Jack Welch
- John Wooden
- EOS
- Digital transformation
-
Ford
-
Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Kathy Miller is a senior manufacturing executive, professional coach, business transformation advisor, and co-author of “Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success.” Kathy shares the emotional event that fueled her determination, and the value of prosocial behaviors at work. Kathy also talks about the most meaningful metrics: growth and profitability. She reveals how relationships between leaders and their staff can be maintained, and that showing up authentically is as important to your health as it is for the health of the organization.
https://bit.ly/TLP-317
Key Takeaways
[3:40] Kathy Miller and Shannon Karels co-authored Steel Toes and Stilettos, published in late 2021. The book talks about prosocial behaviors, which are socially accepted actions that benefit other individuals or communities. Kathy explains prosocial behavior as you being able to contribute to something larger than yourself in your current role.
[5:00] Selflessness at work begins with leaders setting the norms in the organization. As leaders display empathy and compassion and connect with employees, employees want to give back. It’s also by taking the workers and connecting them with a larger purpose than the paycheck and benefits, displaying how the work they’re doing connects to the community and makes the world a better place.
[6:29] Kathy recalls campaigns in her organizations that showed how the parts they made helped to feed the world or how the cars they made provided safe transportation for families. The majority of people respond to that very positively. The book includes a lot about leading with examples and cues in the workplace that say what you are doing is meaningful.
[7:14] Peter Drucker wrote that “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” Workers are here to get and keep customers. Lean manufacturing starts with providing customer value. Whatever the profession, people want to leave the world a better place than they found it, at the end of the day.
[10:15] Taking engineering through a co-op school was a practical way for Kathy to fund her way through college. When she first toured a plant with her father, she was exposed to “whooping and hollering and whistling,” but he told her, “People are people,” and “You’re going to be fine,” so she wasn’t intimidated. She immediately fell in love with the automotive assembly plant. It was challenging for her.
[11:52] When Kathy graduated, the plan shut down, after having been in production for 50 years. It was a significant emotional event, very early in her career. All the men followed the last car down the line, not knowing what would happen with their lives. That was one of the things that fueled Kathy to want to go into leadership and help create businesses that wouldn’t have to experience that.
[13:05] Kathy went into engineering and marketing, but she missed the factory, so she went back into operations.
[13:45] When Kathy was young, she was walking in the factory, in the instrument panel area where most of the women worked, and she thought it would be a “safe” place. Some women called her over to show her a box of chocolates shaped like private parts. Later her supervisor saw she was upset and told her that in manufacturing, she could not wear her heart on her sleeve. She learned never to cry at work!
[17:26] With great challenges come great rewards. Jan recalls a guest who said, “A career is made from hard bosses that are terrible and challenges that are impossible! It’s not made from a nice environment.” He was the HR director for Jack Welch.
[18:26] Kathy suggests two fundamental metrics for success: growth and profitability. Growing with your customers means focusing on them and meeting their needs. And you have to be profitable to pay the bills. There are subordinate metrics you have to address, but profitability and growth are the greatest. If they’re moving in the right direction with momentum, it shows you have an inclusive environment.
[19:49] Whatever metrics you take, boil them down so they are meaningful to the people at their level. You want to drive the right behavior. Any metric can be gamed, so look at an overall business system. Everyone in the organization needs to know how their role contributes to the metrics.
[22:14] The almost universal response to the idea of any transformation is, “We are different, unique, and special and that will not work here!” As a leader of a transformation, you have to be able to articulate a vision of the future that people can relate to because most people have not experienced those levels of performance, and those types of systems and processes.
[23:43] There is the danger of a “Program of the Month” fatigue in organizations from all the initiatives that come along. Break out of being just another initiative. It takes a lot of perseverance and communication, not varying from your stated goal. The “secret sauce” is that people will implement what they help create.
[26:03] It’s impossible to personalize the vision to every individual. People have different motivations. When you are the top leader, you are trying to describe what that vision means for the good of the organization. Kathy relates this to her origin story of watching a plant close and how she doesn’t want that to happen on her watch. Leaders have to show a little vulnerability and how it is personal to them.
[27:11] Kathy explains the formal strategy deployment process where the leader shares the vision for the organization and each leader translates it to be meaningful to their area, cascading down to the level of operators. If you’re doing these things correctly, people will see their lives getting better. They’re less frustrated; you’re supporting them and making their work more manageable or better.
[28:02] The chapters in Kathy’s book are named after shoes: baby shoes, cowboy boots, steel toes, flip-flops, etc. Kathy explains why different shoes are needed for different stages. With the supply chain challenges and workforce shortages, the working world is at a reset. For Kathy, that means we need cowboy boots (Chapter 2). We need to reset the vision for the next era.
[31:24] Kathy tells about her relationship with her co-author, Shannon Karels. Shannon was brought into the team to be a transformation expert. Kathy has seen Shannon grow, contribute, and become highly accomplished. They got to be very close and accomplished things together. Now they talk about how they can model for others the great relationship that they’ve had. It’s the best part of sisterhood!
[34:10] Kathy has some guidelines to share on work friendships. The relationship between Shannon and Kathy has grown over time. Now that they do not work together, it has grown a lot more. At work, Kathy is very conscious about not playing favorites. She has great relationships with everybody on her staff and sometimes those involve very hard conversations. Now, Shannon’s son calls her “Aunt Kathy.”
[36:21] Kathy carefully managed the optics of friendships between herself and her staff. It is lonely at the top. She would only confide in peers at other organizations, not in members of her team. Shannon was a member of Kathy’s staff and was treated fairly and equally with the other staff members. They became so much closer when they wrote a book together as equals.
[38:05] Leaders today should pay attention to showing up for work with authenticity, in Kathy’s view. If you can’t show up authentically, ask yourself “why?” Is this a good fit? It’s not healthy if you can’t show up authentically. It’s not healthy for you, your employees, or the company.
[41:23] Jim promises to tell a funny story of how he came to interview at Ford with two black eyes and a broken nose if listeners will put 10 new reviews on Apple Podcasts by the end of the month!
[43:04] Closing quote: “The only way you survive is you continuously transform into something else. It’s this idea of continuous transformation that makes you an innovation company.” — Ginni Rometty.
Quotable Quotes
- “Prosocial behaviors are a component of meaningful work; taking individuals who are providing roles and making sure that they’re connected to the needs of others. It’s just a fancy term for being able to contribute to something larger than yourself in the current role that you’re in.”
- “What you’re doing is meaningful. You might not be able to see it with that part that you’re assembling but you are connected to a greater purpose.”
- “Engineers are people, too, right? We all want to, at the end of the day, make a difference in the world, through our talents and our skills.”
- “I immediately fell in love with the automotive assembly plant. I couldn’t believe that every 60 seconds, a functioning vehicle came off the end of that line. And then, after I’d worked there five years, I was even more fascinated by it, when you see all the challenges.”
- “I saw very early in my life, the impact of a failed business on the lives of so many people. And so, it really taught me, ‘You have to produce results; you have to be successful; you have to give back and create these strong manufacturing businesses.’”
- “If you continue to grow with your customers, it means you’re focusing on your customers and their needs and meeting their needs, and other customers are getting attracted to you. And you have to be profitable because you have to pay the bills.”
- “Metrics need to be visible, and they need to be meaningful, and they need to be connected to the overall mission.”
- “The strategy deployment process [says] ‘These are the levels we need to be a competitive business,’ and then you let the leaders translate that to what that means to their part of the organization, and cascade it … until it gets to a meaningful level at the operator level.”
- “Understand, what is the current state? What are the variables, right now, that we have to contend with and how are we going to move all those variables in a positive direction in this post-pandemic era?”
- “If you can’t marry the values and actions and behaviors of the company with your own moral compass and show up authentically, it’s probably time to ask yourself some hard questions and maybe find somewhere where you can show up … authentically.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
-
Kathy Miller on LinkedIn
-
Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success, by Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller
-
https://opsisters.com
- Shingo Prize
- Prosocial behavior
- Peter Drucker
- Lean Manufacturing
- Systems thinking
- Design thinking
- Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team, by Simon Sinek, David Mead, and Peter Docker
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink
- Bridgeport milling machine
- Jack Welch
- John Wooden
- EOS
- Digital transformation
-
Ford
-
Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Dr. Laura Bokar is the CEO of Fox Valley Institute for Growth and Wellness and the author of “We Need to Talk: 24 Simple Insights for Relationships.” Laura discusses a variety of relationship topics, and points out that home and business relationships are the same… they are human relationships. Laura discusses the nuances of difficult conversations, how relationships fail, and how they can be repaired.
Listen to this episode to learn to nurture relationships and avoid big problems.
https://bit.ly/TLP-316
Key Takeaways
[2:20] Laura credits her fabulous husband, Chuck, for helping her throughout her career and in building Fox Valley Institute as a “silent partner.”
[3:47] Difficult conversations create fear and anxiety for some. These conversations are on topics important to us, with high and intense emotions behind them. We have uncertainty about how the other person will respond. Laura suggests staying on track in difficult conversations by first embracing and understanding your emotions, preparing, and practicing.
[5:59] Before a difficult conversation, own your emotions, manage them, and understand them. You don’t want two emotional people coming into a room. Be clear about what is important to you to bring up and talk about. In the conversation, affirm the person and the relationship, and then let them know what you want to talk about. Be hard on the issue and soft on the person.
[7:09] Listen for content and emotions. Respond to emotions with empathy and validation. Sometimes people bring up unresolved issues from the past. These issues will keep resurfacing until they are made the topic of another necessary difficult conversation. When a person gets overwhelmed, they want to shut down and blame or shame themselves. Address what is overwhelming them.
[10:39] Can a difficult conversation be avoided? Ask yourself if it will improve the relationship and if the relationship is important enough for you to want to improve it. Knowing the answer, you can decide whether or not to have that difficult conversation. It’s an investment. Are both of you invested?
[12:53] Relationships usually don't degrade with one big lapse but with a bunch of small paper cuts. Laura shares examples of small injuries that hurt relationships. You may not be paying attention to them but they build up and put distance between people. Justifications and excuses create distance in both personal and business relationships because you lose trust. Apologize for the small things.
[16:02] Small things may call for difficult conversations. Many things can be resolved by talking about them. It could be a reason you don’t know about, such as having a terminally ill family member. Once you know, you can understand and probably let go of it. The person would probably pivot and get back on track.
[17:53] Laura tells how to say you’re sorry in a heartfelt way when you understand how you hurt that person. Let them hear that you get it and that you empathize. If the hurt person wants an explanation you can give it; not to satisfy yourself.
[19:57] Laura explains primary and secondary emotions. The primary emotion may be sadness, hurt, shame, or loneliness. Shame is an emotion that can’t live in the light. We don’t want to share it. It’s hard to get it into the conversation. It’s probably connected to something deep in the past. If the issue is shame, recommend professional help. Bringing it to the light with a therapist will mean freedom.
[24:00] Many leaders get to know their people, notice when they have a change in performance, and have conversations with them. If there is a home problem, Laura recommends the person talk to a professional. Let them find someone they can talk to about it who is not their boss. Leaders should also have the experience of talking to a therapist; they can tell the employee they’ve done it and it is helpful.
[28:09] Be aware of changes that might signal depression and recommend the employee talk to a professional therapist if you see the signs. Depression and anxiety are invisible disorders but when they get to the point where you see behavioral changes, it’s usually pretty bad.
[29:14] Different generations manage online situations differently. If you notice a big gap between a person’s personality in person and online, talk with them about it.
[31:50] Steven Covey told his divorcing friend to “Love her” instead of divorcing his wife. Laura says that the injuries behind the divorce first have to be identified, understood, and forgiven before love will work.
[34:15] We have the Great Resignation. Laura says people needed a change, so they left jobs. Many are going back. The grass wasn’t greener on the other side. Laura suggests before leaving a position have a talk with your manager. It’s a failure in the relationship if the manager is not aware of your dissatisfaction. Invest in work relationships. There is no replacement for spending time with humans.
[36:55] Some companies attempted to give big raises to prevent people from leaving. But it wasn’t the money, it was the inadvertent slights that were the problems. Leaders have to be intentional and mindful of those small things. Many slights over a long period will add up.
[38:32] Relationships are the most important thing. We need to treasure them, and to do that, we need to spend time with them and commit to them. Understand the person. Ask questions and be curious about who they are, what they like, and what they want to do.
[39:06] The important thing about being grateful is to feel it. Laura asks the listener to remember when people were grateful for you and thanked you. Those are thoughts that will create biological change in you and bring out more emotions. Laura says, “So that’s my challenge: is to not just make the list anymore about being grateful, just remember when people were grateful for you.”
[41:38] Closing quote: “Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” — Henry Winkler.
Quotable Quotes
- “So the uncertainty, the high emotions, and knowing that’s something big we want to talk about, that matters to us; people usually will shy away from that.”
- “[A difficult conversation is] not very comfortable. It also creates fear and anxiety for people. But the more important piece about why we avoid it is because we’re going to be talking about something that’s important to us and with that, usually, we get high, intense emotions.”
- “The foundation of it is … owning your emotions and managing them and understanding them so you don’t bring them into the room. Because you don’t want two emotional people coming into a room.”
- “It’s important to notice [the small stuff], apologize for it, and then you can let go. I don’t want you to sweat over it. Let’s resolve it.”
- “Many times the grass does look greener on the other side and that is part of the injuries that occur during the relationship. It’s those little things, if there wasn’t a big thing that you know, like an affair. … To just go love someone is difficult if there are injuries.”
- “Injuries can only be healed if they’re identified, understood, and forgiven as a part of that.”
- “You need to have those conversations; you need connection. If people aren’t feeling connected, whether at work or in your marriage, people will start looking over their shoulder for the grass to be greener.”
- “Usually, they say to feel better or to help, think of three or five things to be grateful for before you go to bed or when you wake up. But the more important thing about being grateful is to feel it. … Remember the times when people were grateful for you.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Dr. Laura L. Bokar on LinkedIn
- Dr. Laura L. Bokar at Fox Valley Institute
-
Fox Valley Institute
-
We Need to Talk: 24 Simple Insights for Relationships
-
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff . . . and It’s All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life, by Richard Carlson
-
Steven Covey
-
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey
-
Corporate Competitor Podcast, with Don Yaeger
Gino Wickman is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovator, creator of the EOS system, and author of many books, including Traction and Entrepreneurial Leap. Gino talks about his new book, “Entrepreneurial Leap.” Gino describes what makes an entrepreneur, and whether you can learn the traits you need. Gino also shares how his early family business venture led to how he created the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®). Gino reveals that timing is not as important as adaptability. Products will always change. Customers will always have needs. Lastly, Gino offers a free assessment to see if you are an entrepreneur-in-the-making, or an entrepreneurial leader.
Listen in for a fascinating lesson on the essence of entrepreneurship.
https://bit.ly/TLP-315
Key Takeaways
[2:26] Gino Wickman talks about balance and his passions of simple things. He’s obsessed with entrepreneurs in his working life and pursues his passions in his personal life.
[5:08] Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Every entrepreneur is a leader. Gino urges leaders who aren’t entrepreneurs to open their minds to the possibility of being entrepreneurial leaders. Gino’s life work is helping entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial leaders. At EOS, they are working with entrepreneurial leadership teams who run businesses of 10 to 250 persons.
[6:12] Entrepreneurial Leap is for entrepreneurs who are about to take an entrepreneurial leap or who just took it and are in the startup phase.
[6:37] Six essential traits make an entrepreneur:
1.) Visionary, 2.) Passionate, 3.) Problem-solver, 4.) Driven, 5.) Risk-taker, and 6.) Responsible.
[6:55] If you have these inborn traits, you are either an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur-in-the-making. If you are a leader with a few of these traits, you are in the right place and are an entrepreneurial leader. You’re probably not going to take the risk to start a business and that’s all OK.
[7:20] The reason Gino wrote Entrepreneurial Leap is that being an entrepreneur is the new rockstar and everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. It’s not for everyone. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. If you take the entrepreneurial leap without having the six essential traits, you will be miserable for years and lose all your money. Gino breaks hearts and saves lives with the news!
[8:21] Gino explains the six essential traits cannot be learned; you have to be born with them. Every true entrepreneur he knows agrees and has these six essential traits. He hopes he’s wrong but he doesn’t think he is!
[9:20] How do entrepreneurs differ in their decision-making, taking on risks responsibly? A risk-taker knows the odds are that they are going to fail; they are willing to fail, depending on themselves 100% for income, and taking total responsibility for the outcome.
[13:54] When Gino took the leap to create EOS he was armed with two thoughts: He saw the needs of entrepreneurs, mismanaging their businesses, and saw nothing but opportunity. He believed he could help them — he had no idea how! He burned so much with the passion to connect the dots that he threw himself out there and simply figured it out. Most people would not take the risk.
[15:48] Gino discusses the meaning of risk. Is it as big a risk if you are well-prepared for it? Gino notes there is an entrepreneurial range, from one-person side hustle to the greatest entrepreneur in the world and every entrepreneur fits in that range. Large risks or small, there are always risks.
[18:17] Timing matters. In 1,000 years of entrepreneurial history, two things have always changed: products and services and methods of communication. Two things have never changed: People have wants and needs and you have to persuade them. Gino contrasts the too-early Newton with the iPhone that revolutionized the world 15 years later as an example of timing.
[19:58] When Gino built EOS Worldwide, the coaching industry exploded. His timing was perfect. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had perfect timing with software and computers. Entrepreneurs have to evolve with the times, keeping an ear to the ground and always knowing what the customer wants and needs. Be agile and adaptable.
[22:50] Even with perfect timing for a product, the customer’s wants and needs will change. The true entrepreneur will evolve to continue meeting those wants and needs. The person who got lucky with timing but does not evolve will be out of business in two to ten years.
[24:46] Gino offers a free assessment at e-leap.com to determine if you have the six essential traits.
[25:26] Gino wrote The EOS Life, which teaches the five points of how to live your ideal life. In that book, Gino shares energy management advice to help you live a balanced life doing what you love with people you love, making an impact, and making lots of money, with passion. Gino has launched a new platform around the ten disciplines for managing and maximizing your energy.
[26:42] Gino shares the 10 disciplines for managing and maximizing your energy: 1.) 10-year thinking, 2.) Take time off, 3.) Know thyself, 4.) Be still, 5.) Know your 100% working time, 6.) Say no often, 7.) Don’t do $25/hour work 8.) Prepare every night, 9.) Put everything in one place, 10.) Be humble.
[27:25] Gino’s platform for The 10 Disciplines is found at http://the10disciplines.com. The disciplines are how he manages and maximizes his energy.
[28:40] The 10 disciplines assume you are a driven individual taking care of yourself. One principle is that you should never do anything you can pay somebody $25 an hour to do. Do high-value work and give the rest to employees. Gino hasn’t looked at his email for 20 years. Email sucks his energy. He’s on the move, he’s creative, he’s creating, he’s teaching, he’s helping, and his energy is high.
[32:04] How do you maximize the benefit of having a mentor? Gino believes mentorship is a speed pass to success. He was blessed with two amazing mentors. His Dad, Floyd Wickman, was his people mentor for communication and leadership. Sam Cupp was his business mentor for running a company. Gino borrowed his father’s book, Mentoring, for the mentoring part of The 10 Disciplines.
[33:00] Gino teaches you how to find a mentor but first, you have to decide where you want to be. Go and find the person who is where you want to be. There’s one out there who wants to pass on their wisdom and their legacy. Go work for them for free, attach yourself to them, and learn from them. Ask them if they will mentor you. Gino teaches how. Only about half of entrepreneurs have had mentors.
[34:06] As a protege of a mentor, the two greatest things you can do to keep your mentor coming back are to thank them often and share with them how you’re applying what they’re teaching. Share the results. They are trying to pass on their legacy, and you can help them do it.
[35:13] Gino delegates $500 an hour jobs to free himself for higher-value work. Once a quarter he delegates something big. He decided he needed to delegate his company, EOS. He did a five-year search for the right successor. The day after closing, he moved on to pursue his passion, which was creating Entrepreneurial Leap and now, The 10 Disciplines. Gino is just going to keep on creating stuff.
[38:55] Gino uses his arms to communicate. He’s Italian! His gestures are energy shooting out of his body.
[40:55] Gino says most entrepreneurs are insecure. Gino was insecure at 18 but is more confident now. Gino quotes Daniel Kennedy, “We teach what we need the most.” Gino has always taught what he needed the most. Around age 40, Gino fully believed he deserved his optimal life and that’s what he teaches.
[46:22] Closing quote: “There are many talented people who haven’t fulfilled their dreams because they overthought it or they were too cautious and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.” — James Cameron.
Quotable Quotes
- “Being an entrepreneur is the new rockstar. So in the 70s and 80s, everyone wanted to be a rockstar. Nowadays, everybody wants to be an entrepreneur! And it’s not for everyone, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
- “This is a cautionary tale. I’m trying to find the 4% that are [entrepreneurial] and help the 96% that aren’t, realize ‘This is not the career for me!’ … People are taking entrepreneurial leaps; they don’t have the six essential traits, and they are miserable!”
- “True entrepreneurs with these six essential traits are borderline clinically crazy! We are not sane people! We’re not talking about sane people here. … It’s about just being comfortable taking the leap without having all of the answers!”
- “It’s a little scary and I never wanted to fail — never wanted to fail! But I have failed; it sucks! I licked my wounds when I failed but I picked myself up and I go! And for those that get paralyzed at the thought of taking a leap, you probably should not do this!”
- “I’m thinking of Steve Jobs when he came out with this hand-held device way too early, only to come out with it 15 years later and it revolutionized the world. So, there’s an example of timing.”
- “Never do anything you can pay somebody $25 an hour to do, … like checking your email, scheduling, booking travel, cutting your lawn, doing handy work. … Every hour you pay somebody $25 … to free yourself up to do $100, $200, $500, $1,000 an hour work, you are printing money.”
- “As a protege of a mentor, the two greatest things you can do to keep your mentor coming back: 1.) Thank them often. 2.) Share with them how you’re applying what they’re teaching. Share the results.”
- “My message to people is ‘You deserve to live your optimal life, and even further, it’s selfish not to because if you do it, you’re going to impact and change so many lives, you’re going to help me fix the world.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Gino Wickman
- GinoWickman.com
- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
-
EOS
-
Entrepreneurial Leap: Do You Have What it Takes to Become an Entrepreneur?
-
Entrepreneurial Leap
- John McMahon
- Ted Turner
- Apple Newton
- iPhone
- Steve Jobs
-
Bill Gates
-
FREE entrepreneurial assessment e-leap.com
-
The EOS Life
- The10disciplines.com
- Dave Crenshaw
- Sam Cupp
-
Mentoring: The Most Obvious Yet Overlooked Key to Achieving More in Life than You Ever Dreamed Possible, by Floyd Wickman and Terri Sjodin
-
Richard Newman
Richard Newman is the Founder and CEO of BodyTalk. In 21 years, Richard’s team has trained over 100,000 business leaders globally to improve their communication and impact. Richard learned recently that he is high-functioning on the autism spectrum; and he feels it blessed him by guiding his life in a deep exploration of communication. He shares how he teaches the hero’s journey to improve storytelling in meetings. Richard tells of the importance of nonverbal behaviors and of a research study he conducted with University College London on the effectiveness of postures and nonverbal behavior in projecting leadership qualities. Richard has great advice for leaders on lifting others to become the best versions of themselves.
https://bit.ly/TLP-314
Key Takeaways
[2:24] If Richard had been taller or a better player, he may have become a professional basketball player. He was sort of born in the wrong country. When he comes to the U.S., he loves going to watch basketball. There’s not much of a basketball industry in the UK.
[4:11] At age 17, Richard taught 11-year-olds at his school how to play basketball, to keep up with other schools. He thought of going into teaching. He went to a monastery in India on a gap program and taught the monks English, using only a chalkboard, body language, and tone of voice. At the end of the first lesson they could confidently speak a few English words and they loved it. He taught for six months.
[7:30] Richard learned from teaching English that to communicate well, he had to have congruency between his body language, his tone of voice, and his words. To teach the word “excited” he had to sound and look excited. Congruency is one of the key elements of great communication. That principle became foundational to BodyTalk, the company he founded.
[8:56] Richard learned Nepali in India, the easiest dialect of the three languages spoken in the city where the monastery was located. He became more fluent in Nepali than in the French or German he had learned in school.
[10:44] The biggest communication error is to treat people as human “doings” rather than human beings. Presentations seek to engage the logical mind. Studies show that the emotional brain engages first, and then sends a memo to the logical brain telling it what to notice. Before a meeting (or email), ask yourself, “How do I need people to feel by the end of this meeting (or email)?”
[13:32] Everybody talks about storytelling; they know they need it, but few people understand what it is. Robert McKee says when you listen to a piece of music, you don’t automatically think you would be a great composer. When thinking of storytelling, why do you assume you would be a great storyteller? There is a framework you can learn to be able to tell stories well.
[14:11] Storytelling allows us to give people information in the way the brain wants to receive it, engaging the survival mind, the emotional mind, and then, finally, the logical mind. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces introduced this structure in 1949 after having studied how people of different civilizations that never had contact with each other have told stories through the centuries.
[15:01] Christopher Vogler in the 1980s reduced Campbell’s 17-steps of the hero’s journey into 12 steps. Richard Newman has simplified those steps into five sections that his company teaches people to use for composing an email or making a presentation.
[15:30] If you want to cascade information, frame an important message, or pitch your business, learn the power of storytelling. Richard tells of a client who went from a win rate of one in four to a 100% win rate in the space of a year, getting over a billion dollars of new business. Frame the information to engage the survival and emotional brain, the logical brain, and then get people to take action at the end.
[16:50] Jim Carey said that constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating. The way to turn any information into a more engaging story is to add in moments of feelings. Describe the feelings the facts give you. Start with your goal in mind. What feeling would people need to have for them to take the action you would persuade them to take?
[21:50] Richard offers a tip on how to lose your self-consciousness and gain confidence. Before a meeting, get centered within yourself; have internal validation. Then, going into the room, focus entirely on what is happening outside of you, so you are always thinking, “How do I serve them? How do I make sure they understand? How do I get them to this feeling by the end of the conversation?”
[27:41] People going through the Great Resignation are questioning their values and what they want their life to be about. Businesses sometimes have to make a hard decision because the easy one doesn’t match their values. Choosing the easy path may give a short-term gain but it leads to long-term pain. People will follow you if they see you don’t compromise your values for short-term benefits.
[30:00] Richard learned recently that he is high-functioning autistic. He had a sense of sudden understanding. He’d known since he was a child he could not connect with his peers but didn’t know why. He developed a passion for studying communication. As a teen, he read over 200 books on it, including nonverbal communication. He went to a professional acting school. He sees it as a blessing.
[33:20] Jan refers to previous guest Tim Cole as a great storyteller.
[34:12] Richard teaches behaviors that can increase leadership success by 44%. He developed these behaviors while giving over 1,000 presentations to a Formula 1 team. It was the same presentation with different statistics after each race, to different audiences. He started noticing what worked universally and teaching it to clients. They went to University College London to get it scientifically validated.
[35:57] They worked with researcher Dr. Adrian Furnham, Head of Psychology. They developed an 18-month study using 100 videos of the same speech, with different speakers, using variations in the nonverbal behavior of the speaker, from the most common gestures to the ones that should give the appearance of leadership.
[37:09 Dr. Alastair McLelland, the statistician, had never seen results like it! From the most common behaviors to the most effective behaviors, there was a 44% difference in the appearance of leadership. The best behaviors would change the number of people voting for you by 59%! Standing centered looks competent while leaning to one side, swaying, or walking back and forth gives poor ratings.
[39:30] If you’re speaking to a group, people want to know that you, as their tribe leader, can honestly lead the group. If they see gravitas, they will believe you; if they see a pushover, they will not. If they believe in you, they will engage with your message and follow you. Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk on body language says if you stand or sit in a way that shows confidence, your confidence hormones rise.
[42:53] Watching the early Democrat presidential debates in 2020, Richard spotted that Kamala Harris got the most emotional reactions from the audience. She didn’t win the nomination, but Biden picked her to run with him for her emotional appeal. Richard doesn’t recommend going for a negative response!
[45:36] Being positive doesn’t mean covering up bad facts. It is always better to dig into the truth of the situation. If things are going poorly, then it’s important to state that. If people have challenges, you want to acknowledge and discuss those and show that you care about them. People often forget to recognize challenges while they tell a story. People’s challenges could disconnect them from the story.
[46:08] Start from the sense that everybody cares about challenges and everybody cares about having a better future. We all have this pain/pleasure mechanism. Make sure you represent those. Go in with a sense of empathy rather than making those negative feelings worse.
[47:04] Is showing a bad temper justifiable? Richard answers with a customer service experience he had. He recommends using the power of “lift,” where you aim to lift the conversation. Before you go into the room. lift yourself to show up as your best version. Then go into the meeting and see the best version of them. They will want to live up to this. Leaders can encourage their team by seeing the best in them.
[50:46] Jim’s last words: There is nothing more powerful as a leader you can do for your team than to see their greatness. Don’t show up as the hero. Lead them to be heroes; show up as their mentor.
[52:03] Jan invites all listeners to give a listen to Corporate Competitor Podcast, hosted by Don Yaeger.
[52:53] Jim closes with a quote: “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” — Sam Walton.
Quotable Quotes
- “By the time I got to be 17, I thought, … ‘I’m going to teach the 11-year-olds at our school how to play basketball so they don’t get beaten to pieces in their first game as we did.’ So I started doing that. I loved that. I loved how much they gained from it.”
- “[The monks and I] would sit together in the evenings after they came back from going out and doing prayers in the town, … and I would then aim to teach them how to speak English, and had to do it completely using body language and tone of voice.”
- “[Congruency] is one of the key elements of great communication. When you have congruency, it becomes very charismatic but also much easier for people to pay attention, to listen to you, and to understand what you really mean.”
- “You need to make sure you’ve got hearts and minds. You need to make sure you’ve engaged people emotionally first, then logically, and then they’re more likely to follow you as a leader.”
- “What storytelling allows us to do is to give people information in the way the brain wants to receive it, engaging the survival [mind], then the emotional mind, and then, finally, the logical mind.”
- “If people know how to use storytelling day-to-day, it’s incredible how it increases your influence, and you can use it in a 30-second conversation, … or you can see this in a three-hour movie, or you can use it for a two-day conference that you’re hosting, as well.”
- “If you’re speaking to a group, we want to know, as our tribe leader, can you honestly lead this group? If you’ve got gravitas, we believe it, if you’re a pushover, we don’t.”
- “It is always worthwhile digging into the truth of the situation. If things are going poorly, then it’s important to state that. If people have challenges, you want to acknowledge those, and discuss those, and show that you care about them.”
- “When people can’t see the best version of themselves, see it in them for them, and by doing so, you give them an open door to become a lifted part of themselves.”
- “You’re seeing the greatness within them and allowing them to go on the journey, and that’s what great leaders can do, they can lift everybody else to perform at their best.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Richard Newman
- BodyTalk
- Formula 1
- Tour de France
- India
- Gap Year Association
- Helen Keller
- Nepali
- Kalimpong, India
- Darjeeling, India
- Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
- Powerpoint
- Zoom
- Robert McKee
- The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
- Christopher Vogler
- The Trier Social Stress Test
- The Great Resignation
- Nonverbal leakage
- Tim Cole
- University College London
- Adrian Furnham
- Alastair McLelland
- Amy Cuddy, TED
- Corporate Competitor Podcast with Don Yaeger
Sandra Stosz is the author of “Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters.” Sandra is a retired U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral who served for over 40 years, including 12 years at sea. She often led all-male teams and was the first woman to lead a U.S. Armed Forces Service Academy. In this episode, Sandra shares with humility some of the leadership lessons she learned in the Coast Guard. She shares humorous stories, and reveals things she learned early that shaped her remarkable career, and why she baked cakes for her staff!
https://bit.ly/TLP-313
Key Takeaways
[1:36] Jim introduces Vice Admiral Sandra Stosz, Retired, tells of her background, and welcomes her to The Leadership Podcast.
[2:08] Sandra’s nephew Hunter Stosz is a Lieutenant in the Coast Guard, serving as the Combat Systems Officer on the Coast Guard National Security Cutter JAMES out of Charleston, S.C. Hunter was a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy when Sandra was the Superintendent. That was his leadership crucible!
[3:01] Sandra’s hobby is baking cakes! She would bring them into the office and give people a break to stop what they were doing and gather in the conference room to talk and laugh.
[4:35] Sandra talks about the Coast Guard Academy, where she was Superintendent from 2011 to ’15, and the Loy Institute for Leadership. She retired from the Coast Guard in 2018 but she is a trustee of the Loy Institute for Leadership, which is the Academy’s agent for leadership development.
[6:16] The Coast Guard Academy, like all the service academies, is a 200-week program, meaning four full years of school. A lot of the Academy’s leadership development happens during the summer. Training is given through a framework called LEAD: Learn from theory, Experience through practice, Analyze using reflection, and Deepen understanding from mentoring.
[7:09] It’s a virtuous cycle of leader development. It starts with cadets learning in a classroom from Posner and Kouzes’s Leadership Challenge for leadership theory. Then they put the cadets on the water for experiential leadership development through seamanship in sailing programs, and small boat practice, all on the water. The more senior cadets use a practicum that tells them how to instruct.
[8:19] After a day on the water, the cadets analyze through reflection. They sit down and “hotwash” what happened; what they want to repeat next time, what they want to avoid next time, and what they learned. Then the cadets deepen their understanding through mentoring. Everybody who learns continues to mentor somebody else, making it a virtuous cycle.
[8:48] Sandra shares a story of leadership learning. The cadets sailing a ship tacked suddenly without warning the cook in the galley, the only female cadet on board. Hotdogs flew all over the deck and what seemed funny to the cadets on deck upset the cook who felt laughed at and disrespected. Leadership also means inclusion and respect.
[11:18] You can learn to lead through practical experience. The Coast Guard Academy collects data from performance reviews to measure leadership development over the four-year program. It’s hard to measure leadership development over four years but they are on a mission to do that and they are getting closer every month.
[12:15] The Coast Guard Academy LEAD framework is built upon the Coast Guard framework of leading self, leading others, and leading the organization. Cadets learn to lead themselves and lead others. They do not advance to leading the organization at the Academy. Sandra tells a story of a cadet who carelessly filled the fuel tank with water. He will never do that again, having learned by experience.
[15:12] Officers in the Coast Guard learn to lead the organization, which is strategic. Sandra has seen senior leaders fall short and fail when they did not mature from tactical thinking to strategic thinking. Strategy is looking over the horizon to anticipate threats that might come over that horizon, and then adjust, adapt, and be agile.
[16:15] At the organizational level, you face crises where the easy decisions and actions have been made at the lower levels; if it ends up in your hands, it is a big decision. You’ve got to be strategic and decisive. A lot of people aren’t strategic or are not decisive. They haven’t learned how to move from leading others to making decisions that affect the organization and how the organization relates to others.
[17:59] Jim highly recommends Sandra’s book. It addresses the balance between power and control. Sandra speaks of the responsibility of the individual and the team to find ways to power through crisis and adversity. There is leadership at all levels. It’s not just about the top boss. Sandra mentions Extreme Ownership.
[19:50] It is popular now to blame others for everything wrong so you don’t have to own up to it. Sandra was thinking about that when she wrote her book. She was grateful when someone gave her a Serenity Prayer plaque at a difficult point in her career. She was trying to control everything and having trouble letting go of things she couldn’t control. She carried that prayer to every duty station.
[20:50] The balance between control and power reminds Sandra of Aristotle's Golden Mean, which is the balance between extremes. The most powerful thing you can do is release your control and give your power away. Giving power away empowers others. You don’t lose anything by giving power away. You gain the respect and trust of those you empower.
[22:12] Control originates from humility and power originates from hubris. Sandra explains why humility is hard to maintain as you advance in rank. The more senior she became, she tried hard to build trust and earn respect and not use her position of power.
[23:59] Sandra shares a story on the paradox of control about giving away power. Her Captain gave his power to her, a young lieutenant, to give an important brief to a Commandant of the Coast Guard. She had never given a speech before! For the rest of her career, she worked to give her power away to younger officers.
[27:26] Jan cites an Arthur Brooks article, “Being special vs. happy: What success addiction looks like and how to recover,” that discusses motivation and happiness. What would Sandra’s advice be to her 27-year-old self? She would tell her younger self that prevention comes before response and remember the importance of establishing boundaries.
[31:41] The four types of exhaustion or wellness are physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Don’t allow yourself to be exhausted in all four of these areas at the same time! You can manage your wellness with a structure of boundaries built on a foundation of values. If you can’t manage your wellness, you can’t manage your team’s wellness.
[36:15] One of the chapters of Sandra’s book is “There’s no secret ingredient.” — Kung Fu Panda. Sandra sees 10 leadership lessons in Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2.
[37:26] Sandra shares a foundational story from serving on her first ship, an icebreaker sailing to Antarctica. She learned the Three Ps of Power: Personal, Professional, and Positional. Lean on the first two and go to the third only as a last resort. Your personal power is your EQ. Your professional power is your work ethic and values. Your positional power is your rank or leadership role.
[39:44] Use your personal and professional power every day and you will build trust and earn respect. People will want to do their jobs because they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, they feel shared values, they know their purpose, they have pride and passion, and they want to end each day deeply content, satisfied, and feeling good about themselves, their work, and life.
[41:12] Leadership is not all in a textbook. It’s hard to learn it and hard to teach it. If you're trying to understand leadership and finding it not easy, your symptoms are normal. Jan shares a message with new listeners. Jan and Jim use the tagline, “We study leaders.” After interviewing 300 leaders, we’re still learning. It will be our lifelong pursuit.
[43:02] Sandra’s advice for people in transition from one chapter of their life to the next: Watch out for becoming part of another “me” generation. The people who will be happiest, in the long run, will be are going to look at how they can contribute as part of a bigger purpose with values that they share. They’re going to persevere. They’re going to put in more than they take out. They're going to be contributors.
[45:20] Sandra’s last words are about life-long learning. She stayed for 40 years in the Coast Guard because it gave her opportunities to train, advance, and go to the Kellogg Business School, the National War College, and a Capstone program. She continues to read and develop herself. Life-long learning is key to your ability to succeed in a meaningful way.
[47:06] Jan closes with a quote from Amelia Earhardt on the decision to act.
Quotable Quotes
- “Every once in a while, you need a reason to laugh when you’re at work and you’re in a really tough job. I think the cakes helped build that camaraderie and that’s one thing I like about in-person workplaces.”
- “We expect the cadets to make a mistake when they’re learning how to lead themselves. It’s trial and error. And this is the time when we give them leeway to fail and pick themselves up, and make mistakes, admit them, and try not to repeat them.”
- “I’ve seen senior leaders fall short and even fail if they keep on with the behaviors that made them successful while leading self and leading others and they move into leading the organization but don’t mature to strategic thinking.”
- “Be strategic and be decisive. A lot of times, people … haven’t learned how to move from leading others to making decisions that affect an organization, ... the programs, and how that organization relates to others. … Move up into the strategic decision-making realm.”
- “Type “A”s out there, hear me! You want to control everything and it can drive you crazy. And if you don't let it go it will burn you out.”
- “The most powerful thing you can do is to release your control and release your power and give your power away.”
- “The best leaders cultivate their humility, which is really hard to do as you advance up in the ranks. Whether it’s the military or if it’s a private sector, or public non-profit, the more senior you get, people are treating you a little differently up in the ranks.”
- “What you should be seeking is deep contentment and satisfaction. That comes with a different way of looking at life. It comes from balancing and this becomes the response.”
- “People never make good choices; they always have to learn from experience, right?”
- “So many people are in the leadership space and trying to teach leadership and it’s not easy. … If you are trying to understand leadership, how to be a better leader, and finding it not easy, your symptoms are normal.”
- “The people who are going to be happiest, in the long run, … look to find out how they can contribute as part of a bigger purpose with values that they share. … They’re going to persevere. They’re going to put in more than they take out. They're going to be contributors.”
- “Lifelong learning is key to your ability to succeed in a meaningful way where you’re meeting all of your objectives and you’re staying motivated. Otherwise, you lose the meaning of life if you don’t continue to focus on life-long learning.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Vice Admiral Sandra L. Stosz
- Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters
- U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Coast Guard Academy
- The U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter JAMES
- Loy Institute for Leadership
- Admiral James Loy
- The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
- Congressman Dan Crenshaw
- Kellogg School of Management
- National War College
- Coast Guard Capstone program
- Amelia Earhart
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter
- James Mattis
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- Aristotle
- Arthur Brooks, “Being special vs. happy: What success addiction looks like and how to recover”
- Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No-To Take Control of Your Life, by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
- 9/11
- Bill Murray, “Army Training, Sir”
- Kung Fu Panda
- Kung Fu Panda 2
- Senator Blutarsky
- Great Resignation
Stephen Drotter is Chairman of the Leadership Pipeline Institute and lead author of “The Leadership Pipeline.” Stephen has worked on succession planning and the related disciplines of organization design, executive assessment, and leadership development for over 50 years. He has helped over 100 companies in 37 countries with succession planning as a management discipline.
In his newest book, “Pipeline to the Future: Succession and Performance Planning for Small Business,” Stephen captures the learnings for meeting the challenges of small business. Steven explains the importance of the simplicity that comes on the other side of complexity. This episode is jam-packed with advice for leaders at all levels - an episode not to miss!
https://bit.ly/TLP-312
Key Takeaways
[1:44] Jim tells about Stephen Drotter’s background, including his latest book, Pipeline to the Future: Succession and Performance Planning for Small Business, and welcomes him to the show.
[2:46] Stephen likes to dig to the bottom of things and does not accept superficial responses or thinking. He goes for simplicity on the other side of complexity. He tells about firing companies and why he does it. He works with companies that want outcomes. Process matters but outcomes matter more!
[4:56] A good leader creates leaders for succession planning. Stephen tells why it is hard for some companies. Many companies don’t choose to do the work for succession planning. Every position needs to be accounted for in the planning.
[6:47] If you can’t produce a good first-line manager, you can’t produce a CEO. There’s a lot to know and a lot to do, and it’s a lot of work. That’s the complaint Stephen hears. Most executives work more with their numbers than they do with their people.
[7:21] Managers are working at the wrong level. For example, promoting a top salesperson to a leadership position does not make the salesperson a good sales trainer. If sales numbers rise, it is misleading. The other salespeople aren’t developing if the first-line manager isn’t measured on leadership. Working at the wrong level is the most common problem Stephen sees.
[9:19] Stephen tells how to pick leaders and measure their performance, not their sales figures. Leadership performance is about developing leaders under you. Is your team better this year than last year? A leader sets the direction. You need to provide leaders with what they need to be able to lead, including the knowledge of how the company is doing and where it’s going so they can support it.
[11:19] Jack Welch liked to skip all the layers of management that he could and engage people at lower levels by going to their training courses at Crotonville and engaging the students directly. A mechanism for communication is a huge piece of building leaders.
[13:20] Are your criteria for picking leaders fair? First, distinguish between performance and potential. Judge potential by how people think and how they are viewed by their peers. What kinds of questions do they ask? If they ask questions at a higher level than their role, they must be thinking about it. Who are the people who think beyond today’s task? They’re the ones who become more efficient.
[16:02] Stephen talks about the responsibility of the employee for development. The company has the key because they assign the jobs that will develop the employee. The employee has their interest, their questioning, their learning, and the way they complete assignments. Are they learning the business and the company or just their job? An employee has to be willing to stick their neck out and take some risk.
[18:15] Stephen tells why he calls competency models nonsense. He says they are not relevant to the work.
[20:42] Training should be differentiated by the student. Students at different management levels need different training. The training needs to apply to the company and what improvements are needed.
[22:00] HR is not tuned in to what is needed at the business level; it focuses on the people, not the business. HR should be creating an agenda they use to drive the business.
[24:47] Stephen tells about his passion for small business and why he wrote his latest book. He tells how he moved from large companies to consulting for large companies, to studying small companies for lenders. About 90% of Americans work for small companies. But nobody writes management resources for small companies. So Stephen wrote a book for them.
[29:48] The management needs of small and large companies are surprisingly quite similar but how you meet the needs of small and large companies is remarkably different. Stephen gives an example and He shares an anecdote from working with a big company. He offended the CEO!
[35:13] Employees want to be fulfilled. Management wants production. Stephen shares thoughts on how people have changed. The important thing is to set goals and accomplish them. That’s what helps you succeed.
[37:59] Stephen shares more about leadership pipelines; it’s how to run the business and set goals. He explains what the technology pipeline is.
[42:00] Jan encourages listeners to listen to this conversation again and take notes. This topic is very different from the usual episodes.
[42:38] Stephen shares his last thoughts. There are the workers, the communication patterns, and the work. Start with the work and the rest will make sense. All businesses have to compete.
Quotable Quotes
- “I like to dig down to the bottom of things. I have a hard time with superficial responses and superficial thinking, you know, the bumper-sticker-type leadership advice.”
- “There’s simplicity and then there’s complexity, and there’s simplicity on the other side of complexity. I go for that simplicity on the other side of complexity. And so, it’s time-consuming.”
- “Process matters but outcomes matter more.”
- “We’ve known how to do [succession planning] for 50 years, so there’s no longer an excuse. People just don’t want to do the work.”
- “Think of a pipeline that’s broken at the point where the pipeline goes into the material you’re going to pump. That very first piece is broken. What do you think’s going to come out the back? Nothing!”
- “Most succession systems are broken at the bottom. If you can’t produce a good first-line manager, you can’t produce a CEO. You’re going to have to get him someplace else. It’s not in the culture. People don’t understand that developing themselves and others is important.”
- “To work at the right level takes a lot of personal discipline to move away from the stuff that you like and into the stuff that you have to do.”
- “The top [level] needs to spend more time with the bottom [level]. That’s one of the very big, important disciplines.”
- “A mechanism for communication is a huge piece of building leaders.”
- “It’s not possible to define the potential for someone to go higher than you are.”
- “You may be entitled to a promotion because you earned it, but you’re not entitled to a promotion because you showed up today.”
- “When I started consulting, I stayed with big companies because they can pay..”
- “There’s such a thing as management risk. You have the wrong management structure and the wrong management people; you’re putting your business at serious risk.”
- “If you want to have development happen, pick a job you don't want, working for a boss who doesn't want you. There will be real development.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Stephen Drotter
- Leadership Pipeline Institute
- The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company, by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel
- Pipeline to the Future: Succession and Performance Planning for Small Business, by Stephen Drotter
- Jack Welch
- GE Crotonville
- David McClelland
- London Fog
- Jimmy Choo
- Fortune 500
Deepa Purushothaman is an author, speaker, leader, and Co-founder of nFormation. Deepa challenges and redefines the status quo of leadership, success, and power by centering on the needs and experiences of women of color. Deepa shares her journey from executive to thought leader and how her sabbatical to recover her health, combined with her study of policy led her to interview over 500 women of color in senior positions about the microaggressions and racism they have experienced in the corporate world. She gave them a voice in her book, The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Redefine Power in Corporate America. She talks about her experiences teaching leaders to listen carefully to the women of color in their organizations to learn how work is not working for them, shares her suggestions to women of color on how to react to racist situations, and explains to executives how to talk about them when they occur. We are in a moment where people are open to uncomfortable conversations, and willing to change what should be changed. Deepa is excited for the work of the future where women of color will feel included and heard.
https://bit.ly/TLP-311
Key Takeaways
[1:45] Jan shares Deepa Purushothaman’s background. After leaving Deloitte, Deepa co-founded nFormation, a membership-based community for professional women of color, helping place them in C-suites and on boards. Deepa’s first book, The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Redefine Power in Corporate America, was published in March 2022 to international acclaim.
[2:28] Jan welcomes Deepa to The Leadership Podcast. Deepa left corporate America during the pandemic, just before the Great Resignation. People told her she was crazy to leave a secure position. She says you leap sometimes and it just works out.
[3:37] Deepa tells why she left the corporate world. She was done with her corporate career and needed a break. She wanted to do something around women of color. At the time, people thought COVID-19 would be just a couple of weeks.
[5:03] Deepa spent 21 years in corporate roles at Deloitte. Toward the end of her career, she was very sick and spent eight months in bed. She started to see the importance of health and asked herself what place she wanted work to take in her life. She had a big value shift.
[7:18] Deepa shares her tips for living a good life in a corporation. It takes very intentional work, protecting your time, and accepting that you may not rise fast in the company.
[8:38] Before resigning, Deepa had taken an eight-month leave of absence for illness. After 15 doctors, she was diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease. Eight months of unplugging from the system helped her see she could have a family and other things outside the firm. She figured out how she wanted to redesign her life and what she needed to recharge. Being able to do that was a gift.
[11:18] Deepa had had a growing sense of purpose about policy — that was her major in school — and that, combined with her sick-leave sabbatical, gave her a new direction for her life.
[13:08] Deepa found similarities between working at a large corporation and a small to medium business. She interviewed mainly VP-level and above. The women would say they had finally gotten to their seat of power and they didn’t feel powerful. A lot of the women of color Deepa interviewed talked about erasing or hiding parts of themselves to get to the table in any size of business.
[14:02] Many women of color grew up as “onlies” and didn’t see themselves represented in the media or among leaders. So there’s a question of belonging and having to find your voice. We’re trying to figure out what leadership looks like for us because we don’t see it around us.
[14:55] Deepa listed in her book twelve different challenges that women of color executives face. At the top of the list, it’s not seeing yourself represented and having to find your voice. The sense of “first, few, and only” is really different. There’s a deep sense of isolation. Deepa lists other differences that affect women of color more than anyone else, including chronic illnesses and the extra work they have to do.
[18:19] One woman of color Deepa interviewed edits how she talks, dresses, styles her hair, and what she eats because she is the only woman of color in her company and her community, and she wants to present all black people in the best light possible. Executive women of color are asked to mentor many women of color because they are the only ones in their company or industry in senior positions.
[22:08] Deepa interviewed Vernā Myers of Netflix, who told her how offputting airplane overhead storage compartments are for women with small children who might get hit with falling luggage. Deepa notes similarly that workplaces weren’t designed with all people in mind. The corporate model of the family, with one person working and the other raising children, has never been updated.
[24:11] Many of the women of color in the book shared microaggressions that had been said to them. Deepa notes a few that were said to her two or three times daily. Some women were told they were “articulate” on a daily basis. It made them feel like they didn’t belong. No one heard people say to a white man that he was articulate.
[26:16] About the Senate Panel Vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Deepa has written an Op-Ed about it that drew a lot of attention. Despite being overqualified, her credentials were questioned. Most of the women Deepa interviewed said they had to be two or four times as good as their counterparts just to be credible or to get the opportunity. Judge Jackson had to smile through derogatory comments.
[28:33] Deepa tells how she handled it when people asked her if she was in a meeting to take notes or pour the coffee when she was the senior person in the room. She contrasts that with how she would handle her feelings about the same situation today.
[31:56] How does Deepa address systemic issues at a Fortune 100 company? She meets with an executive team and is very open and blunt. Some executives tell Deepa they have solved these problems, then Deepa speaks with Black and Brown employees and hears a list of challenges and concerns. Deepa talks with companies about starting on a journey that will take a while.
[35:12] Deepa is optimistic that executives are listening differently and if we are to change how work works for everybody, now is the time. Deepa wants leaders to give themselves permission to try different things. None of us have been taught how to talk about race. Deepa talks in the book about things women of color can do when they face racist incidents. Practice and have statements ready.
[36:38] Deepa also encourages white male leaders to practice dealing with incidents, such as saying, “That didn’t sit right,” “I’m afraid that probably didn’t land the same way for everybody,” or “Can we stop the meeting and talk about what just happened?” We all need to learn what to do about racism. Give yourself permission to try. It’s more important that you try than that you don’t do anything.
[37:15] In the two years it took to write the book, the language has progressed so much in how we talk about these topics. The terms are changing. You’re not going to get it right every time. That’s OK; it’s more important to try and to give yourself grace. Deepa notes that the employee voice is on the rise and she wants people to be happy in their jobs.
[39:45] Deepa talks about “the power of me,” and “the power of we.” In order to create change, it’s going to take other people. Deepa sees a lot of delusions about how work has to be.
[41:02] Leaders should learn to know the values that women of color hold, such as community. Women of color tell Deepa they have negative feelings for the word “Power.” She asked Stacy Brown Philpot, CEO of TaskRabbit, about power and she suggested leadership and power could be about making people feel safe and that they can bring all of who they are to the table, with some boundaries and guardrails.
[44:36] Deepa has learned through publishing this book that you have to be ready but you also have to trust that the universe will meet you where you are. She is also excited about the future and the possibility of the moment we are in. Change is possible if we band together and have hard conversations. If we are ever going to have a better world of work, it is now.
[46:28] Deepa’s final thoughts: We all have power. We all have the ability to find our voice and some of this is about doing the hard work to figure out what’s important to you, and what your values are. How do you want to show up? How do you want to lead? Who do you want to be? When you know that, there are ways to change the places where you work. We have a lot more power than we realize.
Quotable Quotes
- “[When I left my career] I didn’t have a book deal. I didn’t have the company founded. There were a lot of questions around that, so … It kind of speaks to my risk-taking. You leap sometimes and it just works out.”
- “I had a very visible job. I was known in a hundred-thousand-person organization by my first name. … When you make it relatively young, and you make it quickly … — I’d sacrificed a lot to get to that seat.”
- “I thought you could have success and health is important but it wasn’t top-of-mind. … I started to get really sick. … Part of my journey was getting healthy; part of my journey was asking different questions. … What space do I want work to take up in my life.”
- “I interviewed over 500 women of color to write the book and so their stories are in there. … One of the statements that kept coming up over and over again is this pressure to conform, perform, and produce.”
- “You almost have to unplug for at least six months to even understand … what the values are and look in your life and see what makes you happy.”
- “I grew up in a very white, very small farm-country town where I was one of five students of color in a school of 500. So you’re always kind of wondering, ‘What’s different; where do I belong?’”
- “When I get that angry or that upset, I carry that for a long time. … I have research that suggests that we carry negative comments four times as long as a positive comment or a compliment. Those kinds of things really weigh on women and women of color.”
- “We have not created safety in companies. We have not created places where people are able to tell the truth and women of color can share everything that’s happening to them.”
- “There are a lot of challenges. Speaking with 500 women of color, … there is … a lot of trauma. I’m really optimistic because I feel like we’re in a moment where people are listening differently and that if we were ever going to change how work works for everybody, it’s now.”
- “I think we’re just in a moment where employee voice is on the rise. And so, if companies and leaders don’t start to pay attention to that, I think they’re missing something. … I want people to be happy in the jobs that they have. We spend more time working than we do with our spouses.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Deepa Purushothaman on LinkedIn
- @n2Formation
- The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Redefine Power in Corporate America, by Deepa Purushothaman
- George Floyd
- Lyme disease
- Vernā Myers
-
Ketanji Brown Jackson
-
Time
-
Fortune 100
-
Stacy Brown-Philpot
- TaskRabbit
- Maya Angelou
Ron Adner is the leading strategy thinker on the topic of business ecosystems. He is the author of The Wide Lens: What Successful Innovators See that Others Miss and a new book, Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World. Ron shares important insights on the language of strategic alignment to help you navigate the new world of coalitions and ecosystems. If your new value proposition requires rewiring your relationships - you’re in an ecosystem where there is interdependence. It takes a new language to teach new strategies, and the rewards can be great. Listen in to see if you should be shifting your perspective.
Key Takeaways
[2:10] Much of what Ron writes is on how to think about innovation and make sure you are doing the right work. He stresses efficient, effective action.
[3:24] What kind of shifts will disrupt your ecosystem? Modern disruptions change the ecosystem, for example, making a change in how healthcare is delivered and changing the boundaries of industries.
[7:11] The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the work ecosystem. It’s a virus; it’s supposed to stay in its healthcare box. It broke through boundaries to affect international relations, trade, supply chains, and more. An ecosystem disruption requires an ecosystem response. Ron shares a link for listeners to read Chapter 1 of his book, for free, to learn about the challenge we are all facing.
[10:45] In 95% of conversations where people use the word “ecosystem,” you could substitute the word “mishmash,” with no loss of meaning. Ron claims there is a lack of structured thinking about ecosystems. He shares a specific definition of ecosystem, and how it connects to whether or not your new value proposition requires rewiring relationships.
[12:53] Hans Rosling wrote in Factfulness about the secondary and tertiary effects of the globally important decisions we make. Ron says people can’t confidently discuss third-order consequences. His work is built on the structure of interdependence; understanding the system that is implied by a value proposition. Think about the structure of the system that needs to come together for the proposition.
[16:35] Ron believes that if we can think more broadly about the set of parties we are going to interact with, a lot of things become easier to see. It requires flexibility and true empathy for the counterparty’s position.
[18:36] When writing his book, Ron discovered that the structure of interdependence is changing. It’s necessary to know what the changes are. In Jack Welch’s GE, it was clear what the industry was and easy to rank who was number one. Today, all sorts of parties are on the same game board playing different games. Choose the game you want to win! Winning the wrong game can feel a lot like losing.
[21:05] Meeting the clients’ needs better than the competition was the traditional execution lens and it is still needed. But is that all that’s needed? Is your ability to deliver on that promise entirely within your capability set, or are you going to be relying on other parties and partners to do something to enable you to deliver, not your product or service, but the value proposition that you’re making?
[22:50] Is it better to follow the traditional execution of the value proposition? It depends on whether you have easy access to the abilities and resources needed to deliver on that proposition. If not, you need an ecosystem of partners that can do something to enable you to deliver on the value proposition. And you need to put them on the same pedestal to maintain the value proposition.
[23:45] Ron shares a case study from Michelin, and their run-flat tire. They didn’t invest enough in their service garage partners and the product collapsed. Critical partners are just as important to strategize for as your end consumers.
[24:50] Jan cites Steve Justice, former program director for Lockheed Martin, saying, “You’ve got to stand in the future. And if people are laughing at you, you know you’re far enough out there, that you’re standing in the future.”
[25:48] Ron suggests asking, “What do we need to get there?”, “Who do we need to get there?”, “How do you align them?” He explains the differences between a project and an ecosystem. In an ecosystem, your partners may not know that you’re planning to rely on them. In a project, everyone knows who the manager is. In an ecosystem, there is no hierarchy of authority. You rely on strategic alignment.
[28:48] An ecosystem that’s functioning well is one that’s in balance.
[29:42] Chapter 6 of Winning the Right Game is an attempt to understand what individual leadership means when you’re playing in the ecosystem game. There is a distinction between the execution mindset required to succeed in a setting where the leader puts his organization first, and the alignment mindset required to align different organizations into an ecosystem coalition, putting the coalition first.
[33:27] Jim refers to Joseph Pine and James Gilmore’s concept of the experience economy, where the experience, not the service, is the greater value proposition. Ron talks about Amazon and Alexa’s value proposition for the smart home and how they surpassed Apple, Google, and Microsoft to lead in smart homes, and how Tesla surpassed GM in electric cars.
[37:25] Some leaders can’t make the jump from leading others to leading the organization. Ron says there are different categories of leaders. We need execution people in industries. For others, building coalitions comes more naturally. Most of us are not at the top of the organization. Ron describes a mindset that is helpful for middle executives in choosing the projects they want to be in.
[41:22] The language of strategy is inadequate for today’s tasks. Ron suggests using the chapters of Winning the Right Game to communicate what underlies your strategy. Use the new language of strategic alignment to educate the people below and above you in the organization.
[46:04] Ron summarizes. Chunks of the world operate in an industry mindset. Chunks of the world are shifting toward an ecosystem situation. First, figure out what side of the world you are in. Use the industry toolbox for industry. If your opportunity relies on a new set of collaborators and a new mode of collaboration, use the new ecosystem strategic alignment toolbox. If you get it right, rewards are great.
[50:02] Jim invites listeners to visit theleadershippodcast.com and closes with a Stanley A. McChrystal quote that leaders should be like gardeners, creating and maintaining a viable ecosystem in which the organization operates.
Quotable Quotes
- “The key in a difficult world is efficient, effective action.”
- “Classic disruption … was a study of identifying substitute threats while they were still off the radar. … All that disruption was really a technology substitution.”
- “When I talk about an ecosystem disruption, it’s this disruption that doesn’t change the technology within a given box. It changes the boundaries that used to define these boxes that we can think of as traditional industries. That, I think, is what we’re seeing, more and more.”
- “An ecosystem response is one where a coalition of actors is pulled together. ”
- “When I talk about an ecosystem, I have a very specific definition in mind. … It’s the structure through which partners interact to deliver a value proposition to an end consumer.”
- “The ecosystem, then, is anchored not in any given actor, not in a firm, but in a value proposition and the structure through which multiple partners interact.”
- “Whenever you have a value proposition that requires a rewiring of relationships, that’s when you’re moving into this ecosystem world, which, I will argue, requires a new strategy toolbox to draw from.”
- “When you have a new proposition that doesn’t require rewiring [relationships], you don't need to worry about this ecosystem stuff. You can go back toward traditional tools.”
- “Your challenge is not just winning but choosing the game you want to win. The threat, of course, is that you can win the wrong game, and winning the wrong game can feel a lot like losing.”
- “Can you execute in a traditional execution way, or do you need to rely on an ecosystem? Why do we see firms relying on partners? It’s because they don’t have easy access to the capabilities or the resources.”
- “How is it that great people are succeeding in one setting and being less successful in the other?”
- “In the real world, if you're in a room and you’re the only person with the right answer, you're totally useless. Your job is to get everybody else to the right answer, and that requires language.”
- “It’s not saying there’s a new world order or everything has changed. It’s saying some things have changed and perhaps you’re in a situation that might be different but it doesn’t mean everything is.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Ron Adner
- Ron Adner on LinkedIn
- Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College
- The Wide Lens: What Successful Innovators See that Others Miss, by Ron Adner
- Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World, by Ron Adner
- Clay Christensen
- Canon
- Nucor
- U. S. Steel
- Southwest Airlines
- MinuteClinic®
- CVS
- COVID-19
-
Chapter 1 of Winning the Right Game
-
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, by Hans Rosling
-
Stanley A. McChrystal
- Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book, by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch
- Jack Welch
- Steve Justice
- Lockheed Martin
- Jim Collins: Level 5 Leader
- Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, by James H. Gilmore
- The Experience Economy, by Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore
- Disney
- Starbucks
- Amazon
- Alexa
- Tesla
- GM
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter
- Michael Port
- Malcolm Gladwell
Dr. Joseph A. Allen has written more about meetings in the academic literature than anyone. He is a Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Utah. On the show, he shares recent research that shows hybrid meetings are better than either in-person or virtual meetings. Dr. Allen shares his rules for effective meetings, whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid; and how to foster inclusivity and engagement. Do you know your people? Have you talked to them? What do they want? Encourage participation. … There are ideas out there that will solve the problems in our organizations. We just need to let our people share them.
Key Takeaways
[2:01] Dr. Allen has written more on meetings in the academic literature than anybody else!
[3:11] Having poor meetings is a problem in nearly every organization.
[4:33] In the first week of March 2020, Dr. Allen and his co-author Karin Reed predicted that video meetings and remote work would happen in five to 10 years. Instead, they started two weeks later in the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown! Web video cameras were hard to find by May!
[6:13] Dr. Allen collected data in June 2021 for a study showing that face-to-face meetings before the pandemic weren’t great, virtual meetings were as good as face-to-face meetings, and hybrid meetings were better than either. If you make sure everyone is seen and heard, hybrid meetings can be the most inclusive type of meeting. If you don’t put the effort into it, they are challenging to do well.
[8:15] Early adopters were running hybrid meetings that started on time, ended on time, and had an agenda and a purpose. They encouraged participation. They were following the best practices Dr. Allen had been preaching for years. If you do those best practices, you can have a good meeting in any format.
[9:41] In virtual or hybrid meetings, there should be one camera for each participant. We can’t continue to set up conference rooms with the “bowling lane” approach. We need to work toward finding the best way to use multiple cameras and microphones.
[11:18] If you don’t know how to facilitate a meeting based on the agenda, you will not hold a good meeting. Dr. Allen talks about the need for procedural communication, to interrupt a monologue and steer the conversation back to the objective. He also notes that most meeting leaders have a blindspot to their faults and think they do a better job of facilitating meetings than they do.
[15:30] Dr. Allen says it is paramount to use your camera in a video meeting. If you want your voice to be heard, turning your camera on provides the additional input of facial expressions and gestures. Don’t turn off your camera so you can check your email. Be engaged. Leaders, run your meetings so participants need to be engaged, or you are giving them an out not to engage.
[17:42] Who needs to be in the meeting? Part of planning for a meeting is selecting who needs to be invited.
[18:21] Everybody doesn’t need to be invited to every meeting. They need time to do their regular work. With the pandemic and seven-step “commutes,” managers started filling commute time with more meetings. Sometimes sharing the meeting minutes is better than having everyone in the meeting. Or record the meeting and others can play it back at 2X speed.
[20:5] Between choosing phone or video, you should hold a video meeting when you’re meeting someone that you’ve not worked with a lot. If you don’t see each other, someone might be confused over your meaning.
[22:24] The more complex an issue, the more important it is to have a virtual environment that allows sharing charts as well as seeing each other. Phones are good tools for simple issues.
[23:09] If you don’t know how people are going to react to what you throw out there, use the strongest communication modality you can. In-person or video is better than phone, email, or text to communicate a complex message.
[24:13] Joe recommends a virtual commute, which is taking the time to get your brain ready to work, and after work, getting your brain ready to be home. You could listen to a podcast, a book, or the radio. You are giving your brain the natural cues to transition to the next environment with its activities.
[26:23] It’s psychologically healthy to take breaks, reflect, and focus. Joe has a paper on meeting recovery under review at a journal. This is discussed in his book, Suddenly Hybrid. Humans need moments to be human. Without transition time, we start to burn out. Meeting recovery is a big issue. Make meetings 25 minutes or 50 minutes long so people can take a break before their next meeting!
[31:09] The best practices for any meeting, in-person, hybrid, or virtual: Have an agenda, start on time, end on time, have a purpose, and describe the purpose at the beginning of the meeting.
[31:40] The best practices unique to hybrid meetings: The leader sets ground rules, like calling people by name and asking them to participate; it’s OK if the answer is, I don’t have anything to add. That way, everybody gets a chance to be seen and heard on this. Set a ground rule that it’s not OK to turn the camera off and disengage. It’s up to the participants to help and participate.
[32:54] Dr. Allen strongly recommends the leader rotate the location of the hybrid meeting, either office or a remote location. It reminds the leader how hard it is to participate remotely and how important it is to engage the remote participants. The leader should set the rule for the discussion part of the meeting that remotes chime in first before anyone in the room does.
[33:57] It’s easy for the people in the room to create a tiered communication system, where the people in the room are primary and the people on video or audio are a secondary group. This derails the sense of team effectiveness. Rotate who speaks first among the remote participants; if you know your team, you know who will respond well to being called on first and share their thoughts briefly.
[36:57] Gary Hamel, author of Humanocracy, has advocated for years that we stop managing people like Napoleon, command and control. Now managers are insisting we get back to work nine to five. Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments recently said, “If you get your work done, that’s all that matters.”
[37:44] Surveys of workers show that some people want to work from home more and some people want to work from the office more. To retain your top talented folks, establish policies and procedures around hybrid work that allow people to work from home when they need to and work in the office when they need to. Add some required days where people come together and re-energize the team.
[39:28] On days when you bring everybody in, have people collaborate. Why commute for an hour to sit in a box? Collaboration is skills-based. Leaders can read about it and implement it. It can be done even by people who are introverts because they know that collaboration on their team is important to their success. On all-hands days, have team meetings and things that cannot easily be done virtually.
[41:40] CEOs, are you creating an environment for your leaders to learn how to do this really hard stuff that is leadership today?
[43:01] One size does not fit all. Different teams have different requirements. Get to know your people and provide a sense of flexibility that might be a little more uncomfortable than you would like. If you don’t accommodate your people, you may lose them, even though they may find out the grass is not always greener over there.
[47:20] Dr. Allen issues a challenge to the listeners: 51% of our meetings are rated as poor. The ways to improve meetings are not rocket science. Take stock of your meetings. Think about what would be the ideal situation. See what you may not be doing and try it. Encourage participation. There are ideas out there that will fix problems in our organizations. We just need to let our people share them.
Quotable Quotes
- “There isn’t actually a course in the management schools across the country that trains people on how to run effective meetings; why would we do effective meetings?”
- “Everybody had to figure out what was going to work for them in their environment.”
- “What we learned is that we can do this. We can meet remotely. We can make it work effectively.”
- “Early adopters are often those people who know how to make the Apple Watch work really well. Or they know how to pull things up on the screen that you don’t know how to do. They’re the people that take on technology and just embrace it.”
- “The meeting leader, who comes in with an agenda and a purpose, gets steamrolled by somebody … who just goes off on their favorite topic. … That leader needs to know that they can say, ‘Thank you for that comment. That’s meaningful. I’d like to get your thoughts on this.’”
- “You know that one bad meeting causes three more meetings! That is scientifically shown across a lot of different samples and a lot of data. It’s worth the effort to make the meetings better because it means we should have fewer meetings moving forward.”
- “[A ‘virtual commute’ is] that psychological and meaningful human transition from one thing to the next. And we need that transition time. Without it, we start to really burn out.”
- “It’s easy for those folks in the room to create a tiered system of communication, where the people in the room are the primary and the people that are not in the room, whether it be on video or audio, become a secondary group. That ... can derail the sense of ... ‘team.’”
- “[Collaboration] can be done even by people who are not the most collaborative or wanting to be. … Introverted people … learn how to do it, anyway, because they know that collaboration in their team is really important for the success of their team.”
- “It’s all about: Do you know your people? Have you talked to them? What do they want? And if you go against what they want, be prepared for the ramifications! Be prepared for the mass exodus that’s been happening in some organizations.”
- “Encourage participation. … There are ideas out there that will solve the problems in our organizations. We just need to let our people share them.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Dr. Joseph A. Allen
- Dr. Joseph A. Allen on LinkedIn
- Karin M. Reed on LinkedIn
- Apple Watch
- Suddenly Hybrid: Managing the Modern Meeting, by Karin M. Reed and Joseph A. Allen
- Suddenly Virtual: Managing Remote Meetings Work, by Karin M. Reed and Joseph A. Allen
- Gary Hamel
- The Future of Management, by Gary Hamel with Bill Breen
- Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanina
- Dan Price
- Gravity Payments
Marlene Chism works with C-Suite leaders to build drama-free cultures that drive growth and reduce costly mistakes. She’s the author of four commercially-published books and a LinkedIn Learning instructor. Marlene shares simple ways to deal with conflict. Marlene advises using curiosity to learn more about the parties to the conflict, and explains the dangers for new leaders of being nice. She also shares leadership traits and the importance of being in alignment. And remember, willingness is the fulcrum point of change.
Key Takeaways
[1:52] Marlene Chism loves to dance. Marlene suggests turning off his “thinking brain” to find his rhythm!
[3:38] Marlene says we mismanage conflict with the three “A”s: Appeasement, Aggression, and Avoidance. When we think of conflict as a problem, we fear it.
[4:05] Marlene has a new definition for conflict: Opposing Drives, Desires, and Demands. It’s not one person “out to get” another. People want different things for different reasons. When you take the personal aspects out of conflict and define it differently, your gut reaction to it changes.
[4:34] Generally, we mismanage conflict because we have an inner conflict first. In other words, I might need to have a difficult conversation with you but I also want you to like me. I mismanage it because I have two opposing drives, desires, and demands within myself.
[5:35] When is the right time to address potential conflict? Marlene says we have to get curious, and the sooner, the better. Good contracts create good relationships. Marlene offers ways to be direct and find clarity. Bring up questions earlier, rather than later.
[6:55] Sometimes we imagine conflict where there is none. Are we negotiating with ourselves? Marlene suggests watching your narrative. Don’t believe everything that you think. Say, “I observed this; my perception is that.” That gives grace to the other person to clarify if they meant something else. Being assertive beats the alternative of making up a story and creating a bigger conflict than what was there.
[8:29] Marlene says she takes a breath and thinks about whether she has all the facts to be sure she is right. If she’s feeling angry, she interprets it as that she needs more information. Marlene always asks “Are you willing to be wrong?”
[10:19] Willingness is the fulcrum point of change. Nothing happens until there’s willingness. If I haven’t been willing, it means I’m in a state of resistance.
[11:01] Marlene says drama is an obstacle to peace and prosperity. She uses the visual of a rowboat with a person in it going to an island. A shark between the boat and the island is the obstacle. When we’re in drama, we’re distracted. Marlene compares employee drama with top-level drama. CEOs who think they are above the drama are not hands-on and are keeping secrets from their team so they look competent.
[13:24] If you’re not working toward a purpose; if you don’t have a shared vision, and if you don’t feel excited, that’s an obstacle. We all have to take responsibility for our engagement and desires. There is a symbiotic relationship between the employee and the company.
[14:05] Marlene discusses her latest book, From Conflict to Courage. In the workplace, Marlene says courage is not taking the easy path; not taking the path of being perceived as “nice.” Marlene’s book sets up a framework of Conflict Capacity with three overlapping circles: Culture, Skillset, and Inner Game. The three together give you the ability to clarify conflicts.
[16:18] Marlene says in the long run, aligning with your values and what you promised your customer is going to serve you. What is the point of being profitable if you are miserable because you don’t understand alignment?
[17:26] Marlene defines leadership. It is alignment or focusing energy. Aligning everything in your business trumps opportunity. Opportunity can be a distraction and lead to drama.
[18:32] If something is operating in harmony, it’s very efficient and very effective. Marlene says the owner wants to get to the treasure chest on the island, the leader wants everybody to row harder and faster, and the rower just wants a better seat cushion on the boat. A consultant has to look at all three perspectives.
[19:52] In her latest book, Marlene writes about the price of being nice. She sees three identities of new leaders before they are oriented: Best Friend, Hands-off, or Hero. When we don’t align with the values of leadership, we try to align as "best friends."
[21:35] We can be friendly; we should be kind and polite, but when we don’t understand our role as a leader, then it’s about being nice, which is about manipulating. We think that being nice is making people like us, so we avoid being direct because it feels bad to say “No.” We’re afraid of hurting people’s feelings, versus educating them on why prior decisions are not going to allow that new idea.
[22:14] Peter Drucker, in his book, Concept of the Corporation, says that when front-line people give ideas and they don’t match, don’t look at it as if they’re stupid or they don’t get it. Look at it as they want to engage but they don’t understand how the business operates and how the different departments work together. We should educate them. We want people to grow, not to like us.
[23:27] People will like you if you are fair with them. Work on having a relationship with people. You don’t need to conduct a personality assessment on your team to resolve conflicts. You need to spend time with them and talk honestly with them without posturing.
[24:41] Feigning niceness but not wanting to develop a relationship, is not niceness. Some say the traits they have that distract are virtues. If people say that’s just the way I am, Marlene asks them “Is that who you want to be?” Do you want to be authentic to the childish parts of you, or do you want to be authentic to the future you, who is growing, evolving, apologizing and working on yourself?
[26:23] With a clear definition of how you want to show up, that changes the game. Ask yourself, am I willing to stop rolling my eyes and interrupting? Am I willing to notice that habit, to be a better communicator?
[27:01] What are some of the challenges of building relationships without being in the office? It’s an opportunity for those who want to be intentional about connection. Learn to be good in the office, on Zoom, on Teams, on the phone, and in text. Have a system because eventually, it will put you at the top. Be the one who follows through instead of ghosting.
[28:22] You will never lose by deciding to be intentional about how you form relationships and how you treat other people.
[29:14] What if you’ve been a coworker, and were suddenly promoted to manage people who were your “best friends”? Marlene hopes the organization would help to onboard you into management, but it doesn’t happen very much. You’re going to take on a whole new identity. Don’t believe that the better you treat people, the more they’re going to do you favors. They will take advantage. It’s human nature.
[30:09] Have a meeting with everyone, individually and in a group, to explain the new position and what it means. Marlene shares a script for being open and setting expectations from the beginning of the things that will change and how you will go forward. Generally, when expectations have not been set is the time Marlene is called in! You’ll have to start with a clean slate and own the part you played.
[30:59] You cannot set a new boundary out of the blue. It will make people your enemies. Tell your observations. Acknowledge your part in it. Explain how it is affecting the operation. Set the new rule and say everyone will need to comply. It will require, when someone messes up, for you to enforce the consequence you said would happen. A boundary is not solid unless you keep the boundary.
[32:48] Leadership clarity is about situational analysis and the outcome. Without those two points of reference, you cannot solve any problem at all. Identify what’s happening that shouldn’t be, what’s not happening that should be, how that affects your business, the two points of reference and the obstacles you think are in the way. Start with clarity.
[33:58] Leadership identity is how you see yourself in relation to these issues. Leadership Identity drives everything but you can only be as effective as your ability to be clear.
[35:01] Marlene recently had a clarification meeting with a new client. Just as they were about to sign the contract, the client wanted to add in a StrengthsFinder, as well. Marlene answered, yes, they could do that for an extra fee, but since we know the situation and the outcome, let’s see if we can uncover some of those issues that are creating a lack of clarity and resolve them with what we’ve agreed to do.
[36:23] What can happen if a board member is hired by opportunity (deep pockets and good connections) instead of by alignment (having the same values)? Drama! Jim compares conservative and progressive values in corporations around DEI. Marlene encourages getting to know the other person and learning what it’s like to be in their shoes, whether or not you agree with them. Align with them.
[40:05] The real problem is we’re saying, “Just like them” or “Not one of us.” We need to stop doing that. There’s room for all, we just have to be willing to build that capacity and to be a little bit uncomfortable with it. That’s what conflict capacity is about. Be willing to be wrong and be open.
[41:17] The story you tell is the life you live. Whatever narrative you think or feel about yourself, is the source of your suffering. The good news is your story can also be the source of your “salvation.” You can shift your story and see other things that are equally true and explore that.
[42:18] Marlene found that you can only coach a regulated person. If someone’s in their story and they're upset, all you can do is be a radical listener. You cannot coach someone that’s not self-regulated. Marlene loves that you can help a person shift their story, and create a new possibility.
[43:09] How and why has Marlene changed her identity several times? Marlene was a blue-collar factory worker for 21 years. She wanted something more. She had to learn business practices the hard way because you don’t know what you don’t know. She first identified with being a professional speaker. As she became more aware of business practices, she realized she was not as good as she thought!
[44:36] Going from a front-line worker to a supervisor gives you a new identity and it can be completely overwhelming if you haven’t believed, accepted, and felt that you are in that place. You have to feel it.
[45:03] Marlene explains three life tragedies that occur mid-life: 1. I know I want something more but I don’t know what it is. 2. I know what it is but I don’t believe it’s possible. 3. I know what it is and it might be possible, but now I have to be willing. Willingness is the fulcrum point of change. In any tragedy, you don’t have clarity. You have to be willing to discover, develop, and deliver. Find your purpose.
[47:55] If you’re stuck, confused, in drama, or conflict, clarity can change any situation. Marlene’s job is to hear the stories of the parties she coaches and help them get clear, and they will know the answer.
Quotable Quotes
- “We are all afraid of conflict … and so … we try to avoid it. I call it the three ‘A’s: Appeasing, Aggression, and Avoidance.”
- “Generally, we mismanage [conflict] because we have an inner conflict first.”
- “Watch your narrative. Don’t believe everything that you think.”
- “I could be right, but I might be wrong and there might be one missing piece. … If I’m feeling that angry, instead of interpreting it as I’ve got all the facts, that means, I’ve got to have more information … because that helps me to calm down.”
- “The question I always ask is, ‘Are you willing to be wrong?’ Or, ‘Am I willing to be wrong?’ Because nothing happens until there’s willingness. … Willingness is the fulcrum point of change.”
- “If I haven’t been willing, it means I’m in a state of resistance.”
- “In the long run, aligning with your values and what you promised your customer is what’s going to serve you. … What is the point of being profitable and being successful if you are miserable because you don’t understand alignment?”
- “My definition for leadership is that if leadership is about anything, it’s about alignment and alignment is about focusing energy.”
- “The owner wants to get to the treasure chest on the island, the leader wants everybody to row harder and faster, and the rower just wants a better seat cushion on the boat. As a consultant … it’s about looking at all the perspectives.”
- “You will never lose by deciding to be intentional about how you form relationships and how you treat other people.”
- “If you’ve messed up for a while, which is generally where I come in, what you have to do is you have to start with a clean slate and you have to own the part you played. Because you cannot set a new boundary out of the blue. It will make people your enemy.”
- “If you care more about them understanding than you do about your boundary, that’s where you’re going to be a poor leader.”
- “Wherever there’s drama, there’s always a lack of clarity.”
- “That’s what conflict capacity is about, ‘I’m uncomfortable with your ideas and thoughts and it’s OK that I’m uncomfortable. I might change my mind if I’m willing to be wrong. And you might change yours if you’re willing to be open.’”
- “If you’re stuck or you’re confused, or you’re in drama or conflict, there’s something that I live by, and that’s: ‘Clarity can change any situation.’”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Marlene Chism Consulting
- Marlene Chism on LinkedIn
- Marlene’s new book: From Conflict to Courage: How to Stop Avoiding and Start Leading
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Marlene’s previous books:
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No-Drama Leadership: How Enlightened Leaders Transform Culture in the Workplace
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Stop Workplace Drama: Train Your Team to Have No Complaints, No Excuses, and No Regrets
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Success is a Given: Reading the Signs While Reinventing Your Life
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7 Ways to Stop Drama in Your Healthcare Practice (Out of stock)
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LinkedIn Learning
- The Ladder of Inference
- Peter Senge
- The fifth discipline fieldbook: strategies and tools for building a learning organization, by Peter M. Senge
- Concept of the Corporation, by Peter F. Drucker
- StrengthsFinder
- DiSC Profile
- Tony Robbins
Joe Schurman teaches from his deep experience in the software, machine learning, AI, and processes that organizations need today as they transition to data-driven technology companies. He names some of the cloud services and tech tools he uses to lead clients to start with a user case, break it into stories, build a team led by the solution owner, assign the stories to developers to build, and iterate product demos until the Minimum Loved Project (MLP) is achieved. Joe offers observations on investing the “right” amount of time in projects, and wisdom on developing a learner mindset.
Key Takeaways
[2:06] Joe Schurman is a 2nd-degree black belt in Kung Fu. He once judged a competition in Las Vegas. He has four children; two daughters and two sons.
[2:57] Joe is an expert on the fringes of what we can do with computing technology. What we can do changes every day. In the past couple of years, from an AI perspective, with data and automation, it’s taken leaps and bounds.
[4:30] We’re still pretty far away from general AI, despite Sophia, an AI robot that was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship in 2017. Today’s AI depends on the programming we give a machine and its interpretation and output. Joe’s focus is narrow or weak AI. His business colleagues call it magic. Computer vision is an area he loves.
[5:45] Joe uses a lab environment across Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services. The capabilities that have come up in the last year are “just insane” with what you can do with computer vision and building libraries of what the machine can see.
[6:06] Joe loved seeing a computer vision capability demonstration at AWS re:Invent of tracking every NFL player on the field and predicting injuries and other types of output and insights in real-time. The machine used narrow AI to access a library seeded with “a ton” of data to interpret the action.
[7:15] What you can do with this technology comes down to the data that you feed the engine. Think about the amounts of data that organizations have to sift through to generate reflective or predictive insights. Auto machine learning helps organize the data into useful information such as anomaly detection in software engineering. The data can also come from tools like GitHub and Jira.
[8:25] Joe did a fun computer vision project on UAPs for the History Channel, working with some of the nation’s top military leaders, building a library of video and audio data to be able to detect unidentified aerial phenomena that were not supposed to be entering our airspace, and curating that library.
[10:06] AI started with the idea of speeding up processes, such as getting an app to market faster or gathering insights quicker to make business decisions more timely.
[11:28] AI can enhance human performance. Joe starts by finding people who know how to fail fast; to get a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) out the door. Solutions such as quality engineering automation, test automation, and monitoring services for DevOps detect bugs and performance issues quickly and ensure that the quality of the team is sound.
[12:47] Joe notes the importance of individuals performing, contributing to, and collaborating as a team. Set your organization and standards governance up first. Look for a platform of technology to leverage that enables you to build and tinker. Finding the latest and greatest tool is no good unless it provides the right level of collaboration with their platform and connection to different processes.
[14:53] When introducing ML to an organization, start with discovery, to understand the culture and talent within the organization. How are they communicating today? Joe sees the biggest gap between data scientists and data engineers. Projects tend to fail without collaboration, regardless of the tech. If the data scientists don’t understand the domain, then the platform is irrelevant,
[17:28] Joe stresses the need for a methodology in place to make any of these aspirations work for your organization. After discovery, there’s an align phase. Focus on the outcome and the use case. The solution owner is crucial. The solution owner leads the technology team and brings them together around the client’s outcome to develop that use case.
[18:12] If you can’t take an actual use case and break it down into bite-sized chunks or user stories, then the project will never be on the right track. Start with the use case to mitigate risks. Break the use case into user stories. Match the user stories with the number of engineers that can develop a number of user stories within a given time frame.
[18:38] Those user stories given to the engineers are deducted into Story Points, in the Agile Process of engineering software. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PcW) has taken it to the next level, being able to do Engineering as a Service, being able to do it at scale, and being able to pivot quickly.
[18:58] Joe explains what can happen if you have a great idea, take three to six months to break down the use case, and fill all the requirements, but hand it off to the Dev team that has no idea what the use case is: you get irrelevant software that doesn’t tie back to the outcome!
[19:22] Keep the solution team engaged in building the bridge between the subject matter expert stakeholders and the engineers. Every two weeks, demonstrate the iteration or program increment you have built. Does it match the outcome? Does it provide any relevance? Then take the feedback and figure out what happened in that iteration. Fix errors. You will build a product that has value to launch.
[20:45] Communicate a lot, so all the people are on the same page! When you have stovepiped organizations where the departments don’t talk to one another, you waste time, effort, and money building a product no one will use. One of Joe’s colleagues, José Reyes, uses the term Minimum Lovable Project (MLP), where people rally around the outcome, not just the tech.
[22:33] What skills and knowledge will the leaders of PwC need to endure for the next five years? Joe says first are character and attitude; people that have a hunger to build something, with a fail-fast mentality, and that are excited to learn constantly, that read every day and learn new technology.
[24:27] Then know the tools. Documents exist on the internet for every solution and there is access to services like GitHub to download projects and starter templates without being an expert but just reading the README file and installing the base-level template, learning as you go, and as you tinker. That’s way more valuable than coming in as a book-smart expert in a specific product or technology.
[24:57] When it comes to tooling, there are products like the Atlassian platform with Confluence and Jira. For an AI stack, Joe typically works with AWS, GPC, and Microsoft, more so on the Amazon side with AWS AI tools, like Rekognition, Glue DataBrew, Redshift ML, Comprehend, and more. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google produce so much documentation and certification to get you up to speed.
[26:30] Judgment, wisdom, and character will not be replaced by AI anytime soon. There’s still room for philosophy in leadership. There are tools and technologies to speed up the processes, but not the individuals. There are no general AI solutions out yet to replace a pod of application developers, designers, and solution owners to execute a successful MVP or MLP out the door for a client.
[27:55] Advice to CEOs: Be patient and understanding. Be willing to fail fast. Support tinkering and R&D, even if the project doesn't work out. Organizations are generally realizing that today they need to be data-driven, technology companies but there is still hesitance over the risk that needs to be taken.
[30:03] Why would an insurance company or other traditional company need R&D? Look at Loonshots, by Safi Bahcall for some ideas about R&D.
[30:56] Joe shares how he got to this point in his career. He wanted to play baseball but started at Compaq (now HP) when he was 18, writing scripts in Unix and other environments. Just being able to make certain changes to help clients get products faster and seeing the quick response from the outcomes felt like a home run to him!
[31:49] Years later, Joe went on his own, with a vision to create telehealth before telemedicine was a thing, using Skype for Business and Microsoft Lync, enabling an API for that. Seeing people connect through a technology he had built, replaced the need to be a baseball star! Joe is grateful for the break he got at a young age and enjoys his work.
[33:22] When Joe first started, he was trying to be the smartest person in the room, seeing the instant gratification of making code snippets that tested successfully. Eventually just building the app wasn’t enough for him. He got the dopamine hit from seeing users interacting with his code and seeing its value.
[34:58] Joe’s mentors include many people he worked with. X. D. Wang at Microsoft Research inspired him to tinker, build, and focus on the short-run more than the long-run. Randeep Sing Pal at Microsoft Unified Communications was another great mentor. Also Steve Justice and Chris Mellon, in terms of character and collaboration. Joe shares how they mentored him.
[37:23] Jan says something we forget about technology is that there are a lot of failures and attempts before the success hits. We have to be mindful of that as leaders to give people time and space to do really creative, cool things.
[38:01] Joe appreciates the opportunity to discuss these things. Joe spent a lot of his career building software solutions that were way ahead of their time. It’s frustrating to see telemedicine so successful now, but not when he attempted it. He had to learn to let go. It’s not just about releasing bleeding-edge tech; you’ve got to find some value associated with it to resonate with the end-user.
[39:31] Always think about the outcome and understand your audience first. And then be able to supplement the back end of that with bleeding-edge technology, development, tinkering, failing fast, and all the things that go with software engineering. Also, be humble! Get perspective from outside your bubble to build a better solution and be a better person.
[40:49] WHenever you’re setting out to build anything, start with a press release! Write a story of what it would look like if it were released today. Then just work back from there!
Quotable Quotes
- “There are so many new and cool technologies and innovations that are coming out at the speed of thought, which are pretty fascinating.”
- “I’ve been in real cloud engineering for about a decade, and from an AI perspective, with data and automation, over the past five to 10 years, in terms of running on a cloud environment, and it’s just taken leaps and bounds.”
- “You’ve got to be able to connect that [data] environment to a use case or an outcome. If you can’t do that and you can’t enable a data scientist to understand the domain, then the data platform is irrelevant. I see a lot of performance issues occur because of that disconnect.”
- “If you can’t take an actual use case and break it down into bite-sized chunks or user stories, then the project will never be on the right track.”
- “In this industry, you’re constantly learning; constantly reading. I’m reading every day and learning about new technology every day and how to apply it and how to tinker with it. I need people on the team … that have that ability or that hunger to tinker and learn.”
- “Transitioning from a ‘knower’ mindset to a ‘learner’ mindset was the biggest shift for me.”
- “Always think about the outcome and understand your audience first. And then be able to supplement the back end of that with bleeding-edge technology, development, tinkering, failing fast, and all the things that go with software engineering.”
Resources Mentioned
- Joe Schurman, PwC
- Joe Schurman on LinkedIn
- PwC
- Sophia robot granted citizenship
- I, Robot film
- Weak AI
- Google Cloud Platform
- Microsoft Azure
- Amazon Web Services
- AWS re:Invent
- GitHub
- Atlassian Jira
- Unidentified, The History Channel
- José Reyes, PwC
- The Shackleton Journey
- Atlassian Confluence
- AWS Rekognition
- AWS Glue DataBrew
- AWS Redshift ML
- AWS Comprehend
- Steve Justice on LinkedIn
- Chris Mellon
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall
Dr. Amer Kaissi is an award-winning Professor of Healthcare Administration at Trinity University, Speaker, Executive Coach, and author of Humbitious. A good leader often has a healthy balance of low ego and high ambition. If you’re looking to create long-lasting change and longevity in a company, it comes down to balancing the humbitious approach. Amer shares how busy business leaders can experience a sense of profound transcendence, get their ego in check, and practice a bit of humility.
Key Takeaways
[2:30] Dr. Amer grew up during the Lebanese civil war and he shares how this profound experience has shaped the way he thinks about leadership today.
[6:25] Jim Collins proposed a concept of Level 5 leadership, and this framework shaped a lot of what Dr. Amer’s book, Humbitious, is about.
[8:35] In the short term, power and ego are very important. However, long-term leadership effectiveness has the humbitious approach.
[11:10] The aggressive leader vs. the passive leader. Neither is a good approach, but every leader must find a balance between the two.
[15:00] Dr. Amer shares strategies to work through imposter syndrome.
[18:55] Genuine humility can be an indicator of a lack of confidence. These leaders need to have their voices heard.
[20:45] Humble leaders might not feel the need to step up for themselves, but if you frame it from the advantage of the team, they will begin to understand why it’s important to speak up.
[27:50] Dr. Amer shares the important impact of love in the workplace.
[30:30] It was not too long ago that leaders would give advice to management to never show emotions because it was perceived as weak. Dr. Amer admits this is horrible advice.
[31:30] Dr. Amer explores the importance of human touch in the workplace. Leaders are often afraid to have it be seen as an HR complaint.
[33:30] We overcomplicate certain topics because we’re too afraid to have the conversation. Do you want to touch? Have the conversation.
[34:55] Dr. Amer shares what role “transcendence” plays in a leader’s emotional wellbeing.
[36:10] When you’re deep in nature, it can almost feel like your own ego is dissolving.
[37:15] Arrogance can make you feel like you’re the center of the universe.
[39:20] If you want to lead, you have to read.
[41:35] Listener challenge: Humility is a strength, not a weakness. It’s a superpower when combined with ambition.
Quotable Quotes
- “Leaders who combine humility with ambition are those who will leave a long-lasting impact.”
- “Take some time to think about what you’ve achieved in the last five years. Most people who have imposter thoughts are comparing themselves to an ideal version that’s impossible to achieve.”
- “As we all know as coaches, a strength that’s overused becomes a weakness.”
- “The research was very clear that the NBA teams that touched more and celebrated more ended up succeeding more.”
- “Pause and reflect on all the things that are bigger than you. That may be nature, but it could also be the whole universe, history, or God.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Amerkaissi.com
- Dr. Amer on LinkedIn
- Dr. Amer on Twitter
- Grab Dr. Amer’s book: Humbitious: The Power of Low-Ego, High-Drive Leadership
- Jimcollins.com
- Jeffreypfeffer.com
- Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Dr. Jeb Hurley is a leading expert on leadership and team dynamics in hybrid and remote workplaces. Jeb traces his passion for helping people become better leaders and keeping team dynamics healthy to his painful experiences with toxic managers, dysfunctional teams, and low trust cultures. Over the past ten years, Jeb worked with leaders and teams in Asia and worldwide while researching leadership from a behavioral science and neuroscience perspective. He developed deep insights into the root causes of healthy and dysfunctional leader-team dynamics through that work.
As organizations have increasingly recognized the value of influencing behavior and intrinsically motivating people, Jeb shares how to develop those skills by applying behavioral science in meaningful, proven, and sustainable ways. His insights will help you see how you can improve team performance and people's wellbeing.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] There are two aspects of Jeb’s background: one is living a global life and career and two is holding the second shodan in karate. He expands on how both are related to being foundational in his path.
[4:30] Jan asks Jeb where he would be if he was not able to ever travel again.
[6:00] We humans are just simply wired for dysfunction because of our cognitive biases. Jeb explains how that is uncovered through his team trust dynamic model.
[8:55] The main reason for bad self-awareness with leaders is the lack of trust. Jeb shares how leaders can operationalize trust.
[12:10] Jeb breaks down trust in both behavioral and neurobiological aspects and how trust is wired in our reward systems.
[14:50] The hallmark of high-performing teams is having tremendous clarity of purpose and alignment of their values. Jeb explains its importance and how these teams reject lone wolves.
[19:05] Jim poses the question of the need for disruption when things get too comfortable and how that should be handled.
[20:05] The real issue is that leaders assume value and purpose and they don’t test or revisit them. It opens up the opportunity for “values creep” into areas like mediocrity.
[22:05] Jeb talks about the combination of behavioral science to identify what inspires people and influence as a powerful tool in leadership.
[23:50] Jeb also shares the different building blocks of empowering team purpose and values, inspiring motivation, and nudging behavior change.
[25:50] Finding the human solution to problems can reap the biggest results.
[27:45] Jeb shares what his motivation triangle is all about and how it can help managers understand why their people do what they do.
[29:25] Humans are driven by three core psychological needs: finding purpose in what we do, developing the skills needed to realize that purpose, and having the freedom to fulfill this purpose.
[32:05] Jim asks Jeb where a manager’s responsibility starts and ends in the motivation triangle.
[35:40] What Jeb has learned about leadership doesn’t come from studying leadership. He shares the one thing all leaders should focus on.
[38:35] The Experience/expectation dynamic defines the essence of every relationship you ever had. Jeb provides some examples to explain its impact.
[41:30] Jeb tells the story of how he and his partner started their company, Brainware Partners.
[45:10] One of the best practices for nudges is that it’s not about the manager but it’s about the team solving a problem together. Jeb shares that’s what he observed in high-performing teams.
[46:30] Listener Challenge: Put trust in psychological safety at the core of what you do.
Quotable Quotes
- “Eight years in Asia makes you realize that the Western constructs of how we go about seeing, behaving, and preaching leadership is very different from what happens in other parts of the world.”
- “It’s typically that combination of cognitive biases and not really understanding how to operationalize trust that makes it really challenging for team leaders and team members to be consistent in delivering performance and well-being.”
- “It’s (trust) not all about just simple logic, there’s a strong cognitive and emotional aspects or parts of it.”
- “What’s important is that everybody has this very clear sense that these are the values and this is what it means to be psychologically safe in this environment. So by doing that, those teams insulate themselves from lone wolves and toxic behaviors.”
- “Lightning speed is just really a relative thing. People pretend to get really busy doing lots of stuff but are they doing the things that matter that actually move the needle? I would argue, not so much.”
- “When we empower feedback, when we empower people in ways that build trust and psychological safety, it makes a huge difference.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Jeb on LinkedIn
- Jeb on Twitter
- Grab Jeb’s books: Team Relationship Management: The Science of Inspiring Trust & Peak Performance, The ONE Habit: The Ultimate Guide to Increasing Engagement and Building Highly-Effective Teams
Kian Gohar is the founder of Geolab, an innovation research and training firm empowering leaders through coaching, strategy, and design. He helps inspire the world’s leading organizations to harness disruptive trends transforming industry in the next decade and beyond. He is the co-author of “Competing in the New World of Work.” As a historian and a futurist, he shares his thoughts and insights on the present and future trends with remote work and digitalization.
Key Takeaways
[1:50] Kian has never had a job he applied for. He has been unsuccessful at every job application he has had.
[3:40] Talking about Kian’s book, Competing in the New World of Work, Kian shares why radical adaptability is different today than ever before.
[5:05] Adaptability is reactive whereas Radical Adaptability is proactive. Kian explains what this means.
[7:30] Kian talks about being agile as one of the four leadership traits that they discovered that most successful teams have. He shares some examples to show how this helps balance action and patience.
[9:15] Jan shares his own experience with agile teams and how they’re not really agile. Kian explains how it can work on an organizational leadership level to support experimentation.
[10:55] Kian shares some tips on how to structure and incentivize organizations with radical aspirations. He shares some examples from companies that were able to really innovate boldly.
[13:20] Successful companies create a culture where employees feel psychological safety despite failures.
[15:50] Kian thinks the present is not an enigma. He wants to attain a balance between gratitude for the present moment and hope for the future.
[18:20] History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme. Kian shares how you can use lessons from the past to gain foresight.
[20:50] Having the right mindset is the most important thing we can focus on because it influences all of our actions. Kian shares some examples to explain further.
[23:10] We always thought that meetings are the starting point for collaboration and innovation but Kian realized that is not true at all. He talks about asynchronous collaboration to explain why.
[25:40] Jan asks Kian if there is any room for compromise for those who don’t want to work asynchronously.
[27:05] Kian shares what are the outcomes if organizations fail to adapt to these new ways and tools of working.
[29:05] As a futurist and historian, Jim asks Kian for his thoughts about the expansion and contraction of location and geography with organizations.
[31:10] This new remote or digital-first world will allow a lot of jobs and tasks to be done from anywhere. Kian shares further his insights into future trends.
[32:25] Helping other people move outside of expensive cities can also help reduce inequalities that we face and internal social tensions in society.
[33:35] Humans are social animals but there is a space and time for that physical connection. Kian talks about the hybrid model and how this can be more acceptable to the younger generation.
[35:30] It’s really critical for leaders to think purposefully about how we design incentives and culture because it has a huge impact on people.
[37:50] Zooming in vs. remming in. Kian shares what that means and his thoughts on future trends.
[39:30] Listener challenge: Think about how you want to build a community that creates a differentiation between yours and others despite the democratization of technology.
Quotable Quotes
- “I’ve been unsuccessful for every job application I’ve ever had. I had to create my own path and career over the last twenty years.”
- “Somebody told me earlier that entrepreneurship is not a career, it is something that you go from opportunity to opportunity and think of it that way.”
- “When we think about radical adaptability, it is predictive, proactive, and progressive. It’s a guide for anticipating change and being ahead of the curve rather than having to react to something.”
- “Resilience isn’t about the exact moment now, it’s about how you build the energy to be able to not be on the current hill that you are on but rather to make the next hill you’re climbing easier.”
- “History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.”
- “We work remotely and I’ve never accomplished more than working in this asynchronous collaboration way.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Kian.is
- Kian on LinkedIn
- Kian on Twitter
- Grab Kian’s book: Competing in the New World of Work
Nancy Sherman is an ethicist and professor of philosophy at Georgetown University with a focus on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. She is an expert in ethics, the history of moral philosophy, moral psychology, military ethics, and emotions. In this episode, Nancy discusses her latest book, “Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience.”
“To be resilient is to have stamina and persistence, but it’s also to be sustained and supported in your endeavors.”
Key Takeaways
[5:24] Stoicism naturally fits in the military because it’s about sucking it up and being invincible. Nancy explains why she worries about this message.
[6:40] Nancy thinks that rather than being invincible, stoicism is about understanding vulnerability and how anxiety is created by uncertainty.
[8:05] Nancy explains what moral injury means and how it weighs heavily on different kinds of people.
[9:30] Stoicism helps you think about how to cope in different situations and manage emotions and uncertain futures.
[10:30] One of the factors in the growing popularity of stoicism is the interest in secular religion. Nancy expands on this further.
[11:45] Other factors driving the fascination with stoicism are: Self-help is always a hot seller, people who are good at marketing use it as a niche, and Silicon Valley has an interest in it.
[13:25] Nancy adds in a fifth factor which is about the Roman Philosophers.
[14:35] Nancy thinks stoicism is not only about aestheticism. She explains what that means.
[15:00] Post-traumatic stress vs. moral injury. Nancy shares what’s their difference and how stoicism helps manage the latter.
[17:20] Resilience vs. grit. Nancy shares her perspective on both.
[18:30] Resilience is not self-reliance. She explains how.
[21:20] Most studies of resilience suggest that strength does not come from inner toughness but from the ability to be open to receive help.
[22:45] The Stoics were thinking of a community of humanity where we share reason, affective emotional judgment, and empathy. Nancy shares an example.
[25:30] One of the commitments of stoicism is to expand outward as a member of an effective community. Nancy explains how we can learn from this to be better leaders.
[26:50] Nancy talks about how stoics deal with implicit bias and the emotions that come with it.
[29:50] Stoicism vs. neurobiology. Nancy shares that not all stoicism is worth saving in modern times and explains why.
[32:10] Grace comes from the Greek word, Hara (Χάρις) which means charity. Nancy refers to some examples of goodwill from the stoics.
[35:00] Nancy gives another example of mutuality in stoicism that explains her view further about grace.
[36:30] Nancy also talks about self-empathy and how it’s very important to be gentle to yourself.
[39:30] Jan asks Nancy about ethics and morality and if there is a shortcut to master them.
[49:20] Listener Challenge: Embracing stoicism within being emotionless and practicing communal resilience.
Quotable Quotes
- “I really worry deeply that the message being put out that you are bulletproof or invincible or you have to suck it up at all costs was dangerous.”
- “If you wanna go without organized religion, stoicism is a way to go.”
- “It’s more about how you can face the challenges and sometimes, facing the challenges involves healing.”
- “To be resilient is to have stamina and persistence, but it’s also to be sustained and supported in your endeavors.”
- “If you hit the pause button a little more, suspend judgment, and not give in or ascent to all those immediate ways we respond, we may have a better chance of engaging in discourse.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Nancysherman.com
- Nancy on LinkedIn
- Nancy on Twitter
- Grab Nancy’s books: Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience, Afterwar, The Untold War, Stoic Warriors, Making a Necessity of Virtue, Aristotle’s Ethics, The Fabric of Character: Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue
Hugh Blane doesn’t claim to know everything about your business. He does claim however to know more than anyone about converting human potential into accelerated business results – that’s why his clients call him The Talent Alchemist. In the world of work, the single greatest asset of successful individuals, teams, and organizations is their mindset--what happens in between their ears. It's not the corporate strategy, the sales compensation plan, or the market segments they're pursuing. It is what each leader, team member, and employee chooses to focus on, believe, and create for themselves and others.
From Hugh’s book, “7 Principles of Transformational Leadership” he discusses the fundamental concepts that will result in dramatic revenue, performance, and relationship growth. Specifically, leaders will learn to:
Live their professional and personal lives with unbridled purpose and passion.
Retain the brightest and best talent.
Have employees, key stakeholders, and managers enthusiastically follow them.
Hguh says that you may have employees with all the talent in the world, but you'll never achieve remarkable results until you change your employees' mindset. Listen in to learn more!
Key Takeaways
[7:10] Hugh uses Tom Brady as an example for his Seven Principles of Transformational Leadership.
[8:35] “Heartset” is often missed when recruiting for talent. Hugh explains what a heartset is.
[10:45] Driven vs. Drawn. Hugh shares what’s the difference between the two.
[12:50] We are in the midst of a war for talent. Hugh shares his insights on how to retain talent while keeping a high performance standard.
[15:35] Hugh talks about one of his good friends, Jim Kouzes, and how he signs all his emails with “Love and Lead.”
[16:50] Hugh went through his own personal transformation back when he was forty-seven years old and shares his insights.
[19:05] Hugh shares examples of how leaders can be persuasive by talking less.
[22:35] Technology is getting in the way of our curiosity and the algorithms are to blame.
[25:40] If you really wanna do something, you don’t have to be held accountable. Hugh explains what that means and the difference between asking for accountability vs. holding someone accountable.
[29:15] Hugh explains how to be a human doing vs. a human being and shares his thoughts on employee engagement.
[33:05] The best thing you can do for underperforming employees is to find a way for them to form their self-worth, self-esteem, and self-efficacy, whether it may be in the same organization or not.
[36:05] Hugh’s sole job is to help people become the best version of themselves. He explains how through his model: reframe the past, reclaim the future, and recalibrate the present.
[39:30] Hugh shares a story to share that encapsulates a leader’s responsibility to help people and in turn help themselves.
[43:35] Adversity and setbacks are the greatest catalysts for the next level of learning and growth.
[45:00] Listener Challenge: Think big and pursue greatness in filling the blanks.
Quotable Quotes
- “We don’t talk about the heartset much, which is, you may have the skill but not the will to really do the dirty long work to become excellent or great in your craft.”
- “‘Drawn,’ I think, lasts longer than ‘drive.’ Drive is what makes motivation get started.”
- “Are you pursuing excellence in yourself as a leader? Because you can’t expect anyone inside your organization to do something or follow something if you’re not doing it.”
- “I may disagree with you but I will not be disagreeable. I just want to be in conversation and I can learn something from you.”
- “The purpose of life is to find your gift and the meaning of it, and the meaning of life is to give it away.” -David Viscott
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Hugh on LinkedIn
- Hugh on Twitter
- Grab Hugh’s book: 7 Principles of Transformational Leadership: Create a Mindset of Passion, Innovation, and Growth
Simon Mainwaring is CEO of We First, Inc., the creative consultancy that strategizes, integrates, and activates the growth, productivity, and impact of the world’s most successful brands. As a global keynote speaker, New York Times bestselling author of We First and LEAD WITH WE, and highly-awarded brand futurist, he works with leading CEOs, CMOs, and entrepreneurs to define their business strategy, company culture, and brand communications.
Simon is a sought-after international speaker whose presentations engage and inspire audiences to think and act in new ways that LEAD WITH WE around a collectivized purpose. He has been voted a Top 5 Marketing Speaker by speaking.com for 5 years in a row, and featured on the cover of the National Speaker’s Magazine. From the Cannes Lions Festival to Google, from Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson to the United Nations Foundation, and now on The Leadership Podcast, he delivers a roadmap for revolutionizing your business from the ground up by factoring all “shareholders” into your collective future for all your business decisions.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] Simon talks about his two daughters who have been trapeze artists since they were three years old.
[4:05] Spending fifteen years in big creative advertising agencies, Simon shares his views on capitalism and how his opinions have evolved.
[6:10] Simon thought about using the power of storytelling in business to make a difference, which led to his dialogue around capitalism.
[7:25] Simon explains where the danger comes from when influence turns into manipulation.
[8:50] It’s a constant in human nature to play with power but there is nowhere to hide now. The motive will eventually get exposed.
[10:50] Capitalism as we know it is dead; it has evolved. Simon expands on this further.
[12:40] Business leaders and owners will suffer if the societies they live in fail. It is best to re-engineer capitalism that better serves people and the planet.
[13:55] Do well by doing good vs. the virtuous spiral of collectivized purpose and action. Simon explains what that means and how they differ.
[16:40] COVID-19’s silver lining is that it has been a massive global moment of reflection. Simon shares his thoughts further on the current generation’s awareness that our future is compromised as an optimistic period.
[18:45] Strategy vs. tactical execution. Simon shares his objections to stakeholder capitalism.
[20:30] Our actions are levers for change if we look at it through the lens of collective action.
[24:40] We have defaulted to what makes us the most money, the fastest way, and at the greatest convenience for everyone. Simon describes how that impacts us now.
[28:00] There is a great opportunity to leverage social media to reweave the social fabric and remind us of what connects us rather than divides us. Simon shares his thoughts further.
[30:40] Much of today’s capitalism transpires through the internet. Jim asks Simon about his thoughts on social media companies’ influence on commerce.
[35:45] Humanity is staring itself in the mirror right now and it’s got two versions of reality right now. Simon talks about what they are.
[34:40] Jan also asks Simon which brands he thinks are doing things right that others can model from.
[37:20] Simon talks about the new generation of entrepreneurs that are coming through and how that makes him optimistic about the future. He shares some examples.
[39:35] Jim asks Simon what story comes to his mind that helps us get a better lens on leadership.
[44:15] The luxury of thinking about how to fix our future is scarce. Simon shares how we can best create a better future.
[46:20] Listener Challenge: 1. Trust your abilities as a leader. 2. Define your company purpose. 3. Work with your team.
Quotable Quotes
- “There was no strategic plan in place, I just happen to be somebody who’s been lucky enough to have an experience on the power of storytelling.”
- “I do think it’s a constant of human nature that people would play at it or pay lip service to something but there is nowhere to hide now; you’re gonna be exposed by your customers, you’re gonna be exposed by your employees, you’re gonna be exposed by your investors.”
- “Capitalism can remain constant but how it shows up can evolve and that’s peculiar to the circumstances we’re in.”
- “Companies and brands cannot survive in societies that fail.”
- “It just means that we’ve got to create the synergies and compounding effect between all these individual efforts and companies so that we can meet these challenges with equal force because it is all of our actions that got us into this mess in the first place.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Simonmainwaring.com
- Simon on LinkedIn
- Simon on Twitter
- Grab Simon’s book: We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World
Your hosts of The Leadership Podcast look back on 300 episodes in 6 years! The tagline is “We Study Leaders,” and Jim and Jan share what they’ve learned from the array of amazing guests. Listen in to learn the number one trait all the guests share; hear what they’ve learned about human nature, teams, tribalism, and how music seems to be a thing many leaders leverage as inspiration. Also, don’t miss their take on the human aspect of many leaders’ stories. Lastly, Jim and Jan share their gratitude for your listenership!
Key Takeaways
[1:55] Jim and Jan recall the days when they first started the podcast.
[3:35] Jan shares his conversation with Preston Pysh and how that got him into podcasting.
[5:30] As an interviewer, you get better over time. Jan shares what he has learned over time.
[6:10] They look through the inventory of guests that they’ve interviewed on the show.
[8:45] Jan talks about what happens before and after every recording.
[10:50 ] Jim shares what he learned about himself through the six years of this show.
[12:45] Jim talks about letting people finish, an important lesson he learned from Jen Waldman.
[14:25] Jan shares what he has learned from Jim throughout the years.
[15:20] Jim and Jan have a mantra for working with other people. They share the three criteria they have to meet.
[18:00] Everyone’s message is different, and Jim shares what he hopes the listeners won’t get from them.
[21:00] Jim is always curious about their guest’s stories but more than that, it’s the great storytellers that made an impact on him.
[24:05] For most of their guests, they’ve focused on the human side of leadership; and Jan shares what he has commonly observed from the majority of them.
[25:30] Jim has noticed some interesting patterns from those who are retiring vs. the ones who were younger.
[27:00] Major milestones in our lives help prepare us for what we are meant to do in the future.
[28:10] There is a gift in struggle and you will never “get there,” because life will always be a journey.
[29:20] In the big scheme of things, it’s not about you. Jan shares what some leaders had figured out way sooner than others.
[30:00] Jim shares they don’t track statistics of their show. They are just grateful that people are listening and finding value in their conversations.
[31:20] Jim closes the episode with a quote from Charles Darwin.
Quotable Quotes
- “You and I were so obsessed about making sure the show went out every week and perfectly. I just remembered feeling this pressure to do a good job.” — [2:20]
- “Back then, I wasn’t listening to podcasts. I like to read and I thought ‘I don’t know about this,’ and then he said, ‘You know this is a great excuse to meet really interesting people.’” — [4:35]
- “Not to be morbid, but we’ve had some guests who have passed away. And I’m so glad that we had an opportunity to speak with them and their story and the things that were important and dear to them were captured.” — [7:40]
- “Understanding people more deeply and just getting a window into that is so interesting, fascinating, and honestly, fun.” — [9:10]
- “To work with other people, they have to meet three criteria: They have to be likable, we have to respect them, and we have to trust them.” — [15:20]
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
Don Yaeger is an award-winning Keynote Speaker, Business Leadership Coach, eleven-time New York Times best-selling author, and longtime Associate Editor for Sports Illustrated. He is one of America’s most provocative thought leaders. From first-hand experiences, Don shares lessons on achieving greatness based on working with some of the greatest sports legends in the world. Listen in for some fascinating stories from many of your heroes on how they are intentional, curious, and hate to lose!
Key Takeaways
[3:55] With all the great stories that Don has experienced and written about, he shares a backstory from when he graduated university as a starting point for today’s discussion.
[5:15] Don shares the one question he asks everyone he interviews.
[6:35] His book, Greatness: The 16 Characteristics of True Champions, is a compilation of the top sixteen answers that came up frequently from his interview question.
[7:55] If you choose to lose and blame someone, then you will never achieve that next level.
[9:15] The mind of a champion is wired intentionally. They know the potential weakness of blaming someone else so they keep themselves from doing it.
[10:25] Don shares the one lesson that resonated with him that he learned from coach John Wooden.
[12:30] Don is very selective about his inner circle and explains his process on how he chooses them carefully.
[15:25] When your people know you care and want what’s best for them, their level of commitment will be off the charts.
[18:20] You can become invaluable without being the most valuable. Don shares a story about the year the Cubs won the world series to bring this point home.
[22:40] Don learned to be more attentive to the people he doesn’t see often within his organization.
[24:45] Getting to the matters of the heart doesn’t happen quickly; it’s about listening well, finding connection, and taking time to find out what drives the other person.
[25:50] Trust takes time. Don constantly builds upon the last conversation he has with a person to earn their trust.
[28:00] Coaches shared with Don that their relationship with their players changed when their conversations and questions were better structured.
[29:50] Don talks about why some teams are capable of being consistently high-performing while others are not.
[33:30] Don’s interview with Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta, was one that really stood out to him. He explains why.
[35:30] Jan really enjoyed his conversation and interview with Joel Peterson, the Chairman of JetBlue. He shared what his impact was to him and Jim.
[38:35] Everybody is gifted but it’s those who feel comfortable expressing their gifts and have the willingness to be vulnerable with others that makes the team successful.
[40:20] Don talks about the days he spent together with Walter Payton when he was writing his autobiography.
[41:45] Don asked Walter to pick one day in his future to give up everything else for. Don didn’t write his answer in his book.
[44:30] Intentionality is one of Don’s favorite words.
[46:20] A great question can be a gift to someone. Don tells an emotional story with Warrick Dunn as an example.
[51:15] Listener challenge: Great leaders are curious, ask great questions, listen intently, and they care.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you’re willing to be curious and willing to ask others about what they believe gave them an edge, it’s amazing what you’ll learn.” — Don Yaeger [6:00]
- “Losses are just learning opportunities and if you don’t treat them as that, then you’re not gonna be your greatest version of yourself.” — Don Yaeger [8:10]
- “When people know that you care for them, you speak truth to them and you want what’s best for them, whether it's good for you or not, when they know that, the discretionary energy they will pour into what you’re asking them to do is off the charts.” — Don Yaeger [15:45]
- “We have invaluable people who we don’t ever give a parking space to; they’re never employee of the month but boy, do they make a difference. And if we can learn to celebrate them, boy, what a game-changer it is.” — Don Yaeger [22:05]
- “They may act like they are welcoming of me but truth is, they have defenses up and I have to not be bothered by that. I have to recognize it and earn the right for them to let those defenses down.” — Don Yaeger [26:50]
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Donyaeger.com
- Don on LinkedIn
- Don on Twitter
- Grab Don’s books: Greatness: The 16 Characteristics of True Champions and more
- John Wooden
- Ed Bastian
- Joel Peterson
- Warrick Dunn
- Walter Payton
Sabrina Horn is an award-winning CEO, tech industry communications expert, and advisor with over 30 years of experience. In 1991, she founded Horn Group, one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic public relations firms, and built it from the ground up to national acclaim. While growing her business and working with countless entrepreneurs and CEOs, she came to understand how deeply a leader’s actions can impact a company’s success. From her book, Make It, Don’t Fake it, Sabrina shares how honesty and authenticity lead to success in business, and in life.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] Sabrina has a stamp collection and shares where it all started.
[4:30] Talking about her book, Make It, Don’t Fake it, Sabrina shares the different ways people fake it.
[5:55] People exaggerate the truth. Sabrina provides some examples.
[6:35] Sabrina explains what she calls “ostrich lies.”
[7:05] Selective truth-telling can be very dangerous.
[9:10] Procrastination or avoiding the truth is more harmful than exaggeration. Sabrina shares a story to explain why.
[13:00] Sabrina shares her thoughts on the book, Leadership BS.
[15:10] More recently, everybody’s language is all about empathy, humility, and authenticity. This book would not play well today.
[17:10] What some leaders do to get power and keep power is to withhold information. Sabrina shares insight on how to handle difficult conversations truthfully.
[20:05] It’s tough being a leader and employer managing through the pendulum of a company’s profitability.
[22:45] Sabrina talks about imposter syndrome.
[24:20] How to deal with imposter syndrome: Meet with everybody, be the director of your own movie, use the “we” word, and lastly, remember that you’ve earned your success.
[28:05] Cognitive behavioral therapy and mentors can help you with your imposter syndrome. Sabrina shares her own experience with this.
[30:35] Jan asks Sabrina why good PR should have nothing to do with spin.
[32:25] It’s not about being better or sexier, faster, or cheaper, it’s about being different. Sabrina shares how honesty can be a great PR strategy now.
[35:05] There are so many people clamoring for attention and it feels emotionally draining. Sabrina shares her insights on the best strategy for marketing.
[37:55] Because of the amount of information we are being bombarded with now, leaders can’t be numb if we expect our people to be resilient.
[40:50] Sabrina shares a piece of advice that is hardest for her to take as well.
[42:10:] Sabrina would tell her twenty-nine-year-old self to make an effort to build a team of mentors and advisers and be true to her own convictions.
[45:15] Sabrina shares some practices on how to stay true to your own core values as a leader.
[48:10] A bad subculture can infect the whole. Sabrina explains how this can relate to your company and brand.
[49:20] Sabrina’s closing thoughts: Be successful by doing things the right way.
Quotable Quotes
- “So, we go from this seemingly innocent not-meaning to do any harm to crossing the line where you actually are saying and doing things with the intent to deceive.”
- “Hope is not a strategy.”
- “A leader may be tempted to lie and to deceive in order to get out of a tough situation or under pressure but the problem with that and with all kinds of faking it is ultimately the truth always comes out.”
- “Imposter syndrome can arise in situations where people don't know who you are, and you don’t know who they are. And you’re walking in there and people think you’re going to put on a show for them.”
- “Spin really is about us peeling back the onion, getting to the absolute truth so that you can then find a path forward through a crisis or to create a great brand and tell a great story.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Sabrinahorn.com
- Sabrina on LinkedIn
- Sabrina on Twitter
- Grab Sabrina’s book: Make It, Don’t Fake It
- Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth At A Time, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Banks Benitez joined Uncharted in 2012 as an unpaid intern, and became the CEO in 2017. Since stepping in as CEO, Banks and his leadership have tripled the size of the team and doubled their revenue. Also during the pandemic, Banks moved to a four-day workweek at the same wages. In this episode, Banks shares his insight on the move to a four-day week, and the lessons learned about time management, mental health, and productivity. As a CEO, Banks went from 52 hours a week to 34 hours a week! Key Takeaways
[1:50] Advice Jim and Jan give to veterans is, “If you hear about really interesting people, just reach out to them.”
[2:20] Banks has not only grown his organization to triple its size but shifted to a four-day workweek.
[5:20] Banks is currently reading Making Numbers Count, by Chip Heath.
[6:20] Banks shares his story on how he got selected for Rotary International.
[9:35] Jan believes understanding anthropology will also help you towards being a better leader.
[11:00] Banks talks a little bit about his company, Uncharted, and the inspiration behind it.
[12:15] It’s so easy to be a fixer of problems. As a leader, Banks found himself spending all of his time making things “less bad.”
[13:35] Banks and his COO decided to change things up after feeling burned out within the company. They decided to go on the offensive instead of being on the defensive.
[17:55] Banks is a few months into his company working on a four-day workweek. He shares his results so far.
[20:35] Banks was nervous at first when he had to talk to his investors and clients about this. He was worried they would not see him as a serious company.
[23:15] Banks has noticed that his team really hates a three-day week.
[24:55] Prior to converting over to a four-day workweek, Banks decided to hire a third party to help evaluate the productivity and measure if it made sense to convert over.
[28:34] The book Essentialism, by Greg McKeown was critical in determining what was important work and what was not.
[29:55] Jim and Jan hear topics about mental health all the time with their clients. It’s important. People are getting burned out.
[30:30] You can easily quantify turnover costs and when people burn out, and how much it takes to replace that talent. A four-day workweek makes you competitive.
[35:50] Banks explains how Uncharted works and how they’ve been a successful non-profit company.
[37:40] Entrepreneurs who are successful tend to be coachable and follow up/follow through.
[39:45] Sell the problem, not the solution.
[43:55] Busyness and working “hard” is a cultural value that needs to be questioned.
[44:35] When Banks closes his laptop on Thursday night, he still feels incomplete. There’s still a lot to get done.
[45:35] The more you focus on brute force hard work, the less you are refining your “decisive” muscle.
[48:40] Listener challenge: Plant yourself in the richest soil you possibly can.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s so easy to be a fixer of problems. It’s easier to fill holes, but it’s harder to build peaks.”
- “We spent the whole month of May in 2020 to how we might optimize our work week; the ways we could get smarter about how we structure our time.”
- “Not all hours of the workweek are created equally. They are some hours that are productive. There are some hours that are a complete waste of time.”
- “My day before, I was working 52 hours a week. Now I am down to 34 hours a week.”
- “The best entrepreneurs that we work with are those who are really good at handling a lot of loose ties.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Uncharted.org
- Banks on LinkedIn
- Banks on Twitter
- Outsideonline.com
- Heathbrothers.com
- Rotary.org
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg Mckeown
Ralf Specht has been called “a visionary business leader” by FastCompany Press, and he is the creator of the Soul System™, a framework that aligns value-creating employee action with broader corporate strategy through shared understanding and purpose. Ralf is the author of, “Building Corporate Soul.” Corporate soul means integrity, shared purpose, shared understanding, and behaviors. Listen in to learn how “soul” can make a difference with talent attraction and retention.
Key Takeaways
[4:40] Ralf shares why it’s hard to execute on value-first behaviors within the business world.
[8:20] Mission, vision, and values get blurred a lot. Ralf details how soul and spirit also play a part in the overall company objective, and how you can blend them together.
[10:00] Ralf defines what purpose, vision, mission, and values mean to him.
[11:45] Ralf uses LinkedIn as an example of how they effectively live out each of these unique distinctions.
[16:15] Ralf gives three examples of companies that were purchased because of their culture, and how they were able to maintain that culture after an acquisition.
[19:40] Ralf offers ways individuals can gauge whether their company has a high level of trust within their culture.
[22:35] For the corporate soul to really thrive and grow, there needs to be a certain set of principles. Each chapter in Ralf’s book has “soul-searching” questions to help leaders explore these unique principles.
[27:40] Ralf breaks down what the soul index is and how it was calculated.
[29:45] Patagonia is often mentioned as a great example of a timeless and impactful company that lives out its company’s values, but it wasn’t mentioned in Ralf’s soul index. He explains the reasoning behind this.
[32:30] There is a great resignation happening right now. Ralf offers insight into why employees are really leaving.
[35:35] Jan understands it’s often hard to develop certain characteristics within people like drive and curiosity.
[38:35] Ralf shares how interview candidates can vet and gauge whether a prospective company has a corporate soul.
[40:35] If you’re interested in a job position, ask if you can talk to three happy employees within the company.
[43:00] If you’re always surrounded by yes-men, you’re not going to really get what you want.
[44:35] Listener challenge: You need a great corporate culture to be successful in business.
Quotable Quotes
- “When I talk ‘purpose,’ I am talking about the reason for being in business. When I’m talking ‘vision,’ it’s to imagine a world that does not yet exist. ‘Mission’ is the overall goal and what kind of product we provide, and ‘values’ are beliefs/principles that define the business.”
- “Corporate soul means integrity, shared purpose, shared understanding, and behaviors.”
- “It’s the people in the company who understand whether the company has got soul.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Ralfspecht.com
- Ralf on LinkedIn
- Ralf on Twitter
- Grab Ralf’s book: Building Corporate Soul
Ann Latham is the founder of Boston-area consulting firm Uncommon Clarity, Inc. and author of The Power of Clarity. Ann spent the first half of her career working in high-tech companies, beginning as a software engineer and winding up reporting to the CEO and leading cross-functional and cross-divisional efforts to set strategy and make operational improvements. Ann shares how to create clarity within your organization to increase productivity, increase your confidence and effectiveness towards people, and empower your employees to maximize their contributions. Key Takeaways
[3:00] Ann shares her experience hiking through the Swiss Alps and her greatest takeaway from it.
[6:15] The feeling of clarity is rare in today’s times where things seem to be more complicated. Ann explains why that is.
[7:55] All activities that are moving cognitive objects are inefficient and ineffective because there is no clear process in making decisions.
[9:00] Ann talks about how to get more formalized processes into cognitive activities in a business or organization.
[10:45] There are a lot of tools we could use but there is no one way to create a strategy.
[12:40] Ann shares how to break the cycle of busyness.
[14:45] She also talks about the three different ways you can create clarity as a mid-level leader.
[15:55] There are only five effective ways to deal with too much workload. Ann explains each one of them and adds that number six is called, “wishful thinking.”
[18:40] Patience vs. Clarity. Ann shares an example of what clarity really means: to not need patience.
[22:05] Patience is important when you are asking for people to change their behavior or to understand new concepts.
[24:05] Some leaders might not have an idea how to create clarity so they have no idea how to teach someone else to be clear. Ann shares her evolution from when she was just starting as a consultant.
[25:25] She urges leaders to read her book to understand why they aren’t being clear enough and learn the techniques she has.
[26:20] Ann shares the two reasons why big decisions are rarely big decisions.
[30:15] Using a disciplined decision-making process can help define which decisions are the critical ones. Ann shares four steps on how to do that.
[33:35] A lot of what Ann shares falls into common sense but leaders can still lack the level of specificity required to make things clear.
[35:30] Ann explains further what is the dynamic between creating clarity as a leader vs. as an employee.
[37:50] Everyone hates meetings and Ann uses this as an example to distinguish clarity. Everyone should know what must be different when they are done.
[42:00] Ann also talks about two ways people delegate and the key to no-risk delegation.
[44:55] Listener Challenge: We are not as clear as we think we are. The power of clarity creates a huge opportunity.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you think about asking people how they make decisions, you’ll get as many answers as the number of people you ask. There isn’t a shared clear method for making decisions.”
- “The farther you get from the production processes, the less clear we are.”
- “If you’re not specific enough and you’re running in too many different directions, you don’t create clarity at all. You create a mess.”
- “They (the mid-level leaders) have to push back. And by pushing back, they help themselves and they also help the people who report to them.”
- “If you break things down into what those cascading decisions are, you can get into places much faster.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Uncommonclarity.com
- Ann on Linkedin
- Ann on Twitter
- Grab Ann’s book: The Power of Clarity: Unleash the True Potential of Workplace Productivity, Confidence, and Empowerment
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
Stephan Aarstol is well known for his appearance on Shark Tank as the founder and CEO of Tower Paddle Boards and Tower Electric Bikes. After being funded by Mark Cuban on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2012, Tower went on to become one of the biggest success stories in the history of the show. As an internet business entrepreneur since 1999, Stephan felt it was time for another disruption and wanted to force creative thinking? Through his new book, The Five Hour Workday. In this episode, Stephan shares the principles needed to spark creative thinking, and why it doesn’t take a traditional eight-hour day.
Key Takeaways
[2:10] Stephan shares something about himself that not many people know about.
[3:10] Stephan explains what is the most important leadership quality an entrepreneur needs.
[5:55] In the tech world where everything is fast-changing, we need to keep pace and be more agile. Stephan shares what are the early warning signs to be aware of.
[7:05) Stephan shares an example of how not to spend money unnecessarily in order to be profitable.
[10:25] Stephan is known for having the worst pitch on Shark Tank. Despite this, he was still able to land the deal.
[12:40] Stephan shares what his go-to questions would be if he was a Shark on Shark Tank.
[16:05] As a mature business owner, Stephan looks at things differently now. However, when you have nothing to lose, that’s the perfect time to start a business.
[18:00] Stephan talks about his journey into writing The Five Hour Workday.
[20:25] The key difference between Stephan’s book and Tim Ferriss’s The Four Hour Work Week was that Ferriss’s book was about individuals outsourcing their work and compressing their days. Stephan wanted to apply the same principles to an organizational framework.
[21:45] During the pandemic when Tower was about to go bankrupt, they used their ability to work faster to double their productivity. They did it for a year and were able to double their revenues.
[22:30] Stephan shares how he overcame the challenge for his organization to use The Five Hour Workday as a motivation rather than an entitlement.
[24:35] The pandemic created a constraint for all businesses and his book has found new interest because work has changed now. The pandemic allowed businesses to go into creative thinking.
[25:45] Remote work is going to work for at least 10% of the population as they are intrinsically motivated. However, the remaining 90% look for the path of least resistance. Stephan shares his prediction and why remote work could be a disaster.
[28:00] Being called The World’s Best Boss, Stephan shares his thoughts about having this title.
[31:00] Constraint is how you change the way you work from being traditional to becoming disruptive and forcing creative thinking.
[33:10] Stephan also talks about his key takeaway from Tim Ferris’s book: Management by absence.
[34:30] One of the biggest leadership lessons Stephan had was going through trial and error.
[35:50] The biggest advantage of being an entrepreneur with a small company is you get to pick the people you take on your journey and experience hardships with.
[37:05] Looking back, Stephan shares what he would do differently, historically and moving forward.
[42:00] Listener challenge: We’re in a scary time. Figure out how to get your burn rate to negative and diversify.
Quotable Quotes
-
“When you’re in college, this is the time to have a business because you have nothing to lose. You have no experience - and you have nothing to lose.”
-
“We squeezed people for time during the busy season and that’s the magic of it. You put an unrealistic constraint and that forces creative thinking.”
- “Start-ups basically disrupt the world constantly and it’s because of constraints. Constraint is the way you do it. That’s what we did with The Five Hour Workday.”
- “The world has changed and we have these very powerful companies. We are in a really scary time right now and I would say, go for cover and figure out how to get your burn rate to negative and diversify.”
Resources Mentioned
- Theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Towerelectricbikes.com
- Stephan on Linkedin
- Stephan on Twitter
- Stephan on Instagram
- Grab Stephan’s book: The Five Hour Workday: Live Differently, Unlock Productivity, and Find Happiness
- The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss
Brant Cooper is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Lean Entrepreneur,” and the CEO of Moves the Needle. With over two decades of expertise helping companies bring innovative products to market, he blends agile, design thinking, and lean methodologies to ignite entrepreneurial action. Brant’s new book, “Disruption Proof,” explores the three drivers of leadership and organizational disruption, and how leaders today can use this power to embrace uncertainty for maximum effect. Key Takeaways
[3:35] When we are successful, we want to take credit. When we fail, we retreat and examine why.
[4:10] Disruption creates the opportunity for the entrepreneurial mindset.
[6:15] Brant defines disruption.
[7:00] The pandemic was brutal for many businesses, but this is just a small learning lesson for what’s to come. We will see multiple bubbles of disruption.
[8:25] When it comes to disruption, Brant uses the acronym RAD = Resilient, Aware, Dynamic.
[11:55] When faced with uncertainty, create as many small experiments as you can to gain a better understanding and bring more unknown information into the known.
[12:55] Jim shares an example of how Rockefeller innovated in times of uncertainty and disruption.
[15:30] The biggest setbacks in business are when businesses don’t explore and illuminate assumptions.
[16:25] Brant shares his thoughts on how you can cultivate a RAD mindset throughout the entire organization.
[20:45] Managers’ new role isn’t to micromanage and be “on top” of their people, it’s to cultivate a learning environment.
[24:55] Brant breaks down how you can test out your riskiest assumption first in a safe way.
[31:00] A good team doesn’t just depend on one leader. They depend on each other and even team members might switch between being the leader themselves, based on their expertise.
[35:25] Companies are always focused on being under budget and on time, which leaves gaps in developing their talent.
[40:00] Brant shares examples of how companies of the past have empowered their people to solve tricky problems in the moment.
[43:00] Not everyone understands what it means to be “empowered.” Leaders need to set an example of what that actually looks like.
[45:55] Listener challenge: Put an expiration date on the calendar to explore uncertainties.
Quotable Quotes
-
“Failure is where the wisdom comes from, not from your successes.”
-
“I don’t think this is the last major disruption that’s going to roll across our economy.”
- “We are living in this interconnected mesh network world with the speed of information. It’s this connectedness that makes us more fragile to disruptions.”
- “Our first inclination is that everyone wants to be empowered and everyone knows how to be empowered, and it’s really not that way.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Brantcooper.com
- Movestheneedle.com
- Brant on LinkedIn
- Grab Brant’s book: Disruption Proof: Empower People. Create Value. Drive Change.
- The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business, by Clayton Christensen
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter Senge
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
As the CEO of Imagine Think, Nora Herting helps expand the definition of creativity in the business world. As the author of the best-selling book, “Draw Your Big Idea,” Nora has inspired thousands to think visually to access their own creativity. Nora breaks down the myth that drawing is only for the creatives, and showcases real examples of how leaders can add another dimension to their ideas (and execution effectiveness) through simple doodles. Listen in to unlock and inspire others in new ways beyond the written word!
Key Takeaways
[3:15] Nora shares insight about visual leadership.
[5:00] Paintings have been a form of communication for thousands of years.
[7:10] When we use our brain, we don’t just use the right brain or the left brain hemispheres while doing a task, we use the entire brain.
[9:10] If you or your team is stuck somewhere, try drawing a picture!
[9:15] Nora explains how leaders can empower their staff to embrace their artistic side more effectively.
[14:45] Jim shares an example of how powerful visuals are in a presentation to bring home the core message.
[20:10] An important skill to have is to patiently wait for people to finish and to know when they’ve finished their point.
[21:55] Nora shares the difference between having a liberal arts degree vs. an MBA.
[25:35] Instead of looking within your industry and what the competition is doing, look elsewhere. Look at politics, cultural events, or other industries not related to you for inspiration.
[28:05] Creatives and implementers tend to clash with one another, but Jim talks about the book Loonshots and how you can blend these two groups together for collaboration.
[34:10] Nora offers resources on the types of visual tools leaders and teams can use.
[35:55] Jim and Jan admit that their handwriting is horrible. It’s hard to multitask when talking and writing.
[37:00] If you have terrible handwriting, Nora offers a quick tip on how to fix this.
[39:45] Listener challenge: Ask your team to draw out the description of their role and what they do every day.
Quotable Quotes
-
“If you’re stuck on a problem, try solving that problem visually.”
-
“We are wired to think in pictures and we’ve been doing it as a species for so long.”
- “The business world has a real fascination with creativity, but it mystifies business leaders.”
- “Artists are looking outside for inspiration all the time. They’re not just looking at what people in their field are doing but they’re pulling things from all over, like science, politics, and cultural events.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Imagethink.net
- Nora on Linkedin
- Nora on Instagram
- Grab Nora’s book, Draw Your Big Idea: The Ultimate Creativity Tool for Turning Thoughts Into Action and Dreams Into Reality
- Think About 4u Conference
- Theartofvision.com
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall
- Jamboard.google.com
Peter Docker is the co-author of the book, Find Your Why, and formerly a founding Igniter at Simon Sinek Inc. He draws on his 25-year career in the Royal Air Force, and over 14 years spent partnering with businesses around the world to inspire them to lead. Peter teaches people how to navigate the challenge of leadership. His latest book, Leading from the Jumpseat, delivers the message that leadership is about lifting people up, and giving them the space they need to lead!
Key Takeaways
[2:15] Peter reveals an interesting fact about him when he was at the age of 42.
[3:35] Peter tells the story behind the Jumpseat Leader when he was still flying with the Royal Air Force.
[7:34] As a leader, handing over control is inevitable at some stage. Leading from the jumpseat is a mindset and approach which helps us to lead intentionally in that perspective.
[10:20] Peter talks about the four parts of his book through metaphors of flying: Learning To Fly, Flying, Teaching Others To Fly, and Leading From The Jumpseat.
[11:30] These stages are not meant to be a single progression. We can be at different stages in different aspects of our life.
[15:25] It takes a lot of time to teach and develop people. Peter shares more analogies on how leaders can better manage in order to delegate.
[16:25] Delegation is not abdication of responsibility. It only frees up space for leaders to focus on most things that only they have authority over.
[17:30] In the short term, the pace will be slow but in the long term, delegating will allow your team to accelerate much more quickly.
[22:20] Peter also shares his insights on how to teach followership as a leader.
[23:15] Individualism and teamwork are not mutually exclusive. Peter explains why he thinks so.
[28:40] As leaders, we can create opportunities for people to have a choice which is very important for their engagement.
[29:50] Context vs. content. Peter tells a story about a young woman named Louise who challenged herself to climb the Island Peak of Nepal to illustrate why context is vital.
[34:50] Learning and being kind to ourselves is very important in leadership. The willingness to get up every morning to do a little bit better goes a long way.
[36:45] Exploring what is really important to us releases enormous energy once we are able to connect to it. Peter tells another story with his wife being involved in an accident as an example.
[42:20] The promise we make to ourselves is actually about other people. Peter explains why it is so.
[43:26] Peter shares his experience in the Iraq war back in 2003 to give more context in regards to the promise we keep for ourselves towards others.
[45:00] Making a promise to yourself is more powerful when it is in service to others.
[47:25] Listener challenge: Learn to lead when you don’t know the answer.
Quotable Quotes
-
“We all eventually give out control. And it’s about preparing our people so they can take the lead when the time is right.”
-
“We’re right back down at the bottom again, trying to figure out how to fly. But that’s the wonderful thing about it because it gives us the opportunity to maintain our humility to continue to learn and embrace the unknown.”
- “Delegation is not abdication and also it is not an excuse for micromanagement.”
- “We want to be involved in things; it’s nice to be able to handle stuff and get stuff done. But every time we take on more things, the slower our team’s progress becomes.”
- “If we are always the guy who has the answer, we become the constriction in the pipe.”
- “As a leader, what we can do is to shift the context so that people see what they are struggling against and see it instead as an opportunity to be taken on. And that then gives them the chance to really push themselves.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Leadingfromthejumpseat.com
- Peter on Linkedin
- Peter on Twitter
- Peter on Instagram
- Grab Peter’s books, Leading From The Jumpseat: How to Create Extraordinary Opportunities by Handing Over Control and Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team
Scott Shute was the Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs at LinkedIn, and specializes in combining the practicalities of leading in the modern business world with the wisdom of ancient traditions to help individuals and companies be leaders in conscious business. He is also the author of “The Full Body Yes,” that shows how to find a meaningful life, and meaningful work. Scott brings his years of expertise in mental well-being to share how leaders can better support their staff when so many people are currently disengaged.
Key Takeaways
[3:50] Companies that have fully transferred into the information age, like LinkedIn, have no hard assets. Their only asset of value is their people.
[6:15] Jobs aren’t fun. Leaders need to think about different ways on how to design a job that’s engaging.
[6:20] Scott shares his definition of compassion and how it works in a business setting.
[7:45] If you only focus on shareholder interests, you are less profitable. However, if you focus on providing value for employees and customers, you perform better than the S&P 500.
[9:00] If you treat all of your employees the same, then guess what, they’ll look for a more engaging boss that cares.
[10:50] You often hear, “bring your whole self to work” but no one wants to hear about your messy divorce every day at work. Scott explores what this phrase really means.
[13:25] Scott realizes that most of the classes he took in university were useless for the real world.
[13:55] Our well-being used to be taboo to talk about, but now the dialogue has opened up because of what we’re going through as a collective.
[21:15] When you want truth as much as you want air to breathe, then that’s when you’ll find it.
[27:20] Scott talks about the concept of Ikigai and how it can be used as a good filter to determine whether you’re on the right path.
[32:50] Every tough situation we go through only builds self-awareness and compassion for other people.
[37:50] A good exercise is to keep asking yourself why. Why do you want what you currently want? Why, why, why? You’ll often discover that you just want to be fulfilled and achieve happiness.
[39:55] With everything happening “now” or in an instant, Scott shares how leaders can help train their team to practice delayed gratification.
[42:00] Listener challenge: Take a moment to say I love you to yourself.
Quotable Quotes
- “Fifty-six percent of Americans are currently actively looking for their next role. My belief is that that 56% will find leaders that do invest in them.”
- “To be a great leader, you have to be a student of the game. You watch great leaders and listen to podcasts, and have a growth mindset.”
- “Why are you being so upset? I realized it was because I was so invested and attached to the outcome.”
- “It starts with self-compassion. It starts with the idea that you love yourself.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Scottshute.com
- Scott on LinkedIn
- Grab Scott’s book, The Full body Yes
Dr. Bob Nelson is one of the world’s leading authority on employee recognition, motivation, and engagement. He has personally coached Marshall Goldsmith - ranked as the world’s #1 executive coach. Listen in as Bob shares how to make work fun again, and discusses how to hire better, how to make people feel valued, and how to retain workers in an increasingly competitive market.
Key Takeaways
[5:10] People do better when they’re recognized for their good work. However, managers have a horrible time giving recognition to their employees.
[7:55] You need five good praises to make up for every one negative action.
[10:10] Companies will spend millions of dollars on how to get better at recognition, but won’t ask the employee directly what makes them feel valued.
[11:00] No one feels special about going to the holiday party. That is not a good way to recognize the individual employee.
[12:30] How companies treat their employees when they’ve made a mistake is a great indication of whether they are good at recognizing the good work the employee has done or not.
[14:55] People don’t want to go back to work because they’re burnt out and the health risks far outweigh the financial reward.
[16:20] People are convinced that employees aren’t coming back to work because they’re on unemployment benefits. Actually, that isn’t true. Dr. Bob expands on this.
[18:00] Fun has to be part of the mix at work. However, a foosball table in the hall is not what Dr. Bob means by making work fun.
[19:20] The worst thing you can do is to assume you know what’s important to your employees without asking them.
[21:335] Dr. Bob worked closely with NASA recently and he shares what NASA does differently and why it’s ranked one of the best places to work within the federal government.
[28:10] Motivation is a moving target. It’s hard to measure and it’s very specific to the individual.
[33:35] Companies want people back in the office for the collaboration and culture, but as work colleagues become reunited in person once again, nothing has changed to facilitate that more effectively.
[35:05] Listener challenge: Don’t be fooled. These things sound easy, but it takes consistent and conscious effort to implement.
[36:45] Dr. Bob has a special gift for you!
Quotable Quotes
- “Recognition makes people feel special. The stuff companies are doing isn’t making people feel excited and special about what they personally did.”
- “Leaders are way too quick to blame things on money.”
- “Get out of your own way. It’s not what you think is important. It’s what your employees think is. Have that conversation.”
- “It’s getting out of your own skin to value the other person. If you do that as a leader, by serving them, they will serve you.”
- “Fun is frivolous… unless you want to attract and keep good employees.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Drbobnelson.com
- Low-Cost Ideas — Article by Dr. Bob
- Dr. Bob on LinkedIn
- Grab Dr. Bob’s book, Work Made Fun Gets Done!: Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results
- Marshall Goldsmith
- Peter Drucker
- Dan Pink
Ron Carucci has a 30-year track record of helping organizations adopt strategies that lead to accelerated growth, and designing programs to execute those strategies. He is also a two-time TED speaker and the best-selling author of eight books.
His recently released book is “To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice and Purpose,” which was selected by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of 2021's Best Books. Based on a 15 year longitudinal study of more than 3,200 leaders, Ron wanted to know what earns and keeps the trust of others, and what loses it.
Ron also talks about why more than 50% of leaders fail within their first 18 months of appointment, and shares the four differentiating capabilities that set successful leaders apart. If you are facing a challenge of spearheading a daunting transformation of any kind, this episode will resonate.
Key Takeaways
[2:10] Outside of his public bio, Ron talks about why he collects antique doorknobs.
[5:40] Ron tells the stories of the leaders we want to be like and share what it means to be honest.
[7:30] What people look for in a leader are truth, justice, and purpose.
[8:50] Ron shares results from their research on how to predict someone’s behavior or response in a certain situation: Justice and consistency.
[10:35] Not all workers are created equal. Ron shares how leaders can create a just environment.
[11:40] Treating everyone the same way will make you fair.
[14:16] Accountability systems are trust-based and dignifying to the contributor when the leader recognizes that the contribution and the contributor are fused.
[16:14] Power is oftentimes misunderstood and misused.
[18:45] A sense of agency will help us focus on the right things.
[19:35] You can only disappoint people at a rate they can absorb.
[20:40] Information is no longer a source of power because it is ubiquitous. Ron shares how the interpretation of information can be a source of power, instead.
[23:25] The job of a leader is making sure their employees don’t ask the two questions: Do I matter and do I fit in.
[26:20] Ron alo talks about the difference between core values and values that are operative and how leaders can coach their employees to be a better fit.
[29:20] Shedding our paradigms of leadership helps develop better leaders.
[32:00] Ron shares advice for leaders on how to allow their employees to be a better version of themselves.
[36:40] Giving your employees grace and the chance to learn sets them up for success.
[40:10] Ron shares his insights on transformational change from a leadership perspective in order to scale.
[42:40] As we move into 2022, Ron urges leaders to reflect on how their values can positively impact employees.
Quotable Quotes
-
“There are 7.3 billion doors in the world through which love, joy, and hope can pass in and you’re one of them.”
-
“Truth; you have to say the right thing. Justice; you have to do the right thing. And Purpose; you have to say and do the right thing for the right reason.”
-
“If you want to be a just leader, you have to actually be somebody who is an activist looking to uproot injustices and right them.”
- “Accountability is about a mutually beneficial relationship between a leader and a follower.”
- “Your weaknesses are your greatest source of credibility.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Navalent.com
- Ron on LinkedIn
- Grab Ron’s books, Rising to Power: The Journey of Exceptional Executives and To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice and Purpose
David Mead realized business school was contributing to the poor leadership styles he’s endured throughout much of his early career. After partnering with Simon Sinek and co-authoring, Find Your Why, David has presented his ideas on how to help people be inspired to go to work and feel safe while doing it, to over 150 organizations across five continents. David shares his thoughts on the great resignation, the three traits of a leader worth following, and the tools leaders need to build better company culture.
Key Takeaways
[4:40] Leadership hasn’t really changed in thousands of years.
[5:30] David defines the difference between management and leadership.
[6:55] The key is to tap into people and discover the personality quirks that they keep buried. Good leaders help people “drop their act” and be themselves.
[7:50] David explores the right balance between being transparent and open and being too casual and buddy-buddy with everyone. Ultimately, leaders have a standard to set.
[10:10] The pandemic has made a lot of people question their different personas and the roles they play at work and in life.
[13:00] David shares how the pandemic changed his motivations and also shares some of his biggest takeaways of what he learned about himself.
[16:00] Accountability really works best when there’s trust.
[18:50] David is against firing people based on their performance alone. He expands on why.
[22:45] David recently did a poll on LinkedIn asking people what their organization was doing to retain talent. Listen for what surprised him.
[27:25] David breaks down the types of tools that are available to leaders who are looking to improve company culture.
[31:00] There are three main traits in a leader that people will follow through and through, no matter what company he or she is leading at the time. They are honest, humble, and human.
[34:15] Good leaders have empathy. They can relate to someone in a way that doesn’t trigger their fight-or-flight response.
[39:05] People put up walls when they feel like their reputation, status, or their “core” selves are threatened.
[40:10] Listener challenge: We all have influence with people. Whether we want to be or not, we have the potential to be a leader.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you’re not willing to be human and you’re not willing to open yourself, you’re going to struggle.”
- “High-performers often get promoted, no matter if they have a toxic effect on the culture.”
- “We undervalue effort. If someone is giving the best they have, it might be they’re not in a role that’s best suited to them.”
- “We look at the problem we think we have and we often see the symptoms to the problem, so we throw solutions at the symptoms.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Davidjmead.com
- David on LinkedIn
- Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team, by Simon Sinek, David Mead, and Peter Docker
Marcel Daane is a renowned neuroscience and leadership researcher exploring the link between physical and mental wellness and their impact on leadership and performance capacity in individuals, teams, and organizations. Marcel talks about leadership energy, the three pillars of wisdom, and why physically fit leaders work 20% less than their non-fit counterparts.
Marcel is considered one of the world’s authorities in mind-body leadership, and the author of “Five Energies of Horrible Bosses and How Not To Become One.” He believes we need to constantly challenge the paradigm of normal management practices to keep evolving.
Key Takeaways
[2:45] Marcel grew up in a household that was in political exile because his mother was a political activist from South Africa.
[4:30] Marcel’s peers wanted bicycles for Christmas and Marcel, because of his upbringing, just wanted world peace. It was very hard to fit in.
[5:50] Marcel defines what mind/body leadership is.
[8:25] Marcel has three pillars of wisdom that he’s observed great leaders living by:
1) Knowing.
2) Feeling.
3) Sensing.
[11:00] Marcel shares the subtle difference between the feeling vs. sensing pillars.
[16:15] Physically fit leaders work 20% less than their non-fit counterparts. Marcel explains why.
[20:20] Marcel dives into the importance of keeping a high level of energy around others and the science behind the vibrations in our cells.
[22:50] Your negative leadership vibrations can actually affect your employee’s future children!
[25:40] Leaders must be aware of the type of energy they’re bringing into a room.
[29:15] We as people can lie, but the human body cannot. It is very clear how a leader is showing up in a conference room or meeting.
[32:15] You might feel like you bring positive energy into the room, but that energy could be interpreted by other people as aggressive, fearful, and more.
[35:55] Marcel shares how he discovered this field and what led him down this path of managing and maintaining positive energy.
[39:15] When you understand yourself, your energy is going in the right place.
[40:15] Listener challenge: Expand your thinking into the three pillars of wisdom. Allow yourself to feel. Don’t just live in the “knowing” headspace.
Quotable Quotes
- “The three pillars of wisdom are: knowing, feeling, and sensing. If you take leaders, great leaders intuitively apply those three things.”
- “Energy affects the people around us.”
- “Energy travels at the speed of light. We can connect energetically with each other despite being in different geographical locations.”
- “At the end of the day, we are all energy. When we connect with that energy, it becomes a much easier conversation with everybody [in the room].”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Marceldaane.com
- Headstrongperformance.net
- Marcel on LinkedIn & @MarcelDaane on Twitter
Lynn Catalano is a Speaker, Toxic Workplace Coach, and Corporate Trainer. She achieved her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, cum laude, at Boston University and continued her education at the University of Buffalo Law School. She speaks to groups of all sizes to share experiences about great leaders and toxic bosses, and she helps people rise above the chaos. Lynn also discusses her upcoming book, Wrecking Ball Relationships: How to Identify, Live With, or Leave the Narcissist in Your Life.
Key Takeaways
[2:25] It all started when Lynn’s mother died and she had to deal with a narcissistic father.
[4:45] Lynn expands on whether narcissists are born or bred, and if we have any influence on it.
[7:00] Toxic bosses and leaders are narcissists, which then manifest into a toxic workplace.
[8:30] A toxic workplace impacts the organization negatively. Lynn shares examples of these negative outcomes both from a company and employee standpoint.
[9:55] Everyone should be held accountable for their behavior but, unlike the financial aspect of a company, nobody audits the culture.
[11:45] Having self-awareness helps check the level of toxicity one can bring to any relationship. However, narcissists don’t ask themselves if they are narcissistic.
[13:15] Lynn shares her recommendation on how to help an individual gain self-awareness.
[14:40] Lynn explains what nunchi is and its importance.
[18:30] Learn how to be a nunchi master as Lynn shares four steps in achieving this and how to avoid biases in “reading the room.”
[20:30] Leading with empathy and reflective listening helps build valuable relationships and understand what people are going through.
[24:10] There are two steps in reflective listening. Lynn shares what they are.
[27:35] Reflective listening is about understanding the other person and having a meaningful engagement with them.
[28:40] Lynn talks about how employees can help change company culture. However, dealing with a toxic CEO can be very difficult.
[29:55] At the end of the day, an employee should do what is best for themselves. Time is a valuable currency, and we should be smart about how we want to spend it.
[35:10] Lynn shares best practices from organizations she has worked with before and how others can bring them into theirs to avoid a toxic work environment.
[39:20] The pandemic was a shared experience so it allows a different level of empathy.
[40:25] Listener challenge: Be more human, be patient with one another, and watch Ted Lasso.
Quotable Quotes
- “Emotional neglect plus overindulgence equals the breeding of a narcissist.”
- “We’ve modeled our democracy through checks and balances and organizations need that too. That’s why we have external auditors to audit our finances but not the culture.”
- “Nunchi is the art of understanding what people are thinking and feeling.”
- “The great Greek philosopher, Epictetus, told us that we have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
- “Invest in your employees because happy employees make happy customers.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Lynncatalano.com
- Lynn on LinkedIn & Lynn on Instagram
- Nunchi
- Ted Lasso
April Rinne is the author of Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. Listen in as April shares the eight powerful mindset shifts that enable leaders to thrive in a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty.
April Rinne is a “change navigator,” speaker, investor, and adventurer whose work and travels in more than 100 countries have given her a front-row seat to a world in flux. She is one of the 50 leading female futurists in the world, a Harvard Law School graduate, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, and a Fulbright Scholar..
Key Takeaways
The eight flux superpowers:
- Run slower
- See what's invisible
- Get lost
- Start with trust
- Know your “enough”
- Create your portfolio career
- Be all the more human (and serve other humans)
- Let go of the future.
[4:25] April shares why leaders should run slower.
[5:10] Things are rapidly changing, and yet, it is also likely to never again be this slow.
[6:10] If we’re trying to run faster all the time, your quality of life will naturally suffer.
[11:00] When we’re always after more, it will feel like we will never have enough.
[11:35] When you know you’re enough, you immediately see abundance around you.
[12:50] After working in more than 50 countries, April has seen that every culture struggles with change.
[14:00] April talks about micro-loans and how “unbankable” entrepreneurs get their funding in developing countries.
[18:40] The most important superpower to have is trust.
[24:00] The future of work and the great resignation didn’t just happen because of the pandemic.
[29:30] People want to be seen as whole humans.
[32:25] April shares the number one leadership skill leaders need to have today.
[34:55] Consumerism marketing is designed for people to never feel like they are enough.
[37:05] April talks about how leaders can develop more openness in their approach.
[40:00] April’s book has gone global and leaders are realizing that it’s not just helpful for their organization, but for their children, too.
[42:10] Listener Challenge: Use flux and its eight superpowers in a way that works best for you.
Quotable Quotes
- “The pace of change has never been as fast as it’s been today and yet, it is likely to never again be this slow.”
- “Many organizations are on a crash course if they just keep pushing talent harder and harder. You’re going to get talent to leave.”
- “If you don’t like change, you’re going to really hate extinction.”
- “We live in this culture and society in which more is almost inherently deemed better, and that’s just not the case.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Aprilrinne.com
- April on LinkedIn and @aprilrinne on Twitter
- Grab April’s book, Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change
Alan Beaulieu is one of the world’s most informed and insightful economists, with a remarkable track record of providing accurate financial forecasts. He's also an exceptionally gifted speaker and his keynotes and seminars have helped thousands of business owners and executives capitalize on emerging trends. Get ready for the future and listen in as Alan shares his insights on inflation, supply chain issues, and how to prepare for 2030.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] First guest on the show to have a Ph.D. in Leadership.
[5:05] Where the economy is headed in 2022.
[6:15] Supply chain issues.
[7:00] Being proactive is important, but you don’t want to be proactive at the wrong time. Do not overbuy because you’re worried about supply chain issues.
[10:05] When leaders say, “I think.” or “I feel,” people have the right to be skeptical. You have to prove it and you do that with data, math, and indicators.
[12:35] Reshoring trends.
[16:35] Alan’s perspective on world stability.
[19:10] Why the U.S. should solidify the supply chain. If China decides to unify completely, it could be bad for world trade.
[20:15] Low-skilled labor and immigrant workers.
[21:35] The world is desperate for labor, and it’s not all lower-end. Construction, transportation and others require real skills.
[26:20] Alan breaks down inflation.
[30:45] We will see abnormal inflation rates around the second half of this decade. The first half will still be “seemingly okay.”
[35:15] Alan shares his thoughts on how leaders can open their minds to the things they don’t know that they should know.
[38:15] Leaders who show humanity and really listen are the real change-makers.
[41:30] Alan explains the mindset shift leaders need to have if they want to create real longevity in their companies.
[43:00] Alan offers advice on how individuals can future-proof their finances.
[45:20] Listener challenge: You don’t need to guess the numbers. Knowing is power.
Quotable Quotes
-
Leaders who show humanity and really listen are the real change-makers.
-
“It’s not hard to show people, but it’s sometimes hard to lead people.”
- Current constraints are temporary and painful, but temporary. Avoid panic buying.
- Opening up the borders, and tripling the amount of legal [foreign] workers won’t solve the [labor shortage].”
- “The certainty is uncertainty.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- ITReconomics.com
- Articles by Alan: “Unmasking the Future” & “Reshoring — The Forgotten Trend”
- Alan on LinkedIn
- Grab Alan’s book, Prosperity in The Age of Decline: How to Lead Your Business and Preserve Wealth Through the Coming Business Cycles
- BCG.com — Manufacturing Costs
- Zeihan.com
Roberta Matuson has been helping organizations find, hire, grow, and keep top talent for the last 25 years. She understands the frustrations of employee turnover that many employees and leaders experience and has coached her clients to help them become a place where employees love to work. Roberta is the author of six books including her latest book, “Can We Talk? Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work.” Roberta shares the foundational principles to have tough conversations, how to be respected (vs. liked), and how to keep your power even with bad bosses.
Key Takeaways
[3:05] In leadership, it’s our behaviors that matter, not our intentions.
[4;30] Difficult conversations are hard to do because no one truly likes confrontation.
[5:35] Despite weekly standup meetings, managers still avoid the tough conversations because they don’t want to hurt the other person.
[6:35] Roberta noticed a lack in the market on how to have difficult conversations with your co-worker and your boss. This is why she decided to write a book.
[8:40] The first time a boss tried to give Roberta feedback/set expectations, instead of standing up for herself, she gave away her power. She doesn’t want to have that happen to you.
[10:40] If you are unsure why your boss is giving you this kind of negative feedback, you can ask for a pause so you can think deeper on the subject and talk about it another time or you can get curious and ask them questions.
[12:05] Roberta wrote her first book based on a bad manager she had. That boss did everything wrong in the books.
[16:10] The goal really is to be well-respected among your team and to build strong relationships with your people. So that even if you leave an organization, your people will follow.
[17:10] Roberta shares an example of what a “good relationship” looks like with a subordinate.
[18:30] Don’t wait to have tough conversations in person! You can do it over Zoom.
[23:30] Leaders who check in, like really check in, with their team end up having to “save” fewer employees from quitting. People want to feel supported.
[25:45] Roberta explains the fine art of when to stop talking.
[28:45] No one knows how to manage communication, curiosity, integrity, and honesty.
[31:45] Roberta works with her clients to change the perception that they aren’t good leaders. Prescription is everything in leadership.
[32:25] Listener challenge: Make a list of those difficult conversations that you have been avoiding.
Quotable Quotes
- “Management is nothing more than perception.”
- “Very few organizations can specify the behaviors that match what they value.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Matusonconsulting.com
- Roberta on LinkedIn & Roberta on Twitter
- Grab Roberta’s book here: Can We Talk? Seven Principles for Managing Difficult Conversations at Work
Michael J. Dowling, President and CEO of Northwell Health, is one of healthcare’s most influential voices and leads a clinical academic and research enterprise with a workforce of more than 75,000 with an annual revenue of $14 billion. Northwell has treated more than 150,000 COVID-19 patients and Michael’s leadership has been invaluable to Northwell’s consistent expansion and prominence during the pandemic. Michael details in his book, After the Roof Caved In: An Immigrant’s Journey from Ireland to America, his rags-to-riches story and on the show, he provides timeless insight and wisdom on how to cultivate loyalty within your employees, what really brings meaning and purpose into someone’s life, and much more.
Key Takeaways
[2:45] Michael is very grateful for the tough life he’s had early on. It has made him more appreciative of the good days he does have.
[6:15] There is a future tomorrow that you can help make better.
[8:15] We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses; it’s important to be honest with yourself about which is which.
[8:40] Michael shares why he wanted to write a book about his immigrant journey from Ireland to America.
[11:40] Northwell Health was selected in 2020 as one of Fortune’s top 100 best places to work in America. Michael shares his approach on how to create loyalty.
[14:40] When you are trying to solve a big problem, some of the biggest problems, the best way to start is by taking one small bite at a time.
[17:20] Not every role in an organization is glamorous. Michael shares insights on how to keep people motivated even when the job isn’t “sexy.”
[20:25] Michael hires for attitude. He is always looking for people who are curious.
[25:35] As a leader, Michael loves to paint a picture with his words. Detail the roadmap out clearly with words.
[29:10] When you left your home country all those years ago, you couldn’t go back. It was a real voyage.
[34:40] Everybody, every day, is at a crossroads of life. You must weigh the pros and the cons of choosing whether to go left or whether to go right.
[39:00] Even when things are bad around you, Michael encourages you to look at the positives. There are way more positives than there are negatives.
[46:15] Everyone is so independent that you actively have to find people that inspire you. You have to seek them out on your own. No one will come to you.
[48:25] Michael offers some final words of wisdom: Don’t be constrained by your problems, be led by your dreams. So, go ahead and dream!
Quotable Quotes
- “Everybody has a responsibility and an obligation when you’re given a period of time to live in this world, and that is to contribute positively, to make a difference, to do something good for other people.”
- “Understand that work gives meaning to life. It’s not work. It gives meaning to life and an employer has a responsibility to make sure they give an opportunity to their employees for them to excel.”
- “Don’t let today keep you down. Move forward. The future is wonderful. Your opportunities are extraordinary.”
- “After you graduate from school, your learning just begins. School doesn’t mean you’re educated.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Northwell.edu
- Michael on Wikipedia
- Grab Michael’s books here: Leading Through a Pandemic: The Inside Story of Humanity, Innovation, and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis & After the Roof Caved In: An Immigrant’s Journey from Ireland to America
Master negotiator, Kellogg professor, and accomplished CEO Victoria Medvec shares what it takes to eliminate the fear that impedes success in negotiation. From her latest book, Negotiate Without Fear: Strategies and Tools to Maximize Your Outcomes, Victoria discusses how to increase negotiating confidence and maximize negotiation success. She shares specific advice for everyone who is negotiating for themselves everyday.
Key Takeaways
[2:35] Victoria loves to negotiate. She does it whenever she can, and she loves to teach her clients how to do it, too.
[5:00] Victoria shares an example of what an “everyday” negotiation looks like.
[6:20] We can’t get what we want if we’re not comfortable asking for it. Fear can deeply hurt a negotiation.
[6:45] However, fear still affects both the amateurs and the experts. Just because they’ve been doing it longer doesn’t mean their fear has disappeared!
[7:50] If you’re worried about dropping the ball, put yourself in a “fear of loss” mindset, instead. Victoria explains what this looks like.
[9:10] Victoria shares the difference between introverted vs. extroverted negotiators.
[10:05] There are three tactics to being properly prepared in a negotiation:
- Putting the right issues on the table.
- Doing the right analysis.
- Building a plan for the discussion.
[13:50] It’s important to first identify if you have a storytelling issue or a “tradeoff” issue.
[17:35] Victoria breaks down how to quickly discover if you have a tradeoff issue.
[20:00] Victoria has also done extensive analysis on how executives can better manage up vs. sideways.
[24:40] You need to have a coalition to support you in driving new change, but you also have to remember that coalitions are often unstable.
[28:45] Your biggest source of power is your Plan B. Victoria explains what to do when both parties disagree.
[33:50] When arranging a deal, it can often feel a bit ambiguous figuring out who the real decision-maker is in a big organization. Victoria shares how you can escalate with grace.
[38:25] You pay a price for certainty. People often hate conflict so they take the “sure thing” deal before exploring the possibilities.
[41:25] Listener challenge: Identify a time where you can negotiate in your everyday life!
Quotable Quotes
- “Fear undercuts our confidence and it’s really important we are confident when we go into a negotiation.”
- “The number one reason why people leave money on the table is they drop issues too quickly.”
- “I want my clients to keep issues on the table and keep that discussion alive.”
- “You can never drive change by yourself. You have to have a coalition of support.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Medvecandassociates.com
- Victoria on LinkedIn
- Grab Victoria’s book here: Negotiate Without Fear: Strategies and Tools to Maximize Your Outcomes, by Victoria Medvec
With every interaction, businesses win or lose share. Each touchpoint – be it with customers, distributors, or even employees – presents an opportunity to either build brand loyalty or erode it. Listen in as Jon Picoult shares how to create experiences that don’t just satisfy, but impress.
Jon is the author of “From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans.” He has worked with some of the world’s foremost brands, personally advising CEOs and other members of the C-Suite. His insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, Inc., NBC News and Forbes.com.
Key Takeaways
[3:25] Jon explains the difference between customer experience and customer service. They’re not synonymous!
[7:10] Another term that gets confused with customer experience is user experience. Jon breaks down how this is different.
[8:45] With that being said, you cannot deliver excellent customer service without employees who are engaged. This means you do have to invest in your people if you want to see the overall customer experience improve.
[11:45] Jon has seen time and time again executives not valuing the importance of customer experience. He realized he needed to talk in “executive” language to really drive the point home that happy customers equal a higher valued business.
[14:05] Here is why this particular supermarket is the perfect example of what a good customer experience looks like.
[16:55] Businesses are not only in the business of shaping the customer’s experience. They are in the business of shaping the customer’s memory.
[21:15] The onboarding experience is often messy, and that’s a bad thing because that’s one of the first experiences your employees are going to see.
[27:45] It’s a job as a leader to make sure everyone in the organization understands their purpose and the reason why their jobs are critical and help the organization to run smoothly. Sitting down and just having a conversation about the importance of their impact goes a long way.
[30:25] Humans are control freaks. We want to know where we’re going at all times. Jon explains how that affects the customer when they’re trying to do business with you.
[33:15] You don’t have to change the experience, you just have to give the appearance of control for the user to feel at ease.
[37:30] There are huge turnover rates happening in the workforce right now. Leaders are scrambling, but the same techniques used to build loyalty in customers can also be used with employees!
[43:20] If you boil this process down, it’s all about making people feel good about the interaction they just had with you.
[44:05] Listener challenge: Serve with distinction. Be accountable to your staff.
Quotable Quotes
- “When you have high turnover it causes a deterioration in the customer experience.”
- “The details because the details have the opportunity to shape people’s perspectives.”
- “To give people a perception of control, you’re setting expectations for them. The minute you set expectations for them, you conform their thoughts to the experience and they know what’s coming around the corner.”
- “When people see a boss or a manager who’s fighting for them, who’s in their corner, who’s helping them develop their career, those people will walk through walls for that person.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Watermarkconsult.net
- Pre-order Jon’s book, From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans
- Jon on LinkedIn
- Jon on Twitter
- “TLP197: The Gift of Struggle” — Bobby Herrera
The Leadership Podcast co-hosts cover passive-aggressive behavior at work: Why it occurs; the toxic effect it has on people and the environment; ways to recognize it; and how to alter the conversation for a healthier culture.
Key Takeaways
[1:35] If you’ve got a question or an issue, just reach out to either Jim and Jan and they probably have a podcast episode to recommend to you!
[2:50] Overview of passive-aggressive behavior in the workplace.
[3:20] Some people read sarcastic statements as passive-aggressive statements.
[4:15] The definition of passive-aggressive behavior.
[5:35] Passive-aggressive behavior often occurs among exceptionally smart people with a low tolerance for others not living up to their standard.
[9:10] Examples of what it looks like to be passive-aggressive.
[11:10] Our brains can only handle about 150 relationships, yet we ask so much from our people when they’re in 1,000-plus corporations. It’s hard to keep up with everything.
[12:10] Leaders are not thinking intentionally about how they want people to feel after they’ve interacted with them.
[13:45] Some leaders just want to be known as “nice.” Passive-aggressive behavior doesn’t fit into that narrative.
[18:10] The drama triangle explained.
[20:05] At the end of the day, you gotta work with everybody. You don’t have to like them, but you have to work with them.
[24:50] Our brains shrink when we’re grumpy! Practice joy instead.
[25:45] How to make people feel cared for at work.
[29:45] Most people aren’t trained to deal with deep-seated issues or problems, so leaders need to step in, be attentive, and guide their people through. You do that by providing your perspective, asking open-ended questions, and practicing active listening.
[32:05] “Are you operating with a sense of grace?”
[34:05] Give your fellow human the benefit of the doubt. They’re doing the best they can. We all are.
[36:10] We used to live in a complicated world. We now live in a complex world.
[36:40] The one thing we can control is being nice to one another.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s really not safe to use sarcasm with someone you don’t know really, really well.”
- “Are these people going to be elevated and flourish under your interaction or are they going to be demoralized?”
- “You’ve gotta work with everybody. You’ve got to get along. You don’t have to like everyone, but you’ve got to work with everybody.”
- “What’s the legacy of each interaction I want to have? How do I want them to feel after I interact with them?”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Karpman Drama Triangle
In this episode, the hosts of the podcast dive into the leadership implications of upskilling and reskilling. With the certainty of uncertainty, leaders need to step back and take the time to interpret the meaningful outside, and the implications for talent acquisition and talent retention (get and keep employees). Listen in as Jim and Jan break it down.
Key Takeaways
[1:50] Today’s topic is about upskilling and reskilling leadership!
[5:20] Leaders know they have to scale, but how is the hard part..
[5:45] Jan shares how he likes to approach this big question mark on a lot of executives’ plates.
[8:10] In medical training, Jan learned to always touch the patient, even if you don’t need to. Similarly, that’s what people need in leadership right now - high touch (figuratively!).
[12:15] We’ve all been to in-person trainings where the staff is completely disengaged. The virtual setting hasn’t changed that employee disengagement. It’s a tough spot for leaders to be in.
[16:55] You can get into trouble when you’re just trying to solve the problem without a deeper look at why that problem is happening in the first place.
[19:45] Jim and Jan explore the idea of “gamification” in the workplace.
[20:10] Instead of gamifying the experience, an alternative is to get people motivated enough to learn.
[23:40] Anytime we invest in ourselves and educate ourselves, it creates options for us.
[29:25] If you want to change for the better, you have to take something off your calendar to make progress on it.
[32:35] Both Jim and Jan reflect on some of the best coaches they’ve had.
[35:45] Curious teams that are active in their development are probably hitting their numbers.
Quotable Quotes
- Learning and development is addressing the gap between current capacity/capabilities and required capacity/capabilities.
- “Oftentimes people think, ‘I gotta go to this training.’ And organizations have these lofty goals about these investments, and realize, if their people are not all in, they’re burning their investment.”
- You can get into trouble if you rush to a solution without understanding the root cause.
- I don’t care about your certification badges. What value can you provide to my organization?
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
Jason Randall is the author of Beyond The Superhero: Executive Leadership For The Rest Of Us. Jason lays the groundwork for what new leaders need to focus on in the first 90 days of their new role. He also shares how leaders, with impossible expectations, are able to meet the demands without losing their cape.
Jason was named CEO of Questco, a Houston-area HR outsourcing company known for its can-do spirit and award-winning customer service in 2018. Jason studied accounting at the University of Missouri-Columbia, became a CPA for an international firm, then left to start a small franchise business with a lifelong friend.
Key Takeaways
[3:35] The superhero myth is this idea that you have to do all and be all in your executive position.
[5:15] You need to go beyond the popular opinion of what leadership should be and dig deeper into what an effective leader actually is.
[6:15] Leaders that face imposter syndrome have to be reminded that people backed you in the first place for a reason.
[8:30] As new leaders, Jason outlines what they need to be thinking about during their first 90 days in office.
[14:15] When Jason entered into a company culture people already loved, he knew he had to establish an emotional center as the new CEO.
[16:20] Jason knew by entering into this ecosystem, there were going to be some key players that might have to be self-selected out.
[19:20] Jason shares his thoughts on how to find good advisors in the company to get the real scoop a leader needs to know about the organization.
[20:05] It’s natural for a leader to not get the truth from his or her people… at first.
[22:05] To curb disdain from your staff on particular decisions you’re making as a leader, it’s sometimes helpful to showcase your thought process in all transparency. However, it is a gift and it might not work for everyone.
[26:50] Jason is well aware that his initial plan is often wrong. That’s why he has the power of his team behind him, to help course correct.
[29:15] Leaders are essential for establishing direction and the tone, but you must be aware of your ego in this process. If you think you’ve achieved what you’ve achieved alone, then you’re missing what leadership is about.
[31:15] Jason shares a leadership lesson he’s learned over the years and how he’s navigated crises throughout his career.
[35:05] The time to plan is not when you’re in a crisis, it’s when you’re at peace (relatively).
[36:20] Listener challenge: What are some of the management challenges that you’ve overcome? Send them to Jason!
Quotable Quotes
- “That leader has achieved the notoriety, the fame, the success, and the lasting impact because of their reluctance to do it all themselves.”
- “You need to go beyond the popular opinion of what leadership should be and go deeper into what an effective leader actually is, and how they behave.”
- “Assumptions lead you astray. Early in the role, you have the benefit of being able to ask the naive question.”
- “As a new executive, you were selected for the role to make changes, to evaluate the sacred cows and determine which ones are worthy of worship, and which ones need to go along their way.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Connect with Jason: Questco.net and Jason on LinkedIn
- Jason’s latest book: Beyond The Superhero: Executive Leadership For The Rest Of Us, by Jason Randall
Luke Burgis is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. Luke shares why we want what we want, and how to free ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires. Adam Grant says that Luke makes a “startling case that many of our goals are merely reflections of what we think others want.” Jonathan Haidt says that this “book will be of particular help for anyone who leads or manages people."
Luke has founded and led multiple companies. He’s currently entrepreneur-in-residence and director of programs at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Catholic University of America, where he also teaches business and develops new education initiatives. He's also the founder and director of Fourth Wall Ventures, an incubator for people and companies that contribute to the formation of a healthy human ecology. He graduated from NYU Stern School of Business and later from a pontifical university in Rome, where he studied theology.
Key Takeaways
[2:25] Luke studied theology because he was seriously considering becoming a priest before he decided to become an entrepreneur.
[5:45] The nature of our desire is often social. Our desire is not me-centric, it’s often we-centric. Luke breaks this down.
[6:55] Real freedom is hidden in social context. What we want out of our life is shaped by those around us.
[10:55] We often do not have the language to describe why we want the things that we want.
[12:35] A leader should always be pointing to a purpose, a desire, that’s beyond themselves.
[14:50] Our world has shifted from fulfilling our survival needs (food, water, shelter) to coping with an abundance of desire.
[16:15] Understanding our desire and what we actually want for ourselves is going to be one of the most important questions for people in the next five to 10 years.
[18:10] We have more examples of what “happiness” looks like than ever before. All you have to do is look to social media for someone you can model after.
[20:45] Luke shares his thoughts on how to discover ahead of time what desires are most unfulfilling.
[26:50] Our desires are being questioned more than ever before because the pandemic made us stop and assess what’s truly important.
[32:55] Businesses are meant to help us thrive, but business has a dark side too; offering services that hurt the community and your sense of self.
[36:55] A CEO made “happiness” his mantra for his company, and it didn’t end too well.
[41:00] Luke shares his early entrepreneurial days and some of the vital lessons he learned around them.
[44:45] Listener challenge: Take some time to figure out your authentic desires and the desires of those that work for you.
Quotable Quotes
- “Desires are formed through social processes.”
- “We often do not have the language to describe why we want the things that we want. We just have a vague sense that we want something.”
- “In no other time in society, in the history of humanity, do we have the ability to focus on our wants versus our needs.”
- For the first time in human history, humans are coping with abundance.
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Connect with Luke: Lukeburgis.com and Luke on LinkedIn
- Luke’s latest books: Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life & Unrepeatable: Cultivating the Unique Calling of Every Person
- “This Is Water,” by David Foster Wallace
Jim Detert is the author of Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work - a
research-based guide for standing up and speaking out skillfully at work. Have you ever wanted to disagree with your boss? Speak up about your company's lack of diversity or unequal pay practices? Make a tough decision you knew would be unpopular?
In this episode, Jim discusses the moral imperative and research-based tactics to help you become more competently courageous at work. Doing for courage what Angela Duckworth has done for grit and Brene Brown for vulnerability, Jim explains that courage isn't a character trait that only a few possess; it's a virtue developed through practice.
Jim is also a professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business and the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.
Key Takeaways
[4:25] When we think of courage, we often think of our heroes; the military and firefighters; but Jim has a different definition of what courage looks like in the workplace.
[6:25] Unfortunately, work has a lot of risks and people are often afraid to speak up. You can be seen as courageous just by simply doing your job and doing what’s right.
[9:25] Jim breaks down the difference between being inspired by something vs. being inspired to do something.
[10:10] It was important to Jim to tell and highlight stories the everyday person can relate to.
[11:50] Jan explains what compassionate candor looks like.
[13:10] It’s the leader’s job to take on risks, apologize, and be there for their people. Courage comes when there is a baseline safety within an organization.
[17:45] People often view workplace courage as an act, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s actually a process. Jim explains more about how courage really works.
[21:40] By having options, by being highly sought after in their field, it’s easier for people to be courageous.
[25:05] People are fed up. Instead of trying to fix a broken organization from within, they’d rather completely opt out and resign.
[30:10] The jury is still out on how fundamental the changes are going to be that the pandemic has had on society.
[32:35] As people are leaving the workforce, we have to also look at the people who are staying in the workforce, and really evaluate if their needs are being met.
[34:45] Your inner dialogue can completely distort your entire reality and make it harder for you to work with your external dialogue.
[38:35] Leaders need to shift the frame from “you” language to “we” language. Aim to create win-win scenarios and try not to alienate your people with the words you use.
[41:10] Listener challenge: Choose courage and decide today to take one step towards that.
Quotable Quotes
- “By presenting stories of every race, gender, political persuasion, and income level, I hope people let go of that myth that courage is for someone special.”
- You don’t need courage to have difficult conversations. You need to care about your people so deeply you are able to compassionately provide candid feedback.
- Work on the inner dialogue so as to not destroy the external dialogue.
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Connect with Geoff: Jimdetert.com and Jim on LinkedIn
- Jim’s latest book: Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave At Work
- Amy C. Edmondson
- James G. Clawson
In Provoke: How Leaders Shape the Future by Overcoming Fatal Human Flaws, renowned strategy consultant and best-selling author Geoff Tuff explains how people tend to act tentatively in the face of uncertainty, and shares the tools we need to do things differently.
Key Takeaways
[3:50] Geoff loves being in ironic situations and exploring the concept of true irony.
[4:50] At the core, Geoff is a behaviorist and loves to watch people and spot them in ironic situations.
[7:15] If you’re trying to be ironic, then you’re not acting within the humility that’s required in a leader.
[11:00] Geoff’s newest book, Provoke, is about empowering leaders to lead in times of uncertainty.
[11:40] Every single day, leaders manage risk by using data to make educated decisions. In times of uncertainty, there’s no metric you can use to make things certain again. Instead, you have to provoke a reaction in the market to test new waters.
[16:00] Geoff shares some of the common cognitive biases we all have.
[18:20] People aren’t evolving fast enough. We have these biases for a reason: survival. Leaders can overcome it, but they can’t do it alone.
[21:20] It’s hard for the brain to come up with, and think through, some of these complex technological thought experiments because we’ve never really had to live in that environment before. This is why you need cognitive diversity.
[21:45] By having a diverse set of opinions, you’re able to see a wide range of different paths in front of you.
[23:30] AI can only get us so far. We still need human imagination to curate the AI experience.
[26:15] There are five behaviors that make you a provoker, but you use each one differently based on context.
[29:00] Geoff explains why the act of sailing and sailors tend to have a natural ability to lead during times of uncertainty.
[34:30] Sports are zero-sum games. You either win or you lose. In business, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can call your own shots.
[37:45] The most complicated action to take is “activation” to rally those around you for maximum collaboration potential. The ability for any individual organization to own a space or to do it alone is declining. You have to be a partner in the ecosystem if you want to succeed.
[39:50] If your people are scared about the unknown, the key to breaking out of this is by taking small steps.
[41:45] Geoff shares a client success story and how they used Provoke principles to break out of uncertainty.
[46:20] Listener challenge: What made you successful so far is not going to continue to make you successful.
Quotable Quotes
- “Sarcasm is not a way to win friends and influence people.”
- “Ask a question to provoke a thought process in a way that elicits a response about the unknown.”
- We need a much wider field of vision to reduce cognitive biases.
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Connect with Geoff: Deloitte.com and Geoff on LinkedIn
- Geoff books: Detonate: Why — And How — Corporations Must Blow Up Best Practices (and bring a beginner's mind) To Survive & Provoke: How Leaders Shape the Future by Overcoming Fatal Human Flaws
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall & Safi on The Leadership Podcast
- Harrisiii.com & Harris III on The Leadership Podcast
- Pacesetting with Yvonne Scott on The Leadership Podcast
Sandra Sucher is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and an internationally recognized researcher on the subject of trust. Sandra shares her research findings about trust, and why leaders are often working against their natural instincts once they’ve been promoted. Trust is not just one thing we have to develop, it’s four things.
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Key Takeaways
[3:55] There are six different kinds of apologies that you can make.
[7:25] It’s so hard to apologize when you know your intentions were good.
[8:20] The four elements of trust are:
- Competence
- Motives
- Means
- Impact
[10:55] Jim tends to see a lot of people failing at competence when trying to build trust.
[14:55] The very behaviors that make you trustworthy can also begin to disappear when you become a leader. Sandra dives deeper into this and what research has shown.
[16:25] Just by being the leader, you can stop caring about your peers and turn inward and act selfishly. Absolute power corrupts absolutely is a true statement.
[17:35] We’re asking a lot from our leaders. We are almost asking them to act against their natural instincts.
[21:00] Sandra answers the questions on whether “selfless leaders” are truly trustworthy.
[23:35] We don’t always have to like a person in order for us to trust someone.
[25:35] If you just look at survey results in the Net Promoter Score system, you’re missing a wide variety of details and information your customers are telling you.
[26:55] With the increase in AI and the use of technology to determine if someone is trustworthy, Sandra explores whether we should rely on the data or rely on our gut instead.
[32:05] Here are three questions you should be asking your employees:
- How has your COVID-19 been?
- How have we done as a business?
- What’s one challenge that you face in this new world that we can help you with?
[35:25] We tend to focus on whether a leader is trustworthy, but there’s more of an emphasis today on whether a company can be trusted.
[40:45] Trust is a relationship that’s running in the background at all times. You will always have opportunities to earn it and to lose it.
[41:15] Listener challenge: Take a long-term perspective on building trust. It takes time, but work at it bit by bit.
Quotable Quotes
- “Trust is built from the inside out. It’s impossible to be trusted by people outside of your firm if you’re not trusted inside the firm.”
- “Leaders have to work harder to regain their empathy.”
- “You can build trust either at the brand level and the company level. Hopefully, it’s both.”
- “All companies are being evaluated on whether they’re trustworthy right now. There’s no moment that’s ‘trust free’.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com
- Connect with Sandra: hbs.edu/faculty and Sandra on LinkedIn
- Sandra’s book: The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It
-
Vincenzo (TV series)
-
The Future of Trust
res·ig·na·tion
/ˌrezəɡˈnāSH(ə)n/
noun
- an act of retiring or giving up a position.
"he announced his resignation" - the acceptance of something undesirable but inevitable.
"a shrug of resignation"
Join Jim and Jan in a unique episode as they share their latest thoughts about talent - acquisition, retention and meaning. We are seeing a huge reshuffle taking place, and Jim and Jan explore the reasons behind this seismic shift, and what it may mean for each generation of leaders. Listen in on what you can do today that will have an effect for years to come.
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Key Takeaways
[5:30] Jan shares some of the biggest problems leaders are facing today.
[6:00] Leaders are just losing people. There’s a great resignation happening.
[9:45] Leaders are currently reacting instead of taking a step back and going through the framework of motivation and what really drives people.
[10:45] Leaders often blame themselves when things go wrong. It’s a very me-centric stance. Leaders need to remember it’s a two-way street.
[11:35] Jim uses the three-legged stool analogy on how leaders can best find balance.
[16:15] Everything you want in life, you’re faced with choice points. If you want one thing, it means taking time away from another equally important area of life (like spending time with family).
[21:00] Don’t paint yourself into a corner by lack of foresight. Think strategically. Think several moves ahead. You need to play a bit of chess when it comes to your longevity.
[22:15] With that being said, you don’t want to keep too many of your options open because it makes you lose focus and stops you from making a vital decision point.
[26:55] Gallup did a great study on what makes employees engaged. Six of the strategies presented cost nothing!
[30:00] People will move from company to company just to be with you. That’s the metric of good leadership.
[32:10] Be open to bad news. If you thought you were a great boss but “the pandemic made them leave,” think again. It might have just been the excuse your employees needed to leave.
[33:05] No one wants to feel like another cog in the machine. Jan offers ways to show how to care, really care, for your people.
[35:35] Some of Jan’s best bosses could call him up today and he’d do anything for them.
[38:40] Now is a perfect time for leaders to assess how they did during the crisis and how they’re doing now.
[38:50] Make sure that 40% of your workers are not looking for better opportunities.
[41:05] Listener challenge: Keep trying to keep things in balance and find those subtle cracks. Also, get better at building your self-awareness.
Quotable Quotes
- “What’s interesting about the great resignation is it’s an edge-case scenario. An edge-case scenario exposes cracks and flaws. We’re pressure-testing the system.”
- “The pandemic raised the level of anxiety and stress for a lot of people. Sometimes it’s not what you did as a leader, it’s the problems people are having in their life.”
- ‘Am I easy to follow?’
- People want to feel like they are cared for as humans first - workers second.
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Gallup's Q12 Employee Engagement Survey
- Robert Cialdini
- Dale Carnegie
As leaders focus on short-term results, tactical issues, quarterly numbers, and the crisis of the day, Kim Cameron shares an untapped and hidden resource that provides four-times better results. This is Kim Cameron’s second appearance on The Leadership Podcast, and he shares how leaders can be effective energizers for short-term yield, and long-term gain. Kim is a Professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Listen in as one of the most influential minds discusses the science of positivity.
Sponsored by...
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Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
Key Takeaways
[3:50] Kim shares what the heliotropic effect is and how humans prosper around light and positive energy.
[7:45] Good leaders help other people flourish. Energy plays an important role in the workforce because it means the right people can brighten the entire office, and the wrong people can suck the good energy dry.
[8:40] Empirical evidence says that positive leaders produce excellent bottom-line results.
[10:00] Positive energy and lighting up a room with your presence should not be confused with extroverted or introverted people. These are two separate things.
[11:15] A study showed that people who made positive phone calls to those they loved were eight times healthier than those who received a positive phone call.
[13:35] Kim shares an example of how Delta Airlines rewards its customers.
[17:00] Children as young as three months old can actively recognize good and virtuous acts.
[21:20] People are willing to give up salary, vacation days, and more so that they can work in a place that has meaning.
[23:45] You don’t need to wait for management to develop a meaningful job purpose for you. You can create your own job’s purpose. Kim shares an example of what this looks like.
[26:55] If you’d like to create and measure a baseline of positive energy in your organization, start by creating an energy network map.
[29:15] So many leaders do not realize the power of having a positive energizer on their team. It is an untapped resource that creates a 4X better impact.
[35:00] Positive impact doesn’t just apply to workplace situations. It can be applied as a parent, too.
[39:25] Listener challenge: What’s the best thing you did for somebody today?
Quotable Quotes
- “Leaders who help other people flourish … tend to be generous.”
- “Positive energizing leaders are those who help other people flourish.”
- “On an individual level, people can, and should, craft their own jobs.”
- “Does anybody get rewarded or recognized, or hired, for being a positive energizer? It is 4X more important in predicting performance than what we normally measure!”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Kim: Michiganross.umich.edu
- Kim’s latest book: Positively Energizing Leadership: Virtuous Actions and Relationships That Create High Performance
- Kim’s prior guest appearance on The Leadership Podcast.
Stephen Drum is a retired combat-tested Navy SEAL Master Chief who has 27 years of experience leading and developing high-performance teams. As a speaker and consultant, he helps individuals and organizations develop leadership and performance strategies. Stephen shares his thoughts on giving effective feedback, the importance of professional development, and decision-making pitfalls.
Sponsored by...
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Key Takeaways
[4:25] If there is a secret to enhancing your performance, it comes down to intentionality and consistency.
[5:25] All the stressors that you feel in business… are similar to what you feel on the battlefield.
[9:20] A good leader is decisive and takes ownership. You have to be bold when you need to be bold, and patient when you need to be patient. Most importantly, you need to understand the root reason behind your decision-making skills.
[13:45] Failure is a requirement for success.
[16:35] You can create “self-contained” failure bubbles to help people prosper and grow.
[20:35] Business leaders are falling short when they’re not carving out time for training and development.
[25:45] When there’s an environment of fear, we react instead of respond.
[29:40] Thoughts on how to provide good feedback without being hurtful.
[34:40] The true leader becomes revealed when things go sideways.
[37:55] You might not always like your boss, but at the end of the day, you still have to be true to who you are, you still have to be dependable.
[41:15] Good sales staff and leaders ask the right questions to tailor a solution to the individual. It goes beyond serving their own self-interest.
[42:35] Listener challenge: Identify your key triggers and stressors, and get better at managing them.
Quotable Quotes
- When there’s an environment of fear, we react instead of respond.
- The true leader becomes revealed when things go sideways.
- When providing feedback, spend as little time in the past as possible - be future-focused.
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Stephen: Stephendrum.com, and Stephen on LinkedIn
Mike Zani is the CEO of The Predictive Index, a company that allows recruiters to evaluate the cognitive abilities, personality traits, and behavioral tendencies of a potential employee to determine best fit. An avid sailor, Mike began his career in marketing and sales with Vanguard Sailboats and was a coach for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. In this week’s episode, Mike shares his thoughts on the last 18 months, and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants leadership style for constructive feedback. Listen in for Mike’s analogy regarding the front and back of a t-shirt!
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Key Takeaways
[4:25] If you want a winning team, your leadership needs to be self-aware.
[5:45] Every person wants to be managed differently. As leaders, it’s important to adapt to these different management styles.
[7:45] With such a fast-paced world, leaders need to take a step back and slow down to build a winning team.
[9:55] Mike has a background in geology and sailing, he shares what he’s learned in these two disciplines and how he leverages this to become a better leader.
[12:15] Within 20 minutes, Mike could tell when a sailing team had a good or bad culture.
[16:25] Mike shares a few of his shortcomings and how he’s had to adapt to this new normal in the last 18 months.
[17:15] Mike describes the “front of the T-shirt and back of the T-shirt” analogy.
[18:45] Under pressure, people go back to their native code.
[20:25] Burnout is real. A lot of leaders have been keeping a positive face, but it’s hard to keep up after 18 months.
[23:25] Leaders are the key drivers of culture, passion is one of the key pieces to driving that change.
[26:00] You can’t explain or minimalize a problem away. The best way to tackle it is head-on.
[28:45] Don’t wait around for the perfect strategy.
[30:00] Mike offers advice on how best to give constructive feedback.
[33:45] Mike shares a lesson he’s learned that’s made him a better leader.
[34:55] Let go of your fear of failure and narrow your focus on what you can control.
[36:35] Leadership is a lonely place, but it doesn’t have to be. You need to reach out to a peer group to source different perspectives.
[38:40] Listener challenge: Work on the front of your T-shirt and the back of your T-shirt.
Quotable Quotes
-
“The culture and the mission need to be relevant to the type of people that you’re trying to recruit. If you want to attract world-class people, you have to relate to a culture and a mission that’s meaningful and real.”
-
“The onus is on a great leader to modify themselves.”
- “Do you want to win today or do you want to win long-term?”
- “Under stress, a lot of your ‘back of the T-shirt’ stuff rears its ugly head.”
- “The lack of passion leads to tragic disengagement.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Mike: Predictiveindex.com, and Mike on LinkedIn
- Buy Mike’s book: The Science of Dream Teams: How Talent Optimization Can Drive Engagement, Productivity, and Happiness
- “21 Most Compelling Qualities of a Great Leader”
- “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became the CEO of The Predictive Index”
Lida Citroen works with international leaders on dynamic personal branding and reputation management strategies to make them more intentional, focused and relevant. Her latest book is Control the Narrative - Building, Pivoting and Repairing Your Reputation. Listen in as Lida talks about how to recover from a public reputation blunder, how to remain authentic while curating a specific message, and the power of personal brand.
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Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
Key Takeaways
[3:55] Everyone has a brand or a reputation; whether it’s intentional or not, that’s another story. Everyone needs to be thinking about this, no matter where they are in their career.
[5:45] A good measurement for reputation and brand success is knowing you’re consistently attracting the right kind of opportunities.
[12:40] It’s important to discard what’s no longer serving you as you adapt to a new culture.
[13:15] Personal branding is all about you and it’s centered around you, but context and the situation matters. You can have a refined message and still be authentic to you.
[16:55] Where people fall short in their personal brand is that they’re trying to appeal to everybody. This is the wrong message you’re putting out.
[18:25] Lida shares a story where a client of hers needed a reputation repair when they hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Sometimes you can have your reputation tarnished just by who you are associated with.
[21:50] What might be an innocent share of a meme can turn into a big explosion on social media. There are a lot of little landmines you have to navigate through today.
[23:10] It’s natural to disable all social media when the world is attacking you, but that means only the negative narrative is getting spread around.
[27:30] Unfortunately, so many people just react to social media instead of creating meaningful intention around it.
[28:50] The biggest contributor to a tarnished reputation is that people have forgotten about the importance of boundaries and privacy. You can be authentic without having it all “hang out.” Sometimes, it’s best not to share that political/religious/etc. message publicly, especially if it’s not in line with your brand and the work that you do.
[34:10] Listener challenge: Start paying attention to other people’s perceptions about you.
Quotable Quotes
-
“If we’re strategic and intentional about the way we want people to experience us, then we tend to attract the opportunities in people that are most meaningful. If we leave it to chance, we’re giving up all that power.”
-
“If you interact with people, you need to be thinking about reputation and branding. It’s simply where all the power in our career lies.”
- “If you’re a leader, it’s not about you.”
- “Being authentic doesn’t mean you know everything about me. It just means what I do share is real. I am allowed to keep things private.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Lida: Lida360.com, and @Lida360 on Twitter
- Buy Lida’s books: Lida360.com/store
Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM, FIRE, A DEATH IN BELMONT, WAR, and TRIBE. Sebastian joins the show for the second time to talk about his latest book, FREEDOM. Sebastian discusses our common quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. We value individuality and self-reliance, yet we are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. Listen in as Sebastian shares what lies at the heart of what it means to be human.
As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world and received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film Restrepo, a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
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Key Takeaways
[4:35] Despite writing multiple books, Sebastian’s book, Freedom, has been on his mind since the very beginning of his writing career.
[7:30] Sebastian first had to define freedom.
[9:15] Humans do not survive alone in nature. We get our safety from others, and without safety, we have no freedom.
[11:50] Freedom is not a solitary thing that only one person can obtain. Part of freedom means that if you need help, you have people to help you. This gift goes both ways.
[14:40] What makes an autonomous underdog group successful is when leaders are eager to embrace the same risks and hardships as their people.
[17:20] Freedom can be hard for people to understand, especially if they’ve never lived with serious threats.
[20:15] In a safe society, it’s good to put yourself in situations you’re not in control to build an appreciation for your freedom.
[25:15] To maintain your freedom, you must successfully fight an enemy that’s larger than you and more powerful than you.
[29:35] The people who run this country — politicians, government, police, etc. — all the laws we have today equally apply to them as well. This was not true in past societies. If you were a nobleman, you were often above the law.
[35:30] When under massive amounts of stress, the body holds up fairly well, it’s your mind that you have to tackle and control. This is why pacing, especially in grueling situations, is critical to success.
[39:50] Sebastian would like to see or at least feel like his leaders would die for him. He wants his leader to have, and stand for, core principles.
[43:00] Think carefully about what freedom means to you, and the trade-offs you’re willing to sacrifice to obtain that freedom.
[43:15] Listener challenge: To be free of oppression does not mean to be free of obligation. You must give back.
Quotable Quotes
-
“One’s community, one’s children, are things that people will die for without hesitation, and the other thing is freedom.”
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“I thought, ‘What’s the freest you’ve ever been?’ It depends on how you define it.”
- “We were able to make our own decisions every day on what we were going to do, how we were going to do it, and where we were going to do it. That kind of autonomy is really only experienced by nomadic people.”
- “Freedom can be hard for people who have never been under serious threat to understand.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Sebastian: Sebastianjunger.com, and @sebastianjunger on Twitter
- Sebastian’s latest book: Freedom
Ram Charan is a world-renowned business consultant, author and speaker who has spent the past 40 years working with many top companies, CEOs, and boards of our time. In his work with companies including Toyota, Bank of America, Novartis, Humana, etc., Ram is known for cutting through the complexity of running a business in today’s fast changing environment to uncover the core business problem. Ram’s real-world solutions, shared with millions through his books and articles in top business publications, have been praised for being practical, relevant and highly actionable — the kind of advice you can use Monday morning–in areas such as growth, talent development, corporate governance, and money-making models for the digital age.
Ram is out with a new book, Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age. On The Leadership Podcast, Ram shares how the end-to-end individual consumer experience will separate winners from losers in our new digital age, and six new critical rules for leaders.
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Key Takeaways
[2:25] Ram makes an active effort to learn something new every day.
[3:35] Ram credits a lot of his luck and success with having a mentor early in his career.
[4:15] This morning Ram learned something new about batteries!
[6:45] All the major tech giants today didn’t exist in the ’80s. In less than 20 years, they’ve amassed a big fortune and following. The key has been through personalization.
[12:25] There are six rules to achieving a competitive advantage in the digital age:
Rule 1: Must connect digitally to customers.
Rule 2: Data is essential.
Rule 3: Build an ecosystem.
Rule 4: Measure the cash.
Rule 5: Innovation is driven by the people and culture.
Rule 6: Every good leader continuously learns.
[18:10] Remember, the person is the product. You have to work with your customer on their pain points and find a solution to their problem. The way most companies do this is backward.
[22:35] Ram talks about how tech companies and old school companies use scale to their advantage.
[26:25] Despite how big some of these tech companies get, the consumers are still in charge.
[29:45] Without enough data, you cannot make empowered decisions. Also, most companies have 12 layers to work through and this blocks leadership empowerment.
[31:50] The problem is often not the people wanting responsibility. It’s often the bosses. They have a hard time giving up control.
[36:10] Ram shares an example of how great leaders and companies show up. It all comes down to the “best fit.”
[40:15] You know if you have a best fit when you experience a “bend in the road.” Ram dives into what this looks like, but it often comes in a form of new and uncomfortable innovation.
[44:10] Listener challenge: Invest your time in external change. Find it and explore it. Don’t shun it.
Quotable Quotes
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“Good leaders listen and build other people’s ideas.”
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“You need to explore with your customer what the pain point is, and that person may have a distorted view of the pain point.”
- “When you have 10 layers, [leadership] empowerment doesn’t apply. And very large companies have 12 layers. We need to bring them down to 2‒4 layers.”
- Real empowerment comes from secure bosses.
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Ram: Ram-charan.com, and Ram on LinkedIn
- Ram’s books: Ram-charan.com/books & Latest book: Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan
Peter Economy is a Wall Street Journal best-selling business author, ghostwriter, developmental editor, and publishing consultant with more than 100 books to his credit (and more than three million copies sold). Peter’s latest book, Wait, I’m Working With Who?!?, dives into how to work with anyone in your office and manage both the difficult and toxic relationships that are within that environment. In this week’s episode, Peter shares what he’s learned over the years, how the leadership tides are changing for the better, and the best ways to navigate a toxic work environment.
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Key Takeaways
[3:15] Over the years, Peter has seen a shift to a much more empowered workforce.
[5:35] Peter has also seen a shift in his Inc. readers. More people want to become leaders.
[6:40] Peter has learned over time that anybody can be a leader and that there are a variety of leadership styles out there that are effective. There isn’t a “one size” style to leadership.
[8:25] Two-thirds of American employees have worked in at least one toxic environment.
[9:00] If there’s a toxic person in the workplace, they’re poisoning the well.
[12:00] There are three things to do if you’re in a toxic environment: Suck it up, change it, or leave.
[15:30] Peter’s management style is always looking for the good in people and assuming good intent.
[17:50] If people feel like they can take a risk, they will. If they’re punished for it, then the whole culture changes.
[19:50] Corporations are taking a stance on social and political issues. Peter shares his thoughts on this changing landscape.
[23:10] The bigger the organization, the harder it is for them to remain neutral on certain topics.
[28:30] Feedback is important, but how it’s delivered can really break empathy and make it difficult for the person receiving the feedback to see the bigger picture.
[30:25] Peter shares a leadership challenge he experienced in his career when he went from leading 10 people to 400 people.
[34:30] Peter shares his predictions on what will happen to the workplace when COVID-19 is gone. He doesn’t believe we’ll be going back to “normal.”
[38:30] Peter lists some of the warning signs that you have a toxic person in your organization.
Quotable Quotes
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“I don’t think there’s a recipe for being a great leader. I think great leaders can be all kinds of people.”
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“A toxic workplace, you just can’t ignore it. My advice is to always deal with it. Take it on.”
- “It’s hard and it’s difficult, but we should always assume the best in our people until proven otherwise.”
- “A lot of people are afraid to give feedback, especially to their boss. Gallup has found the number one reason people quit their jobs is because of their boss.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Peter: Petereconomy.com, Inc.com/author/peter-economy, and Peter on LinkedIn
- Peter’s newest book: Wait, I'm Working With Who?!?: The Essential Guide to Dealing with Difficult Coworkers, Annoying Managers, and Other Toxic Personalities
Cristina Killingsworth was the Senior Advisor to the CEO at Millennium Challenge Corporate, advising on strategies to deliver smarter foreign assistance. She was also the Director of Strategic Planning & Director for African Affairs for the White House National Security Council Staff during the Obama Administration. Today, Cristina is the Vice President of WestExec Advisors.
Cristina Killingsworth most recently served as Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, advising on strategies to deliver smarter foreign assistance. Prior, Cristina was Director for Strategic Planning at the White House National Security Council where she developed a policy process to optimize resource allocation across the national security budget. She then served as Director for African Affairs at the NSC and managed President Obama’s historic trip to Kenya and Ethiopia.
Previously, she was in the International Affairs Division of the White House Office of Management and Budget where she ensured the President’s policy priorities were appropriately resourced in areas related to trade, global health, the war in Afghanistan, and global poverty reduction.
On The Leadership Podcast, Cristina discusses the complex challenges Africa is facing today, her political experiences regarding high-level decision-making.
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Key Takeaways
[3:50] Cristina shares some of the complex challenges she faced as the Senior Advisor to the CEO at the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
[9:15] The name of the game is to get buy-in from different stakeholder groups to advance the company’s main mission.
[9:30] In order to succeed in doing this, you have to give people the opportunity to feel heard.
[12:55] Unfortunately, the scandal is more interesting than the success story.
[14:10] Cristina notes the tough, but similar, challenges both Africa and the Western world are facing today.
[19:40] Cristina doesn’t believe the U.S. can come into a different culture and “make it better.” However, there are always opportunities to kickstart an economy in the right direction.
[20:25] When the Chinese came in to “help,” the locals knew that it was because they really just wanted something.
[24:05] Cristina was faced with uncertain times when she was at MCC. She didn’t know if the organization would continue to be funded. As a leader, she had to remain calm and collected.
[27:50] Cristina shares what’s next for her in her career. She’s not done with public service just yet!
[31:30] Ageism is very real in the corporate world and very few organizations have been able to adjust against this bias.
[31:50] WestExec hosts a mentorship program to help diversify the national security field and it’s been rewarding to see that new learnings are going in both directions and it does not just benefit the mentees.
[33:35] Cristina shares an impactful leadership story she witnessed in the Obama administration.
[35:15] Leadership is a constant deliberate decision that you have to make.
[36:50] As people, we all have shortcomings, but a good leader knows how important it is to trust yourself and to trust your team.
[39:25] Listener challenge: Trust yourself.
Quotable Quotes
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“If you give the people an opportunity to be heard, and importantly, listen to what it is that they have to say, you have a lot better chance of driving progress.”
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“It’s really, really hard. A lot of the issues Africa is facing are institutional. Maybe an outside entity can change a sector or incentivize reforms in one place, but it’s very difficult to do that across an entire government or economy.”
- “It’s systems thinking. You can’t fix something over here and not think about the side effects.”
- “Obama was not afraid to pull punches no matter who it was he was talking to, but also wasn’t afraid to listen no matter who it was he was talking to, and he surrounded himself with a team of rivals.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Cristina: Westexec.com and Cristina on LinkedIn
- Earhustlesq.com
- Mcc.gov
Hubert Joly is the former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy. He has been recognized as one of the one hundred “Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review, one of the top thirty CEOs in the world by Barron’s, and one of the top ten CEOs in the United States in Glassdoor’s annual Employees’ Choice Awards. Hubert discusses his latest book, The Heart of Business, which dives into breaking old leadership paradigms, leading with purpose and humanity, and how we can use this to reinvent capitalism so that it contributes to a more sustainable future.
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Key Takeaways
[3:40] The model of the leader is a superhero, who seems to know it all. However, no one wants to follow these guys anymore.
[5:20] The most important decision we make in business is who we put in power.
[7:00] Before you begin to lead others, you first need to define your purpose and what you’re hoping to achieve.
[8:15] If a leader doesn’t know, then it’s okay to admit that. That’s how you begin to connect with your team.
[9:10] In times of crisis, leaders can still show authenticity and regulate their emotions. Hubert shares an example of a crisis he faced at Best Buy.
[12:50] Reflecting back, Hubert can identify some key mistakes he has made throughout his career. One of these being with hyper-growth.
[14:35] When it came to reopening certain stores during COVID-19, Best Buy’s current CEO, Corie Barry, decided to create a list of principles.
[15:10] These principles allowed for critical teams to be empowered and to take action without waiting for permission.
[17:25] In Hubert’s latest book, the heart of the business needs to be more than a revenue machine, it needs to pursue a noble purpose.
[20:00] Leaders are very focused on being in the weeds of the business when they actually need to focus on the center of the business: the people.
[21:35] Best Buy was able to align its people on a noble purpose. Hubert shares a story of how he was able to connect selling electronics to a bigger mission.
[25:35] Don’t just use your brain. Use your heart, your soul, and your guts.
[28:45] Hubert was trained to create a plan, define the KPIs, measure it, and then put incentives in place. Guess what, people don’t like that too much! People do not like being told what to do.
[35:10] A lesson Hubert has learned in life is: A decision gets made by the decision-makers. You have to focus on what you can control. The good news is, there’s a lot you can control!
[38:50] Good leadership journey starts with reflection and the type of legacy we want to leave behind.
[41:55] When it comes to bringing more women to the table, if a leader says she’s not ready for the next big leap, we need to help change that outcome and bring more support to her.
[43:45] In Hubert’s book he has a call to action: It’s our job to create a better future. We each have a part to play.
Quotable Quotes
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“Our role is to create an environment in which others can be successful.”
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“The first principle is we are going to care about the safety of our employees and customers.”
- “Instead of talking about the what, we talked about the why.”
- “We are a company that focuses on enriching lives through technology by addressing key human needs.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty
- Connect with Michael: Hubertjoly.org and Hubert on LinkedIn
- Hubert’s book: The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism
- Aligned: Connecting Your True Self with the Leader You’re Meant to Be, by Hortense le Gentil
Michael Heller is one of the world’s leading authorities on ownership. He is the Lawrence A. Wien Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law School where he has served as the Vice Dean for Intellectual Life. Michael’s latest book, Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives, shows how people navigate, dispute, and resolve ownership issues. Listen in as Michael discusses airplane seating, custody of children, and the astounding South Dakota laws.
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Key Takeaways
[4:40] Michael dives right in and shares a common story about ownership a lot can relate to: when someone pushes their seat back on an airplane.
[5:30] “I had it first.” There are six story arcs we tell ourselves when it comes to ownership.
[7:10] As it relates to the airplane example and as people get more territorial about their space, there’s actually more conflict happening than there was 20 years ago on airplanes.
[8:10] If you want to resolve interpersonal conflict with your seatmate, buy him or her a snack.
[9:50] Michael discusses the difference between need vs. ownership.
[11:20] As kids, we know right away what possession means.
[12:55] Online retailers understand human psychology. They understand we have a deep desire for physical possessions.
[15:00] The United States actually has two legal systems. One for the people and one for the ultra-rich.
[16:20] South Dakota has been a tax haven for the ultra, ultra-rich.
[20:55] As a professor, Michael really wants to teach his students what it means to be a grownup.
[22:50] Any decision you make reveals your deepest values.
[29:15] Children’s lives have been torn apart by badly crafted or non-existent estate plans. Parents can ease this burden by being specific.
[30:45] The news thinks that we’re going to have an end to ownership, especially when it comes to cars, houses, and other possessions. Michael disagrees.
[37:00] Business leaders tend to overestimate the importance of law, especially intellectual property law.
[42:10] Michael shares how ownership might differ in different countries.
[44:35] Listener challenge: Take time to understand the six simple stories of ownership.
Quotable Quotes
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“The feeling of community is very effective at resolving interpersonal conflict.”
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“The law is overrated.”
- “South Dakota was creating the conditions for an aristocracy of inherited wealth.”
- “The bottom line: Possession + time, more or less, = ownership. Is that right? Is it just? In many cases, the answer is no.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty
- Connect with Michael: Law.columbia.edu and Michael on LinkedIn
- Michael’s book: Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives
- Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World, by Peter Zeihan
Ed Schein and Peter Schein, father and son duo, are well-known in the organizational development space and co-founders of the Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute. They’ve written several books together, including two in the Humble Leadership series. In this discussion, Ed and Peter share their thoughts on what leaders need to prepare for in order to build a more resilient culture, future, and organization. The truth is, your organization is always vulnerable, but you can build a more resilient culture.
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Key Takeaways
[5:40] The “I alone” leadership model is obsolete.
[8:15] When there’s market disruption, the “I alone” static leadership will fail you.
[8:55] Organizations today need to look more like a human organism and not like a well-oiled machine.
[13:00] Leadership has become a moving target. Leaders used to be well-defined in projects. Now, as you bring in different departments to collaborate, it’s not as clear.
[14:15] Back in the day, Jim had different work, family, and life personas. Now, people realize that you can’t truly be “one persona.”
[17:50] When discovering what exactly you have to do as a leader in an organization, it almost always means you have to talk to your direct reports, gather information, and act accordingly.
[22:50] You can’t redesign culture. You need to use your culture to aid a new change, but it does not work the other way around.
[24:50] In a young company, leadership creates culture. In an old company, culture creates leadership.
[25:45] Culture is a pattern of shared assumptions. You have culture from the type of history you’ve built.
[30:55] When it comes to culture, you have to break it down to see where the disconnects are.
[33:45] Ed expands on his statement that questions are a gentle art of asking, instead of telling.
[38:15] Peter shares how you can create a humble inquiry within your team.
[41:15] The truth is, your organization is always vulnerable. However, you can embrace this and turn it into a power.
[45:30] Peter shares an example of what humble inquiry looks like.
[47:45] The leader of the future needs to have a much broader perspective of cultures and the world.
Quotable Quotes
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“I suddenly could look at culture and leadership from an inner generational point of view, which was all new to me.”
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“The heroic leader model, the ‘I alone’ model, might have worked when scaling industrial corporations and the product was simpler.”
- “You can design within the boundaries of your culture or you can destroy the whole organization and start anew, but you can’t redesign culture.”
- “What’s really going on with the people I work with? Context over content.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty
- Connect with Ed and Peter: Scheinocli.org, Ed on LinkedIn & Peter on LinkedIn
- Ed’s books: Humble Leadership, Organizational Culture and Leadership, and Humble Inquiry
Susan McPherson is a serial connector, seasoned communicator and the author of The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships.
Networking is often considered a necessary evil for all working professionals. Even with social media platforms at our disposal, these connections often feel transactional, agenda-driven, and dehumanizing, leaving all of us feeling burnt out and stressed out. Susan shows how we can connect on a human level and build authentic relationships beyond securing a new job or a new investor for your next big idea. To build real and meaningful networking contacts, we need to go back to basics, remembering that technology is just a tool. We need to tap into our humanity and learn to be more intentional and authentic.
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Key Takeaways
[4:45] Susan had good parental role models who were deeply connected to their communities.
[7:50] Susan shares why some people might have a bit of hesitation when it comes to reaching out to other people.
[11:50] There’s such a lost art to being a better listener. People are notoriously horrible listeners.
[13:20] As all of us know deep down, the amount of likes and followers is not an indicator of how connected you are to others.
[17:10] Curiosity is a hard thing to teach. Susan shares how you can develop a deeper sense of curiosity in others.
[22:25] By having a best friend at work, engagement increases drastically. However, so many people just want to do the work and go home. This is an opportunity for leadership to shine.
[25:00] Susan has been incredibly lonely during this pandemic. She shared it with her team, and it allowed for them to share their personal struggles as well.
[26:45] Susan shares how she reached out to her community in times of isolation and offers tips on how leaders can do the same.
[28:20] When it comes to connecting, people fall apart the most in the follow-up.
[31:00] There’s nothing worse than receiving a follow-up email after you meet someone, nine months later!
[34:20] Leaders are busy! Susan offers advice on how to connect with others when you’ve got so much going on.
[38:10] Susan shares a story behind the power of connecting with others.
[42:10] Listener challenge: What’s the community you want to build around yourself?
Quotable Quotes
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People are worthy of curiosity.
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We have become dependent to the clicks and likes and the follows as a means to measure how well we were connecting with others.
- “Carve out 15 minutes a week to reach out to a few people you haven’t talked to in a year.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty
- Connect with Susan: Mcpstrategies.com & Susan on LinkedIn
- Susan’s book: The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Business Relationships
- Julian Treasure on Listening
Carole Robin is a leadership coach with over 35 years of experience. She is the Co-Founder of Leaders in Tech and taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business for 17 years. Out with a new book, Carole is the co-author of Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues, which is based on Stanford Business School’s legendary Interpersonal Dynamics (“Touchy Feely”) Course. Carole discusses how we can build deeper connections in the online world, why communication is the cornerstone for all interpersonal conflict, and how we can repair and strengthen existing relationships.
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Key Takeaways
[2:25] Carole has had six different careers over her professional life.
[7:10] There are a lot of opportunities in relationships.
[8:30] Words are powerful, but they can also lose their meeting if we don’t back them up with action.
[9:45] People can say words, and they have every intention to make them “sound good,” but you never truly know how your words have landed on someone else.
[13:40] Carole shares how communication differs when you're in a virtual setting.
[15:15] The power of starting a meeting off with, “If you really knew me…”
[17:00] Carole shares her concerns about the hybrid work model.
[19:15] A leader’s job is to ensure the best answer is found. There’s a lot of talk of trying to make the hybrid work model fair, but few have the solution. This is where a leader can thrive.
[21:35] With so much communication on Slack, people are afraid their colleagues are saying things behind their back or being left out in important meetings.
[23:25] Set the baseline in your company. When people understand what the standard looks like, there’s less fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
[25:20] So many people give feedback poorly. Here’s how you don’t fall into the same trap.
[29:00] When done right, feedback is just data!
[32:35] Children are conditioned to not express their emotions freely. Now as adults, think about the impact it has when we are trying to give them “feedback.”
[35:00] Carole shares why she co-founded her company, Leaders in Tech.
[39:15] Carole shares how involved a CEO must be if they wish to conduct change within an organization.
[41:25] Be prepared to do what you’re asking everyone else to do.
[43:20] You have to have a learner’s mindset if you want to succeed.
[44:10] Listener challenge: What worked five years ago, might not work today. Take the time to test it out again. Break it, refine it, grow from it.
[45:15] Leaders develop these preconceived notions of what they “should be” long before they’ve become leaders. Carole had it, she believed she had to leave her emotions at the parking lot.
Quotable Quotes
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“Language creates reality.”
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“It’s often a trap for a leader to think they have to come up with the answer.”
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“Feedback is a skill and most people don’t know how to do it well.”
- “We socialize the ability to express emotions out of kids.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty
- Connect with Carole: Leadersintech.org & Carole on LinkedIn
- Carole’s book: Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues
Adam Bryant is the Managing Director of Merryck & Co., a senior leadership development and executive mentoring firm. Prior to joining Merryck, Adam worked for 30 years as a journalist, including 18 years as a reporter, editor, and columnist at The New York Times. Adam cites the most common pitfall leaders face. “In terms of leader challenges, the biggest one is the gap between how clear something is in their own head versus how clear it is to everybody else.”
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Key Takeaways
[5:25] Adam shares what inspired him to write his book, The CEO Test.
[7:10] This book is not just for CEOs! This is a book for leaders.
[9:10] The simplest questions are often the hardest to answer.
[10:15] A lot of leaders think they understand strategy, but actually, we each define strategy completely differently and it’s not so clear what it really means.
[11:35] A leader’s job is often to just explain to people where they’re headed. Almost like answering questions the way little children have in the backseat of a long car ride.
[12:15] Your strategy might seem clear to you, but to your team, it’s not. It’s important to constantly check in and double-check that everyone understands where we’re headed.
[13:15] We love simple answers to complex problems, but that rarely works the way we need it to.
[15:00] New leaders are confused. They don’t know how to be.
[17:15] Leadership looks so simple on paper, but the moment you’re in the field and practicing it on real people, the results really do vary.
[19:40] Leadership has gotten harder. Adam explains why.
[24:15] Adam recommends some of the best ways leaders should be thinking about strategy.
[25:15] Here’s a quick one-page exercise you can do to really narrow your focus and get everyone centered on strategy.
[27:35] We’re losing the beauty of writing. Everything seems to be so quick and bullet-pointed.
[32:00] In Adam’s experience, a lot of leadership teams are simply too close to their business and are not able to see their own downfalls because they view themselves as the “expert.”
[35:45] Leaders really need to take some priority and time off just to think about the big picture. They need to step away from being in the business.
[38:25] Adam wonders why CEO tenures are so short.
[41:35] Leaders are often good at solving problems, but it doesn’t appear that many are rewarded for preventing problems from occurring in the first place.
[43:35] Adam talks about “the art of the good dumb question.”
[46:35] Listener challenge: Who is the best listener you know? Listening well is a lost art and a very underrated leadership skill.
Quotable Quotes
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“There are challenges that all leaders face that are similar regardless of their rank.”
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“We tend to focus on really simple questions, but what I’ve come to understand about business and leadership, the simplest questions are the hardest.”
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“In terms of the challenges people have, the biggest one for leaders is very often there is a gap between how clear something is in their own head vs. how clear it is to everybody else.”
- “Leadership is so dynamic and this is part of the trap of leadership. In these theoretical frameworks, it makes a lot of sense, but 30 seconds later you encounter human beings.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Connect with Adam & his new book, The CEO Test: Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders Adambryantbooks.com & Adam on LinkedIn
- TV show: Ted Lasso
- Dinesh Paliwal
Bo Brabo is the Founder of Hail Media Group & The Brabo Center of Excellence. He is a retired U.S. Army Chief of HR Operations and served in the White House as the Presidential Communications Officer under President Bush and President Obama. He shares his thoughts on uphill challenges for leaders, and why it’s hard to break through the next phase in one’s career.
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Key Takeaways
[4:55] A lot of HR representatives are not making it to the executive seat. Bo explains why.
[8:45] If you’re an HR representative, Bo urges you to go into organizational development. You have got to understand what makes your business hum.
[9:10] HR professionals have to take their own personal development into their own hands.
[10:00] If you can speak the CFO’s language, your relationship with the CFO would drastically change.
[13:45] Bo talks about his experience as an HR professional at the White House.
[17:15] When the President shows up to speak, he needs to be ready to go without fail. The only way you can do this in a timely manner is by empowering your people to make good decisions.
[21:35] Bo explains why people come up short when it comes to leading others.
[26:50] The best leaders have a battle rhythm to their routine. They keep doing that one thing that will make them successful, no matter how challenging or defeating the day prior was.
[29:25] Bo shares some of the common traits of a good battle rhythm.
[33:10] It’s one thing to have values in your organization. It’s another thing to really break down what those behaviors look like.
[38:15] Bo discusses the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and why it’s such a great place.
[42:10] Bo shares why building his expertise around business, and the multiple ways it works, has helped him excel as a person and a leader.
[43:00] Listener challenge: Don’t wait for someone to offer you professional development.
Quotable Quotes
-
“Yes, you are confident, great. You might have the ability to be a great leader, but you’ve got to fill in the team behind you to actually support all the things you don’t know how to do.”
-
The theme that came out of season one of our podcast was battle rhythm. Our guests had, even when they had downtimes and they weren’t getting what they wanted to achieve, what brought them out of it was a battle rhythm.”
-
“A successful battle rhythm. All the leaders had physical fitness in their life, they’re up early, they’re getting after it not just five days a week, but seven days a week. They have mentors/coaches that are helping them.”
- “Don’t wait for someone to offer you professional development or wait for your company to back you in an endeavor.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Connect with Bo: Robertbrado.com & Bo on LinkedIn
Dr. Beverly Kaye is recognized internationally as a professional dedicated to helping leaders understand the practical “how-to” principles of employee development, engagement, and retention. She is the author of five books, all of which have stood the test of time and are applicable to today’s leaders. Bev shares her insights into why love is a powerful word for a leader, but how to frame it so that it doesn’t get misconstrued as “unconditional” love.
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Key Takeaways
[3:25] Most issues leaders encounter are actually very common problems!
[4:35] Leaders have been missing the boat when it comes to human connection. We need to slow down and really get to know our staff.
[5:40] People are sick of meetings. They miss the watercooler chitchat. Well, guess what, you can do that in a virtual meeting too!
[7:15] It seems so simple to just ask how someone is doing, on an intentional and conscious level, yet we tend to make things way more complicated than it needs to be. Not everything needs to be a warm-up exercise or procedure!
[8:40] For leaders who aren’t “raised” in the human resource world, it’s a lot harder to take natural human cues and run with them and tune into them.
[9:40] Everyone these days has a personal brand, and no one was talking about this 20‒30 years ago. The self-importance of the individual has skyrocketed.
[11:00] You have to put your ego aside and say occasionally that you don’t know or even extend the question and ask your employees how’d they handle a situation.
[11:45] Dr. Bev shares her thoughts on leadership development and whether you should keep this in-house with your staff or extend these trainings to contractors or partners.
[14:10] Words like “love” and “family” used in a business setting seem to be a bit disjointed. A business is to make a profit at the end of the day, but there must be a way to incorporate a sense of community in the organization. Dr. Bev breaks down why love is important.
[18:35] Every work culture is so different. It can almost feel like a landmine to walk into a diverse organization and call the team a family.
[21:10] Perhaps family and love are too strong for your organization, but Dr. Bev offers suggestions on how these can show up in a different way.
[24:40] Content is lonely without context.
[26:20] Sometimes people cannot concentrate on what you’re trying to teach them until they get their griefs aired and out in the open. COVID-19 has hit us all hard; it’s important to use empathy and understanding to get the most out of your people. Don’t let them bottle up their emotions.
[28:15] Practice mentoring in the moment and see how it shows up for your team. Maybe you don’t need a full day of training when you can teach key concepts on the fly.
[30:40] Dr. Bev is hearing from all of her clients and colleagues right now that they’re overwhelmed. This is your opportunity to shine as a leader and help ease the burden.
[32:30] Dr. Bev shares an important values exercise to see whether the company culture fits your needs.
[33:40] You don’t figure out your values by being busy. You have to sit in silence.
[33:50] Listener challenge: Look around you; have you complimented your colleagues and/or staff recently? Take this time to practice a bit of appreciation for your people. Don’t take them for granted.
Quotable Quotes
-
“We have to get off of our pontificating about, ‘the things leaders should do’ and feed them ideas.”
-
“There’s this thing called ego that gets in the way so easily, and it gets in the way more and more as people move up that ladder.”
-
“What derails leaders? Ego is at the top of the list. Like, ‘I don’t need anybody else, I know what to do, I know who I am.’”
- “Before I close the door on an employee, I want to check out where should the love go. ‘When I hired you, it looked like a great match, what happened?’”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Connect with Dr. Bev: Bevkaye.com & Bev on LinkedIn
- Dr. Bev’s book: Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em, Sixth Edition: Getting Good People to Stay
Suzanne Nance is a world-class record holder, professional speaker, and executive coach. Having climbed to the top of the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents, and skiing the Last Degree (100 miles) to both the North and South Poles, Suzanne is the first American woman to accomplish the Explorer’s Grand Slam. Suzanne shares her unique experiences and dives into the things she’s learned about leadership when summiting some of the toughest mountains in the world.
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Key Takeaways
[3:15] Suzanne’s climbing adventure all got started when she experienced an injury. She had to focus on the small steps that she could do.
[5:25] Despite Suzanne being in these very remote mountain tops and locations, she was still parenting her children and telling them to go to the dentist!
[8:50] At one point, Suzanne thought she was going to lose her toes. Things were dire.
[11:45] When it comes to bringing out your duct tape to save toes, every leader goes through these moments where they’ve had to plan ahead in case of an emergency.
[15:05] It can be maddening trying to tackle small tasks when you’re at such a high altitude and have very little oxygen available to you. Leaders are always under pressure, but if you take a step back and just recognize your mental state, that goes a long way in making calculated, and calm, decisions.
[17:35] There are three things Suzanne likes to focus on when she’s climbing a mountain with a team.
[19:25] We all have conflict, but it’s important to remember the big picture. You need these people just as much as they need you.
[21:55] At one point, Suzanne wanted to turn back, but she didn’t because she knew that it meant that it would rob another team member of their opportunity to summit.
[23:00] The biggest adversary is often yourself. Suzanne shares how to conquer your mind.
[29:45] We are all on our own little journey to get to the top.
[32:45] Suzanne doesn’t have any regrets. She’s made mistakes, but they’ve been excellent learning opportunities.
[34:00] Listener challenge: Take your opportunity to climb your own Everest.
Quotable Quotes
-
“Something is going to happen, I am guaranteeing it. So how are you preparing?”
-
“Everyone has an impact on each other on these small teams. We all carry gear.”
-
“We all have something to offer and we all support each other, and without one of us, we could be jeopardizing the team.”
-
“We are leaders. We can reach the pinnacle of many things, and after climbing, that’s what I really took home.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
Connect with Suzanne: Leadfromthetop.com & Suzanne on LinkedIn
Stephen Bailey is the Founder and CEO of ExecOnline, a leading provider of B2B leadership development solutions through partnerships with the world’s top business schools. He brings a passion for helping leaders and their organizations solve their most pressing strategic challenges. Join us as we dive into the topics of diversity and inclusion, and cultivating talent in smarter ways.
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Key Takeaways
[4:00] Leaders need to be thinking about conscious ways to include a wide range of ethnicities in the conversation so that it’s embedded in the DNA of the organization.
[5:45] The good news is, companies are stepping up to the challenge and taking on this new level of commitment to ending systemic racism.
[8:15] Before, we were living in a world that had a limited number of seats or “opportunities,” but because the world has opened up and we are now embracing more online options, the candidate has more power to choose an option that fits them.
[11:00] Have a talent gap? The traditional approach is to invest more in talent acquisition. However, that’s not the best approach when it comes to cultivating diverse talent.
[13:35] Stephen shares the three components of development equity in an organization.
[17:05] Corporate America only has a limited amount of seats to fill. Stephen shares some of the best ways to structure incentive programs so that they are inclusive of everyone.
[21:55] We all have an unconscious bias. An exercise that leaders can do is to map your decision-making network and see what gaps and perspectives are being left out.
[25:45] Stephen defines what he means by “equality” in the context of corporate America.
[28:15] Our current way of onboarding talent is a bit backward. We should have a strong emphasis on cultivating internal talent to fill in new roles.
[32:45] Women leaders have a different set of challenges in the workforce that they have to overcome.
[35:45] Stephen shares how you can use empathy in a virtual setting to still check in with your employees’ wellbeing.
[39:45] Efficiency is the enemy when it comes to wanting to take on a more collaborative approach.
[42:10] In order for organizations to leverage their talent, you need to put the right systems in place. The current model is broken.
[44:25] Listener Challenge: Map your decision-making network and see where it leads you.
Quotable Quotes
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“How do we leverage new opportunities to create meaningful change as opposed to making a big splash and then reverting back to the status quo.”
-
“Business is changing so rapidly that the best organizations have to constantly update their standards for success.”
-
“If a female leader completes a really high-quality project in one of our programs. It is harder for her to get her manager to listen to that project than a male counterpart.”
-
“It has to be a systems-level approach. The traditional approach has been purely toward the individual. You identify your unconscious biases. You do something about them.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Connect with Stephen: Execonline.com & Stephen on LinkedIn
In an extraordinary conversation about a world that has moved from complicated to complex, Dr. Margaret Heffernan discusses her latest book - Uncharted - How to Map the Future Together.
Margaret produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years. She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard&Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the "Top 25" by Streaming Media magazine and one of the "Top 100 Media Executives" by The Hollywood Reporter.
The author of six books, Margaret’s third book, Willful Blindness : Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as "meticulously researched... engagingly written... universally relevant and hard to fault." Her TED talks have been seen by over twelve million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. Her most recent book, Uncharted: How to map the future was published in 2020.
She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organizations. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.
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Key Takeaways
[3:15] With Margaret’s diverse career, the one common theme that connects it all together is her passion for creativity.
[5:10] You can’t measure a lot of things, and in the business world, what can't be measured gets “thrown out.” However, critical skills like creativity are essential and not easily measurable.
[7:35] There’s such a pride in efficiency in business. It’s been this way since the industrial revolution.
[12:35] Margaret agrees with Jim and Jan that the leaders she’s seen are naturally curious people.
[15:10] Margaret shares some of the “soft” characteristics needed to get a team stronger and better than before.
[18:00] Successful teams need to invest a lot of time getting to know one another.
[21:20] People are more afraid of losing power/control than accountability in a team.
[22:35] The more frightened an employee is, the worse they’ll perform, and they certainly won’t be creative. Organizations are still using these outdated fear tactics.
[25:55] Margaret wished someone had told her in her younger days, “to not take it personally,” especially at the beginning of her career.
[26:55] Something might be personal, but if you respond to it like it isn’t, then you’re in a much better position.
[29:25] Reality TV really skews reality. It’s geared to show us the worst ways to team up.
[31:50] When you act like a superstar, you end up alienating everyone who could have made you a superstar.
[34:25] If you’re the person who speaks all the time in meetings. Just keep quiet during one of them and observe what happens.
[38:00] Most organizations sit inside a vast ecosystem that you do not have any influence over. That doesn’t mean you’re absolutely helpless in your career, though.
[42:10] We are currently sitting in an inequality crisis and an unemployment crisis. We have to think long-term or else we won’t survive.
[44:55] You can think about impact and likelihood, but you can’t actually put physical numbers or “data” against it because it won’t mean anything when the final result comes.
[48:35] Listener challenge: Contribute greater than you consume.
Quotable Quotes
-
“It’s like we can’t believe anything unless we’ve measured it.”
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“Many of the things we need the most are fundamentally immeasurable.”
-
“Creativity is immeasurable.”
-
“What can you tell me that I don’t know?”
- “We’re so keen to control things that we reduce them in our own heads.”
- “I think we have to recognize in a team, part of what you owe to the team is bring something that no one else in the team has. That’s how the team gets stronger.”
- “At the beginning of one’s career, and when one is young, everything is personal. When you don’t take it personally, you’re in a position to respond so much better.”
- “Hyper-competitive people generally do very poorly in life. They do poorly because they don’t make friends, they don’t have allies, and they generally don’t fit into networks.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
Website & Margaret’s recent book, Uncharted: Mheffernan.com & @M_H
Joel Goldberg has worked as part of the Royals’ broadcast team for FOX Sports Kansas City since 2008, and serves as the television play-by-play voice for the ECHL Kansas City Mavericks. Joel has spent nearly 25 years in television, developing and maintaining relationships with professional athletes, coaches, and team management. He has become a powerful public speaker and presenter, talking with groups about the networking principles he’s learned from his experiences of interviewing successful icons. With Joel’s new book, Small Ball, Big Results, he shares incredible sports history, and timeless leadership principles that every leader can benefit from.
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Key Takeaways
[2:30] Joel was a terrible athlete, but he knew how to talk.
[3:50] Despite being in sports broadcasting and covering baseball throughout his career, Joel sees himself more as a storyteller than a sports guy.
[4:35] The best baseball players are used to dealing with failure 70% of the time.
[6:15] Baseball Hall of Famer, George Brett’s favorite expression was: Try easier.
[7:55] More than any other sport, baseball roots itself in tradition.
[12:25] There is no “one thing” that defines all in leadership. It’s little things every single day.
[13:30] Joel shares his definition of what leadership looked like.
[16:25] It’s not just good enough to have good leaders. You need a purpose, you need an identity.
[19:00] You build a successful culture by passing it on from generation to generation.
[21:15] Joel shares why baseball captains are critical to a team’s success.
[27:40] Joel didn’t know what networking was in the beginning. It’s so vague and no one gets taught this key life skill.
[31:30] You don’t go out on a first date with a girl and ask her to marry her right away. Yet we do the equivalent all the time in networking.
[32:10] Joel shares why Albert Pujols was his biggest relationship failure.
[36:55] Chicago Cubs’ Joe Maddon knows a thing or two about trust. Joel shares what he learned from him.
[40:00] Small ball actions are not “check the box” kind of things. They are consistent actions over time.
[42:00] The world changes rapidly. The world moves on. We’ve got to be open-minded about the new world ahead.
[43:00] Good leaders are listening and they adapt to the times.
[45:35] Joel shares some perspectives he’s learned over the years about putting too much pressure on himself to succeed and dealing with imposter syndrome.
[53:40] You never know who is watching. Always show your best, even when you don’t feel like it.
Quotable Quotes
-
Sports is a grind every day.
-
“If you’re successful as a hitter 30% of the time, you’re considered one of the best. This means you have to have the ability to deal with failure 70% of the time.”
- “Small ball to me is the little things that add up to the big things.”
- “Leadership is measured in a lot of ways, not in the numbers.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Website & Joel’s Book: Joelgoldbergmedia.com & @GoldbergKC on Twitter
Correction The person that introduced Joel and Jim was the super awesome, always kind and generous Dan Horwich of CampIT Conferences.
Steve Smith is the CEO at Association Management Center, where he supports national healthcare association volunteers and staff leaders. He helps them leverage their natural strengths to continue the mission of the non-profit organization. Steve shares a bit of history behind the need for nonprofit medical services, and also provides insight on how healthcare has changed over the years to better support the people and their personalized needs.
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Key Takeaways
[3:20] Steve shares why he is passionate about non-profit work.
[6:40] There’s a misconception that non-profit work means no money, but it’s run like a business.
[7:40] Non-profits do run on thinner margins, which makes this space and the important work people do a lot more challenging.
[9:45] The way people want healthcare support has changed over the years. The non-profit space needs to be able to adapt quickly or else it becomes difficult to course-correct later on.
[14:35] Steve shares the best ways to work with board members and provide helpful governance training and resources.
[17:50] Steve has spent a long time in the healthcare industry and shares some interesting insights about this space.
[19:35] Seventy percent of Medicare costs are incurred during the last six to 12 months of life. Steve explains why it’s so expensive.
[25:15] Steve explains the origins of hospice care and how this is now translating into the nonprofit space.
[27:40] A new thread is emerging: The nonprofit space is an excellent way to test out the next big business idea.
[32:00] When you’re trying to make an impact within your community, you make a bigger contribution when you are a part of an organization than just an individual trying to bootstrap it. People can get burned out easily in the nonprofit space.
[34:15] In 2020, a lot of leaders, especially in healthcare, had to adapt their leadership style to better accommodate unknown challenges ahead. We’ve all grown from this, but there’s still a lot to learn.
[36:45] Steve always enjoyed being the person behind the curtain, but sometimes you need to trust your skills and make that leap of faith to push yourself and step into a leadership role.
[41:35] Nonprofit work does pay less. Steve addresses this as a man who also has a family and bills to pay.
[44:25] Listener challenge: Focus on restoration work. Take care of others, ourselves, and our communities.
Quotable Quotes
-
“Passion is really powerful. It can really drive us, but it can also blind us.”
-
“If organizations don’t evolve... they can decline very quickly.”
- “If you’re serving on a board, be open to learning; it’s a different place to be a leader.”
- “We are a death-denying culture… and we like to not plan for things that are inevitable.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Connect2amc.com & LinkedIn
James Schrager studies the use of strategy by executives and venture investors. Drawn to this research by a fascination with extreme success, and a desire to better understand how it happens. James discusses how to evaluate new ventures and growth opportunities. James doesn’t just teach the power of strategy, he also cultivates his executives to look within themselves and conduct a frequent analysis. James shares some of his insights on what expert strategists think about and how to prepare leaders for the future.
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Key Takeaways
[4:00] James shares how he’s adapting his teaching style now that he is teaching remotely.
[9:30] Experts look at the same puzzle completely differently than novices. It’s important to include all types of expertise levels in the learning process.
[10:55] James makes the connection between the importance of expertise and how this can be applied in leadership.
[16:15] Expert chess players ask important questions to make sure their core pieces are safe. A business leader needs to do the same. Instead of always playing on offense or defense, look at the bigger picture.
[19:15] When solving a puzzle for the first time, James’s students have a hard time “getting it,” but once they understand the process, they can’t believe the solution wasn’t obvious to them from the very start. Everyone has to start somewhere.
[21:10] Conducting frequent analysis on what went wrong and what went right is critical to improving and getting better than where you were before.
[22:50] It can be hard to look at your mistakes, but it can also be empowering because it means you don’t have to do it again.
[30:35] James shares ways an organization can better develop its unconsciously competent workforce.
[36:00] You get through your emotional bias by having other members of your team vet the idea or person.
[40:00] Strategists plan and live in the future. They think about the possibilities and disrupt the old way of doing things.
[44:45] We have so much data to process in today’s world; James discusses how you best sort this extra information to get to the real facts.
[47:50] Great leaders all have one thing in common: Profound curiosity.
[48:30] Listener challenge: Look at logic puzzles and use them to discover deeper questions within you.
Quotable Quotes
- “In business, we always want to think if we’re on offense or defense, and the great problem is we’re neither.”
- “There’s a secret the (chess) masters have and that secret is insight.”
- “Take a very close look at everything.”
- “Strategists live in the future.”
- “The future is a very scary place to be.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: James Schrager & Wikipedia
Donald Robertson is is a Scottish psychotherapist and author, working mainly in the areas of Stoic philosophy, clinical hypnosis, emotional resilience and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). Donald specializes in teaching evidence-based psychological skills, and is as an expert on the relationship between modern psychotherapy (CBT) and classical Greek and Roman philosophy.
He is one of the Founding Members of The Modern Stoicism, a non-profit that aims to research and publish information on the application of Stoic philosophy. He is also the author of six books, including his latest book, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. In this episode, Donald discusses Stoicism vs. stoicism, mental health, and the effect of cognitive behavior on leadership.
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Key Takeaways
[3:20] In addition to being interested in Stoicism, Donald is a huge heavy metal fan.
[4:55] Donald became interested in this field and Marcus Aurelius through his father, who was a Freemason.
[11:20] When Donald’s father passed, he really wanted to find someone he could look up to and give him guidance on life.
[13:10] Donald shares the difference between Stoicism and being stoic.
[16:00] When it comes to Stoicism and mental health, it’s quite fascinating how these ideas have become lost over time.
[17:20] We tend to believe that cognitive reason and emotion are two separate things, but actually, they’re intertwined.
[21:50] Donald breaks down practical ways you can use Stoicism in your life and how you can implement it as a leader, especially if you’re someone who might be carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.
[27:00] When people are overwhelmed by anger and anxiety, their attention tends to narrow and they engage in threat monitoring.
[33:55] Plato used his philosophy like being a soldier. It requires the same courage and the same self-discipline to execute. Life is like a battlefield and your philosophy is your weapon against it.
[36:20] If you lack self-discipline, you can be a prey to greed.
[42:35] Donald shares why he’s currently in Athens and an exciting project he’s currently working on.
[45:15] Philosophy was invented by a guitarist.
[49:10] It’s important to slow down and think. Be intentional with your actions.
Quotable Quotes
- Life is like a battlefield and your philosophy is your weapon against it.
- “Researchers are interested in lower-case stoicism because they’ve generally found it to be quite toxic, particularly over the longer term.”
- “Repressing or concealing unpleasant emotions might be useful as a short-term strategy in a high-stress situation, but longer-term it tends to backfire.”
- “Emotions, reason, and passions are intertwined.”
- “If I’m anxious, it’s typically because I believe something dangerous or threatening is about to happen and I’ll be unable to cope with it.”
- “We need strength of character if we are going to live in a cloud of wisdom.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Donaldrobertson.name & Donald on Patreon & Twitter @DonJRobertson
- Donald’s book: How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius
- Plato — Apology of Socrates
Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc. and the Author of Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts & Doubters. Her book was written to inspire people to move past their fears and defy the doubters. She has been named one of InStyle’s Badass 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs and EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Northern California. Kara is also the host of the podcast Unstoppable, where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and other disruptors across various industries. In this episode, Kara shares how to not let anyone crush your dreams!
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Key Takeaways
[9:50] Kara’s first real job was when she was 14. It was a great learning experience because she was able to learn about margins, shipping costs, and more.
[13:40] Kara has always been entrepreneurial. She would often test out services and prices to figure out what the market wanted and was willing to pay for.
[19:35] As a busy person, Kara is ruthless when it comes to her time management.
[25:40] Kara was forced with a tough decision when it came to her business: To Continue or To Quit.
[27:00] When Kara got some tough feedback about why her product wouldn’t sell, she didn’t go on the offensive, instead, she leaned in and asked questions.
[30:35] Really watch out for people who believe, “This is just the way it is.” Chances are they’re not curious. They are stuck in a cycle.
[35:20] You really aren’t alone in this journey. However, so many Millennials are feeling alone right now.
[38:15] Kara shares her definition of what success looks like.
[41:15] Kara’s dad gave her the best advice: Do not retire. Find something you’re passionate about and go do it.
[47:15] Kara shares an important moment in her life that made her learn she could trust herself and her abilities.
[49:10] When you’re alone with your thoughts, it provides a lot of clarity on what it is you truly want vs. what the people in your life want for you.
Quotable Quotes
- “Stay curious.”
- You are always a student looking for answers.
- “I have to be alone to really understand what’s next.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Karagoldin.com & Kara on LinkedIn
- Kara’s book: Undaunted
Deborah Lee James served as the 23rd Secretary of the United States Air Force with responsibility for 660,000 military and civilian personnel and a budget of $139 billion. She was the second woman to ever lead a military service in the United States. Deborah is also the author of “Aim High: Chart Your Course and Find Success.” Her impressive resume and deep expertise in strategic planning, risk management, public policy, logistics, and innovation, lead to a fascinating conversation with Jim and Jan on the topic of leading during difficult times. Can any of us survive and thrive against such a backdrop of unsettledness and anxiety? Deborah Lee James wants to help us try.
"Lead several hundred thousand people, manage a budget over $100 billion, and secure the nuclear enterprise. That's what Secretary James did as the second woman ever to run the U.S. Air Force, and this book feels like having a personal conversation with her. She takes you behind the scenes with rich case studies to share valuable leadership lessons for your career and your life." -- Adam Grant, Professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, LinkedIn Top Voices 2017, New York Times bestselling author of ORIGINALS, GIVE AND TAKE, and OPTION B
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Key Takeaways
[4:55] Debbie explains why she thinks she became the Secretary of the Air Force... by accident.
[7:55] Keep your network always active. You never know when you might need it!
[9:15] Debbie was uniquely qualified for this position because of all of her past experiences on Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the private sector.
[11:05] Debbie offers a tip on how to make your presentations engaging.
[14:35] In order to be competent and move from the junior to mid-career ranks, you need to know your competency.
[16:45] How you get leadership done is important, especially when working in a male-dominated field.
[17:35] When you want to lead and inspire a team effectively, you have got to give them the why and you have to listen to their needs.
[18:15] People hate to be micromanaged, they want to be coached.
[22:35] There was a lot happening under Debbie’s watch, she shares the strategies she used to manage it and lead everyone towards a common goal.
[30:15] Your team’s opinions are important but don’t just stop there. Dive deeper.
[31:05] Debbie would take to the most senior people in the room all the time, but she would also make a point to talk to more junior airmen.
[32:40] No matter what you’re doing, keep asking why.
[39:35] The adaptability of a high-level leader is more of a requirement than ever before. A lot changes in a three-year span.
[41:50] Debbie offers tips on how to lead in a field you might not have 100% understanding in.
[44:25] Listener challenge: Part of having a fulfilling career is to have a fulfilling home life, too.
Quotable Quotes
- “Get things done. Ultimately you’re not going to be a leader for long; your company or your organizations are going to fire you if you don’t create a body of accomplishment.”
- “To go to the next level, you’ve got to lift yourself out of the details, and now you have to lead a team and make sure you’re not doing the team’s work.”
- “What makes you successful at one level won’t necessarily take you to that next level.”
- “In order to lead and aspire a team effectively, you can’t tell people what to do. You’ve got to give them the why.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Deborahleejames.com & Deborah on LinkedIn
- Debbie’s book: Aim High
- No Time for Spectators: The Lessons that Mattered Most from West Point to the West Wing, by General Martin Dempsey
Joe Kenner is the President and CEO for Greyston Bakery. For 38 years, Greyston has opened its doors to those who face rejection elsewhere. When people say they want to work, Greyston gives them a chance through Open Hiring® — no resumes, no background checks, no interviews needed.
Understanding that a job is just the first step toward self-sufficiency, Greyston offers workforce development and community wellness services to help their neighbors pave paths to professional and personal success. By replacing scrutiny with trust, Greyston is transforming lives and communities, and breaking the cycle of poverty in the process.
On this episode, Joe shares why he moved from rales at Lehman Brothers and Pepsico to Greysto, and how that has shaped his perspective on how any organization can have a positive social impact and achieve financial goals as well.
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Key Takeaways
[4:05] In life, you don’t have bad experiences, you have learning experiences.
[6:10] Greyston Bakery is solving social problems.
[11:45] So many people end up being excluded in the job market because of past mistakes (addiction, crime, and social stigma).
[15:00] Joe explains how open their “open hiring” process really is. You put your name on a list, and when a job opens up, you get hired. No questions asked.
[21:15] Joe shares a unique perspective on retention and how many of their open hire employees stay in the job.
[22:00] You must look at the social impact, not just at retention.
[23:50] Greyston is NY’s first Benefit Corporation. That’s a lot of responsibility on Joe’s plate to make sure the company operates within that vision.
[27:15] Nearly a third of Joe’s open hires are female.
[28:40] In a lot of ways, it is not HR’s responsibility to deal with housing issues, recovery, or child support, but these are issues that are important to Greyston’s staff, and therefore it’s important to the company.
[33:00] Everyone needs personalized coaching and training, not just those who are coming from the open hiring policy. This is embedded in the culture.
[35:25] Joe really takes it hard when he has to let someone go from the open hiring program.
[38:45] Joe shares advice on how other CEOs and leaders can incorporate a social impact piece into their companies.
[40:15] There are a lot of smart people out there who are just down on their luck. They’re grateful for opportunities and are willing to work hard to show their worth.
[42:35] Listener challenge: Do something, anything, about addressing the inequities our community faces every day.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s about people coming to us looking for hope, looking for an opportunity, they’re looking for somebody that will trust them to do a good job.”
- “We want to invest in your future success and not judge you.”
- “When it comes to retention. It’s not so much whether people stay or leave, it’s what would happen if we weren’t here?”
- “We firmly believe if we can help you address your personal issues, that helps us as a business.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Greystonbakery.com, Greyston on Facebook & Joe on LinkedIn
- Additional resources: Hiring Processes & Hire Workers Deemed Unemployable
Carlos Valdes Dapena is the author of “Virtual Teams: Holding the Center When You Can’t Meet Face-to-Face, ” and "Lessons from Mars: How One Global Company Cracked the Code on High Performance Collaboration and Teamwork." Both his books are based on original research into collaboration he conducted during his 17 years as an internal consultant at Mars where he worked with teams responsible for iconic global brands like M&Ms, Snickers, Wrigley’s Gum, and Iams. In this episode, you’ll hear Carlos’ ideas on how to make the workplace more engaging, more human, and more productive..
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Key Takeaways
[2:05] In addition to being an author, Carlos also spent 15 years teaching yoga.
[6:25] Carlos was familiar with the literature on how to build better team collaboration, but nothing seemed to really be moving the needle and having an impact.
[7:15] Carlos went back to the drawing board and conducted his own research on what really makes a high-performing team click.
[9:25] What most leaders miss is understanding each individual’s core motivational needs and fueling that to collaborate with others.
[11:55] Carlos shares where he and fellow author Patrick Lencioni differ when it comes to building trust within teams.
[13:25] We can no longer do typical “trust-building” exercises in this digital world. Leaders aren’t sure how to build trust now.
[16:25] Leaders believe we can enhance collaboration and trust by doing more meetings, but people are fatigued out.
[17:25] Collaborate better by collaborating less on what matters the most. Carlos shares what he means by this.
[19:25] Leaders need to get good at recognizing when tasks require collaboration, and what tasks can be done solo.
[22:10] Carlos shares his definition of what a good meeting is, and when to use a meeting effectively.
[23:45] Organizations waste a lot of money on team-building exercises.
[28:55] We think when people don’t like one another on a team, we think of it as an interpersonal problem. Actually, it’s a problem of personal responsibility.
[32:05] We’re such an action-orientation culture that we focus solely on what you do, and not on what we did.
[35:35] Kings, leaders, and more, throughout time have always had a “right-hand man” who complemented the leaders’ strengths and weaknesses. We seem to have lost it in today’s modern age.
[39:55] Carlos shares the three criteria needed for an individual to find meaningful work.
[42:35] The best salespeople Carlos knows are lone wolves. It’s very difficult to get a good salesman to collaborate with the team.
[45:05] Listener challenge: If you want a good relationship, assume 100% responsibility for that relationship.
Quotable Quotes
-
“The paradoxical key to successful collaboration is individual motivation.”
-
“We learn to trust by learning how to rely on each other. Trust cannot artificially be created.”
- “Not all work is teamwork..”
- “Meetings must be engaging for everyone who is participating. Do not use meetings for straight-up information sharing.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Carlosvdapena.com, Corporatecollaboration.com & Carlos on LinkedIn
- Carlos’s books: Lessons from Mars: How One Global Company Cracked the Code on High Performance Collaboration and Teamwork & Resilience: Virtual Teams: Holding the Center When You Can’t Meet Face-to-Face
- Forming Storming Norming Performing: Successful Communication in Groups and Teams, by Donald B. Egolf
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
-
Project Aristotle
-
Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates
-
Teamwork is an Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility, by Christopher Avery, Erin O'Toole Murphy, and Meri Aaron Walker
Jim Hemerling is a leader in Boston Consulting Group’s People & Organization and Transformation practices. He has co-authored numerous publications on transformation, organization effectiveness, and culture including, TRANSFORMATION: Delivering and Sustaining Breakthrough Performance, and Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. Jim is also a coauthor of BCG’s book, “Beyond Great,” which describes how the world has been transformed due to social tension, economic nationalism, and technological revolution. Business leaders are encouraged to go beyond great and “adopt a radical new playbook—one that helps their companies become resilient in the face of even the most volatile situations.” On this episode, Jim discusses 9 Strategies for Thriving in an Era of Social Tension, Economic Nationalism, and Technological Revolution.
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Key Takeaways
[2:55] Leaders are well-intentioned, but these intentions can get squeezed out by metrics, the need for profit, and more.
[5:40] With a lot of disruption happening in our lives, people need purpose; people need to feel like they’re working towards a fulfilling future.
[8:05] It’s true that during hard times, there have to be layoffs, which sounds contradictory when you “put people first.” Jim explains how people-focused companies think about letting people go.
[12:15] There are three forces that are disrupting the world.
- The force of social tension.
- Economic nationalism.
- Technological revolution.
[17:20] Great is no longer good enough.
[19:25] Investors are going to demand more than just returns from the companies they invest in.
[23:25] Consumers want to put their money where their mouth is and support companies that are environmentally conscious.
[27:45] Capitalism is still a force for good, but it has to be directed properly.
[30:35] Companies are going beyond just the “superficial purpose.” They’re walking the walk, and proving it.
[34:15] It’s a tough balance for a leader to stretch people’s talents without breaking them. Jim shares what leaders need to be thinking about when managing this fine balance.
[40:45] Leaders need to commit to really understanding the day-to-day lived experiences of their employees.
[42:40] Transformation is no longer an one-off event. In today’s world, it’s “always on.”
[44:45] Listener challenge: Celebrate your wins today and then think about action steps on how you can go beyond great.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you think about putting people first, you’re going to think about not just that employee showing up at work, but what does their full life look like and how do we help them cope with the full-life experience.”
- “The very fundamental thing that businesses thrive on is the basis of capitalism, but what we’re seeing over the last few years are major forces against that.”
- “The term ‘globalist’ now in many circles is actually viewed as a negative term.”
- “Employees are increasingly saying, ‘It’s not enough. I’m not going to work for a company that isn’t delivering on a real, tangible purpose.’”
- “We used to think of transformation as a one-off event. Those days are gone. Companies need to embrace ‘always-on’ transformation.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Bcg.com & Jim on LinkedIn
- Jim’s TED Talk
- Jim’s book: Beyond Great: Nine Strategies for Thriving in an Era of Social Tension, Economic Nationalism, and Technological Revolution, by Arindam Bhattacharya, Nikolaus Lang, and Jim Hemerling
Americans today don't trust each other and their institutions as much as they once did. The collapse of social and political trust has arguably fueled our increasingly ferocious ideological conflicts and hardened partisanship. But is today's decline in trust inevitable or avoidable? Jim and Jan speak with political philosopher Kevin Vallier about his new book, “Trust in a Polarized Age,” and how we can collectively restore trust through our shared social institutions. Kevin has faith in our power to reduce polarization and rebuild social and political trust by recognizing and respecting our basic human rights.
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Key Takeaways
[4:15] Kevin lists the different types of trust that people use and relate to.
[6:00] We might not trust our political leaders, but the bigger worry here is that we don’t trust each other.
[7:35] Political trust can be regained. However, the trickier problem is how do you regain social trust. The decline in social trust is a lot less clear.
[10:35] Lack of diversity is a threat.
[11:40] Kevin shares his thoughts on how you practice forgiveness and reconciliation in a world where “cancel culture” is abundant.
[15:25] As people, we have two responsibilities when it comes to trust: Try to trust people when the evidence is ambiguous and be trustworthy ourselves.
[18:45] It’s in everyone’s best interest to build trust because it helps us be more open to differences. When there’s less trust, people are more prone to isolation and extremism.
[21:25] Kevin discusses the differences between people on the left and right political spectrum and how that impacts trust.
[27:00] Communism destroys social trust. Kevin shares a historical example about Germany and its neighboring countries.
[28:00] We don’t really know why Millennials have so little social trust.
[31:15] In today’s digital age where there is so much information, we need to hone in on being a good information consumer. We need to detect and snuff out the bad sources. The problem is, everyone thinks they have all the answers.
[35:10] If we want to be good leaders, we have to work out our inner hypocrisies.
[37:20] The key to sustaining trust in any institution is to discover, and live up to, people’s expectations of you.
[44:35] Listener challenge: Do you want to trust the people on the other side of the aisle? Is this something you care about? And, if the answer is no, what will it take for you to trust them anyway?
Quotable Quotes
- “Around the ’50s and ’60s, 70-80% of people thought the government in Washington could be trusted. Now, it’s about 20%. A staggering decline.”
- “The bigger worry isn’t so much we don’t trust Congress, it is that we don’t trust each other. There are a lot of social costs to this.”
- “It seems social trust is mostly a cause of other things, not a consequence of them.”
- “You just don’t listen to people you don’t trust. When there’s less trust, people isolate themselves and views become more extreme.”
- “My hypothesis is that when institutions are really, really unstable, like when you have wars, people come to trust each other less because they don’t know what to expect.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Kevinvallier.com & @Kvallier on Twitter
- Kevin’s book: Trust in a Polarized Age
Christopher Marquis is the author of Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism, which is the topic of today’s discussion. He offers a compelling look into the B Corp Movement and why it’s in everyone’s best interest to be a socially and environmentally responsible company.
A compelling look at the B Corp movement and why socially and environmentally responsible companies are vital for everyone’s future—"a valuable guide to an important force" (Financial Times)
"An important blueprint for how businesses can and should be both successful and a force for good."—Rose Marcario, President and CEO, Patagonia
"Better Business is the book to read if you want to put values and purpose at the center of your company. It’s an inspiring book with great insights to share."—Jerry Greenfield, co-founder, Ben & Jerry’s
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Key Takeaways
[3:15] Better Business, was an idea that was originally born from his students.
[5:15] Christopher explains what a B Corp is.
[6:15] Patagonia is an excellent example of a B Corp.
[10:15] Capitalism is a good thing, but its core message has shifted in the United States.
[11:45] Christopher shares what some of the drawbacks are that make it difficult for people to register as a B Corp.
[15:25] Christopher dives further into the legal components of a B Corp and why it’s better to have this extra layer of protection.
[16:50] More and more younger people want to be part of an organization where the values line up and companies with B Corp status highlight this purpose-driven message.
[17:40] Retention and attraction of talent just go through the roof when you have a B Corp.
[19:00] Jan once heard a CEO apologize that their company was “too profitable.” The CEO was basically apologizing for being a capitalist.
[19:40] Christopher highlights a French company that he respects a lot where they did something a little bit differently when COVID-19 hit.
[23:20] Christopher is curious to see where the B Corp movement will go in the next couple of years, but from what he’s seeing so far, things look very promising.
[24:40] Some of the downsides of going down this path is that the certification is very, very hard.
[29:15] Christopher shares what employees of a B Corp need to be aware of.
[35:15] Christopher talks about Greyston Bakery and how they have an open hiring approach. This bypasses a lot of discrimination in their company.
[38:10] There is a new job position out in the world now: The Social Engineer. Christopher explains why this role helps companies succeed.
[42:05] Because B Corps are seen as having more of a “soul” and purpose, Jan wonders if this makes it difficult to find qualified buyers who can buy into the vision for when founders are ready to exit. Christopher thought the same at first, but the environment is changing.
[45:50] Listener challenge: For leaders, take a look at the B Impact Assessment. For individuals, buy from companies with social missions.
Quotable Quotes
- “Capitalism brings us amazing things. You see the amount of people who have been lifted out of poverty and it’s because of markets and capitalism at its core.”
- “The type of capitalism we’ve been practicing, particularly in the United States, has been focused on meeting shareholder needs... in the short term.”
- “When people ask me about the main financial benefits of becoming a B Corp, it is on the HR side.”
- “There’s been so much research that has shown companies that are focused on environmental sustainability and delivering good employee benefits are much more sustainable over the long run.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Chrismarquis.com & Christopher on LinkedIn
- Christopher’s latest book: Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism
- The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia's First 40 Years, by Vincent Stanley and Yvon Chouinard
- Danone
- Greyston.org
- Bimpactassessment.net
Irvine Nugent specializes in helping leaders expand their emotional and nonverbal intelligence to better connect, influence, and assess credibility. He understands that leaders are most effective when they are able to read the emotions of themselves and others in any given situation as well as assess the credibility of people in high stakes scenarios.
Growing up in Northern Ireland, Irvine witnessed a society torn apart by division and violence, and the damage done when communication breaks down and people fail to listen and understand. On this episode, he shares the tools to build trust, make deeper connections, and communicate more effectively.
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Key Takeaways
[3:35] Our one prime objective as a human species is survival and our emotions evolved to help us through that process.
[5:45] Irvine studied under Paul Ekman’s and his research helped Irvine on learning more about hidden emotions.
[8:50] Most people who are trying to detect lies are only 48–52% accurate.
[9:40] There is no “one method” to detect a lie. It is a complex process to decipher a lie.
[10:15] Lying serves a purpose and it helps us gain an advantage. However, very few people are actually good at lying.
[12:10] When you learn to look for micro-expressions, it’s very difficult to turn off.
[14:45] As a good leader, you need to have your hand on the pulse of what you’re going through emotionally.
[17:30] Irvine grew up in Northern Ireland and shares what it was like to grow up in a war zone.
[19:05] People forgot how to communicate and were so convinced of their own truth.
[20:15] Good stories have the power to transport us to another reality.
[23:40] Irvine grew up in a pub and tells stories of how his father would let both Protestants and Catholics drink at his bar, which caused problems.
[27:10] The leader sets the tone. Irvine’s father was determined to create an atmosphere of belonging and inclusion.
[29:55] People confess their sins not at the church, but at the pub. This is because pubs have created a space for psychological safety.
[33:45] There’s a lot of fear in business and leaders are afraid that they’re not allowed to show fear.
[37:45] Listener challenge: Define what mood you are trying to portray in your meetings.
Quotable Quotes
- “When we try to conceal our emotions, we can train ourselves to discover this leakage with micro-expressions.”
- The truth always leaks out. If you are looking for the right leaks, you can uncover the lie.
- “Just because you have an emotion, doesn’t mean you have to act in a certain way.”
- “Great leaders are able to expand the space between the reaction and the behavior.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Irvinenugent.com & Irvine on LinkedIn
- Paulekman.com
John Rossman was an executive at Amazon.com where he launched the Marketplace business and third-party selling platform and ran the merchant services. He’s an expert at digital and ecommerce business models and operations, and has led engagements on ecommerce, Internet of Things strategies, and API driven platform business models. He is the author of three books:
-
Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader
-
The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles of the World’s Most Disruptive Company
-
The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World's Leading Internet of Things Strategies.
In this episode, John shares his ideas on becoming a digital leader.
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Key Takeaways
[4:05] A lot of organizations are hyper-focused on profitability and growth, but they’re not investing enough in new ideas, new people, and new capabilities.
[7:20] It’s everybody’s job in an organization to understand how the business operates, not just the chief executive.
[11:40] Amazon got a lot of things right, but they also got a lot of things wrong. In business, you tend to remember the successes rather than the failures.
[12:10] John shares an example of what Amazon didn’t get right.
[17:00] Jim has found that it’s very hard to find people who are good writers and can write paragraphs with fully fleshed-out ideas. Jeff Bezos also found the same issue.
[19:10] Writing is hard. It takes practice to do it correctly, and it takes patience.
[20:00] John defines what culture is and how to best manage the complex decision-making process in a remote setting.
[21:55] When it comes to having fun at work, happy hours don’t really work in a digital setting.
[23:10] Amazon is one of the companies that’s committed to going back to the office because they want in-person collaboration.
[25:10] Good culture attracts the right talent and deliberately repels the wrong talent.
[28:35] There’s a lot of talent out there that does not want to go back to a physical office. John shares his thoughts on how organizations will be managing this divide.
[35:10] John shares how Amazon didn’t just create a culture, they created a super-culture.
[41:05] Listener challenge: We want successful teams. In order to achieve that, we have to do something different. Instead of optimizing for this quarter’s results. Invest in the future.
Quotable Quotes
- Truly digital organizations are curious.
- “One or two really big successes pays for hundreds of failures.”
- “Writing things out really helps people work remotely to do things more asynchronously”
- “You really have to think about culture serving a purpose that’s inherent to the function of the work that has to be done.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: The-amazon-way.com & John on LinkedIn
- John’s Book: Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader
Martin Lindstrom is the Founder and Chairman of Lindstrom Company, the world’s leading brand & culture transformation group, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries. For three years running, Thinkers50, the world’s premier ranking resource of business icons, has selected Lindstrom to be among the world’s top 50 business thinkers. Lindstrom is also a high-profile speaker and author of seven New York Times best-selling books. His most recent book, The Ministry of Common Sense, dives into how to eliminate the bureaucratic process in business, which is the topic of this enlightening episode!
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Key Takeaways
[1:50] When Martin was 12 years old, he created his own Legoland and convinced a local print shop to sponsor him. The next day, roughly 130ish people attended his theme park, including Lego’s lawyers. They offered him a job.
[4:25] Due to the rise of technology, our children are losing some very key motor skills.
[6:15] We often talk about B2B or B2C interactions, but what we really need to focus on is human to human interactions.
[7:00] Whether we like it or not, all of what we do is irrational.
[7:20] Martin shares some key insights he’s learned by not owning a phone for the last two years.
[8:10] By having a phone to distract us all the time, we never get bored. This is a problem because a lot of beautiful things get created out of boredom.
[10:15] The first thing Martin had to learn when he gave up his phone was to learn how to be on time again.
[11:00] On average, we receive 350 emails a day! Technology is wonderful, but it’s also killing our time.
[12:30] When it comes to time management, there are a lot of cool hacks out there, but executives are still not getting it right.
[13:35] Martin shares what we’re getting wrong about meetings in our new digital environment. No one thinks short meetings are a good thing.
[16:10] We have “chicken cage” syndrome. After being stuck in a cage for so long, when the doors are finally open to greener pastures, we don’t know what to do. We go back into our cage because it’s safer.
[18:35] People are afraid of change; they are afraid of the unknown, so you have to think a bit creatively to help people feel comfortable enough to adapt to a new environment.
[21:15] There are some legitimate fears organizations need to think through, like legal and HR, and the red tape behind this can stop innovation and progress.
[24:10] The problem with a lot of compliance departments is that they don’t actually interact with the consumers. Martin wanted to try something different.
[26:40] A good practice when creating new rules in a company is to also remove an old rule in the process.
[27:55] Martin cultivated a campfire environment within an organization. This facilitated a new way for people in different departments to talk about the inefficiencies in the company.
[32:00] The first thing you have to do when you’re in a crisis is to realize you’re in a crisis. Sounds simple, but people don’t do this.
[32:55] We might be aware there is a crisis going on, but we still believe we can recover 50% or 75%. The reality is, your business is gone and you need to stop lying to yourself.
[36:00] People are resigning positions because they’re frustrated by the lack of common sense in the organization. However, there is a way to change this.
[39:15] If done correctly, the ministry of common sense should be earning you money.
[41:45] Martin shares an example of what Hyundai did differently during an economic crisis.
[43:30] If you define fear, some of it is due to lack of control, the unknown outcome, and uncertainty of how long the crisis will last.
[46:10] Don’t ask the usual suspect to solve the problem. Use the entire organization to solve your big problems.
[46:50] Listener challenge: Take a blank piece of paper and write down all the frustrations you have every day at work. Ask your co-workers to do the same.
Quotable Quotes
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“Around 85% of our behavior every day is subconscious. It really is irrational behavior. Yet, we believe we are always deeply rational in everything we do.”
-
“By having a phone, we never get bored anymore. And boredom is the foundation for creativity.”
-
“Technology is wonderful, but we’ve also gotten to a point now where it’s killing us more than it’s actually enhancing our lives.”
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“We need to cross-functionalize an organization. Compliance can’t just be something in a corner. Involve them and make them feel a sense of empathy. That’s when you break down all this red tape.”
-
“[If you want to pivot.] You have to wake up now and realize your business is gone. That’s it. You can’t continue what you’re doing right now with your company.”
-
“The ministry of common sense is really looking at every aspect in the organization and mapping it down and saying where do we get the most value for money. Most important thing, this function should earn you money.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Martinlindstrom.com & Martin on LinkedIn
- Martin’s Book: The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS
Paul Darley is the Chairman, President, and CEO of W.S. Darley & Co. Under his leadership, sales have grown over 2,000%. Paul’s firm was founded in 1908, and he is the third generation in his family to run the business. Paul highlights the important principles needed to sustain a multi-generational business, leadership lessons he’s learned, and how to empower employees with family in play.
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Key Takeaways
[3:15] Paul shares how his grandfather built the flagship family business.
[7:10] Paul took over the family business in 1997 and now has six children (fourth-generation) actively involved in the business.
[8:30] Paul understood he could not fill his father’s shoes, a man who had been in the business for over 50 years, but he had to develop his own leadership style as his father transitioned out of the business.
[10:15] The third generation is generally known as the cursed generation, and often businesses fail during this period. However, Paul prevailed and managed to grow it by 2,000%.
[13:10] Paul regularly engages the younger members of the family.
[14:00] Despite it being a family-run business, Paul makes sure everyone within the company has a fair chance to advance in their careers.
[18:15] When you want to keep a legacy business alive, you have to think bigger, and adapt to the changing times.
[18:50] Innovation is one of the company’s core values.
[21:15] Paul has a military veteran program in place at his company and explains how they actively seek out diversity.
[27:50] Paul highlights the importance of giving feedback to his staff.
[30:25] It’s important to showcase to every employee that you can ‘skip’ the chain of command and talk to Paul and his executive leadership. This is something veterans aren’t always used to.
[38:40] Good salespeople have a high level of emotional intelligence.
[40:30] When Paul studied successful CEOs, he observed that a large number of them had a solid family home life. They put others first.
[41:40] Early in Paul’s journey, he did not have balance as a leader. Over time, he’s learned to prioritize business and family on even ground. It takes time to get it down right.
[43:40] Listener challenge: When you get home from work, take 90 seconds to be fully present with your family first before moving on to tasks.
Quotable Quotes
- “Complacency is the enemy. We, as a business, take nothing for granted.”
- “I try to earn everybody’s respect, try to listen and learn from anybody I can.”
- “As part of our third generation family, there’s a sense of obligation to the family, obligation to all of our employees and shareholders, and collectively we got through it.”
- “If you are treating family members differently or special, it’s one of the easiest ways to have good people leave an organization.”
- “We never say, ‘Here’s what you should do.’ The whole purpose is to talk things out and let that person come to their own conclusion on the best direction to take.”
- “People who came up from sales vs. operations or accounting, etc., were actually more profitable than CEOs without selling backgrounds.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Darley.com & Paul on LinkedIn
- Sold! The Art of Relationship Sales by Paul Darley
Dr. Alexandra Rengel is the managing partner of the firm Mercado & Rengel, LLP and an Associate Professor at IE Business School. Dr. Rengel has broad experience as a litigator in the United States at the trial and appellate levels in both State and Federal Courts. A frequent guest lecturer on Privacy, Business Law, and Leadership, she is the author of Privacy in the 21st Century. Dr. Rengel shares her thoughts on leadership in Latinx communities, and the types of biases this diverse ethnic group has to overcome in the Western world.
Key Takeaways
[3:35] There are many preconceived notions of what define a “good leader.” When different ethnic groups were asked to draw an effective leader, they all drew a similar image. A character, often a white man, middle-aged, wearing a suit and looking powerful. It leaves a lot of people out.
[4:55] Some of the wealthiest people in the world are of Latinx descent but they’re relatively unknown to the western world.
[9:05] Truth is, we all have biases, but the key is being actively aware of them and working towards breaking them.
[10:00] Machismo in the Latino community is still a problem. Latin/Hispanic women are still being questioned if they’re too aggressive, or too masculine when they take on leadership roles. The criticism is coming from both genders.
[13:00] It’s critical that you be yourself and not be someone you “think you should” be.
[14:40] There is so much ambiguity within the Latinx community because it’s so diverse. Dr. Rengel explains a bit more about the differences between Latinx, Latino/Latina, and Hispanic communities.
[19:50] Don’t spin your wheels and fight with people over definitions. Prove your worth by achieving your goals. Lead your life on your terms and create positive change.
[20:15] Dr. Rengel shares a story of the types of biases she’s faced because of her accent.
[23:25] When we look to others for leadership guidance, we can often make it even harder for ourselves to just start because the standard has been set so high.
[25:55] Instead of trying to tackle the whole mountain and achieve a lofty goal, sometimes it’s the little steps, the ripple effects, that make the biggest of changes in the lives of others.
[27:05] Dr. Rengel shares a few leadership lessons that she’s learned from both her children and her peers.
[35:05] Listener challenge: Make an effort to give a diverse set of people a seat at the table. We need all perspectives.
Quotable Quotes
- “We just don’t recognize what we’re not used to seeing.”
- “Latin/Hispanic women who have positions of leadership, we worry about whether they’re too aggressive or correctly dressing for the part. The criticism is not only coming from the men, but also from women.”
- “So many men don’t really know what the rules are. They don’t know how they’re supposed to act, what they’re supposed to say/not say.”
- “If a leader is someone who effects positive change, then make that positive change. Do that first. Work on achieving those goals that you set for yourself.”
- “You can’t spend your energy fighting biases that other people have.”
- “You look at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘How can I even begin to compete?’ But, find something you’re passionate about and just change one thing.”
- “There are things you cannot control. The preparation is actually the one thing you can somewhat control, so always be prepared.“
- “Often, we learn a lot as mentors from the people we mentor.”
- “Sometimes we’re not telling what we feel; we’re telling what we think we should be saying. The advice we’re giving is not so much what we feel in our heart, but what we think in our heads.”
Resources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
- Websites: Mercadorengel.com & Alexandra on LinkedIn
- Ana Botín
- Amancio Ortega
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Pablo Fernandez, Chief Learning Officer at Baker Hughes, discusses how to transform a traditional organization into one that is on the forefront of technology, social issues, and innovation through educational development and an active belief in employees. Pablo comes from a diverse cultural perspective, having been born in Mexico and lived in five different countries. He is passionate about disrupting the education system and using learning as a tool to empower employees.
Key Takeaways
[2:45] Pablo had to reflect recently on what he wants his legacy to be. As the world evolves and changes, Pablo’s role as a learning officer also changes regularly.
[4:25] We need to make learning a part of work.
[6:55] We train people on compliance and integrity without actually telling them why it matters.
[10:15] We want people to fail and embrace a learning culture, but we also grade them on performance and other metrics. It’s a tough balance and it creates competing priorities.
[13:05] We throw training at a lot of perceived problems instead of developing a system/environment that helps facilitate new learnings.
[15:00] Baker Hughes knows they need to embrace clean energy, but when the team has been working on oil and gas for 40-plus years, there are some thinking obstacles in the way that a leader must navigate.
[19:05] Baker Hughes wants to transform from a traditional company. Pablo understands where they’re starting from and because of that, he knows it’s important to bring in new talent that helps revolutionize the status quo culture.
[20:25] Whenever a new idea gets presented, it’s very quick to ask how much it costs and if the company has the bandwidth to incorporate it, but those are the wrong questions to be asking! They are innovation killers.
[24:40] As an intentional citizen, Pablo shares how his different cultural exposure has made him a better leader today.
[27:35] Pablo explores whether our society’s worldwide exposure and influence through social media put more or less pressure on an organization’s need for innovation.
[32:50] Pablo loves what he does, but like anything, there are good days and there are bad days. Those bad days are a lot easier when they’re connected to a purpose.
[38:55] As a young and aspiring leader, it’s important to be aware of what you want.
[42:15] Patience is a critical component to changing the world in a dynamic way.
[44:25] Listener challenge: Be yourself.
Quotable Quotes
- “Learning without context is not learning, it’s just knowledge. It’s just information.”
- “The truth hurts. The truth is not something that’s easy to digest.”
- “We have created systems within companies that are ready to kill innovation and ready to kill bright ideas.”
- “We need to think about it differently. Innovation comes from leveraging each other. How do you break those frontiers that we have today and collaborate with one another.”
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“As an organization, you’re forced to take a position to stand up for your principles and for your values.”
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“The number one competence today for management is the ability to manage emotionally-charged conversations.“
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“At Baker Hughes, we do meditation sessions to make people aware of the today, not tomorrow.“
- “I told my colleague the truth. I was struggling. What I got in exchange was kindness. What this taught me was to ask for help.”
Resources Mentioned
- Websites: Bakerhughes.com & Pablo on LinkedIn
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
- The Social Dilemma
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Harris III (“the third”) began his career at a young age, traveling the world as an award-winning, professional illusionist. He has performed for and spoken live to more than two million people in more than 30 countries on five continents. His performances have been televised to millions more on the Travel Channel and ABC Family.
After traveling the globe and making a million dollars by the age of 21, only to go bankrupt a year later, Harris kick-started a decade-long journey to understand the stories we tell ourselves and how they drive all human behavior. Armed with a unique perspective, his career re-exploded as a world-renowned speaker, storyteller and entrepreneur.
He is the author of the book, The Wonder Switch. Tapping into his background as a professional magician and understanding the intersection of storytelling and wonder, Harris developed a structured process that can dramatically change a team’s culture, or rapidly accelerate an individual’s transformation, from the story they feel stuck in, to the life they want to live.
Key Takeaways
[2:35] Harris III is not a fan of coffee. Jan agrees! Jim is horrified.
[3:35] We lose our wonder when we come across beliefs and stories that don’t match the narrative we have in our head.
[6:55] When Harris III got bullied for the first time as a kid, his wonder switch got turned off and left him in a state of complacency.
[8:35] No matter how smart you are, it doesn’t take much to prove that what you see is not always what you get.
[13:05] The difference between deception and persuasion comes down to the motive behind it.
[14:00] The phrase ‘what if’ can both work for you and against you.
[19:25] Martin Luther King would probably call himself an activist, public speaker, or a reverend, but what he really was was a storyteller.
[20:55] Magic tricks prove we can’t rely on our senses. We get tricked (by the outside world) into believing something we’re not. We get tricked into believing we will never be good leaders, when you have every potential to be a great one.
[25:45] If you want people to achieve the impossible, you first have to make them believe it is possible. You have to tap into their wonder.
[29:40] We are storytelling beings and a lot of what drives our motivation and beliefs is the language we use.
[30:45] You need to combine the right forces together. You need your wow people to be connected to the how people so that these dreams can be big, but also can come true at the same time.
[36:10] When we go through a transition, it’s often messy and not as seamless as we’d like it to be.
[42:00] Harris III shares some of his favorite client stories.
[47:00] Harris III almost missed a special moment with his kid because he was so cynical.
Quotable Quotes
- “My brain and your brain run off an operating system called narrative. When that narrative gets broken, the wonder switch gets turned off.”
- “Neuroscientists have partnered with magicians to study how our brains process information based on our five senses; what we discover is humans are not that great at figuring out what is true.”
- “Seeing isn’t believing. Science supports the fact that believing is seeing. People misunderstand that concept.”
- “The human imagination doesn’t become less active as adults, we just change how we use it.”
- “Wonder gives people the permission to believe.”
- “It’s our job as leaders to give people permission to believe in what seems so impossible to believe in.”
- “All change in the transformation process is moving from an old story to a new story. It’s all rooted in narrative.“
- “We need leaders more than ever before to step up and give people permission to believe in the possibility of a new story.“
Resources Mentioned
- Website: Harrisiii.com & Book: The Wonder Switch: The Difference Between Limiting Your Life and Living Your Dream, by Harris III
- Harris on Facebook
- Harris on Twitter
- Harris on YouTube
- Harris on Instagram
- Loonshots, by Safi Bahcall
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Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist. He frequently publishes editorials in The New York Times applying his research in psychology to current events. Schwartz's research addresses morality, decision-making and the inter-relationships between science and society. His books illuminate the underlying psychological plagues of our time.
- Why We Work
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
- The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life
- Practical Wisdom
Key Takeaways
[2:25] It’s Barry’s secret desire is to play in Bruce Springsteen’s band, or to play center field for the Yankees.
[4:25] Wise people have good judgment and they use that judgment in the service of good goals.
[9:25] There is an infinite number of ways people can screw up. Putting more rules in place doesn’t stop that from happening.
[10:30] As a leader, you want to instill good judgment in your people so that you can relax the rules.
[13:00] Most management systems are designed to avoid developing wise employees.
[15:00] Barry shares a story of how doctors learn to deliver bad news.
[18:00] Instead of stumbling through your careers, mentors can help you find shortcuts and prevent a lot of mistakes.
[21:20] Rules are okay if you are seeking mediocre results. They do not work well when extraordinary circumstances arise, which happens every day.
[21:55] Employee incentives can also be a double-edged sword because it can move focus away from the people you’re trying to serve.
[31:20] When you plan on using your judgment, there will be times you get it wrong. This means you also have to be prepared for failure.
[33:50] Empathy is good, but too much of a good thing can hurt others unintentionally.
[34:10] Organizations have to be willing to tolerate imperfect outcomes and failures if they’re trying to nurture people.
[39:00] In highly competitive environments, leaders are afraid to relax because they don’t want to fall behind, but people need that from time to time to produce innovative results.
[41:15] If you’re trying to build a workforce that lasts generations, setting up quarterly metrics and goals only forces people to think short term.
[42:00] Companies are making critical mistakes. They’re hiring ‘plug and play’ people that they can use today and not thinking about the resources and talent pool they’ll be needing for the future.
[42:15] Hire people on character and things you can’t teach, and then teach your people the skills they need to know to get the job done.
[45:30] We have a narrow understanding of what self-reliance truly means.
[48:55] Unfortunately, it often takes trauma to get people willing to take a chance and to think boldly about different ways to do things.
[51:35] As we navigate a new world, be open to changing yourself.
Quotable Quotes
- “You want people to use their judgment, but if you don’t trust the people you’re overseeing to have good judgment, then, of course, you have to give them rules.”
- “Better to come up with a rule that will keep people mediocre than say, ‘Use your judgment.’”
- “A lot of the stuff we learn to be wise, we learn the hard way, you learn by making mistakes, but if you have a mentor, the mentor can make sure the mistakes aren’t catastrophes.”
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“Courage is the mean between cowardice and recklessness. If you’ve got too little, you’re a coward. If you got too much, you’re reckless. You want just the right amount.”
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“If you focus on rules, you’ll have rule followers. Rule followers are okay if you are seeking mediocre results.”
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“Most companies hire on the basis of abilities that can be immediately put to use. They want plug-and-play employees. This is a colossal mistake.”
Resources Mentioned
- Bio: Barry Schwartz
- Barry’s Four books:
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- The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life
-
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
-
Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing
-
Why We Work
-
“Dying Words,” by Jerome Groopman
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Chris McChesney is a Wall Street Journal #1 National Best-Selling Author – The 4 Disciplines of Execution. In his current role of Global Practice Leader of Execution for FranklinCovey, Chris is one of the primary developers of The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Chris shares his thoughts on what it takes to focus, why you shouldn’t wait to innovate, and how to effectively lead in the midst of ambiguity.
Key Takeaways
[3:25] Chris discusses whether focus is the key to execution or if there are other factors at play here.
[4:35] “Be very deliberate about what is the area of focus and everything else the organization needs to sustain.”
[8:00] The four disciplines of execution are:
- Get clear on the critical target.
- Leverage your metrics on a team level.
- Boost employee engagement by showing them the score.
- Hold people accountable.
[14:20] When it comes to defining your target, there needs to be a combination of what’s most important and what’s most at risk.
[16:25] If you want innovation, then you have to allow people to experiment, which means taking on a certain amount of team failure.
[17:45] It can be so easy to lose focus when you’re trying to experiment on the latest flavor of the month.
[22:25] People aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of ambiguity. In every major disaster, there is a spike in divorce rates as well as marriage rates, because people don’t like being in limbo. They need certainty.
[24:15] Because of the circumstance we’re in, every industry is being forced to change and switch things up. People are tapped out and being drained from all sides.
[29:05] When the status quo is good, it can be hard to push yourself out of your comfort zone to innovate. It comes down to having a weekly discipline.
[33:55] Emotion alone will not sustain you in achieving those non-urgent tasks.
[37:55] Chris shares the story of his creative and slightly sneaky way of getting to work alongside Stephen Covey when he was a recent college grad.
[42:15] Listener challenge: Do the people who work for you feel like they can win?
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s better to fall in love with the problem than to fall in love with the solution.”
- “The best strategies, the most vital strategies, don’t stand up to the day-to-day urgency of maintaining the operation.”
- “You can chase your tail all day long on what’s most important. Everyone’s got a good argument for that.”
- “If you’re going to have a breakthrough, it’s going to require innovation. And innovation requires trial and error.”
- “People don’t fear change. They will initiate change all the time. They fear uncertainty — there’s a difference — and uncertainty is really akin to ambiguity.”
- “When you need a hero, it means something went really wrong.”
- “The accountability that we’re talking about is the kind of accountability that happens after the expectations have been set.“
- “Energy against non-urgent priorities really does require a system because emotion alone, it’ll last a couple of weeks and it wears out.“
Resources Mentioned
- Website: Chrismcchesney4dx.com
- The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals, by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling
- Franklincovey.com
- Chris on LinkedIn
- Chris on Twitter
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
- Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing, by Jamie Holmes
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Kristen Hadeed is the founder of Student Maid, a successful cleaning company that has employed thousands of students over the last decade and that is known for building the next generation of leaders.
In 2017, she published her first book, “Permission To Screw Up”, in which she offers an unapologetic account of her biggest mistakes in leadership. She hopes that her vulnerability will give others the courage to open up about their own “perfectly imperfect” moments and proudly embrace them as the tremendous learning opportunities they are.
Kristen has been featured in news outlets including PBS, FOX, Inc., NBC, TIME, and Forbes. Her first TED Talk has more than three million views on YouTube.
Key Takeaways
[4:10] In college, Kristen got a cleaning contract and within 3 days, 45 of the 60 people she hired walked off the job. She had no idea she was such a bad leader, but it was a defining moment for her to change.
[6:25] Instead of blaming others, Kristen took an introspective approach. That’s because she grew up in a household where failure is learning.
[9:55] People don’t trust people who are perfect.
[11:25] When Kristen was writing her book, she realized she had a fear of failure as well as a fear of success.
[14:20] If you keep people in bubble wrap to prevent them from making mistakes, the business will not be able to grow.
[14:50] Kristen defines “empowering” as trusting in someone before they’ve proven it. It’s about believing in someone’s potential.
[17:50] Kristen puts the responsibility on her staff to own their own performance plan and to take accountability for their actions.
[22:05] Kristen focuses on building leaders not simply hiring people to join a cleaning company.
[25:20] Companies are hesitant to invest in their low-level employees if they know they’re just going to move on. Kristen invests in her employees because she cares about the people.
[25:50] People do so much for our organizations, so it’s only natural we give back and.
[26:50] Kristen used to be so focused on retention, but has since shifted her focus to investing in people.
[28:25] Empathy is really about hearing people, seeing them, and validating their feelings.
[30:35] The pandemic has been an excellent time for Kristen to reflect on her priorities as she now feels like she was on autopilot before.
[34:00] Kristen always ends her day on a daily reflection, so that she can both learn from the good and the bad that happened throughout her day.
[38:30] Listener challenge: When we look back on this time, what do you want to say about it? Live a proud life.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you’re always trying to be perfect, you’re never going to take risks.”
- “In our effort to appear perfect, we lose a lot of trust.”
- “When human beings are in the equation, there’s probably some screwing up that’s going to happen.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website: Kristenhadeed.com & book resources
- Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong, by Kristen Hadeed
- Kristen on LinkedIn
- Kristen on Facebook
- Kristen on Instagram
- Kristen on Twitter
- The Now Habit, by Neil Fiore
- Why is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity, and Profit, by Paul Spiegelman
- The Dream Manager: Achieve Results Beyond Your Dreams by Helping Your Employees Fulfill Theirs, by Matthew Kelly
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Tina Chang is the Founder and CEO of Pioneering Collective, a personal PR firm. Tina’s passion is to amplify leaders’ voices, and she shares how leaders can build genuine connections internally and externally. There isn’t one right way to be authentic, so it comes down to a process of experimenting and adapting to what feels best for you.
Key Takeaways
[3:40] Tina encourages leaders to lean out as opposed to leaning in. The customers and growth are all outside of the organization.
[5:10] Most executives are trying to talk about company performance. That’s hard to relate to. Tina encourages them to tell a story that resonates instead.
[7:40] When leaders come together in a genuine way, that’s when beautiful partnerships start to form.
[9:15] Tina’s personal mission and company mission are quite intertwined. She wants to help leaders open up possibilities and make a deeper impact on the world they’re serving.
[12:40] Do not let others define you. You get to define your future.
[17:15] In order for us to connect as humans, we have to be vulnerable; we have to be ourselves.
[17:40] Organizations are moving away from a hierarchical model. Leadership is much more distributed.
[19:45] There isn’t one right way to be more authentic. Everyone is learning and adapting as we go.
[23:15] Tina shares how she went from a medical background to what she does now.
[27:15] Mentorship is critical for leaders to help them not feel like they’re alone on this journey.
[33:45] Most of the leaders Tina really admires have a child-like curiosity.
[34:55] Listener challenge: Create ambassadors out of all of your executives.
Quotable Quotes
- “Relationships and genuine relationships have always been a very important part of your life.”
- “There are a lot of possibilities that can happen when it’s genuine human-to-human connection.”
- “If others don’t see themselves in you or have that common bond, it’s hard to continue to build a relationship.”
- “I quickly realized people don’t connect with things. They don’t connect with a logo or a product or a building; it’s the people.”
- “It’s a time in society where we need to center ourselves and really be much more present and connect to trends that are happening.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website: Pioneeringcollective.com
- Tina on LinkedIn
- Patientslikeme.com
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Roger Connors is a four-time NY Times Bestselling Author and Top 10 Organizational Culture Expert. He is also the Chairman and Cofounder of Zero to Ten, a leadership training company. Roger is out with a new book, Get a Coach, Be a Coach, where he discusses how leaders, often overwhelmed, must learn to become better coaches. Roger discusses why and how we need to train leaders at every level to seek support facing tough challenges.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] Executive coaching is often only accessible to C-suite executives, but there is a way to make coaching accessible to everyone, even at the frontlines.
[4:00] The key to create a non-hierarchical culture is to reach out from within the organization to get advice in real-time.
[6:00] You don’t need to find a master in their field to receive great coaching. Tiger Woods is a master in his craft, but he’s not the best coach out there.
[8:15] The average leader has 14 direct reports, which is too many to be present for each person.
[12:00] There are five distinct coaching conditions we need to develop so that we can seek help before problem compounds.
[16:25] Knowledge-hoarding is a natural human tendency when there is competition within an organization and people feel like they need every edge they can get to get ahead. Leaders need to change the culture to a knowledge-sharing environment.
[22:05] The vast majority of coaching happens in under 15 minutes.
[29:25] Don’t wait for your team leader to give you the coaching you need. Take responsibility and seek it out!
[33:25] The problem with accountability is that the conversations are often happening after the fact rather than before the event.
[38:10] Millennials don’t want a boss, they want a coach. They want support from their leaders.
[41:00] Be surrounded by people who can help solve your problem.
Quotable Quotes
- “We found that recency can often be more powerful than expertise.”
- Coaching needs to be an organic, self-directed process.
- Transition from a knowledge-hoarding environment to a knowledge-sharing environment. where people get from leaders,
- “‘You win by asking for help when you need it.”
- “You need to teach team members how to get the coaching they need and how to empower themselves to get what they need when they need it.”
Resources Mentioned
-
Website & Book: Zerototen.com
-
Roger Connors on Wikipedia
-
Roger on LinkedIn
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Dr. Frans de Waal is a Dutch/American biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. His work illuminated our understanding of how alpha males actually thrive through acts of generosity, empathy, and conflict resolution. Discover how you can learn from our distant cousins when it comes to peacemaking, bullying, winning, and more.
Key Takeaways
[3:35] Alpha male is a term coined by Dr. Frans. They are not typically aggressive nor selfish.
[5:30] Frans has witnessed chimps comfort an alpha male who was popular because he kept the peace in the group.
[7:35] Frans describes effective alpha male primates as empathetic.
[12:40] Alpha monkeys will get in the middle of fights to break it up or even punish other high ranking members of the group if they do something wrong. They don’t always play favorites but instead act in accordance with the well being of the group as a whole.
[15:30] Despite years of research, Frans has a hard time predicting which male will take over when the leader of the pack dies.
[16:00] Frans observed leadership qualities with female primates start to develop at four to five years old.
[16:35] The male hierarchy is a very “political” process, and is not decided by who is the biggest and strongest male.
[22:45] If you have an alpha male who is also a bully, a younger male will usually challenge the leader, and often, the group turns on the alpha male.
[23:45] If you remove the bullied victim from the environment, primates will find another scapegoat to fill in that role.
[27:20] Males tend to have a peacemaking strategy and the females have a peacekeeping strategy.
[30:50] Monkeys learn through observation. Active teaching doesn’t exist in the primate world.
[33:25] We often think the key to conflict resolution is in the language, but language is trivial compared to the message delivered via body language.
[39:40] Effective male primates may steal food, but for the purpose of sharing and displaying generosity to curry favor.
Quotable Quotes
- Bullying is especially common in primate groups that are unstable.
- “A scapegoat unifies the group because it becomes the common enemy.”
- “Alpha males who are bullies do not last long.”
- Males are good at comforting each other and getting over conflict, while females are good at preventing conflict.
Resources Mentioned
- Dr. Frans de Waal’s Books
- Dr. Frans de Waal on TED
- Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes, by Frans de Waal
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Deanna Mulligan is the former CEO and current Board Chair of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, and the author of Hire Purpose; How Smart Companies Can Close the Skills Gap. Deanna shares why investing in reskilling is the key to success. Employers of all sizes can and should reskill to attract, retain and outperform the competition. One of the ways you build empathy is you earn, and you earn it by doing the hard stuff.
Key Takeaways
[5:15] One of the things the pandemic has taught Deanna is that we are more innovative than we think. She rushed in and deployed technology that would normally have taken eight months to train and get familiar with, in under two weeks, and it had a very high acceptance rate!
[7:00] Now that she has freed up human capital, she can now train her staff in other areas and help them become more specialized.
[11:40] The role and the importance of actuaries are going to change as technology makes it easier to calculate complex math problems.
[12:30] For example, in the fraud department, AI and machines are much quicker at picking up these bad patterns than humans are.
[14:25] So what happens when these skill sets become irrelevant for a human to do? It’s time to put your people in a new training program to upskill or reskill them. Deanna developed a program where her actuaries can now become data scientists and they’ve seen great results from it.
[15:20] It’s a two-way street. Companies owe it to their employees to reskill them, but employees also need to be proactive and take advantage of learning opportunities.
[17:15] You can assist and boost your employee’s skill sets up even if you’re a small company. There are a lot of free resources out there!
[20:40] Yes, it is hard to train your brain to think differently or to learn a foreign tool, but the rewards are far greater.
[24:00] No one is immune to the need to reskill. CEO attributes might very well be outdated in two to three years.
[32:25] Purpose and profits are intertwined. The more you live the company purpose, the less you have to worry about profits because they will naturally follow.
[38:15] We’re all in this together, so let’s think through what we have to do to get to the end goal. It’s the leaders’ mission to include that goal and facilitate their frontline employees to use the tools.
[40:39] Although it might sound unrealistic, Deanna’s two-year sabbatical was much needed. It gave her the chance to step back and really think with intention and purpose about the kind of organization she wanted to lead.
[44:50] Listener Challenge: Never Stop Learning.
Quotable Quotes
- “Purpose and profits are intertwined.”
- “Human beings are endlessly adaptable and both our customers and our agents are endlessly adaptable.”
- “When people are in adverse circumstances, they reach down in themselves and they learn how to do things and invent things.”
- “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
- “We can teach adults new things at a very sophisticated level.”
- “Even though it’s difficult, investment [in your staff] is the answer.”
- “One of the ways you build empathy is you earn, and you earn it by doing the hard stuff.”
- “If you can’t connect what you’re doing every day to a higher purpose of some sort, then you’re going to have a hard time staying in business.”
Resources Mentioned
- Deanna Mulligan’s Bio
- Deanna on LinkedIn
- Hire Purpose: How Smart Companies Can Close the Skills Gap, by Deanna Mulligan and Greg Shaw
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General Lori J. Robinson is the former Commander of NORAD and NORTHCOM. Her selection made national news as she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine as the first woman to lead a US Combatant Command. Her 36-year military career is filled with remarkable accomplishments at the highest levels of operations, diplomatic engagement, and political coordination. Today, she dedicates herself as a mentor to those seeking to better balance career demands with personal and family responsibilities. General Robinson shares her perspectives on transitioning from military life to civilian, redefining the definition of servant leadership, and the differences in responsibilities as a leader.
Key Takeaways
[3:10] Sometimes, people get nervous around General Robinson, but as a leader, it’s your job to make the room comfortable.
[6:30] General Robinson recommends veterans take some time for themselves to recover.
[16:15] When General Robinson came home after work, it would take her an hour and a half just to decompress because of everything that was going on. And when General Robinson officially retired, it took her six months to recover and to reflect on her personal life.
[20:15] Whether you’re a commander or CEO, everyone has unique thoughts on how to get to the end goal and it’s important as a leader just to listen to those views and thoughts.
[22:15] When it comes to harmony within the organization vs. healthy conflict, General Robinson sees it differently. It boils down to what is the main goal and objective we’re all trying to achieve, and how can we bring healthy conversation into the fold to get there.
[26:30] Servant leadership really could be redefined as supportive leadership. It’s not always your job to do every task under the sun, but to actually support and empower your team to do it themselves.
[31:00] You need to have a conversation with your spouse about whose career comes first. For General Robinson and her husband, it made the most sense for her husband to leave his service after 17 years to join the reserves and the private sector.
[33:55] If both of your careers come first, then you need to set boundaries for how long you’re willing to live apart. Have the conversation now before it becomes an emotional one.
[43:55] Listener challenge: Be true to yourself and say thanks every day.
Quotable Quotes
- “The tone from the CEO about everybody having the same destination in mind, listening to everybody, and bringing it together to make it one company, it’s very doable.”
- “It’s about being a part of something that’s bigger than yourself and it’s not about you, it’s about the institution.”
- “I’m certainly not the smartest person in the room. No matter what the task at hand is, it’s important to listen to what experts have to say, but at the end of the day, a decision has to be made.”
- “I’m so humbled and honored to have done and seen the things I did and I’m grateful to the people who have given me the opportunities that they did over my career.”
Resources Mentioned
- General Lori J. Robinson’s bio: Lori Robinson
- Stillness Is the Key, by Ryan Holiday
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Jeff DeGraff is both an advisor to Fortune 500 companies and a Professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He is the author of several books, including Leading Innovation, The Innovation Code, and his latest book, The Creative Mindset. Jeff talks about why innovation is declining, and how the democratization of innovation can reverse that trend.
Key Takeaways
[3:25] Jeff grew up in the golden age of America. It was almost un-American to not be innovating new things.
[6:15] Our leadership and innovation abilities are declining and Jeff believes it’s a cultural thing.
[8:35] Jeff so deeply cares about the younger generation that he has become almost unapologetic about his words because they need to know the truth of where they stand, and they need encouragement to be better.
[11:00] The problem is there’s a big gap of underserved people and if you want innovation, you have to include them. Thirty-two percent of high school graduates are functionally illiterate.
[13:05] Americans have never been good at standardized tests on a world scale, but the counterpoint to that is that we are the great innovative culture because of the core belief that we can make things better.
[15:45] Instead of focusing on people’s deficits, we need to reframe it and see how we can work with these drawbacks. Mindset is key in being able to leverage other people’s talents.
[18:05] If you want to create innovative work, people have to be different. In fact, consensus and alignment are the death of innovation.
[25:45] The one thing that does unite us is when we have a shared vision of where we want to go. To figure out what it is we should be doing; this is where diversity comes in to help fill in the blanks.
[32:40] Failure doesn’t just happen and then you’re able to move on to the next thing. Failure happens, and then you have to clean up the mess. Much like home repairs; it’s never-ending.
[34:35] In uncertain times, it’s not about being tough, it’s about using your time productively so that you get to where you want to be.
[39:20] Jeff grew up poor and that didn’t stop him and his family from being creative and scrappy with the resources they had available to them.
[41:05] Listener challenge: Find someone who disagrees with your values and beliefs.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s about innovation. We’re retreating from a very American view of the world, which is how we move forward. If we don’t move forward, who else in the world will?”
- “The history of innovation in America is the history of immigration. From 2000–2010, 58% of all patents awarded were to people who weren’t born here or are first-generation Americans.”
- “The notion is when you have constructive conflict, you get to the next place.”
- “Consensus and alignment thinking is the death of innovation.”
- “Diversity is necessary, but not sufficient. You have to have a decent tax structure, education structure, etc.”
- “You just have to say, ‘I’m going to get through this.’”
- “Part of being a human being is taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.”
Resources Mentioned
- Jeff’s website and latest book: Jeffdegraff.com
- Jeff on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.
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Rachael Robertson is the author of the best-selling book Leading on the Edge, an account of leading a year-long expedition to Antarctica. She is a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership and teamwork and her latest book, Respect Trumps Harmony, is out now. When you’re sharing close quarters with a team of diverse people, small issues can boil over and turn into massive problems that can halt a multi-million dollar project. Rachael shares her leadership strategy to develop the self-awareness, the priorities, and the communication skills needed to have an open and transparent culture so that everyone can focus on doing their best work and not on the interpersonal conflicts.
Key Takeaways
[3:55] Looking through a newspaper one day, a photo of a penguin in the job section caught Rachael’s eye. It was a call to lead an Antarctic expedition and they were looking for people with certain characteristics, not skillsets. Rachael already had a job, but she was curious.
[7:10] The recruitment process was so different than anything Rachael had ever experienced. It wasn’t a job interview, it was a boot camp. She was the only woman who applied and when she was selected, she was the youngest leader in the group.
[10:25] There is absolutely no sunlight during winter. In summer, it’s 0 degrees celsius.
[12:00] The experience taught Rachael that she can overcome anything. Whenever she has a tough challenge in her life, she refers back to this expedition.
[14:25] Rachael has applied for jobs before and not gotten them, and nothing bad happened to her! These mini “failures” gave her the resilience to at least try and see what happens.
[16:10] Rachael shares a challenging experience she had as a leader that she affectionately calls the “great bacon war.” Her team was split: Should bacon be crispy or soft and chewy? Upon further inspection, the problem was actually much deeper than that.
[21:10] Rachael faced a crisis when a part of her team was stranded with less than 10 days worth of food. An important leadership lesson there was, be visible to the rest of your team and be transparent about the crisis and how it’s unfolding.
[24:05] Part of being a leader, you have to also take out the politics. You do that by putting systems and processes in place so that everybody feels like they got a fair shot.
[26:50] Rachael had to work with a lot of different dynamics when it comes to how people get along. You’re in darkness for half a year and sharing quarters with your workmates 24/7, things can get bitter quite quickly if you don’t address the different personality types and styles in the room.
[35:00] When you’re living so closely and you have no privacy, the smallest things can manifest into big issues. The biggest source of conflict was leaving things around and disrespected common areas.
[38:40] After Rachael came back over a year, the biggest feeling she experienced was overwhelm. There was so much to process and take in, in such a busy world.
[40:55] Listener challenge: Practice optimism.
Quotable Quotes
- “A really basic rule for me is, resilience is thinking about thinking. It’s resting your thoughts before they continue [down a negative path].”
- “As a leader, if you have self-awareness, you can learn everything else.”
- “I don’t expect you all to love each other, but I do expect you to treat each other with respect.”
- “The aim, going in, was to create a culture where people will speak up and deal with things because I was worried about someone spiraling with depression or exploding with anger.”
- “We created a thing called ‘no triangles.’ If somebody has something to say, you go directly to the person, don’t take it to a third party.”
- “We don’t know what’s around the corner. Just be optimistic. Just keep hope alive.”
Resources Mentioned
- Rachael’s website: Rachaelrobertson.com.au/
- Leading on the Edge: Extraordinary Stories and Leadership Insights from The World's Most Extreme Workplace, by Rachael Robertson
- Respect Trumps Harmony: Why being liked is overrated and constructive conflict gets results, by Rachael Robertson
- Rachael on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter.
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Siobhan McHale led a radical seven-year culture change project that transformed her organization from the lowest-performing bank in Australia to one of the highest-performing and most globally admired banks in the world. This gave Siobhan an insider role and a different perspective on culture change, which led to her book, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change. Siobhan provides an overview of how to best measure change, what to do if you feel powerless in an organization, and how to be an effective catalyst to improve culture.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] Siobhan noticed that a lot of organizational change and literature was written from an outsider’s perspective. She wanted to write a book on how to make a change from within.
[4:10] Culture is often framed for employee experience, but culture is much more than that. It’s about impact.
[5:30] Middle management feels powerless about creating lasting change within an organization, but change can happen at all levels.
[7:30] Siobhan shares cultural differences between how leadership is led in North America vs. Australia.
[13:40] People are running low on energy, and passion projects can be great ways to revitalize yourself. However, we first need to define ourselves and the various roles we have in our life.
[18:30] Siobhan was led down this path of culture when she was fired by an organization for going
“too fast.”
[21:30] Change is not someone else’s responsibility, it’s yours. Instead of empowering your employees to “change,” it’s about framing it around a goal and bringing accountability to everyone involved.
[25:15] It goes back to: People help support what they create.
[29:00] You can measure change by defining key metrics early in the beginning. For example, you can measure employee engagement, customer satisfaction, financials, and sustainability.
[31:10] We all have a mental map of our roles, but it’s time we update that. You don’t want to operate just on a functional basis, you want to keep modifying and improving the culture so that it's healthy, vibrant, and adaptable.
[34:40] A sign of a good culture is when, if there is a position available, thousands of people are trying to apply.
Quotable Quotes
- “Culture change is led at all levels.”
- “It doesn’t matter where you are, you can start to shape the culture in your organization. You don’t have to wait for it to be instigated from the top.”
- “It’s not so much about empowering your employees, but about framing the goal and not co-creating the pattern where change is someone else’s responsibility.”
- “Can you measure culture? No, you can’t measure the patterns of the culture, but you can measure the impact it has.”
- “If you do change right, your part of the business will start to navigate its way through this crisis.”
- “Ultimately, culture is in service. Culture is not in competition with strategy. Culture enables strategy.”
Resources Mentioned
- Siobhan’s website & book: Siobhanmchale.com
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Rich Diviney lives to discover, inspire, and accelerate the potential of human beings. As a Retired Navy SEAL Commander, he completed more than 13 overseas deployments. He also spearheaded the creation of a directorate that fused physical, mental, and emotional disciplines. In January 2021, Rich will release his first book, The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance. Rich breaks down how your average teams can become high-performing teams, the mental strategies we can use to overcome stressful situations, and why we need to screen for attributes, not necessarily skill sets. Rich also works with Simon Sinek to help leaders and organizations create environments where people feel valued and free to explore their potential.
Key Takeaways
[4:25] When RIch was tasked with creating resilience among SEAL Teams, he created the “Mind Gym” concept.
[6:00] Rich believed that, through resiliency, you could label and reframe PTSD in a new way.
[10:15] One of the ways we can take care of ourselves mentally is to slow down and to let our brains rest. Sleep is the #1 way to recover.
[11:05] If you’re stressed out, turn off the news. It’s one of the primary sources of stress because they throw so many unknown variables at you.
[14:25] Rich is not always striving for peak performance. Instead, he searches for optimal performance, which he defines as, “How can you do the very best you can in the moment with what you’ve got.”
[17:25] Our attributes will tell us how we will perform when things go sideways. The good news is that we can develop our attributes.
[21:55] Why does someone want to be in special operations forces? Rich believes that the reason is actually rooted in narcissism. We all want to be the best. We all want to prove we are the best.
[24:15] Rich breaks drive down into five attributes:
- Self-efficacy.
- Discipline.
- Open-mindedness.
- Cunning.
- Narcissism.
[27:15] The smaller the team or the smaller the organization, Rich doesn’t see the same “groupthink” traits as he does in larger organizations. He believes this is due to lack of structure and corporate refinement.
[32:10] You are not allowed to designate yourself as a leader. Leadership is a behavior that others are drawn to. People choose to follow a leader.
[37:55] It is completely possible to recharge our mental and physical wellbeing during a stressful situation. It can be through meditation, through a quick nap, or even a visualization of what makes you happy.
[44:00] In high-performing teams, Leadership roles and responsibilities will change to different people based on their expertise or who might be closer to a situation at the time. Rich has seen that leadership is fluid and people, including leaders, will shift power roles to the one who is most capable given the situation.
[44:35] Trust is the key element to any high-functioning and high-performing team. They lean on each other.
[45:35] Listener challenge: Break some of the preconceived constraints and boundaries that have been built on your current team.
Quotable Quotes
- “Resiliency doesn’t describe what high performers do. Resiliency by definition is the ability to get knocked off of baseline and get back to baseline.”
- “One of the ways we can all take care of ourselves mentally is to actively find ways to slow ourselves down and turn off the outside world.”
- “Things that bring you joy. Any time you engage in an activity that you feel more full after doing, you’re likely in recovery mode.”
- “What defines optimal performance — can you keep on moving and what are the attributes you bring to the table?”
- “If teams want to figure out how to manage in uncertainty, they need to look at attributes vs. just skill.”
- “We are biologically designed to want to stand out. Narcissism in small doses, the desire to be special, can be a very, very powerful driver in performance.”
Resources Mentioned
- Rich’s website & upcoming book: Theattributes.com
- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth
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Kwame Christian, ESQ. is an attorney, meditator, and the author of the best selling book, Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life. His book is an Amazon Best-Seller and has helped countless individuals overcome the fear, anxiety, and emotion often associated with difficult conversations through a branded framework called Compassionate Curiosity. Kwame walks us through how to leverage emotions to effectively bridge the gap between negotiation and conflict.
Kwame is also the host of the world’s most popular negotiation podcast, Negotiate Anything. Kwame’s TEDx talk, Finding Confidence in Conflict, was the most popular TEDx Talk on the topic of conflict in 2017, and has been viewed over 150,000 times.Kwame also serves as a negotiation and conflict resolution professor at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. The Dispute Resolution Program at Moritz is the top ranked dispute resolution program in the country. He is also a professor in Otterbein University’s MBA program. Prior to practicing business law and founding ANI, Kwame worked at the Kirwan Institute doing civil rights work. While at Kirwan, Kwame focused on criminal justice and health equity.
Key Takeaways
[4:25] When you travel abroad to new and exotic locations, it can really test your negotiation abilities as you haggle for items you want at the market.
[8:45] Kwame’s book, Finding Confidence in Conflict, can be used in high-level stressful business negotiations as well as trying to communicate effectively with family.
[10:05] Whether we like it or not, we are not thinking machines. We are feeling machines that happen to think. Emotions play a big part in everything we do.
[11:25] Most times when people fail at negotiation, it’s because they didn’t address the underlying emotional issues.
[14:10] The “natural” human doesn’t want to engage in conflict.
[16:20] Conflicts break down because there’s a developed “me vs. you” narrative.
[20:55] When addressing conflict or a difference in opinion, it’s important to first recognize the emotions in ourselves as well as the emotions in others.
[25:35] Kwame shares his thoughts on diversity and inclusion and what we need to be doing better to bridge the gap.
[27:15] Everyone needs time to process their emotions to effectively communicate what they’re feeling. However, men often do feel comfortable saying words like ‘disappointed’ or ‘sad.’
[29:15] Sometimes you need an outside perspective to help you dig deep within yourself in a way that you can’t do by yourself. This can be a trusted friend, coach, or therapist.
[29:55] When it comes to the way women negotiate and the literature out there, Kwame recognizes we’re asking women to fend for themselves when we should all be advocating for them.
[36:45] You’re not going to be able to overcome your own biases unless you have a bit of self-awareness, and take the time to create solutions for them.
[43:25] Listener challenge: Use the Compassionate Curiosity Framework:
- Acknowledging and Validating Emotions.
- Getting Curious with Compassion.
- Engaging in Joint Problem Solving.
Quotable Quotes
- “The best things in life are on the other side of difficult conversations.”
- “Our emotions are going to get the first shot of interpretation of anything.”
- “We’re working against our psychology when we just say, ‘I’m going to pretend I don’t have any emotions.’”
- “You can’t overcome a problem if you don’t know there’s a problem.”
- “Strengthen the foundation of your business by ensuring all employees feel heard, supported, and honored.”
Resources Mentioned
- Negotiate Anything Podcast
- Negotiation Guides
-
Kwame’s TEDx Talk
-
Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life
-
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt
- The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance — What Women Should Know, by Katty Kay
- Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
- “It’s Not About The Nail”
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Jen believes every single person on the planet is capable of tapping into their creativity. She helps people trust their own instincts and find the courage to take action with authenticity and heart.
Using her 20+ years of experience in the Broadway community and her background in the arts, Jen encourages creative thinking and imagination, so that others can cultivate new ideas and share them with the world.
Jen and Simon Sinek united several years ago when Jen began using the Golden Circle to inspire artists to make a greater impact with their work. Jen and Simon recognized that their combined efforts could help people across many different industries discover their WHY and bring it to life.
Jen presents WHY-inspired keynotes and workshops on leadership, communication, and presentation skills so that individuals and organizations can have more impact with their ideas.
Key Takeaways
[3:40] We all possess the power to be creative. It is a skillset anybody can learn.
[9:25] Everyone should take an acting class because the basic principles of acting are the basic principles of living.
[12:15] We can all get better at listening to the end of a sentence.
[16:45] A lot of Jen’s clients have been with her for 15 years, so when COVID-19 hit, it didn’t make sense to close down the business for good. Instead, her team decided to pivot virtually.
[19:00] When we lose social connection, we end up being in threat mode and all we care about is survival.
[23:15] As an optimist on Simon Sinek’s team, Jen helps leaders develop their character through values-based ideas.
[27:20] People’s greatest fear is often public speaking. However, the heart of this fear really is the opinions of others.
[33:45] Actors work and develop their “characters.” Leaders and professionals can do the same to instill confidence and trust in the people they serve.
[42:15] Listener challenge: Bring art into artless spaces.
Quotable Quotes
- “Anything that can be interrupted doesn’t actually have a right answer.”
- Get better at listening to the end of a sentence
- “We talk about social distancing, but what we really need to do is rebrand that. It’s physical distancing, but we need to find ways to be socially close to each other.”
- “At the end of the day, it’s not about the speaker, it’s about the message.”
- “Working on your character is understanding that everything you do has storytelling value. People are creating narratives out of your behaviors all the time.”
- “We can work on our character and it doesn’t make us any less authentic. It gives us the opportunity we know we can be.”
Resources Mentioned
- Simonsinek.com
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Part of your role as a leader is to create an environment where people are performing at their best; and that means creating an environment where risk is mitigated. However, how safe is too safe? Google conducted a study that looked into what defines a high-performing team. When people see each other as humans first, and coworkers second, it builds psychological safety. Jim and Jan discuss how to provide clarity for effective teaming, and the generational perspectives on risk… and reward.
Key Takeaways
[2:55] Teams that followed the agenda precisely to a ‘T’ weren’t as effective as those who saw each other as people/humans first and coworkers second.
[3:40] If you’ve ever watched elk in the wild, you’ll know that they all face outward watching the horizon so that the herd has everyone’s back. The same is true in trusted teams.
[7:05] Find the good in others.
[7:40] It can be a hard pill to swallow, but your opinions might be wrong.
[10:15] Jim remembers a time where he and the neighborhood kids would make up new rules when they played sports and adapt to different situations being thrown at them. It seems the younger generation has a harder time working ‘off the cuff’ and this might be why there is a backlash with safety.
[10:40] There are generational differences in how risk and safety are viewed.
[11:35] Leaders might be sending two very different messages to people: We’re saying we need to hyper-communicate/collaborate with the team, but at the same time you need to work independently and be resourceful.
[13:25] Remember, risk is relative. As leaders, we need to be hyper-vigilant of what that looks like to different people.
[18:10] Really pay attention to the assumptions you and others make. You break out of this by having difficult conversations.
[23:10] Argue as if you’re right, but listen as if you are wrong.
[25:50] Stoicism is a balancing act. You don’t want to completely control your emotions where you feel nothing. It’s about recognizing them and responding to them without impulse.
[28:45] You own the responsibility to be clear to your team. When you have empathy for the members of your team and the kind of journey they’re on, you will have much more success getting alignment and engagement from your people.
Quotable Quotes
- “Argue as if you’re right, but listen as if you are wrong.”
- “We have a whole bunch of biases. Check them at the door.”
- “Hold your views lightly.”
- “Do we pick actions that are for the greater good or do individual needs or rights — do they take precedent?”
Resources Mentioned
- Project Aristotle
- Spitzercenter.org
- Steve Justice
- David Cote
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Frances Frei is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School, and her research involves understanding how leaders create the conditions for organizations and individuals to thrive. Frances discusses her new book, Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You. She dives into fixing broken cultures by creating an environment of psychological safety.
Key Takeaways
[3:50] Trust can be lost in three critical ways: authenticity wobble, logic wobble, or an empathy wobble.
[5:50] The logic wobble typically means you have sound logic but you lost the person in communication somewhere.
[11:40] When it comes to delegation, it’s on the leader to delegate well and to really examine where the process can be improved if tasks aren’t being performed as expected.
[12:35] Take radical accountability for your team member’s success.
[13:35] To achieve high-performing teams, they need to have psychological safety. In this climate, it can be hard to navigate this safety because people become guarded by another person’s opposite opinion.
[18:55] Cultures really like a redemption story.
[21:25] It’s on your shoulders, it’s your obligation, to build trust when there is no trust.
[25:35] If you want people within an organization to behave and act differently, you must get them to think differently.
[29:15] Cultural values can become weaponized. When this happens, you have to scrap it and create a new one.
[35:00] When it comes to diversity and inclusion, Frances wishes those words were reversed. If you are inclusive of difference, more and more difference is going to want to come and flourish.
[38:00] We are instinctively tribal and try to find people who are similar to us. This means if we can’t think differently, we have to go through our instinctive nature and put in new processes to help us think differently.
[41:30] Listener challenge: Seek a room where you’re the least smart person in that room.
Quotable Quotes
- “If I can delegate, I will be better off. Now, I have to learn how to delegate well.”
- “Whether or not you trust me, it’s my obligation.”
- “Culture can fix good people behaving badly.”
- “Culture exists in our minds and it manifests in our behaviors. Culture can change through education.”
- “It started as diversity and inclusion, I wish we could reverse those words. I can bring in diversity, but if I’m not inclusive of it, it doesn’t make anything better.”
- “I don’t want to take my difference and learn to be similar. I want to learn how to be different.”
Resources Mentioned
- Frances’s website & book: Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You
- Frances on LinkedIn
- “The Coddling of the American Mind,” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
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Joel Peterson is the chairman of JetBlue Airways, and has a long history of successful growth capital investments in a variety of industries. He currently teaches Entrepreneurial Management at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and serves as a Director of Franklin Covey. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Joel is the author of Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff, and The 10 Laws of Trust: Building the Bonds that Make a Business Great.
Key Takeaways
[2:10] Joel has 7 kids and 28 grandkids. He had to get good at time management as well as people management!
[4:00] It’s important to fire people with empathy. Just because they no longer fit your organization’s needs doesn’t mean they’re still not great people.
[8:20] Sales is incredibly vital to an organization, but the way people buy today is completely different than 20-plus years ago, and for that, we also need to be adapting and changing our sales strategies.
[10:25] Trust is the most powerful currency you have, but in order to have trust, the other person must feel like you have their best interests in mind and you’re not just looking out for yourself.
[12:20] Love sounds like it shouldn’t be part of a business book or dialogue, but truly, if you have love for other people, it is an unlimited resource that will never be exhausted.
[17:40] It’s more important than ever for people to have a personal brand and to also best balance that with the interests of a company but this is not a new concept. People have always had an interest in protecting their reputations.
[20:55] Trust has become a very precious commodity because it’s so easy to violate it.
[23:45] The best way to build trust is to trust people one event or one promise at a time.
[27:30] It’s a cop-out to repeat patterns that no longer serve you and blame it on how you were raised. You can change your patterns and rewrite upbringing.
[30:30] Embrace the hardship in your life. It will be one of your best lessons.
[33:35] Joel believes if you don’t have adversity in your life, you end up creating your own trouble. To counter that, Joel believes reading biographies can help center you in a world that’s otherwise pretty good, pretty positive, and low in conflict.
[38:10] Listener challenge: Be intentional with your life.
Quotable Quotes
- “In a dynamic business, you are going to outgrow people and people are going to change. Like a coach, you want the very best on your field and you need to do that in a good way.”
- “None of us like to be sold, but we do like to buy something. Once you realize that, what you’re really doing is becoming a phenomenal listener and solving problems.”
- “The one resource that is never exhausted and can grow without bound is love.”
- “You can actually rewrite your upbringings. You can overwrite what you inherited.”
- “Break it down, get it simple again. If it gets simple again, you can execute. Being intentional and executing, you become a high-trust person.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website
- Joel on LinkedIn & @JoelCPeterson on Twitter
- Joel’s books: Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff and The 10 Laws of Trust: Building the Bonds that Make a Business Great
- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion,
by Jonathan Haidt - Churchill: Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts
- The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History, by Boris Johnson
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Gary Hamel is on the faculty of the London Business School and is a cofounder of the Management Lab, an organization that builds technology and tools to support breakthrough management innovation. Professor Hamel has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the world's most influential business thinker, and his landmark books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. They include The Future of Management, What Matters Now, and Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them.
Gary makes a passionate, data-driven argument for excising bureaucracy and replacing it with something better. Drawing on more than a decade of research and packed with practical examples, Gary lays out a detailed blueprint for creating organizations that are as inspired and ingenious as the human beings inside them.
Key Takeaways
[3:40] Employees feel powerless because they’re not the CEO or in a leadership position. Truth is, employees hold a lot of power.
[6:15] You don’t need to take down the whole system to fix it. Experiment and see what works.
[7:50] Most communication in organizations is horizontal, not vertical.
[9:10] Gary shares an example of how employees can get the funding they need within their department without going through the lengthy budget planning and permission process.
[12:20] In a recent poll, more than 56% of people thought that capitalism was doing more harm than good.
[13:45] No matter your political side, people are frustrated by the broken system.
[20:45] Being in a physical location does not impact whether an employee feels more connected to the company mission.
[22:40] We live in an increasingly complex world, where changes happen rapidly and often. At the same time, bureaucracy is growing. Gary shares his thoughts on why that might be.
[30:30] Breakthroughs often come from people who are very young or from outside the system. If you want to succeed, you need an outsider mindset.
[33:35] We see human beings as instruments. We need to shift our focus and see them as agents instead.
[35:45] Leaders think their people are resistant to change. This is a false narrative.
[37:35] There is a reason why employees are so cynical.
[42:00] Gary shares his proudest achievements and what he looks forward to in the future.
[45:25] If you’re a leader, ask yourself how do you increase the power of those around you?
Quotable Quotes
- “If you’re really fed up with all of this and you think we need to change, don’t wait for the bureaucrats to uninstall bureaucracy.”
- “Every human being wants dignity and opportunity and equity. You want to believe you matter as a human being.”
- “Only one in five employees believe their opinions matter and only one in 10 say they have the freedom to experiment and try new things.”
- “You gotta empower people to make decisions on the frontline, give them the tools, knowledge, and incentives to do the right thing.”
- “We are eager to change, but our organizations give people very few opportunities to be masters of their own destiny and lead change.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website
- Gary on LinkedIn & @Profhamel on Twitter
- Gary’s books: Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, What Matters Now: How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation, The Future of Management
- Dreams and Details, by Jim Hagemann Snabe and Mikael Trolle
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As a sports psychologist, Dr. Jerry Lynch works with world-renowned coaches and athletes. He’s incorporated the teachings of a wide variety of different philosophies – from Eastern thought to Christian mysticism. Jerry shares stories of how to reframe your narrative, and use meditation to achieve both high performance and a relaxed state.
Key Takeaways
[7:50] Jerry provides an example of why you shouldn’t focus on winning 100%, but instead focus on why you want to win the day. It takes pressure off the team.
[10:55] Losing is, in many ways, winning.
[13:30] Mistakes are a great learning point, but they can also kill you in war and other acts of conflict.
[14:25] Focus on what you can control. When you’re relaxed you have the ability to perform at higher levels.
[16:15] Jerry shares stories of his father and his leadership capabilities.
[18:15] Jerry was faced with his first leadership lesson when he was 25 years old and in the Navy.
[20:15] Positivity is a critical piece to building a championship culture.
[23:05] Jerry was starstruck by basketball coach Dean Smith (then retired), but Coach Smith had all the time in the world to answer his questions. Dean had a power of influence that moved Dr. Jerry.
[33:35] Many athletes, Like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, have used mediation to help them win.
[36:45] Coaching is a profession of love.
[40:00] There’s a lot of fear in our environment. Fear breaks down our immune system and health. Win the day is about faith. Let’s look at faith rather than fear.
[43:45] Remember: Champion is a state of mind.
Quotable Quotes
- “From our losses and our setbacks, we become better athletes.”
- “The great teams that I’ve worked with, they had a way of going into battle and winning the battle before the war began by focusing on what they can control.”
- “Your power of influence is so strong and it changes lives, it allows people to realize their full potential.”
- “I want to feel my energy, I want to feel so connected to the work that I’m doing, the work that’s ahead of me, that you can feel it too.”
- “Coaching is a profession of love. You can’t coach athletes unless you love them, when you do, you win the day.”
- “Let’s look at faith rather than fear.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website
-
Dr. Jerry’s book: Win the Day: Building and Sustain a Championship Culture
-
Coaching with Heart: Taoist Wisdom to Inspire, Empower, and Lead in Sports & Life
-
The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek
- The Tao of Leadership: Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching Adapted for a New Age,
by John Heider - Jim Thompson
- Phil Jackson
- Dean Smith
- The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream,
by Barack Obama
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Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist and a bestselling, award-winning author. She is a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and the Founder of the Future Today Institute. Amy discusses what leaders need to be doing today to gain valuable foresight into their industry when faced with regular uncertainty. She also shares the framework on how we tend to think of future problems vs. how we should be thinking of future problems.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] Futurists don’t make predictions, they make connections.
[7:05] In artificial intelligence, some of the systems do not work as well as they could because they suffer from the ‘paradox of the present.’
[9:35] AI has been in development for hundreds of years now.
[11:25] The best way to think of AI now is that it’s the 3rd generation of computing.
[15:55] If you want to make things better, you need to know what to measure. The problem is, people don’t know how to measure the uncertainty of what’s outside of their realm of knowledge.
[17:25] The best way to navigate the unknown is by accepting that there will be a number of things you simply cannot control.
[18:15] Most people are really good at measuring the stuff that they can control, but they do not account for everything else. You have to actively look outside of your field for trends and other signals.
[20:50] Amy uses a framework called a time cone. The tip is filled with certainty, but as the base gets wider and wider, it becomes unclear where to go, yet we still have to make leadership decisions.
[24:00] Take a look at Nintendo. Multiple times that company should have been disrupted out of business.
[26:45] Just like anyone can be technically proficient at playing piano if they sit down and study it long enough, the same is true with foresight.
[38:20] What prevents organizations from moving forward is the attempt to maintain the status quo in organizations.
[42:15] If you do not comfort cherished beliefs over and over again, you become vulnerable.
[45:05] Elon Musk and other technologists are concerned about AI and its power, which is why we need incredibly courageous leadership during this time.
Quotable Quotes
- “I cannot think of an instance wherein an academic discipline or industry does not really, truly benefit from a cross-functional team and a diverse team.”
-
“This term artificial intelligence is meaningless because as soon as something works, we no longer think of it as approaching human-scale intelligence.”
-
“The only way to really solve that doubt is to go forth knowing that there are unknowable things over which you will have no control. That is a terrifying prospect.”
-
“Machines learn by repeatedly completing tasks that are in service of the stated goal or purpose.”
-
“What preserves the status quo is nobody is willing to ask difficult questions.”
-
“You can’t chase certainty. Certainty is brittle. So instead of certainty, you should aim for being confident and instilling confidence in the people that work with you.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website
- Amy’s book: The Big Nine: How The Tech Titans & Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity
- NYU Stern School of Business
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Chris Kolenda is the Founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy, a West Point grad, retired Army Colonel, and author of the book, Leadership: The Warrior’s Art. Chris has had the pleasure and not-so-great pleasure of working with a wide variety of leadership types and styles, including bullies. He explains how junior leaders, or anyone without leadership power, can stand up to abusive leaders and take control of their future.
Key Takeaways
[3:15] Chris served as a senior advisor for the Under Secretary of Defense, Michelle Flournoy, along with many 3-star and 4-star generals. Chris noticed that there is no single leadership ideal.
[5:00] There are four different leadership archetypes: Pioneers, Reconcilers, Operators, and Mavericks.
[7:45] Myers-Briggs is extremely useful, but it’s difficult to keep 16 personality type of mind.
[9:00] Chris has worked with three of these archetypes and shares the impact each one has had on him.
[11:45] Leaders are like gardeners. They help people grow to the biggest and healthiest version of themselves.
[14:45] Empathy plays an important role during a crisis. Take on the ability to see yourself in a situation in the eyes of others.
[18:45] Wash away your assumptions and learn to adapt.
[22:05] Chris was bullied and sexually assaulted when he was younger. He shares the long-term effects bullies have on a person.
[25:25] If you’ve been bullied or assaulted, first recognize that this is not your fault.
[27:15] You can stop a bully dead in their tracks by acknowledging them and calling them out (the right way).
[29:25] Tell people right away. Don’t wait 35-plus years to share your story.
[36:15] Most organizations can’t afford to take 6–8 months to go to a leadership course. It’s just not feasible, so we need to find better ways to multiply our experiences.
[42:45] Always lead with value.
[43:30] Challenge to the listeners: Look at your culture and see if the most vulnerable people in your organization feel safe enough to bring their best and most authentic selves to work.
Quotable Quotes
- “You don’t have to try to copycat somebody else, you can just be you.”
- “Leaders are like gardeners; they help each thing they are growing be the best and healthiest version of themselves.”
- “The more people who are affected by bullying tell their story, the more it deters predators.”
- “I encourage every person who is employed by a toxic, abusive bully, to leave.”
Resources Mentioned
- Website
- Chris’s book: Leadership: The Warrior’s Art
- Chris on LinkedIn
- Michèle Flournoy on The Leadership Podcast
- Stan McChrystal on The Leadership Podcast
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Author David M. Cote, the much respected former CEO of Honeywell (who took the market cap from $20B to $180B) shows how you can hit your short-term goals without sacrificing long-term growth as a leader. In Winning Now, Winning Later, Cote shares a simple, paradigm-shifting method of achieving both short-and long-term goals. Even in a recession, accomplishing these two seemingly conflicting things can ensure you emerge from a crisis stronger than ever.
Fortune magazine said, “Former Honeywell CEO David Cote just wrote one of the best guides ever on how to lead a company.”
Key Takeaways
[2:10] David had a lot of ambition, but no role models or direction growing up. He quit college twice and it took him six years to finish.
[4:15] When his wife got pregnant, David was working night shift, had $100 in the bank, and was scared to death.
[9:00] Herd thinking is alive and well. Leaders need to be thinking independently.
[11:25] One of the things only a CEO can do is balance long term yield with short term investment.
[18:15] David was sick of seeing presentations 100-plus pages long about their competitive advantage. You’re lucky if you have two to three things to your advantage, but 20? It means the team didn’t really think about this consciously. As a leader, it’s important to question everything and not just accept these presentations as fact.
[22:05] David would ask the most junior of people to the most senior of people in the room, “What do you think I should do?” It creates some fascinating dynamics between your staff.
[24:35] After understanding everyone’s opinion, David would then make his decision and explain the thought process behind that decision.
[25:15] People think that if you don’t agree with their opinion, you weren’t listening. However, there is a difference between listening and agreeing. By explaining a decision, people feel listened to and understand why you chose what you chose.
[28:35] It’s easier to criticize than to try and do something.
[32:50] You want every business in the country to constantly become more productive. The downside to that is that certain jobs will disappear forever.
[36:35] There are a number of professions in this country that we don’t do a good job training for, which creates high demand and low supply.
[38:25] Schools have an outdated teaching model. David hated school because he didn’t know what was relevant to him and what was not. Schools need to adapt and find better methods to keep kids interested.
[40:30] Business has been the biggest force of good the world has ever seen.
[42:10] Leaders need to be thinking about how to do all the right things for the long term while at the same time providing short term results that validated the long term goals.
Quotable Quotes
- “There were at least three times throughout the course of my career where I thought my career was over.”
- “Success in business requires being able to accomplish two seemingly conflicting things at the same time.”
- “I wanted people to understand even though what they said was something I disagreed with, I didn’t care. I really wanted the development of their thought process.”
- “If you’re a leader, it means you have people working for you, it means you do have control over some things.”
- “The trick is in the doing. How do you actually figure out what it is you gotta do, mobilize everybody to do it, and actually make it happen.”
- “Business has been the biggest force of good the world has ever seen because it has taken billions of people out of poverty.”
Resources Mentioned
- David_M._Cote
- David’s book: Winning Now, Winning Later: How Companies Can Succeed in the Short Term While Investing for the Long Term
- “What Only the CEO Can Do,” by A.G. Lafley
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Jim and Jan discuss why they have been very conscious about not discussing politics or religion on the show. Leaders are faced with uncomfortable situations every day and sometimes it can be challenging to navigate controversial subjects effectively. We’re in an environment now where if we don’t speak up, we are making a statement, and if we do speak up, we’re on record. Listen in to a very deliberate and difficult discussion!
https://bit.ly/TLP-211
Key Takeaways
[2:25] Jim and Jan have made a conscious decision to not discuss politics on this show.
[3:15] Viewpoints and perspectives change over time as new information is obtained.
[4:20] It’s not Jim or Jan’s job to judge leaders. They study leaders and it’s their goal to learn from them by asking questions to understand - for the benefit of the audience.
[7:20] People are saying silence is complacency right now, but if you speak up and share your voice, you risk offending others.
[9:05] Instead of trying to interject a comment or opinion when you’re not sure what to do next, asking questions and listening intently will get you farther.
[10:25] There are two things you have to hire for, and can’t train, those are drive and curiosity.
[11:15] Why doesn’t the other side listen to reason? We were never designed to do so!
[16:40] Look at those you disagree with as instruments of a lesson to learn.
[18:40] The current problems we’re all facing right now have been around since the beginning of time.
[20:10] Through the act of listening, you can change. You can also hold two different positions at the same time!
[25:45] What would a world look like if racism didn’t exist or if the world didn’t have religion?
[26:45] People respect a strong dogmatic opinion, but hold your opinions lightly and consider other viewpoints.
[29:25] We all want to serve, make a difference, and make the world a better place.
[30:30] Always find something you can agree on first, and then work from there.
[32:40] Jim’s challenge: Be civil to one another.
[34:20] Stop thinking of viewpoints as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Start thinking of them as ‘weak’ and ‘strong.’
Quotable Quotes
- “I’d like to think our viewpoints and perspectives continue to evolve. Why go on record for something that might change as we look at different points of view?”
- It’s always all about the questions!
- The human default is not to entertain other people’s points of view and to learn, but to advance our own opinion.
- “Hold your views lightly.”
Resources Mentioned
- Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk, by Brandon Warmke
and Justin Tosi - The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion,
by Jonathan Haidt - Salesbrain.com
- TED Talk: Jonathan Haidt
- How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
- Brainyquote.com/topics/politics-quotes
-
The Coddling of the American MindHow Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
-
The Last Dance
-
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz
- 7500 (2019)
- Harvey (1950)
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Ron Williams is the former chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc. Ron’s new book is Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yourself, Leading Others, and Leading an Organization. On the podcast, Ron provides practical, tested leadership advice, whether you're searching for a new career, looking for proven management solutions, or seeking to transform your organization. Developed from Ron’s own personal and professional journey, as well as the experiences of America's leading CEOs, these strategies emerge boldly from engaging stories, outlined with practical steps
Key Takeaways
[4:25] Leaders aren’t born. It is a learned skill. You have the ability to excel in whatever you put your mind to. Do not accept the narrative that others impose on you.
[6:45] Surround yourself with people who are where you want to go.
[9:15] When it comes to leading organizations, a critical skill to have is also the ability to lead yourself.
[10:25] While most staff are concerned about this week, this month, this quarter, the CEO and the board have to look beyond the horizon to see what’s next.
[11:20] A piece of advice Ron gives to executives trying to delay gratification: If it feels good, don’t do it.
[13:15] As leaders, it’s important to assume positive intent when it comes to your team. People want to do a good job. Most of them don’t set out to miss deadlines.
[14:15] ‘Why’ is a good question to ask, but it can sometimes make people feel like they’re five years old again trying to justify a bad decision. Instead, rephrase the question to, ‘help me understand what were some of the barriers.’ Make your ‘why’ question a collaboration question.
[18:15] In order to solve the right problem, you have to give your team the room to come forward and communicate.
[22:55] Values are only real if the executives talk about it and live it within the organization.
[27:10] Failure of leadership is when you create yes-men in your organization and your staff are too scared to speak up on bad ideas.
[29:10] Leaders can achieve great success in organizations with different approaches: Fear, Money, Pride, Values. Just because someone is successful, doesn’t mean their leadership style was a values-approached style.
[32:45] As the workforce becomes globalized, it’s more important than ever not to hire more people that are similar to you or practice groupthink.
[35:40] Do you think you’re inclusive in your organization? Ask yourself: When was the last time you were in a group where you were a minority?
[38:45] Ron’s challenge: A leader’s role is to develop the talent within an organization. Ron has had five people under him go on to become CEOs. You want to hire people who have the potential to be as good as you, if not better.
Quotable Quotes
- “If people say, ‘You’ll never be successful,’ ‘You’ll never be a leader,’ learn to not accept their view of you.”
- “The CEOs are often the only customer for many of the things that are really critical to the success and prosperity of the company. The CEO and the board have to look out over the horizon.”
- “You have to start with the assumption that people want to do a good job.”
- “When people get promotions, how many think about the obligations they just took on?”
- “People merely strengthen their organization by this kind of unique perspective that they bring.”
- “To bring inclusivity, the answer is to get out of your comfort zone and really have an understanding of what it’s like to see the world through someone else’s view.”
Resources Mentioned
- Ronwilliams.net
- Connect with Ron on Twitter: @AetnaPresident & LinkedIn
- Ron’s book: Learning to Lead
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Mark Johnson is the co-author of the book, Lead from the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking into Breakthrough Growth. Mark offers creative and different ways of approaching the future. Timing is always everything and it can be tricky for leaders to gauge when it makes sense to act. To navigate, you need a north-star vision for your company.
Key Takeaways
[3:15] Mark discusses the passing of Clayton Christensen and the impact he has made on his life and the lives of many others.
[6:45] Small businesses have the opportunity (and flexibility) to reinvent themselves. You don’t have to go down with the sinking ship.
[11:10] Nobody has a crystal ball about the future, but business is in business for the customer. Look to the customer and their needs when adapting your services.
[13:35] Timing is always everything and it can be tricky for leaders to gauge when it makes sense to act. To navigate this, you need a north-star vision for your company.
[15:10] It’s a risky time for businesses, which means they need to start getting good at learning, and quickly adapting from those insights.
[22:05] We often look for constraints before a project has even begun. However, if we put constraints on it prior to the request, the mind is forced to think outside of the box to solve the task at hand. It’s a creative way to use psychology to help spark innovation.
[23:55] With information technology, our brains get easily distracted, which means our room for creativity becomes less and less.
[24:55] The cavalry is not coming. You have to break free from your biases.
[25:55] Mark shares examples of companies thinking in the future instead of the present. Like, how do you completely prevent a disease from occurring, and prove that you’ve actually prevented a disease?
[32:45] The truth is, we’re not necessarily risk-averse, we just don’t know how to properly manage risk.
[39:55] Develop a compelling vision, align the organization, and then motivate/reward to allow it to stick.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s not an either/or. Yes, you want to have a good professional career, but it can’t be a replacement for your family.”
- “Entrepreneurs, to begin with, are resourceful people, they are imaginative people, they are visionaries.”
- “It’s more important to have the right way of thinking and a process that enables you to be forward-looking at the same time as operationally-oriented.”
- “It’s a risky time and the only way to mitigate risk is to be good about learning. In order to be good about learning, you’ve got to be good at running experiments.”
- “With information technology, we’re much more hunkered down with the volatility and uncertainty of the world to try and address the here and now.”
- “Everybody in the organization doesn’t need to be creative. However, you’ve got to bring everyone in your organization along through your communication and explain the reasons why creativity is important, even for those who are not involved directly.”
Resources Mentioned
- Innosight.com
- Connect with Mark on Twitter: @InnosightTeam & LinkedIn
-
Mark’s book: Lead from the Future
-
How Will You Measure Your Life?, by Clayton M. Christensen,
James Allworth, and Karen Dillon -
“Leaders, Do You Have a Clear Vision for the Post-Crisis Future?”
- “The Innovator’s DNA”
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Alexandra Carter is Director of the Mediation Clinic at Columbia Law School, where she is also as an award-winning professor, and a world-renowned negotiation trainer for the United Nations. She also serves as Executive Director of Stand Up Girls, helping tween girls develop relationships for greater self-esteem and resilience. She has appeared on CBS This Morning, MSNBC’s LIVE Weekend and Hardball, Marketplace, and in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Alex is the author of ASK FOR MORE: Ten Questions to Negotiate Anything. Alex believes you don’t have to be the most aggressive person to get a deal done, all it takes is asking the right questions and you can negotiate anything.
Key Takeaways
[3:25] Alexandra had that moment when she was a law student in Columbia that this was the career path that she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
[7:35] Acknowledgement is a hugely important tool, not just for negotiators, but for leadership as well.
[9:25] The pandemic is changing the way we negotiate because we are no longer in the same room together. Right now, it’s more critical than ever when you’re not face-to-face to lead the negotiations with a question.
[11:40] Whenever possible, Alexandra tries to set up video calls, not just phone calls. It feels more like a conversation than an interrogation.
[12:15] Zoom fatigue is very real. Our brain is trying to process the ‘unknown’ that it can’t pick up on when it’s not in person.
[14:35] The handshake is not the only way to greet someone, to show appreciation, or even to confirm a deal. Through Alexandra’s multicultural experiences, she has discovered you can build connection without touch.
[17:20] Negotiation vs. Mediation. The difference between these two things is meditators are third-party people trying to help bridge a gap between a negotiation. They act as a coach to help both parties ask the right questions.
[23:15] Most people want the same things, even at the higher multi-million-dollar deal level.
[24:30] Alexandra never had a ‘one-time’ client, because she’s made a conscious effort to create relationships.
[26:45] No matter your background, negotiation is for everyone. You don’t have to be the most aggressive person in the room to do it.
[31:50] Relationships create a deal, not the other way around.
[33:00] When you find out the types of objections people have, you find out what they really need.
[36:25] Alexandra’s advice: People start their negotiations in the wrong place. Instead of trying to brainstorm or come up with the right solutions right away, first, start with finding the right problem to solve. Before you negotiate, figure out what’s the first problem you want to solve.
[41:00] Even in a pandemic, you can still ask for more of the things that make life worthwhile, even going out to grow your business and serve people.
Quotable Quotes
- “Questions have tremendous power.”
- “When a leader acknowledges his/her team, people go the extra mile for you.”
- “When we can’t see each other, we’re less likely to trust each other.”
- “As a mediator, the work that I’ve been able to do with folks has saved a lot of relationships.”
- “Most of the time, you can find a way to create value for both people.”
- “You don’t have to be the most aggressive person in the room to be a good negotiator. You just have to ask great questions and create great relationships.”
Resources Mentioned
- Alexcarterasks.com
- Connect with Alexandra on Twitter: @alexbcarter & LinkedIn
- Alexandra’s book: Ask for More: 10 Questions to Negotiate Anything
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Brian Ahearn specializes in applying the science of influence and persuasion in everyday situations, and authored the LinkedIn course Persuasive Selling and has been cited in The small BIG, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, and Introducing Persuasion: A Practical Guide. Brian believes the ability to connect with someone is everywhere, it just takes a conversation and an intense curiosity to find commonalities.
Key Takeaways
[2:45] Brian trained under Dr. Robert Cialdini. Dr. Cialdini loves to research and experiment with different theories. Brian, on the other hand, loves taking that research and applying it right away.
[6:05] Leaders can use influence for good (instead of manipulation) by being empathic and taking the time to truly know the person working for them. When you have people’s best interests at heart, it’s easy to get good work done.
[10:50] Salespeople who understand technology and know how to build a connection virtually are really going to thrive in this new environment. Understanding the technology you’re working with right now is critical when you can’t shake someone’s hand.
[13:25] The biggest mistake that Brian sees in coaching is when companies do not give coaches the correct space or training for them to excel in their company environment.
[14:55] Coaches shouldn’t be ‘telling’ people what to do. They should be asking the right questions and getting the mentee to act on their own.
[17:30] A good salesperson asks questions, allows the customer to talk, and when they’re listening, they start to understand the customer’s needs and buying type. The same applies to coaching.
[20:40] People right now are finding out how strong their customer relations really are because they have to connect differently than before.
[22:20] During this time, it’s important to show genuine concern for people! Sometimes just reaching out to check in and see how they’re doing, is all you need to do.
[24:20] The more we find we have in common, the more we naturally like that person.
[31:00] It’s up to you to emotionally start connecting with people. Look for everything you can find about a person that the two of you have in common. 31:00] It’s up to you to emotionally start connecting with people. Look for everything you can find that you have in common with this new person or acquaintance.
[32:55] A lot of good things are coming out of quarantine. People from all over are using Zoom to connect with old friends.
[36:20] People are more motivated by what they might lose than what they might gain.
[39:15] You need to trust that when you have people’s best interests at heart, that they will respond positively to that. It all starts with you and the choices that you make.
[42:30] There’s something good in everybody and if you can find it, even the most difficult people will become someone you could enjoy working with.
Quotable Quotes
- “If I ask the right questions and help you come up with a solution, you will be much more committed to that solution because you came up with it.”
- “It’s easy for us to say yes to people we know and like.”
- “Go in with a mindset of how can I come to like them.”
Resources Mentioned
- Influencepeople.biz
- Connect with John on Twitter: @BrianAhearn
- Brian’s book: Influence PEOPLE: Powerful Everyday Opportunities to Persuade that are Lasting and Ethical
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini
- The Best of Enemies (film 2019)
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John Rogers is the author of The Renaissance Campaign - a mindset that has put him at the helm of a billion-dollar transportation company, working alongside Michael J Fox promoting the advancement of stem cell research, and testifying in front of the U.S. Senate. His core worldview posits that most all challenges can be solved with the right mix of holistic thinking coupled with an effective high-impact campaign.
Key Takeaways
[3:45] If you don’t have revenue, you’re not a business. Leaders often find themselves so busy working in the business that they end up not working on the business. The same holds true in government.
[7:15] Whether it be non-profit, business, or government, they’re not making conscious time to create space for the long-term picture and the health of the organization. A piece of this is that they don’t know how and they don’t have the discipline.
[12:05] The Cassandra Syndrome is something that occurs when you know what’s going to happen, but nobody believes you. This applies to things like climate change and artificial intelligence.
[14:30] Our society has become so wonderfully specialized, but that can also get in our way.
[15:35] Today’s problems require multiple heads with multiple expertise to solve for.
[16:15] In order to get holistic thinking into an organization, it first starts with getting some creatives in the door.
[18:55] In order to break out of silos within your organization, you need to have diversity of thought.
[23:55] John immerses a wide variety of people in a room for a couple of days and doesn’t give them a break. This is to see how they work under pressure.
[26:35] John’s coach made him go through an exercise to use three words to describe himself in all areas of life. It was a tough challenge because of all the words that you end up leaving behind.
[34:45] John shares a little bit about the stem cell work he did with actor Michael J. Fox.
Quotable Quotes
- “We have short-term challenges that leaders have to navigate, but we have bigger, long-term challenges at the same time.”
- “We are all prisoners of our own perspective.”
- “The naysayers, they disappear, they get swallowed up.”
Resources Mentioned
- Johnrogers360.com
- The Renaissance Campaign: A Problem-Solving Formula for Your Biggest Challenges, by John Rogers
- Connect with John on Twitter: @_JohnRogers360
- Tom Wujec — “First, tell me how you make toast” — TED Talks
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall
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Justin Tosi is the author of the recently released book, Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk. Such one-upmanship is not just annoying, but dangerous. Using the analytic tools of psychology and moral philosophy, Justin explains what drives us to behave in this way, and what we stand to lose by taking it too far.
Key Takeaways
[2:50] Grandstanding is the use and abuse of moral talk for self-promotion.
[5:45] As we see ourselves in such a positive light, it makes sense why we want to grandstand and let the whole world know how great we are.
[9:50] The difference between morality and ethics is that ethics showcases a general baseline on how to live, what’s good for you and others around you. Morality, on the other hand, is much narrower.
[14:25] No matter what you believe or the environment you are in, you will have people try to move up in status within their peer group.
[20:15] Leaders don’t need an official ideology when it comes to politics. We’re here to do good work and your political views don’t necessarily impact the quality of your work.
[23:10] It’s important to treat people the way they like to be treated, so politics aside, it’s also important to understand their points of view and beliefs.
[25:50] We want to bring intense culture to an organization, and this is important, but when you do it, the main motivation should not be trying to impress people.
[30:50] Morality is about helping other people, it’s not about helping yourself look good.
[34:35] Figuring out what a good life is to you is one of the most important questions, not just in moral philosophy, but also in life.
[40:45] Listener challenge: Stop grandstanding yourself!
Quotable Quotes
- “People want recognition for being morally good.”
- “Shallow agreement is your friend. You can agree on a general principle without getting into definite disputes.”
- “Do what’s right, do your best, and treat others as they’d like to be treated.”
- “How can you talk about values without slipping into this trap of trying to show other people how good you are?”
- “Am I trying to do good or just look good?”
Resources Mentioned
- Justintosi.com
- Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk, by Justin Tosi
and Brandon Warmke - Connect with Justin on Twitter: @JustinTosi
- Lou Holtz
- The Good Place
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Sara Canaday is the author of You — According to Them, and Leadership Unchained: Defy Conventional Wisdom for Breakthrough Performance. Sara shares how leaders can better adapt to the changing landscape, because conventional or traditional success strategies can now limit our recovery and growth. Sara contends we need to shift from being a doer to being a driver.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] Conventional or traditional success strategies that we’ve learned can now limit our future success as the landscape today is so different.
[6:15] When Sara says take a strategic pause, she doesn’t mean to take a mental time out. She means to really absorb all the knowledge you’ve learned lately and see what stands out.
[8:45] The idea of doing nothing scares a lot of people, even when they consciously know it could benefit them greatly.
[16:30] In Sara’s book, You — According to Them, the biggest thing that leaders took away from that book was shifting the focus from being a doer to a driver.
[24:35] It’s up to all of us to find our own purpose in the bigger scheme of things. A company tells you what your function is - not necessarily purpose.
[31:35] As a young woman, Sara learned that if she wanted to be taken seriously, she had to be serious, and that thinking backfired on her.
[33:40] There is a balance between standing out and fitting in. Be a renegade in your ideas, but not in your behavior.
[37:15] People like listening to the loudest person in the room because it feels like action-taking, but those people can create massive casualties in an organization. The only way to prevent this is to really slow down and think things through, but that’s not deemed ‘efficient.’
[39:55] You have a lot of control over who gets your time and attention more than you realize, even if you feel like you don’t have the ‘authority’ or a high-demanding boss in front of you.
[43:10] In order to get people engaged, we have to show them that we’re just as engaged in what they want for themselves.
[47:00] Leaders need to be willing to shake up the way they think.
Quotable Quotes
- “Take a strategic pause, make unbreakable appointments with yourself to sit, and let everything you’ve read/seen/heard in a week or a day marinate so you can see connections you may not have seen.”
- “How many of us were rewarded for being doers? We’ve been conditioned, so it takes a real mind shift to sit still.”
- “You can have all the smarts in the world, but that alone is not going to get you where you need to be.”
- “The experiences we give ourselves are important.”
- “If you enter the game of business, you enter the game to play. So play to win!”
Resources Mentioned
- Saracanaday.com
- Leadership Unchained: Defy Conventional Wisdom for Breakthrough Performance, by Sara Canaday
- You — According to Them: Uncovering the blind spots that impact your reputation and your career, by Sara Canaday
- What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith
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Change. The soft skills measurement company, Pairin, describes change as the drive to pursue complexity, novelty or variety, and to avoid the predictability of order and routine. Listen in to help guide your team through tough challenges when everything seems to be overwhelming. Jim and Jan share Kotter’s 8-Step Process for leading change and how to remove the barriers to support change efforts that stick.
Key Takeaways
[1:35] It’s very rare in life that the entire world experiences change at the same time.
[6:45] Wake up every morning determined to give more than you take.
[9:25] It’s inspiring to see how mankind can come together in terms of crisis.
[11:25] If you’re getting stressed out, take a big breath, and say, “I have time.”
[14:25] A review of Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change.
[15:25] Short-term wins.
[19:50] Focus on the changes that are happening around you and how you can better support the people struggling. A ‘woe is me’ approach is an unhealthy mindset.
[23:05] Gig economy nuances.
[26:00] Pay attention to your fears.
Quotable Quotes
- “There are all kinds of things out there that we can not control, but we can control how we respond to our environment and our attitude.”
- “When you’re going into situations, breathe, and say, ‘I have time. I have time.’”
- “Great leaders remove big barriers.”
- “Get out of the world of ‘what’s changed for me’ and start thinking about what’s changed for everyone.”
- “It’s time to reinvent work, and make more time for other important things in life.”
- “Events like this are critical for you to understand what really motivates you and what’s keeping you from accomplishing your goals.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Man’s Search for Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust,
by Viktor Frankl - Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change
- Adamgrant.net
- “Dan Pink — When Fear Motivates”
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General Martin E. Dempsey served as the 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior officer in the Armed Forces and the military advisor to the Secretary of Defense and to the President. General Dempsey is the co-author of “Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership.” “No Time For Spectators: The Lessons That Mattered Most From West Point To The West Wing” is Dempsey’s latest book, and he examines the limits of loyalty, the necessity of sensible skepticism, and the value of responsible rebelliousness, and explains why we actually should sweat the small stuff.
The conversation with General Dempsey takes listeners behind the closed doors of the Situation Room, onto the battlefields of Iraq, and to the East German border at the height of the Cold War. The conversation also answers: Why are the best leaders the ones who are most adept at following? What should we expect of those who have the privilege of leading?
Key Takeaways
The relationships between leaders and followers—employers and employees, politicians and constituents, coaches and athletes, teachers and students—are most productive when based on certain key mutual expectations.
[3:05] General Dempsey spent some time as a youth really getting to know his origins and understanding his Irish background.
[6:50] Chapter 5: Don’t Hurry. If you try to spend up the process, you are bound to miss a few steps along the way. For example, it takes time to build critical relationships from within the organization. Trust takes time.
[14:25] People are wondering when they can get back to normal. The question really is, was normal even that good? Can we build a better ‘normal’?
[16:15] We all have our own lens or level of expertise but it’s our character that really brings these levels to light. Character is the final filter for making tough decisions based on the limited information you might have.
[22:15] Innovation happens with a bit of rebelliousness. The question becomes whether you can define the limits of rebelliousness so that it can still be responsible and valuable to the organization.
[28:35] General Dempsey really enjoys the ‘art’ of Twitter and how he creatively has to convey his message within a limited amount of characters. There is real power towards being able to share your message concisely.
[34:10] This is our first global crisis in the social media age. You see people being very helpful and also manipulative. General Dempsey wrote a chapter in his book about sensible skepticism. In the world we live in today, you can’t take anything without applying your own common sense to it.
[35:10] General Dempsey believes you can get people to come together through influence and collaboration. Do not rely on your authority as a leader to get empowerment/trust done.
[42:15] Sometimes not everybody can have a say or voice in the decision-making process, but if you try to make it as inclusive as possible when you can, people are not going to think less of you during the times where you can’t include them.
[49:35] It was tough for General Dempsey to see fallen soldiers, but it was even tougher trying to comfort the men who still had to fight after losing someone they cared about. He could see in their eyes the mix of emotions between fear and guilt.
[54:00] General Dempsey’s challenge: What has this pandemic done to you/for you?
Quotable Quotes
-
Make it matter.
-
“You have to get off the sidelines if you want to have positive, productive relationships.”
- “I hope we don’t go back to normal, but rather to a new normal.”
-
“Character exists in the privacy of our own individual consciousness, and it’s a willingness mostly invisible to others to allow our aspirational self to confront our actual self.”
-
“Almost every decision made at the presidential level is of such importance that character is the final filter, or it should be the final filter. ”
-
“Innovation normally occurs with a little bit of rebelliousness.”
- “There are 330 million people in this country and the vast majority of them want more knowledge, want more honesty, want more clarity, and want it more concisely.”
- “I don’t think, in the world we live in today, you can take anything without applying your own common sense to it.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Generaldempsey.com
- General Dempsey on LinkedIn
- General Dempsey on Twitter: @Martin_Dempsey
- No Time for Spectators: The Lessons that Mattered Most from West Point to the West Wing, by General Martin Dempsey
- General Martin Dempsey retirement ceremony, “Parting Glass”
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Wayne Baker is a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and author of All You Have to Do Is Ask, his sixth book. He directs the Center for Positive Organizations and also co-founded Give and Take Inc., an Ann Arbor-based technology firm. Through Wayne’s research, he has discovered that leaders are often happy to help others, but are unwilling to ask for help themselves. The good news is that you can create healthy environments in your organization where asking for help is encouraged and rewarded.
Key Takeaways
[2:40] As an avid sailor, Wayne had to learn to not panic when everything went awry.
[5:35] Some people ask for what they want and others take what’s given.
[7:50] Wayne has observed that there are some mentors that want you to be mini versions of them, but he recalls a great mentor of his who was always trying to push Wayne to be a better version of himself.
[11:20] People want to be generous, but don’t always know how to help unless you ask them to.
[12:15] There are four steps to making a thoughtful request.
1. What is the goal of your request?
2. What are the resources you need?
- Come up with a SMART request.
- And then find ‘who’ you need to ask.
[16:50] Most people will help you if you ask!
[19:25] It’s hard for leaders to be vulnerable and to ask for help. You can break this mold by creating a 15-minute staff meeting addressing what you need help with. When it’s expected that everyone is supposed to ask for help, it makes it easier for leaders to get the support they need.
[25:00] When asking for feedback, it’s important to know what are both your strengths and weaknesses, but you want to get these two pieces of information at different times so that you can better process it.
[26:35] Don’t feel comfortable asking for help? Go out and help others first, and then you’ll feel more confident asking for help in return.
[30:00] Nobody associates Bill Gates with having a partner or a team, but throughout his career, Bill has relied heavily on the partnerships of others.
[32:15] Men have a harder time asking for help compared to women. Wayne believes it has something to do with the way boys and men were raised and socialized.
[35:20] It’s a powerful leadership moment when you ask someone for help and together you co-create a solution.
[36:20] We are living in a time where we get to reinvent work.
[37:00] People support what they help create, so it’s critical to ask for feedback, input, and help.
[39:30] Asking for help now is more important than ever. As more people work from home and feel isolated, reach out to your network, do work lunches together, and be proactive in being connected to your social network.
Quotable Quotes
- “The greatest hazard to a mariner is your calendar when you feel you’ve got to be someplace at some time.”
- “What I discovered over time: asking is the key to generosity.”
- “One of the barriers to making your request is we might assume that people are unwilling or unable to help us.”
- “When you know everyone’s going to make a request, it’s a lot easier for you to make a request.”
- “By helping other people, you earn the privilege of asking for help.”
- “Unless the leader is willing to ask, they’re going to get limited success in getting other people to do it as well.”
- “It’s a leadership moment if you ask someone for help and together you co-create a solution.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Waynebaker.org
- All You Have to Do Is Ask: How to Master the Most Important Skill for Success,
by Wayne Baker - “Feed Forward: Leadership Excellence,” essay by Marshall Goldsmith
- “Self-Reliance,” essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
NOTE: This episode was accelerated and is being promoted out of order because of the timely discussion on pandemics that Jim and Jan recently had with Lisa Monaco, an expert in this area. We will return to our normal schedule (episode 195 next week).
Lisa Monaco served as the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to President Barack Obama from 2013-2017. In this role, she coordinated the federal government’s crisis management and response to cyberattacks, pandemics, and terrorist threats. She also spent 15 years at the Department of Justice, serving as a career federal prosecutor, and in senior management positions including at the FBI. It was there where she was Chief of Staff to the Director, and helped lead the FBI’s post-9/11 transformation. Lisa discusses how to lead during a crisis, and ways to create a readiness plan for potential threats; pandemic or otherwise.
Key Takeaways
[3:35] The role of ‘duty’ in business: A true test of a leader is whether they can put the organization’s role ahead of their own personal views, interests, and what’s safe.
[5:25] Leaders can know when they’re on the right track by checking their inner compass and understanding their gut intuition.
[8:55] Lisa spent every day in the situation room when she was the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to the President. She found that the best decisions that came out of that room were when they had an inclusive process and having multiple different voices in the room to express their facts and opinions.
[10:55] The best leaders have built their credibility and trust long before they’ve needed to use it.
[11:45] Lisa puts the complex Taliban/Afghanistan peace treaty into perspective. This is only the beginning of the process to end the war.
[19:40] What keeps Lisa up at night? Pandemic diseases. As businesses are facing repercussions from the coronavirus, Lisa reminds us that we have to think about resilience and to always have a readiness plan for potential threats.
[22:55] Communication and preparation are the two main ingredients to survive unforeseeable events.
[24:55] A leader needs to shift through the opinion pieces and be the person that delivers reliable information that the team can trust.
[29:25] CEOs are so focused on being busy that they’re not looking to the future. Instead of planning for March or April 2020, you should be planning for March 2025.
[30:10] The tone and pace of an organization come from the top.
[31:40] When Lisa worked for the President, every day there was a crisis happening. She was able to manage the stress by having an amazing team and having a repeatable process to gather information and assess the importance of it.
[37:25] Throughout Lisa’s career, she has been surrounded by amazing leaders.
[37:55] A moment that stood out was during the tragedy that happened at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It cost the lives of nine people. Lisa personally saw how President Barack Obama demonstrated a whole range of leadership skills in just one day.
[42:30] Try to live every day as a custodian of the institution that you’re leading. Do not focus as much on the individual needs and desires of the daily decision.
Quotable Quotes
-
“One of the things that make for an effective president is they realize their job is not about being busy, it’s about slowing things down.”
-
“Panic ensues when people don’t have information or don’t believe they’re getting enough clear information.”
-
“The best leaders have really built up and honed their ability to be effective in that moment well before the moment arrives.”
-
“If the leader has built credibility as somebody who doesn’t shade, who doesn’t put spin on the ball, then they’re going to be able to deliver that uncomfortable, or perhaps, unwelcomed, but truthful message in that moment.”
- “We should not lose sight of the fact that those servicemen’s and women’s sacrifices are ongoing every day as we go about our daily lives.”
- “We have to think about resilience across all these types of threats, whether it’s terrorism, cyber-attacks, or pandemic disease.”
- “Are you being clear? Are you being candid about what you know and what you don’t know, and are you being regular in that communication?”
- “Leaders are best when they really listen to their inner compass.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Lisa on Wikipedia
- What Only the CEO Can Do — Harvard Business Review
- President Obama delivers Eulogy in Charleston, South Carolina
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Simon Sinek is best known for popularizing the concept of ‘WHY’ in his 2009 TED Talk, making it the most-watched TED talk of all time. Simon talks leadership, and shares why having a finite perspective in business puts you on the losing end of an otherwise infinite game.
Key Takeaways
[3:15] There are two types of games: Finite games, which have known players, fixed rules, and a winner and a loser. Infinite games have known and unknown players. The rules are changeable and there’s no finish line.
[4:15] When we play to win in a game that has no finish line, there is a decline in trust, cooperation, and innovation.
[4:35] There are five ways to adjust your business to the game we’re in.
- Your business has to work to advance a just cause.
- Build trusting teams.
- Study worthy rivals.
- Have a capacity for existential flexibility.
- The courage to lead.
[7:00] When we hit the goal, it’s very exciting, but just like working out; it doesn’t stop. We have to keep doing it for the rest of our lives.
[8:40] In our society, we tend to gamify our goals, but it goes against our longer-term goals.
[10:10] There is a decline of loyalty in companies. Companies are not loyal to people, and therefore people aren’t loyal to them.
[12:05] It is the leader’s responsibility to create an environment where trust can exist.
[15:00] The difference between being stressed at work and passionate about work is whether or not we believe in what we’re doing and that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
[16:35] We become obsessed with our competitors and try to beat them because we are obsessed with the finite game. The way we define what’s ‘number one’ is arbitrary.
[22:15] During the pandemic, we’re forced to change and re-invent ourselves as people and as the business.
[27:50] The internet put a lot of companies out of business and that took decades. The pandemic is doing the same but over days/weeks.
[29:40] Instead of thinking in one- or two-year terms, or even 10-year terms, think in 1,000-year terms. This would be at least our fourth pandemic, by now.
[33:25] The younger generation has seen first-hand the failings of the way we run businesses now. This pandemic will affect them the way the war affected our grandparents.
[36:15] You can’t achieve success in five steps or in seven steps, yet business magazines are writing to grab our short attention spans.
[39:15] Remember, in business, it’s the journey. It is the journey. It’s not the destination — that’s what motivates us.
[42:30] Let yourself grieve during these traumatic times. You are experiencing trauma and it’s okay to ask for help.
Quotable Quotes
-
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is stress. Working for something we love is called passion.”
-
The language of so many leaders today is about being number one or being the best, but based on what?
- “There is no such thing as winning in a game that has no finish line.”
- “We actually have to adjust the way we think about our businesses to play for the game we’re actually in.”
- Most of our goals are arbitrary numbers with arbitrary dates.
- “The only true competitor in business is ourselves.”
- “Gone are the days when someone works to get a gold watch. There’s an entire generation of employees that have no idea what I’m talking about.”
- “We have no choice but to change. We have to throw out the old business model.”
- People don’t fear change. They fear sudden change.
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Simonsinek.com
- Simon on LinkedIn
- Follow Simon on Twitter @Simonsinek
- Simon’s latest book: The Infinite Game
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Tom Rath is an author and researcher who has spent the past two decades studying how work can improve human health and well-being. Tom served 13 years at Gallup, where Tom led the organization’s strengths, employee engagement, and leadership consulting worldwide. He is the author of 10 books and has sold more than 10 million copies. Tom’s first book, How Full Is Your Bucket?, co-written with his grandfather during his last year of life, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller and it is used in classrooms around the world. He is also the author of StrengthsFinder 2.0. Tom has two books out in 2020, Life’s Great Question and It’s Not About You.
Key Takeaways
[3:50] Tom shares the evolution of his literary work.
[8:40] At Gallup, Tom asked people all over the world what a good life looked like for them. Relationships, what you’re doing in your community, and your health came back to be the top most important things.
[9:25] Tom shares what he believes a great life is...
[12:10] Your life is better off and other people’s lives are better off because of the work that you’re doing.
[15:00] In Tom’s books, he encourages people to take a survey or a quiz at the end. He has learned that if you give people something to do after they’ve read your work, they’re more likely to incorporate your lessons or principals into their lives.
[18:40] What people really want from leaders is trust, compassion, stability, and hope.
[20:25] Leaders need to push their efforts outward and think deeply about what the world needs.
[22:55] It’s in everybody’s best interest to bring humanity back into the work. Human connection leads to better quality work.
[28:45] We should challenge ourselves to be better strength-finders for other people.
[31:20] Tom has noticed executive teams are woefully deficient in the area of building strong relationships. He believes there are not enough women on leadership teams.
[33:10] It’s human nature to surround yourself with people who act and think the same way. Tom believes it’s important to get people to think about how they can uniquely contribute to making a difference in the business from day one.
[39:15] When it comes to the future of work, Tom hopes we can develop ways where humans can find their work passions and meanings a lot faster.
[41:40] Tom would like to be remembered as a very caring dad and husband, first. Second, he would like to leave a legacy that lives on for years to come.
[42:15] Tom’s challenge: What’s one thing you can do today that will continue to grow in your absence?
Quotable Quotes
- “What’s one thing you can do today that will continue to grow in your absence?”
- The key to leadership is trust, compassion, stability, and hope.
- “So many times we’re looking for answers in the wrong places and it seems counterintuitive to say look for happiness outside of you.”
- “My hunch is that over the next 10–25 years, just standalone narrative books, especially in non-fiction, are going to be harder and harder for people to read through and apply that knowledge.”
- “The part where we’ve fallen short in helping leaders is to turn a majority of their efforts outward and to think, not only about who they are, but what the world needs.”
- “The more leaders can draw direct connections with the way their employee’s daily work serves specific constituencies and needs, the more meaningful it makes the work and the better people feel about it, and the more likely they’ll stick with it.”
- “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Tomrath.org
- Tom on LinkedIn
- Follow Tom on Twitter @Tomcrath
- Tom’s Latest book: It’s Not About You: A Brief Guide to a Meaningful Life
- How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath & Donald Clifton
- Life’s Great Question: Discover How You Contribute to the World, by Tom Rath
- Strengths Based Leadership, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
- Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath
- Creating the Good Life: Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness, by James O'Toole
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Bobby Herrera is the author of The Gift of Struggle. As the co-founder and CEO of Populus Group, Bobby never imagined the challenges of building a $500 million organization that serves tens of thousands of people. Throughout his life, he experienced the divergence between the intentional leader he wanted to be, and the less engaged version of him that showed up at the office every day. One day at a company meeting, he decided to share a story about one of his first struggles as a young adult. That story, a pivotal experience that transformed Bobby's life, inspired his employees with its radical transparency, humility and the idealism of his dream for the company.
Key Takeaways
- Bobby shares some of his stories from his leadership journey. Each story shows the broader lesson any leader can apply.
- Every leader has stories about the challenges they have faced and struggles they have overcome. In the moment, those situations require strength, patience, perseverance and courage.
- With time, those struggles provide lessons for how to be better leaders. Bobby Herrera learned to see those struggles as gifts.
Quotable Quotes
- “The struggles continue; that’s part of the learning process.”
- “Oftentimes, we share the story, but we don’t invite them to be part of the story.”
- “Everything you say yes to, you say no to something else.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Populusgroup.com
- Bobby-herrera.com
- Bobby on LinkedIn
- Follow Bobby on Twitter @BobbyHerreraPG
- The Gift of Struggle: Life-Changing Lessons About Leading, by Bobby Herrera
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Esther Wojcicki is a celebrated educator, a pioneer in instructional technology, Founder of the renowned Media Arts Program at Palo Alto High School, and the author of the bestselling book, How to Raise Successful People. Esther was named Teacher of the Year in California in 2002 and received the Charles O’Malley Award for outstanding teaching in journalism in 2011. Esther is also the Founder of the Journalistic Learning Initiative at the University of Oregon, and is the Founder and CEO of GlobalMoonshots.org. Esther raised three daughters: Susan (CEO of YouTube), Anne (CEO of 23andMe), and Janet (professor, UC San Francisco).
Key Takeaways
[3:25] Talk to your teenagers. Their creative minds are impressive.
[5:35] Helicopter parents have the same problem as bad managers, they micromanage!
[7:50] Helicopter parenting might be due to having access to more information than before and it’s making parents fearful for their children.
[8:55] Esther believes we’d be happier people if we had access to less information, but that’s simply not possible with our world today. What we need to do is learn how to cope.
[11:15] Esther believes teaching media literacy is a critical skill to have as we live in an information-overload environment. People need to know how to read between the lines and figure out if something is truthful or not.
[13:10] 18-24-year-olds are completely different from the millennials. Millennials are even having trouble working with 20-year-olds!
[15:00] Children today grew up with information overload.
[16:15] Children of CEOs are afraid they’ll never live up to their parents’ expectations.
[17:25] There are a lot of kids in the Midwest or the South where the American Dream doesn’t seem achievable or realistic for them.
[21:55] Esther emphasizes the importance of teaching children how to learn because this is a skill for life.
[22:15] Why memorize a test when students will forget 95% of it a year later? We have a re-skilling problem in the United States.
[24:55] For people to take chances, they have to feel safe.
[28:35] We all have deadlines. It’s important to make people feel comfortable to take risks, in spite of them.
[31:55] With so much democracy, we have communication chaos. We don’t know which source to believe.
[38:05] If children aren’t learning about trust and risk at home, how can they learn these skills? Esther believes it starts at school.
[44:10] The power to change the schools lies with the parents.
Quotable Quotes
- For people to take chances, they have to feel safe.
- “We are all fearful. Everybody is afraid non-stop. I’m afraid for the world.”
- “Every generation is different because they’re growing up in a different world.”
- “Children today tend to be much more risk-averse because somebody was always there helping them.”
- “Here we have a lot of kids whose parents are CEOs and their number one fear is they’ll never live up to the standards set by their parents.”
- “What does it take these days for people to achieve the American dream?”
- “I’m teaching kids how to learn because this is a skill for life. I am not teaching them to memorize.”
- “Believe in the student and they believe in themselves. They rise to levels that are completely unexpected.”
- “When you’re really upset and worried, you tend to be less productive than when you feel good about yourself and when you feel supported.”
- “You want kids to feel at home at school. You want them to feel a sense of community. Today, many schools don’t do that.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Raisesuccessfulpeople.com
- Globalmoonshots.org
- Esther on LinkedIn
- Follow Esther on Twitter @EstherWojcicki
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck
- Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell,
by Alan Eagle, Eric Schmidt, and Jonathan Rosenberg
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Jim and Jan watched Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which portrayed a real-life friendship between Mr. Fred Rogers and journalist Lloyd Vogel. The leadership, moral and philosophical lessons were many, and Jim & Jan recount their favorites. Listen in to hear what Jim & Jan saw as the most important lesson in the movie for leaders - now more than ever.
Key Takeaways
[3:25] Mr. Rogers had the ability to intently listen and demonstrate true caring for the other person.
[4:25] Leadership is the ability to move people emotionally.
[5:55] Jim is not a big fan of active listening. It involves repeating answers back to people. When it comes to listening, he prefers curiosity and asking great questions.
[6:50] Mr. Rogers had a genuine curiosity and took the time to observe people.
[9:55] It’s a gift to be able to share someone’s burden just by listening to them.
[12:10] William Deresiewicz said, “Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by talking to another person.”
[13:30] If you forgive a jerk at work, they’re just going to keep doing the same thing again. Jan shares why past guest Dr. Tom Morris believes forgiveness is the highest form or moral leadership.
[15:05] The real test of a leader’s effectiveness is when it does not come from a place of legitimate authority.
[17:25] Mr. Rogers was able to break through to the jaded reporter, Lloyd Vogel, by being incredibly giving, tenacious, and present.
[20:20] Many of the bad behaviors we see in the workplace are due to levels of insecurity.
[24:25] If you want to be great, you have to go to the next level of being really caring and understanding for others.
[28:10] Find the good in others. It’s that simple... and that hard.
[28:35] During this crisis, you might find that you do not like who you are. The good news is, you can manage your responses.
[34:00] Humans are wired to come together in crisis, or else we wouldn’t have survived this long.
[35:35] Jim and Jan are excited to hear from you! Reach out and let them know what your ideas are for future shows!
Quotable Quotes
- “One of the greatest gifts we can give is our attention.”
- “Good listening is curiosity.”
- “Through your actions, you will change that other person. You’re not going to change them by having a conversation with them.”
- “Forgiveness is as much for you as it is for the other person.”
- “Being good takes work.”
- “Anything mentionable is manageable.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood (Movie 2019)
- Mr. Rogers
- “Solitude and Leadership,” by William Deresiewicz
- Plato’s Lemonade Stand: Stirring Change into Something Great, by Tom Morris
- “Pandemics Kill Compassion, Too,” by David Brooks, The New York Times
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
This is the final episode with Dan Pink, and the discussion was far-reaching. Leaders are most effective when asking great questions, and listening intently to truly understand other perspectives and points of view. Dan also discusses the moral obligation to help others get ahead, and to develop people with intention. As we face future challenges - technological and others - it’s important to think across different disciplines with unbridled curiosity and an openness to other points of view.
Key Takeaways
[1:10] When should a leader fall on their sword? People have fewer regrets about doing the right thing than they have about making accommodations against doing the right thing.
[4:35] Dan shares some of his favorite questions that he’s received/asked over the years.
[7:25] When you ask ‘what’ questions vs. ‘how’ questions, people tend to give you more forward-facing answers.
[9:00] A good question to ask is, “What problems do people bring you to solve?”
[11:35] Dan believes to be successful you need to have a mix of effort, good taste, luck, and social advantage.
[16:10] As a successful person and leader, you have a moral obligation to help those behind you.
[19:30] Do we get the incentives wrong when it comes to encouraging good behavior? Dan’s answer is that it depends on the organization and its structure.
[23:20] When it comes to the educational piece, Dan believes it’s important to teach people to think across different disciplines.
[24:45] Can someone be both a good man and a great man? Dan thinks in order to be great you have to be good.
Quotable Quotes
- “A leader who has their team’s back establishes psychological safety.”
- “People have fewer regrets about doing the right thing than they have about making accommodations against doing the right thing.”
- People need two very basic things: Freedom to think, and freedom to learn.
Where to follow Dan Pink
Twitter: @DanielPink
Facebook: @DanielHPink
Website: DanPink.com
Resources and Books Mentioned
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
- Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, by Daniel H. Pink
- Leaders: Myth and Reality, by Jason Mangone, Jeff Eggers,
and Stanley A. McChrystal - Team Of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World,
by General Stanley A. McChrystal - My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley A. McChrystal
- Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value,
by Bill George - Courage: The Backbone of Leadership, by Gus Lee with Diane Elliott-Lee
- Dr. Vivek Murthy
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
- Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives,
by Daniel Levitin - “The Lesson to Unlearn,” by Paul Graham
- Salesbrain.com
- How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen
- The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, by Amy Edmondson
- Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst,
by Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D.
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
In Part II of three episodes, Dan Pink answers questions from listeners. Each insight could be a discussion unto itself. Listen in on how organizations can navigate remote work challenges, better leverage older workers, the pros and cons of fear as a motivator, selling insights, the bane of busyness, how technology can hinder and help, and the power of kindness.
Key Takeaways
[1:35] Q: What is the hardest thing to sell? Selling something that goes against the person’s existing identity and moral beliefs.
[6:25] A lot of the issues people tend to have are typically due to time constraints, not lack of desire. The key is being able to focus 100% in the moment when you’re doing a task.
[8:20] Q: Your thoughts on remote work and how can companies maximize this? Face-to-face social connection is hugely important towards maximizing human connection and productivity.
[10:25] Q: Where does fear serve us and where does it hinder us? Fear shouldn’t be used as a leadership motivator, but that doesn’t mean leaders should abandon it entirely.
[14:05] Q: Advice for older workers? Spend time with people who are younger than you and you are an undervalued asset.
[18:20] Q: Thoughts on ‘always being busy’? Being busy is a performance and when you’re busy you don’t have to face the ‘harder’ life questions.
[22:10] Q: In this technological environment, is bureaucracy decreasing or increasing in our organization? The answer is ‘yes.’
[23:55] Q: What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self? Dan’s 20-year-old self wouldn’t listen to him.
Quotable Quotes
- “What we do is make visceral emotional decisions and then use reason to justify that emotional belief.”
-
“People shouldn’t be remote working all the time. You have to bring people together face-to-face.”
-
“Fear is very short term. Fear allows you to see up close, but fear doesn’t allow you to see out into the future.”
-
“These middle-aged workers are much more valuable than companies are realizing. They are an undervalued asset.”
-
“My 20-year-old self was so incredibly sure of himself and so not open to other interpretation, and so lacking in humility.”
-
“Don’t go based on your assumptions about how the world works. Ask questions and try to find stuff out.”
-
“Be kinder. Act with more kindness. The older I get, the more I value kindness and understand the influence of kindness in the world.”
Where to follow Dan Pink
Twitter: @DanielPink
Facebook: @DanielHPink
Website: DanPink.com
Resources and Books Mentioned
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
- Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, by Daniel H. Pink
- Leaders: Myth and Reality, by Jason Mangone, Jeff Eggers,
and Stanley A. McChrystal - Team Of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley A. McChrystal
- My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley A. McChrystal
- Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value,
by Bill George - Courage: The Backbone of Leadership, by Gus Lee with Diane Elliott-Lee
- Dr. Vivek Murthy
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
- Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives,
by Daniel Levitin - “The Lesson to Unlearn,” by Paul Graham
- Salesbrain.com
- How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Jim and Jan sit down with Dan Pink in the offices of the McChrystal Group to discuss all things leadership. Dan shares his thoughts on cognitive bias, A/B testing of leadership practices, soft-skills, and how to move from blaming personality to better understanding how design drives patterns of behavior. Due to unforeseen circumstances, General Stan McChrystal was not able to join the discussion as planned.
Key Takeaways
[3:15] Dan believes we are slowly reconceiving different notions of leadership and different notions of how organizations are run.
[8:40] We have the ability to communicate to the world and yet we are lonelier than ever.
[10:16] Dan wonders when the concept of ‘leadership’ first emerged.
[11:55] How can leaders deal with cognitive bias? As human beings, we are riddled with flaws and by simply being aware of that, it can help you through the decision making process as you begin to ask yourself a series of questions.
[16:00] A/B testing is critical in any leadership role, but there are some leaders who are too afraid to test out ‘B’ and have it fail.
[20:45] With so many distractions out there, Dan understands how difficult it is to have our minds be focused on the present. This is why he has made a conscious effort to delete social media apps and other distractions off of his computer.
[23:25] Is your organization suffering from bad behaviors or simply bad design? In order for you to be a good leader as well as a good designer, be aware of your surroundings. Did an interaction or customer experience go well for you? Ask yourself why and take note so that you can implement it into your organization.
[31:25] As we get older, our processing power decreases. If you can’t speed up the processing power of an individual, can you do it as an organization? Dan isn’t sure he has the correct answer to this yet.
[35:45] Our education system is designed for the convenience of the system and it is not tailored to the education of the people. Schools will say their goal is to teach people how to learn, but the system, unfortunately, doesn’t allow for that.
[41:45] How much has genuine leadership changed over the years? Dan thinks at the structural level, it’s changed very little.
[44:00] Effective leaders don’t rule with an iron fist. In fact, it’s the soft skills that often go unnoticed. For example, they have humility, curiosity, and integrity.
[47:00] Dan believes that the future of leadership will involve teaching others how to think.
Quotable Quotes
- “Am I looking for things that only confirm my existing beliefs and am I discarding things that challenge my existing beliefs?”
- “If you’re a leader who says I don’t want to test out ‘B’ because it’s a failure, you don’t understand experiments.”
- “Instead of relying on my willpower and fortitude, neither of which is deep, I change the architecture. I think that's the solution for leaders.”
- “Collective intelligence at an organizational level is, at some level, a knowledge management problem.”
- “We have all the content in the world to develop leaders. What’s missing is context.”
- “These tests that schools provide are easily hackable and so these kids got good at hacking tests, but the real world is not a hackable exercise.”
Where to follow Dan Pink
Twitter: @DanielPink
Facebook: @DanielHPink
Website: DanPink.com
Resources and Books Mentioned
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
- Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, by Daniel H. Pink
- Leaders: Myth and Reality, by Jason Mangone, Jeff Eggers,
and Stanley A. McChrystal - Team Of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley A. McChrystal
- My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley A. McChrystal
- Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value,
by Bill George - Courage: The Backbone of Leadership, by Gus Lee with Diane Elliott-Lee
- Dr. Vivek Murthy
- Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
- Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives,
by Daniel Levitin - “The Lesson to Unlearn,” by Paul Graham
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Dan Jaffee joined the Oil-Dri Corporation of America in 1987, a business his grandfather founded in 1941. Dan became the President in 1995 and later the CEO in 1997, but has had some tough challenges along the way. The leadership transition process from father to son resulted in a 100% turnover under Dan’s leadership and guidance. Dan shares the story of how he was at his lowest and ready to quit to how he was able to recover through the guidance and mentorship of a trusted family friend.
Key Takeaways
[3:45] Dan’s father inherited the family business at 26 and grew it to $150 million and it went public in 1971. However, by the time he was in his mid-50s, his dad was burnt out.
[4:10] When Dan took over at 30, he recognized that his leadership style would not work with the current team. Dan had a 100% turnover and he didn’t know what he was doing.
[5:15] Dan hired every consultant under the sun to help him turn his company around, but it wasn’t working out. Dan realized he delegated too much authority to these consultants, who didn’t fully understand his business.
[5:50] The next biggest mistake Dan made was he assumed everyone in the company had the same code of ethics as he did. They didn’t and his staff began hiding things and working within their own self-interest.
[8:00] Despite Dan’s mistakes, his family understood that the business would not tear their relationship apart. They focused on family first and they’d sell the business before their relationships would be compromised.
[10:40] Dan was ready to quit and throw in the towel. He called one of his dad’s friends, who was a trusted family friend and on the board of directors, and he told Dan that winners get back up. Dan took this to heart and began working the business from a different angle.
[11:55] A mission statement shouldn’t be what to do, but what not to do!
[14:45] Dan’s family friend understood that father-son relationships are hard. Whatever advice Dan’s dad would give, Dan would want to do the opposite, but the trusted family friend could say the same thing and Dan would listen.
[17:15] Dan’s Acronym WE CARE stands for Work/life balance, Ethics, Communication, Accountability, Respect, Excellence. Dan makes it a point that everyone in the company has to be ethical.
[20:20] It’s easy to say your teammates are your most important asset when everything is going right.
[21:00] In 2009, Dan’s company lost its largest account (Walmart), which represented 15% of the company and 40% of its consumer division. Dan’s team was angry, but Dan had to remind them that this was his and everyone’s fault for not showing Walmart what their true value was.
[24:35] Of Dan’s top six executive leaders, five are women. They are the brain trust of the organization.
[27:55] As a leader, it’s critical to surround yourself with people who are good at things you’re not good at. With that said, find out what you’re really good at and inject it onto them. A team needs to have that balance.
[33:30] Dan got out of the goal-setting business. If you set too strict goals, then your team won’t always be able to reach their maximum potential. The accountability aspect is for Dan to reinforce, not for the company to fictitiously put numbers on people.
[37:50] Dan always tells the people he is interviewing that he is going to always be brutally honest with the business and how they run the culture.
[39:35] Dan used to get emotionally attached to an idea and run with it, which wasn’t always the best decision. So, today, he tries to keep all his emotions out of the decision-making process and just focus on the facts.
[40:55] When Dan first joined the company, he realized quickly he was at a disadvantage because everyone was older than him and citing things like World War II or the Civil War. He had no idea what they were talking about! So he made a commitment to read 27 pages of non-fiction a day.
[45:00] Business challenge: If you are an emerging executive or business person, reach out to someone! They will react well.
Quotable Quotes
- “I assumed everybody in the company was as ethical and honest as I was, and they weren’t.”
- “Do you know the only thing that separates the winners and losers is? The winners get back up!”
- “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing anything.”
- “You don’t learn anything by getting kicked by a mule a second time.”
- “When you lose 15% of your company, it’s a short term knee-jerk response to just fire people.”
- “If you don’t know what your weaknesses are, that’s your biggest weakness. Figure it out.”
- “Intelligence is the ability to keep two opposing ideas in your head at the same time.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Website: Oildri.com & Amlan.com & Catspride.com
- Twitter: @Catspride
- The Science of Hitting, by John Underwood and Ted Williams
- John Wooden
- Truman, by David McCullough
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Michael Giorgione is the author of Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat. Michael dives into how the world’s leaders build relationships that can last through hardships, disagreements, and tragedies. Michael witnessed four U.S. Presidents at Camp David and how they interacted with world leaders despite vast cultural differences.
Key Takeaways
[8:00] With so many different cultures and countries out there, the common element you can always relate to is that we are all human. Most of us love food and love our families. These two things, despite our differences, bring us together.
[8:55] We conduct more and more meetings over the phone/computer, but you still need that face-to-face interaction at least once a year to fully leverage the relationship.
[10:25] With so many diverse cultures coming into Camp David, Michael had to do his homework and make sure he acted respectfully within cultural norms.
[11:55] This might sound surprising, but great leaders know when to relax. At Camp David, leaders weren’t afraid to kick off their shoes, recharge, and eat a cheeseburger.
[15:25] The conduct of some of the guests there had surprised Michael and made him cringe, especially from those who weren’t very familiar with military ethics and protocol. It boiled down to a lack of self-awareness of how they treated others. However, Michael was able to meet four presidents at Camp David and the first families always treated the staff with respect.
[17:10] Michael notices that people who are self-aware tend to be confident and have strong self-esteem and a great dose of humility.
[18:50] The Reagans attended Camp David more than any other ‘couple.’ Michael says ‘couple,’ because they would often attend by themselves. The Reagans are an excellent example of how co-leadership can work. They knew each other’s strengths and worked with them.
[21:15] Michael was able to witness George W. Bush and Tony Blair develop a strong friendship at Camp David. He saw how these two world leaders were able to find commonalities, watch movies together with their families, and bond.
[25:00] When George W. Bush became president, it seemed to be very strategic that his first two guests at Camp David were with our British allies and our Japanese allies. Both visits were very informal/family events. No secret service, staff, etc.
[27:00] Strong relationships come down to finding commonalities and activities you both enjoy, which lays down the groundwork to talk about the heavy things leaders might have to go through. When you both know each other’s families and children, it becomes easier to empathize when someone is going through a tragedy.
[33:25] With social media so readily accessible, places like Camp David become much more needed than ever.
[35:40] Remember, it’s not about you. To be a genuine, humble, caring, and effective leader, you are serving others. This is greater than you.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you can talk about family or food with anyone in the world, you’re going to find a connection.”
- “Relationships… you build it and invest in it before you need it.”
- Self-aware leaders are grateful and thankful for what we have and don’t have.
- “Our quest for transparency is actually taking us in the exact opposite direction at times.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Twitter: @admiralmichael
- LinkedIn: Michael Giorgione
- Website: Insidecampdavid.com & Leadingtheleadersllc.net
- Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat, by Michael Giorgione.
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Tom Kolditz is the founding Director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. Tom shares the concepts and foundational elements that led to creating an evidence-based, leader development program that has received top recognition from the Associations of Leadership Educators.
Key Takeaways
[2:00] Tom comes from a small town in Southern Illinois. He was a senior instructor on the West Point parachute team for 12 years and had 647 helicopter jumps.
[3:45] Five questions to measure a leader’s effectiveness:
- What are this leader’s strengths?
- What are this leader’s challenges?
- When is this leader at their best?
- When is this leader at their worst?
- How can this leader improve?
[7:40] You don’t need to make this process complicated. You can focus on theory all day long, but the real results come from the outcome.
[10:15] Leaning too heavily on ‘the rules’ limits the leader of their responsibility. They can just blame the rule instead of being flexible and adapting to the specific instance.
[10:50] When you take responsibility for what you say or what you do, it can be painful, but it goes away.
[13:10] In our culture, we openly talk about our mistakes, so you’d think people would be open to making mistakes. However, it seems it’s having an opposite effect, where more and more people are taking a more conservative and fearful approach.
[16:10] If someone makes a mistake, social media has the ability to make it go viral and ruin careers.
[18:40] Most ethical transgressions have, at their root, an excessive self-interest. People do not get called out enough for being selfish.
[26:45] When you or a company’s self-interest starts to take away from people in unfair ways, that should not be an acceptable business practice. It is a flashing red light for an ethics violation.
[35:30] One of the best things the military helps us with is that the entire culture is focused on leadership, rewards leadership, and respects leadership. It is a cultural immersion. Soldiers can smell a fake person a mile away.
[37:45] Remember, if there is a problem in the organization, it’s your job to fix it. It’s not your job to lead an organization where there are no problems.
[39:45] Senior leaders have to get comfortable with a lot more ambiguity. They have to think about their guidance in broader, intense, statements. Define what your team’s right and left limits are and let them soar.
[41:30] Leaders can think a lot faster than their larger staff can execute. It can be pretty easy to get sucked into being a micromanager when things aren’t progressing enough.
[45:00] You have poorly developed leaders (their leadership abilities are at the high-school level, even with a 4-year university degree) that have adopted bad leadership habits for the last 15 years in their career, and now they’re working in leadership positions. Industries are just riddled with bad leaders because no one has helped them develop this skill throughout their careers.
[49:05] Leading with ambiguity starts with recognizing your abilities, how long it’s taken you to get this far, and how much other people have helped you.
Quotable Quotes
- Leading equals Impact.
- Leaders can’t ‘responsibility-proof’ themselves
- “Most ethical transgressions have, at their root, an excessive self-interest.”
Resources and Books Mentioned
- Doerr.rice.edu
- Tomkolditz.com
- In Extremis Leadership: Leading As If Your Life Depended On It, by Tom Kolditz
- “15 Outdated Practices Managers Shouldn’t Follow In The Modern Workplace”
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Join us as we discuss our preparation for our interview with Stan McChrystal and Dan Pink - together - from 2-4pm EST on February 7th! Now is your opportunity to let us know what you would like us to ask these thought leaders about the future of leadership and teams! Be sure to email your questions to: Info@TheLeadershipPodcast.com. The interview will livestream on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/westudyleaders/.
Key Takeaways
[1:55] The last two episodes were of Stan McChrystal and Dan Pink, so be sure to listen to them before Jim and Jan go live with these two speakers on February 7th.
[2:35] Both speakers have very different backgrounds, with Stan being born into military life and Daniel coming from an academic/consulting world, but they both prioritized liberal arts, classical education, and philosophy.
[5:20] Both men value self-discipline, which has allowed them to be successful in their respective fields.
[7:50] Stan stated it best about what a leader does. A leader creates a common purpose and a trust.
[10:15] For the February 7th interview, the live session will have three segments. The first section being similar to a podcast interview, the second segment will have Dan and Stan interviewing each other, and the third is left for your questions!
[13:10] If you really want to understand the value you bring to the market, pay attention to the questions people ask you.
[19:15] Jim and Jan can’t wait to see the dynamic, and how it will compare to the virtual interviews.
[20:20] How can you tune in? They’ll be hosting this live on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/westudyleaders/.
Quotable Quotes
- “Leaders need to be squared away both mentally, physically, and emotionally.”
- “Both Stan McChrystal and Dan Pink realized at a young age, Boy, I’m not going to be able to influence other people if I’m not walking the walk.”
- “You need to be thinking about how different people influence your thinking over time.”
- “You can not have autonomy without trust.”
- “If I told you, you can’t go home until we win, what would you do differently?”
Send your questions for Dan and Stan to: Info@TheLeadershipPodcast.com
References
- Mcchrystalgroup.com
- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World,
by General Stanley A. McChrystal - DanPink.com
- The Leadership Podcast: Dan Pink
- The Leadership Podcast: Stan McChrystal
- The Leadership Podcast: Zack Baddorf
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
In preparation to interview Dan Pink and Stan McChrystal together on February 7th, please enjoy the first interview we did with Dan on “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.” If you have any questions you’d like to hear asked during the upcoming interview, please let us know!
Daniel H. Pink, the #1 bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human, unlocks the scientific secrets to good timing to help you flourish at work, at school, and at home. Everyone knows that timing is everything. But we don’t know much about timing itself. Our lives as leaders are a never-ending stream of “when” decisions: when to start a business, when to hire people, when to deal with sunk costs, when to take on debt, etc. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork.
Key Takeaways
The discussion starts with the topic of the Free Agent Nation — people working for themselves. Asked about Autonomy and Solitude as “motivators” versus the need for Collaboration as a team, Dan says that leadership needs to provide a balance between the two. He says the challenge is the architecture, both physically and metaphorically. He says that leaders should provide the same autonomy inside and outside the organization; and a sense of purpose whether the team member is full-time, part-time, or contracted.
[7:55] By 2020, 43% of the workforce will be in the ‘gig’ economy. This requires different work environments and skills from leaders. Daniel wrote Free Agent Nation in 2001, before smartphones. In the years since, the difference between employee and freelancer has shrunk.
[9:45] Leaders influence, persuade, convince, and cajole. These leadership roles are sales activities and effort, time, commitment, belief, and zeal are the currency. Leaders and sales reps have little coercive power. Both roles must be adept at broadly influencing people.
[11:30] ‘If/then’ motivators are effective only for simple, short-term tasks. Most leaders undervalue questions of timing in leadership decisions. They think of who, what, and how, but don’t consider when to do it. The book, When, is really about the science of timing… and that leaders have systematically undervalued questions of when and timing when making critical decisions. Too often, leaders focus on who, what, and how, and short shrift when. Time management and timing overlap.
[13:05] “Time-of-day explains about 20% of the variance in human performance on the sorts of tasks people perform at work.” Timing is important. Leaders can boost productivity, creativity, and team performance at essentially no cost by putting the right task during the right time of day. “All times of day are not created equal.”
[15:25] Be conscious of the stages of the day. There are three stages: peak, trough, and rebound. Your best analytic and focused work is done in the peak time. The trough period is when you lose attention. Administrative tasks could be done in this time. The rebound period is an ideal time for creative and collaborative work. Doing the right work at the right time will lift performance.
[18:25] Chronobiology: There are morning people (larks) and evening people (owls). Younger people are more often owls, and older workers are more often larks. For example, people aged 14–24 are usually Owls, so you need to allow for rhythms according to their ages (no meetings at 7 a.m. for a young team!).
[23:10] Daniel explains the new ABCs of Selling: Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. Attunement is the difficult leadership skill of seeing from another’s point of view. Clarity is communicating intent. Leaders need to explain the what, the why, and the significance of the mission. Buoyancy represents treating everyone fairly. Attunement is seeing someone else’s point of view (a little different than empathy). As for “Commander’s Intent” — people often don’t know what they’re supposed to do and how it fits in at a strategic level, which is a leadership imperative. Other ways to communicate intent: Here’s why; Here’s what it means to all of us; and Here’s why it’s significant...
[26:40] Daniel takes organizations through an exercise described in “DRIVE,” he calls “Whose Purpose Is It, Anyway?” That is, what’s the purpose of this company? It reveals that many employees have no idea about the purpose of their company. It leads to discussion of an organization finding their purpose.
[30:55] From the book, DRIVE, Daniel says we have an innate drive to grow, but we can only do it with information on how we are doing. Leaders need to give continual feedback to employees. Weekly, informal one-on-ones work well for that. Leaders need to be coached on how to do them.
Asked, “What drives you, Dan?” He says he was making timing decisions in a haphazard way and wanted to make better decisions about when to spend time.
[35:15] Most people are curious about something. Leaders are taught to talk, not to listen, and to answer questions, not to ask them. Curiosity can be developed somewhat... If you get better at asking questions and listening, you’ll get better at being curious. This also requires patience. Dan is committed to reading more — at 30 minutes per day. How about you?
Quotable Quotes
- “All times of day are not created equal.”
- Too often, leaders focus on who, what, and how, and short shrift when.
- Doing the right work at the right time will lift performance.
- “Treating everyone well doesn’t mean treating everyone the same!”
- People have a deep-seated need for belongingness — and leaders who account for this can derive tremendous benefits.
- Fairness doesn’t get enough attention. Humans are attuned to the norm of fairness.
- “Leaders who are fair are those who will thrive in the long run.”
- “The ability to listen well is a deeply under-developed skill.”
- “The feedback mechanisms in companies are fundamentally broken.”
- “Leaders need to establish continuous conversations.”
- Annual performance reviews are an absurd channel for feedback.
- Leadership should provide informal and frequent high-metabolism kinds of feedback!
- Follow your curiosity!
- Find about where people are curious in some other realm of their life.
- Help people get better at asking questions to develop their ability to listen.
- We need to be more intentional — and less like driftwood.
- Schedule what’s actually meaningful!
- Schedules should be sacrosanct.
Where to follow Dan
Twitter: @DanielPink
Facebook: @DanielHPink
Website: DanPink.com
Website: DanPink.com/resources/
Website: DanPink.com/pinkcast/
Resources Mentioned
- McChrystal Group website
- When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
- To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
- Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, by Daniel H. Pink
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
Attend a FREE webinar on GRIT - January 31st (register here).
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
This is an episode Jim and Jan have never done before! They are featuring a previous episode with General Stanley McChrystal because they will be interviewing the General along with author Dan Pink live on February 7th. After listening, let Jim and Jan know if you have questions you’d like them to ask Dan and Stan!
General Stanley McChrystal shares his thoughts and insights on leadership and service in the modern era. General McChrystal is the best selling author of Team of Teams, and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The McChrystal group. He talks with Jim and Jan about the importance of a classical education, the sacrifice leaders must make in their lives, and why it’s up to the government and business to create challenging opportunities for the younger generation. He shares his unique perspective on the similarities and differences of leading and teaming in business and in the military. He concludes with his thoughts on national service, education, and his recipe for more constructive discourse.
Key Takeaways
[1:20] There’s going to be some exciting live content with General Stanley McChrystal and Dan Pink this February 7th! Do not miss it!
[2:55] Jim and Jan offer their thoughts and insights after listening to this episode for the second time.
[6:15] Regarding millennials, the talent is there! What’s different is that our community bonds have grown smaller and are more self-focused, making it difficult to find a clear path of how and where to make a contribution.
[7:40] Although we are in a time where much service is needed from young people, only 30% of younger people in the United States are qualified and eligible to enlist in the military. General McChrystal poses the thought of government and business sharing the responsibility to create opportunities for the other 70% of those that still have a desire to contribute.
[8:40] The Civilian Conservation Corps of the Depression Era was a program created to give young men the opportunity to make money, earn confidence, and get a sense of self-satisfaction. Many of those men went on to serve in World War II.
[9:25] General McChrystal feels it is his generation’s responsibility to create opportunities for youth through funding, education, and business. At the McChrystal group, they value service and community involvement. If you have completed a year of national service, your resume gets a more detailed review.
[10:50] General McChrystal discussed how we must create an incentive for businesses to hire employees based on their potential and values — rather than just looking for professionals who already have the skills and need little training.
[12:50] In addition to General McChrystal’s famous ascetic lifestyle, he is still learning, growing, and studying every day.
[13:10] People skills and a strong work ethic as two of the benchmark qualities that make for a good business leader.
[14:45] General McChrystal had preconceived notions of the business world, while his colleagues had assumptions about working with someone from the military. They both found out that in each world there are opportunities and challenges not so different.
[15:45] His newest book due this fall 2018, Leaders: Myth and Reality, is inspired by Plutarch’s life and studies of notable people. They took the findings of this work and crafted it into modern-day profiles to compare leaders throughout history from all walks of life, and learn the nuances of different leadership styles.
[17:50] In pairing founders and leaders, General McChrystal finds it isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to success and fulfillment. He did find the common threads to be a commitment to the choice to lead and accept responsibility in an authentic and self-assured manner.
[21:20] Possessing an absolute commitment and dedication to the cause comes at a cost.
[23:50] Classical and liberal arts education that roots us in philosophy provides a common language that connects us both with our values and to each other.
[24:30] James Stockdale, United States Navy vice admiral and prisoner of war for over seven years, was a strong proponent of a classical education as a way to connect us to ourselves and each other.
[27:25] As politics pervade our culture, and the absence of civility rises, it is crucial to listen more and welcome different points of view.
[28:30] We could benefit from thinking more long term and focus on building sustainable relationships that remain solid in the future. In a business world, that means treating your clients in a manner where long-term relationships are fostered.
[33:00] People think demonstrations of courage are usually reserved for the battlefield, but it is beneficial to recognize it in the workplace, as well.
[34:00] General McChrystal is a great believer in experiential leadership for individuals and groups. At The McChrystal Group, they offer adventures for the team to succeed, become familiar, and push one another.
[36:50] The military uses its advantages of patriotism and extra time for training to shape them into leaders. On the battlefield, you need to make life or death decisions, where in business, there are laws and bureaucracies and it’s harder for people to be decisive. Oftentimes, businesses will skimp on or cancel their leadership development programs due to a lack of budget or manpower.
[41:00] In an organization with timid leadership, they will see the problem and take a conservative approach while rationalizing to do very little, or not enough. Making strong decisions is like a muscle you must continue to work.
[42:50] General McChrystal names the two biggest current security challenges we are facing in today’s climate:
- Education lagging behind the progress of the rest of the world.
- Inability to make rational political decisions.
[49:00] As General McChrystal has a strong relationship with his grandchildren, he believes in balancing work with getting outside for adventure, continued education, and family.
Quotable Quotes
- We’ve got to create opportunities where people can do the kinds of service that gives them a sense of satisfaction and a challenge.
- Begin rewarding service in your home, school, and community.
- When you enter the military, nobody is already a soldier, airman, or marine.
- College doesn’t prepare you for what you are going to do, it prepares you to be prepared for what you are going to do.
- Everything is simple, but the simplest is difficult.
- Leadership is this complex weave of factors.
- Possessing an absolute commitment and dedication to the cause comes at a cost.
- Classical and liberal arts education that roots us in philosophy provides a common language that connects us both with our values; and to each other.
- It’s a willingness to sacrifice for the cause when they decide to lead.
- Strong leaders are themselves.
- Learn to think long-term.
- There’s got to be some long-term consequences for dishonesty.
- Do everything today to protect what you can do in the future.
- If you do something challenging with strangers, you rarely end up as strangers.
- It takes courage to make great decisions.
- When things get hard, it’s a time to show courage.
- Don’t promise to do more than you are willing to do.
- Leaders make decisions that others are reluctant to make.
Resources Mentioned
- McChrystal Group website
- Dan Pink Books
- Leaders: Myth and Reality, by Jason Mangone, Jeff Eggers,
and Stanley A. McChrystal - Team Of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World,
by General Stanley A. McChrystal - My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley A. McChrystal
- Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value,
by Bill George - Courage: The Backbone of Leadership, by Gus Lee with Diane Elliott-Lee
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
Attend a FREE webinar on GRIT - January 31st (register here).
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Jennifer Garvey Berger is the CEO of Cultivating Leadership, and the author of two books, Changing on the Job: Developing leaders for a complex world and her most recent book, Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity. Jennifer shares the common Mindtraps all leaders unknowingly succumb to.
News! We made the Top 30 Leadership Podcasts You Must Follow in 2020!
Key Takeaways
[4:15] There are five leadership mindtraps that hold us back:
- We are trapped by the ways we believe we’re right.
- We are trapped by the simple story we tell ourselves about people, events, and places.
- We are trapped by our desire to be in a tribe, to agree with the people in our tribe.
- We are trapped by our need to control events.
- We are trapped by our own egos.
[12:25] As Jennifer works with more and more leaders, she has started to realize that it’s not what you know, it’s all about how you’re being.
[14:00] Our parents have trouble with the simplest of technologies, does that mean we, as we grow older, will have the same problems? Is this a mindset thing or are we always going to hit some sort of technological threshold? Jennifer is curious to see what the answers to these questions will be as we age and grow.
[18:05] Across our lifespan, we have gotten education wrong in so many ways.
[20:40] Beyond roleplaying and trying out new roles in a safe setting, people can expand and change their behavior through having real conversations in “the wild.” It's scary but it can be very transformative.
[24:05] The reality is, we as people love simplicity. In chaotic or complex environments, we are often drawn to the simplest of solutions. However, in such a fast-paced environment, these simple solutions are actually dangerous. We need to take a step back and reimagine leadership.
[27:30] We fall into these leadership mindtraps because we are so overwhelmed by the complexity around us. We have to intentionally evolve ourselves so we break the pattern.
[32:35] Sometimes you need to go slow to go fast. Doing stuff for the sake of doing it is just not productive or helpful. Slowing down is a discipline very few people can consciously do.
[36:40] Pay close attention to how we make sense of the world. Do you always get easily frustrated by x reason? Take a step back and uncover the why behind it. Take time to make sense of it. Once you do, you will be much more productive.
[42:15] Jennifer wants you to think about who you are trying to be seen as. What descriptions would you like other people to use when describing you? What descriptions would you hate to be used when describing you? And are those words, those descriptions, helping you or getting in your way?
Quotable Quotes
- “We look for a hero and a villain and we make up our minds on an incredibly small amount of evidence.”
- “We don’t go looking for complexity.”
- We’ve never lived in a world that has challenged humans so much when it comes to handling complexity.
- “We don’t know the difference between informational learning, which is from a book, or transformational learning, which is am I changing and growing over time.”
- “We need to reimagine leadership and we need to do that by noticing some of these simple solutions and simple answers are actually dangerous.”
Connect with Jennifer:
- Website
- Twitter: @jgberger and @leadershipgrows
- YouTube
- Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity, by Jennifer Garvey Berger
Resources Mentioned
- TLP Episode: “Looking Forward to Wicked Problems”
- TLP Episode: “A Maestro’s Secret for a High Performing Team”
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
When does it make sense to be an agile company? Jim and Jan discuss why being an agile company can work, but constant pivots can really hurt productivity. When does it make sense to be consistent, and when does it make sense to change direction? How often is too much? When is it OK to abandon a given direction/initiative? It depends on the core values, purpose, and vision - of all stakeholders. It has to be consistent with what drives innovation and commitment. Listen in to learn more!
News! We made the Top 30 Leadership Podcasts You Must Follow in 2020!
Key Takeaways
[4:55] We live in a world where being a flip-flopper is a bad thing, but why? Shouldn’t changing your mind when presented with new information be a good thing?
[8:05] Look at things from three different perspectives — You as an individual, others/the team, and at the structural/organizational level.
[10:15] We love intellectual consistency, but when we hold too much value in that, people get boxed in and that slows down decision making.
[14:40] How would you define an effective leader? It depends on what the organization needs!
[18:05] Why do startups need to pivot so frequently? It’s because they haven’t discovered their true value yet and do not have a firm hold on their market.
[20:05] You want to remain consistent in your values and know firmly what value you give to your customer.
[24:50] Dan Pink and General Stanley A. McChrystal will be appearing in an upcoming live show. Do you have any questions for them?
Quotable Quotes
- “Strengths in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people can derail leaders.”
- “As you get more information — more perspective, you eliminate assumptions and biases. You have the right to do that.”
- “You have to be squared away emotionally, physically, and mentally before you’re able to really lead others.”
- “We really value people who are intellectually consistent, but if you place too high a value on that, you can slow down decision making.”
Colin Powell
The Crown — Netflix Show
Dan Pink Books
Team of Teams by General Stanley A. McChrystal
The Leadership Podcast is Sponsored by:
Cultivate Grit. Amplify Action.
The Self-Reliant Leadership® Manifesto reveals the Three Pillars of a Self-Reliant Leader, which encompass the character attributes, interpersonal skills, and levers required to lead today’s workforce. Get your free copy HERE.
Free downloads of Quick Reference Guides on Delegation, Time Management, Sales, and more.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Considered perhaps one of the most influential Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in history, Admiral Mike Mullen takes a fresh approach to the most important issues of the 21st century—including America's global positioning and how business trends and the economic health of the U.S. directly impact our national security. Admiral Michael Mullen also shares his thoughts on how to eliminate fear, and why everyone needs to have a defined set of principles and moral values they should never violate.
Key Takeaways
[4:25] Admiral Mullen has taken unpopular stances throughout his 42-year military career, but you have to take risks if you want to succeed. When he took command of a small ship in 1973, half of the people he knew said not to do it/it was too risky and the other half said that he should do it/it’s who we are. A few months in, he crashed the ship! It took him 11 years to recover professionally.
[7:25] Admiral Mullen gets a lot of notoriety from his position on ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.’ When Obama won, he knew the President required the help of the military.
[10:45] Admiral Mullen taught History and the Practice of Diplomacy at Princeton for six years and has recently transitioned to the Naval Academy to teach leadership.
[14:25] Admiral Mullen tries to teach young people about the importance of defining moral values and working with core principles. What do you stand for? You need to know.
[17:25] There are three principles about the proper use of military force: military power should be the last resort of the state, force should be applied in a precise, principled way, and policy and strategy should constantly engage one another.
[20:05] When you make a tough decision, you need constant feedback after, to understand how that decision is progressing and affecting the organization.
[21:05] If a leader doesn’t give permission for their staff to fail and recover, then your team won’t be taking much risk in the first place. How do you eliminate fear? By empowering your people to fail.
[28:20] People are so tied emotionally to how they’re feeling today that they put aside the organization they care about the most, the one they spend most of their life in, because of those feelings. Because of this, Admiral Mullen feels people do great damage to the military and its reputation.
[32:50] Admiral Mullen would like to have a smaller army; that way if we do have to go to war and have to draft our sons and daughters for it, the American people along with Congress have to think very carefully whether doing that is the right choice. It’s way too easy to go to war today and that’s the most serious decision a president will ever have to make.
[41:25] Veterans are having a tough time getting jobs and Admiral Mullen understands why. He has helped create veterans and throughout his career, he and his peers spent zero time helping veterans transition from military life to civilian life, and we need to get better at that. The transition phase is the hardest one to go through, not just for military personnel, but for their families, too.
[48:15] Admiral Mullen gives a shout out to an organization that he and his wife deeply care about — TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors).
Quotable Quotes
- “People who will not risk cannot win.”
- “In the military, even when it’s going really well, it’s a dangerous business.”
- “When you teach, you really do have an opportunity to reflect.”
- “What we do in one place affects so many other people in the organization.”
- “I had bosses who really encouraged me to take risks and when I fell on my face, they took care of me.”
Admiral Michael Mullen on Wikipedia
Princeton University Faculty — Admiral Michael Mullen
17th Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff — Admiral Michael Mullen
Admiral Michael Mullen in The New York Times
TAPS.org
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Rahaf Harfoush is a Digital Anthropologist, Strategist, and Best-Selling Author who focuses on the intersections between emerging technology, innovation, and the impact they have on our culture. She is also the Executive Director of Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture, which teaches innovation and emerging business models at Sciences Politique’s Master’s of Economics and Finance program in Paris. Rahaf offers insight as to why the hustle culture isn’t going away, the need for leaders to adapt to new learning methodologies, and how we can be productive with less time.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] What is a digital anthropologist? Rahaf studies how emerging technologies influence our culture.
[5:25] Leaders have the daunting task of managing a wide variety of new information coming to them. They are struggling to keep up and understand what’s relevant and what’s not.
[7:45] We are taught to consume information in a very linear fashion. You go to a class, you exit that class, you do it enough times and you get a degree. The information in this class is focused and specific. However, our ecosystem is now infinite and we haven’t adapted our learning styles to keep up with this.
[9:25] Leaders need to have a bit of vulnerability in them to admit that they don’t know everything. It’s difficult because they’re seen as the go-to person for answers, but the rapid growth of our technology makes it impossible for anyone to truly know everything. Leaders need to freely admit that they don’t have the answers.
[14:25] Rahaf’s book, Hustle & Float, came from the result of burnout. Rahaf understood the importance of rest, so why wasn’t she doing it?
[17:35] Your brain needs unstructured time to be creative, but our work culture doesn’t allow room for this.
[21:55] Leaders are overworking themselves because they are suffering from ‘work devotion.’ We sacrifice not seeing our families for our work because it showcases to the world how much of a hardworking individual we are.
[24:15] It’s the American Dream dilemma: If you haven’t achieved your perceived level of success, it must be because you’re not working hard enough.
[32:55] The answer to achieving better productivity is to create systems that are custom-tailored to the individual so that they have time to listen, reflect, and innovate.
[39:30] What value does it have to tell the other person that you’ve read a message or not? There is so much added stress and pressure to respond ‘right now.’
[46:10] Joe Biden has expressed that if his staff miss out on important family events in favor of doing work for him, it would disappoint him greatly. Sometimes you need leaders to just spell it out as plainly and bluntly as that. Be a supportive leader.
[49:45] How can you change the company culture for the better? Start having uncomfortable conversations with yourself about your own work identity, and then carry this dialogue over to your team’s work identity.
Quotable Quotes
- “Technology is changing the way that we relate to each other; the way we communicate and maintain friendships.”
- “There’s an expectation of a leader to manage everything and sort of know everything.”
- “Do I have the courage to raise my hand and say, ‘We need to ask questions’?”
- “We have created this intensely complex relationship with work. We’ve linked work with our identities and self-worth.”
-
We are asking people to tackle complex problems and yet we’re creating work cultures that make it hard for people to accomplish this.
-
How to Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work
Rahafharfoush.com
Hustle & Float: Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work,
by Rahaf Harfoush
Twitter: @rahafharfoush
Medium: @rahafharfoush
Redthreadinc.co
Tosdr.org
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Winston Ben Clements is on a mission to inspire one billion people. Winston was born with brittle bone disorder, a frustrating and debilitating disease that resulted in multiple surgeries throughout his childhood. Instead of being limited by his condition, he decided to embrace it and build a life with meaning and purpose. His TEDx talk, “Your Limitations Are An Illusion,” has inspired thousands of people from all over the world.
Key Takeaways
[2:25] Winston’s mother is one of his heroes. She walks the talk and inspires him to be a better person.
[4:10] Winston’s first speaking gig went really poorly but he was determined to develop the skills he needed to perform well on the big stage. This drive to constantly better himself (and with the encouragement of a mentor) led him to speak at TEDx.
[6:00] Winston was born with brittle bone disorder, which means his bones can break very, very easily. Throughout his childhood, he had to learn what it meant to be resilient and to overcome obstacles none of his peer group was facing.
[10:15] Winston has a goal to inspire a billion people with his story. It’s a lofty goal and it scares him.
[15:15] With such a big goal, how does Winston plan to help people inspire somebody else? It comes down to living and breathing what you preach. He credits Sean Stephenson for inspiring him and he serves as a reminder to Winston that you can make a big difference by being the person you say you are.
[22:00] People can often overlook Winston as a person because all they see is his disability. Winston has a choice to get upset/angry at the situation or move past it and focus on what’s really important: good friends and good company. We all have a choice on how we want to react.
[28:55] How can the average person cultivate resilience? First, it’s important to take a step back and recognize the difficult situation you’re faced with. It’s okay to feel upset/angry in the moment. Once you’ve given space to feel frustrated, then switch your perspective from seeing it as an obstacle to how this can define you into being a better version of yourself.
[31:15] Get excited that you have obstacles in your life! When you pass through the other side, you will be proud of yourself.
[36:15] Define success on your own terms and use your own values as a guide toward what kind of life you want to design for yourself. Everyone has a different path toward happiness and fulfillment.
[45:00] Are you struggling to make progress? Pick one habit and focus on that habit for seven days. You will see progress. Stop being a strict consumer of knowledge and start being an implementer.
Quotable Quotes
- One of the most disappointing things is setting a goal that is realistic, and then realize it wasn’t fulfilling at all.
- “If you’re the only minority, focus on your personality because that’s where your strengths are.”
- Shift your thinking from the perceived obstacle and shine the light on your gifts.
- “The obstacle is not in the way, the obstacle is the way.”
Winstonclements.com
Twitter: @WinstonSpeaker
Instagram: @WinstonSpeaker
Winston’s TEDx — “Your Limitations Are An Illusion”
Toastmasters.org
Sean Stephenson
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Sam Walker is The Wall Street Journal’s deputy editor for enterprise, the unit that directs the paper’s in-depth page-one features and investigative reporting projects. A former reporter, sports columnist, and sports editor, Walker founded the Journal’s prizewinning daily sports coverage in 2009. For this episode, he dives into his book, The Captain Class - a bold new theory of leadership drawn from the elite captains who inspired their teams to achieve extraordinary success.
Named one of the best business books of the year by CNBC, The New York Times, Forbes, strategy+business, The Globe and Mail, and Sports Illustrated.
Now featuring analysis of the five-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and their captain, Tom Brady.
The seventeen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain—a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. Drawing on original interviews with athletes, general managers, coaches, and team-building experts, Sam Walker identifies the seven core qualities of the Captain Class—from extreme doggedness and emotional control to tactical aggression and the courage to stand apart. Told through riveting accounts of pressure-soaked moments in sports history, The Captain Class will challenge assumptions of what inspired leadership looks like.
Key Takeaways
[3:05] Sam looked up to sports teams and famous locker room speeches as a youth, but he found that most teams do not run the way he thought.
[5:40] In his book, Sam looked at teams who had sustained success over a number of years and exhibited characteristics one wouldn’t expect.
[8:10] Sam researched his book with certain assumptions about teams, but was pleasantly surprised. He realized as he did more research, that he really had a lot to learn about how leadership really works.
[10:25] Some of the qualities and characteristics that team captains had were:
-
Extreme doggedness and focus in competition
-
Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules
-
A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows - Humility
-
A low-key, practical and democratic communication style - They were boring people privately.
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Motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays - Practical communication style.
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Strong convictions and the courage to stand apart
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Ironclad emotional control
[15:40] The hardest lesson Sam learned is that if you want to be a great leader, you have to be okay with getting zero credit. Other people may be the face of the company/team; other people may get the better promotions over you and you have to be okay with that.
[20:05] There are two types of aggression. There’s the kind of conflict that’s really personal and it’s always toxic. If a leader engages, it will destroy the team. There is also something called task conflict, which can get very heated, but is never personal. It is always with the good of the team in mind.
[25:10] When you put successful people together and they’re all working towards a goal, it ends up being a lot of fun, and it should be! They have a level of trust with their teammates and a level of humility among the group that allows them to not worry about the small stuff.
[28:15] A lot of people believe Michael Jordan was a great leader. It was actually Bill Cartwright who was the glue that held everyone together.
[30:35] We reward heroes, but that is just an indicator that the team dynamic failed. We think working late nights and making sacrifices is a good thing for the company, but if it’s just one man pulling the cart, you’re not succeeding as a leader.
[37:10] Leaders who are on great teams and have seen sustained success are running 90 miles an hour, foot on the gas, all the time. There is no such thing as a slow day for these leaders.
[43:35] Sam challenges you to think about all the managers you’ve had over the years and read this book and re-rank them based on the qualities listed in his book.
Quotable Quotes
- “The team is so much more important than the individual.”
- “There are a million ways to win, but every single team who had sustained success had the same characteristics.”
- “If you really want to be a great team leader, you have to be completely content that you’re not going to get the credit you deserve.”
- “Will I be content if the team wins? Is that enough for me?”
- “Team leaders, were often in defensive roles, and were not the face of the team or the first person you’d expect.”
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“Even if you don’t always do the right thing as a leader, just knowing what you’re supposed to do is half the battle.”
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“Emotional control is a big one. These leaders had the ability to be passionate and show emotion, and then shut it off when it was no longer helpful.”
-
“Tom Brady said, ‘It’s actually very simple. You do your job so that everybody else can do theirs. That’s it. That’s the secret.’”
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“It’s about putting the same amount of effort, whether you’re winning big or losing badly. It’s about showing a consistent approach to your work.”
Bysamwalker.com
The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership, by Sam Walker
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partners
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues. Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
As a leader, you’re able to create the conditions where good things happen at your workplace. You can influence the environment in ways where your team can create, innovate, and solve wicked problems. In this episode, Jim and Jan discuss how to address fear, how to cultivate hope and creativity, and how leaders can strive to be better leaders with the scarcity of time we all share.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] There’s a wide spectrum of people out there and with that comes a wide spectrum of internal motivation and what incentivizes them.
[5:00] With that being said, people are also completely different at work than they are in their personal lives.
[5:55] So what can leaders do if they see someone who is fearful at their job? The best thing to do is to look at yourself. How do you react when your staff presents you with new ideas? How do you react when there is a major failure in the company? As a leader, your reaction shifts the entire culture of a company.
[11:15] If we are just a victim of the world around us, we are perceived as weaker. We are weaker because we have a lack of options in our lives so we might develop a victim mentality in the workplace. It’s important to be active in seeking alternative options, even if you don’t plan to take them because it makes you stronger.
[17:00] Hope is not a strategy but it is needed in the workplace. Hope is created when people feel like they’re in control and that they have multiple options to pursue.
[19:55] We need creativity in the workforce but in order to cultivate it, the leader’s workforce needs to be relatively happy and stress-free.
[22:05] We are very confident that we can read human emotions. In reality, we’re really bad at it.
[27:55] Leaders are busy. They often don’t have extra time to study how to be good leaders, which is why we need to surround ourselves with a good support system that will help keep us accountable.
Quotable Quotes
- “It goes back to how people are incentivized and motivated. The baseline of those things is fear and overconfidence.”
- “Fear doesn’t always show up in the form of somebody that looks scared. Fear can show up in someone that’s indecisive.”
- “Let’s find the optimal solution with the information we have, in the time we have to make it.”
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Ashley Goodall is the senior vice president of leadership and team intelligence at Cisco. He is also the co-author of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, and the author of two cover stories in the Harvard Business Review: The Feedback Fallacy and Reinventing Performance Management. In today’s discussion, Ashley breaks down why 360 reviews about your staff are flawed, the future of artificial intelligence and its impact on the workforce, and why dedicating resources to building a ‘well-rounded’ employee is not always the best approach.
Key Takeaways
[3:55] There is an interesting connection between leadership and music. Music allows people to create and collaborate together and the same applies to leadership.
[7:15] When you want to make space for someone to be creative and to help them feel comfortable with collaboration, be sure to be the leader that speaks last.
[10:55] Ashley breaks down his interpretation of the theory world vs. the real world. In theory, everyone has metrics that break down what you should be doing, but in reality, people need a baseline first and then the metrics.
[13:30] We think that having a well-rounded individual or employee is a good approach, but devoting resources to make them well-rounded might not make the most sense. Some of your best people are not well-rounded! They have a set of focused skill sets that make them great.
[15:00] If you want to spend your time getting better, stop focusing on your weaknesses, focus on your strengths instead.
[21:30] Don’t find a job you love, make a job you love. Instead of focusing on work/life balance, focus on the content of what you do on a daily basis.
[28:30] Ashley saw a gap between what works at work and the actual practice of what organizations were doing. This is why he and his co-author, Marcus Buckingham, wrote the book, Nine Lies About Work.
[33:10] Leaders need to challenge the status quo. If they recognize that their reports about their staff’s characteristics and personality are inaccurate, leaders need to speak up and challenge this thinking.
[42:35] As artificial intelligence and automation get incorporated more and more in the workforce, leaders think they can now do less. In reality, leaders actually have to step up and focus more on the human aspect of the organization.
[49:00] Ashley challenges you to ask your team what their thought process was when they did something great and if they can replicate that success.
Quotable Quotes
- “The conductor makes space for people to play into.”
- “Go look at the best people. Are they well-rounded? The answer is no.”
- “You’ll find that excellent and well-rounded are opposites, not synonyms.”
- “The lesson from the real world is that avoiding failure repeatedly is not the same as building excellence.”
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called Chalk Talks. They’re bitesize hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Ashleygoodall.com
Nine Lies About Work, by Ashley Goodall
The Feedback Fallacy
Reinventing Performance Management
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Dean DiSibio is the Founder of the Colonel’s Leadership Council and the Co-Author of Reel Lessons in Leadership. In Dean’s book, he breaks down iconic movie characters and the leadership qualities (and flaws) that they possess. Traits and skills like self-control, negotiation, and empathy are all part of a leader’s repertoire for success.
Key Takeaways
[4:25] Dean co-wrote the book, Reel Lessons in Leadership, with his father.
[6:15] Movies are a very common connection point that all generations can relate to, which is why Dean decided to breakdown leadership lessons from important movies in our era.
[7:50] Dean shares why the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has some important leadership lessons in it.
[12:10] In The Godfather, it all boils down to self-control.
[15:05] Leaders need coaches in their corner to help guide them through troubling situations.
[18:55] When it comes to leadership traits, Dean outlines in his book the traits that need to be developed vs. need to be practiced.
[25:55] The military understands they have to train people. The business world… not so much.
[32:35] Dean mentioned in his book that negotiation is a skill leaders must develop. This is something very few people are talking about in a leadership context. Dean believes good negotiators have the same traits as good leaders. They tend to have self-control, confidence, credibility, and good communication and are often well-prepared and forward-thinking.
[38:35] Dean puts leaders into three categories, Maximizers, Overachievers, and Underachievers.
[41:25] Dean presents a challenge: Pay attention to the fictional characters you love and have a curiosity as to what leadership traits they possess. Have discussions about them with your friends and family.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “Good leaders have to have self-control.”
- “I believe folks have a high empathy muscle that they’re born with.
- “Self-awareness is half the battle.”
- “I believe the best leaders are inquisitive.”
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Colonel’s Leadership Council
Reel Lessons in Leadership, by Ralph R. DiSibio with Dean A. DiSibio
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Godfather
TED Talk — “The Surprising Science of Alpha Males”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Dan Cockerell is a former Disney Executive, and spent 22 magical years at Walt Disney World in a wide variety of management roles - rising to Vice President of the Magic Kingdom. He shares critical leadership lessons he learned at Disney, and why it was important to always be accessible and available to his team. He also shares how to keep your staff accountable while also supporting the company’s mission, vision and values.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
Interested in learning more? You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[1:35] After graduating with a degree in political science, Dan took on a job at Disney parking cars and slowly worked his way up into management roles. Throughout his 22 years at Disney, he had 19 jobs.
[7:35] Leaders know instinctively what they have to do, but just like why we eat junk food or do not work out regularly, it’s not always the easiest path to take.
[9:50] Leaders are extremely busy people. Dan offers some advice on how you can manage your time better and stop focusing solely on the urgent tasks but also on the important ones too.
[16:45] How do you hold someone accountable while living out your company’s mission? You recognize and reward good work from your team and use their actions as examples to inspire and educate everybody else.
[24:05] Remember to give your team permission to give you pushback or to disagree with you. Diversity of thought is critical to an organization’s success.
[27:05] Dan shares his gap theory and how you can utilize knowledge and determination to bridge the gap you have on all of your goals.
[32:15] Embrace change and be adaptable. Change is accelerating at an exponential pace. Get your team on board with the process as quickly as you can so that the change is not going to be a big shock to them.
[38:25] Dan shares some fun and memorable moments about working at Disney and why it was such a magical and special place.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “Don’t mistake simple for easy.”
- “Culture is built by behaviors.”
- “You have to give people permission to push back on the boss, or bring up an idea, or disagree.”
- “You always have a blindspot.”
- “It’s not the strongest or fastest who survive, it’s those who can adapt most quickly.”
DanCockerell.com
Disney
The Eisenhower Matrix
Junior Achievement
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations,
by Thomas Friedman
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Steve Justice, COO of the To the Stars Academy and Former Director of Advanced Systems at Lockheed Martin’s esteemed Skunk Works, shares what it takes to lead projects when the specifications challenge the laws of physics, the stakes are literally life and death, and the nation’s national security is on the line. Steve shares what it takes to develop cutting edge technology by studying the past, and setting team expectations that challenges conventional assumptions. He also describes the mission behind To The Stars Academy, and why “revolutionary is too mild a word.”
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[1:44] Steve can’t talk about a lot of the work he did, but he did help develop the F-22 Raptor (the coolest plane you can ever see at an air show). You will also see his name on the patent for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.
[4:22] With high stakes projects, Steve had to make sure expectations were clearly stated before his team even began to work. When Steve was at Skunk Works, the programs he asked his bosses for were the ones that had a low probability of success.
[7:30] Writing down the operating rules and expectations presents it in a different context than just speaking it.
[9:02] Steve asks a lot of questions, but explains to his team the reasons behind it. It typically breaks down into 5 reasons:
- Asked an earlier question, but it wasn’t answered yet.
- Didn’t understand what you said, looking for clarification.
- This is new, and I’m asking questions to understand the answer - and the context.
- I’m educating other people in the room.
- I am testing your conviction.
[12:27] Values such as precision, clarity, focus, and learning from mistakes really matter.
[16:28] Steve is the Aerospace Division Director at To the Stars Academy, and leads the efforts of developing advanced craft using revolutionary technologies that go beyond capabilities most can only imagine.
[22:28] Great leaders think beyond what is in front of them and dig for answers considering multiple perspectives.
[28:51] Steve was one of the Skunk Works historians, and it’s helped him think about futuristic realities.
[33:38] Three important qualities of a leader:
- Curiosity and inquisitiveness.
- Do what they say they are going to do.
- Strong character.
[42:06] We all have failings, but recognizing and learning from them is the key.
[48:17} Two pieces of advice:
-
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit.” - Ronald Reagan
-
Stand in the future to solve today’s problems.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- Stand in the future to solve today’s problems.
- “As a leader, your success is 100% dependent on how your team does.”
- “As a leader, you are on 24/7.”
- “Sitting down with a team and defining expectations is critical.”
- “I love proving people wrong.”
- “I’m always amazed by the dramatic amount of wonder and inquisitiveness some people can have, and the very small box other people want to live in.”
Lockheed Martin
To the Stars Academy
Kelly Johnson
The Matrix
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Most people use humor as a great way to break the ice and keep things light and fun in the workplace. However, through cultural differences, personality types, and life experiences, the use of humor can become offensive or make people uncomfortable. Where do you find the right balance? Jim and Jan discuss the importance of humor in the workplace and how to use your emotional intelligence to develop the right amount and type of humor for a company’s culture.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:15] Jan tells a joke. Brace yourselves!
[4:00] Most people want to work in a place where there is some humor or some form of light heartedness, but different cultures find different levels of humor acceptable and it can be difficult to tell how far is too far even when the intention is innocent.
[7:40] As a leader, it’s your job to create a comfortable environment, but how do you know whether something offends somebody or not?
[12:30] What does the internet have to say about humor in the workplace? Jim didn’t find anything particularly helpful. The information out there is very limited.
[15:55] If a topic is going to make people feel awkward, maybe it’s best to stay away from it. Your jokes should make people feel comfortable. For example, you should probably stay away from practical jokes in the workplace.
[20:50] Jim and Jan would love your thoughts on this subject! Please feel free to reach out.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
-
“You never know in the workplace these days what’s going to offend and what isn’t.”
-
“This person said that they can’t say anything without offending somebody. They’ve got to be PC.”
-
“Sarcasm isn’t an excuse to belittle someone.”
-
“I would rather live in a world where we have a little bit of humor and occasionally say I’m sorry sincerely than to be on guard all the time.”
8 Tips for Using Workplace Humor - Forbes
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram are the Co-Founders of GiANT, a leadership development program that helps build leaders into Sherpas. Jeremie and Steve are also the co-authors of the book The 100x Leader, a #1 Best Seller on Amazon. They join the show to talk with Jim and Jan about how leaders can become someone worth following, what leadership programs today get completely wrong, and why intentionality and self-awareness are critical to a leader’s success.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:55] Steve lived in the United States for five years before moving back home to the UK. He enjoys recreational golf and spending time with his wife of 27 years and his children. Jeremie was living in London, but has since moved back to the United States. As a side project with his wife of 24 years, they are building modern farm houses in Oakland City.
[5:55] Most leaders are people you ‘have to follow’, which can often cause friction in an organization. It creates complacency with your employees and makes it very difficult to get engagement and buy-in.
[11:00] Leaders need to supply the rope to help their team get to the next level. If you haven’t established trust with them, then it becomes very difficult to motivate and challenge them. A good leader understands where their employees are mentally and if they need support or to be challenged.
[16:40] Jeremie uses the metaphor that leaders are gardeners. Every person on their team is like a plant that wants to be cared for differently. By catering to each personality types of your team members, you build a more engaged workforce than a complacent one.
[22:20] The biggest problem with leadership development is that it’s very individualistic. Leaders need to be looking at themselves like a sherpa. No one has climbed Mount Everest without one. They play a critical role in a mission’s success through their expertise and knowledge, and they help 3-4+ people at a time achieve their goals.
[27:25] Jeremie had an epiphany in Cancun after he watched the movie Signs with Mel Gibbons and getting hit by a drunk driver. This event completely reshaped Jeremie’s view on the world and how he runs his company today.
[37:45] A lot of leaders are accidental, but what they really need to be is intentional. The first step to becoming a better leader is to be intentional with your personal life and have it reflect in your professional life as well.
[41:55] Jeremie believes it’s important to be honest with your team and let them know you are working on your weaknesses. By being transparent, you are able to gain trust and respect.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “Everyone of us has the ability to be somebody worth following or someone you have to follow.”
- “Every leader is like a gardener and every person on their team is like a plant and that plant has a little card that tells it how it wants to be watered.”
- “Progress is a process. Most people want to [be a leader] overnight. Fix you, fix you! But you have to take them on a journey, and it’s a self-awareness journey.”
- “[This traumatic accident] reshaped my view on the world and it changed my view on people; that people can be an asset, not a liability.”
- “If you think you’re going to be that type of leader without working at it, you’re deluded because it will not happen.”
Giant Worldwide
The 100X Leader: How to Become Someone Worth Following by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Barry Siff, CEO at USA Team Handball and former President of UA Triathlon, has much to share about leadership from the world of sport, business, and nonprofits. Barry talks about how he became a Senior VP at 25, retired at the age of 42, and received both a BS and Masters without graduating high school. He also discusses what it takes for people to dream big, and how to see challenges as opportunities.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:53] Barry retired in 1998 from a Senior VP position at a $7 billion dollar food company. He was only 42, and then decided he wanted to be involved with sports, which led him to the Team USA Handball organization.
[4:07] Barry is quite the endurance athlete. He has run over 60 marathons, the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run, Expedition Races all over the world and 11 IRONMANs.
[6:52] Staying fit helps with stamina, mental clarity, and energy. Barry sees similar lessons in athletics as business, including the need for leaders to overcome obstacles, and do what’s necessary to get the job done.
[9:09] While the business world mainly focuses on P&L and shareholder values, USA Triathlon is a non profit that also focuses on both the cause and the members.
[20:03] Great leaders know that asking for help empowers others and gives them meaning.
[21:13] People dream big when they have passion.
[23:06] We can retrain our mindset to see challenges as opportunities for learning and growth.
[31:31] The little things, such as intently listening and asking the right questions, really make a difference in leadership.
[35:39] Barry describes Handball as water polo played on a basketball court, and it is an extremely fast and physical game. It is currently very popular in many countries, and projects that it also will be a commonly known sport soon in the United States, and also a participant in the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s all about the goal of having something way, way out there.”
- “You can’t fake a marathon.”
- “It doesn’t matter what you are doing, just that you are passionate about it.”
Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook
USA Team Handball
Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate
Jane Goodall
U.S. athletes run fast, jump high, throw hard - why are we so bad at handball?
Lewis Howes
Ty Reed Handball
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
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info@theleadershippodcast.com
Caroline “Blaze” Jensen dreamt of being a jet fighter at a time when women weren’t allowed to fly. Luckily, thanks to mentors and others who paved the way, she was able to live out her dream as an Air Force Thunderbird pilot. “Blaze” talks about her accomplishment of being the first mom to become a Thunderbird pilot, what her experience as a Legislative Aide for the Senate taught her, and what lessons and character traits apply to leadership and business. She also discusses the importance of taking constructive criticism, time for reflection and solitude, and accomplishing goals as building blocks.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:33] Caroline has an extremely impressive bio, but one of her greatest accomplishments and primary jobs is being a single mom to her 10-year-old son.
[2:33] Caroline dreamt of being in the Air Force from a young age, but women weren’t allowed to fly. Her dad was consistent with his support for her dream and even introduced to her Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who became her cherished mentors. Caroline credits much of her success to the giants that blazed the trail before her.
[3:36] Being a great leader doesn’t mean working around the clock or sending out emails 24/7. We are more productive when we are rested, and reprioritization is an ongoing skill to make sure we are taking care of our families.
[12:40] Our society is becoming less focused on gender and more focused on what it is we put out in the world, and what skills we have. Caroline looks forward to a time where gender matters even less at work.
[15:28] As a Legislative Aids for the US Senate, Caroline had a great experience with hard-working people. She was blown away at how busy the members of Congress are.
[22:00] Caroline was a high profile recruiter for the Air Force, and she took much pride in being a champion for the service branch.
[28:14] Thunderbird pilots can fly as close as 18 inches apart at top speed. It takes complete focus and attention to detail. Caroline names the following attributes as both important in the Thunderbirds and in business:
- You must build trust in your team, and look out for the greater good of everyone.
- Not everything is learned or mastered at once. Use building blocks to meet your goals.
- You have to learn how to take constructive criticism and grow from it.
- Be open to feedback from team members and to the debriefing sessions.
- Learn how to succeed, but also look for the learning lesson when you don’t.
[37:05] While the video game revolution may produce some good fighter pilots with quick thinking and solid reflexes, leaders still need time for reflection and solitude.
[39:36] Caroline’s Challenge: Serve your country and community. Do something to make the lives of your fellow man better.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian careers. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “We need to make sure we are taking care of the people at home who are taking care of us.”
- “Your skills and the way you conduct yourself, that what speaks for you, not what your chromosomes are.”
- “I feel really fortunate that I get to recruit the future and represent the past.”
- “Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.”
- “One of the easiest ways to get your point across is to lead by example.”
- “Sometimes people learn more from failure than from winning.”
Twitter | Tedx Talk
Air Force Thunderbirds | Facebook
Air Force Capt. Nathan Nylander
Oshkosh
Women Airforce Service Pilots
John Borling
Harvard Business Review: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills
Ep #105: Amy McGrath’s 90th Mission
Betty Wall
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Brigadier General Cindy R. Jebb, 14th Dean of the Academic Board at U.S. Military Academy, West Point, joins the show this week. Cindy is the first woman to hold the prestigious position, and she graduated from the Military Academy in 1982. She has served at the National Security Agency, and has authored and co-authored three books. Cindy provides a masterclass in leadership this week, including what can and cannot be taught, the importance of character, and the need for trust. Cindy also talks about what it is like to be the first female Dean at West Point, and the five characteristics of leadership that have been critical to her success.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[3:46] BG Jebb is extremely grateful for the people she gets to serve with, and acknowledges them as a huge part of her personal success.
[4:18] West Point is known for developing leaders through the four prong approach of:
- Character
- Academics
- Military
- Athletics
Cindy has found that character is the most important of these prongs because it involves people counting on your word, your everyday habits, and the ability to demonstrate excellence.
[7:09] Cindy is the first female Dean at West Point. Not only is this a huge step for women, but Cindy also has extra pressure in her role because of the Presidential appointment.
[10:23] At West Point, despite the high demands and expectations, it is all about everyone supporting the mission and continuing to breed a mutual trust between society and the military.
[18:10] Charisma is hard to teach, but learning presence and positive energy can be developed. Experiential learning also provides great experiences and resources for character building, but is something that can be worked on and shaped throughout someone’s lifetime.
[25:24] Real development occurs outside our comfort zone. This is where we learn about ourselves and our limits and develop confidence.
[29:42] Cindy and her team at West Point are aware that future leaders need time to reflect, think deeply and develop who they really are.
[34:25] Five characteristics of leadership Cindy has found helpful:
- Subtle discipline. Doing routine things routinely.
- Invest in your field and write/talk/read about it. Become an expert.
- Have humility and understand that you don’t always have all the answers.
- Embrace the struggle. Don’t shy away from performing outside comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
- Cultivate relationship. Acknowledge vulnerability and develop empathy for fellow humans.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “We look at making sure that we are developing leaders of character that are going to live honorably, lead honorably, and demonstrate excellence.”
- “Humble minds are open minds.”
- “Investing in others is also an investment in yourself.”
- “Substance wins the argument.”
- “Mastery requires and facilitates preparedness.”
West Point
Brigadier General Cindy R. Jebb
Ep #051: Leadership is Hard Because Character is Hard
Ep #095: Leadership Requires Solitude
American University article - president protected from adversity
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
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Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
When you are working in a highly regulated and restricted environment, it may be more challenging to come up with creative solutions, make decisions and work within a culture that feels flexible. However, this week, Jim and Jan discuss the unique leadership challenges in the public sector, and how to still thrive. Jim and Jan answer a few listener questions and concerns regarding problems that are unique to public sector organizations, and give personal examples of times they needed to think outside the box to move things along.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:22] Before we look at external threats, we must first look internally and see what we are able to control.
[4:03] When bureaucracy bears down and feels constrictive, great leaders are creative in problem solving.
[10:46] Challenge your assumptions and be open to a different way of doing things.
Highly regulated complex systems are rarely air tight, so look for the gaps.
[11:13] Be crystal clear about expectations, including who does what by when and what the consequences will be if someone fails to meet the expectations.
[15:03] Try to talk with the union, find a common interests and see where you can work together to find a solution for the greater group.
[16:43] Control what you can, and adapt and change around those you can’t. By doing this, we influence for the good.
[22:09] Your network is your insurance policy, and so is learning and growing within your company and industry. It is your personal responsibility to take lessons learned when you can.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
- “Remove some of your assumptions, challenge them and pressure test them.”
- “Ultimately, the thing we all have is a choice.”
- “Control what you can.”
- “Invent your way out of a tight box.”
- “Learn how to adapt and change.”
How to Deal with Stifling Bureaucracies
Find the best boss, the industry doesn’t matter
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Safi Bahcall is a second-generation physicist and biotech entrepreneur. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, and has a PhD in physics from Stanford. Safi also co-founded a biotech company developing new drugs for cancer, and served as CEO for 13 years. He joins the show to talk about how leaders can implement the ideas in his book Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries (a book Bill Gates recently highlighted). He discusses why we must investigate failure, and the differences between structure and culture.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[3:39] Safi was hungry to learn about something other than culture as a leader and manager. He would see companies with so called great cultures not have sustainable success, and wanted to get to the root of what actually made a big difference. While working with President Obama’s Council of Science and Technology, he found that small changes in structure rather than culture, created an environment for radical breakthrough.
[9:12] Great leaders make time to study the history and historical references that can help them leverage ideas and concepts. For example, Vennevar Bush had one of the greatest impacts on the growth of science and technology from the World War II era, but he is not a large part of commonly talked about history.
[15:24] Great leaders help bridge the gap between people in a group, and balance the delicate line between radical innovation and execution.
[2010} Structure is made up of many small things and attributes that drive behavior, which in turn shapes the culture. Laying the foundation for a strong structure takes a while, and is not something that should be rushed into.
[30:29] You want to nurture the Loonshots, or “crazy ideas” inside the company, because competitors may instead give it a try and find it works successfully for them.
[32:08] Two pieces of advice Safi has for leaders:
- Be a gardener, not Moses.
- Focus on the balance within the structure, and help when there are blockages.
[38:11] The term “LSE” means we should listen to the suck with curiosity. Every innovation sucks at first, and the great innovators are the ones who can take off their rejection hats, and investigate failure with curiosity.
[42:42] Safi’s challenge: Think about what it you are doing today that experts are telling you could never work. Realize there are no experts of the future.
Strategic Partner
Beyond the Uniform offers over 300 free episodes to help military Veterans succeed in their civilian career. This includes overviews of potential career paths, deep dives on necessary skills to succeed, and reviews of other free services that support the military Veteran community. You can find more info at BeyondTheUniform.org.
Quotable Quotes
-
“History doesn’t repeat. People repeat.”
-
Every innovation will look ugly at first.”
-
“There are no experts of the future.”
-
“Listen to the suck with curiosity.”
Website | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
Loonshots
The Treatment
Vannevar Bush
Dunbar’s Number
Gore
Microsoft
Arpanet
Peter Thiel
Friendster
Judah Folkman
Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes magazine and author of Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement, along with four acclaimed previous books. Rich talks about his own experience as a late bloomer, why our society is so focused on early achievement, and the misconceptions of early success when it comes to neuroscience. He also discusses the harm of agism, and how those who haven’t bloomed fully can arrive at the intersection of using their native gifts, deepest passions, and abiding purpose.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[3:50] Rich describes his acceptance at Stanford as a fluke. After graduation, he worked as a security guard and dishwasher while his peers were getting great jobs and starting successful companies. He was honest and upfront with his workplace that he wanted to blossom but wasn’t sure why he hadn’t yet, and they gave him a shot to be the Technical Editor and Writer at the Nuclear Power Division. He took the job seriously and became seriously interested in nuclear engineering.
[7:43] We are impatient for success, and have created a school system that puts pressure to get into elite colleges. The competition also starts at a much earlier age, leaving teens and young adults feeling overwhelmed and possibly depressed.
[9:18] When our educational system is just a “conveyer belt to early success”, it leaves us with unnecessary baggage and takes the focus off realizing our natural gifts.
[13:12] Our cognition peaks depends on the ability. While speed and memory may hit their stride in the teens and 20’s, our 30’s open up a range of abilities such as leadership, executive skills, entrepreneurialism and compassion. In the 40’s and beyond, we gain higher functions of wisdom to mentor and coach.
[15:35] Lean into the person that you are becoming, not the person you were.
[18:00] The Silicon Valley Myth may have us thinking that innovation only happens in the early to young achievers in their mid 20’s, but there is a larger picture of many successful late bloomers.
[21:38] It is useful to have a greater faith that convinces you that you are here for a reason. This assures you of self worth and separates you from self doubt.
[23:44] Great leaders know when persevering is the most courageous thing to do, but also is open to know when quitting and focusing time and energy on something else is the best move.
[29:01] Rich believes the greatest blooming happens because of a willingness to be brave and discover what we are good at and follow our curiosity.
[32:17] A lot of successful leaders talk about their time in school, and how we can redefine education for people that learn in different ways.
[34:07] Three ways Rich suggests we can take the pressure off early achievement:
- Start kids later in traditional school work, and focus more on fun and healthy play before the age of 7.
- Advocate for skill trade programs. They teach tangible skills, typically pay well and can even be a very attractive background for someone pursuing higher education.
- Gap years can help encourage travel and learning about new environments.
- Mandatory military or civilian service gives a sense of purpose, belonging, and duty to something bigger than ourselves.
[37:38] Agism is a tragic loss of human talent, however responsibility goes both ways. It is up to organizations to provide more opportunities, including mentorship and coaching, and up to the applicants to network and see where they can add value.
[47:16] Rich’s challenge: move forward with self doubt. Find peer groups who you can talk about your plans, dreams and worries.
Quotable Quotes
- “I literally felt my brain developing and opening up at age 26 and 27.”
-
“We need to learn how to quit when we can reallocate our time, treasure and purpose towards something better.”
-
“Lean into the person that you are becoming, not the person you were.”
Lee Kuan Yew
Carol Dweck
Stanford
The Electric Power Research Institute
Alden Mills
Dan Pink
The Silicon Valley Suicides
MIT, MGH Research Says Not All Cognitive Abilities Decline As You Age Dave Duffield
Tom Siegel
C3
Fred Luddy
VMware
Reid Hoffman
Intel
Liz Fosslien is the co-author and illustrator of No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotion at Work. She joins the show to talk about why embracing emotions at work doesn’t always mean having emotional conversations. She shares what we are missing to bring a sense of safety and commitment to the workplace. Liz also talks about her work at Humu, an organization that builds behavioral change technology that helps organizations and individuals feel and act their best.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[4:54] Great managers and leaders take the time to ask personal questions of people on their team, and point out good ideas. This makes team members feel as though someone is invested in their long term goals, and they are more likely to share and feel committed.
[8:28] A happy workplace boosts ROI, productivity, innovation and saves the cost of trying to replace and retrain when there is turnover.
[10:28] No Hard Feelings gives the reader internal and external tools to first understand what type of culture they work in, and then from there come up with a plan to process emotions. It also helps provide a road map for when the environment is not very vulnerable or emotion based.
[13:24] With so many generations blending together in the workplace, we can each learn something from each other. The younger generation can learn more emotional intelligence, and the older generation can learn to feel more comfortable expressing emotions.
[16:29] Great leaders have conversations early on so issues can be flushed out rather than waiting until the heat of the moment.
[17:12] There is more understanding and less defensiveness in making observations rather than character generalizations.
[18:02] Humu works with organizations to run a diagnostic survey that helps them figure out small changes that will have a big impact on how people feel. For the next 6 months to a year after the survey, they send personal nudges to help keep everyone on track with their goals. They also provide handbooks so leaders can learn the best way to communicate with their team.
[26:58] Feelings aren’t facts. They are valid, but it may be based on an incorrect assumption or just our perspective.
[31:45] A great workshop provides tactical advice with actionable steps that can be used in the future.
[36:29] With remote work becoming a larger staple in our society, it is important for leaders to provide trust, transparency and documentation. Video chats are still important with our body language and voice tone being so important to what we really hear in a conversation.
[43:23] Liz’s challenge: Pay attention to your envy and jealousy. It may reveal your burning desire or heart’s demands.
Quotable Quotes
- “Small actions have a big impact on how we feel at work.”
- “It makes no financial sense if once you finally have this personal organization, you’re not making the time to feel welcome there.”
- “Bringing emotion in the workplace is not always an invitation to talk about emotion.”
- “Lean in to jealousy, and see what it may tell you.”
- “Feelings aren’t facts.”
National Affairs
Humu
Everybody Lies
What Google Learned From It's Quest To Build the Perfect Team
Gretchen Rubin
#018: Is Your Company Culture Dysfunctional or Positive?
LinkedIn | Website | No Hard Feelings
Former NFL player, performer, and author - Bo Eason - discusses the one-man play he wrote and performed, Runt of the Litter; and his new book, There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game. Bo started his career as a top pick for the Houston Oilers and continued on with the San Francisco 49ers. He discusses how to stay focused despite obstacles and setbacks, the difference between dreams and fantasies, and why we should publicly declare our dreams in a big way.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:27] Besides being a successful speaker, performer and former NFL star, Bo is a family man with 3 kids and a wife of 20 years.
[3:44] Bo wrote and performed a one-man play called Runt of the Litter that was inspired by his own experience being the smallest athlete as a young teen. His father reminded him that it was less about brawn and more about heart and that he would just have to be faster, smarter and out perform his larger opponents.
[8:27] More options doesn’t always mean a better life. The more options, the less mastery. Bo’s new book out soon, No Plan B for Your A Game, explains that as soon as you have a Plan B or a fallback plan, that’s going to be your plan.
[11:29] When you declare your dreams publicly you have the ability to attract the right people to help you and keep you accountable.
[18:29] It’s important to surround yourself with people that respect your dreams rather than those with a mediocre mindset.
[29:33] Bo’s three steps for going after our dreams:
- Plan out the dream as detailed as possible.
- Stay focus and be ready to redirect when you are off course.
- Go public with it, and have others help you stay accountable.
[41:28] Every day we have a choice to create habits and actions that support our dreams, or we can go with the “fast food” of life that just feels good in the moment.
[43:52] Fantasties live in the head, while dreams live in action. It’s not at all easy either, there will be obstacles and special occasions missed.
[45:45] Bo’s challenge: declare what you want to be the best in the world at.
Quotable Quotes
- “We are really courageous, we just need to be reminded of who we are.”
- “We are born to be the best.”
- “We have two choices, the choice of discipline or the choice of regret.”
Walter Payton
Runt of the Litter
Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram
Whether it’s a team of 10 or 10,000, office politics matter. Jim and Jan talk about what office politics really is, how it’s changed over the years, and how to build a foundation for relationships that work for you, not against you. They also discuss why not all gossip (and humor) is bad, the importance of playing to your strengths, and adhering to ethical judgement.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:33] Office politics can be thought of as devious and divisive in the business world. However, great leaders remember that we are in an environment of complex relations with many variables.
[4:25] While the size of our organizations has grown over time and the flow of information is faster, human condition is still the same.
[6:57] We can use the power we do have in ways to influence hopefully for the good, not just improve our status.
[9:17] A few of the practical steps one can take to make sure they are creating a culture of a positive office environment:
- Play to your strengths, and invite others to do the same.
- Relationships are key, and strong relationships allow you navigate the political minefield better.
- Don’t make assumptions.
- If you want to avoid the bloodless coup, you have to have relationships defend you when you aren’t around.
- Don’t get over sensitized to when others talk about you behind your back. There is such a good thing as good snickering.
[11:59] We spend up to 100,000 hours in our career throughout our lifetime, so it’s important to make them count.
[15:36] Great leaders pay attention to what’s going on around them, and aim for ethical judgment 100% of the time.
[20:39] Give people the chance to explain what they are looking for in an outcome and what keeps them motivated.
[22:47] You do not control your brand or reputation, that is determined by the people surrounding you.
[24:29] Manage your integrity and hold yourself up to the highest version of your honesty and values.
Quotable Quotes
- “If you want to be respected and trusted, you have to respect and trust others.”
- “If something is tough, assumptions might be making it tougher than it needs to be.”
- “Be careful about what you say about other people.”
- “Manage your integrity.”
MASH
The Compass Solution
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
TLP023: Unlocking The True Potential of Your Team
Clayton Christiansen
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Kim Cameron focuses his research on virtuousness in organizations (aka culture) and the relationship to performance. Kim talks about what exactly virtuous leadership is, the difference between positivity and virtue, the competing values framework, and why recognizing achievement is so important… and elusive. Kim also shares practical ways leaders can begin to implement the process in their own culture.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[1:58] Kim’s past research on organizational virtuousness and the development of leadership excellence has been published in more than 130 academic articles and 15 scholarly books.
[3:34] Why is seeing the importance of positive leadership is so elusive? Kim encounters many senior executives that know positive leadership is fine, but their focus is pulled instead to shareholder value, customer satisfaction, and profitability goals. Kim explains that by implementing positive and virtuous practices, they will create a significant positive impact on profitability, innovation, customer loyalty and employee engagement.
[9:30] Most meeting agendas and time in leadership positions is spent filling the gap between difficult problems as opposed to celebrating all the wonderful things that happened, or the virtuous state.
[13:27] There is still much research to be done, but a 5:1 ratio has emerged between positive practices and negatives in high performing organizations. For every 1 negative statement, 5 positive ones will keep an organization in high performance mode. 3:1 is too low and above 8:1 seems inauthentic and too “syrupy sweet”.
[18:48] A single negative holds a lot of power, but the results aren’t always permanent. You can most often restore trust and relationships, however it takes an enormous balance of positive to negative, and often sacrifice to show that intentions are real.
[20:38] The heliotropic effect states that humans innately have a tendency toward positive energy, or towards the light. Through conditioning, we’ve learned to not only ignore the positive, but to focus on the negative in order to keep us safe from harm.
[30:07] It is not necessary to have a virtuous leader to create a culture of abundance, but Kim’s research finds it to be much more efficient and sustainable.
[37:10] Virtuous leaders understand it’s not about using their team for their time and energy to create wealth. Instead, they uncover resources such as positive relational energy.
[38:50] Positive energizers are high performers themselves, energize more than they extract, and also positively affect the performance of those around them. Positive energy is not personality or charisma, it’s a set of behaviors that anyone can learn. They help others flourish without expecting anything in return.
[43:41] Spirituality is an affinity to something bigger than oneself, and realizing it’s not just all about us, and there are forces in the world we can’t control.
Quotable Quotes
- “The very best we can be, the highest aspiration, is the virtuous state.”
- “Virtuous leaders can unlock potential.”
- “I have 15 people that try to help me get better every day, and I’ve made the same covenant to them.”
- “Spirituality simply helps us be more well rounded.”
- “Things change remarkably and rapidly when a virtuous leader takes over.”
Kim Cameron
Flow
John Gottman
Ep#27 Positivity & Performance
Bad Is Stronger Than Good
Markets, Bureaucracy, and Clans
AstroBall
How to Win Friends
Ori Brafman, multiple New York Times bestselling author, co-founder of the Fully Charged Institute, Distinguished Teaching Fellow and UC Berkeley and co-founder of Vegan.org, joins the show and talks about his latest book, Radical Inclusion. He examines the latest changes in the landscape of leadership, and explains the plasticity of thinking when it comes to the writing process, and why decentralized organizations work best.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
In addition, listen in to learn how 10 of you can apply to be selected to participate in the March 2020 Self-Reliant Leadership Crucible and Podcast Guest Reunion in Austin, Texas! It’s an exclusive event only for past Crucible participants and Podcast Guests, so this is a very unique opportunity.
If you want to be one of the ten lucky listeners who will get to attend this event… click on the link below to send in your submission. We will make our selection on Veterans Day (11/11/19) so get your submission in by November 8th, 2019.
http://bit.ly/Lucky10Contest
The only other way to participate is through corporate sponsorship. If that’s of interest, please send a note to info@selfreliantleadership.com.
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Key Takeaways
[5:53] Ori wrote The Starfish and The Spider in 2006, Sway in 2008, Click in 2019 and Chaos Imperative in 2013. Each of these books has a running theme on how people structure their organizations, and how seemingly small factors affect very large decisions and important long term relationships.
[9:27] Ori saw very different cultures firsthand, going from Tel Aviv to El Paso, to Silicon Valley.
[11:03] When we choose to surround ourselves with people of all different viewpoints and perspectives, we get what Ori calls the “ping pong of ideas”, serving them back and forth to each other. Ori found the creative tension of picking writing partners with different views from his own helped make the content richer.
[20:23] The more distributed an organization is, the more powerful. People can organize around a common cause without having a top-down hierarchy, and can regenerate if one sector falls short.
[25:58] When we try to control too much as a leader, we miss out people making a difference by their own contribution.
[27:15] Radical inclusion is about creating a sense of belonging, and an attachment and understanding of the organization's narrative.
[34:58] Providing people with more organization in a structure isn’t always the answer. Often times, we need to look at things from a systems approach.
[38:58] Ori feels one of the best ways to fix the divide is to organize in a way where we have radical inclusion, be clear on who makes the decisions, and what the expected outcomes and consequences are in these human interactions. He started to bridge together UC Berkeley and the army with these very same principals.
[51:40] Great leaders energize people, and raise others up around them.
Quotable Quotes
- “Hold your views lightly.”
- “There will be atrophy in organization if it’s overly dependent on a single person.”
- “Information does not change behavior.”
- “It’s about the human interaction in the same room. I trust in that.”
- “We can’t do it alone, we have to do it with each other.”
- “A leader's job is to improve the energy of those around them.”
Maxwell Air Force Base
Albert Einstein Medical Center
General Dempsey Drops Mic
Starfish Leadership
Fully Charged Institute
UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business
Vegan.org
LinkedIn | Website | Radical Inclusion | Amazon Author Page
Horst Schulze is Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Capella Hotel Group, and Co-founder & Former COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and author of EXCELLENCE WINS: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise. From age 14, his visionary and disruptive principles have reshaped the concepts of excellence, service, and competitive advantage, transcending hospitality and across industries.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
In addition, listen in to learn how 10 of you can apply to be selected to participate in the March 2020 Self-Reliant Leadership Crucible and Podcast Guest Reunion in Austin, Texas! It’s an exclusive event only for past Crucible participants and Podcast Guests, so this is a very unique opportunity.
If you want to be one of the ten lucky listeners who will get to attend this event… click on the link below to send in your submission. We will make our selection on Veterans Day (11/11/19) so get your submission in by November 8th, 2019.
http://bit.ly/Lucky10Contest
The only other way to participate is through corporate sponsorship. If that’s of interest, please send a note to info@selfreliantleadership.com.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[2:51] Horst left home at the age of 14 to go work in a hotel, as he had a passion for the industry at a young age. He lived inside the hotel, and a Maitre d showed him what it meant to set a standard of excellence and respect no matter the job title or status.
[6:05] Horst wrote an essay in school based on the ethos that the hotel is made up of “ladies and gentlemen that serve ladies and gentlemen”. This reflected his idea that every individual in an organization is worthy of respect and the chance to contribute to the larger version of excellence.
[9:33] At the Ritz Carlton, Horst and his team believed in empowering all workers to make decisions that would serve the purpose of keeping the customer at all costs. They could even spend up to $2,000 to do so, and Horst found this initial cost at the start saved money and loyal customers over time.
[14:27] Great leaders measure excellence and adapt around their findings. Horst consistently examined the Ritz Carlton with employee and guest satisfaction rates to see what was working, and what they could do better.
[16:51] When we create processes under one objective and make sure everyone involved understands, it creates actions that are aligned with the purpose.
[20:06] The little things that show people you care go a long way. At the Ritz Carlton, Horst made sure his employees were properly selected and trained, and showed guests they were focused on making their experience one of a kind.
[25:56] Vision is so important, and people will be more on board when they are part of the dream and find purpose when they are part of the objective.
[28:44] There is a difference in keeping with tradition and being stubborn with non negotiables. Horst puts decisions under the lens of it being good for all concerned. If it is under the umbrella of serving everyone, then it there is no compromise. However, if it doesn’t serve everyone, then be willing to adapt.
[28:44] Great leaders question everything.
[38:35] Give employees purpose, don’t just think of them as a way to perform a function.
[39:02] Millenials have been asking what’s in it for them, younger generations may have just been too afraid to ask.
Quotable Quotes
- “In life no matter what you do, you define yourself by how you do it.”
- “It’s not society that defines you. You define yourself.”
- “The vision creates the passion.”
- “Purpose is the directive of what you do, and how you do it.”
- “Once you figure out what’s good for everybody, it’s the moral thing to do.”
Ritz Carlton
Capella Hotels
Website | Excellence Wins
Lynda Jackson is a world renowned speaking coach, and has had a hand in transforming the speaking ability of Prime Ministers, Actors and Executives. Lynda says leaders need to communicate more effectively, and shares examples of clients overcoming their fear of public speaking, and the importance of connecting with the audience. She also discusses how her clients get over anxiety, what makes a talk memorable, and why preparation is critical.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re “bitesize” hacks on common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
In addition, listen in to learn how 10 of you can apply to be selected to participate in the March 2020 Self-Reliant Leadership Crucible and Podcast Guest Reunion in Austin, Texas! It’s an exclusive event only for past Crucible participants and Podcast Guests, so this is a very unique opportunity.
If you want to be one of the ten lucky listeners who will get to attend this event… click on the link below to send in your submission. We will make our selection on Veterans Day (11/11/19) so get your submission in by November 8th, 2019.
http://bit.ly/Lucky10Contest
The only other way to participate is through corporate sponsorship. If that’s of interest, please send a note to info@selfreliantleadership.com.
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Key Takeaways
[4:07] Communication is one of the most important aspects of being a great leader. In order to lead, one must be able to connect with their followers, and properly convey their message.
[6:56] Three examples that Lynda gives for great speakers to study: Mary Robinson, Steve Jobs, and Nelson Mandela.
[8:10] Even more than worrying about if we are authentic in public speaking, we should focus more on the goal of the talk and how the audience can connect with us and get our message.
[12:02] Great speakers make it about the audience more than they make it about themselves. They are focused on the audience and how they can transfer the information inside their head to benefit, help, teach or inspire those listening.
[13:31] Public speaking can be a large room, or it can also be just a sales call or pitch meeting. It is a different way of speaking than a conversation, and Lynda works with her clients to make sure they are able to connect with the client.
[19:23] Our speech patterns now reflect our ultra sensitive environment and desire to seek approval from others. One example is up talk, where statements have a rising intonation at the end as though you are asking a question.
[19:23] Approval is different than respect. Great leaders know their self worth and are secure in their own value, and it translates into how they communicate.
[22:58] Every word matters. Be succinct.
[25:02] It’s fine to share your story, but make it for the benefit of your audience.
[29:36] Preparation is key. Before each talk Lynda encourages her clients to prepare an outline and list three major points to talk about, as well as the goal they want out of the event or meeting.
[36:43] Storytelling can be powerful, but it is just one piece of the puzzle.
[40:41] Public speakers have the opportunity to inspire the audience, or to strike a chord of emotion.
[41:52] Everybody has a story to tell, and it’s important to share that story for the sake of the audience rather than for yourself.
[42:02] You don’t have to be a stand up comedian, or joke writer to make people laugh and feel humor during your public speaking.
Quotable Quotes
- “Every performance should have a goal.”
- “If a leader does not communicate well, how do they lead?
- “When you are a great public speaker you can not afford to be beholden to the approval of your audience.”
- “The less word spoken the more words remembered.”
- “We earn respect from the audience.”
- “If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” - Thomas Edison
TLP157: Agility – perspectives from the former Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Commander of US Cyber Command TLP047: Insights on How Individual Self Awareness Affects Team Performance
Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
This week, Jim and Jan talk about new ideas, perspectives, and thoughts as we all strive to live a life of meaning. To that end, The Leadership Podcast is proud to announce a new initiative with thoughtLEADERS to provide very short podcasts called “chalk talks.” They’re a “bitesize” hacks on a common (but challenging) leadership issues.
You can only access the Chalk Talks by subscribing to our mailing list at The Leadership Podcast.
In addition, listen in to learn how 10 of you can apply to be selected to participate in the March 2020 Self-Reliant Leadership Crucible and Podcast Guest Reunion in Austin, Texas! It’s an exclusive event only for past Crucible participants and Podcast Guests, so this is a very unique opportunity.
If you want to be one of the ten lucky listeners that will get to attend this event… click on the link below to send in your submission. We will make our selection on Veterans Day (11/11/19) so get your submission in by November 8th, 2019.
https://TheLeadershipPodcast.com/Lucky10Contest
The only other way to participate is through corporate sponsorship. If that’s of interest, please send a note to info@selfreliantleadership.com.
Key Takeaways
[1:04] Jim and Jan have been doing The Leadership Podcast for over 3 years now, and every week they learn something fresh and new - and hopefully you do, too! They are thankful for the support and listeners that allow the podcast to grow.
[3:39] Great leaders have the right focus on what’s really “new” with them. It can be a new car, vacation, or object, but Jim and Jan offer the idea that “new” can also be thoughts, ideas, or musings.
[5:01] In the corporate world, Jan saw people waiting for others to make a decision for them. It is up to us as individuals to be in charge of our own success and fulfillment in life, and know when it’s time for us to leave on our own accord.
[9:52] The Leadership Podcast will be teaming up with thoughtLEADERS LLC to bring you “Chalk Talks”. These will be 5 minute long discussions to provide quick nuggets of insight. Please let others know that you can only get these by subscribing to the mailing list on The Leadership Podcast.
[12:19] The Self- Reliant Leadership Crucibles take executives that need a digital detox and pair them with a military veteran who is going through, or has recently gone through, the process of transitioning to civilian life. The group of over 100 leaders are getting together for a reunion, and Jim and Jan have opened up 10 spots for select listeners, and a few more spots for sponsors.
To apply, simply fill out the form at: https://TheLeadershipPodcast.com/Lucky10Contest
Jim & Jan will select the ten lucky participants in the fourth quarter of 2019. The reunion will include short talks, keynotes, workshops and even an “urban surveillance” exercise. It will be a great opportunity to network with leaders at the top of their game.
Sponsors can inquire at info@selfreliantleadership.com
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s important to make sure you have the right focus on new.”
- “Life is short, and we should definitely be doing things we’re passionate about.”
- “Do you want people reading your resume at your funeral, or talking about what you stood for?”
- “Think about what’s new in your life, and what you can do differently today to make it more meaningful for yourself and those around you.”
#001: Preston Pysh - What Can You Learn About Leadership From Billionaires?
Urban Team Challenge
thoughtLEADERS
Self Reliant Leadership
The Second Mountain
Smart Brief
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Influence and Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, talks the science of influence. Dr. Cialdini, or the “Godfather of Influence, has earned an international reputation as an expert in the field of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation. He discusses how small changes can yield big results.
Key Takeaways
[3:10] Dr. Cialdini’s book Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, quickly became a Wall Street Journal and a New York Times Bestseller. Dr. Cialdini wanted the book to be something his grandchildren can use as a guide through their adulthood, and he put their picture next to his screen while he wrote it.
[6:08] There is no one size fits all approach to influence others. Instead, we have to go into the situation armed with knowledge of the powerful principles, and then identify true ways others would benefit giving their assent to it.
[10:12] When you congratulate people on their progress, it actually moves them away from the goal and puts them back to the starting line. Instead, try giving them praise for their commitment to the goal.
[15:22] When we make a public commitment to positive features, it puts us in a state of mind where we continue to think positively about the subject. For example, on a job interview asking the potential interviewer about why they picked you as a potential candidate will get the ball rolling for them to think about your personal attributes.
[17:04] When we ask people for their advice instead of their opinion, they are in a cooperative state with us and along for the ride.
[18:58] Put the exact numbers of your figure at the front end of your proposal. This positions you as an honest communicator and clear thinker. The more specific the numbers the better, as this shows you have thought the value through completely.
[20:22] Persuasion is both an art and a science. Influence comes naturally to some, but it also can be taught and learned.
[27:49] Great influencers draw attention to an idea that readies people for the core goal of the message. It primes and readies them to the concept that will get more success as a result and they clearly understand what’s in it for them.
[36:02] Not all influence practices are manipulative and exploitative.
[45:39] There is no ethical problem with educating people of things inherently and naturally part of the situation, and pointing them in a direction that offers them benefits and value. Not only do you get paid in the moment, but you will get paid down the line with their trust and business.
[48:19] Go into every new situation expecting the best from the new people you encounter.
Quotable Quotes
- “Change the word progress to commitment.”
- “ We need to reinforce ethical behavior.”
- “People want to see themselves as living up to their commitment.”
- “If you get that advice, you get an accomplice. When you get for their opinion, you get a critic.”
- “You have to prioritize the truth.”
Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Books
Carol Dweck
Consumer Reports
Leadership BS
Ep #121: Jeffrey Pheffer Challenges Our Assumptions
Clayton Christiansen
Spitzer Center
Adm. Michael Rogers, Retired Four Star Admiral and Former Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command discusses risk and reward, and the difference in both. THe Admiral also discusses accountability, the things that concern him regarding ethics in the new world of AI, and one of the best lessons he ever learned.
Key Takeaways
[1:20] Mike Rogers retired from the Navy in 2018 after nearly 37 years of service, rising to the rank of Four Star Admiral.
[5:49] As a Four Star Admiral, Michael’s life was all about risk and reward and how they’re intertwined. The risk is there to help us prioritize challenges to achieve an outcome that generates our reward. Michael would tell his team if they were uncomfortable with risk, they are in the wrong career.
[8:06] In the military, risk in viewed as two parts: Risk of mission and ability to achieve the outcome, and mission to force. On the private sector side, you worry about risk of mission but not so much the mission to force. In the civilian world, we also see reputational risk.
[13:21] Michael defines accountability as the alignment of authority, resources, and responsibility. In the business world, we typically are less comfortable giving people authority, and we need to truly empower people to make them accountable.
[18:15] Michael recounts an example of how the Commander in Chief provided the ultimate example of accountability.
[20:23] The biggest challenge as a leader isn’t the technology, it’s the people, ethos and culture.
[22:23] AI and machine learning will be huge advantages, and if used correctly and supervised when appropriate, we will be able to help us parse through vast data and free up time and energy.
[27:41] We must think how we can effectively communicate in a way that helps the decision maker generate a decision.
[35:33] What Michael loved about the special operations approach was that it wasn’t about your rank or position, it was about the value you bring and how one maximizes speed, agility and communication within the chain of command.
[40:35] Leadership is so much more challenging, we can’t fully replace the experience of connection and crisis response with AI or machines.
[42:34] Michael shares an experience that inspired him to forever be combat ready and impacted him for the rest of his career.
[52:19] Adaptability is as much about ethos and culture as process, and should be based upon what as the greatest impact on completing the mission.
[54:55] We have the ability to shape workforce behavior by how we incentivize performance.
[57:33] Think about the dynamics that shape your own work culture, and the backgrounds and values of who works there.
Quotable Quotes
- “I have always enjoyed the challenge.”
- “You can’t truly hold people accountable if you don’t give them the authority they need to actually do the job.”
- “It’s not about me, it’s about the mission and the men and women that do the hard work.”
- “How do we incentivize behavior that we say we value?”
Cyber Command
National Security Agency
Auburn University
Kellogg School of Management | Northwestern
Department of Defense
Society for Information Management
AEGIS Weapon System
TLP 101: General Stanley McChrystal on What Connects Us
Puzzle Palace
Bio: Mike Rogers retired from the U.S. Navy in 2018 after nearly 37 years of naval service rising to the rank of four-star admiral. He culminated his career with a four-year tour as Commander, U.S. Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency. In those roles he worked with the leadership of the U.S. government, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Intelligence community as well as their international counterparts in the conduct of cyber and intelligence activity across the globe. He also assisted in the development of national and international policy with respect to cyber, intelligence and technology – including extensive work with corporate leadership in the Finance, IT, Telecommunications and Technology sectors.
During his broader service in uniform, ADM Rogers held positions afloat and ashore around the globe focusing on cyber, intelligence, maritime operations and national security. His joint service was extensive including duty with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Indo Pacific Command and U.S. Atlantic Command. In addition, Admiral Rogers commanded at the unit, Numbered Fleet and service component levels in the Navy.
Admiral Rogers is a graduate of Auburn University and also holds a Masters of Science in National Security. He is a distinguished graduate of the National War College and a graduate of highest distinction from the Naval War College. He is also an MIT Seminar XXI fellow and a Harvard Senior Executive in National Security alum.
He is currently supporting companies in the private sector, serving as a member of various Boards or acting as a Senior Advisor. He also speaks globally to various business and academic groups and is working internationally in the cyber and national security arenas. Additionally, Admiral Rogers has recently joined Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Managements’ Public Private Initiative as a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor.
Abigail Manning is an awareness creator on authentic health. She shares her personal story of freeing herself from abuse, and how we may recognize someone that may be suffering from abuse. She also discusses the important distinction between reacting and responding, why it’s crucial to have boundaries, and the components of trust that help people thrive.
Key Takeaways
[4:05] Abigail broke free from a cycle of abuse. She endured childhood abuse and domestic violence in her adult life. Her characteristics of optimism, creative thinking, and problem solving helped her rise above and see her self worth.
[5:30] Abigail is very mission driven and wanted to share her story so others wouldn’t have to spend as many years as she did suffering and trying to figure out how to end abuse.
[7:18] Great leaders feed themselves with content from inspirational people and surround themselves with others who spread positivity. It is important that we all lend a helping hand to each other, and really listen to hear how people are doing.
[10:40] Abuse can look like anything, and take place with people and in locations you may never expect. It can be subtle to severe and can be emotional, sexual, physical, and even financial in nature. Repeated mistreatment is the number one way of recognizing abuse.
[13:22]When recognizing signs of abuse, red flags include manipulation, shame, blame and isolation.
[17:09] Have healthy boundaries and when you ask people if they are ok, have it be from a place where you are direct and firm. People are more apt to share how they really are when they feel the person on the other end really cares.
[22:14] What trust stands for to Abigail:
- Truth
- Respect
- Unity
- Safety
- Transparency
[25:49] Three steps to taking personal responsibility and accountability in our lives:
-
Be enlightened and aware of how our life experience impacts our “normal”
-
Empower ourselves and others.
-
Don’t finger point or cast shame, blame, and judgement upon others.
[29:46] Know the difference between reacting and responding. This will help you know potential triggers ahead of time and recognize if someone is crossing your boundary lines.
[34:30] It’s important to look at the intent behind someone’s behavior. Often times it’s not malicious but they just need direction and coaching.
[46:10] Focus on what you say about yourself subconsciously, and what you let others say about you, even if they are joking.
Quotable Quotes
- “There’s always 3 solutions to every problem, even if it looks desperate at the time.”
- “Find what you are good at, and hold on to that.”
- “You don’t have to be alone.”
- “There’s no room for healing if we are all pointing fingers.”
- “People grow up to be what you expect in them.”
Simon Sinek
Facebook | Twitter | Website
Jacob Morgan, Futurist and Best-Selling Author joins The Leadership Podcast to discuss the future of work in the context of leadership and the employee experience. Jacob talks about interviewing 120 CEO’s and 11,000 employees about the future of leadership and what will be required of the leader in 2023. He also shares how he sees the role of AI and technology impacting what is right around the corner, and the one thing he recommends people do now to prepare for the future of work.
Key Takeaways
[4:18] Jacob set forth on a mission to do a one of a kind, in depth interview of 120 CEOs that are currently shaping the world and 11,000 employees to talk about what skills will be relevant in the future. They also are answering questions about talent, automation, and how organizations can do an even better job of addressing these things. All one hour long interviews end up to be about 10-12 pages transcribed, so Jacob will have well over 1,000 pages of high value answers.
[7:55] Jacob is teaming up with LinkedIn to help parse out the information given to him from the 11,000 employees he interviewed. A large part of it is talking about what the future leaders of tomorrow can do today to prepare.
[8:49] Jacob is finding that the answers the CEOs are giving don’t always align with the data you see on various media sites and publications. For people that want to grow into the position of a leader, this will help them understand the trends, embrace the mindset, and acquire the skills they will need to get to the next level.
[11:18] We must continue to balance the human side of work with what technology is capable of.
[15:02] Consuming information is great, but we need to practice what we learn. The learning comes from doing it, not just watching it.
[17:39] Great leaders lead by example and show their empathy and self awareness to their employees, they don’t just talk about it.
[18:17] Jacob’s book, The Employee Experience Advantage, gathered information from 252 companies to find out what employees care about most at work including employee experience culture, technology and physical space.
[21:42] The goal of Jacob’s Future of Work University is to create courses and programs that are designed for the new world of work that you can’t find elsewhere. It’s all about teaching you the skill to build organizations where people want to show up to work, and in turn to future proof your career and company.
[34:21] Futurists aren’t psychics, but they are able to study and identify past and present scenarios to predict the future.
[39:41] Technology can help us make decisions, but we shouldn’t reply completely upon it.
[41:26] In a world of fluctuating attention spans, Jacob finds it necessary to put his message out on different mediums and platforms including podcasts, teaching videos, and social media.
[45:03] Take accountability and take things into your own hands. Don’t wait for someone else or a certain scenario to live for your life.
[47:27] Lift your head up and see what is going on around you.
Quotable Quotes
- “Futurists don’t predict the future, but we are good at coming up with possibilities and scenarios of what the future may bring.”
- “We try to not be surprised of what the future may bring.”
- “When you make decisions purely based on data and algorithms, you may get some incorrect decisions.”
- “It’s not good to rely 100% on technology for decision making, but it can help.”
- “Pay attention to the tangential.”
Future of Work University
Future of Leadership
A Study of Engineering Education
The Employee Experience Advantage
Coursera
Ed Schein
Forget About Authenticity, Says Seth Godin
How We Teach Digital Skills at PWC
Master of Science in Foresight - University of Houston
Weapons of Math Destruction
Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | Book | Podcast
Jim and Jan tackle a topic that comes up quite a bit in leadership - ego. They discuss their definition of ego, and how it affects perception and ability to be a leader. Also discussed is the balance of confidence and humility, and how developing a feedback loop keeps our ego in check.
Key Takeaways
[4:01] The most authentic leaders seem to have a very accurate understanding of who they are and how they are perceived. There are leaders of course that operate from ego almost completely, but the authentic ones gather more trust.
[5:04] The more you see someone project their ego, the less they are actually comfortable with who they are. They are trying to be a certain way and live up to what they aren’t inside, but really want to be.
[7:42] A great leader is able to self regulate and realize it’s not all about them.
[8:44 The best supporters will put themselves to the side and listen to you intently without their own filters.
[11:07] You have to make sure your feedback loop is not corrupt. When you have power, it’s easy to have people around only telling you what you want to hear, and that takes your ego further away from where it needs to be.
[12:30] Three questions to ask yourself consistently:
- What are you doing in team meetings that is helpful?
- What are you doing that isn’t helpful?
- If you can change how you interact with the team, what would it be?
[13:51] We will always make mistakes, and we must be humble enough to be open to learning and growing.
[16:10] The anchor point for ego is in the wrong spot when our worth and identity is directly correlated to our job or a certain status.
[17:53] People put on a display when they feel intimidated, or they get so overwhelmed that they mute the beauty that is within. The real artful networker knows how to comfort others so the real inner awesomeness can shine through.
[22:17] To face your own hypocrisy, you must have humility.
[23:37] How would you describe it to someone if it was similar to a lost piece of luggage or a coat you were checking?
Quotable Quotes
- “Listening is the highest form of respect.”
- “Ask yourself - am I easy to follow?”
- “Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.” - Colin Powell
- “The peacocks are pretty, but not enjoyable and fun.”
- “The ego is not a master in its own house.” Freud
The Spirit of Leadership
The Power Paradox
TLP047: Insights on How Individual Self-Awareness Affects Team Performance
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
Michèle Flournoy is the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the seventh-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Defense, and in that role served as a principal advisor to U.S. Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Leon Panetta from February 2009 to February 2012. Shew is currently the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors. On the show, Michèle discusses speaking truth to power, the importance of service in leadership, and what’s currently at stake right now. She shares her experience of co-leading President Obama’s transition team at the Defense Department. She also discusses her experience as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, the role think-tanks play, and guidance for the next generation of leaders.
Key Takeaways
[5:35] Great leaders know they don’t know it all. They listen to people around them for other ideas and ways to make things better.
[7:40] Some of the most rocky transitions in office have been between Presidents of the same party. Michèle discusses the respectful and thoughtful manner in which President Obama’s team transitioned, and how it set the tone for the whole environment.
[9:46] Often times in a bureaucracy what holds us back is a perverse incentive structure, risk aversion, and resistance to change or innovation. Michèle found when she focused on a Human Capital strategy that invests in people, it translated into incredible improvements in performance.
[12:17] Leaders must be able to identify where the zero defects approach is needed, and where we can experiment and afford risk.
[16:29] Though progress has been made, Michèle would like to see Defense and National Security represent the statistics of America in terms of gender and ethnic representation.
[18:36] The Think Tank world is an important place for leaders to be developed and trained, and also for those who need a space to reflect and create new ideas before they go back to public service.
[21:00] Michèle was asked by Former Defense Secretary James Mattis to be his Deputy Secretary of Defense. She turned it down because she was concerned she was not aligned with the current administration.
[23:51] When making big decisions, stay grounded in your principals and values.
[26:02] Michèle shares an example regarding the Bin Laden raid of speaking truth to power, and that it is a sign of intelligence to be able to change your mind after careful consideration.
[31:45] Michèle would love for there to be an expectation of service in any form for the younger generation. It is up to senior leaders to create more avenues and an expectation of service.
[33:07] Service is a bond of commonality that we should be nurturing in the country.
[38:28] Each of us has an opportunity to move forward and create positive journeys if we are willing to do the hard work.
Quotable Quotes
- “Listening is the highest form of respect.”
- “Did I have to work extra hard to make sure that women had opportunities to mid management and senior levels? Yes.”
- “Being grounded in your values and having certain principles that guide you is very important.”
- “It’s imperative a leader hears dissent and a different point of view.”
- “What’s at stake is who we are as a country.”
Maxwell Airforce Base
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War
TLP 053: Special Forces Resourcefulness Parallels the Spirit of American Entrepreneurialism
TLP 101: General Stanley McChrystal on What Connects Us
Spirit of America
The Mission Continues
West Exec
Tanya Staples is the VP of Product for Learning Content at Linkedin Learning, and shares what the workforce of the future may look like, the importance of creating a common knowledge base, and best practices for developing a culture of collaborative learning.
Key Takeaways
[5:01] Tanya witnessed one of her mentors saying the term “ship it” as a way to empower people and motivate them to make their ideas a reality.
[6:16] At LinkedIn Learning there is both a sense of urgency and a need for adhering to high quality and excellent standards. Tanya and her team know that it is imperative for everyone to be aligned with the mission, and know what needs to get done at what time.
[8:23] Tanya has seen education shift from less about teaching life skills to more about creating a common knowledge base. It is a place people go to learn how to learn, and the leader is there to help guide them into discovering how to take their passions to the next level.
[14:53] LinkedIn Learning created the series In The Studio to capture thoughts and ideas from a range of interesting topics and a little of the behind-the-scenes magic. One thing she learned was the answers were way more authentic when the questions were a surprise to the guest.
[21:14] Great leaders really listen to the conversation and ask questions instead of going right for the solution.
[23:28] The LinkedIn Learning Q&A platform helps employees who like to mix it up by learning independently and as part of a team.
[26:06] We shouldn’t compromise information, but we can benefit by making it concise and digestible.
[30:03] People like self directed learning because it gives them safe place to learn. This can also free up some time and energy so that in person meetings are more meaningful.
[36:56] Two of the ways we can encourage self directed learning for the next generation:
- Ignite passion in students earlier so they have a sense of direction towards what it is they want.
- Give kids work experience at an earlier age.
[44:04] LinkedIn Learning keeps course content updated and helps people acquire what it is they need to get hired and stay on top of their industry.
[45:48] Tanya’s challenge: get clear on your vision. When we are super clear on what it is we want, that’s the way others can help us get there.
Quotable Quotes
- “We have to get stuff done, let’s do it in a way that empowers people.”
- “You have to be learning something new every day if you want to thrive at your job.”
- “I’ve had to learn to make sure I’m asking enough questions.”
- “It’s all about knowing what you want. It’s okay to not know how to get there.”
- “You are the CEO of your life.”
- “You have to have a point of view.”
LinkedIn | Website
LinkedIn Learning
In the Studio
Co-operative Education Waterloo
Greg Smith is a Public Speaking Coach, Business Collaboration Catalyst, and Chairman of the Board at Compco Industries. He talks with Jim and Jan today about how being the mentee of John Maxwell and Tony Robbins changed his life. He also shares what he learned while writing Speak Like a Pro Without Looking Like a Jack@$$, and what he’s learned from being the current license holder for TEDx Youngstown.
Key Takeaways
[3:02] Greg has studied and worked with many of the world’s top thought leaders and executive coaches, and one of the biggest influences of them all is John Maxwell. Four of the largest areas of impact John had on him were in relationships, attitude, equipping people for success, and leadership.
[7:02] Want to watch a great speech reader in action? Greg suggests watching the way President Obama connects with people without coming across as just reading.
[7:22] Speakers are vision casters, and leaders should be able to establish trust and stability with their audience to transfer a message of hope and belief in a better future.
[10:11] Neuro Linguistic Programming can be applied to anything personally or professionally. It can provide a short cut to the learning curve, and can help someone become aware of the patterns and limiting beliefs holding them back.
[13:34] It’s one thing to be great at something, but explaining it to people requires hyper conscious competence.
[17:37] When it came to his book Speak Like a Pro Without Looking Like A Jack@$$, Greg found the writing part to be easier than the editing.
[20:16] There is power in sharing our struggle and in turn helping other people learn and persevere.
[24:29] It’s important to spend your time and money pointed towards your ultimate goals and the person you want to become.
[25:15] Jan and Greg disagree with the Eat The Frog theory of doing the worst first in the morning. Instead, do your best stuff first.
[27:29] Leaders need their rest! Getting proper sleep and rest is just as important as performance.
[31:22] TEDx Youngstown is there to shape the future leaders and speakers of tomorrow.
[38:02] Figure out what you want in life and then multiply it by 20. When you focus your life on what you want, it’s amazing how it comes to you.
Quotes
“You want a mentor that is growing at your pace or faster.”
“The best people in the world see things happen before they happen, and their body will make it happen.”
“Once you figure out what you want, life is easy.”
“Look at how you spend your time and your money and if it’s in line with the person you want to become.”
“You have to put time into yourself to help others.”
“You can’t manage time, but you can manage priorities.”
Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website
Speak Like a Pro Without Looking Like a Jack@$$
Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty
Swim With the Sharks
John Maxwell
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Speak like a Pro Without Looking LIke a Jack@$$
Love Your Voice
TEDx Youngstown
Tony Robbins
Roger Love
Alden Mills, author of Unstoppable Teams and Be Unstoppable, a three time Navy SEAL platoon commander,, and a INC. 500 entrepreneur, shares why starting a company may be even harder than SEAL training, why corporate cultures are often flawed, and how the best leaders may fail more times than they succeed.
Key Takeaways
[3:12] Alden is the inventor of Perfect Pushup. While some may think that was his overnight success, it really took him 10 years.
[4:08] Be Unstoppable was really a “Just In Case” letter for his four boys, and a first person account of how he learned persistence and leading yourself first to lead others.
[6:09] The most powerful human emotion is the baseline of love.
[6:55] After graduating from SEAL training, Alden chose to go into the SEAL delivery vehicle program and spent two tours on submarines. While confined in close quarters he started his invention sketchbook, and later took a couple of those ideas to market while in business school.
[10:14] Being part of the SEAL team self discipline and focus, but it also meant coming up with new ways to do things and flexing the creativity muscle.
[13:42] Great leaders maintain a balance of confidence and humility. They know it’s easy to stay humble when there is so much to learn and so many to learn from.
[16:37] We each have the “whiner” and “whisperer” as voices in our head. We have a choice if we want to listen to them, or have the courage to go after what we really want.
[20:36] SEAL teams have an X-Division, where they remove the quitters from the arena. As a civilian, you have to create your own X-Division so you are not surrounded by those with a quitting mentality.
[23:04] Alden was told that due to his asthma he needed to live a less active lifestyle. His parents encouraged him to keep trying and eventually led him to try rowing. He ended up becoming a gold medalist in the Olympic Festival, and Captain of the freshman and varsity teams at the US Naval Academy.
[29:17] To lead is to serve, and to serve is to care. The job of a leader is to build trust and inspire others to believe in themselves. They do this through building relationships and empathy, and in turn building trust.
[31:06] A mother that inspires and encourages is a great example of a leader.
[32:55] The magic sauce we are missing in today’s corporate world is creating a culture that takes care of its people.
[36:06] Great leaders are vulnerable and open to asking for help where they need it.
[38:02] Alden’s challenge: remember that imagination and determination are our two biggest limitations.
Quotes
- “I think being a father is the pinnacle of leadership.”
- “Nobody cares how much you know, until you know how much they care.” - Teddy Roosevelt
- “You are never as good as you think you are.”
- “You need to have confidence. It’s the arrogance that kills you.”
- “Your choices determine your outcome.”
Website | Twitter | Facebook| Instagram |Linkedin
Perfect Pushup
Leaders Eat Last
Ishmael
TLP048: Trust and the Tribal Origins of Leadership
Kymberlee Weil, Strategic Samurai, and Mark Sylvester join the show to discuss the world of High-Stakes, Short-Form talks. They discuss what really makes an idea worth spreading, the power of a story, and what they have learned running High-Stakes, Short-Form speaking events in Santa Barbara. They give advice to people who may want to give a High-Stakes, Short-Form talk, share the qualities of the best speakers, and explain the importance of a unique perspective.
Key Takeaways [4:55] Mark and Kymberlee met while creating a software application for speakers and attendees to use. That turned into a business, which then turned into a partnership in all forms.
[5:03] “High stakes and short form talk” might be a metaphor for tackling a challenge worth diving into headfirst .
[6:37] Although Mark has produced many high stakes and short form talks, he was blown away by the amount of work it really takes to put one together. For his own talk it took: 19 drafts, 3 drafts, and 2 consultants. Even knowing the innerworkings, there was so much prep.
[7:50] Mark and Kymberlee tell the guests on his show to talk in tweets.
[11:57] Great leaders know they can always improve, and they are never done learning. The people that choose to find the time are the ones we never forget.
[14:11] Idea first. People second is one of the main mantras when they are putting together new material. Be sure you have a unique angle and perspective. You must be willing to fight for your idea no matter what.
[19:04] High stakes and short form talks talks are less about a one-way sharing, and more about connecting with the audience to show authenticity and vulnerability.
[25:33] Facts and figures light up two regions of your brain, while storytelling lights up seven! This even goes back to the caveman days when we had to be both storytellers and story observers.
[29:02] Tips for making a high stakes and short form talk and to be a great storyteller:
- Open with story, land the core idea, show why it’s important, and justify why it matters now.
- Make it topical and timely.
- There are usually three lessons within a talk.
- Give a call to action such as a challenge or invitation.
[42:40] The original high stakes and short form talk commandments
-
Be sure it’s a story you have never told before.
-
Be vulnerable.
-
Don’t try to sell us anything.
[51:50] Mark and Kymberlee challenge: don’t wait to tell your story, and everyone has a story inside of them that they need to honor.
How to Contact Mark & Kymberlee * Mark: Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn * Kymberlee: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
Quotes “As a leader, we are always doing high stakes communication.”
“Leaders need to have an arsenal of stories.”
“Start with one story and develop it.”
“If you don’t have a conflict or struggle, you don’t have a story.”
Additional Links: * Sir Ken Robinson * Hacking the Red Circle
I bet you can instantly recall an awful customer experience? How about an exceptional customer experience? Jan recently had both the best and worst customer service experiences on a recent flight, and it sparked today’s discussion. Jan and Jim discuss the lessons to be learned from bad experiences, why we tend to have them in the first place, and ways to embrace them and lean in with compassion and empathy.
Key Takeaways
[4:38] Jan experienced a recent flight where the doors shut and he wasn’t able to make his flight. After feeling upset and bothered, he contacted the airline’s customer service and in turn got Kelly, a superstar of a helper. Kelly was transparent, caring and solution based. She was such a great example of customer service that Jan asked to speak to her manager to give her recognition for the great work.
[10:14] Great leaders dive head first into a bad situation rather than avoiding them. This is where the opportunity lies to learn, grow, and have an impact.
[12:51] In today’s connected world, you never know who you are going to meet and what kind of impact they could have on your life.
[15:10] Act with compassion and empathy to those you meet - you never know what someone is going through.
[22:45] When you get the core down of who you are as a leader, everything goes much easier. The more we understand our core values, the more we act consistently in our alignment.
Quotes
- “The truly remarkable people in your life are those who are consistently strong.”
- “People that aren’t strong aren’t bad, they are often just having a weak moment.”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
The Experience Economy
Lieutenant General Robert L. Caslen Jr. served in the U.S. Army for 43 years, and he retired in 2018 as the 59th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He talks with Jim and Jan about the responsibility that came with his role as superintendent. They also discuss diversity in leadership, winning in a complex world, the role ethics and character play in leadership, and his fondness for the new generation of leaders. Under his direction as Superintendent, the Academy was recognized as the number one public college in the Nation by Forbes Magazine and the number one public college by U.S. News and World Report.
Key Takeaways
[3:18] Yes, Lt. Caslen really did kill a deer by drowning it.
[9:08] Lt. Caslen’s role as the 59th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point gave him an opportunity to make an impact on the next generation of leaders. He saw it as one of the best opportunities to build a legacy of future leaders in the military and in their communities.
[12:06] It is important for leaders to make everyone feel valuable and to be sensitive to policies that polarize or discriminate.
[16:21] Great leaders are equipped to lead diverse organizations. They develop future leaders that recognize others as a valued member of the team. Lt. Caslen believes in everyone having the opportunity to serve, regardless of ethnicity, sexual preference or gender.
[20:29] Before becoming the West Point Superintendent, Lt. Gen. Caslen served as the chief of the Office of Security Cooperation in Iraq, where he served as the senior military commander in Iraq after the drawdown of U.S. and allied forces in 2011. He also has served in combat and overseas deployments in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, JTF-B in Honduras, and Operation Uphold Democracy and the United Nations Mission in Haiti.
[24:22] The most important element of leadership is trust. When we lead with competence and character, those around trust us and our actions match our words.
[26:03] When you are engaged, empowered, and energetic, it shows others you care.
[28:31] Leaders must understand the complex nature of their battlefield, and also possess the interpersonal skills to develop relationships that support others.
[32:17] Great leaders should be on the edge of seeing how technology will affect our future, and also empower others by underwriting the risks of making mistakes.
[37:37] Whether we are leading big organizations or individuals, savvy leaders respond to compromising situations to the best of their abilities and their values consistently remain in tact.
[46:17] The next generation continues to inspire Lt. Caslen.
[48:18] Lt. Caslen’s challenge to us: Be more engaged, and live a life of constant learning, as it enables us to continue to give back. The more senior you are, the more opportunity you have to give back.
Quotes
- “Perseverance is persistence.”
- “When you find a way to bring people together, they feel good in your presence.”
- “The first lesson of leadership was to learn how to follow.”
- “Trust is a function of competence and character.”
- “We have to have character internalized 24 hours a day, and I think that’s how it ought to be for all of us.”
- “Let’s live a life that has our values internalized.”
The Speed of Trust
Twitter | Facebook | Website
Dan Ivankovich is an orthopedic surgeon, humanitarian, CNN hero, and blues musician! He joins The Leadership Podcast to discuss the inspiration behind creating OnePatient Global. Dan talks about creating empathy and connection, and how Dan’s injury changed his life’s trajectory. As the leader of the Bone Squad, Dan is known for his advocacy on behalf of the underserved, uninsured, and underinsured in Chicago’s inner city.
Key Takeaways
[3:21] Dan has always gravitated to serve the underdog and has himself experienced struggles with his own pain and healing.
[8:28] As a first generation immigrant, Dan saw the importance of sticking together as a family and working hard to earn your own success.
[11:48] Dan creates a genuine connection with his patients and bridges the gap of differences by creating a common thread of humanity.
[14:38] Leaders inspire others to want more for themselves and help guide them past moments of doubt and adversity.
[21:13] Real growth comes from having hard conversations and setting higher expectations without fear of loss or failure.
[23:57] Dan believes our society can empower and encourage others to go above and beyond what is expected.
[29:29] It’s not about doing one thing, it’s about pulling from multiple sources to create a composition of greatness.
[34:01] Great leaders listen to everyone’s viewpoint and process information in a critical and analytical manner.
[41:08] Leaders should push their team but offer guidance, mentoring and counseling to combat unhealthy stress.
[46:42] Dan’s challenge: smile at strangers and live in the moment with people.
Quotes
- “I’ve always prided myself on doing what I believe is right.”
- “I’ve been the person that I’ve helped.”
- “Everybody’s got gifts.”
- “We have the power to change lives beyond people’s power of imagination.”
- “One of the most important things of being a healer is to hear what people are telling you.”
- “You need to be present and engaged in order to observe opportunities.”
OnePatient
Website | Facebook | LinkedIn
Alan Weiss is a consultant, speaker, and author who has published over 60 books and 500 articles. Marshall Goldsmith calls him “the finest entrepreneurial coach in the world.” He discusses how “attracters” attract success, why trying means failing, why marketing trumps strategy, and which of his Hot Tips are most popular..
Key Takeaways
[2:50] Alan helps “attractors” attract even more success both personally and professionally.
[4:03] While Alan used to think the secret sauce to his work as marketing, he now finds that it’s providing others with validation and verification.
[5:23] Much like the S-Curve model, it is times that we grow and leap to the next level where the real shift occurs.
[6:43] If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying. Alan sees leaders protect their ego and in turn, lose out on true vulnerability and learning from the experience of failing publicly.
[10:22] A solo practitioner doesn’t need a strategy, they need a marketing plan.
[11:29] The Michelangelo Factor means we have to carve away everything that doesn’t look like our personal work of art. Focus on what you are passionate about and what you are great at.
[14:02] Great leaders see coaching as a sign of improvement, and they pick a coach that has already been in the trenches.
[16:02] Alan feels a large part of his success due to his ability to pump value in his community and help others reach their highest potential.
[19:08] Of all word of mouth influence, only 4% is on the internet. This shows us that in a world of hi-tech, we greatly still need hi-touch.
[21:14] In a blended life, there is no guilt or shame in working while you relax/vacation, and relaxing/vacationing while you work.
[22:54] Great leaders realize that there will be external things that happen to us that are out of our internal control, but it is how we deal with them that is so important.
[23:55] Ask yourself: what do you do for others, what is the result, and what is it worth?
[27:01] Leaders can have different personalities, but flexibility and ability to match the current environment sets the top ones apart.
[28:52] Lead from the front, and be sincere.
[31:15] It’s important to keep your client relationships strictly business.
[33:02] Your legacy is built every day, and you create your legacy while you are still living. To Alan, his legacy is his community.
Quotes
- “People don’t trust their own judgement”
- “You can only coast in life going downhill.”
- “Keep energy suckers away from you.”
- “Who do you want to be, and how do you convince people that’s who you are?”
- “You want a friend? Get a dog.”
Jordan Peterson
The Celestine Prophecy
Invisible Influence
Alan Weiss Website | Twitter | Facebook
Greg Mercer, Founder and CEO of Jungle Scout, is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor and experienced Amazon Seller. He talks with The Leadership Podcast about travelling the world as a digital nomad, taking the leap from civil engineer to entrepreneur, how he picks what he sells on Amazon, and transitioning from a doer to the leader.
Key Takeaways
[4:58] Greg’s engineering background paved the way for Jungle Scout - a user tool that aggregates publicly available data on Amazon and turns it into actionable pieces. Jungle Scout leverages the Amazon channel and helps others see products that are in high demand with low competition.
[6:48] Skills that Greg feels are most important for an entrepreneur:
- Be a self learner and self teacher.
- Persevere through challenging times.
- Get excited about your mission.
- Know how to get others excited about your mission.
[9:15] Entrepreneurship can be most powerful level we have for self empowerment and self growth.
[11:04] Greg is passionate about building successful businesses.
[15:18] When building a community, stay laser focused on building value.
[18:56] In the structure of Greg’s businesses, the community decides who has power.
[21:02] Real growth happens when you step out of your comfort zone.
[32:36] Greg’s advice to budding entrepreneurs: There’s no better time to start than now. When you face the actual worst case scenarios you will see it’s really not that bad.
[75:34] Greg’s challenge: try to dive in to what moves the needle rather than what comes easy. Take the first plunge and don’t be afraid to travel a different path.
Quotes
- “My whole life I’ve loved to build and create things.”
- “Don’t do something you aren’t passionate about.”
- “It’s when you step outside of your comfort zone that you really do learn a lot more about yourself.”
- “Don’t wait to get started.”
Minimalism
This is What Happens to Your Body When You Hate Your Job
Greg Mercer Website | Facebook | Twitter
Cathy Sunshine, President of the Sunshine Group, has coached thousands of executives and multiple generations of leaders. She talks about the changes she has witnessed in leadership over the past 45 years, the synchronization of how we move in organizations and how a behavioral operating system is different than culture. Also discussed are ways we can be more responsive in the flow of technology, her new book SYNC’D , how we identify an anchor customer, and the art and science of executive coaching.
Key Takeaways
[4:14] In organizational structure, synchronization is key and has everything to do with how we pivot from a customer end. In the age of digital transformation with a strong horsepower, there is a demand to align with what’s really going on in our primary market and enable our business to be structured to move.
[7:01] The organizational behavior system must enable people to operate at the speed of the customer’s need.
[9:55] The behavioral operating system is ultimately what enables the culture to come alive.
[12:15] The internal service structure must enable employees to respond naturally to the needs of the customer.
[18:36] Great leaders must operate within the system as a whole, and to operate in a fluid way while moving in sync with the needs of the market and the anchor customer.
[22:12] You must know who your anchor customer is.
[28:12] The art and the science of executive coaching can blend together, and it requires a level of awareness, clarity and the ability to seek out feedback.
[33:08] The service structure is designed to be a construct and a feedback system that enables you to move with the flow of technology. In a service structure leadership is distributed, but there is a singular entity that champions transformation.
[38:48] Leaders are connected and grounded within their core values while they grow, stretch and learn.
[42:08] In leadership, it’s the level of influence that creates value through an organizational system that really matters.
[46:33] Cathy’s book SYNC’d will be out January 3rd, and it shifts the vantage point to assume the center of gravity in organizations has become driven from a customer end.
Quotes
- “People need to be freed to make conscious choices.”
- “Culture is a result, not a cause.”
- “The anchor customer drives why you exist.”
- “Strategy is a loaded word.”
- “Who buys us, and what are they buying us for?”
- “Feedback is really a key.”
Cathy Sunshine Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | css@sunshineconsultancy.com
SYNC’D
TLP 018: Confidence, Humility, Humor & Corporate Culture
Jim and Jan start the show by paying tribute to Jan’s late mentor who exemplified the virtue of gratitude. Also discussed are ways to improve positivity, the power behind finding things to be grateful for, and practical suggestions for expressing gratitude.
Key Takeaways
[1:46] At the funeral of his mentor, MG Bud Ahern, Jan reflected on how grateful he was to have Bud in his life. Bud was a civil engineer in the Air Force, a teacher, an athlete, a scholar, and foremost, a philosopher.
[8:14] There are meaningful people and events in our life that we are grateful for, but sometimes it’s just a simple gesture or moment that can make us feel the most grateful.
[8:44] It’s important to light the way for others to show them what we can be grateful on a daily basis for.
[11:02] Two ways to improve positivity is to write a note to someone expressing your gratitude and to keep a journal of the positive things that happen throughout the day.
[12:18] Four points from All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum:
- When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic. Hold hands and stick together.
- Be aware of wonder.
- Goldfish, hamsters, and white mice and even a little seed in a styrofoam cup, they all die and so do we.
- The biggest word of all: look.
[13:56] It’s important for leaders to make sure their team is focused on what’s important.
[16:06] Make sure you circle back and say thank you to those that help you along the way.
[17:56] One of the ways we can express gratitude in a profound way is to listen to people.
[19:26] The human touch is still exceptionally powerful as is a handwritten note.
Quotes
- “What’s a good life, and are you living one?” -Bud Ahearn
- “Are you ready to face your hypocrisy?” -Bud Ahearn
- “For whose good do you serve?” -Bud Ahearn
- “When we express gratitude, problems that were impossible become plausible.”
- “Nothing makes people feel more valued than being listened to.”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Shawn Achor Ted Talk
Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
Professor Bill DeMarco (Retired Air Force Colonel) holds 3 Masters degrees, and holds fellowships at Stanford and Cambridge. He is a five-time commander and teaches leadership at Air University, Auburn and Michigan. Bill explains what he means when he says we are all just students in “permanent beta,” and ways in which we can be humble, hungry, and heroes of the heart.
Key Takeaways
[3:10] Bill’s structured courses as the Air Academy feature three themes:
- Know yourself to lead yourself.
- Lead yourself to lead your team.
- Create organizations where everyone is valued.
[4:37] When we encourage others to lead from their strengths, we create organizations where people feel valued.
[10:08] A huge measure of success - are you creating more leaders?
[11:19] In his Leaders by Design course, Bill delves into the idea of stoicism and the teachings from ancient leaders.
[13:01] In his role as the National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Peace, and Revolution at Stanford, Bill looked at the intersection of strategy and leadership.
[14:46] Highly knowledgeable, capable, and hungry in leadership and support. Permanent beta continually trying to grow and learn.
[17:18] The advice Bill would convey to a commander regarding leadership:
- It’s not about you.
- Understand your mission.
- Develop a strong vision.
- Build your strategy to achieve that vision even before Day 1.
[21:37] The Four H’s:
- Humble - It’s not about you, it’s about helping others.
- Hungry - Not hungry for the cool office or the rank status, but hungry to learn and be of service.
- Hero - Moral character
- Heart - How do we become empathetic and lead from the heart. In the military, it is important to be a people person.
[22:41] It’s important for Bill’s students to know themselves in order to lead themselves, to understand the theory, and put that practice into an experience where they can use it. The classroom is knowledge and the training is skills.
[36:12] A great leader knows they need to shake it up and create a diverse team not only in backgrounds but in thought and perspective.
[39:14] Bill is doing some work right now studying centennials and will pull the information to work even better with senior leaders.
[41:33] The world is only going to get faster. We must fail at a younger age, and learn from our experience quicker.
[42:16] Bill’s challenge: really get to know yourself, and where your strengths and challenges lie.
[42:56] Leadership sits in the middle of anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and sociology.
Quotes
- “There’s nothing new under the sun. It goes back to the ancients.”
- “There’s so much to learn in leadership, we are all just students.”
- “I’m not an expert, I’m a student.”
- “Use the vision to know where you are going, and then lay out the right things to help you get there.”
- “We can’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes increase learning.”
- “Once you know yourself, you build stronger teams and entities.”
Twitter | Facebook |LinkedIn
Judge Business School
Humble, Hungry, Hero of the Heart
16 Personalities
Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
There is a pattern Jim and Jan have seen time and time again in successful people - they prepare. Today, they discuss the approach of preparation, why it’s important, and what can happen when we just “wing it.”
Key Takeaways
[2:30] Things often don’t go as planned. Preparation safeguards us and provides us with information and action when things go sideways.
[3:26] A good coach has to know what the objectives and goals are.
[3:58] An after action review should always start with the question “What was supposed to happen, and What did happen?”
[4:57] It’s important to get the practice and repetition in, but still be prepared. There is an excitement that comes with winging it, but even the best in their field still make sure their bases are covered.
[8:21] Get rid of assumptions, clarify.
[11:36] Prepare your calendar for a back and forth conversation to produce the greatest outcome.
[14:23] Preparation isn’t a one size fits all approach. Find what works best for you, and be aware of your blind spots.
[15:57] Great leaders are open to different suggestions and take a humble approach when trying things outside their comfort zone.
[17:38] It takes effort to be open and vulnerable, but it hones your ability to accept feedback on things near to what you do on a daily basis.
[19:55] Preparation is not something you have to do, and it is an investment. If it yields winning results, that is great. If it doesn’t, you will have learned something for growth and expanded your education.
Quotes
- “Successful people prepare.”
- “You have to know what you want.”
- “Leaders influence others to get work done that they can’t do themselves.”
- “Be aware of your blind spots.”
- “It’s important to push yourself in pursuits that are vastly different to you.”
- “Preparation is an investment.”
A Maestro’s Secret for a High Performing Team
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Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
Kevin Flike knows what is means to be down and out. As a Green Beret, Kevin was shot in the lower abdomen during his second deployment to Afghanistan in September of 2011. On the show, he talks with Jim and Jan about his journey to heal himself, and then… inspire others. He went from multiple hours of physical therapy a day to attaining dual master’s degrees from MIT and Harvard.
Key Takeaways
[1:47] Kevin shares his story of being shot while deployed in Afghanistan, and the severe damage it did to his body. What sounds like a terrible thing ended up being a gift to Kevin and opened up the possibility for him to deeply inspire others through their physical and mental challenges.
[2:22] A few of the awards Kevin has received include the Bronze Star Medal (two awards), Purple Heart, and Army Commendation Medal w/ Valor.
[3:10] Kevin is an avid yogi, and meditates daily. It serves as a great way to help his control the physical and mental pain that come with his severe injury.
[5:39] We have new versions of ourselves many times in life. Great leaders rise to the occasion when they are faced with new challenges.
[7:53] Have set milestones along the way of achieving your goals. Celebrate the minor successes, and don’t be afraid to pivot.
[9:39] Attending MIT helped sharpen Kevin’s analytical skills, and Harvard showed him there are many ways to serve. Attending class consistently was humbling and helped lighten a lot of the bitterness Kevin had from his previous injuries.
[15:50] We may have to set aside our pride on the way to achieving our goals.
[18:36] Great leaders push their boundaries and put themselves in situations where they can develop courage through expanding their comfort zone.
[24:45] The military is more of a melting pot than public perception may lend to it. While some think of it as mostly giving and taking of orders, there are many times where one must think quickly and out of the box.
[26:59] Know your team. You have to understand where they are coming from and establish a personal connection for a loyal and connected relationship.
[28:00] Kevin and his wife appreciated the help the Green Beret Foundation gave them so much that they wanted to give back. Now Kevin helps share their mission and raise awareness about what they do to help men and women get back on their feet.
[30:35] All teams must be motivated, but it is especially important for those working at a non profit.
[31:58] Resilience is everything. Kevin wants us to understand there is a light at the end of the tunnel and setbacks are opportunities to learn and grow.
[34:09] Kevin’s challenge to us is: The Death Bed exercise. Once a year, walk yourself through this somewhat uncomfortable visualization to gain clarity on the people and issues that really matter most in your life.
Quotes
- “It’s not just the service members that serve, it’s also their families.”
- “I gained audacity from the Special Forces training.”
- “I realized that if I wasn’t failing, I wasn’t reaching high enough.”
- “When you put pride aside, there is so much to learn.”
- “An experience is worth nothing unless you share it.”
Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
How To Get Into Top MBA Programs
Green Beret Foundation
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The leader isn’t always the one with “legitimate authority.” Often, leaders in the middle looking to exert change aren’t successfully managing up. Jim and Jan break it down as to what managing up is, why it’s important, and how to do it successfully. They share stories where they successfully managed up, and examples where they screwed up.
Key Takeaways
[2:09] Managing up is about creating alignment and sharing expectations with those you work with. It’s also about marching to the same beat at the same pace.
[4:07] Different people can lead at different times, depending on what is best for that particular scenario. Good leaders have enough humility to realize that they need support, and are secure enough in their position to know that it’s okay for others to manage them.
[6:35] Rather to go to your boss to get feedback, manage them by providing them with how you are doing, and answers for them to critique.
[10:52] Managing up takes courage, and a willingness to be open to a two-way discussion.
[12:07] In a good relationship there is balance. While it is best not to get the upper hand, it also is import to not subordinate yourself.
[14:44] While Jan once was compared to Don Quixote for not being able to repair a relationship, he experienced a win when he created a sales training job that proved important to the greater good of the organization.
[18:04] Jim took a prior experience of managing up and infused more time, patience and credibility into the situation. It went over much better when he slowly introduced his ideas once he had more political capital to leverage.
[22:21] When looking to have a conversation with your leader, ask for their time, and make sure the talk includes what will be of benefit to both yourself and the organization. Get an agreement of what needs to happen, and ask the right questions to get feedback.
[24:02] The most important rule of managing up to remember: It’s Not About You.
Quotes
- “Managing up is about aligned expectations.”
- “Courage is the mother of all virtues.” - Aristotle
- “Some people ask for what they want, some people take what’s given to them.”
- “You have to state what you want.”
- “Ask questions based on “it’s not about me, it’s about us”.
- “It’s by having a patient sequence of questions that you will move towards your goal.”
- “It’s not about you.”
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Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
Lee Benson, CEO of Execute To Win, joins the show to discuss his powerful yet practical approach to leadership and culture. Lee has worked with thousands of leaders and went from owning a business with 2 employees to quickly becoming Able Aerospace, a company with 500 employees and 2,000 customers. He explains why better alignment leads to better results, and how we get there. He also discusses his love for the guitar, and why being presented with a hurdle may be the best opportunity we get.
Key Takeaways
[4:04] Alignment brings increased productivity, reduces reactivity and ambiguity, and strengthens the ability to execute strategic initiatives faster.
[7:18] When everyone at the organization is involved with setting the standards for culture and what determines success, they are more likely to stick with it, be more deeply involved, and ultimately provide more value for the organization.
[11:50] When leaders encourage their team to know the “why”, it will measurably improve the organization and explain why the day to day actions are worthwhile.
[13:53] What may be seen as a disadvantage to some may be a source of value creation for others. Lee turned in debt and the need to be independent into a lucrative career and a Global aerospace powerhouse.
[17:43] When we create the right environment as leaders, they never want to leave.
[19:54] A good leader clearly explains the outcomes they expect, and how they plan to measure and track success. They watch their employees from the frontlines, and gives more authority and autonomy based on earned decisions and results.
[21:34] We must first get the mindset right. Then, we can move to the tools of the processes and technology.
[22:09] Two categories that typically come from Lee drilling down with teams on what creates stellar leadership: behaviors that achieve extraordinary results, and manager operating system elements.
[28:55] Lee sees his focus on 60% with the employees, and the other 40% for the customers. The more aligned the employees, the better experience the customer has naturally.
[33:46] Leaders encourage everyone to study the competition and determine what gives them the leading edge.
[37:50] In a country where Lee feels most leadership teams are performing at a C, it is possible for them to be B’s and A’s in six months with the right tools.
[40:23] The four categories of a capable leader: alignment, leadership, management and foundational readiness.
[44:04] It may be an investment at first, but in the long run you save time and receive higher value when you spend time getting employees in alignment.
Quotes
- “Life is so much better not putting out fires.”
- “High performing employees do what they say they are going to, and treat company resources as their own.”
- “The earlier you can start the value creation process, the more set you are going to be.”
- “When you create the right environment, it’s timeless and addictive.”
- “You have to earn autonomy.”
- “There has to be a ‘why’.”
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Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
Lee Benson Twitter | LinkedIn
Execute To Win
There are over 60,000 books on Amazon with “leadership” in the title, and despite the focus on leadership, most business-oriented development programs don’t measure effectiveness; and turnover has never been higher. A Gallup report found that 21% of Millennials have changed jobs within the past year—three times higher than other workers. Today, Jim and Jan discuss why that is and take a look at leadership development from a few different angles. They talk about how to determine if your leadership development IS working, and the importance of understanding trends and patterns. Lastly, they discuss how to get to root causes where real change is possible.
Key Takeaways
[3:06] Much like a diet, if you want true success, with leadership development you have to be all the way in.
[4:00] Leadership development is akin to taking fish out of a dirty fish tank, scrubbing the fish and then putting them back in the dirty fish tank.
[5:23] We approach leadership development issues from the training system when really it comes from organizational development and a design system.
[9:02] Rather looking at leadership development as a specific event, see it as evolution with a process that builds over time.
[13:40] It is important to look at the current state of the organization, and see the issues in leadership development as symptoms of something bigger within the entire system. Then, identify your version of success, how you will measure it, and determine if it’s will take small steps or giant leaps to get there.
[15:40] A majority of leadership development trainings are done off impulse. Instead, great leaders measure the right things with subjectivity and really take a look at their own self in the mirror.
[19:41] 80% of people out there do not trust their boss to tell the truth.
[21:56] Leadership development programs should be sustainable, lead to empowerment and improve the organization.
[26:45] Assemble a team to fact check all the assumptions that the team has made. Find out which ones are true, and then you will have better information on where you need to invest their time, energy and money for the greatest return.
Quotes
- “One organization's effective leader is not the same as another organization's effective leader.”
- “Every organization is a complex adaptive system.”
- “Before we take a leap, we must take really good measurement.”
- “It does not need to be pain that makes you take action.”
- “When you turn around, do you have followers?” - Jeffrey Pfeffer
- “Leaders have the power to control and fix the environment.”
- “Take a holistic approach, because you have to get the ecosystem right.”
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Why New Manager Training No Longer Works in 2019
Ep 092: Leadership Matters, But Teams Deliver
Ep 121: Jeffrey Pfeffer Challenges Our Assumptions
Ep 035: Looking Forward to Wicked Problems
Tom Higley is the business of creating market-based solutions to the world’s wicked problems. A Denver-based entrepreneur and mentor, Tom has founded and run seven tech startups and is a mentor to hundreds of founders and CEO’s. Today, he joins Jim and Jan to discuss his founding of 10.10.10 - which brings together 10 wicked problems, and 10 prospective CEOs together for 10 days. He defines wicked problems, and how they relate to complex adaptive systems. He shares concrete examples of solutions that arose from 10.10.10, and his advice for young entrepreneurs looking to make an impact that connects them with a personal mission.
Key Takeaways
[4:05] Wicked problems live in context of complex adaptive systems, and the system doesn’t typically support the solution. Examples of wicked problems could be homelessness, climate change, and medical error. The solutions must be derived through independent intervention.
[8:22] In a complex adaptive system, we see that the systems have a purpose. To the extent that the wicked problem is misaligned with that goal, it is difficult to effect a change. This is why it’s so important to understand the system context of a wicked problem.
[11:16] In the process, we must first understand the frame of reference for where the problem occurs. Second, we must understand the notion of diversity in terms of perspective and opinions. Tom refers to this as, “listen and learn, leverage and launch.”
[13:56] After we can map out the interrelationships by the rules set in place, and become aware of the diverse opinions due to varying life experience and perspective, we can then begin the stage of convergence.
[18:31] Tom’s team is hand-picked, and they must be able to articulate a vision both internally and externally, attract and retain top talent, and secure the necessary resources and capital. He looks for those that are open to investing themselves into the venture, and open to listening and learning with founder due diligence.
[20:48] Founder opportunity fit is very important. It may be a great business opportunity, but you also must like and care about the customer, and the problem must have meaning to you.
[26:00] Economic growth does relieve some of the pressure in solving problems, but sustainability and stewardship of environment, life, and community is just as powerful.
[29:12] Tom speaks of the 10.10.10 project where the focus was on water and infrastructure and how Ari Kaufman created a specific solution that delivers impact by coming up with the ability to test tap water in real time.
[34:58] A silo is good for internal excellence, but it is also vital to draw others in that understand the implications of success or failure. At 10.10.10, they invite both new players to the sector, along with those who have expertise and knowledge in the specific wicked problem.
[36:33] We need more voices connected to the pain of the wicked problem to speak up. This creates empathy and connection.
[39:44] Great leaders must also stay in line with the narrative or story of the company, while adapting to the fast-paced and disruptive technology.
[46:25] Each of Tom’s mentees are unique, with individual problems and capabilities that we be discovered through reflection and asking the right questions.
[49:54] Gravitate towards people that help you learn how to think, instead of what to think.
[51:27] Tom’s challenge: Think about the thing that needs you, and that you can contribute to in a particularly powerful way.
Quotes
- “In a wicked problem, you don’t have the right to be wrong.”
- “It’s not just the opinion I have, it’s how I understand the world.”
- “It’s about economic opportunity, but it’s also about creativity, and being self-directed.”
- “You have to be open to the listen and learn the process.”
- “There aren’t silo’s, there are cylinders of excellence.”
- “I learn as much from those I mentor as they learn from me.”
- “What’s the thing that should be done, and won’t be done unless you do it?”
Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning
Farsighted
Donut Economics
10.10.10
Tom Higley Twitter | LinkedIn|
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We’re all a work in progress, and whether we call it a resolution, or an ongoing commitment, it’s all part of building character to consistently develop and grow. Today, Jim and Jan talk about making promises and resolutions, and why we seem to let our own goals die before helping others achieve theirs. They discuss how great leaders tackle a to do list, the key questions to ask surrounding a resolution, the importance of time and attitude, and how we can manage our day by managing our energy level.
Key Takeaways
[4:13] It’s often easier to let ourselves down before we disappoint or break a promise to others. If we hold our own commitments in just as high regard as we do for others, we are much more likely to follow through.
[5:51] Good leaders look at their to do lists, and determine what actions are truly aligned with their success and overall mission. They aren’t afraid to cross off the ones that don’t serve a purpose.
[8:22] The first step to keeping resolutions and promises: have realistic expectations, and break things down into completable and measurable chunks within your control.
[12:04] Ask yourself these questions to make room in your life for the resolution to be accomplished:
- Why am I doing this?
- What is the outcome I hope for?
- How will I measure my progress?
- What is the baseline?
- What are you going to sacrifice, and how will you sustain that sacrifice?
[13:44] Get out that pen and piece of paper, and write your goals down!
[15:56] Break your goals down into chunks of what you can control, and when are you going to do it.
[16:26] It’s all about time and attitude. Give yourself the space to work on your goals, and the attitude to be grateful for the present moment and continuous improvement.
[21:16] When you manage your energy, you create time. Observe at what time of the day you are best at writing, conversing, critically thinking, etc. Create a schedule as best you can around these activities and you will start to see a flow in your day.
[22:19] Jan’s promises are: writing more, and creating / crafting material for courses.
[23:09] Jim is working on perfecting the time energy balance. He is (thinking about) going on another crucible, and working on a book, which he promised to us will have the first draft finished by December 31, 2019.
Quotes
- “Keeping a promise is more sacred than a resolution.”
- “When your valued are aligned with what you hold dear, quitting isn’t an option.” - Jan’s Ted Talk
- “ We often must sacrifice in the short term for long term gains.”
- “Come up with a way to measure the progress, and continue to hold yourself accountable.”
- “When you manage your energy, you create time.”
The Power of Habit
Stop Managing Your Time and Start Managing Your Energy
When
TLP087: Dan Pink on When - The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
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It’s hard for Cory Procter to not have a good time. In between his motivational and leadership speaker events, spending time with his family and playing the drums, this former NFL player for the Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins and the Detroit Lions, helps others lock into their own power. He talks about his career as an NFL superstar and what he learned while in the trenches. He shares the transition from football to redefine himself as a mentor and coach for the next generation. Cory breaks down common behaviors that drive excellence, and how to use emotions as a tool.
Key Takeaways
[3:15] Cory spent six years in the National Football League as an interior offensive lineman, splitting his time between the Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, and Miami Dolphins.
[3:30] Cory applied his love and knowledge of human behavior and psychology to all areas of life, including in business and leadership. One of his key motivations is to help other athletes learn how to invest their money wisely.
[7:38] Our results reflect where our attention is. When you cut the noise and distractions out of your life and focus on success, you see new opportunities that may have been previously out of sight.
[11:46] Great leaders choose carefully who they bring into their team. They build a network around them of others that are high value, rooting for the greater good of the mission, and humble.
[13:57] Cory works with athletes on developing a secondary career, passion or hobby so they have something to fall back on when transitioning out of a career as an athlete.
[16:50] Great leaders know how to lead, but also know when to let others shine and pitch in. Letting go of control is equated with power.
[20:23] Faith is an important part of Cory’s foundation. It provides him with trust in the bigger picture, and allows him to take blessings, fortune and fame with humility and gratitude.
[26:44] Leaders are multidimensional. In a given day, there will be many mindsets and perspectives to deal with and the more knowledge you have, the better prepared you are to handle all of them.
[30:41] Show up every day with consisenty and grit. Cory recommends finding something you are passionate about, and sticking with it for a long time. Play the long game.
[34:29] Identify your own values. It’s important to have emotions, but not let them dictate our actions and next steps. We want emotional leaders, but we shouldn’t let our emotions be detrimental to success.
Quotes
- “I had a great work ethic, but I had to teach myself the why and the how.”
- “If you want to be the leader, you have to cut out the distractions and focus your attention.”
- “It’s a conscious decision to focus on your goal.”
- “As leaders, we need to choose wisely who we bring in, and then develop those people.”
- “We can’t handle everything, and we can utilize other people’s strength and gifts.”
- “Faith lets humility into leadership.”
- “When you win a battle, you graduate to bigger battles.”
- “Leaders are indicators, not dictators.”
- “When we are overflowing with information, we give in a massive way to others.”
- “The safest approach is the fastest way to obscurity.”
Project RELO
TLP #55 Playing it safe? You’re Going to Get Crushed Like a ripe August tomato!
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Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
This week Jim and Jan discuss a popular topic amongst the listeners: setting and achieving BIG goals. They talk about what defines a big goal, why we want to aim high, but not stretch our goals too far out. And... what usually keeps us from setting and accomplishing them. They also talk about the need for shared accountability, understanding the scale of impact vs. the risk of failure, and how to gauge when goals turn into success.
Key Takeaways
[2:31] With big goals also comes to possibility of failure. Even if you don’t achieve your goal the first, second or even hundredth time, you are still going to grow and learn. When our goals are aligned with our core values, there is success in momentum towards it.
[3:57] Big goals help us reach a new level of awareness. They help us clarify and strengthen what is important.
[5:38] Jim strongly dislikes the concept of setting way too high or “stretch goals.” They are misapplied 98% of the time and often create stress and desperation.
[8:48] The younger workforce is highly attuned to spotting hypocrisy and holding companies accountable for being consistent and transparent.
[15:07] Great leaders align their goals with being of service to other people and the greater good of their team.
[17:10] It’s important to assess what the risk is of the goal, and how it may affect us if it doesn’t work or goes sideways. If there are some pain there, you are probably on the cusp of having a goal that’s big enough.
[20:07] A few of Jim and Jan’s top keys to achieving big goals: Hand write them down, find other people to keep you accountable, stay disciplined and clear your plate, define your victory, and break down the goal into smaller attainable action items.
Quotes
- “Sometimes, we just don’t have goals that are big enough.”
- “Let’s get goals that are right sized for people.”
- “If you are talking about making an impact, you are talking about being in service of other people.”
- There is nobility in our goals helping other people.”
- “To accomplish your big goals, know what you are going to have to say no to in order to clear the plate.”
- “You’ll have to know what you are heading towards, otherwise it’s never good enough.”
- “Let’s define victory.”
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Suffer Everything - Dare Everything: Why Difficulties Matter
TLP107: On Responsibility - Patagonia’s Chief Storyteller & Director of Storyteller
TLP160: Greg McKeown - Do Less and Accomplish More
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Project Rescue - Are your projects causing you great pain?
David Nour, International Speaker, and Best Selling Author, discusses why the biggest asset we have is our portfolio of relationships. David explains the development of Relationship Economics, and why it is critical to become more intentional and strategic in the relationships we cultivate. He gives advice on what we can do to better our relationships in a quantifiable and mutually beneficial way. Finally, David shares ways we can better utilize the educational system to develop future leaders.
Key Takeaways
[7:35] Executives don’t want to be sold, they want to be engaged and influenced.
[9:12] Most people understand that relationships are important, but few people truly understand and nurture the idea that relationships have the potential to be intentional, quantifiable and strategic.
[12:45] Relationships are a choice.
[14:10] The days of the soul sucking CEO are over. Employees at every level want to be heard and feel appreciated. Great leaders hear the individual voices and then build a collective commitment where their team knows what the vision is, why they are important to the mission, and understands how to get there.
[17:18] Great leaders look for friction. They stand at the edge of the streets, not in mahogany row, and fully listen and engage with the frontline employees.
[19:31] When we understand the best choices for the best outcome, we row in the boat together.
[23:05] There is value in brevity. David prefers a visual component that is clear and concise to articulate the vision and strategy.
[28:40] Co-creation brings multiple lenses in through strategic relationships.
[30:11] A curve bender is a relationship that dramatically shifts our trajectory, and elevates our core beliefs. When we meet a Curve Bender or become one ourselves, the destination becomes far greater value than we ever imagine.
[36:24] Leaders see invest in talent when the important raw ingredients are there, such as curiosity, motivation, and a team mindset.
[39:16] First generation immigrants are four times more likely to become millionaires in this country than those that are born here. This is due to the work ethic, value in education, and drive to succeed. As a native of Iran, David came to the U.S. with a suitcase, $100, limited family ties and no fluency. He earned his way to the American dream.
[41:41] Just as we learn from other people and grow, we absolutely must be open to learn from other countries.
[42:44] David’s challenge: take an active role in personal and professional development. For him, he attends a minimum of one conference a quarter just as a spectator. Also, internalize that your biggest asset is your portfolio of relationships.
Quotes
- “Convey your credibility through the questions you ask, not the solutions you provide.”
- “Common sense isn’t always common practice.”
- “How disciplined are you in the ones you choose to invest in?”
- “Relationships are a choice.”
- “Great leaders ask phenomenal questions.”
- “If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.”
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If you are planning a party or weekend getaway, surprises can be fun and exciting. In business and leadership, they are most often stressful and detrimental. Today, Jim and Jan discuss surprises in several different contexts, and how good leaders can encourage proactive communication. They also talk about the type of environment leaders should create to safeguard against misinterpretation and log jams.
Key Takeaways
[3:14] Saying you don’t like or want surprises can have unwanted outcomes. First, people interpret it to mean they shouldn’t take risks. Second, it can unintentionally create log jams of over communication.
[4:35] Replace “FYI” emails with proactive communication.
[6:15] Good leaders foster an environment where it’s okay to talk about bad news, and where the messenger is valued.
[7:33] It is up to the leader to lay out the outline of behavior they want from their management team. A few ground rules that can help people get ahead of a potential surprise are to plan for:
- How you would like someone to handle a situation when things appear to be going sideways.
- What the context is of the situation, who the affected parties are, and the implications.
- Gather facts.
- Present the rational response, and communicate the course of action.
[18:51] Pressure test your assumptions. Ask questions, check, and inspect. Hiring is one example where we must dig in and question our bias.
Quotes
- “When you tell people you hate surprises, you are fundamentally altering the culture of your organization by default, not design.”
- “Be careful what you ask for, because it’s likely to get misinterpreted.”
- “Bad news is not like fine wine.”
- “You can expect what you inspect.”
EP101: General Stanley McChrystal on What Connects Us EP19: If You are Not Making Mistakes, You are Not Pulling Hard Enough
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Eric Kish is a Turnaround CEO with over 20 years of experience at transforming organizations in various forms of distress. A Stanford Business School graduate, he has scaled organizations from millions to billions, and is the author of Everyday Turnaround, The Art and Science of Daily Business Transformations.
Eric discusses the global experiences that have provided him a winning edge in leadership, and what makes the turn around skill set difficult to acquire. He also discusses why the “sacred cow” must be sacrificed, and why it’s dangerous to have irreplaceable people.
Key Takeaways
[2:38] Eric grew up in Romania and the Soviet Union during Communist times. At age 18, he joined the Israeli Defense Forces. He speaks 6 languages fluently: Russian, Romanian, French, English, German and Hebrew.
[4:58] His international experiences allowed him to see the basic human principles across cultures that made some organizations thrive, and others left with a lack of leadership.
[7:28] People tend to leave their comfort zone when the company is in trouble, or when they try to scale too fast.
[9:35] Good leaders find multipliers to carry on and demonstrate the core values of the company. They create other leaders, and then trust them to make the right decisions when on the front lines and faced with a decision.
[13:08] When Eric is called in for a turnaround, he typically finds himself with the second line of executives. Most often the people in the company have the knowledge already, they just need someone to calmly assess the situation, plan and create a system of multiplication.
[14:38] The secret to consulting is that you don’t need to be an expert in the exact field, you just need to be highly skilled at listening, assessing the situation and having the clarity and vision to move forward with a successful plan. At a turnaround, the company already knows they need a fix, and they are looking for a leader to create a safety net.
[15:01] During the “firing period” of the first 30 days, Eric usually fires 5% of the people. The most important of these is the sacred cow, who is deemed irreplaceable. Sacred cows are people who aren’t working to create other leaders, and not sharing the information they know that can help others.
[17:39] Good leaders are information managers, providing the correct guidance in a manner that is well timed, accurate and easy to absorb. Eric compares leaders to a GPS, as they have the tools to help keep people focused and on track.
[20:48] Eric can get a feel for how a business operates just by asking them how business has been. An executive that answers “business is good” with exact measureable reasons why shows that they use hard and measurable data to develop leadership language.
[24:17] Eric explains why it’s dangerous to have irreplaceable employees. They are not multipliers, and once they are gone, people are surprised at how easily things get better.
[30:03] The leader is the coach, and they must have the discipline to know when their are playing or coaching, and the ability to create frontline leaders that will play hard for the team when they are absent.
[36:27] A sign of a great coach or leader is how things go when they aren’t around.
[38:11] The three agreements that Eric said we must know in order to keep leaders and teams aligned:
- Why do customers buy from us versus the competition?
- What are the specific things we must do to deliver on the value proposition?
- What are the unique capabilities that enable the company to deliver on the value proposition?
[39:06] People will not follow your opinions, they will follow your example.
[42:07] Leaders build a culture of trust. When members of the team know they have a safety net, they feel more able to ask for forgiveness rather than for permission.
[47:08] Eric says that the Israeli Air Force became one of the best air forces in the world despite the lack of technology because they were able to run a retrospective on their missions. They helped them learn from their mistakes and know what to do the next time around when faced with a similar situation.
[50:16] Eric’s challenge: Observe how often you are being a coach or a player.
Quotes
- “If you work beyond 8 hours, I don’t think you are effective or efficient”
- “It’s never as bad as it looks.”
- “If i don’t fire the sacred cow, no one will believe me.”
- “The discipline of applying principles is the difference between failure and success.”
- “A good coach provides a safety net to make mistakes and grow as decision makers.”
- “Good leaders have the discipline to know when they are coaching, and when they are playing.”
Tetra Pak
If You are Irreplaceable, You will Get Fired
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
Dr. Kimberly Young
LinkedIn: @EricKish
Facebook: @EricFlorinKish
Website: www.everydayturnaround.com
www.kishandpartners.com
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Jim and Jan start the episode with how a second grade class defines a great leader! Leadership is hard, but these young people show that the basics are pretty simple. Also discussed is how we’re happier when we help others, leading with love and courage, and why good leaders provide both positive and negative consequences for meeting or not meeting standards.
Key Takeaways
[2:08} Jim shares the answers that came from the second grade classroom of his friend on what it takes to be a great leader. The kids nailed it with answers like: puts people first, nice to others, encourages us, community helper, honest and responsible, and clean (Jim and Jan will take it as Executive Presence). Judging from answers like this, they feel we are in good hands for the future.
[12:52] We end up finding more joy in helping others than acting as though it’s about us.
[13:54] Great leaders come from a place of love and courage. They are not afraid to put themselves out there for the sake of the team, and come from a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset.
[17:29] Define what courage is for the team, and identify the last time your team showed courage. If the team is performing based on the core values, there is less of a need for heroes and more of a chance everyone will be connected with the overall mission.
[21:33] Good leaders don’t stand for mediocrity in their team, and they are willing to provide consequences.
Quotes
- “Audiences love opposites.” - Chris Schmitt
- “Cheerful is a good word. We don’t use that enough.”
- “It’s hard to be a leader when your thoughts are a mess and your plan is a mess.”
- “The best way to be happy is to work for other people’s happiness.” - Jules Evans
- “Questions can sometimes be the most courageous statements.”
Leadership B.S. by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens - Davidowitz
Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations by Jules Evans
Top 30 Podcasts You Must Listen to If You Care About Leadership
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
LinkedIn: @TheLeadershipPodcast
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
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Andrew LaCivita, career and hiring expert and award-winning author has worked with over 200 companies to help them conduct interviews, build teams that support organizational goals, and clearly define company culture. He intentionally creates his day to determine how much he can serve others. In this episode, he talks with Jim and Jan about where companies are missing the mark when hiring, what and the responsibility leaders have in the hiring process. He mentioned a free resource for veterans looking for their next job, and shares the Top 5 Questions he asks himself daily to get connected and passionate.
Key Takeaways
[4:26] Organizations will find better retention and engagement when they hire based on values and capabilities rather than hard skills. Instead of hiring based on if someone could do the specific job at hand, good leaders look at characteristics such as curiosity, organization, and ability to influence.
[7:23] Companies must clearly define the mission, vision and value upfront.
[8:56] It all comes down to culture. Good leaders list and identify the company’s cultural traits, define them, evaluate them and ask consistently work to ensure everyone abides by them. As a potential hire, it is also important to be aware of the cultural traits, to demonstrate how you would fit positively in the group.
[12:56] Often times, values are lopsided. They must be balanced with attention to both the relationship side, and performance with real results.
[14:48] Good leaders must lead by example, and repeatedly show that they are accountable, responsible, clear and consistent.
[18:53] The first thing Andrew does in working with a job seeker is to help them figure out who they want to be. Then, they can determine how they are going to do it, why they want to do it, and how others will benefit.
[21:41] It is crucial for job seekers to have clarity on what they need to become what they want to be. A focal point takes us out of randomness, and into the design of a well woven career search.
[23:23] We must be able to prepare ourselves for change. If your “why” is in order, this will help you sustain the twists and turns of your career and give you an anchor during challenging times.
[28:38] Andrew is big on helping veterans during their transition. He explains that they have an extra layer of work. They have to not only provide themselves and how they fit in with the team, but have to connect the dots on how what they’ve done in service maps to what the civilian employers need.
[34:12] Proactive curiosity is important. The faster you can find out the specific needs of the employer, the better off you are.
[35:13] When on a job interview, ask the employer what success to them looks like in six months, and determine ways you can fill in the gaps for how you could make this happen. The more time you can spend in the interview talking about the employers future, the better the interview will go.
[38:31] High achievers plan for excellence. These are the 5 Questions Andrew asks himself every day, to take a time out of his busy schedule to think in a deliberate manner.
- How can I improve my service to my existing customers?
- How can I give more value to my community?
- How can I better market my services?
- How can I optimize my internal systems?
- What should I stop doing?
[47:28] Be intentional about your content, and the tools and distribution channel in which you deliver it. Go where people want the content and the message. Andrew creates a video for his blog that later becomes a podcast, serving people with content in whatever platform works best for them to consume it.
Quotes
- “Everything that I do has always been aimed at helping people.”
- “Culture is the centerpiece of everything.”
- “Common sense is not always common practice.”
- “If you leave it up to randomness you aren’t going to get the results you want.”
- “If there is a serving element to who you are, it will always have a draw.”
- “It’s not about you. It’s about the people.”
Hire for the Corporate Culture you Want
How to Go From Military Veteran to Civilian Professional
The Mile Walk Academy
Andrew LaCivita
Job Search Bootcamp
Interview Intervention
Out of Reach but in Sight: Using Goals to Achieve Your Impossible
The Hiring Prophecies: Psychology behind Recruiting Successful Employees
Facebook: @andrewlacivita
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arlacivita
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlacivita/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewlacivita/
In this week’s episode, Jim and Jan address some listener and client questions on the topic of accountability and ownership. They discuss how to get people to do what they say they are going to do; who actually is accountable for getting people to be accountable in the first place; why someone may not take ownership; and what leaders can do better to foster a culture of both personal accountability and organizational design in the workplace.
Key Takeaways
[2:41] Q: I struggle with coaching my team to be more accountable. Why is that, and how can I get better?
A: Jim works with clients to create what he calls “constructs for dialogue”. These are a select view of things that show people what is important, and then help build positive dialogue and consistent check ins on how progress is going. Leaders often fail to spend the necessary time defining our internal expectations of success, urgency and ownership. Once people learn to be accountable in one part of their role and know exactly how to measure it, it will bleed into all other parts of the organization.
[6:00] Being a leader doesn’t mean having the responsibility of keeping track of everyone’s accountability and progress. It means you must teach people how to show their own progress in a measurable and consistent system.
[7:13] When we frame accountability as a promise, people are more likely to show up and follow through. Leaders must show that there are both good and bad consequences based upon keeping or breaking a promise.
[8:33] Q: I struggle with letting go of authority and ownership of projects and decisions. What should I do?
A: There is a connection between proper delegation and ownership. Leaders must let people own their issue.
[10:28] We can’t control other people, however we can control how we respond, the questions we ask and how we may be showing up to get the situations that are reflected back at us. Whether it’s personal or from a systems perspective, we must first take a look at ourselves when asking others to be accountable.
[13:06] Much like designing a road or intersection, we need to design organizations to get people where they need to go easily.
[15:20] Q: How do I identify and develop a strategy for someone to take ownership of their project? Why wouldn’t someone take ownership of the project?
A: There are many reasons why someone may not take ownership: lack of confidence, competence, fear of reprisal, confusion of the timeline or standard, or they just straight up may not be motivated. Good leaders ask questions to find where the problems are, and what areas can be adjusted.
[21:21] A coach or mentor can help provide a different perspective and give a fresh new answer that will help you progress and move forward.
[24:22] Q: The person I am meeting with has ranked him or herself higher than what I believe is their operating level. How do I deliver this message in a positive yet honest manner?
A: Gaining self-awareness from feedback loops is very important, and that is the responsibility of the leader. Yes, we have to adjust and level set, but the first thing is to look at what feedback loops are established, and how they could be eased into a more self aware condition.
[29:05] When in doubt of what to say next, “oh?” with disciplined silence will prompt someone to say something that contains what you need to focus on next.
Quotes
- “Shared accountability has to be intentional. It can’t exist in a vacuum.”
- “None of us want to break a promise,
- “There must be consequences.”
- “We can’t control others, but we can influence them.”
- “People support what they help create.”
- “There is power in disciplined silence.”
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Stop Wasting Money on Team Building
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Ep 061: The Six Observations Leaders Make
Ep 047: Insights on How Individual Self-Awareness Affects Team Performance
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
When it comes to diversity and inclusion, Jennifer Brown believes organizations have their work cut out for them. Jennifer brings her passion for social equality and diversity into her role as an award winning entrepreneur, dynamic speaker, and diversity and inclusion expert. In today’s episode, she speaks with Jim and Jan about next generation diversity, mentoring in the new age of work, and some simple things an organization can do to create an environment of inclusion and diversity.
Key Takeaways
[3:22] Jennifer is a trained opera singer, and yes, that is really her singing in her own TedTalk. Her love of high performance training and cultivating group dynamics on stage led her to feel natural when exploring the path of leadership development.
[5:36] The stated purpose on Jennifer’s website reads: “We believe in unleashing the power of human potential embracing and helping people and organizations to thrive.”
[6:53] As a member of the LGBTQ community, Jennifer knows first hand the ways we cover or downplay ourselves to try to feel safe and others. However, we deprive others the opportunity for true connection when we conform our authentic selves.
[8:23] In technical roles at companies such as Facebook or Google, women and certain ethnicities are still very under represented, and the numbers are very stark.
[11:23] Jennifer explains that we must transcend and broaden the conversation of diversity to be inclusive of everyone.
[18:10] Jennifer creates intensive programs to support both millennials and the key decision makers in the workplace. She gets down to the core of what makes the new generation thrive (and stay) in a workplace: visibility, challenge, adding value, and the feeling of making a difference.
[19:26] Companies must ask themselves if they are structured for inclusion and diversity at all levels.
[24:35] Just as the millenials have work to do in welcoming inclusion, Jennifer says that the older generations must revisit and learn from how much they have failed to authentically show up at work as their true self, and what those sacrifices have cost them.
[26:36] Jennifer lists a few skills and qualities great inclusive leaders possess: exquisite listening skills, servant leadership, and situational awareness to recognize, attract, and advance the voices of diversity.
[27:17] Great leaders demonstrate ally behavior. They help others lend their voice when they have otherwise not be heard.
[30:50] Leaders must be proactive to bring a diverse team on board, rather than waiting for them to appear.
[34:08] Often times, diversity programs can end up segmenting us even more, and we must find a way to bridge ourselves together using commonalities that show us how alike we really are.
[39:43] Belonging is the ability to be seen and treasured for your uniqueness.
[42:47] Jennifer feels that leaders need to be the first to exemplify vulnerability. This helps the team establish connection and make others feel comfortable.
[49:41] Jennifer challenges the audience to look in the mirror and ask, “Am I Doing Enough?”
Quotes
- “The pressure to conform is so intense.”
- “We tend to sanitize a version of ourselves.”
- “You have to feel safe in order to build trust in the workplace.”
- “There are visible and invisible aspects of diversity to all of us. We all have stories of exclusion.”
- “The hierarchical structure is not helpful for innovation. Let’s flip it sideways.”
- “Inclusive leadership is good leadership.”
- “What are you doing to create space for voices that aren’t heard?”
- “Leadership should be uncomfortable. That’s part of our growth.”
Thank you to our sponsor: Combat Flip Flops - use code WESTUDYLEADERS for 20% discount
Inclusion, Diversity, The New Workplace & The Will to Change by Jennifer Brown
Finding Your Voice in the Workplace: Jennifer Brown at TEDxPresidio
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
REVERSING THE GENERATION EQUATION: MENTORING IN THE NEW AGE OF WORK
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Jennifer Brown LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website | The Will to Change Podcast
Difficult conversations are part of the leader’s job when it comes to creating a strong organization. In this episode, Jim and Jan share the tools they recommend to make these unavoidable conversations a little easier. In this episode, they answer listener questions all based on the topic of difficult conversations: The pitfalls of avoiding them, how to plan for them, and how to prevent the need for them in the first place.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] We tend to try and avoid difficult conversations that may lead to conflict. Sweeping problems and conversations under the rug may lead to loss of money, time, and employee morale. Team members look for their leaders to be firm about upholding standards, and when they don’t see that occurring, they may leave for a place that does.
[4:41] When approaching a difficult conversation, we must know the questions we want to ask, and have clarity on how we want to frame them.
[4:53] Good leaders set expectations before emotions run high.
[5:51] Q: How can you have the difficult conversations to build the person up and turn them around without ticking them off? A: This gets at the heart of leadership - balancing both results and people. It is important to give encouragement frequently from the start, and earn people’s trust to accept constructive yet difficult dialog.
[11:16] You can coach or train people just about anything, but there’s a cost / value curve. It takes time, resources and effort.
[14:54] Q: What do you do when someone doesn’t follow your advice? A: Ask questions regarding what isn't working, and figure it out together. It shows you have an intent to solve the problem rather than just cast doubt or blame.
[18:14] Strong leaders take the time to gather facts and ask questions before jumping to conclusion.
[20:30] Q: How do you handle divas? A: It depends on the diva! Do they ascribe to the core values, and produce results? We may be able to provide flexibility and leverage their skills, but they don’t get a pass or special treatment on how they treat others.
[23:45] Leaders must take a look and see if they are creating divas from the inside out.
[26:38] Good leaders set crystal clear expectations on both the performance and behavior sides.
[27:23] Jim admits that even he has been a diva before, but Jim suggests an alternate way to look at it is a rule breaker. It’s important in the following three areas to look to see if maybe it’s the organization's responsibility that would benefit from a change : Relationships, Results, and Rules.
[30:46] Take a look at your calendar, and look at how much time you are spending developing relationships. There is a correlation between how much time you spend doing this, and the time you worry about having difficult conversations.
Quotes
- “So much pain and suffering can be avoided it we had these difficult conversations.”
- “Have the difficult conversations before emotions run high.”
- “Being nice is not enough, we have to produce results.
- Brilliant Jerks are Energy Vampires
- “Leaders need to make sure they set their employees up for success.”
- “Good leaders set the stage for difficult conversations by catching people doing well.”
Netflix Values
Ep 027: Positivity & Performance
Ep 047: Insights on How Individual Self-Awareness Affects Team Performance
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Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Futurist and Executive Director of DaVinci Institute, Thomas Frey, tell us how to prepare for a completely different type of workforce. He discusses the key characteristics leaders of the future will need to succeed, the emergence of micro-industries and mega projects, what AI really means for leaders. Finally, he explains why a career of “robot technician,” or “Smart Shoe influencer” may not be so far off.
Key Takeaways
[3:27] The healthcare industry is undergoing a massive transition from an industry based on pharmaceuticals to one based in data. As this happens, it will open up a frontier of opportunities, and deeper understanding of the human body.
[7:35] America has the most complicated health care system in the world, and Thomas sees a possible more affordable and sustainable model in the future using technology.
[8:59] One of the big changes will be driverless technology. With 38,000 deaths a year and 4.4 million injuries, we spend half a trillion a year repairing people after car accidents. The airlines is a safety metric to model after.
[11:32] We don’t advance as fast as the world advances around us, and education is one example where we need to catch up.
[14:15] We are starting to see more “mega projects” that employee more people.
[14:46] Thomas refers to AI as augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence. Beyond seeing AI as something that is an “us vs them” or “humans vs. robots”, he sees it as a tool to expand our capabilities.
[18:17] By 2030, the average person entering the workforce will reboot their career 8-10 times throughout their work life. This shows us that future leaders and workers must be flexible, adaptable, and open to learning new skills almost overnight. Thomas sees this shifting both the one size fits all approach to education, and the path offered through traditional colleges.
[21:58] The most important skills needed to be a leader are ones learned from experience. You can read it in a textbook or study it, but there is no substitute for learning how to develop grit, fortitude and the ability to get up once you’ve been knocked down.
[23:52] Thomas shares the idea of a Freelance Academy, where freelancers could find a place to network with successful entrepreneurs. Here, they would have a tangible place to learn the fundamentals of everything it takes to succeed as a freelancer including accounting, insurance, how to network and acquiring new sales.
[25:09] There’s 1.3 million people in the United States making over $100,000 a year as a freelancer. Good leaders surround themselves with winners, and are curious to learn from their successes and challenges.
[27:51] Over the next two decades, we are going to see over 100,000 new micro industries spring to life.
[28:50] Emerging technology is giving us the tools of creation, yet it also has created the need to manage distractions. A large part of being a leader in today’s society is to practice the skill of focusing and navigating distractions.
[38:13] The skills Thomas feels are most needed for success in the future are: resourcefulness, flexibility and the ability to take risks and be okay with setbacks.
[49:34] Technology won’t replace us (unless you are an elevator operator) but instead will require the human support in many aspects. Technicians will be needed in support drones, AI, 3D Printing, etc.
[55:04] Think shopping for sneakers are fun now? Thomas gives us some insight that “smart shoes” will soon kick down the door of micro industries with their hyper individualized and intuitive technology.
Quotes
- “In the future, everything will operate to get us even above the normal.”
- “It’s not easy to train someone to have the emotional fortitude of an entrepreneur.”
- “We have a lot of people who anticipate failure too early”
- We will start learning new skills overnight.
- “I don’t know anyone that ends up doing the type of work they were trained for.”
- “Having the ability to adapt and shift gears is really important.”
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
TLP 121: Jeffrey Pfeffer Challenges Our Assumptions About Leadership
Bunker Labs
Engaging Your Contract Employees
11 critical skills for the future that aren’t taught in school
20 Common Jobs in 2040
Epiphany Z: Eight Radical Visions For Transforming Your Future by Thomas Frey
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Twitter: @ThomasFrey
Facebook: @Futurist Speaker - Thomas Frey
Website: https://www.futuristspeaker.com/
It’s a Jim and Jan Halloween episode! To get into the spooky spirit, they tell us what scares them the most, both professionally and personally. They then discuss ways in which fear can help us prepare, motivate and leave us stronger. Whether it’s a fear of public speaking, networking, or delegating, this episode will remind you that you're not alone.
Key Takeaways
[2:53] Professionally, what scares Jan is getting a call from a client who is upset. Even if their displeasure is due to a misunderstanding, it’s still jarring.
[7:24] When you are clear about your values and what’s important to you, life gets simpler and it’s easier to say “yes” and “no” to opportunities that come up.
[7:48] Jim’s professional fear is an economic crash and crisis that leads to people making knee jerk reactions based on fear, pressure, and reactiveness. His personal fear is a health crisis.
[10:17] Most of the great business growth happens during recessions, and Jim and Jan explain why. Strategically, it is a great time to grow and continue adding value if you are running your business properly.
[13:25] Research shows that we get out of bad things after 3 months. Practicing gratitude and appreciation now for what you do have is great way to acknowledge what others around you may have lost.
[15:34] Instead of asking your family or co-workers the traditional, “How was your day?” question, try a prompt that breeds more dialogue such as “What made you laugh the hardest?” or “Who was awesome?”
[20:17] Public speaking and conveying your message is an important part of leadership. Your words matter, and how you say them matter. The more you put yourself out there, the more you get comfortable with the with discomfort.
[22:03] Leaders delegate. Having a team you trust is a key piece to feeling secure enough to let go of some control.
[24:04] Managing difficult conversations and difficult personalities is often a multi layered approach. It’s important for leaders to hold up a mirror for others to recognize their own behavior, and realize when it’s detrimental. It’s also crucial for leaders to give people the tools to better themselves.
[30:17] Once you accept the fact that you aren’t alone of feeling nervous or uncomfortable at a networking event or work mixer. Get out there, and say hi to someone who looks like they could use a friendly chit chat.
Quotes
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
“It doesn’t matter what your intentions are, it matters how you perform.”
“When we have competing values, it makes forward progress challenging and decision making difficult.”
“Never shy away from being an embedded influence.”
Ep 065: A Maestro’s Secret for a High Performing Team
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
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Jeffrey Pfeffer, prolific author, writer, and thought leader, joins The Leadership Podcast to discuss the current state of leadership. He discusses the criteria for measuring leadership effectiveness, and how we should reinforce caring behavior in our leaders. Jeffrey is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and is the author or co-author of 15 books including Leadership B.S.: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time, and his latest, Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance - And What We Can Do About It.
Key Takeaways
[2:41] The biggest challenge leaders face today is building human centered organizations that put people first, or at least somewhere prominently on the map.
[3:56] Jeffrey cites two things we need to do in leadership development. First, we must evaluate using the right measures. These include employee engagement, reducing turnover, improving job satisfaction, building organizations with sufficient numbers of people to take over leadership positions, and measuring whether senior executives believe that leadership development is making a difference. Second, we ought to have leaders with sufficient expertise, and not confuse entertainment with leadership.
[7:29] How do we build leaders that care about people? Measurement. Systematic measurement holds leaders accountable, tracks progress, and provides feedback on progress.
[8:50] Most senior executives in the U.S. believe their only responsibilities are to the shareholders instead of the community, their customers and employees. Actions speak louder than words, and Jeffrey feels there is a lot of cheap talk, which has lead to an extraordinary level of cynicism.
[12:20] Jeffrey believes that human sustainability and human health ought to get a higher priority. Workplace stress is one of the Top 5 causes of death.
[15:19] A healthy workplace is a combination of the system, the leaders and a personal responsibility.
[16:35] When a human shows up for work, they have entrusted their physical and psychological well being to the workplace. It is up to senior leadership to take that stewardship much more seriously.
[17:56] Building a healthy workplace positively impacts company profitability. Instead of stress reduction, Jeffrey would like to focus on stress prevention.
[22:06] We are social creatures, and are influenced heavily by our environment. If others around us are working 11 hour days, we feel it is our duty to do that as well.
[26:01] The most important part of leadership is the ability to “perform,” and be consistently authentic to what the people need.
[29:09] First and foremost, to take care of your people, you must keep your position. Then, the next responsibility is to get stuff done.
[31:32] It is completely incorrect that the more hours we work, the higher the productivity. In fact, it’s precisely the opposite. When you take a step back and challenge assumptions, you can save a lot of time and energy.
[41:11] Jeffrey tries to get prepare people for the realities of the world, and not be seduced by magical thinking or false claims.
Quotes
“We have confused leadership development with entertainment.”
“Measurement is key.”
“Leaders say we put our customers first, look at their actions. Leaders say we care about our employees, look at their actions.”
“We have come to normalize the unacceptable.”
“If people around you need confidence, and you don’t feel confident - put on a show.”
“The first responsibility of a leader is to keep their job. The second, is to get things done.”
“Hours don’t equate to output.”
Twitter: Jeffrey Pheffer
LinkedIn: Jeffrey Pheffer
Website: Jeffrey Pheffer
Inc.
People Are Our Most Valuable Asset Cartoon - Dilbert
Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance—and What We Can Do About It by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for People Like Your Family by Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia
Chicago Tribune - Office Napping Climbs Out from Under the Desk and Into High-Tech Pods Great at Work: How Top Performers Work Less and Achieve More by Morten T. Hansen
Tim Ferriss
The Experience Economy: Work is Theater & Every Business is a Stage by Joseph Pine & James H. Gilmore
Proof that you should get a life by CW London
Chances are, you have been told at some point to just “go with your gut,” or “trust your gut.” Every day we are faced with thousands of decisions, and some just seem to come from within, or a source inside ourselves. Today, Jim and Jan talk about what it really means to trust your gut. They explore the many assumptions we make, why it’s so difficult for people to trust themselves, and they share a few of their own coaching experiences. Finally, they talk about decisiveness, and why it’s essential to trust your team and focus on the systems that create the environment where people can thrive.
Key Takeaways
[2:19] Over time, executives become more comfortable trusting their gut, as they have most likely experienced moments where listening to their gut has served them. As coaches, a large part of Jim and Jan’s work is reconnecting people with their gut instinct.
[4:56] Extreme statements such as “it never works”, “this always happens” and “this can’t work” are usually surrounding assumptions that limit the entirety of how we see a situation.
[6:26] Getting confident in your instincts is a process.
[8:14] A lot of leaders equate confidence with competence. It’s natural for people to lose trust in their gut when they are in a new, unknown environment.
[11:52] Great leaders learn from their mistakes, and don’t let the stress block their ability to make decisions.
[13:52] When faced with a decision, ask yourself “what’s the damage of not making a decision now?” and the choice to process more information before you act could be your decision.
[14:52] While some situations call for immediate decisions, there are also situations where it’s best to slow down and process all the variables before leading down a path. This is where trust in your system and your people is paramount.
[19:20] The Leadership Podcast is divided and Jim and Jan need your help! They both pronounce coupon differently. Jim says it “cyoopon,” while Jan stands by “koopon.” Let us know which way you say it!
Quotes
Competence Yields Confidence
Getting confident in your instincts is a process.
“Your gut instinct talks to you first.”
“It takes a while for people to trust their gut.”
“Explore your gut and trust the system. ”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Why Confronting our Unconscious Biases is Both a Moral and Business Imperative
The Curious Secret to Hiring Better Salespeople
Ep038: Humanizing Our Workplaces
Ep065: A Maestro’s Secret for a High Performing Team
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek
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Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret, is an expert trust builder and master storyteller. He Joins Jim and Jan to discuss his work helping transition military veterans to civilian life, and the importance of supporting their personal story. Scott gives us a sneak peek into his new play that premiers on November 10th in Tampa, “Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret.” The play captures the raw emotion of the battlefield and honors the men, and still fighting - and the families back home. Scott’s message of finding your voice and sharing it to help your fellow human is one that applies across all facets of leadership, and one he and his wife foster through their organization, Heroes Journey.
Key Takeaways
[4:16] When Scott decided to write and develop his first play, “Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret”, he sought to capture both the experience of the veterans and their families along with using his storytelling ability that was developed as a Green Beret. The situations in the play are all based on true stories, and he brings the raw emotion and pain of combat to the stage. All proceeds from ticket purchases will go to The Heroes Journey, a 501c3 nonprofit.
[5:44] The tag line for the play is: “You’ve heard the stories of the first in, now you will hear the stories of the last out.” He captures the redemption Scott sought to give veterans once the dust has cleared and others have moved on.
[7:49] Emotions are at the heart of leadership. We must understand it, and embrace it to fully connect with ourselves and others in order to lead by example.
[8:39] It’s not the words leaders say that make us compelled to act, it’s the way those words make us feel.
[11:26] As a storyteller, there are two relationships: the relationship to the story, and the relationship with the audience.
[13:39] Scott’s dad had a huge influence on how he viewed storytelling and connection to emotion. He saw his dad work tirelessly to lead and become one of the top wildfire fighters in the country. He showed that a leader can be humble, admit to not knowing answers, and always striving to do better.
[18:41] With over 20,000 veterans a month leaving military service, there is a lot to be done. Veterans are at a high risk of disconnecting from their purpose and identity. Scott’s focus at the Heroes Journey is helping warriors find their voice, and tell their story whether it’s to an employer, their family, or just to themselves.
[22:40] Often our identity gets wrapped up in our job. It’s healthy to connect with your own values and emotions and then bring those into your job as a leader, and have awareness that your job doesn’t define you.
[25:04] Leaving deep impressions that serve the people who follow you is the epitome of Rooftop Leadership.
[28:37] When we check in with the man or woman to our right and our left, we feel better about ourselves, and the organization performs at a higher level. So much can be gained from getting out of our head to serve.
[31:20] The Heroes Journey Virtual Course is a 7 module course that is completely free, and its aim is to help warriors develop their story and tell it in a powerful and compelling way.
[35:59] As a leader, Scott challenges us to recall a story from your past where you went through enormous struggle, and share it with someone who could benefit from the lessons you learned.
Quotes
- “Humans are the most meaning seeking, emotional, social creatures on the planet.”
- “Lead by inspiring others to do something bigger than themselves.”
- “When warriors find their voice again, things change.”
- “Your job is just one part of your identity.”
- “It’s in struggle and vulnerability that we become relatable.”
- It’s not the words leaders say that make us compelled to act, it’s the way those words make us feel.
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Twitter: @RealScottMann
Facebook: @OfficialScottMann
Instagram: @rooftop_leader
YouTube: Rooftop Leadership
Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret
Scott Mann Rooftop Leadership Training
The Heroes Journey
Bo Eason
Runt of the Litter
The power of persistence, creativity, and respect | Matthew Griffin | TEDxTacoma Mission America: Straight Talk About Military Transition
TLP048: Trust and the Tribal Origins of Leadership
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In this week’s episode, Jim and Jan share what’s been on their mind. For Jan, it’s all about decision making. How they are made, the processes most organizations are lacking, and how we structure transparency into decisions.
Jim’s been noticing how beautiful things emerge when we embrace networking, and create business opportunities for ourselves and others. He provides a few networking hacks, and shares a big opportunity most people miss when looking to connect.
Key Takeaways
[1:17] Jim and Jan want to hear which episodes you like, who you would like to see as a guest, and what’s new in your world of leadership. If you are active enough on our socials, a new coffee mug just may be in your future.
[2:12] Jim just co-invested in a tea company, so there also may be a tea party as well. Just don’t expect him to be drinking tons of matte.
[3:31] Almost every organization will say they have a communication problem. Jan’s hypothesis is that a large part of this is really a decision problem. Three main elements that make up the decision making process:
- Is there clarity on who has authority to make decisions?
- Is there a process for decisions, and when they are to be made?
- Is there criteria or a model that exists for individual and group decisions?
[4:45] Good leaders must know when to give up control and let others make decisions, and when it’s best for them to call the shots based on the organization’s core values.
[5:26] When people feel as though they can’t make decisions, or will be punished for making the wrong one, they get fearful upon making them or get complacent and take no action.
[6:39] When we remember the mistakes we have made, we can learn from them and help ourselves and others. Jim and Jan certainly have made some, and you better believe they remember every one. Making mistakes and learning from them is a large part of being comfortable and confident with decisions.
[8:02] We can learn a lot from organizations that must have structured decision making processes in place. Jim gives an example of one in the information security world where their disciplined process takes the “Duty of Care” into account with all parties involved in a decision.
[10:20] When people feel as though they have input and are heard, it’s easier for them to accept decisions and follow through with the action plan.
[11:34] It’s incumbent upon the leaders to provide common context surrounding all parts of making a decision. Context is typically better in an anecdotal form rather than quantitative in this situation.
[15:10] Networking is fun! It’s not all about standing awkwardly at a cocktail party with people you don’t know! Good things happen when we connect and network with an intention to have a positive experience.
[16:05] Leaders have a responsibility to connect others and provide as much opportunity as possible.
[20:41] Phone calls are still a great way to connect if you are too busy to meet a new or unknown contact in person.
[21:38] Leadership hack: write an introductory note when you are adding a person to your LinkedIn or online business network.
[24:36] Jim and Jan will be at an upcoming LEDx 2.0 event at the Maxwell Airforce Base at Air University. They will each be giving a presentation, then a joint session on The Leadership Podcast. The event is not open to the public, but there will be a video recording available in the future.
Quotes
- “Growth can come from making poor decisions.”
- “The more time you have, the more collaborative you can be in decisions.”
- “Leadership is all about change, and change it about decisions.”
- “We must be more structured in creating our decisions.”
- “Make the world small.”
- “Make good connections happen, don’t wait for other people.”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Steve Martin - Let’s Get Small
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
The Wisdom of Crowds
Tipping Point
Leadx
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After a ten-year career in the NFL playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, Jon McGraw realized he had become so achievement-oriented that it kept him from being truly present. This led to his study of mindfulness. Today, his core mission is to help others take back control of their life experience and relieve suffering. He talks with Jim and Jan about lessons in leadership he learned while in the NFL, and the mental skills necessary for peak performance.
Key Takeaways
[4:41] Our society and culture doesn’t teach mindfulness and attention training in our early years, so it is expected that we would shift to a mindset based on achievement, ruminating about the past and anticipating the future.
[10:30] Jon defines mindfulness as the practice of paying attention to the experience of the moment without judgement or expectation.
[11:44] Mindfulness helps us clearly define the vision, then create processes and daily tasks to keep us in alignment that everyone from management down can follow. This builds trust in the mission and the individuals behind it.
[12:40] One of the biggest challenges in leadership roles currently is the inability to have difficult conversations. Candid and constructive conversations are necessary for gathering feedback and putting it into context with organizational goals.
[13:40] The mindfulness skill allows a leader to be present with their employees, to be a deep listener and a way to meet someone where they are at.
[15:28] The primary role of a leader is to protect and connect the team, set expectations and connect with their team.
[16:48] Mindfulness takes the “me” thinking out of the individual, and instead focuses on the needs of the organization.
[21:39] Jon is proud of the results that participants get from his training program when they apply his methods consistently and diligently. Even when nothing external or situational changes, the way their brain processes the life situation is completely different. The training of mindfulness can be applied to those at different levels of career experience and position.
[22:13] Most of us think the life experience we desire happens when our external world matches what we want. However, this is not the case, and when we start from where we are realistically and apply ourselves from there, big shifts can happen.
[33:35] Leadership is someone’s capacity to step outside themselves and connect with others to put the team first. You still honor your personal ambition and goals, but they come second to the needs of the team.
[35:03] A good team captain models consistent character and performance.
[38:03] One of the core principles that changed Jon’s experience was performance psychology, and he is very passionate on using mental skills training to help as many people as he can with their inner and outer experience.
Quotes
- Anticipating the future comes at the expense of life itself.
- “Judgement and expectation can cloud our perspective.”
- Most leaders are too transactional.
- “Mindfulness is the opposite of me thinking.”
- “Commit fully to wherever you’re at.”
- “If we can train ourselves to develop the mental skills to create the life we want right now, we become a very powerful person.”
Twitter: @visionpursue
LinkedIn: @VisionPursue
Website: VisionPursue.com
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Ep 098: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
CereScan
Jan Stenerud
Positioning yourself for failure is not normal, but it can be enlightening. Jim and Jan are both big proponents of getting a little scuffed up now and then. In this week’s episode, they tell their personal stories about their biggest challenges, and the lessons they learned once they were on the other side.
Key Takeaways
[1:24] Jan recounts the story of a mountain bike crash that broke his knee. He remembers feeling pain, embarrassment, anxiety when it first happened and he was at the mercy of his rehabilitation. He got through it, and 14 years later and still riding, he is grateful and thankful for the lesson on patience.
[5:59] Are you giving yourself opportunities to get scuffed up, push your limits and go beyond your safety zone? When you think about what is really scaring you, is it also holding you back?
[8:12] Jim reflects upon his time in college at University of Illinois. While enrolled in the College of Engineering, the Dean told him in order to switch to the Business School, he must get his grades up first, which happened to be not so easy for the young student. He knew he needed to put the pedal to the metal, and wrestled through the struggle and embarrassment of having trouble in class. In the end, he learned a lesson in humility, hard work and had some fun while getting a few solid C’s.
[13:56] As a leader, you have to create your own crucibles and let people go through theirs. As parents, managers or supervisors, it is natural to want to try and help them. Letting people struggle will make them better and stronger, and give them a sense of grit.
[20:26] Excitement lives outside of the comfort zone. While physical challenges are a great way to expand your limitations, you can also break out by conquering your fears emotionally and mentally.
[21:35] Jan is preparing for his upcoming 12 minute TedTalk, “Suffer Everything, Dare Everything. Why Difficulties Matter”. This is a prime example of getting out of the comfort zone.
Quotes
- Sometimes we have to be a patient, to learn the lesson of patience.
- There is something about getting scuffed up that may actually provide enlightenment.
- Are you doing enough things in your life where you have the opportunity to get scuffed up?
- We do have to create our own crucible. That’s what hardens and strengthens us.
- Lead less. Let people make mistakes and learn from them.
- What are you scared of, and why aren’t you doing it?
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
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Justin and Lauren Jonesy have made adventure their full time career. They are challenging the conventional, and valuing experiences over possessions. They’re intentionally creating a life with their family that is meaningful, sustainable, and connected. They discuss the lessons they learned in the Outback and how they apply to the boardroom. Finally, they share their trials and triumphs, and why you may see them out in the wild with an Ikea high chair.
Key Takeaways
[3:07] Justin and Lauren find that adventure gives them a chance to press “pause” and “reset” on our everyday responsibilities and busy schedule. It’s an opportunity to challenge yourself, expand your possibilities and get in touch with your primitive side.
[4:35] Lauren and Justin both love adventure, often for different reasons. Lauren appreciates the softer side of adventure - a time for reflection, conversations and the journey. Justin is focused on the destination and hitting specific markers to ensure they are on track. This may be compared to a business or corporate team where different members have varying motivations for wanting to accomplish a task.
[11:43] Lauren and Justin remind us that adventure can be big and bold in the Outback, or if it can be something such as acting in a play or learning a new language. Adventure pushes our boundaries and shows us we are capable of more than we think.
[14:48] Similar to the way that businesses adapt their action plans over time, Lauren and Justin redefined their vision and mission statement when they had their daughter Morgan. Traversing the outback with a young one certainly wasn’t easy, but instead of giving up, they adapted to their current environment.
[20:05] Strong leadership teams compromise and come up with a solution so that everyone is on the same goal. It is important to understand the motivations that all members are coming from.
[22:30] There is not room for failure in the Outback, so Justin and Lauren do their best to keep failure for the trial runs. While hiking with a little one they soon learned that perfection is not possible, and their benchmark for internal satisfaction is based on grit and determination rather than getting things right.
[28:23] Fear keeps you sharp, and a sign you are on the right track for learning and growth. Don’t let fear stop or stall you you, move to engage.
[30:44] Find your purpose. Aligning with what lights you up and inspires you up is what the world needs.
[34:26] Success was defined by other people. Escape from Alcatraz. Sustainability move to Australia, met a bloke.
[38:31] Traits that Justin and Lauren feel make up good leaders both in adventure and business: collaboration, teamwork, empathy and focus on others.
[44:21] Lauren shares her feeling of “adventure zen” when the reality of their possibilities expanded, and their hard work paid off.
Quotes
- Adventure is an activity with an unknown outcome.
- Are you building a life you don’t need a vacation from?
- You can get money, but you can’t get back time or health.
- Fail during trials. You don’t want to fail on an expectation, because you can’t afford to.
- If you don’t have failure, there will be no learning and growth.
- Find and chase what lights you up and makes you curious.
Urban Team Challenge
Lauren Jonesys Why
Facebook: @followthejonesys
Instagram: @followthejonesys / @justinrjonesy
Twitter: @justinrjonesy
LinkedIn: Lauren / Justin
Website: The Jonesys / Justin Jonesy Speaking
This week, Jim and Jan dig into the tie between emotional intelligence and sales. Organizations are moving away from manipulative tactics, and using using empathy and connection to influence others. They discuss the similarities between sales and leadership and how emotional intelligence can be learned. There are ways we can turn small talk into big relationships!
Key Takeaways
[3:03] There is an art to influencing that people find pleasant, rather than manipulative and pushy sales tactics.
[4:42] We live in a “me” world, and tend to think our actions have a bigger impact than they actually do.
[5:40] Back pressure is important for creating urgency or a call to action, but there’s only so much to create before you’re deemed as a royal pain. You can increase your odds not to need that one deal by having many options and activity.
[7:12] Leaders must take the time to gather feedback and assess whether something is a useful activity or is leading to a useful outcome.
[8:02] We also must understand the buying process, and how it differs from the selling process. Great influencers create the most frictionless path for buyers.
[10:33] One of the last thing that AI might learn is how to sell something, and it’s difficult the nuances of connection that comes with the bonding and chatting in person.
[14:27] The threads that make up great sellers and leaders are intertwined closely. The qualities that set people apart in both of them include self-awareness, authenticity, curiosity and an ability to truly connect.
[19:18] It’s natural to have hang-ups and walls up to protect ourselves. Jim and Jan find that the more teamwork exercises they do, the more likely people are to let these walls down and trust their group.
[24:01] A few key characteristics of a strong emotional intelligence and ability to influence
- Have an accurate self image.
-
Be authentic and comfortable in your own skin.
-
Your words should match your feelings.
- Your actions should align
- Ask questions
[27:55] Small talk is easier to learn than people think. Get out of your own way, and ask simple questions, then really listen to the answer.
Quotable Quotes
- “Everyone's an influencer.”
- “The real anecdote to something not closing is having more things that could close.”
- “To have a lot of different options you need activity.”
- “In sales you are irrelevant, and the buyer has all the power.”
- “Forget about you, if you want to influence others.”
- “Great relationships are critical to success in both sales and leaderships.”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
LinkedIn: The Leadership Podcast
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Principles of Persuasion
Year Million
#101: General Stanley McChrystal on What Connects Us
The Art of Small Talk by Debra Fine
Of all the leadership roles in society, David Hirsch wants to share the importance of fatherhood. He has a passion to connect children and their fathers, and to educate others on the detriment of “father absence.” He discusses the ripple effect fatherhood has on both young boys and girls - from the individual, to the community, and the world. He also talks about his own discoveries on fatherhood, and his personal reflections during long and arduous bike rides.
Key Takeaways
[4:43] David is a true advocate for addressing the issue of father absence and educating others that the issue knows no socioeconomic boundary. It is an issue that exists in suburban, urban and rural areas all around the world.
[6:47] True leaders talk about their real emotions, encourage others to speak their truth. When David confronted his own emotions about the father / son relationship he experienced he found it to be cathartic.
[9:26] It’s bad news for our society all around when fathers are absent. The more fathers we have present in the lives of their children, the easier it is to reach their potential and navigate the world.
[12:14] Through his work at the Illinois Father Initiative, their essay contest encourages school-aged Illinois children to write an essay about their father, stepfather, grandfather or father-figure. One of David’s most favorable aspects of his work there was recognizing and appreciating all kinds of role models, educators and volunteers.
[14:17] From 1993 - 1996 David was a Kellogg National Fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He used his stipend to start family and community foundations, and to connect grant makers to grant seekers. He cites that experience as a profound way to see the world from a different perspective.
[20:04] We are still making up for the past 3 generations negatively impacted by the term “deadbeat dads.” It is up to leaders to learn from mistakes, and realize what is really important to child support rather than just a monetary donation. Good fathers are present in every way: spiritually, emotionally, physically and financially.
[22:46] There are also four aspects of what David’s definition of a great dad to both young men and women:
- Commitment
- Loving Your Child or Children
- Patience
- Honest
[26:03] David’s Dad Honor Rides from Santa Monica to Chicago, then Boston to Chicago and all around Lake Michigan was a way for him to challenge himself and build awareness to his cause of fatherhood and ending father absence. A few of the takeaways during those trips were not to underestimate himself, let go to a higher power, and that leaders don’t get there alone.
[41:51] Special Fathers Network is a new dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs. David is proud that the program helps to identify extraordinary men to step up and be mentors through honestly relating to their own experience.
Quotable Quotes
- “What propelled me was fear.”
- “You can stretch yourself, and we each have a lot bigger bandwidth than we realize.”
- “It’s hard to be something you didn’t witness or experience yourself.”
Illinois Fatherhood Initiative
TedX: Why We Need to Break the Cycle of Father Absence
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
21st Century Dads
Special Fathers Network
This week, Jan returns fresh from a trip to Ireland, where he traveled and worked with his MBA students through his course at University of Colorado Denver. He and Jim discuss the parallels and running themes between the young professionals, and guests from recent podcast episodes. They discuss how leaders can foster an environment of vulnerability and purpose for young professionals. Finally, Jim and Jan share their ideas on how leaders and executives can create and engineer networked feedback loops in the business world.
Key Takeaways
[2:13] Jan recently took 12 of his MBA students to study in the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom. Traveling between two locations provided a good comparison and contrast of business in the countries, and gave students a global perspective on startup companies, and what it really takes to study and then become a leader. It was not all fun and drinking Guinness however - many work days were very long, fast paced and in an environment that called for punctuality and professionalism from start to finish.
[5:26] Much like executives going through transition and transformation, Jan found the students are also looking for a place to be purposeful and have their contributions acknowledged.
[6:02] Leaders must frame and set expectations from the beginning, and hold the team accountable from day one until the even after the mission.
[7:31] In Ep 101, General Stanley McChrystal notes we should hold ourselves up to certain standards, rather against one another. In Ep 65, Maestro of the Colorado Symphony, Brett Mitchell, views success in his orchestra when they play with each other, AND for each other!
[9:54] The four ground rules of individual leadership:
- Take personal responsibility
- Be On Time
- Be Curious
- Have a Great Attitude, and Be a Team Player
[9:55] A strong leader with a broad vision sets expectations from the beginning, creates an environment where people can step up at different times, and creates post action reviews and feedback loops. When this is place, most of the people will do the right thing at the right time with minimal supervision.
[12:04] It is now becoming more common for executives to journal. Sharing written accounts of our feelings shows how we and others are processing events, and where we may be struggling. Fostering a culture where vulnerability is welcomed helps people feel safe to learn from their mistakes. It also supports two of the biggest challenges in today’s workforce: talent acquisition and retention.
[18:40] Leaders must figure out an efficient way to engineer feedback loops. One way may be the structured moving of employees to different geographical locations.
[21:05] For innovation, you need time to reflect. The environment has to be safe to make decisions and collaborate.
[22:05] Successful leaders and teams recognize their mistakes but act quickly and strategically to turn it around.
Quotable Quotes
- “It’s not about measuring yourself against your peers.”
- “Getting a group to hold themselves accountable is a fine art.”
- “Executives should continually ask themselves whether they are creating the right environment.”
- “We all learn when vulnerable.”
- “If you don’t ask for help, you’re never going to learn and grow.”
- “It’s what you do after you make a mistake that matters.”
University of Colorado Denver
Class Act
Ep 068: Everybody Lies: Data Tells Us Who We Really Are
Ep 101: General Stanley McChrystal on What Connects Us
Ep 065: A Maestro’s Secret for a High Performing Team
Positive Coaching Alliance
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Major Larry Moores, Retired Army Ranger recently inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame, and now Executive Director of the Three Rangers Foundation, talks with Jim and Jan about leadership in adverse environments, shared accountability and camaraderie within a unit. Larry talks about how an understanding of fundamentals can help teams succeed in the most difficult environments.
Larry shares his story to inspire and motivate, but also to help people understand the journey to success is not always an upwards climb or the smoothest road.
Key Takeaways
[3:46] Larry’s upbringing strongly influenced and shaped his vision and values as a leader. He and his and his brother were encouraged to do the right thing, even when no one was watching.
[4:02] Larry was recently inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame, and credits much of the honor and success to the team around him.
[6:02] Strong leadership development, and training in difficult and diverse environments help to support a team’s commitment to their mission.
[10:47] Trust and faith in your teammates ability is of the utmost importance.
[11:22] Two commitments in the Ranger Creed that stand out to Larry as tenants of leadership are “never leave a fellow comrade” and “I will train to be the best at what I do, and give it 110%.”
[13:37] Larry seeks teammates and trainees that will stay open and curious for more knowledge along the way of mission accomplishment.
[15:12] It is critical to have post action reviews as a team to study what went wrong, what went right, and what could be better for the next mission.
[17:50] Good leaders should maintain a balance of sharing information with their team, and providing a buffer between that which will overwhelm and detract focus from the objective.
[23:29] Whether it’s a military or business unit, it’s important for every member of the team to have a deep understanding of the fundamentals of the mission, and then drill it into action through repetition and focus.
[25:56] Incorporating the whole team into training keeps the environment fresh and helps to combat against stagnancy.
[27:58] Leaders must teach foundational and fundamental expectations of the particular levels of each specific unit, and possibly the organization as a whole.
[31:52] As Executive Direction of the The Three Rangers Foundation, Larry dedicates his time and energy into supporting Veterans find senior leadership mentors to help transition them into the business world.
[37:44] As we grow and develop through our lives, there’s different obstacles along the way. Our ability to have a fundamental platform allows us to be successful during times of adversity.
Quotable Quotes
“We are mission focused.”
“Commitment to the creed and to the brothers on your right and left really carries a lot of weight.”
“Successful people don’t get there alone.”
“Give people the right training and vision, then allow them to go out there and make a mistake but not be punished too much.”
“From a working level to a strategic C level, there are wins and losses based on different engagement from each perspective.”
“Leaders must give their team the information they need to be successful in their tactical approach, but not too much to overwhelm them with information.”
“If you are getting too comfortable at what you’re doing, it’s time to take a step back and really look at what you’re doing.”
“It’s about taking the right steps when no one’s watching.”
“Sometimes, we must step back and look at the fundamentals rather than reaching for the next piece.”
Instagram: @ldmoores
Facebook: @Larry Moores
www.threerangersfoundation.org
In this episode, Jim and Jan discuss the critical skills and characteristics leaders should be fostering and selecting for within their work ecosystem. They talk about the need for conscious competence when hiring, and describe the environment where people are enlightened, engaged, and energized.
Key Takeaways
[2:11] With the economy doing well and unemployment at a record low, there is a ton of demand for talent, and the supply has dried up as Baby Boomers retire from the workforce. Although technology has found a way to cover many jobs that humans have done, they have also opened up many others that are in need of people. Leaders are asking themselves for how to successfully hire, attract and keep the the new generation to their workforce.
[4:37] While employers tend to look for employees that are “ready made”, possessing all the skills necessary for their job, they should look for the raw qualities and characteristics that align with your core values. Specific tasks are easier to be caught than attempting to train someone to adopt characteristics of drive, passion, curiosity and consideration.
[9:47] Creating an environment where people are proud to work in and call their own is imperative. Otherwise, Glassdoor tells us you have about 10 months before people look for a new job.
[10:40] When you marry finding employees characteristics and strength that fit your organization, they will be happier and more likely to stay.
[12:04] Tomorrow’s leaders want to be purposeful and mission driven, collaborative and not stuck in an office / classroom. It is up to today’s employees to provide an environment that breeds effectiveness and bolsters retention.
[13:25] Employees want to trust that the workplace has good values, purpose and mission. The organization needs to trust the employees to accomplish their tasks, and understand the company’s objectives.
[15:13] Three items that must be present for leaders to foster in their environment:
- Trust is very important to a healthy ecosystem, whether it’s family, company, or friendship.
- Tribe has a collective understanding of what’s important, and provides a feeling of belonging, responsibility and cause.
- The people that support what they help create. One person might have a vision, but a tribe is needed to make a movement.
[20:44] Figure out what’s essential, and work on that. For more on Essentialism, check out Episode 098 with Greg McKeown.
[20:39] Focus and sequencing are critical skills when solving problems. Focus allows you to say what really matters, and sequencing is knowing when things are important.
Quotable Quotes
- There is a ton of demand for talent, and the supply is drying up.
- We have forgotten how to build and train employees.
- If you can fit to someone’s strengths, the odds of the passion being there are higher.
- As the architects and engineers that frame the environment, leaders must step back and see what they can do to enha.
- Stop being tactical, start being strategic.
- “The employee and organization must trust each other.”
- “Do less better.”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
StrengthsFinder
In this episode, Mike Erwin, Founder of Team Red White & Blue (RWB), talks with Jim and Jan about how positive psychology and character affect leadership development. Whether it’s through his work at the Positivity Project, Team RWB, or teaching at West Point, Mike is clear on his purpose and serving others. He believes both that in relationship building and community, and the great power of solitude. Mike discusses the principles by which he organizes his life, and tactical and time management methods he uses to bring value, priority, and consistency into all of his projects.
Key Takeaways
[1:26] As the Founder and Board Member, of Team Red, White & Blue, Mike and his team created the standard to organize a non-profit, and to help veterans transition from active duty to civilian life. Mike’s original mission was to help veterans better understand their potential, and to build a team that is responsive and engaged. At its core, the organization is about helping veterans connect with other people.
[6:18] The average person in a day sees 30,000 brand impressions. Mike takes this information for Team RWB and uses it to set his mission apart, by developing a strategy that creates sustainable revenue. Team RWB encourages the members to share the story to create social agency, and reaches big corporations and foundations through brand strength and what every member associated with the organization represents.
[10:35] Mike founded Team RWB in 2010, and was the Chairman until March 2017 and Volunteer Executive Director for the first two years.
[14:51] Solitude gives us the clarity, creativity, emotional balance and moral courage that is necessary for strong and powerful leadership.
[19:02] Psychology has only been around for 150 years, and gained traction on the heels of World War II. Studying positive psychology lets us in to a world of knowledge in what makes life more meaningful and purposeful.
[22:19] Give yourself a good four days to fully reap the benefit of solitude.
[30:18] Mike sums up his two day seminars with Day 1: Lead Yourself First and Day 2: Leadership as a Relationship. There is not a one-size fits all framework or perfect sound-bite for leadership, and Mike believes it is crucial to step back and invest in a leadership development program that moves the needle.
[37:44] Mike shares how he organizes his time and output of energy. Whether he is serving in the army reserves, nonprofit, education and business, he makes sure that everything he accepts and takes on mutually reinforces his core values and mission.
[43:12] If you want to do more and posses more focus while you are doing it, a tactical first step is to cut out the extras in your life that don’t serve a purpose. Replace 30 minutes a day of social media scrolling, or passive TV watching, with an activity that breeds passion and purpose.
[51:50] Mike is committed to finding 30 minutes a day of uninterrupted time to read and spend time thinking big picture and analytically.
Quotable Quotes
- “We are hungry to reach more, to do more, to become better.”
- “Can you develop a strategy that creates earned revenue?”
- With solitude you gain clarity and moral courage that is necessary to lead.
- Relationships are the number one driver of life satisfaction.
- Before you can lead other people, you need to be able to lead yourself.
- Life is too complicated and complex for everyone to be understood under one framework.
- You must invest time and energy in the process of leadership development.
- Ask yourself: “Am I adding significant value back to other people, and am I developing value within people?”
- The long term success of our entire society is at stake. We must think less about ourselves and more about our community, team, organization and family.
- You have to cut the noise out of your life.
- The number one driver of a meaningful life is having a positive impact on other people’s lives.
- Find time every day to read books that challenge you.
Twitter: @ErwinRWB
Instagram @ErwinRWB
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-erwin-9ba1804/
http://characterleadership.center/
Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
Team Red, White & Blue
Character and Leadership Center
The Positivity Project
Run as One Seattle
Kim Cameron
Martin Seligman
Angela Duckworth
MIKE ERWIN is the CEO of the Character & Leadership Center, whose mission is to produce better leaders through a deeper understanding of positive psychology and character. He also serves as the co-founder & president of the Positivity Project, a non-profit organization with the mission to empower America’s youth build strong relationships. In 2010, Mike founded the veteran-support non-profit, Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB) where he still serves on the Board of Directors. He is the co-author of Lead Yourself First – Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude from Bloomsbury Press. Mike deployed to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice, and still serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves---assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point as an Assistant Professor in Psychology & Leadership. He currently lives in Pinehurst, NC, with his wife and their four young children.
In this episode, Jim and Jan take it full circle and start with their takeaways on responsibility from a recent episode with Patagonia’s Chief Storyteller & Director of Philosophy, Vincent Stanley. Then, they both share stories of early in their career where they could have benefitted from a little more forethought, and follow up with some great news about the podcast and friends surrounding it.
Key Takeaways
[2:24] Jim and Jan discuss their admiration of both Patagonia as a company, and Chief Storyteller as a leader. The episode demonstrated how respect and responsibility merge when a leader steps up to take the time, slow down, and do things right. Jim’s takeaway from the episode was the manner in which Vincent’s reasoned and rational approach lends Patagonia to implement and change hearts and minds. Vincent’s book, The Responsible Company, provides a guide for those at any level of business to operate more responsibly, thoughtfully and self-aware.
[8:35] Patagonia puts people in line with the cause, whereas many passionate people tend to put the cause in front of the people. They maintain their responsibility to the cause and the outcome while still serving the traditional stakeholders, customers and vendors.
[12:22] Patagonia is trying to plan ahead for the next 40 years, while many businesses are planning for the next quarter. The tendency for short sightedness may lead to missed opportunities.
[14:04] Jim and Jan share their personal “bonehead” moments. Jim’s starts with a job interview in Detroit that leads him accidentally on a plane headed to White Plains, New York. Jan’s is a dinner party at the Colonel’s house where he accidentally missed the mark on the formal part of semi-formal.
Quotable Quotes
- “Too many times people are so passionate about a cause that they are over-passionate, it makes it seem like an insurmountable goal.”
- “What is your impact on other people?”
- “ A short sighted mentality can blind you from opportunities.”
- “A leader’s job is to have a long horizon, and look out for a bright future ahead.”
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
info@theleadershippodcast.com
Episode 107: On Responsibility: Patagonia’s Chief Storyteller & Director of Philosophy
The Responsible Company
JP Sears
Falling Upward
Dress for Success
Preston Pysh
Team VTAC Show with Sergeant Major (RET) Kyle Lamb!
In this episode, Jim and Jan welcome Vincent Stanley, Co-Author of The Responsible Company, visiting Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, and Director of Philosophy / Chief Storyteller at Patagonia. Vincent shares the evolution of both product design and company leadership since his start at Patagonia in 1973, and the ways they integrate new employees with existing culture. He speaks to what makes Patagonia’s story unique and authentic, the burdens of being responsible, and offers advice to those looking to be change agents and storytellers within their own community. Vincent believes that one of the most important responsibilities we have is the right to be responsible.
Key Takeaways
[2:39] Vincent has been at Patagonia on and off since 1973, and is the nephew of the founder, Yvon Chouinard. He and his uncle co-wrote The Responsible Company with two different yet powerful intentions. Yvon wanted to create something practical for people who are motivated to see how Patagonia operated as a business over the past several decades. Vincent’s motivation was to come to an understanding the core culture. These responsibilities encompassed much of what we saw was important in the early 1960’s.
[3:35] Vincent discusses how people are yearning for full agency throughout their day. He discusses the traditional 1960’s corporate model where businesses focused both on the financial health and bottom line of a company, and also the strong commitment to honor the employees, customers and community of which they serve. Patagonia took this and added in environment, as this area has been compromised immensely by population and economy growth over the past several decades.
[6:52] When Vincent started work in the 1970’s, the population was now 3.8 Billion. It is now doubled, with economic activity up 500%. This has put tremendous pressure on economic and social systems, so Patagonia aims to do their part to stay responsible to traditional stakeholders, and our original CEO, nature.
[7:11] Leadership at the top is important, but there must also be a strong middle management with a sense of agency built into everyone’s role. The more coworkers that feel a kinship and responsibility to help others in the company, the easier it is to add new people while helping current ones expand their skills.
[11:35] Vincent’s discusses what the title of Chief Storyteller means to him, and Patagonia as a company. He helped write some of the early catalogs and business philosophies, so he pulls from the foundation of their core values and creates the story to reflect their authentic meaning in today’s world. Vincent feels as though Patagonia’s success in its ability to be a model for other companies, is that their stories are based in reality and not to create spin. Patagonia’s story is complex, however it’s important for the story to consistently build credibility and trust with employees, customers and suppliers.
[13:23] There are many fibers woven into Patagonia’s story. One being their position as an outdoor gear company, with products designed for technical performance. Then, the origin story of the company coming out of climbing equipment, and their community activism; donating 1% of sales to environmental causes; and use of catalogs and websites to educate the general public.
[14:57] Vincent shares a story on when they changed to organic cotton, and how they took steps that entailed a financial risk in order to do the “right thing”. It was a huge move, as they broke their connection to the global supply chain. They took providing an explanation to everyone involved very seriously, and bussed 40 people in at a time from all different departments to cotton fields. Here they could see the difference between conventional cotton and organic cotton, and now the reason for the change went from abstract to tangible. They invested both time and money in explaining why the change, and it paid off in dividends.
[20:20] One of Vincent’s key tenets of success is maintaining the impulse towards improvement. Two of the dirtiest industries are apparel and agriculture, and he sees this as an opportunity to make a difference.
[22:47] Many associate Patagonia as a super responsible brand, but Jim and Jan note that how well their gear actually performs and holds up while used for exactly what it was meant to do. Patagonia also makes a lot gear for the Military.
[25:55] Vincent describes their different environmental campaigns, and how they started small in the 1980’s by giving 1% to organizations that were respected locally but not getting a lot of coverage. He talks about the need to restore agricultural soil to health, and what Patagonia is doing about it.
[35:21] There is a strong sense of culture and permission to be active at Patagonia. The employees are outdoor enthusiasts and it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a group to take a hike or bike ride in the middle of their work day.
[38:28] Vincent’s advice is to give what you can from the beginning, and start right away, no matter how small the amount. It’s about creating a chain of positive effects, and even a small gesture of service can ripple out and affect others. Vincent feels in business there is sometimes too much of a focus on the politics, rather than looking inward to see what can do to serve.
[41:43] Vincent’s future focus is based on how they can work with other parts in the world to create more change globally, and also in their own community on a regional basis.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/patagonia
Website: http://www.vincentstanley.com/
The Responsible Company
Wes Jackson
Patagonia Provisions
Quotable Quotes
- “The most important right we have, is the right to be responsible.” - Gerald Amos
- “Our company has a responsibility to traditional stakeholders, and nature as well.”
- “We are careful to use our stories to express the core values of our company.”
- “Don’t craft your story to imitate the competitor who is 20% bigger than you. Every business is different.”
- “It is important to have an impulse towards improvement.”
- “Start giving from the first day.”
- “Whatever your business is should solve a problem, but it should also address environmental and social problems at the same time.”
- Every time you get one action that addresses 3 or 4 problems, you are hitting the bullseye and creating real change.
Let My People Go Surfing
Field Museum Chicago
In this episode, Jim and Jan talk about the Urban Team Challenge: What it is, how it came about, how it’s different from other team builders, and the special type of people behind it. The goal is to sharpen your team’s ability to communicate, delegate appropriately, overcome adversity, and leverage strengths.
Key Takeaways
[2:34] In our business and personal lives, most of us are on multiple teams, and several outlets where we are working both together and independently towards a common goal. The Urban Team Challenge targets skills that may be applied in any situation, whether it’s a manager leading employees, or CEO in charge of dozens of managers.
[3:15] Jan recalls a podcast episode he listened to recently where a Jayne Poynter recalls her challenges from Living in Biosphere 2. First was running out of oxygen, but a close second was the interpersonal dynamics surrounding her. This demonstrates how important it is for those to work together efficiently in team dynamic.
[6:11] At a recent Urban Team Challenge in Atlanta, they saw first hand how it can shift team members from an individual mindset, to one team working together for a common goal.
[11:25] Both Jim and Jan recap their takeaways from the recent Urban Challenge. They feel the most important were the experience of effective communication in a time of chaos, reducing stress with good planning and adapting, cohesion between the front facing and behind the scenes parts within a team, and fully understanding standard operating procedures and expectations up front.
[15:14] When team members get fatigued and taxed, it is important for them to speak up so another in the group can take the lead. It’s also important for the group to examine the implicit assumptions they make. For example, if there are two men in their 50’s standing outside a college bookstore, instead of going for the assumption that they should stand away from each other and act engaged in their cell phone, it actually might be better for their appearance of fitting in and acting “normal”, to stand and have a conversation together.
[17:17] For a strong team dynamic and successful collaboration, trust is key.
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Website: The Urban Team Challenge
YouTube: Urban Team Challenge
Email: info@theleadershippodcast.com
Quotable Quotes
- “In a chaotic situation, you need to depend on effective communication.”
- “It’s hard to create alignment, and most of us are conflict avoiders, and this is an exercise to bring that all out in a hurry.”
- “We create an understanding of what it is like to work as a team.”
- No one ever says, “We over communicated.”
- “Every team benefits from ground rules that can be adjusted along the mission.”
- “In order to have good communication, you need trust and open dialogue.”
Amy McGrath is on a mission to bring back servant leadership, civic responsibility and open discourse to Capitol Hill. As both a graduate and former teacher at the United States Naval Academy, Amy has committed herself to serve the country as an ethical, truthful and tactical leader. She was the first female Marine to fly in an F-18 Hornet on a combat mission.
Now running for Congress in Kentucky, Amy speaks with Jim and Jan about the standards she would like to bring back to Congress, why facts and the truth matter, what motivates her as a leader, and how she plans to bring her military experience into the political realm to unify.
Key Takeaways
[1:43] Amy attended the Naval Academy, and later became a Congressional Fellow, serving as Defense and Foreign Affairs Policy Advisor, and then a liason to the State Dept.
[3:10] Amy explains why her call sign is Krusty the Klown. In the Marine Corps, callsigns are not supposed to be flattering, and her hair would stick out the sides of her cover.
[4:21] Right now, Amy is focused on her three small children and running for Congress, but does plan on flying again.
[6:02] Amy feels that we have leaders in both parties who have told people what they want to hear, who they should point the finger at, and suggest that there is a quick fix. That was one of Amy's main interests in running her campaign, to make sure she was honest and courageous at every step along the way, even if the issues were complex, and her platform suggested that we have to work hard and together to solve the problems.
[8:36] One of the things Amy respects about recent guest General Stanley McChrystal is his idea of national service and the government helping with community to unify our country and to help with inequality.
[10:42] A recent speech by a politician brings up the topic of the polarizing speech vs. the new wave of greater discourse, and constituents having the ability to talk directly with their leaders to share their current concerns and desires for change. When Amy sits with people in her Georgetown community, she finds that despite all the differences in political beliefs and affiliations, they have a common thread of concern of our country and the hope we can trust a leader is truly listening, and not just spreading propaganda for the sake of what people want to hear.
[13:53] Amy serves the country first before any political representation. She calls running for Congress her 90th mission, because she flew 89 missions, both for Iraq and Afghanistan.
[15:40] Amy has a “Leaders Eat Last” mentality, and feels though it is time for those in power to look out for the well being of the people before themselves.
[16:45] So many people in America are just getting by, are just struggling to make ends meet while working 2-3 jobs. The best way Amy can lead by example is to hold herself to high standards, and then provide avenues for others to follow suit.
[19:00] In the military, you serve the American people and the federal government. Opportunities are not handed to you.
[19:46] While working with a representative, Amy noticed that although the Representative herself was a true public servant, the institution set in place called for band aid fixes and reactionary responses.
[20:23] True leaders don’t solve problems for the sake of credit or symbolic gestures. They look at the plan from afar, study it, and strategize while considering all angles, no matter how complex the issue. Once in motion, it’s important to be flexible and continue studying the plan to see if there may be ways to adapt even better.
[25:04] Before we make any decision or plans, we must know the truth, and the actual facts.
[27:31] Amy’s assignment to her class while teaching at the Naval Academy exposed that many members of Congress and Senators had propaganda and non truths on their website. The students at the Naval Academy make up some of the best minds in the world, so there is a concern on how politics has replaced truth and facts for popularity.
[36:45] It takes a group to make a difference and turn the tide against corruption. This starts with taking responsibility
[39:57] Amy’s husband is a Republican, and she appreciates that representing the idealist America where both sides can have an intelligent discourse with compromise.
[42:38] Good leaders come from all walks of life.
[43:55] The first order of business Amy would tackle in her term would be health care and assembling a group of people that are taking action to make a difference.
Quotable Quotes
-
Let’s replace symbolic gestures with actually doing something.
-
In every mission we didn’t just fly. We studied, we prepared, we had a plan.
-
I’m an idealist, and that’s what makes me American.
-
We have to have leaders that have the courage to be honest with people.
- People are ready for honesty.
- People are looking for people who don’t always have talking points, but want to listen.
- Our country badly needs better leaders.
- Leaders must be servants first.
- Actions are more important than words.
- Leaders eat last and take responsibility.
- The military is about performance and working for the American people.
- We need people to work hard, but have to provide avenues for them.
- True leaders are made up of substance.
- “It’s not the plan that matters in battle, it’s the planning.” - Dwight Eisenhower
- If it wasn’t for Progressives, I wouldn’t have had a job in the Marine Corps.
- You must surround yourself with good people. If there is enough of us, we can make a difference.
Mentioned
TLP101: General Stanley McChrystal
Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
Representative Susan Davis
US Naval Academy
The Lowest Form Of Leadership
United States Marine Corps
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmyMcGrathKY/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmyMcGrathKY
Website: Lt Colonel Amy McGrath
Bio
When Amy McGrath was 12 years old, she fell in love with military fighter jets. Wondering why there were no women flying, Amy discovered there was a federal law in the U.S. prohibiting women from serving in combat roles. Amy began writing letters to members of Congress advocating for change to remove the restriction on women and wrote every member of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. During her senior year of high school, the combat exclusion law was lifted. Amy attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated in 1997 with a B.S. in Political Science.
She was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, where she went on to complete flight school first as a Weapons Systems Officer, and later as a pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet. She completed a tour flying missions in Afghanistan in 2002, becoming the first female Marine to fly in an F-18 on a combat mission, and a second combat tour flying in Iraq in 2003. In 2009, Amy married U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Erik Henderson and both were later deployed to Afghanistan. They now have three children. In 2011, Amy was assigned to Washington D.C. as a Marine Corps Congressional Fellow, serving as defense and foreign affairs policy advisor to Rep. Susan
Davis of San Diego. She then served in the Pentagon as the Marine Corps’ liaison to the State Department. Having reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Amy’s last assignment was teaching at the U.S. Naval Academy. Amy retired from the Marine Corps on June 1, 2017 after 20 years.
This episode features a breakdown from Jim and Jan on Episode #103 with Aaron Levy, Millennial Workplace Expert. They deep dive into the importance of networking from a leadership perspective, combatting failure with courage and confidence, and developing constructs for dialogue to help navigate crucial and emotional conversations in business.
Key Takeaways
[1:47] Networking is a critical skill as a leader. It is easy to stay in an insulated bubble of comfort and people that you know, but networking is where you find outside influences and expand the sphere of knowledge.
[2:33] Aaron Levy brought up balancing controversy and controversial topics for the sake of both marketing, and change to the status quo. It was a conversation regarding growth, mastery, and connection as it relates to the modern generation in the workforce.
[5:16] Jim and Jan have found that business leaders are looking for data and primary research, as well as stories and examples that back up a specific point of view and in a digestible and palatable way to help guide them.
[7:27] Jim and Jan question if we have gotten away from providing a north star and a guide post to others in leadership. In order to stay focused on our “why”, do we need a singular reason in our minds to keep going, or we do develop and shift those along the way?
[8:34] There is a very strong chance that when you step out of your comfort zone and into unchartered territory, you will fail, many times. Having courage to step out in the first place and the confidence to try again are vital.
[12:19] Difficult conversations in business can be emotional, and lead to an “us vs. them” mentality instead of the necessary supportive team mindset.
[16:12] Understanding how everyone works together and the different dependencies within the team is also an important factor in taking the emotion out of crucial conversations.
Quotable Quotes
- You’ve got to present data at some point.
- Your message needs to be easily absorbed
- You can do more and your goals can be bigger.
- It’s about helping someone see they can do more for other people.
- When you step out, you may fail. Profoundly.
- You have to articulate the dependencies.
- It’s important to leave a little space in your mind for information you don’t yet have. - Mark Ashbrook
- Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard. - Kevin Durant
Mentioned
Episode 103: Millennials Aren’t Special Snowflakes with Aaron Levy
Catch Me If You Can
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
Aaron Levy is a Millennial Workplace Expert, and shares his observations and insights on millennial retention and satisfaction in the workplace. Aaron shares his journey into the science of human behavior, addresses the common misnomers of millennial stereotypes, and teaches us how to approach critical conversations across the generational divide.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] Aaron’s an avid reader of both fiction and nonfiction, and enjoys the training and personal rewards involved with participating in triathlons.
[6:39] At an early age, Aaron was moved by the power of film’s ability to change our perspective on life and the world around us.
[7:41] Aaron immersed himself in the science of human behavioral change. He studied and practiced what techniques work trigger change and how people can unlock their potential both in and out of the workplace.
[8:37] As Aaron looked around at his millennial aged peer group, he saw them jumping from job to job, even when on paper they “had it good”, and their choices seemed to defy logic. He noticed a two headed problem: internal disengagement within the employees, and the workplace’s lack of fostering satisfaction and stability for their hires.
[9:48] The biggest factor in driving engagement comes from the top. Leaders and managers must know how to motivate by listening.
[11:15] For someone to become a great leader, they must receive training consistently and be given the chance to repeat and tweak their education. Aaron suggests moving from a two day intensive training to a quarter day training four times a year and including more experiential rather than event based methods. This method fosters accountability, time to create new neural pathways, and the art of deliberate practice.
[16:27] The tactics of learning the art of managing and leaders are important for both those doing it in the company, and consultants on behalf of the managers.
[22:57] What do millenials most desire in the workplace? Usually it’s a combination of feeling connected with their team, secure in the impact they are making and a vision of personal growth and development within their company.
[23:36] Aaron busts the myth that millennials are special snowflakes, that can’t handle any feedback. Constructive feedback is crucial, and something millennials crave to help them feel valuable and connected.
[25:59] Aaron explains why there was no need to sugarcoat his article “Why Most Managers Suck.” Managers fall short on listening, which he feels is the most important leadership habit one must develop, practicing, and exercise. We think at 3,000 words per minute, and listen at 450, making it an inherently difficult thing to do. For managers to change, they must understand that listening and responding from a connected place is an effective and powerful way to obtain their desired outcome.
[31:37] To grow and adapt at a higher level of listening and leadership in general, we must consciously and consistently be aware of our habitual patterns so we can adjust them.
[32:52] Aaron measures the effectiveness of leadership by his team's ability to perform at a peak level even when he is away.
[34:39] Curiosity and the ability to open up and admit they don’t have the right answers is a theme that comes up with Aaron and previous episodes on vulnerability. When leaders establish ground rules within their team, it creates a platform for others to experience freedom and space to act authentically.
[40:00] The first step in living our live by chance instead of choice is digging deep to get clear on your “why”, and what you would do if money and expectations did not exist.
[41:32] Aaron is committed to finding more of the balance between being and doing. For every 15 minute break in between meetings, there will be more time in nature, rest or even just doing a headstand.
Quotable Quotes
-
Why when we know better, do we not do better?
-
“Engage with intention, not tension.”
-
“Authenticity is the first step to vulnerability.”
-
“The biggest factor in driving engagement is the boss.”
- “Listening is the most important leadership habits we can adopt.”
- “There is an opportunity to be better at listening. We need to dedicate the time, effort and energy to develop those skills.”
- “If we are not building our replacements, we are not truly growing our people and company as leaders.”
- “A great leader isn’t always right.”
- “The leader on who you are, is who you are in your heart.”
- “Most of us live our life by chance, not by choice.”
Mentioned
Beneath the Scarlet Sky
Principles: Life and Work
ClassAct
Leadership BS
Why Most Managers Suck
Twitter: raisebaraaron
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aelevy
Facebook: RaiseTheBarCo
Website: RaiseBar.Co
Bio: Aaron is the Founder & CEO of Raise The Bar, a firm focused on helping companies retain their millennial talent. Aaron’s on a mission to transform the manager role by empowering managers with the tools & skills to be better leaders of people.
Today’s episode features Jim and Jan reflecting on some of their favorite moments, standout guests and unforgettable takeaways from the first 101 episodes of The Leadership Podcast. They pull back the curtain on some behind the scenes moments of their interviews, some central themes, habits and attributes that emerged from studying leaders, and preview what’s to come in future episodes later this year. Lastly, they each give a personal update on their new projects. Jim and Jan thank you for joining them on this ride so far, and would love your feedback on what you want to see more of - reach out to them directly at @WeStudyLeaders on social media.
Key Takeaways
[2:08] Jim and Jan recap Episode 101 with General Stanley McChrystal. The interview provided much to process, including his work mixing the most successful leadership in history with modern day millenials, the importance of a classical and liberal arts education and our the thoughtful and candid solutions General McChrystal has to create opportunities of service and contribution for younger generations. His timeless wisdom and nobility reflecting lasting principles of education and leadership.
[2:40] The generous amount of literature and philosophy referenced in the episode with General McChrystal reminds Jim and Jan of Episode 2 with Tom Morris, Professor of Philosophy at University of Notre Dame. Tom also holds the record for most books quoted on an episode.
[5:53] A standard question in the first 20 to 30 episodes was, “What do you think the greatest measure of leader effectiveness is?” The ideas and themes that consistently came up as answer was: education, teaching and service, and taking yourself out of the equation to focus on creating leaders.
[9:19] Jim and Jan discuss the advantages of timeless teachings in modern day education both from the schools and parents.
[12:19] A deep love of learning at all stages is one of the most important qualities of developing leadership skills and a point of reference for a well rounded life.
[14:18] A standout episode for Jim was Episode 46 with Sebastian Junger. It changed his viewpoint on anthropology and behavior in group dynamics.
[15:39] Jan recounts a meaningful quote regarding understanding business and teams, thanks to Brett Mitchell, Conductor of the Colorado Music Symphony in Episode 65.
[16:52] Brett also represents those who demonstrate great wisdom who aren’t even 40 yet, also including former two time guest - Preston Pysh (Episode 1 and 100).
[17:19] One of Jim and Jan’s favorite aspects of the podcast is the diversity of opinions and wide array of perspectives each guest brings to the table.
[18:11] Jim and Jan give a rundown of what they have been up to of late - Jan just launched two courses on Linkedin Learning - Managing in Difficult Times and Managing Temporary and Contract Employees. Jim has put together a program, Relationship Selling, which shifts the sales and business development process into one of human dynamic and buying motivation. Jim also just gave a talk at the American Heart Association.
[20:31] If you are looking to get out of your comfort zone and into an experience which requires adventure, self-reliance and service, check out Jan’s Self-Reliant Leadership Crucible.
[20:58] Jim and Jan announce their new offering, the Urban Team Challenge. Designed by elite Special Operations veterans, The Urban Team Challenge is designed to sharpen a team’s ability to communicate, foster trust, and create a team with true accountability.
[22:58] Jim and Jan preview a future episode focusing on the need for effective teams in the workplace with Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stanford Professor and author of Dying for a Paycheck.
Quotable Quotes
- “The episode with Stan McChrystal was almost like the time I went to the Sistine Chapel. I couldn’t take it all in.”
- “When you spend time with someone like Stan McChrystal, I felt like I couldn’t concentrate hard enough to hear all the nuances.”
- A great measure of leadership is - how many leaders have you created?
- For whose good do you serve?
- We’ve got to do what we can for those that can’t, but at some point as an educator you have to get them to assume personal responsibility for outcomes.
- I learned to love to learn.
- It’s not K-12 or even your bachelors degree that matters, it’s what you keep doing after that.
- “When I’m rehearsing, I will hear 14 things that are wrong. My job is to figure out which 11 either don’t matter or will take care of themselves, and focus on the 3 that do.” - Brett Mitchell
- “There’s wisdom all around us if we can have an open mind and check our assumptions at the door.”
- “Great leaders become great leaders because they studied leadership and learned from their past mistakes.”
- “It’s not about yourself, it’s about the people.”
- “He knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.” - Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”
Mentioned
Leaders: Myth and Reality
Jan’s Courses on LinkedIn Learning
Relationship Selling (I couldn’t find the exact link! The one on Amazon I see is a different author)
Self-Reliant Leadership Crucible
Urban Team Challenge
Dying for a Paycheck
Instagram: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: @westudyleaders
Twitter: @westudyleaders
General, Stanley McChrystal returns to The Leadership Podcast to share his thoughts and insights on leadership and service in the modern era. General McChrystal is the best selling author of “Team of Teams,” and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The McChrystal group. He talks with Jim and Jan about the importance of a classical education, the sacrifice leaders must make in their lives, and why it’s up to the government and business to create challenging opportunities for the younger generation. He shares his unique perspective on the similarities and differences of leading and teaming in the business and in the military. He concludes with his thoughts on national service, education, and his recipe for more constructive discourse.
Key Takeaways
[1:28] General McChrystal is a retired four-star general, former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Commander of United States Forces Afghanistan.
[1:39] General McChrystal is a Senior Fellow at Yale University, where he teaches a course on Leadership in Operation.
[3:15] Regarding millennials, the talent is there! What’s different is that our community bonds have grown smaller and are more self-focused, making it difficult to find a clear path of how and where to make a contribution.
[4:30] Although we are in a time where much service is needed from young people, only 30% of younger people in the United States are qualified, and eligible, to enlist in the military. General McChrystal poses the thought of government and business sharing the responsibility to create opportunities for the other 70% of those that still have a desire to contribute.
[5:23] The Civilian Conservation Corps of the Depression Era was a program created to give young men the opportunity to make money, earn confidence and get a sense of self-satisfaction. Many of those men went on to serve in World War II.
[6:06] General McChrystal feels it is his generation’s responsibility to create opportunity for youth through funding, education and business. At the McChrystal group, they value service and community involvement. If you have completed a year of national service, your resume gets a more detailed review.
[7:09] McChrystal discussed how we must create an incentive for businesses to hire employees based on their potential and values - rather than just look for professionals who already have the skills and need little training.
[9:27] In addition to General McChrystal’s famous ascetic lifestyle, he is still learning, growing and studying every day.
[9:51] People skills and a strong work ethic as two of the benchmark qualities that make for a good business leader.
[11:51] General McChrystal had preconceived notions of the business world, while his colleagues had assumptions about working with someone from the military. They both found out that in each world there are opportunities and challenges not so different.
[12:31] His newest book due this fall 2018, Leaders: Myth and Reality is inspired by Plutarch’s life and studies of notable people. They took the findings of this work and crafted it into modern day profiles to compare leaders throughout history from all walks of life, and learn the nuances of different leadership styles.
[14:13] In pairing founders and leaders, General McChrystal finds it isn’t a one size fits all approach to success and fulfillment. He did find the common threads to be a commitment to the choice to lead and accept responsibility in an authentic and self assured manner.
[18:42] Possessing an absolute commitment and dedication to the cause comes at a cost.
[20:56] Classical and liberal arts education that roots us in philosophy provides a common language that connects us both with our values; and to each other.
[21:45] James Stockdale, United States Navy vice admiral and prisoner of war for over seven years, was a strong proponent in a classical education as a way to connect us to ourselves and each other.
[23:18] As politics pervade our culture, and the absence of civility rises, it is crucial to listen more and welcome different points of view.
[25:04] We could benefit from thinking more long term and focus on building sustainable relationships that remain solid in the future. In a business world that means treating your clients in a manner where long term relationship is fostered.
[29:44] People think demonstrations of courage are usually reserved for the battlefield, but it is beneficial to recognize it in the workplace as well.
[30:48] General McChrystal is a great believer of experiential leadership for individuals and groups. At The McChrystal Group, they offer adventures for the team to succeed, become familiar and push one another.
[33:30] The military uses its advantages of patriotism, and extra time for training to shape them into leaders. On the battlefield, you need to make life or death decisions, where in business there are laws and bureaucracies and it’s harder for people to be decisive. Often times businesses will skimp on or cancel their leadership development programs due to lack of budget or manpower.
[38:01] In an organization with timid leadership, they will see the problem and take a conservative approach while rationalizing to do very little, or not enough. Making strong decisions is like a muscle you must continue to work.
[39:34] General McChrystal names the two biggest current security challenges we are facing in today’s climate:
- Education lagging behind the progress of the rest of the world.
- Inability to make rational political decisions.
[46:02] As General McChrystal has a strong relationship with his grandchildren, he believes in balancing work with getting outside for adventure, continued education, and family.
Website: McChrystal Group
Quotable Quotes
- We’ve got to create opportunities where people can do the kinds of service that gives them a sense of satisfaction, and a challenge.
- Begin rewarding service in your home, school and community.
- When you enter the military, nobody is already a soldier, airman or marine.
- College doesn’t prepare you for what you are going to do, it prepares you to be prepared for what you are going to do.
- Everything is simple, but the simplest is difficult.
- Leadership is this complex weave of factors.
- Possessing an absolute commitment and dedication to the cause comes at a cost.
- Classical and liberal arts education that roots us in philosophy provides a common language that connects us both with our values; and to each other.
- It’s a willingness to sacrifice for the cause when they decide to lead.
- Strong leaders are themselves.
- Learn to think long term.
- There’s got to be some long term consequences for dishonesty.
- Do everything today to protect what you can do in the future.
- If you do something challenging with strangers, you rarely end up as strangers.
- It takes courage to make great decisions.
- When things get hard, it’s a time to show courage.
- Don’t promise to do more than you are willing to do.
- Leaders make decisions that others are reluctant to make.
Bio
A retired four-star general, Stanley McChrystal is the former commander
of U.S. and International Security Assistance Force Afghanistan and Joint Special Operations
Command. General McChrystal a Managing Partner of McChrystal Group, LLC, and a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on Leadership in Operation. He is also the Chairman of the Aspen Institute’s Service Year Alliance, dedicated to promoting national service initiatives among American youth. He is the author of two New York Times best-selling books: My Share of the Task: A Memoir and Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. General McChrystal resides in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife of 39 years, Annie.
My Share of the Task: A Memoir
Team of the Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
Authentic Leadership
Courage: The Backbone of Leadership
The first guest on The Leadership Podcast was Preston Pysh - co-creator of The Investor’s Podcast - an immensely popular and highly engaged community. Preston returns in celebration of the 100th Episode, and talks about successful investor habits from a leadership perspective. He shares his recommendations for business owners in the current climate based on what he’s learned from studying hundreds of billionaires.
Key Takeaways
[8:55] Preston cites The Compound Effect as a book he would recommend on leadership and developing momentum in new habits that navigate us towards our goals.
[11:56] Once we generate momentum and develop habits, it’s important to challenge them after time to see if they can be optimized for even better results.
[13:17] Preston’s 5 recommendations for business owners in 2017:
- get better at search engine optimization
- understand lean operations
- focus on free cash flow
- understand your customer
- invest the retained earnings intelligently.
*He would also add to know the competitive advantage of the business.
[21:10] Leaders and owners must strive to find a balance between taking care of the human side of their business, and new developing technology that will make things faster and more efficient. While none of us have an exact answer of what the line is between these factors, it is typically a choice based on resources available, morals and company values.
[29:36] Preston approaches The Investors Podcast with the intent to learn from other successful people, take the best notes he can, and serve it to the audience to learn and take into their own lives.
[33:40] Preston appreciates the feedback from his audience on what they want to learn, and he takes that into account in future interviews and episodes.
[36:05] The ladder of inference is when we observe things, and select data, make assumptions and adopt beliefs based on our observation. This creates a reflective loop, where the choices we make are based on the original observation.
[39:53] Quality leaders make decisions based upon facts rather than consistency bias. They have nothing to prove, protect or promote.
[45:17] Preston’s podcast is a mechanism for to him to consistently work on personal development and have discussions with some of today’s top leaders.
[48:55] Auto suggestion is a powerful practice and tool that will help you speak your words into reality. It is a way of conditioning your subconscious mind.
[51:33] Preston still serves as an active duty military officer.
Website: Books by Preston Pysh
Twitter: @PrestonPysh
YouTube: We Study Billionaires
Podcast: The Investors Podcast
Quotable Quotes
-
The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
-
It is important to develop habits, and also challenge them.
-
Challenge your belief structures.
-
Just because something has worked for you really well for 10 years doesn’t mean it can’t be optimized.
-
People have to look at the enduring competitive advantage of their business
-
What does your war chest look like?
- It’s all about the people.
- It’s important to be balanced, and not polarized on one side or another.
- Leaders do not allow themselves to fall victim to confirmation bias.
Bio
Preston is a graduate of West Point with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He’s the founder of BuffettsBooks.com, and his videos on financial investing have been viewed by millions of people around the world. He takes great pleasure in taking complex ideas and making them accessible. He is the founder of the Pylon Holding Company and enjoys spending time with his wonderful family.
The Compound Effect
5 Ways Small Business Owners Can Grow in 2017
Labor 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
Warren Buffet Books
Jeannine Woodyear is the President of the Seattle Chapter of Women in Wireless, and the Global Marketing & Channel Partner Enablement Leader at Microsoft. Jeannine shares her wisdom on why development is important in the all aspects of the mind, body and speech, and not just the boardroom. She also speaks about her work to connect women to a community that supports them.
Key Takeaways
[5:06] Women in Wireless takes a holistic approach to connect, ignite and empower women in all levels of their career. They host events for free headshots, speaker development training, online profile mentorship, and access to a community of women that will help them along their journey to success.
[12:23] Women in Wireless looks at the unique challenges of the individual women.
[13:38] Jeannine’s approach to mentorship is more situational. She draws upon a wide community of people both in and out her organization.
[14:55] A pivotal experience on the roadside in China influenced Jeannine’s approach to business and mentorship to connect with the rhythm and go with the flow.
[19:47] Jeannine knows she is in the flow as a leader when things feel natural and instinctive.
[23:04] There are many ways to lead, and Jeannine cites flexibility and the ability to tap into their own skills as one of a leader’s most important quality.
[25:10] Understanding the skillsets players of your team and dedicating time to get to know them on a personal level is a crucial part of leveraging the sum of the team to achieve the desired outcome.
[31:16] It is the job of the leader and the community to make sure their team feels safe and supported so they are aligned with the vision.
[34:08] Jeannine has found innovation to occur more frequently when she gives people the latitude and guidelines of the outcome, but then lets them go to have freedom in making their own decision.
Website: womeninwireless.org
Twitter: @JMWoodyear
Twitter: @WomeninWireless
Quotable Quotes
-
The individual, the employee, the personal is as important as the customer and the profits.
-
Challenges become opportunities.
-
We are not leading an organization, we are leading people
-
The best advice can come from unassuming places
-
Every situation creates a need to tap a pool of resources and individuals
- It’s about identifying the core of justice, and empowering people to draw upon their flexibility and unique skills
-
Understand who your players are
-
You can’t assume the view of one answer is the truth
-
Some of the best outcomes are through unconventional mechanisms
- Diversity is not about conformity, it’s about allowing different perspective to respectfully get to the outcome.
Bio
Jeanine’s passion and drive are instigated by a simple curiosity and imagining ‘what if’...paired with the pursuit of understanding what makes things tick. This restless energy lead Jeannine from Madison Avenue where she got her start as a media planner to a stint as a National Planning Director at Zenith Media for Procter & Gamble’s health and beauty care brands in China before it was cool.
Jeannine’s favorite opportunities have involved developing high performance teams, fostering community, innovating product marketing, and solving problems customers care about. Creating personalized experiences and learner journeys for cybersecurity, desktop productivity, and business applications to help channel partners build and sustain profitable cloud practices through skills attainment and meaningful engagement is at the heart of the work Jeannine is driving at Microsoft today.
Passionate about mentorship and water, in her free time Jeannine can be found volunteering her time as the President of the Seattle Chapter of Women in Wireless and racing her sailboat around the Puget Sound with her family in tow.
Greg McKeown, author of the New York Times Bestseller “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” and founder of McKeown Inc, joins Jim and Jan on a discussion on essentialism, priorities, and the belief that doing less is actually doing more. Greg explains what essentialism is, how we can open up the conversation in our own lives and find out what our priorities should be as a daily discipline to gain clarity. He speaks of his experiences in helping leaders and executives get clarity so their organization operates with intent rather than reacting to matters deemed as urgent from outside forces.
Key Takeaways
[2:58] The essential priority for Greg is tuning in to his internal clarity. Our clarity is often drowned out in societal demands, the need to feel as though we are doing more, and appearances we try to keep up on social media.
[7:48] Most people know intellectually that they don’t need to be doing what they are, but emotionally it doesn’t feel true. The decision for Greg to move towards what he does want to do and let go of he doesn’t, let him to the process of discovering the four stage pattern of essentialism.
[9:01] The four stage pattern that Greg discovered when working in Silicon Valley in organizations and individuals: Clarity, Success, Options and Chaos.
[11:38] Planning isn’t something to be crammed in, it’s the essential work. The essentialist believes only a few things matter, and it changes the course of your life completely on what you pursue and how you spend your time.
[14:45] Practices such as meditation, praying, journaling and getting enough rest are helpful to increase space to identify what is actually essential.
[20:02] Greg encourages people to make decisions less based upon if something is good, rather if it’s one of the most important things. Anything below 90% essential should at least be questioned.
[23:02] Two examples of non essential things Greg traded that made a profound impact on his life - trading out Facebook scrolling for calling his grandfather, and cutting out sugar.
[31:29] The first step towards essentialism is to have the conversation and identifying that there are non essential practices at play. Next is the work towards cutting out what is non essential and shifting towards a mindset that supports the practices and choices that go along with essentialism.
[36:30] Greg talks about the paradox of success on a societal level, and what it takes to maintain the social complexity in our time now.
[40:12] Greg shares a tangible daily practice on how we can get to the very first 6 meaningful items and cross off the other obligations go.
[50:57] The things that matter most that are important and essential are hardly ever urgent.
LinkedIn: @GregMcKeown
Website: GregMcKeown.com
Twitter: @GregoryMcKeown
Quotable Quotes
-
For me, it’s about clarity. To be able to hear, recognize and obey that voice of clarity that’s often drowned out.
-
The right answer is often to not to do something.
-
Strategy is what you say no to.
-
The most essential work is to protect our ability to discern what is essential.
-
The essentialist believes almost everything is non essential, and only a few things really matter.
-
Ask yourself, “what should I stop doing?”
-
Clarity equals success
- If you are lost and admit you are lost, the intent changes.
-
That top and most important item rarely gets done at all.
-
For how long will this matter?
Bio
Originally from London, England, Greg McKeown is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” and the founder of McKeown, Inc, a company with a mission to teach Essentialism to millions of people around the world. Their clients include Adobe, Apple, Airbnb, Cisco, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!.
McKeown is an accomplished public speaker and has spoken to hundreds of audiences around the world including in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, Holland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.
Highlights include speaking at SXSW, interviewing Al Gore at the Annual Conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and receiving a personal invitation from Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, to speak to his Annual Innovation Conference.
His writing has appeared or been covered by Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine and Harvard Business Review. He has also been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR and NBC.
In 2012 he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Originally from London, England, McKeown now lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and their four children. He graduated with an MBA from Stanford University.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
“Success Can Be a Catalyst for Failure”
Joe Amplo, head coach of Marquette University’s Men’s Lacrosse, is a leader who believes in embracing vulnerability, inclusiveness and challenges. He shares with Jim and Jan how he made the leap from assistant coach to first head men’s lacrosse coach at Marquette, and overcame the fears of not knowing how his own personal leadership would be received. He talks about the importance of culture, empowerment, setting a standard and what he personally looks for in the athletes he coaches.
Key Takeaways
[1:02] Jim played club lacrosse as a grad student in the early 90’s, so he has a passionate tie with both lacrosse and Marquette.
[3:56] Joe had worked as an assistant coach at Hofstra and University of Pennsylvania before he was chosen as the first head men’s lacrosse coach at Marquette. He combined what he had learned from previous mentors and mixed it with his own personal philosophy. One of the fears Joe overcame in becoming a head coach was stepping up from the assistant role he had previously, with the unknown of how his personal method of leadership would be responded to. Second, he was not familiar with the area, and the area was not familiar with lacrosse.
[8:10] In going “coach fed to player led”, everyone no matter what their role or status is held accountable to live up to the set standard. This empowers the people in the organization, and really builds a team identity.
[13:22] Culture has to drive behavior to get the results from the strategy and standards you and your team set forth. For Joe, he learned that the way he wants to lead and create an environment of empowerment, the creation of standards needs to be all inclusive in the organization.
[24:18] The two factors Joe and his team look for in their potential athletes: desire to prove themselves, and a willingness to face and accept challenge.
[31:54] Joe believes that great teams are formed and sustained by developing deep interpersonal relationships, and knowing they have each given their best and overachieved.
[34:46] Joe feels as though happier people are more successful, and success lies on the side of being happy first, without having happiness rely on getting or achieving something.
[36:50] Joe is a lifelong learner, and finds that Marquette holds him accountable to live and work in high standards.
[40:14] Learning from a failure is a key tenant to what Joe finds in a successful leader, and team member.
Website gomarquette.com
Facebook @MarquetteMLax
Instagram @marquettemlax
Twitter: @MarquetteMLAX
Quotable Quotes
- I became confident not in my abilities, but in the people that brought out the best in me.
- I believe in standards - not rules.
- For the way I want to lead, I would want people to live up to the standard. I want someone making a decision on the right thing to do.
- I have to be vulnerable as a leader.
Bio
Seventh-year Marquette University head coach Joe Amplo is an NCAA D-I Men's Lacrosse Committee member and a Team USA assistant. He's led MU to consecutive BIG EAST titles and NCAA Championship berths.
Culture is Your Greatest Strategy
Shawn Achor Ted Talk
Casey McEuin, President and Executive Director of Project RELO, is dedicated to improve the lives of others with a family first mentality. He talks with Jim and Jan on what makes Project RELO an unorthodox and transformational organization for effecting change in both veterans and corporate executives. He shares how they are helping rewrite the way companies value, hire and place veterans.
Key Takeaways
[6:40] Project RELO encourages the veterans who have already been in leadership positions to aim high when looking for work. They also work with the executives on hiring veterans established in leadership which benefits the culture and the revenue.
[7:36] Taking over Project RELO was an opportunity for Casey to operationalize the business.
[13:15] Casey enlisted because he wanted a sense of belonging and to be part of something bigger than himself. As an athlete as well he sees many parallels between the mindset qualities that benefit leaders from inspiring others in business including perseverance, tenacity and providing service to the team.
[17:50] Casey’s shares the extreme highs and lows of his injury and recovery from serving in Afghanistan. Bedridden and told by doctors to learn to live in a wheelchair, he developed a strong sense of resiliency, and to focus on what is important in the moment. Each day he pushed himself just a little bit more, and used the people who said he couldn’t walk as fuel to take his first unassisted step.
[25:54] Asking for help is a sign of power, not weakness. Project RELO is not there to give a handout, but to create a handshake and positive networking experience between the veterans and executives.
[35:43] All of the trials and tribulations had led Casey to the perfect moment - to meet his wife Sage. This is a testament to trusting the greater plan, and having faith in the process when you are working hard in the thick of a situation, whether it’s with health, business or leadership.
LinkedIn: @ProjectRELO
Facebook: @Project RELO
Instagram: @Project_RELO
Website: projectrelo.org
Twitter: @projectrelo
Quotable Quotes
- It’s all about the sense of tribe.
- You can’t teach leadership in a boardroom or a classroom.
- I always wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself.
- What is important right now.
- You can beat anything that is thrown your way.
- Asking for help is a sign of power, not weakness
- The greatest motivational speakers are the one that told me I couldn’t do something.
- Struggle and criticism are the prerequisites for greatness.
Bio
Casey McEuin is an unconventional leader, leadership coach, adventurer, prolific networker, keynote speaker, and the President and Executive Director of Project RELO. Like so many of our veterans, McEuin is focused on direction, mission, purpose, and making an impact in our communities, companies, and country. He currently directs his keen sense of commitment to the worthy endeavor of pinpointing the intersectionality between business talent needs and the skills, training, and rich character of our transitioning veterans.
At the age of 25, McEuin was an aspiring Olympic athlete and a fierce competitor on the Army’s Taekwondo team. Eight years later he earned the Purple Heart when he was injured in Afghanistan. Discharged from the military after his recovery, three years later, he worked to assimilate into a society that was unable to understand the full extent of what a veteran of 17 years had to offer the workforce.
Galvanized by his experiences, McEuin dedicated himself to helping veterans transition more effectively into the civilian workforce. He fulfills this mission as the Leader of Project RELO, and by setting the example for other veterans by continuing his education, and personal and professional development. Casey was honored by President Barack Obama in April of 2016 for his continued service to the veteran community.
McEuin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in social services from Thomas A. Edison University, and a Master of Social Work with an emphasis on Military Community Organization, Policy, and Advocacy from the University of Southern California.
Project RELO
Project RELO provides immersive, visceral and highly effective leadership training to corporate executives and top talent. The training missions are conducted on American military bases where participants and transitioning veteran instructors conduct multi-day pseudo military operations.
Project RELO missions are executed over a three-day period where participants conduct real, physical convoy operations, navigating to various objectives in massive military training areas. Weapons training (real weapons / simulated rounds) and high-tech simulators provide an experiential glimpse into our military members’ backgrounds. Exploration of combat towns and mock negotiations with costumed mullahs diversifies our understanding of our veterans’ skillsets.
As the collective team navigates the various obstacles that invariably arise during any military operation, leadership, teamwork, and selflessness provide the glue that allows the collective team to meet its objectives. It is also here that participants experience the best leadership training available anywhere. For instead of a classroom or whiteboard, leadership is taught by example.
Best Leadership Training, and More
Project RELO missions provide superlative leadership training. Yet, even more importantly, participants develop a deep understanding about the character, quality, and full extent of our veterans’ skills. And with this understanding comes appreciation, and a desire to hire more of our former military members into their respective organizations.
Project RELO then continues its veteran advocacy beyond the missions by helping firms establish, or improve existing, military hiring programs.
William Deresiewicz, award winning essayist, critic, and the writer of Excellent Sheep, joins Jim and Jan and shares his perspective on the need for solitude in the interconnected age, social and emotional learning, and which interpersonal skills are crucial to moving forward in the future.
Key Takeaways
[4:33] In order to be a real leader, you have to be able to think and create space around the ideas.
[8:18] What William calls the “waitress principle” emphasizes the tendency for managers to lead without listening, and push the ideas away from those who really are in the front lines of what is happening.
[10:54] There seems to be a push to imply that everyone has to be some type of leader, and if you aren’t interested in leadership you must be a follower. Good thinkers and intellectuals don’t have to automatically be pushed with the label as a thought leader.
[13:33] The educational system now generally produces the type of person who is afraid of taking risks, doesn’t know how to make decisions on their own and relies on doing what someone else tells them to. While ambitious and talented, students need to learn more how to take control of their own thoughts and lives.
[20:22] William discusses how the meritocracy from the 1960’s has now led to the present day created creditantled arts race that puts the interest of the country ahead of individualism.
[29:57] We have come to believe that education is all about the job market. While that is clearly important, social and emotional learning is also crucial to developing sound future leaders.
[37:50] It’s not fair to say kids these days don’t work hard or have an interest in leadership. They they have been thrown into an economy with no stability and security, and under the lead of employers that may not show commitment or leadership principles they can follow.
LinkedIn: @William Deresiewicz
Facebook: @WilliamDeresiewicz
Website: billderesiewicz.com
Twitter: @WDeresiewicz
Quotable Quotes
- Solitude is the essence of leadership.
- “My only experience in leadership has been resisting other people’s efforts to exert it on me.”
- In order to really think, you have to be able to be alone.
- We don’t all have to be leaders.
- Successful adults do not lead linear lives.
- I’ve learned to agree with being disagreed with.
- Ask yourself why the term and concept of leadership is important to you in the first place.
Bio
William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, a frequent college speaker, and the best-selling author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Excellent Sheep
How to Raise an Adult
Kids These Days
On Political Correctness
Brian Caulfield is one of the most accomplished tech founders and venture capitalists in all of Ireland. A serial entrepreneur turned VC, he is Managing Partner at Draper Esprit, the leading European venture capital firm. Brian gives back to his community by acting as a private investor/advisor to a number of early stage technology companies. He talks with Jim and Jan about the culture of leadership in Europe, how it differs from the United States, the role of AI and innovation in creating a more fruitful landscape for leaders, the importance self awareness and ability to solve the problem rather than the solution, and gives the traits he feels are most important to becoming a strong and successful leader.
Key Takeaways
[4:51] Good technology is only small part of the success in any business. If you are going after the wrong market opportunity or have the wrong team, that will be more influential than the strength of your technology.
[6:48] By giving a deep understanding of the problems and challenges to get more commitment to the solution.
[11:06] Brian discusses the issue of fragmentation with startups in Ireland, and how it affects leadership. Ireland needs more organization and focus on their own indigenous innovators to create an environment for early stage companies.
[23:44] One of the key tenants Brian teaches other emerging leaders is to develop their individual decision making skills, and the importance of self awareness.
[28:06] As a leader it is quite important to give honest feedback with evidence about their situation.
[31:21] The more examples people have of others successfully making the leap of entrepreneurship, the more apt they are to feel as though it’s possible for themselves.
[42:54] Brian cites Shay Garvey as one of his biggest mentors and inspirations as a leader. He fostered Brian both personally and professionally, and gave him a positive view of building a great business.
[46:03] The 5 traits to spot a leader: market knowledge, focus and drive, passion and conviction, ability to listen and charisma and compelling.
LinkedIn @BrianCaulfield
Website: DraperEsprit.com
Twitter: @BrianCVC
Quotable Quotes
- Sell the problem, not the solution
- The best businesses are built by people that have a passion for the problem they are solving.
- People must think through and fully understand the problems by themselves.
- Great leaders come up with their own pros and cons about a situation.
- Talent is universal. Opportunity is not so evenly spread around different locations around the world.
Bio
Brian Caulfield is an entrepreneur & venture capitalist. He is Managing Partner at Draper Esprit, the leading European venture capital firm, and based in Dublin, Ireland. Prior to joining Draper Esprit, Brian was a partner at Trinity Venture Capital where he sat on the boards of or led investments in AePONA ChangingWorlds, CR2, SteelTrace & APT. Previously, Brian co-founded both Exceptis Technologies - sold to Trintech Group, November 2000 & Similarity Systems, a business focused data quality management software company that was acquired by Informatica, January 2006. Brian’s Draper Esprit investments include Movidius, Datahug, RhodeCode, Mobile Travel Technologies & Clavis Insight. He also sits on the board of the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading daily newspaper. He is a private investor/advisor to a number of early stage technology companies. Brian is a Computer Engineering graduate of Trinity College Dublin. He was the 2007 recipient of the Irish Software Association "Technology Person of the Year" award and has been inducted into the Irish Internet Association’s Hall of Fame. In 2010 he also received the Halo Business Angel Network’s͞ Business Angel of the Year award. Brian is a former Chairman of the Irish Venture Capital
Association.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Labor 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality
Alicia Gonzalez, Chicago Run Founding Executive Director, understands the importance of working with community and a team to accomplish a vision. Alicia speaks with Jim and Jan about her commitment to providing access to health and fitness for communities of all economic status. She also discusses how she utilizes running as an outlet for trauma, youth leadership development, and team building. She shares the importance of grit and why leaders must surround themselves with a strong network of diverse supporters.
Key Takeaways
[7:00] While growing up, Alicia knew she wanted to be a leader in the sector of fitness and helping all communities get an equal opportunity to workout and be healthy, no matter what their income or socioeconomic status.
[9:51] Alicia’s program has grown into 47 schools and community centers, and serving over 18,000 children around the Chicago area. She now is helping teenagers become leaders and mentors to younger children entering the program.
[11:28] Alicia’s view of success when starting the pilot program was less about numbers and ROI and more about children return feeling impacted and affected.
[16:59] Alicia took an injury during her run at the Boston Marathon and made it into a teachable moment on how leaders should inspire others to move out of their comfort zone, and encourage those around us to learn from our mistakes and failures.
[24:13] A good leader knows how important it is to create feedback loops to master the self awareness their own strengths and deficits. Once this is mastered, it is easier for the leader to build a diverse team with a varied skill set.
[32:58] Alicia is on a mission to help youth connect running with play, getting active in the community and providing service.
Instagram: @aliciagchiRun
Instagram @chicagorun
LinkedIn : @AliciaGonzalez
Twitter: @aliciachirun
Twitter: @Chicago_Run
Facebook: @AliciaGonzalez
Facebook: @ChicagoRun
Website: chicagorun.org
Quotable Quotes
- Keep your ear to the ground, and listen to your constituents.
- Build your program with integrity, alongside your community.
- If you don’t fail, you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough.
- Move away from your comfort zone.
- It’s a team effort. Never be afraid to ask for help.
- We need more “we” and less “me” in leadership.
Bio
Alicia is from Chicago (Pilsen and Little Italy communities) and is the Founding Executive Director of Chicago Run, a local non-profit that provides free physical activity programs to Chicago Public School students as a means of promoting health and wellness, digital learning, social inclusion, and cross-community relationship-building. She helped launch Chicago Run as the first staff member in 2008 and has built and led the organization to its current size of serving over 17,500 students in 46 Chicago Public Schools in 30 low-income neighborhoods across the city – a 775% program participant growth. Prior to Chicago Run, Alicia served as the head of Hispanic Business Development for First American Bank, where she oversaw the expansion of private-public partnerships in the Latino community. Alicia’s roots are in the community and prior to working in the private sector, she held positions as a community organizer and youth development program director in both Chicago (Enlace) and Boston (Hispanic Office of Planning & Evaluation). In addition to Chicago Run, she serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, and is also on the Board of Directors for Heartland Alliance Human Care Services, Instituto del Progreso Latino, and the Enlace Legacy Board. Alicia is a recipient of the 2017 Crain’s 40 Under 40 List, the 2017 Chicago Cubs Roberto Clemente Community Leader Award, the 2016 President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, & Nutrition Community Leadership Award, the Latina Entrepreneur of the Year (2012) from the Chicago Latino Network, the 35 Under 35 Chicago Leadership Award (2009) from the Community Renewal Society, and the 2009 Emerging Health Leader from the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. Alicia is a graduate of Stanford University Business School’s Non-Profit Executive Leadership Program, a fellow in the 2013-2014 American Express NGEN Fellows Program with the Independent Sector, a Fellow in the 2011 Leadership Greater Chicago Class, and a fellow in the 2012 Latino Leadership Academy with the Latino Policy Forum. Most recently Alicia was a Fellow in the 2016-2017 German Marshall Memorial Fellowship Program. Alicia graduated with honors in Latin American History from
Brown University.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Craig Ross has a passion for finding new and effective ways a team can work together so everyone is rewarded with accomplishment and a sense of success. As the CEO of Verus Global, he speaks with Jim and Jan about the processes and tools that leaders lack most, and how to establish a shared reality within the culture of an organization.
Key Takeaways
[4:07] One of the biggest challenges that leaders lack today is the inability to line up all on the same reality due to emotions overruling rational thinking. Too many teams function from different realities, which create an inner misalignment.
[9:59] Craig presents the idea of an energy map as a way to align on a shared reality through emotionally expressing the problems then focusing on the solutions.
[13:47] The dirty fish tank model represents training a leader and then putting them back in a dirty and dysfunctional system. We must clean the tank, aka the system, first so they are swimming in a tank of success and safety. We should develop leaders, but it should be in the context of their teams.
[16:23] Craig acknowledges that we are moving into a new era, where the current human disconnection is calling us to become more connected with who we are and what we want out of life.
[21:44] From his rich experience of interviewing leaders to see what did work for them, Craig and his co-authors broke what made an exceptional team into three succinct steps: 1. Leaders or a team member can ask the team about a time they have had where they experienced success. 2. Declare from the beginning what is expected from the team’s actions and deliverables from the beginning, and 3. figuring out how to do it.
[29:08] A lot of teams are doing big things in terms of delivering numbers, but at the end of the day still not feeling like winners. Craig says that for the most part teams fail due to not leveraging the time and resources they are given.
Website: verusglobal.com
Twitter: @RossBestEver
Twitter: @VerusGlobal
Facebook: Let’sDoBigThings
LinkedIn: CraigRoss
LinkedIn: VerusGlobal
Quotable Quotes
- Leadership matters, but teams deliver.
- Be more authentic to who we are as people.
- Trust your instincts and be real.
- Move from Normal to Natural
Bio
Craig Ross is CEO of Verus Global, a four-time author, and sought-after speaker, facilitator and coach for his expertise in leadership and team development. For 20 years he has partnered with C-suite executives, leaders and teams within Fortune 500 companies around the world, equipping them with the tools and process needed to make an immediate and meaningful business impact. He has co-authored four books including Stomp the Elephant in the Office, Degrees of Strength, One Team, and Do Big Things, and his work has been featured in Forbes, Smart Brief, Inc, and Entrepreneur.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Stomp the Elephant in the Office, by Craig W. Ross and Steven W. Vannoy
Degrees of Strength: The Innovative Technique to Accelerate Greatness,
by Craig W. Ross and Steven W. Vannoy
One Team: 10-minute Discussions That Activate Inspired Teamwork, by Craig W. Ross
and Angela V. Paccione PhD.
Do Big Things: The Simple Steps Teams Can Take to Mobilize Hearts and Minds, and Make an Epic Impact, by Craig W. Ross, Angela V. Paccione PhD, and Victoria L. Roberts
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone, by Satya Nadella, Greg Shaw, and Jill Tracie Nichols
Layne Rigney, the President of Osprey, speaks about his focus on alignment and core values within the company and his passion for working with transitioning veterans. As a global company, Layne notes the shift he’s seeing in consumer trends and brand loyalty. Listen in to learn from Layne’s decisions in the present day, and when he was the President of CamelBak.
Key Takeaways
[2:23] In his new role at Osprey, the first thing Layne did was focus on bringing back alignment within the company. He did this by getting clear with his team on the values and vision.
[5:02] When Layne came on to the team he led workshops at the facilities located in Utah, Vietnam and Colorado. They turned the business inside out and figured out how to tap into people’s efforts to bring their vision to life.
[7:17] Layne touches upon why he finds working with veterans so satisfying. He feels they are an underutilized talent pool, and during his time at CamelBak, he saw the many gifts this group had to offer. Now Osprey sponsors programs that help veterans transition into the workforce. The Skip Yowell Future Leadership Academy and the River Leaders Trip are both examples of a commitment to this community.
[12:49] Layne cites the challenges of operating a multi-channel distribution in a global market less about the company and more about technology changing at a rapid pace.
[14:57] Leaders have to take the best interest of their team and run with it in that direction rather than only abiding by industry trends and what the masses are doing.
[18:46] People are now seeking a relationship with their brands, and base a lot of their purchases on what the company culture is like, where they spend their discretionary funds and the company’s creed.
[19:35] Layne about recruiting and hiring people smarter than the leader. It was a journey for both the business and himself and was an exercise in letting go and relaxing into his own empowerment.
[24:38] Layne likes to set a safe and open environment within Osprey where his employees can feel comfortable to share their own ideas about what has also worked in the past, and what may work in the future.
[33:46] The identification, acquisition and nurturing of talent is a challenge Layne takes very seriously.
[36:42] Layne is committed to spending more time understanding finance and how it changes businesses. He also is looking forward to engaging with the outdoors and the users of the product.
Website: osprey.com
Instagram: @ospreypacks
Twitter: @OspreyPacks
Facebook: Ospreypacks
Quotable Quotes
“You join a business like this because you believe in the product.”
Veterans are a talent reservoir
You have to forge your own path more than ever before.
“Figuring out how to be patriotic within a global brand can be a challenge.”
It takes courage to hire smart people
Build the collective IQ and distribute it!
“Your job as a leader is to basically get people to run through a wall for you.”
“People can smell a fake.”
“Don’t ask a question to make a point.”
Bio
Layne M. Rigney is an effective and strategic executive leader with proven experience in global product, sales and business growth as demonstrated by his success leading teams for world class consumer products brands like Osprey, CamelBak, PowerBar/Nestlé USA, and RockShox Inc.
Prior to joining Osprey Packs in 2016, Rigney served as President of CamelBak the $180M global hydration brand. Rigney led the executive team responsible for Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance, Operations, and Human Resources. Under his leadership, the sales team successfully increased distribution in highly disparate distribution channels including specialty, online, mass and military outlets. He was instrumental in guiding product and marketing teams to develop differentiated product offerings and marketing strategies to increase revenue world wide. He is a firm believer in organizational alignment and accountability.
Before joining CamelBak in 2005, Rigney led Franklin Resource Group as Vice President and General Manager of the retail training, merchandising, and execution consulting firm. During his tenure, he led the restructuring and rebranding of the company, acquired new national accounts and grew average revenue per client over 15%.
Recognized for his experience in sales restructuring and growth, Rigney was hired by the founder of PowerBar to reorganize its underperforming Sporting Goods Division. In his first year, Rigney reversed a three-year decline and increased revenues by 22%. Rigney began his career with RockShox in 1992, where he held various positions of increasing responsibility with the creator of modern suspension sys
tems for bicycles. An industry thought-leader, Rigney serves on the board of Camber Outdoors and the Outdoor Industry Association.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Martin O’Neill, is the Senior Executive for Engine Technology at GE Transportation. Martin joins Jim and Jan in a discussion about innovation and leadership, and how they’re connected and intertwined.
Listen in to learn more about how Martin balances the divergence of structure and organization with experimentation and expansion.
Key Takeaways
[6:12] When you are working with large scale industrial product development, there is typically a type of mindset that has been around for years that has little to do with leadership. Martin and his team have shifted to different practices to pursue an innovation agenda.
[13:56] Martin manages the collaboration of others all around the globe. He overcomes challenges of different time zones and work times by clearly laying out what is expected and when for every member. Structure is also very important, and they have operating reviews on a strict and consistent schedule. He spends time up front explaining clearly what is expected.
[20:56] Not only is Martin dealing with the different cultures due to geographic span, but the culture within the engineers is something he makes sure is structured and organized.
[28:36] Martin really drives home the point of self informing and continuous learning to the new engineers.
[32:52] Martin is not afraid to celebrate the failures of projects they need to kill and views it as a learning lesson and way to veer off stagnation.
[35:53] The rally call should always be on customer outcome, customer value and business value proposition.
[36:24] Engineers used to be much more autonomous, but now there is a shift away from traditional thinking and a move towards horizontal work and collaboration.
Website: www.getransportation.com
LinkedIn: GE Transportation
Twitter: @GETRANSPORT
Facebook: GE TRANSPORTATION
Quotable Quotes
“You have to be bold.”
“A little bit of personality goes a long way.”
“Allow people some self governance and a way to correct themself.”
Correct Thyself
“Kill the stuff that isn’t so important.”
“You have duty as a leader to fish out what’s really not adding value and put it down publicly, humanely and move on.”
“True innovations come from when you start to work horizontally.”
Bio
Martin O’Neill has worked in transportation, aviation, marine propulsion and energy segments for over 20 years; most recently with General Electric. Martin has worked in transportation, aviation, marine propulsion and energy segments for over 20 years; most recently with General Electric. Trained originally as an aeronautical engineer & program manager in the UK, he has worked in global product and technology leadership roles with nuclear, gas turbines, diesel engines & controls systems. In his current role as Senior Executive – Engine Technology at GE Transportation he leads a team of product managers, engineers & technologists to develop & sustain diesel engine platforms in rail & marine markets.
Martin enjoys working with creative people to bring solutions to customers through applied technology & business operations – increasingly through the marriage of digital, data, software & engineering methods. He values cultural & thought diversity together with engaging debate, has been resident in Chicago since 2013 with his wife and two children, and is keen to engage with the Chicago business & scientific community.
Zack Baddorf, award-winning journalist and filmmaker, joins The Leadership Podcast to discuss what he has learned while documenting what it is to be human in more than 30 countries, including Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the West Bank, and Kashmir, as well as rebel-held territory in Sri Lanka and Burma. Zack has been published by the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Reuters, CBS, ABC, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal. His videos on social media alone have more than 30 million views.
Key Takeaways
[3:47] Zack has worked in over 70 countries. His big takeaway is that around the world, we’re not very different from one another. He tries not to judge people, even people who make bad choices.
[5:12] Zack shares an experience he had of demonstrating a drone to starving children in the Central African Republic. In the midst of terrible conditions, they found joy and happiness in the good in their lives.
[22:23] Zack is a proponent of the UN’s Universal Human Rights: education, food, security, and more. It’s a work in progress. He also believes in the Western World’s responsibility to protect people from violations of human rights.
[28:53] For troubled countries, leadership for change comes down to trust. You can’t come into a situation quickly and expect to be effective. Zach gives examples of working with U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan and with community religious leaders in the Central African Republic. Trust is built over time.
[33:54] Zach’s curiosity is driven by his desire to know how things work and what is going on in the world. He wants to get all the angles to a story, being objective while acknowledging our biases.
Facebook: ZackBaddorf
Website: Baddorf.com
Quotable Quotes
We’re not very different from one another.
I try not to judge
It’s going to be the youth who take the country forward
Good journalists recognize their own bias
You have to know all the different angles of a story.
Zack Baddorf Bio
I'm a journalist and filmmaker with more than 15 years of experience producing award-winning stories from more than 30 countries, including Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the West Bank, and Kashmir, as well as rebel-held territory in Sri Lanka and Burma.
My work has been published by the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Reuters, AP, The Guardian, CBS, ABC, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, VICE, RYOT, Al Jazeera English, and other publications in video, radio, photo, and print formats. My videos on social media alone have more than 30 million views.
While based in the Central African Republic, I broke the news of the American military ending its mission against the Lord’s Resistance Army. My in-depth reporting on the Syrian town of Moadamiyah contributed to humanitarian access being granted to besieged people there. Weeks before Russian troops invaded Crimea, my reporting from the peninsula highlighted its political importance in the conflict.
I work as a video producer for the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, crafting anti-ISIS videos. For a year in Afghanistan, I worked on rural, remote bases for the U.S. Special Operations Command as a civilian videographer, alongside Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Afghan security forces.
I have also worked as an adjunct professor at New York University and New York Film Academy, teaching public relations and broadcast journalism. I've got a master of fine arts degree in documentary studies, a master of arts degree in international relations, another master’s in public relations and a bachelor's in journalism.
Chris Warner guided the first reality show on Everest and safely led his team to the summit of K2, the world’s most deadly mountain. He’s also an author, filmmaker, and Chairman of Earth Treks. In this episode, Chris shares his perspective on psychological safety, and how that support is needed for teams to reach their summits.
Key Takeaways
[3:12] When leaders meet the six psychological needs of their team members, they help good people become better and great people stay functional. The six needs are respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth, and meaning.
[5:45] Chris suggests using a spreadsheet to grade yourself weekly on meeting these needs for your employees. When you consciously and consistently see that these needs are met, you can have a true impact on success and build a high-performance team. Deliver on people’s psychological needs so they can be the best version of themselves.
[7:27] Build your organization around excellent people — the A players. Anyone who is draining the energy and bringing petty dramas to work, need to go. Chris tells managers to blame themselves first if they have to fire someone. Are they contributing to dysfunctionality? Gallup shows that only 18% of managers are high-functioning, so 82% of managers are mediocre or dysfunctional.
[10:33] Chris talks about climbing the north ridge of Everest, around or over eight dead climbers frozen in place. He has guided three climbs on that ascent. The top four reasons to die on the summit are from human error. This is also the case in business. If you can see the dangers before they compound upon each other, you can save yourselves. It’s usually the third mistake that kills you.
[16:58] Chris discusses merging teams and integrating them. Merging is contractual and integration is cultural. He talks about merging Planet Granite and Earth Treks and merging the teams and culture. The Gartner Hype Cycle describes the process of merging teams. Be sure to frame expectations and minimize the hype slope, so the disillusionment trough is not too deep. Use small increments.
[23:37] Not every day is summit day, but you can still enjoy the view and the camaraderie. Chris suggests framing your own expectations about what reward means and how often it’s going to come.
[24:03] Assembling a team requires four elements. Four key issues are passion (the right emotional balance — no cynics), vision (looking forward and communicating objectives), partnership (trust and caring), and perseverance (working smart and hard, including the use of after-action reviews). The three drivers of results are tools, techniques, and behaviors, with behaviors being the most important.
[28:44] ‘Jerks’ get great individual results but do not exhibit behaviors aligned with organizational values. The sooner they are removed from the team, the better results the team will get. 87% of people on teams with a jerk want to change jobs. 93% of people on teams with a jerk report a loss of performance. 73% of managers don’t feel comfortable dealing with jerks. Chris has a rule of threes for firing. If you’ve spent more than 3 hours complaining about someone, or three people have complained about that person, they need to go.
[34:37] Chris has a romantic view of how the world is supposed to work. He reads biographies of the explorers and people who have large overcome real-life situations. Then he goes into real-life adventures, to practice what he reads. Chris climbed his first mountain at 17 and has never stopped.
[41:37] Chris talks about awareness. He cites Richard Barrett’ Seven Levels of Consciousness model. Chris suggests taking the Barrett online core values test. Barrett merged core values with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The pinnacle is serving others. Selflessness creates success. Core values and mission create high levels of success.
Website: ChrisBWarner.com
Quotable Quotes
“There are six psychological needs that everybody has as a member of a team.”
Deliver on people’s psychological needs so they can be the best version of themselves.
Consider as a leader of a fired team member, did you cause that person to be dysfunctional?
“Only 18% of managers are … high-functioning.”
“If we understand that there are dangers out there and if we can see the dangers before they balloon, … then we can save ourselves.”
It’s generally the third mistake that kills you.
“Yes, you absolutely are allowed to pout.”
“You have to come out of that experience being a better version of yourself, otherwise you’ve wasted your time.”
“I definitely have cured my perfectionism through this process.”
“Really make it easy for people to attempt things and if they’re unsuccessful at it, you know it’s not the end of the world.”
There’s nothing as contagious as emotions. Positive, happy people infect other people with happiness.
If we’re negative and cynical, we’re going to make other people negative and they’re not going to perform at their highest level.
“There is a success every day. There’s … an achievement to recognize people for, constantly.”
“Not every day is summit day. But you’re still going to enjoy the view; you’re still going to enjoy the camaraderie.”
“It’s unclear objectives that actually cause teams to fail.”
Teams that discuss their experiences in an after-action review do 25% better.
“We came up with a rule called The Rule of Threes: If three or more people spend three or more hours talking about somebody, they have to be fired.”
“It’s important to read business books but it’s more important to read books about people who have overcome real-life situations.”
“I’m extremely proud of having built a great company. That summit has been reached; it can never be taken away from me.”
“There’s one thing that you learn as a guide is how to serve others.”
“You have to change your behaviors to reach the summit. What got me here is not going to get me there.”
Don’t reach the peak and miss the point.
Bio
Chris Warner has spent the last 30 years helping teams reach their summit. Chris is a business leader dealing with the day-to-day challenges of growing a company in a challenging economy. His team of 700 employees, spread over multiple locations, will serve about 2,500,000 customers this year.
Chris taught leadership at the Wharton School of Business and to CEO groups, executives at Fortune 100 Companies and to covert and special operations teams in the U.S. Intelligence and Defense Agencies. He specializes in teams that face challenges in which failure is not an option. His clients range from the NFL and NHL to Google to the National Counter Terrorism Task Force.
Chris is also an author and an Emmy Nominated Filmmaker. He starred in television programs on ABC, NBC, and the History Channel.
Chris is one of America’s most successful mountaineers. He has led over 200 international expeditions. He guided the first reality show on Everest and safely led his team to the summit of K2, the world’s most deadly mountain.
Books mentioned in this episode
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
High Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success,
by Chris Warner and Don Schmincke
Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, by Rajendra Sisodia, David Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, by Jim Collins
Dede Devine, Native American Connections President and CEO, talks with Jim and Jan about her organization's mission as a sustainable resource for recovery, housing, employment, wellness, and traditional healing for the Native American people of Phoenix.
Key Takeaways
[1:52] Dede outlines the mission of Native American Connections (NAC) as a grass-roots-style nonprofit, serving Native American individuals in the Phoenix Arizona area move toward health and wellness.
[3:04] The 180 employees of NAC are engaged and committed because of the difference NAC makes in people’s lives. It’s life-changing and life-saving. Dede has seen many changes in processes over 40 years, while the mission remains the same.
[5:19] In the 1970s, Native American people came to Phoenix from the reservation areas looking for work. Nonprofits, such as NAC, formed to serve them. NAC was founded to help them with addiction issues, housing, and jobs, and to encourage wellness in a healthy Native community.
[14:33] Dede is most proud of the unchanging mission of NAC over the years. NAC provides recovery services in a safe living environment, connecting people to jobs, and creating a healthy community. She is really proud that they didn’t have mission creep, chase grants, or do marketing. NAC is promoted through their work. To have a sustainable service organization you need a sustainable business model.
[18:48] Dede and the NAC campaigned for, organized, and developed the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center commemorating the Federal Indian boarding school that operated in Phoenix from 1891 to 1990. The school played a major role in the tribes of the Southwest. Now its story is preserved.
[25:26] Native American tribes are sovereign nations. Tribal leaders have authority and responsibility for their nations equivalent to that of the U.S. President for America. Tribal leaders focus on economic development in the context of the needs of the whole community. Dede and NAC look at the whole person’s needs and the whole community’s needs — how the history and culture impact the individual.
[30:57] There are over 540 Federally-recognized tribes. They each have their own culture, language, and resources. They share a connection to the land and a commitment to their homeland. They are grounded by their community, even as they move around the U.S.
[34:08] We’re all in relationship with each other. We have interconnectedness. People step up and lead at different times. Think of it as a circle. In the community, you give when you’re healthy and when you’re in need, others give to you. When you’re connected, it’s not about ego, or who’s in charge. There is an integrity that you will help, reach out, and step up in the community. It’s reciprocity.
Twitter: @NAC_Phoenix
Facebook: Native American Connections
YouTube: Native American Connections
LinkedIn: Native American Connections
Website: Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center
Quotable Quotes
“It’s life-changing. It’s life-saving.
The mission is the same — the way we care about people.”
“We recognize [in] people — regardless of their past — what their future potential is.”
“I was highly influenced by those healers, early on.”
“There were several of those healers that took life very simply. They were committed to the environment … to people’s human spirit.”
“To really have a sustainable service organization you have to have a really sustainable business model.”
Decisions need to be made in view of their effect on the next seven generations.
“[In the Native American communities] ‘enough’ is about when everybody is interconnected and everybody is taken care of.”
“I give when I’m healthy, and when I’m in need, other people give to me.”
Bio
Diana “Dede” Yazzie Devine, Native American Connections President/CEO has been working with Native American urban and tribal entities since 1972 and has been the CEO of Native American Connections (NAC) since 1979. NAC is a 501 (c) 3 Native American operated nonprofit corporation that provides comprehensive behavioral health services that integrate Native cultural and traditional healing practices, affordable housing, and community-based economic development opportunities. NAC serves all populations with a targeted mission to serve Native Americans living both in the Phoenix urban area and from tribal communities. NAC has developed, owns and operates over 700 units of affordable housing for working families and permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals.
Ms. Devine has an MBA from Arizona State University and holds International and State licenses in substance abuse counseling. In addition, she dedicates her time to local, state and national boards/committees. Ms. Devine’s leadership and dedication have been recognized within the community. She has received numerous awards including; Valley Leadership’s Woman of the Year; Organization for Nonprofit Executives Director of the Year; YWCA’s Business Leader Award; Centennial Legacy Project – Arizona’s 48 Most Intriguing Women; Phoenix Business Journal’s 25 Most Admired CEOs; Phoenix Community Alliance Center City Starr Award; Arizona Interfaith Movement Golden Rule Award.
Books mentioned in this episode
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
Evan Hafer is the CEO and Founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company, with annual growth of over 750%, and a goal to hire 10,000 veterans. Listen to Evan’s ideas on setting priorities, solving business problems, and getting to ‘mission accomplished,’ in this conversation with Jim and Jan.
Key Takeaways
[3:38] As Evan developed in business, he put together structures that helped him get to ‘mission accomplished.’ First came learning from a book, then understanding the wisdom of what he learned, and then applying it through manpower and resources.
[16:10] The most important lesson Evan has learned is that if you work long enough and hard enough at something, you’re going to make a result. You have to apply more energy than you’ve ever applied and when you think you don’t have anything left, you go further. Quitting is not an option. Failure is not a choice. It doesn’t exist. What gets you to success is effective prioritization of work. Triage your time.
[19:40] Civilians at Black Rifle help the Special Operations veterans dial back their mission urgency and work tasks into regular schedules and projects. Evan has a goal to hire 10,000 vets. He is working on franchising and corporate stores. He will start with 20 franchises in 2018 and will ramp up to hundreds.
[27:06] Evan uses cut-to-the-bone candor when necessary. Business is problem-solving. Evan cuts the fluff and gets directly to the point. He doesn’t hide who he is to appeal to people that do not support veterans or the Second Amendment. He would rather people see him up front and buy his products in authenticity.
[32:01] Evan explains some of the effects of war on military personnel. An introspective veteran becomes a warrior philosopher based on their experiences. He is grateful every day to be here with his family when some of his friends are no longer here.
[33:48] Evan reflects on how service and combat reshape character. He urges people who have deployed to use that experience in the greatest way they can, and grow from it. You have to decide to fight and win. That’s the first step. Embrace the positive and flush the negative.
[38:27] Define your success criteria before moving into a specific objective. You might not achieve the exact results; that doesn’t mean you have failed. There’s always another solution to the problem. If you quit, you have chosen to fail.
Facebook: Black Rifle Coffee Company Check the More tab to look at opening a franchise.
Instagram: @BlackRifleCoffee
Instagram: @EvanHafer
Twitter: @BlckRifleCoffee
YouTube: Black Rifle Coffee
Website: BlackRifleCoffee.com
Quotable Quotes
“I always tell people I was an OK Green Beret and I’m trying to be a good businessman but I pride myself on being a great father.”
“I’m not going to be remembered for my coffee. I’m going to be remembered by my children for being a halfway decent guy.”
“You can’t control everything that people write about you and you can’t control people when they take creative latitude.”
“The single most effective gift the military gave me, they gave to me when I was 18 years old and that was confidence.”
“They instilled the dumb idea that you can accomplish anything with the correct amount of energy and the right team.”
“You start to really refine — what does that mean, to have mission accomplished? Then you start putting structure behind that.”
“When I left the military I wrote … my mission objective … to emancipate myself from government service and to become successful.”
“My work, my job, my company of Black Rifle Coffee is quite literally just my value proposition to my family.”
“Nobody controls my destiny but me.”
Evan prizes spending more time with his family to be a better father and husband.
“War will humble you. Regardless of what mission you’ve had … or how … you’ve been trained … Everybody is equal in a gunfight.”
“This is a customer service issue. We’re not going to lose life, limb, or eyesight. We can take care of these customers, make it right, and we’ll move forward.”
“We’re not fighting Al Qaeda, anymore, guys! Dial it back a little bit. Everybody doesn’t need to be a Tier 1 Operator.”
“As soon as I pass the threshold into my home, it’s all about family, and I just try to focus completely all my attention, … on my family.”
“if you work long enough, hard enough, at something, you’re going to make a result.”
“[Profit can be,] how much will this give me as far as individual freedom, down the road, or a profit back into my account?”
“If you’re [prioritizing] on a regular basis, you will be able to spend most of your time working on the things that will pay off in big results.”
“At any point in time, we could move from coffee company to direct action kinetic operations.”
“War has been the single most defining thing of my character and my life.”
“There’s not a day that goes by in my life that I’m not thankful for being here and it has re-prioritized my value system.”
“Embrace the positive and flush the negative. … Every day there’s an opportunity to reinvent yourself.”
“When I say failure, it means that person has quit — quite literally — and that its a choice.”
Bio
In 1995, Evan Hafer was introduced by a friend to great espresso. Intrigued, he began reading and researching the art of coffee roasting, taking classes, and traveling to cities like Portland and Seattle to learn more about the craft.
Between deployments to Iraq -- where Evan served with Special Forces and later as a CIA contractor, from 2003 to 2014 -– he brought along the boutique, small-batch coffee he had learned to roast. The gospel of good coffee was spread to his fellow service members; soon, they had converted gun trucks and were grinding coffee every morning.
After finishing his military service and returning home, all Evan wanted to do was make coffee. After meeting Mat Best, one of the founders of Article 15 Clothing, Evan started selling his Freedom Roast on their site. Over 500 lbs. were purchased.
In December 2014, he pulled the trigger and launched Black Rifle Coffee. The company has experienced exponential growth since opening. Today, they see continued annual growth of over 750%. About one million pounds of coffee are roasted a year. it can be found in over 500 retailers internationally and 65% of employees are veterans.
Laura Love, is the Founder and Chief Cultural Officer of GroundFloor Media, Inc., which has been recognized four times by OUTSIDE magazine as one of the top five Best Places to Work in America (including twice at No. 1). Laura joins Jim and Jan in a discussion about building a startup around a vision of shared values and culture, and shares leadership basics learned over the years that have given her company an attrition rate of 2 percent (the metric).
Key Takeaways
[2:21] Laura believes that investing time in the hiring process, including informal meetings, helps discover if a candidate will be a good fit. Immediate and thorough onboarding brings a new associate into the culture and teaches them the values. It is essential for associates to feel welcome and wanted.
[5:08] Laura wants people to feel that the company is a family that always has each other’s back. Extending the family to their clients means getting to know them on a personal level. Feedback to clients comes from a place of integrity and support.
[6:30] Laura started GroundFloor Media from her basement, and she wanted to design a company where people were treated like human beings and where people actually wanted to work because it didn’t feel like work.
[12:58] Laura finds that being personally open and vulnerable with her team allows her team to be open with her when they are going through difficulties.
[14:13] Laura hires based on values. She has filled her company with people who embrace the same values and culture so she knows they will make the decisions she would make if she were present.
[18:34] People remember the words you speak and the feeling behind them. If a leader is not aligned with the words they speak, people will notice. Be intentional and be aligned with what you say.
[26:36] Laura depends on peer groups, and meets quarterly with a forum and checks in with them monthly. She has a ‘painful 7:00 a.m. accountability call’ each week with a peer, where they share experiences, not advice. Laura offers three reasons to get involved. It can be lonely at the top, so feedback advisors are crucial. You are in this together and learn from each other. Your forum is loyal.
[29:57] Laura has one-on-one walking meetings to give associates space to unpack their dreams for her. Then she empowers them to work on that development ideal for four weeks and report back to her.
[32:25] Laura puts an emphasis on hiring people who are smart and able to go create and to make decisions. Laura’s entrepreneur father taught her to do business on a handshake. Use contracts but business should be based on trust and respect, and with people whose company you want to keep. To make the business world better, deal with people you like and respect. We all work harder because of it.
Website: GroundFloorMedia.com
LinkedIn: Laura Love
Twitter: @LoveGFM
Facebook: LoveGFM
Quotable Quotes
“Culture is like a heartbeat. You can really feel it when you walk into a room of any company that has a strong culture.”
“We are a family, … we have each others’ back, and that extends to our clients, as well. We are part of their family.”
“I knew that I knew how to do PR. I never imagined owning a company.”
People who see the silver lining in every situation can learn from bad experiences and apply the good in new circumstances.
Unless you are open and vulnerable and allow people to support you in your journey, they will not engage with you when they go through trials.
“If you hire correctly and you hire based on values, then it doesn’t matter as much that you’re not in the room, anymore.”
Much of leadership is about hiring the right people and creating a culture where it’s very intentional but organic.
Culture is set from the top but if it’s only a mandate from the top and it’s not embraced, it will never flourish.
People remember the words you speak and the feeling behind them. If a leader is not aligned with the words they speak, people can sense that.
Leaders give takeaways. The goal is to have people hear you and create their own takeaway.
“Everyone has a chance and a choice. They choose ‘in.’ And if they choose out of our organization I will support them fully.”
“If [a development goal] comes from me, it’s not going to be as impactful as if it’s something they’re dreaming.”
“I hire people much smarter than I am and I get the hell out of their way.”
“Do business with people you like and respect. We all work harder because of it.”
“The biggest learning I’ve had … is so simple, but it’s just — be real. People are so comfortable when somebody’s real.”
“It may mean that it looks messy … it may be painting outside the numbers but at least it’s your artwork and it’s exactly who you are.”
“I would tell people that are younger and starting out — don’t try and be any different than who you are.”
Put together a list for the year of 52 things you will do that scare you or you have never done before.
Bio
In 2001, Laura Love decided to take a leap of faith and create a public relations agency that was unlike any she had experienced before. Drawing from a background in journalism and extensive experience in media relations, she launched GroundFloor Media (GFM) out of her basement in Boulder, Colo., with a focus on hiring senior-level talent who both served as strategists and handled tactical execution for clients. Sixteen years later, the peer-to-peer model still stands, and GFM is now an award-winning communications firm focused on public relations and crisis & issues management and staffed by nearly 40 seasoned professionals. In 2016, Laura co-founded GFM’s sister agency, CenterTable, offering social media, digital advertising, website design and development, SEO, video production, creative campaigns and content development.
GFM has been recognized four times by OUTSIDE magazine as one of the top five Best Places to Work in America (including twice at No. 1). GFM was also named the Best Boutique Agency to Work For in the nation by The Holmes Report, an influential public relations industry newsletter. It was also recognized by the Denver Business Journal as one of the top small companies on its Best Places to Work list for seven years in a row. In 2016, GFM was named a Certified B Corporation® by the global nonprofit B Lab®, which recognizes companies meeting the highest global standards for corporate transparency, accountability, and social and environmental performance.
In 2015, Laura created GFM’s primary charitable giving arm called The Get Grounded Foundation. The private 501(c)(3) foundation provides one-year community grants for new or expanded, innovative or entrepreneurial programs or projects within an existing, qualified nonprofit that directly support the healthy development of at-risk or neglected youth between the ages of 3 and 13 in the Denver Metro area.
Community involvement is not only a passion but a way of life for Laura. Since she launched the agency, Laura has dedicated at least 15 percent of GFM’s work to nonprofit clients and pro bono accounts. She serves on numerous boards including Center for Women’s Health Research, Downtown Denver Inc., Early Milestones Colorado, Emmanuel Sanders Foundation, Havern School, Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center and Tennyson Center for Children. She is a member of the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce and she serves on the Denver Art Museum’s marketing & strategic alliance committee. She is also past president of the Colorado chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).
Laura earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University. In her spare time, she likes to dabble in real estate investing, is a frustrated interior designer and can’t figure out why she is always last on the Peloton leaderboard. Her teenage daughter just got her driver’s permit (so she encourages you to please stay off of the road), and her two young sons may have given her a gray hair or two, but they also always keep her laughing.
Books mentioned in this episode
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
Chris Laping, Author, Co-Founder and CEO at People Before Things, LLC, joins Jan and Jim in a discussion about change — why it seems so straightforward but fails so often. The key to change is a culture of empowerment and respect.
Chris shares the genesis of the philosophy of People Before Things and how it grew from his leadership roles in IT. His curiosity led him to explore the conditions that prepare people for change and conditions that block change. Change is not a function of a team’s attitude but of their preparation and capacity. It is the role of the leader to prepare the team, communicate the why and how to them, and grant them the space to perform the necessary change in a culture of empowerment.
Key Takeaways
[4:47] Chris explains how he developed the framework for People Before Things. He stepped into IT leadership and found that it was difficult to build organizational buy-in for change. He looked for patterns to explain success or lack of success and he learned that change was not the end user’s problem but a leadership opportunity.
[5:35] Chris sees two patterns for successful change: first, enable people for change by nurturing conditions that set people up for change, and second, activate people for change by nurturing conditions that inspire engagement and make team members willing accomplices to the change. Someone who is already heavily scheduled won’t work on the change if it is not given space.
[8:06] Respect, collaboration, trust, and a unified vision are the attributes for project success. Leaders don’t always have these in their toolbox. Their toolbox is getting work done, performance, excellence, and continuous improvement. They need to intertwine a culture of empowerment with the tools of getting work done. Chris gauges a company’s health by how they tackle tough problems together.
[11:01] There is always change in an IT department. It is not the technology that solves problems. Chris has seen many managers become enamored with technology as an end, and not as a means to an end. Finance and HR leaders are especially susceptible to this. Building business capability is the goal. This is people’s work, not technology’s work. Culture is more critical than technology.
[15:43] Initiating technology projects without basing them on the culture sets up failure. Communicating and training on the technology is no substitute for communicating why there is new technology, and how it fits in the mission.
[19:27] In the IT world there is often talk about executive sponsors. It should be executive ownership, not just sponsorship. Executives need to emphasize how important this change is in the organization. They need to show up and be involved all the time. They need to be invested in the team and the team’s success. Executives and their team together need to be accountable to the same outcome and results.
[24:20] Chris’s father and other great leaders modeled intellectual curiosity and asking questions. Feedback loops require not just asking for feedback but actually doing something about the feedback. The important thing Chris learned from leaders is that questions led to action about the information. This reinforces the feedback loop. People learn their input will be heard, considered, and used.
[27:36] Chris offers two disruptive ideas: first, that change is a leadership opportunity. It’s not about team members refusing to change but about leaders enabling change. The heavy lifting is getting your team into position to win. The second idea is that real change happens at the grassroots level. It is important to get a common voice established in the rank and file. They often hold the key to solutions.
[29:57] Chris talks about offsite meetings. If your takeaway is a strategy that you will increase sales and improve profitability, you wasted your time. Your team comes to work daily already knowing this. Rather than spending time stating the obvious, get aligned on a common goal and why that goal is important.
[32:32] Chris defines strategy as prioritization. Treat resources as precision tools to apply in just the right place. Don’t let abundant resources make you complacent. Keep a sharp focus to reinvest in the things that bring the most benefit. Prioritize the two or three things that matter the most.
[37:31] Chris’s advice for his 10-year-younger version of himself: Be patient. Writing a book, sharing ideas, and building strong awareness for those ideas can be a slow build. There are no overnight successes. Chris starts from square one every day with his message, because most people haven’t heard them.
Website: PeopleBeforeThings.co
LinkedIn: Chris Laping
Twitter: @CIOChris
Facebook: People Before Things
Quotable Quotes
Chris learned creativity from his classical pianist mother and structure from his Navy Commander father.
Leaders enable and activate people for change.
“It became very clear that the patterns around success … really had to do with me and that change wasn’t my end users’ problem.”
“People, in general, are very purpose-driven and want to make a difference at work.”
“When [people] know why something is important, you get different results.”
“If change is really important and vital to an organization, we must clear the decks and let people focus on it.”
Leaders have to prioritize time and space for a change or it will not happen.
Respect, collaboration, trust, and a unified vision are all attributes for a winning project.
“Technology is the vitamin and culture and how we treat people is really, truly the painkiller.”
“The worst thing you can do is actually ask them for their feedback or opinion and then proceed to do nothing about it.”
The keys to disruption are for leadership to enable the team to change and for the team to give voice to their feedback.
“If the opposite of your strategy isn’t a strategy, then you don’t have a strategy.”
“When organizations have priority and focus, the capacity they need to accomplish the things that are essential is there.”
“Prioritize — of the 20 things we could do to win the game, what are the two or three that matter the most?”
Bio
Chris Laping, author & CEO, People Before Things, LLC, brings 25 years of information technology and business transformation experience to his newly released book, People Before Things, which focuses on change leadership. Chris enjoyed 14 years as a Chief Information Officer across three different brands and the work of his teams has been spotlighted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, and CIO Magazine, among others. His book explores the connection of the human experience to the outcomes of change and transformation initiatives and the role leaders play to pave success.
Most recently, Chris was the Senior Vice President, Business Transformation and Chief Information Officer at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, where he was a highly contributing member of a management team that completed a successful turnaround of an $8 stock to $89.
Chris has received several awards for his work in the IT industry including The Economist’s Top 5 Social Business Leader and InformationWeek’s Social Business Technology Leader. He has also been named as a ComputerWorld Premier 100 IT Leader and has received three InfoWorld 100 awards. The work of his teams has been spotlighted in three books: The Engaged Leader, Mobile Mind Shift, and Implementing World Class IT Strategy.
Books mentioned in this episode
People Before Things: Change Isn't an End-User Problem, by Chris Laping
Sandee Kastrul, President and Cofounder of i.c.stars, had an epiphany while meeting with a former student. It wasn’t enough to just teach knowledge, she found it’s vital to build avenues of opportunity. She co-founded i.c.stars to develop business, service, and civic leaders in the inner city to transform a community.
Sandee explains that change only comes when hope and ambition are present, so she engages participants in learning technical skills, employment skills, and life skills, which yields a 90% placement rate with 80% retention in the technology arena. Sandee and i.c.stars attack the root causes of oppression and inspire leadership and self-direction.
Key Takeaways
[3:08] Sandee was a math and science teacher and also taught diversity to teachers. She noticed that kids who faced real adversity had great resiliency. She met students where they were and taught science concepts to fit their understanding. In a journey to freedom, the kids broke scholastic records.
[8:18] One of Sandee’s brilliant former students came back to her, making less than minimum wage as an undocumented worker in cleaning services. His attitude was that leadership was creating opportunities for others, as Sandee had taught him, and he felt was doing that. That moment changed Sandee’s career path. She knew just teaching was not enough to help these students. They needed real opportunities.
[10:13] Sandee saw that technology, systems thinking, methodology, problem solving, and solution building would give great opportunities in IT and be a blueprint to teach community leadership. Sandee took a year-and-a-half to study schools and learn how to build a curriculum. I.c.stars launched in 2000. The first group all went on to work at dot-coms. But then the bubble burst, so I.c.stars pivoted to work with enterprise CIOs.
[11:33] I.c.stars helps people rise above their Zip Codes. Graduates have a 90% placement rate and an 80% retention rate in the industry, including the bubble bursting and the ‘08 recession. Graduates have, on average, a 400% increase in pay from taking the program. Within half a year they make more than their parents do, putting them in a position to give.
[13:30] Sandee describes alums being community leaders and advocates, making donations into the community, volunteering, and buying homes in the neighborhoods they grew up in, while they commute two hours to work in the suburbs. I.c.stars provides support for alums that make the choice to be leaders in and strengthen the good in their communities.
[16:47] I.c.stars has a daily activity, High Tea, when volunteer business executives meet with, teach, and model for interns the expectations of the workplace that are different from participant experiences. The interns are at the center of business development. Beside the hard skills, they also learn social skills.
[21:06] To be agents of change in our communities, we have to be able to gather the requirements, listen, cut an issue, and receive as well as give. We need to accept change, and ask what changes we want to see in ourselves.
[23:17] Like Special Forces teams, i.c.stars works on root causes of problems, not on symptoms. I.c.stars develops business leaders, service leaders visible in the community, and civic leaders. When three types of leaders are talking together, it turns into a virtuous circle of change.
[29:46] Sandee screens intern candidates for resiliency with seven existential questions asked in a panel interview. The questions get to locus of control, accountability, responsibility, and how we see ourselves in the world. The interview is remarkably predictive of success in the program and in leadership.
[34:56] I.c.stars has a goal of creating 1,000 business leaders by 2020. In Chicago there are about 400 alum leaders. In 2016 they opened in Columbus. They plan to open in Milwaukee early in 2018. They plan to move into more cities. Sandee sees the goal as on track.
[37:19] Sandee had received a grant for self-discovery, and she used it for world travel, including a trip to participate in the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford. That year the Dalai Lama attended.
Twitter: @SandeeKastrul
LinkedIn: Sandee Kastrul
Website: Sandee.icstars.org
Website: Icstars.org
High Tea: Icstars.org/engage/high-tea
Past Events: Icstars.org/events/past/special
Quotable Quotes
“Kids who had faced a lot of adversity … just getting to school safely, had developed a resiliency toolkit.”
“As teachers, unless we’re both learning and teaching, we’re only doing half of our job.”
“[What if we] used that problem solving and solution building as a blueprint to also teach community leadership?”
“75% of our alums are giving and giving back to the community financially, volunteering, engaging, as business leaders, … mentoring … as policy leaders.”
“What if we define success not by getting out of the ’hood, but by investing back in? What would that look like?”
“We believe that if you take all of the talent out of the neighborhoods or our communities, we’re perpetuating what’s wrong with our communities.”
“If we want to be agents of change in the communities that we come from, we have to be able to gather requirements. We have to be able to listen.”
“We’ll dig in and say, ‘The transformation starts with us,’ and ‘What are the changes that we want to see in our lives?’”
“Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”
“That is the byproduct of oppression — that it works so well that we oppress ourselves.”
“The more worlds that we can walk between, the more people we can engage with, the more culturally competent we are and the better changemakers we become.”
“The beginning of learning anything is painful. It’s why so many of us don’t study higher math.”
“That’s the full circle of leadership. It’s that we’re always learning and growing, and it’s the hard things that teach us the most.”
Bio
Sandee Kastrul is president and co-founder of i.c.stars, an innovative nonprofit leadership and technology training program founded in 1999 to prepare inner-city adults for technology careers and community leadership. An early pioneer of the social enterprise model, i.c.stars has graduated more than 350 community leaders and recently began expanding into new cities. Under Sandee’s leadership, i.c.stars has been recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Brookings Institution.
Prior to i.c.stars, Sandee’s experience as an educator, diversity trainer, educational consultant and a performing artist drew her creative talents to the forefront. Her accomplishments include designing a comprehensive science and civics interactive program for GED students at Jobs for Youth, implementing a professional development program with Harold Washington College Career Center, developing experiential learning modules for over 70 schools and creating artist in residency programs as well as training artists to work in classrooms for arts organizations.
Additionally, as a consultant for the Illinois Resource Center, Sandee provided School Corporations with diversity training and cross-curricular teaching methodologies throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Sandee is a proud board member of Goodcity, The Ryan Banks Academy, and HICC (Hispanic Innovation Center in Chicago), an advisor for the Axelson Center, Chicago Leadership Alliance, and Chicago Ideas Week. Sandee has spoken at conferences including Capital One’s Diversity in Technology Panel, Hands up United: Ferguson Tech Town Hall, Blk Hck Columbus, and the Aspen Institute’s Youth Opportunity Forum, among others.
Books mentioned in this episode
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are,
by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, by Adam Grant
Louis Efron is the author of Purpose Meets Execution: How Winning Organizations Accelerate Engagement and Drive Profits, and How to Find a Job, Career and Life You Love, and also a contributing writer for Forbes and Huffington Post.
The discussion starts with Louis’s journey through theater, the corporate world, and how he came to see big disconnects between personal purpose and corporate purpose. Louis created a Purpose Alignment Score to help individuals discover their personal purpose alignment in life by asking questions about themselves (http://LouisEfron.com) .
Key Takeaways
[3:42] In Purpose Meets Execution, Louis writes that businesses need to rethink the fundamental drivers for success. Most employees do not see the P&L statement and they have other drivers. Employees are motivated by the purpose of the business beyond the P&L.
[7:07] It takes a leap of faith to change. There is a fear in focusing on something other than P&L. But studies show that having purpose gives a greater ROI than profit alone, and new generations of workers will search for jobs that embody purpose and mission.
[9:39] Tesla Motors created a role for Louis of Head of Global Employee Engagement and Louis held it for a year or two. Six years ago, Tesla had 600 employees; now they have over 30,000 in an organization that prizes purpose. The job was a catalyst for Louis’s thinking.
[11:27] Culture and mission start at the top. If the top is broken, the whole organization is broken. In a large organization, with a clear purpose, you have to make sure that everyone at every level is executing their daily work and seeing how it connects to the same purpose.
[14:33] Living for years in Europe and Japan, Louis learned that there are cultural differences in different nations. In a big, global organization the goal is always to be the same, where possible; different, where needed. You have to learn how to leverage cultural nuances to deliver what you want to deliver. There’s a lack of understanding how people see things differently in different parts of the world.
[24:37] Louis has a video, “The Disengaged Clown,” on his site. Louis wrote it, directed it, and acted in it. It is about a party clown who finds clowning is not his calling in life. The moral is to find your strength. Our stories influence our behavior, culture, and environment. Louis compares directing a stage production to leading a corporate organization.
[29:04] If you get people connected to your organization to believe in what you believe (not to think the same as you, but to accept your purpose), that’s going to play out to your customer. It helps you sell more authentically. It is a bridge between the personal and the corporate.
[32:14] A culture of trust eliminates fear. People challenge, and contribute new ideas. They know if they fail, and learn from it, they can bring about better ways. A culture of fear stifles innovation and it all falls apart.
LinkedIn: Louis Efron
Twitter: @LouisEfron
Website: LouisEfron.com
Website: PurposeMeetsExecution.com
Search for Louis on Forbes and Huffington Post
Quotable Quotes
“Employees don’t get out of bed in the morning to … add $10 million to a top line.”
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.“ — Wayne Dyer
“In a big, global organization the goal is always to be ‘same,’ where possible; different, where needed.”
You are responsible for your own curiosity.
“A great culture is built on trust.”
“As a leader, you need to both say the right things and do the right things but doing the right things matters much more.”
If you’re talking a lot about trust in your organization, it probably doesn’t exist there.
“The more you can be yourself in life, the more successful you’ll be.”
“Great leaders believe in who they are. They’re authentic, they communicate in an authentic way, and they live what they’re saying.”
When you have trust, it eliminates fear. People are willing to challenge, bring new ideas, fail and learn from it, to create new ideas.
Bio
Louis Efron is the author of How to Find a Job, Career and Life You Love and Purpose Meets Execution: How Winning Organizations Accelerate Engagement and Drive Profits, a contributing writer for Forbes and Huffington Post.
Books mentioned in this episode
How to Find a Job, Career and Life You Love: A journey to purpose, fulfillment and life happiness,
by Louis Efron
Purpose Meets Execution: How Winning Organizations Accelerate Engagement and Drive Profits, by Louis Efron (Also available at Barnes & Noble)
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
Daniel H. Pink, the #1 bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human, unlocks the scientific secrets to good timing to help you flourish at work, at school, and at home.
Everyone knows that timing is everything. But we don’t know much about timing itself. Our lives as leaders are a never-ending stream of “when” decisions: when to start a business, when to hire people, when to deal with sunk costs, when to take on debt, etc. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork.
Timing, it’s often assumed, is an art. In When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, we learn that timing is really a science.
Key Takeaways
The discussion starts with the topic of the Free Agent Nation - people working for themselves. Asked about Autonomy and Solitude as “motivators” versus the need for Collaboration as a team, Dan says that leadership needs to provide a balance between the two. He says the challenge is the architecture - both physically and metaphorically. He says that leaders should provide the same autonomy inside and outside the organization; and a sense of purpose whether the team member is full-time, part-time, or contracted.
[4:07] By 2020, 43% of the workforce will be in the ‘gig’ economy. This requires different work environments and skills from leaders. Daniel wrote Free Agent Nation in 2001, before smartphones. In the years since, the difference between employee and freelancer has shrunk.
[5:56] Leaders influence, persuade, convince, and cajole. These leadership roles are sales activities. and effort, time, commitment, belief, and zeal are the currency. Leaders and sales reps have little coercive power. Both roles must be adept at broadly influencing people.
[7:41] ‘If/then’ motivators are effective only for simple, short-term tasks. Most leaders undervalue questions of timing in leadership decisions. They think of who, what, and how, but don’t consider when to do it. The book, When -is really about the science of timing… and that leaders have systematically undervalued questions of when and timing when making critical decisions. Too often leaders focus on who, what and how, and short shrift when. Time management and timing overlap.
[9:28] “Time-of-day explains about 20% of the variance in human performance on the sorts of tasks people perform at work.” Timing is important. Leaders can boost productivity, creativity, and team performance at essentially no cost by putting the right task during the right time of day. “All times of day are not created equal.”
[11:34] Be conscious of the stages of the day. THere are three stages - peak, trough, and rebound. Your best analytic and focused work is done in the peak time. The trough period is when you lose attention. Administrative tasks could be done in this time. The rebound period is an ideal time for creative and collaborative work. Doing the right work at the right time will lift performance.
[14:40] Chronobiology: There are morning people (larks) and evening people (owls). Younger people are more often owls, and older workers are more often larks. For example, people aged 14-24 are usually Owls, so you need to allow for rhythms according to their ages (no meetings at 7am for a young team!).
[19:19] Daniel explains the new ABCs of Selling: Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. Attunement is the difficult leadership skill of seeing from another’s point of view. Clarity is communicating intent. Leaders need to explain the what, the why, and the significance of the mission. Buoyancy represents treating everyone fairly. Attunement is seeing someone’s else's point of view (a little different than empathy). As for “Commander’s Intent” - people often don’t know what they’re supposed to do and how it fits in at a strategic level; which is a leadership imperative. Other ways to communicate intent: Here’s why; Here’s what it means to all of us; and Here’s why it’s significant...
[22:53] Daniel takes organizations through an exercise described in “DRIVE,” he calls “Whose Purpose Is It, Anyway?” That is, what’s the purpose of this company? It reveals that many employees have no idea about the purpose of their company. It leads to discussion of an organization finding their purpose.
[27:10] From the book DRIVE, Daniel says we have an innate drive to grow, but we can only do it with information on how we are doing. Leaders need to give continual feedback to employees. Weekly, informal one-on-ones work well for that. Leaders need to be coached on how to do them.
Asked, “What drives you, Dan?” He say he was making timing decisions in a haphazard way, and wanted to make better decisions about when to spend time.
[31:37] Most people are curious about something. Leaders are taught to talk, not to listen, and to answer questions, not to ask them. Curiosity can be developed somewhat... If you get better at asking questions and listening, you’ll get better at being curious. This also requires patience. Dan is committed to reading more - at 30 minutes per day. How about you?
Twitter: @DanielPink
Facebook: @DanielHPink
Website: DanPink.com
Website: DanPink.com/resources/
Website: DanPink.com/pinkcast/
Quotable Quotes
“All times of day are not created equal”
Too often leaders focus on who, what and how, and short shrift when.
Doing the right work at the right time will lift performance.
“Treating everyone well doesn’t mean treating everyone the same!”
People have a deep-seated need for belongingness - and leaders who account for this - can derive tremendous benefits.
Fairness doesn’t get enough attention. Humans are attuned to the norm of fairness.
“Leaders who are fair are those who will thrive in the long run.”
“The ability to listen well is a deeply under-developed skill.”
“The feedback mechanisms in companies are fundamentally broken.”
“Leaders need to establish continuous conversations.”
Annual performance reviews are an absurd channel for feedback.
Leadership should provide informal and frequent high-metabolism kinds of feedback!
Follow your curiosity!
Find about where people are curious in some other realm of their life.
Help people get better at asking questions to develop their ability listen.
We need to be more intentional - and less like driftwood.
Schedule what’s actually meaningful!
Schedules should be sacrosanct.
Bio
Daniel H. Pink is the author of five provocative books — including three long-running New York Times bestsellers, A Whole New Mind, Drive, and To Sell is Human. His books have been translated into 35 languages and have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and their three children.
Books mentioned in this episode
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, by Daniel H. Pink
Dr. Jacquelyn Paykel, Director of Whole Health System at the Veterans’ Hospital and Clinics in Tampa, Florida, and Director of the THRIVE Program, reveals her grit in bringing ancient philosophies of care to meet the whole needs of veteran patients.
Key Takeaways
[5:11] Dr. Jacquelyn Paykel made herself over with introspection and self-compassion with four prongs: understanding herself and having self-compassion, understanding her veteran patients as part of the tribe, serving leaders by understanding their values, and understanding the VA’s organizational goals.
[11:52] Jacquelyn’s training years were filled with the stress associated with terror. Stress can be productive depending on how you perceive it. Negative stress can cause damage. Positive stress can be healthy. If you exercise grit, you build confidence in yourself.
[16:47] Early on, Jacquelyn collided with a medical practice’s traditional culture with her new ideas and agenda. This created tremendous stress and daily scrutiny due to the lack of trust. Her grit came into play when she was on notice every day for a year to perform under pressure. She learned that she wasn’t stuck. She could always change where she was and the way she behaved. It was a valuable lesson.
[31:47] Dr. Jacquelyn Paykel is at the tip of the spear of changing minds and behaviors in a field that’s not known for changing quickly. Hold your uniqueness without displaying it.
[36:51] Jacquelyn explains THRIVE, a multi-disciplinary 14-week program that brings veterans together in a standardized curriculum based on positive psychology, integrative medicine or understanding self, and acceptance and commitment therapy. In the 14 weeks, the veterans form a tribe and support each other. The teaching staff also learns how to teach again.
[42:35] Leaders find value every day in their own work, model their passion for others, and then allow them to find what makes them tick to interact with the world in a valuable way.
Email: Jacquelyn.Paykel@VA.Gov
Twitter: @DrPaykel_OBGYN
Facebook: @Dr.JacquelynPaykel
LinkedIn: Jacquelyn Paykel
Quotable Quotes
“It’s in belonging — feeling like we belong — that we really can live our best life.”
“Stress is a very significant aspect of my training years. … there’s a significant amount of stress even now … it’s a 24/7 job.”
“If you don’t have barriers up, people will naturally migrate towards you to help.”
You can change where you are and you can change the way you behave. And sometimes you have to change both.
Hippocrates emphasized the natural aspects of medical care and doctors are getting back to that.
“It really is about kind and compassionate care that will help these individuals heal. Each treatment has a placebo effect.”
“What I needed to do was acclimate and people needed to acclimate to me.”
When you move into a new situation, understand the environment and prove your worth to the people on the ground.
“When people have confidence in you then you can do those creative processes and move forward from there.”
“We as leaders generally find value in what we do every day ... but it’s our obligation to model that for other individuals.”
Bio
Dr. Jacquelyn Paykel is a gynecologist and integrative medicine physician who trained at the University of Wisconsin and completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine under the direction of Andrew Weil. She is a United States Navy Veteran. Dr. Paykel has practiced in private and academic settings since separating from the Navy but found her way back home with the Veterans Health Administration in 2014. Currently, she is the Director of Whole Health System at James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Clinics in Tampa, Florida. She is also the Director of the THRIVE (Transforming Health and Resiliency through Integration of Values-based Experiences) Program, a novel health care approach that is based upon the tenets of Integrative Medicine, Positive Psychology, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Books mentioned in this episode
Wired to Eat: Turn Off Cravings, Rewire Your Appetite for Weight Loss, and Determine the Foods That Work for You, by Robb Wolf
Dr. Sudip Bose, one of the world’s leading physicians, and an entrepreneur, philanthropist, Bronze Star recipient and CNN Hero, shares what he learned in the emergency room and on the battlefield on how to inspire others to find their grit and lead.
Key Takeaways
[9:47] In the military, Sudip learned to rise to challenges. Work out, strengthen your mind, and keep your principles. You are responsible for the people you lead.
[11:58] Optimism is contagious but maintain realism. Leadership balances the qualitative and quantitative aspects. Vision is qualitative. Profit margins are quantitative. Balance optimism and realism.
[20:42] Authenticity lets you make the tough decisions in the right way. Sudip recalls working on the insurgent who had just killed his friend.
[22:43] Communicating well is the one critical skill that 91% of employees in a Harris Poll said that leaders lack. The same survey said business leaders and managers lack emotional intelligence in how they communicate. Praise success and take the blame for mistakes. The buck stops here.
[31:35] Studying is different from being in the field. You can prepare so much, but fresh challenges will come, and you will be shot at. Go back to your training and stick with your principles, and learn from it.
[35:06] Sudip speaks to groups and uses the funds to help injured veterans. He translates experiences from the emergency room and the military into lessons tailored to the audience. Leaders are born, but they are not born leaders. Sudip froze at his first medical code. Leaders learn from their mistakes and experiences. They have to learn the quantitative and qualitative aspects of their roles.
[36:39] Successful people have grit. Find your grit and be the leader you want to be. Passion goes with grit and perseverance. Use your life’s experiences to improve. Sudip says if he can go from freezing at a code to becoming a leading physician, then anyone can use their grit to improve and succeed.
Facebook: @Dr.SudipBose
Twitter: @DocBose
LinkedIn: Dr. Sudip Bose
Website: TheBattleContinues.org
Website: SudipBoseSpeaker.com
Website: LiveClinic.com
Website: SudipBose.com
Website: Leadership-Under-Pressure.com
Website: KeepYourInnerArmyStrong.com
Website: AceYourBoards.com
Quotable Quotes
“Being a servant leader, you serve the people you lead.”
“Courage isn’t necessarily the absence of fear. It’s just knowing that there’s something larger.”
“[Emergencies] bring you to the edge of your discomfort and you learn from it so that you can be a better leader later.”
Leaders balance confidence and optimism with the realities of a tough situation.
“If you can’t inspire yourself, how the heck are you going to inspire others?”
“Mistakes are good. Mistakes mean decisions are being made, and we’ll fix [the mistakes].”
Authenticity overcomes concerns about being liked.
“We like to be liked as leaders ... but ... you have to balance the qualitative and the quantitative.”
“Healthy and productive communication requires connection, but it also requires authenticity.”
“When there’s success, give credit. When there’s error, take the blame.”
Find your grit.
“In history, no leaders have had to process so much information to make a simple decision.”
It’s easy to be a giver, considering all that has been given to you by so many.
Bio
Sudip Bose, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, is a former major in the U.S. Army and an Iraq war veteran, and selected as the U.S. physician who treated Saddam Hussein after his capture, for which he was honored as a “CNN Hero.” He is a practicing emergency physician at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, TX and serves as the City Medical Director for Odessa. For his outstanding work in medicine, Dr. Bose has been recognized as one of the “World’s Leading Physicians” as well as one of “America’s Healthcare Leaders.” Dr. Bose continues to serve his country. His prior experience influenced him to start www.TheBattleContinues.org, a nonprofit charity which helps veterans and educates the public on healthcare.
- Recognized as one of the "Leading Physicians of the World" by the International Association of Healthcare Professionals.
- Iraq war veteran, recognized as a "CNN Hero" for receiving the Bronze Star and being selected as the US physician who treated Saddam Hussein after his capture. He served one of the longest continuous combat tours by a military physician since World War II.
Books mentioned in this episode
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, by Bill George
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth
Brent Sopel, 2010 Stanley Cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks, reveals how loyalty, and showing vulnerability inspired his teammates to better their game. He says that’s what needed for team versus individual success.
Key Takeaways [8:37] Brent was on a hockey team at age five. He learned team loyalty then. You win as a team, or you don’t win. Every time he put the jersey on he was going to give it his all.
[13:55] Brent was brought into the Blackhawks as an older player to mentor the young defense players. He showed them his vulnerabilities on the ice and let them be vulnerable so they could learn to improve. That team won the Stanley Cup in 2010, and some of the young players became Blackhawks superstars.
[16:17] The 2010 Blackhawks team was the first team Brent had been on that got along so well. There were no groups, only the team. Everyone respected everybody and their roles.
[19:02] Focus 100% on the task at hand. Have your mind in a good place. Be 100% committed. Visualize what you need to do before you do it, to clear your mind of all distractions. On the ice, Brent was so intent that he didn’t care if he was going to break his hand or his leg blocking a puck. He was never the most skilled but he could always work harder than anybody.
[25:55] Executives that have not been on a team have trouble working together. If you are not committed to your team, you will struggle as individuals and as a company.
Matthew “Griff” Griffin, CEO of Combat Flip Flops, shares his vision to use business... to end war. They make cool stuff in dangerous places. Griff believes lives are rarely lost to error, but opportunities are often lost. He says leaders need to refine their skills to keep their ‘voluntary’ team showing up; and performing... every day.
Key Takeaways
[3:28] Griff lives by a quote from his Pararescue friend Christopher Robertson: “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” Master every aspect of anything you plan to do. When his advertising was misfiring and the company was failing, Griff researched intensively, tested and iterated, and hit the bullseye.
[11:14] Griff shares the vision of Combat Flip Flops — use business to end war. They make cool stuff in dangerous places.
[15:11] Griff knew Special Operations would be their core customer from the start and their products would trickle down through society.
[17:40] Paint a good picture of what success looks like and your team will get themselves there.
[20:32] In business, lives are rarely lost to error, but opportunities are often lost. Business leaders need to refine their skills to keep their ‘voluntary’ team showing up and performing every day.
[24:50] Combat Flip Flops designed a Texas Flip Flop for Hurricane Harvey survivors. 100% of the profits from it will be donated to buy food, mattresses and clean bedding for Hurricane Harvey survivors. With help from Mark Cuban they’ve raised thousands of dollars on Indiegogo.
[28:50] Griff talks about scaling from shipping daily from his garage to running a hugely successful company. A portion of every sale goes to support school girls in Afghanistan.
[31:46] Adventure Not War documented climbing Mount Halgurd in Iraq, which was very healing for Griff after his war experiences.
[36:04] Griff hopes politicians look at Combat Flip Flops and see a better way than war to achieve goals.
Facebook: @Combatflipflops
Instagram: @Combatflipflops
Twitter: @Combatflipflops
Soundcloud: @Combatflipflops
Facebook: Griff
Instagram: @CFF.Griff
LinkedIn: Matt Griffin
Website: CombatFlipFlops.com
CFF News: Floperator Winter Summit of Iraq's Tallest Peak With The North Face
CFF News: Google Named Combat Flip Flops in their 2017 Economic Impact Report
TEDx Tacoma: The power of persistence, creativity, and respect, Matthew Griffin, TEDx
Quotable Quotes
“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” — Christopher Robertson
Overdo it in the research on one end and on the spending on the other end.
“We really want our friends, and our family, and our fellow service members to stop deploying ... to endless wars.”
“We don’t look at this as a one- or a two-year game. We look at this in … decades. We’re going to be at this for a while.”
If you don’t understand something your team is doing, admit you don’t understand it and ask for an explanation.
Your goal is to have your team succeed.
The three tenets of leadership are purpose, direction, and motivation.
Show your team what success looks like and they will get themselves there.
“Cash is king. … I look at money like I look at bullets. … The more I have, the more effective I can be at my job.”
“We scaled 450% last year, and we did it on cash.”
“We can mathematically show you why we have to diversify our products, and we can show you down to the penny.”
“Drop by drop a river is made.”
Bio
Matthew “Griff” Griffin is a 2001 USMA graduate, Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran with 2d Ranger Battalion, and CEO of Combat Flip Flops. Mr. Griffin co-founded Combat Flip Flops in Kabul, Afghanistan. Griff specialized in developing solutions for companies growing business in “difficult” locations.
A Graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in Engineering Management, Griff served in the 75th Ranger Regiment as a Rifle Company Fire Support Officer with three tours to Afghanistan and one tour to Iraq. Post military, Mr. Griffin moved to the private sector as the Director of Military Sales for Remote Medical International and the director of Special Operations for Protect the Force. Griff currently serves as a logistics officer for Team 5 Foundation.
In the off time, you can find Griff slaying powder on skis, dirt on bikes, or big game with carbon fiber arrows.
Books mentioned in this episode
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't, by Simon Sinek
Robert Glazer, founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners, and is focused on personal motivation, and coaching people to go well beyond what they have done before.
Key Takeaways
[5:52] Employees come into a company, they leave, and they advocate for the company. Citing Lee Caraher’s The Boomerang Principle, Bob notes that his companies maintain partnerships with alumni.
[13:16] There must be room for failure. A failed campaign can inform a better campaign, after a debrief.
[16:38] Bob talks about performance and capacity. Capacity is like a balloon. You can learn to perform up to your capacity and then you can learn to grow your capacity more than you have ever done.
[17:45] When people have work struggles, their struggles are often tied to personal issues.
[27:18] Your zone of strength is where you excel.
[29:45] A turning point on Bob’s leadership journey was learning to ask, “Who are you? What do you value? What do you really want from life?” When you can align your life around all of that, you’ll be extremely successful. If your job supports your core purpose, then you’re going to be happy.
Facebook: Robert Glazer
Twitter: @Robert_Glazer
LinkedIn: Robert Glazer
Book site: Performance-Partnerships.com
Blog site: FridayFwd.com
Podcast: Accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/
Website: AccelerationPartners.com
Website: BrandCycle.com
Website: RobertSGlazer.com
Quotable Quotes
Real relationships can be sustained through good times and bad.
Win-win is the essence of performance
Trust = Character & Competence
When 20% is R&D, failures are not catastrophic.
If you knew something would work in advance of trying it, you could be on a beach somewhere.
Coaching people to where they should be is Step A of leadership. Step B is getting them to do more than they’ve ever done.
“Almost every big new idea I have comes out of travel.”
The worst thing you can do is work on your weaknesses. Be aware of them, but spend your time in your zone of strength.
“If you haven’t actually figured out where you’re trying to go, it’s very hard to lead others.”
Bio
Robert Glazer is the Founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners, an industry-leading affiliate program management agency that helps preeminent brands, including adidas, ModCloth, Reebok, Target, Gymboree, and Warby Parker, establish and grow transparent, brand-aligned, and performance-driven affiliate programs.
Robert is also the co-founder and Chairman of BrandCycle and the author of the inspirational blog, Friday Forward. His passion for sharing his experiences and expertise in internet marketing, affiliate marketing, and marketing strategy has made him a sought-after speaker across the globe. He is respected for his ability to explain the oft-misunderstood world of affiliate marketing, where it is headed, and why the affiliate model is such an important part of a growing company’s business.
In addition to writing the globally best-selling book, Performance Partnerships, The Checkered Past, Changing Present and Exciting Future of Affiliate Marketing, Robert is a regular contributor to numerous outlets, including Entrepreneur, Fast Co, Huffington Post, Success, and Forbes, writing about performance marketing, strategy, and culture. He is the recipient of the Boston Business Journal “40 under 40” award, the SmartCEO Boston Future 50 award, and a finalist for the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year in New England.
You can learn more about Robert at RobertSGlazer.com
Books mentioned in this episode
Performance Partnerships, The Checkered Past, Changing Present and Exciting Future of Affiliate Marketing, by Robert Glazer
The Boomerang Principle: Inspire Lifetime Loyalty from Your Employees, by Lee Caraher
The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience, by Martin Seligman
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, by Stephen M. R. Covey
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
Mike Pierce, better known as Antarctic Mike, connects the drivers and principles of Antarctic expedition history stories to the real world of finding, engaging and keeping great people in today’s business world. Mike reveals what drives him to take on ridiculously difficult goals. His advice: Don’t make assumptions about what others will find challenging. Understand what their prize is. Everyone, every day, is called on to be a leader.
Key Takeaways
[2:22] Mike’s program, “Leading at 90 Below Zero,” began when Mike was teaching a four-day leadership course and found inspiration in the book, The Shackleton Way. In a few minutes, he realized there would be many lessons for the real world in the account of Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition.
[7:02] Ernest Shackleton picked the best people. He started by publishing an extraordinary recruitment piece. More than 5,000 applied. Selection comes down to character. Assuming you pick the right people, you have to make sure they want to go all in. The leader’s job is to be the catalyst to get the team, individually and collectively, to push all the chips into the center of the table.
[14:03] One of the challenges of hiring is to find the right people. Mike thinks character is not in short supply, but it is time-consuming to find. You have to look at people one at a time. An organization needs to offer an opportunity that’s compelling and challenging enough for a candidate to say they want to learn more about it.
[16:27] Most good companies have good opportunities, but they don’t showcase them very well. Don’t let your company drown in the sea of similarity. Mike uses an example to tell how a compelling story can put your company ahead.
[21:10] Mike considers how the introversion of an endurance athlete, with their long periods of uninterrupted hours of training, is advantageous in a team member. Each member has to perform at the highest level. You can’t allow circumstances to become excuses. You have to overcome them or go around them to go forward. This requires the level of discipline that an endurance athlete acquires.
[25:36] Mike’s book, The Penguin Principle, was born out of his frustration about mass emailings that had no bearing on him or his needs. The emperor penguin survives the Antarctic winter in teams. Each penguin is more concerned about their mate and their chick than for themselves. Mike would like salespeople to think more about him and his needs than their needs when they contact him.
[28:25] Mike discusses the historical background to Shackleton’s planned Antarctic crossing. The South Pole had already been reached by a competitor, but no one had gone from one side of Antarctica to another. Ego was a big part of their setting out on an extraordinary two-year expedition. None of them lost hope and they all came back alive. Shackleton played the role of the leader very well.
[34:12] Mike reveals what drives him to take on ridiculously difficult goals. He likes to do what no one else has done. He’s a disruptor. Everyone defines ‘challenge’ in a different way. Don’t make assumptions about what others will find challenging. Understand what their prize is. Everybody’s in the race for a reason. Wake them to their reason. Mike says that everyone, every day, is called to be a leader.
Google: Antarctic Mike
Facebook: @Antarctic.Mike
Twitter: @AntarcticMike
LinkedIn: Antarctic Mike (Mike Pierce)
YouTube: AntarcticMike
Quotable Quotes
Everybody’s in the race for a reason. Wake them to their reason.
The companies that get and keep the best employees and customers are the ones doing things no one has done before.
“People have to want to go all in.”
“The advantage of being by yourself is that the discipline has to be self-imposed.”
“The best teams … almost don’t need a manager … if all the team members have an inherent sense of self-discipline.”
“Every person, every day is called to lead. Every employee ... has to think on their feet. They have to make decisions.”
Bio
Mike Pierce, better known as Antarctic Mike, works with organizations that want to find, engage and keep the best-performing people. Mike’s background professionally started in the recruiting business in 1997, working specifically to show managers and leaders exactly how to identify and recruit the best people. He now speaks across the U.S. and Canada to executive teams, organizations, associations and sales teams about how to lead people so they are fully engaged in what they do.
Mike is an avid fan of polar expedition history and is an endurance athlete. In 2006, Mike became one of 9 people to run the first ever Antarctic Ice Marathon and a year later became the first American to run the Antarctic 100k, a grueling 62 miles on an ice shelf 600 miles from the South Pole.
His flagship program, Leading at 90 Below Zero, connects the drivers and principles of Antarctic expedition history stories to the real world of finding, engaging and keeping great people in today’s business world.
Mike has a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and resides in Encinitas, CA with his wife Angela.
Books mentioned in this episode
Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, by Margot Morrell
and Stephanie Capparell
The Penguin Principle: A Little Story about True Teamwork, by Antarctic Mike Pierce
Scott Wintrip, author of High Velocity Hiring, discusses a range of hiring and cultural issues around creating a high performance team. He explains that instead of hiring when an opening occurs, leaders should know their ideal candidate profile, and interview ideal candidates continually. This builds relationships and keeps high potentials in a hiring inventory pipeline, and ready for a position when it comes open.
Key Takeaways
[2:25] In our fast-paced world, the adage about being slow to hire is wrong. An empty seat is an open wound. The manager has to do their own role, the work of the empty seat, and the work of hiring someone to fill it. A manager doing three jobs is hiring while distracted. We need people readily available to power companies. The first job of leadership is hiring a quality team to lead.
[5:51] Build an inventory over time by seeking referrals, having conversations, interviewing the best, and using them to fill positions in a continuing process to stockpile people who are ready as you need them. This takes half the time of rushing to fill an open spot.
[11:00] Scott suggests using a hands-on interview where real sample work is completed. This circumvents the ‘tell, sell, and swell,’ of a normal interview and it begins the assessment process. Top talented candidates don’t enjoy a drawn-out multiple-interview process. They appreciate this process of looking ahead and being ready to work together when the time is right. It’s cultivating a relationship.
[15:14] Start with a ‘hire-right profile,’ of a list of deal makers, deal breakers, boosts, and blocks. Know the candidate you want, before you start looking. Then talk to and interview people who fit the profile and do some hands-on work with them, looking ahead to future openings. Candidates will last for months or years in your inventory if they think you will be the right company for them.
[19:27] Companies with a great brand can afford a grueling hiring experience, for a while, but turnover is high at those companies. Loyalty is earned through culture. Recruit from those companies whose employees are looking around.
[29:26] Scott has always looked for things he wasn’t doing well to try to find a way to do them better. Early in Scott’s hiring career, he found he was a bad interviewer, so he decided to do the exact opposite of what he was doing, as a starting point. That started Scott on the path to hands-on interviewing. His passion comes from improving himself on his entrepreneurial journey. His transparency is relatable.
[36:21] Find your hire-right profile in a four-quadrant grid. Upper left is Must Haves. Upper right is Must Not Haves. Lower left is Boosts. Lower right is Blocks. Think of people who have succeeded in the role. List their commonalities as Must Haves. Think of people who were unfit for the role. List their commonalities as Deal Breakers. Then add ideal qualities and negative aspects in the bottom quadrants.
Website: HighVelocityHiring.com
Twitter: @ScottWintrip
LinkedIn: Scott Wintrip
Email: Scott@ScottWintrip.com
Website: Wintrip Consulting Group
Book: High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant, by Scott Wintrip
SHRM: “6 Steps to Move Hiring Out of the Slow Lane,” by Scott Wintrip
Top 100 on
Amazon: High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant, by Scott Wintrip
Fast Company: “The Deceptively Simple Type of Question Every Interviewer Needs to Know,”
by Scott Wintrip
Forbes: “You’re Hired: High Velocity Hiring Techniques,” by Kevin Kruse
ABC: “How to nail down the job of your dreams without breaking a sweat, with Scott Wintrip”
Fox: “High Velocity Hiring”
Quotable Quotes
“Adages are called old adages for a reason — because they’re old and they’re tired and they often don’t work.”
“We need people readily available because people power companies.”
“All great leadership starts with picking the right people with whom you surround yourself.”
A couple hours of calling and interviewing a month allow you to stockpile people who are ready-to-hire.
“Building inventories takes half the time, compared to conventional ways of reacting to an open job.”
A sales pipeline and a hiring pipeline are really the same. You want to nurture and progress the prospect along the way.
“We sell the best parts of ourselves. ... That’s not a very good indicator of whether or not somebody’s a fit.”
“Candidates love a ‘red carpet’ experience; they loathe the ‘Survivor-like’ interviewing experience.”
Good leaders want career seekers who look ahead, not job hunters focused on the present.
“Companies can live on their brand for a while when it comes to hiring, but it doesn’t last forever.”
“Our best lessons come from our mistakes and how we respond to those mistakes.”
Engage with people instead of imposing upon them. Say, this is what we going to do, and this is why. How will we do it?
“Every day I find something new about myself that I didn’t know and that’s pretty doggone cool.”
“I’m a recovering perfectionist, as a lot of the leaders are.”
Bio
Scott Wintrip eliminates hiring delays by helping organizations across the globe implement a process to fill jobs the moment they become open. He’s the author of High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant (McGraw-Hill).
Books mentioned in this episode
High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant, by Scott Wintrip
Wool Omnibus Edition (Silo Series Book 1), by Hugh Howey
The hosts of The Leadership Podcast are joined by Scott Mann for a relaxed discussion of what it means to be grateful and thankful.
Kathy Steele, CEO of Red Caffeine Marketing + Technology, discusses her career and bouncing back from a business crucible. After overcoming numerous challenges, her re-launched business is now profitable and growing. She has created an intentional culture with people who share a purpose, and key core values. Kathy pursues agile solutions with a think-tank approach, and how leaders don’t ignore the importance of shared values amongst the team.
Key Takeaways
[5:01] Kathy had a business divorce four years ago that led her to found a new business based on things she believed. To reboot her business she focused on purpose, mission, vision, core values, and the tenets of operating the business. Investing in culture helped triple business revenues in four years.
[8:46] Culture Club serves to share financial results, project wins, things that could be improved, education and motivational keynote speakers.
[11:14] Kathy embraces open book operations and the ‘small giants’ philosophies as the right way to do business. After the unfavorable business divorce, Kathy saw transparency as an essential factor in a profitable business. Within the first year, they exceeded sales projections and became debt-free.
[17:54] Kathy displayed vulnerability to bring her team together to rally around the financial challenges they faced in the first year, and improve the ways they do things, through gaming elements and mini-games. One game involved time-tracking — time loggers against non-loggers.
[21:42] When something doesn’t go well, Kathy investigates how she can be more clear about delivering on expectations.
[23:40] Kathy depends on a solid go-to-market framework so sales aligns with production and delivery.
[25:44] Growth of complexity within the company creates collaboration and teamwork challenges. Kathy aspires to agile solutions for problems, using a think-tank approach.
[30:23] Kathy contrasts her younger business self with her leadership approach today. She credits mentors (including her husband) that fueled her successes.
[34:30] Running a business is more difficult than Kathy ever imagined and at any stage, there are many different challenges. Seek people who share your values.
Website: RedCaffeine.com
Twitter: @RedCaffeineInc
Twitter: @KathySteele
Facebook: Red Caffeine Inc.
LinkedIn: Kathy Steele
Forbes: “What's In Your 'Stack?' It's Not Just MarTech Driving Business Today”
Forbes: “Your Growth Goals Are Unrealistic Unless You Create A Company Growth Engine”
B2Community: “Wake Up! How to Create a More Engaged Workplace Culture”
Quotable Quotes
“It became critically important to me that I founded … a new business … established on things that I believed.”
“I just honestly don’t know why more businesses don’t operate ‘open book’ or embrace the small giant philosophies.”
“You’ve got young people working for you; what kind of gift do you give them, to teach them the reality of finance?”
“When things don’t go well, I really do feel that … there’s something that I haven’t been clear about.”
“I really discounted how much values meant until I went through that business divorce.”
Bio
Kathy Steele is passionate about people, serious about business growth, and loves to help the underdog cause in her community. She is fortunate to "do it all" in her role as CEO of Red Caffeine Marketing + Technology. She is the company visionary overseeing growth, strategic partnerships, and employee engagement.
Kathy speaks and writes about being an entrepreneur and how marketing impacts business. She is a contributor to Forbes and Business 2 Community. She has delivered keynote presentations, and workshops on branding, marketing, and building business culture.
She also has a relentless enthusiasm for great causes, donating her time and expertise to industry groups and non-profit organizations. She is on the Advisory Board for Enterprising Women, an Executive Council Member for the Executive Breakfast Club, Chicago’s Local Group Leader for the Small Giants Community, and a Great Game of Business Practitioner. She likes to foster relationships with leaders who share her strong focus on business ethics, social responsibility, and economic sustainability. The Red Caffeine team has contributed over $200,000 in time, talent, and monetary donations to causes in their community since 2014.
Red Caffeine, Marketing + Technology is a digital agency that fuels the growth of market-leading brands. To speed up growth demands building a brand that customers want to work with, and employees want to work for. They believe establishing a clear business purpose aligns internal teams and will boost sales. They partner with marketing, sales, and HR teams to create strategies that have both financial and operational impact.
Red Caffeine works with recognizable brands like Mitsubishi, Amazon, Elk Grove Village, Baird & Warner and some amazing companies you may not have heard of but manufacturer the products you use every day.
In her leisure, Kathy spends time with her wonderful husband, their four grown children, and is “Gigi” to two amazing grandkids. She enjoys a competitive game of tennis, traveling to exotic locations, and being just good enough to golf some of the world’s most breathtaking courses.
Books mentioned in this episode
The Great Game of Business: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company, by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham
Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, by Amy C. Edmondson
Tricia Halsey, Founder & Executive Director of the Big Idea Project, discusses with Jan and Jim how she learned the value of coaching. She was coached as a swimmer to step out of her comfort zone and learned that extending your reach you extend your potential. The Big Idea Project, fueled by Generous Leadership®, is a scholastic project to help students develop leadership skills. Students are mentored to perform meaningful service that creates positive change. For Tricia, leadership is not a set of skills for accomplishment, but a mindset of generosity directed toward building the potential of others.
Key Takeaways
[2:38] Michelangelo said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Tricia sees opportunities the same way, and her most important aspiration is building up people.
[4:38] Tricia’s favorite building story is one of her first successes, as a high school swim coach. She wanted the team to become better people first and better swimmers second. She sees the potential in people and calls it forth. She coached an awkward JV team into breaking 12 school records and winning in the league for the first time in school history. They all moved to Varsity in one year.
[8:36] Tricia credits her high school swimming coach for calling out leadership within her at a young age. Tricia saw a leadership gap and said something has to change. Bosses that think of themselves a lot are not the leaders that people want to follow.
[11:52] Tricia elaborates on the courage of forgetting yourself and your fears and looking at building up the people around you and on your team into better people who do better work. The paradigm of generous leadership consists of deeply held beliefs that affect what we think, feel, and do. Generous leadership has a core of empathy. It involves how you see yourself, others, and your place in the world.
[13:55] Tricia quotes a post by Simon Sinek, from Leaders Eat Last: “Leaders are the ones who run headfirst into the unknown. They rush toward the danger. They put their own interests aside to protect us or to pull us into the future. Leaders would sooner sacrifice what is theirs to save what is ours. And they would never sacrifice what is ours to save what is theirs. This is what it means to be a leader.”
[15:30] Generous leadership is soul care — mind, heart, and doing (will). You change that level of being by working. Tricia teaches generous leadership through The Big Idea Project in a semester of service learning, moving from knowledge to behavior change. Students go through an experience that is so challenging that it rocks them and makes them redefine themselves, serving others with real needs.
[19:02] Tricia introduces business leaders into the classroom as mentors and resources for the teachers. The students have a presentation night, using real-life business skills in their projects. The projects involve real service, such as working with a homeless family to see what they need, rather than researching homelessness online. Business leaders help the students execute the project.
[24:29] Coaching is helping people develop their potential. Coaching is learned from other coaches. The Big Idea Project forces students to take up their responsibility. Coaches do not do the work for the students. They see, guide, and help where there’s a lack of skills, but the best coaches let the students flounder a bit to become stronger. The student presentation is the moment of truth.
[32:19] Tricia shares a recent story of what she learned in starting The Big Idea Project and the busyness that was involved. Busyness keeps you from who you need to be. She got physically sick and had to pull back and unplug for a few months in another country. Give yourself some rest. Be a good person, and you’ll be an influencer. Lead from being good in a needed way.
Website: BigIdeaProject.org
Facebook: Big Idea Project
LinkedIn: Big Idea Project
LinkedIn: Tricia Halsey
Quotable Quotes
“I see potential; I see opportunity; I see destiny almost as destiny’s calling.”
“When you care about people and you call them forth, they will rise, if they know that you care about them.”
Leadership is not about you. It is fundamentally other-centered. It takes courage to set self aside and look at others.
Generous leadership is abundantly giving of yourself so that others can be better people who do better work.
You can’t give out of a place of abundance if you’re constantly looking inward.
Generous leadership has three facets: how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see your place in the world.
Service learning is going out and solving a problem that affects somebody else.
Deep beliefs can foster behavior change if a change is desired. Our goal in life should be always to grow and do better.
We need to look at what our actions are saying about our head and our heart.
“In all social spheres, we need new leaders. I’m calling leaders to stand up for a new brand of leadership.”
“What wake are you leaving behind in your life? We need the wake of generous leaders.”
Bio
Tricia Halsey is Founder & Executive Director of Big Idea Project. First and foremost, Tricia is a builder. She has worked with nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies to build organizational capacity, identity, culture, strategy, programs, product, and teams.
Tricia, along with her husband Bryan, created the Big Idea Project in 2009 for Columbine High School. The success of the Project led to the launch of the Big Idea Project organization in 2014 to provide hands-on transformational leadership experiences to youth through a train-the-trainer program with high schools.
Tricia is the thought leader of the Generous Leadership® paradigm, a leadership approach that requires empathy and the courage to move past self for the sake of elevating others.
Big Idea Project utilizes Tricia’s Generous Leadership® paradigm to prepare our next generation of generous leaders who lead lifelong impact on their families, communities, and careers.
Books mentioned in this episode
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't, by Simon Sinek
Kimberly Jung, CEO and Co-Founder of Rumi Spice, shares her inspiring story of seizing a business opportunity in Afghanistan that also addressed social issues. She realized her military training and her business school knowledge could be used to help Afghan farmers find economic success, and to provide opportunities for Afghan women to excel economically while retaining their culture. Kimberly exemplifies the dedication required, and rare feat, to create a market.
Key Takeaways
[2:29] Kimberly describes her experience entering West Point. Her immigrant parents had wanted her to go to an Ivy League school but Kimberly’s West Point perspective changed their hearts.
[5:13] Kimberly was deployed as a Platoon Leader in Afghanistan when she met Emily Miller. When they ended their tours, they observed that the future of Afghanistan would not be reached through force but through the economic empowerment of business.
[6:21] Kimberly and Emily both went to business schools. Another veteran told them about an Afghan farmer with no market for his saffron. Kimberly decided to start a business partnership with Afghan farmers to import saffron. She invited a business advisor to Afghanistan and met with 12 Pashto farmers. Instead of body armor and weapons, she wore a scarf.
[8:11] The farmers were growing some of the best saffron in the world but they had no resources for food safety, packaging, marketing, selling, or distributing the crop. 80% of Afghans are farmers.
[10:10] Afghan women are vital to the saffron industry. They traditionally prepared the flowers at home. Kimberly explains how renting appropriate facilities with the right equipment improved food safety and how providing a safe workplace with direct wages improved women’s economic standing.
[13:43] Most problems are economic until one has met basic needs. Kimberly describes how The Plant, in the Southside of Chicago, is becoming a self-sustaining, beautiful community, bringing together the Southside and the Northside over food. Rumi’s warehouse is in The Plant.
[17:23] Trust is earned in Afghanistan by building a reputation over time. The reputation of Kimberly’s Afghan partners allowed Rumi to become the largest private employer of Afghan women, assuring them a safe place to work and allowing them to carry on in their culture and customs, and it also preserves the women’s reputations. Afghan women want economic opportunities, sewing machines, and medical supplies to care for their families.
[24:18] A partnership like Rumi can’t be run as a side business. Either you’re all in, or you’re not in at all. Entrepreneurism is not for people with other priorities. Strategy is all about setting priorities. You can have it all, just not all at once. Kimberly credits West Point and her Army leadership experience with giving her the resilience and ability to make choices that prepared her to run Rumi as an entrepreneur.
[28:52] Kimberly and Emily faced catastrophic failure when their loan got pulled back. They had no way to pay the farmers. They worked through it. Kimberly is learning how to listen to the people who work for Rumi, accept their input, and check her ego.
Website: RumiSpice.com
Saffron: RumiSpice.com/saffron-products
Twitter: @Rumi_Spice
Facebook: RumiSpiceCo
Quotable Quotes
We felt the way to a sustainable future for Afghanistan was not through force but through economic empowerment.
What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
Drop by drop a river is made. — Dari saying
You cannot say you’re dedicated to the future of Afghanistan and these farmers if you’re going to have another job.
“This is not Americans managing things in Afghanistan. This is an American partnership with our Afghan partners.”
Bio
Kimberly Jung is CEO and co-founder of Rumi. Since leaving the military, Kim and her co-founders feel there is unfinished business to support Afghanistan and its people, so they founded Rumi to work directly with Afghan farmers to import exceptionally high-quality saffron in a for-profit enterprise in partnership with the farmers. In Afghanistan, Rumi has hired 384 Afghan women, organized three processing facilities, and has over 90 farmers in their network. Rumi saffron now graces the tables and kitchens of Michelin and Relais & Chateaux establishments across the world.
Prior to her civilian ventures, Kim was an Engineer Officer who led a route clearance platoon in the Wardak and Ghazni provinces of Afghanistan in 2010-2011. She also served with provincial reconstruction teams as a female engagement team member to help empower Afghan village women.
She holds a Professional Engineering license in Mechanical Engineering from the State of California, and she graduated with her MBA from Harvard in 2015. She earned her Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy in 2008.
Mark C. Crowley, author of Lead from the Heart: Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century, shares his story of why he treats people with extraordinary compassion. He’s a keen observer of why atypical management behavior can be effective for creating high-performing teams. He believes we need fundamental leadership change to meet the employment needs of the future workforce.
Key Takeaways
[1:43] Mark explains his leadership background.
[3:32] Practical experience leads to success.
[6:23] His unconscious pivot was to give back to those who worked for him.
[7:36] Mark started to give people the things he had missed in his life. His teams responded in the most profound ways with extraordinary success. For twenty years he led with heart. One day someone pointed out to him that he had a very different way of managing people. Mark asked what they meant. That observation opened his eyes.
[8:37] Mark started to explore this new understanding and to refine his behaviors to be even better. He researched and validated his own observations and why they worked. People respond to leadership from the heart by developing loyalty and achieving great things.
[12:45] The world trends toward focusing on data and information-based decisions. Daniel Kahneman wrote that after the rational analysis, ask your heart to weigh in. Insight will tip the decision one way or the other. Use data to drive operations. When it comes to people, use emotional currency to drive behavior.
[15:28] If you could save big money and drive earnings with layoffs, the data and the mind would say to do it, but the heart would consider the effect on the people you let go, and the effect on the morale of the people who remain.
[18:51] There is a real connection between emotion, stress, and the heart. Extreme stress and loneliness accelerate heart problems. People don’t just want autonomy. They also want association and collaboration. Make people feel safe, with a trusting relationship with you, and they will routinely do extraordinary work for you. Mark tells audiences, love your people.
[32:38] Gallup surveys show no improvement in engagement in 15 years. We need to invest in people to reinvent leadership. Gallup says two-thirds of managers today lack the ability and talents to manage and influence people effectively.
Website: MarkCCrowley.com
Twitter: @MarkCCrowley
LinkedIn: Mark C. Crowley
Facebook: Lead From The Heart
Quotable Quotes
“The pivot that I made unconsciously was to then give back to people who worked for me.”
“Feelings and emotions drive human behavior and performance.”
“When I say, lead from the heart, it’s not metaphorical. It’s literal.”
Low-performing people put onto a high-performing team become better performers.
Bio
Mark C. Crowley is the author of Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century and his mission is to fundamentally change how we lead people in workplaces around the globe.
Mark is a regular contributor to Fast Company Magazine and has been published in USA Today, Reuters, The Huffington Post and the Seattle Times. His two most recent LinkedIn Pulse articles have been read well over a million times. His book is now being taught in five American universities, including the educational Ph.D. program at Brandman University in California.
Before writing his book, Mark spent over 20 years in senior leadership roles within the dog-eat-dog world of Financial Services, where he was named leader of the year. Quite untraditionally, Mark proved that caring about people, and thereby positively affecting employee’s hearts, had a remarkable effect on driving sustained engagement, loyalty, and productivity.
New and breakthrough medical research Mark draws upon in his book now proves that the heart is actually the driver of optimal human performance. A leadership pioneer, Mark shows us that leading from the heart is the most informed and enlightened thing a manager or organization can do.
Books mentioned in this episode
Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century, by Mark C. Crowley
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, by Howard Schultz and Joanne Gordon
Is It Worth Dying For?: How To Make Stress Work For You — Not Against You, by Robert S. Eliot
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
Summary & Ideas for Action
Erik Wahl is an internationally recognized artist, TED speaker, bestselling author, and a sought-after corporate speaker. Erik’s on-stage painting and performance seamlessly becomes a visual metaphor to the core of his message: Encouraging organizations toward profitability through innovation and superior levels of performance. He discusses with Jim and Jan the thought leadership that differentiates him from Powerpoint presenters and concludes with a vision for unity at work and in our communities.
Key Takeaways
[4:11] The psychology of performance depends on attention. Erik’s audience has seen hundreds of presentations. To differentiate himself, Erik doesn’t simply present, he prepares a real-time improv experience with lights, cameras, audio, painting, technology, and other techniques to engage the audience. He gives the audience actionable takeaways using the tools of live theater.
[5:25] Through unique channels Erik creates ‘aha’ moments and ‘wow’ experiences to show audiences how to implement leadership, teamwork, differentiation, innovation, and creativity a little differently.
[6:11] The ability to adapt is the most needed strength for leaders. No system will work in perpetuity. There will always need to be an adaptation as circumstances change. Change is constant. Expand consciousness. Think differently. Master complexity at a higher level. Step back and see the landscape from a bigger picture view.
[8:03] Look at ways to elevate your value proposition and build authenticity into your relationships with employees and customers. Disrupt yourselves to differentiate from the competition. Erik’s core pillars fall under the umbrella of thinking differently, the psychology of performance, and the ability to adapt.
[9:25] Erik discusses current thinking and ‘Thinking 2.0.’ Our trained thinking is pragmatic, logical, and practical. It represents standardization and Six Sigma. It is transactional rather than interactive. The problem is that we get stuck in systems that become out-of-date. To adapt to new circumstances we need think in new ways and find new rhythms. Understand the rules to reshape the rules.
[14:02] Science has necessary but finite and limited functions. EQ, art, and intuition are all now more important than ever.
[16:53] School has standardized children’s thinking. It is important to learn to think but also to have a fluidity to come up with more than one right answer. The more operationally efficient we become, the more danger we have of losing potential and possibilities. We need an increased element of fluidity in our learning systems and business systems.
[21:02] As leaders, the ability to read people is incredibly valuable. Because of the business costs of failed decisions, leaders are often more comfortable with tried and true formulas rather than adaptation. Leaders walk a balance between strength and authenticity; analytics and emotional intelligence.
[23:44] Creativity requires rational systematic thought. Creatives need to learn more about the marketplace and how to add value to get market share.
[25:31] As an athlete, Erik learned mental toughness was to endure pain and hardship. Now he believes the highest level of mental toughness is the ability to control emotion in the face of uncertainty, danger, and fear, to be unflinchingly calm in the face of the most challenging situations, and to know when to move quickly.
[27:25] There is disruption, fear, anger, and social injustice in the world. We need to address these issues properly to unify. We need to know when to stand down. As a CEO, when you talk less and listen more, you demonstrate empathy and grace that is more helpful now than it was 30 years ago. Be tolerant of everyone’s input for a better unified tomorrow. The more unity, the more people will sacrifice for the good.
[32:53] Combining multiple generations in the workplace involves meshing the ideals of meritocracy and hierarchy with authenticity and autonomy. CEOs need to know how the younger generation thinks, to get their attention and guide them in leadership strategies.
Quotable Quotes
“Create ‘wow’ experiences that show the message as much as tell it.”
The more operationally efficient we become, we risk losing potential and possibilities.
Understand the rules to reshape the rules.
A leader must balance between confidence and humility and between analytics and creativity.
Creativity without discipline is like a river without banks.
Diversity in the workplace involves meshing the ideals of meritocracy and hierarchy with authenticity and autonomy.
Website: TheArtOfVision.com/the-spark-and-the-grind
Website: TheArtOfVision.com
Twitter: @ErikWahl
Facebook: Erik Wahl
LinkedIn: Erik Wahl
YouTube: Erik Wahl
Vimeo: The Art of Vision
Bio
Erik Wahl is an internationally recognized artist, TED speaker, and No. 1 bestselling author. His breakthrough experience as an artist and entrepreneur has translated into making him one of the most sought-after corporate speakers on the circuit today.
On stage, Erik’s keynote experience creates a dynamic multidimensional metaphor for how to systematically embrace innovation and risk. His message: disruption is the new normal and businesses must embrace creativity in a wholesale fashion or risk being left behind. Erik’s presentation inspires organizations to be increasingly agile and outlines how to use disruption as a competitive advantage. Some companies will be disrupted; others will choose to be the disruptor. Choose wisely.
His new book, The Spark and the Grind, activates the essential components of translating ideas into action. His breakthrough thinking has earned praise from the likes of top influencers in both art and business. Erik’s previous book, a bestseller called Unthink, was hailed by Forbes Magazine as the blueprint to actionable creativity, and by Fast Company Magazine as “provocative with a purpose.”
The Warhol of Wall Street, the Renoir of ROI, the Picasso of Productivity, the Jobs of ... well, Jobs. Erik discovered an alarming truth early in his career as a partner in a corporate firm — organizations that encouraged the mental discipline of creativity did better than those that did not put innovation as a priority mission. So he set out to challenge companies to change their way of thinking.
In the meantime, inspired by street art, he became an acclaimed graffiti artist — though he has since stopped selling his work for personal gain, and instead uses his art to raise money for charities. His keynote is where his passion for business growth and art converge into a fascinating performance.
Erik’s list of clients includes AT&T, Disney, London School of Business, Microsoft, FedEx, Exxon Mobil, Ernst & Young, and XPrize.
Books Mentioned on the Show
The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman
Unthink: Rediscover Your Creative Genius, by Erik Wahl
The Spark and the Grind: Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity, by Erik Wahl
Rear Admiral Kerry Metz (USN, Ret.) started his career as a Navy SEAL, and eventually served as the first commander of Special Operations Command North. In this discussion, Kerry talked about career success, career setbacks, and how “you can’t be a shiny penny without a few wire brushings!” Kerry shares his 5 H’s when it comes to leadership: honor, honesty, humility, humor, and happiness. He discusses the differences and similarities between the military, sports teams, business, and the shared commonality regarding leadership. Listen in to gain insights from a modern-day, intellectual warrior.
Key Takeaways
[3:01] Kerry progressed as a SEAL from the tactical area, through operational roles, and then to the strategic level as an admiral. The Special Forces, SEALs, and Rangers are tests for the human body and mind to do 10 times more than they think they can.
[5:48] A good team requires a common purpose or mission. Next, comes a shared experience or sacrifice. Everyone contributes to the best of their ability. These are the ingredients for a high-performing team.
[7:33] Kerry talks about sacrifice in a startup. Employees sacrifice high salary for shares. Founders are often on the road more than most executives, for a later payoff. Sacrificing now gives you future options.
[9:25] Kerry discusses how Naval officers achieve rank. Evaluations are not only for what they have done, but also their potential. Leadership is developing the leaders behind you. If something happens to you, the one behind you has to step up and take your place.
[13:29] Kerry talks about his advancement. He was passed over for Lieutenant Commander once, but not the second time. When he was up for Commander, it also took two times. But he made One Star Admiral before his contemporaries. Kerry follows five ‘H’s: Honor, Honesty, Humility, Humor, and Happiness.
[21:13] Military groups fight in a mission to win or lose; sports teams play a game to win; but business can be a long slog. He cites Admiral Jim Stavridis, who said to be open, honest, and collegial, and Admiral Michael Mullen, who said to listen, learn, and lead. Leaders who apply these principles will lead well.
[25:49] Competition among peers is healthy if it is balanced with cooperation. Leaders should lead people the way they need to be led. Some need a push, some need a pat on the back. Tell the contributors how they are doing, and what they need to do to be on the mark.
[29:44] In 1989, Kerry tells a hard leadership lesson he learned as the Team Commander of SEAL Team One when they deployed to the Philippines.
[37:27] Put people in the right spot for them, nurture them, and empower them, and they will surpass your expectations and surprise you with their achievements.
[41:42] No one starts at the top. He would like to help others have a smoother ride, go further, and go faster. The world needs leaders to handle complexity.
LinkedIn: Kerry M. Metz
Navy Bio: Navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio_ret.asp?bioID=655
Interview: Defensemedianetwork.com/stories/interview-with-rear-admiral-kerry-m-metz-us-navy
Hall of Valor: Valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=315229
Quotable Quotes
Whatever you can do, think 10 times that. You are capable of it.
Don’t let someone else determine where you’re going. You determine where you’re going. Stay on that path.
You’re going to get through that obstacle. You’ve just got to keep trying.
A high-performing team has a common purpose, a shared sacrifice, and everyone contributing to their best ability.
“A good leader can get the most of his personnel even that aren’t going all the way to the top.”
The bottom line is sustained superior performance.
If something happens to you, the one behind you has to take your place. If they’re not ready, then that’s your fault.
“If you’re doing something that you absolutely hate, my suggestion is, do something [about it].”
“You can’t be a shiny penny without a few wire brushings, and I got more than my share.”
The simplest solution is not always the best if there are unknown factors. Always listen to input.
Bio
Rear Adm. Kerry Metz holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver. He completed courses at the Air Command and Staff College, the Armed Forces Staff College and the Defense Language Institute. Commissioned via the Aviation Officer Candidate School in October 1984 and after a very brief time in aviation, he was assigned to the surface fleet where he served on USS Enhance (MSO 437).
Transferring to Naval Special Warfare, he completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training with Class 149 in April 1988.
He served in both Naval Special Warfare and Joint Special Operations assignments. Previous commands include a Naval Special Warfare Task Unit, a Joint Task Force, Naval Special Warfare Group 11, and six Naval Special Warfare Reserve Units. His service overseas includes multiple deployments to Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Metz served as the first commander of Special Operations Command North, a subordinate unified command of U.S. Special Operations Command under the operational control of U.S. Northern Command.
Promoted to rear admiral in October 2011, he served first as the deputy commander and then as interim commander of Special Operations Command Central from September 2011 to July 2013.
Books mentioned in this episode
Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, by Bill George
The Littlest Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership, by Jan Rutherford
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance
Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice, by Adam Makos
When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World, by William H. McRaven
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters,
by Thomas M. Nichols
Letters from a Stoic, by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by Joshua Foer
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal
and Tantum Collins
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert, by Craig Childs
Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy — Until You’re 80 and Beyond, by Chris Crowley
and Henry S. Lodge
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a quantitative data scientist and the author of Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are. In this discussion, Seth explains how philosophy and economics led him to data science and his passion for uncovering human traits through internet behavior. Seth says his work is what we can learn about people from data searches and other online behavior, because everyone leaves something on the internet. He concludes that we should theorize less, and let the data speak more.
Key Takeaways
[3:26] Seth studied philosophy, economics, and data science. He explains how they connect. His work at Google involved advertising effectiveness and search behavior modeling. The book Everyone Lies examines what we learn about people from their internet behavior.
[4:41] Seth writes and studies as his curiosity leads him. Success is one topic he explores. He downloaded Wikipedia to study Baby Boomers. Geography matters, because he found famous people were mostly from cities, college towns.
[9:58] Seth hopes people learn from his work the value and use of big data, and to make better data-based decisions. He also hopes more young people will enter this field of study, as there is much more to learn about human behavior.
[12:03] Seth considers Christian Rudder, author of Dataclysm, to be on the right path with big data. Undergraduate students are more likely to favor analyzing Facebook data over running an experiment with 20 subjects in a group.
[15:32] Seth contrasts his findings on success with the book Grit. He cites statistics of height and likelihood of becoming an NBA player. Malcolm Gladwell, in Tipping Point, says once a threshold is met other factors matter. Seth rebuts the threshold theory. A player over 7' tall has a one-in-five chance of playing in the NBA. Every inch doubles the chance. A 6'8" player has double the chance of a 6'7" player.
[19:00] The book Everybody Lies uncovers more racism than people are willing to admit and other attitudes people express in their Google questions that they would not ask another person.
[19:21] One of the biggest revolutions in business is A/B testing. Facebook does more experiments in a day than the FDA does in a year. Seth points out that making general rules from A/B testing is fallacious. Seth is considering writing a book on A/B testing. He A/B tests his life. Try different things and pay attention to what does work, and what doesn’t work.
[29:38] Facebook ‘Likes’ correlate to IQ. Higher IQ people like Mozart and curly fries. Seth sees how employers can find more about prospects through big data.
Twitter: @SethS_D
Website: http://sethsd.com
Quotable Quotes
“I actually think I’m a compulsively honest person, to a fault.”
“It’s not really necessarily who you are; it’s where you’re born, or when you’re born.”
“A lot of the book is also just about how conventional wisdom is so frequently wrong.”
Industry, bloggers, and undergraduates are exploring big data better than academics.
Facebook does more experiments in a day than the FDA does in a year.
Google is a modern confessional.
Theorize less, and let the data speak more.
Bio
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has used data from the internet — particularly Google searches — to get new insights into the human psyche. A book summarizing his research, Everybody Lies, was published in May 2017 by HarperCollins.
Seth has used Google searches to measure racism, self-induced abortion, depression, child abuse, hateful mobs, the science of humor, sexual preference, anxiety, son preference, and sexual insecurity, among many other topics.
He worked for one-and-a-half years as a data scientist at Google and is currently a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times. He is designing and teaching a course about his research at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will be a visiting lecturer.
Seth received his BA in philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford, and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.
In high school, he wrote obituaries for the local newspaper, the Bergen Record, and was a juggler in theatrical shows. He now lives in Brooklyn and is a passionate fan of the Mets, Knicks, Jets, Stanford football, and Leonard Cohen.
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Books mentioned in this episode
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Dataclysm: Love, Sex, Race, and Identity--What Our Online Lives Tell Us about Our Offline Selves,
by Christian Rudder
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell
Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
S. Yvonne Scott is the Chief Information Officer of Crowe Horwath, LLP. In this discussion, Yvonne shares her thoughts on how leaders can let their team members shine by providing opportunities for others to grow and succeed. She presents the 5 C’s of her leadership practice and 6 styles of leadership she applies. She believes teaming is the new leadership.
Key Takeaways
[5:18] With the end in mind, what is most important to you — what you accomplished, or what you started? A good leader is like a drop of water that makes an impact, but the ripples are carried forth by the body of the company. Yvonne’s legacy is the opportunities she leaves for those she leads.
[6:49] Yvonne leads with five C’s — Competence, Confidence, impact on Colleagues, impact on Company, and impact on Community. The little things you do define you as a leader. Your people carry forward the opportunities you start for them.
[8:58] To rely on the ripple effect, you use the opportunity to influence others, but it’s important not to micromanage how something gets done. Delegation magnifies your team beyond your own abilities. Yvonne credits her parents for modeling the necessity of delegation as they prepared her to become self-sustaining and independent.
[13:14] Yvonne had a mentor, Chuck, who promoted her, as a 24-year-old, to a manager role, against the strong warning of his own boss. If she had failed, Chuck would have been done. That was Yvonne’s launching pad for her career. She learned from him that as a leader you have to be brave and place confidence in others.
[20:28] As Yvonne started her career she viewed diversity as the demographic differences between who we are. Now she expands it to include how we think and our ideals. Opportunity isn’t limited. Bringing someone new to the table doesn’t displace an established person from the table. Let people in who challenge the status quo, and push against the rules. Bring in people from different disciplines.
[26:44] Leaders need to let other people shine. Their job is to create people that can create value. If the leader always gets the credit, they are not empowering their team. Being a leader is not a spectator sport, but you’re in the game with a lot of other people.
[30:11] Yvonne says teaming is the new leadership. She uses the Tour de France as an example. On the org chart, even those who have no reports still lead by thought and action to effect change in their areas. A team is an ecosystem.
[35:48] Yvonne discusses 6 leadership styles — Directive, Coaching, Visionary, Affiliative (trusting), Participative, and Pace-setting. Each style has its application, and good leaders will have a balanced portfolio of styles. A leader needs to know what style to use for each person and situation.
[40:11] Pacesetting is an art — knowing your team, and how much they can be stretched and pushed without breaking them. A leader needs to know the difference because the high performers will not admit when it’s too much.
Email: Yvonne.Scott@crowehorwath.com
LinkedIn: S. Yvonne Scott
Website: CroweHorwath.com
Article: “Why a Diversity of Perspectives Matters,” by S. Yvonne Scott and Chelsea Stoner
I.C.Stars: ICStars.org
Quotable Quotes
A good leader impacts an organization like a drop of water onto a pond. The leader disappears as the ripple expands.
“My legacy is really about, ‘How many opportunities have I created for other people, for their success?’”
Develop competence, grow confidence, impact colleagues, impact your company, and impact your community.
Augmentation is all about amplifying your effect.
Being a leader is not a spectator sport.
Teaming is the new leadership.
A leader’s job is to figure out what style of leadership will work best for each individual and situation.
You have to know when you’re stretching someone and they’re growing — and when they’re breaking.
Books mentioned in this episode
The Kindness Diaries: One Man's Quest to Ignite Goodwill and Transform Lives Around the World, by Leon Logothetis
The Kindness Diaries on Netflix
The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time, by Arianna Huffington
“Leadership that Gets Results,” by Daniel Goleman, Harvard Business Review
Bio
S. Yvonne Scott is the Chief Information Officer of Crowe Horwath, LLP. With over 3,600 staff located across more than 30 offices around the world, Crowe is the eighth largest accounting firm in the United States. She joined Crowe in 2008 and is responsible for directing all aspects of the firm’s information systems related activities, as well as the firm’s Project Management Office. She is a member of the firm’s Management Team and is a key contributor the firm’s transformation, growth, innovation, and women’s initiatives.
Yvonne currently serves as the Vice Chair of the board of directors of i.c. stars, a non-profit organization that prepares inner-city youth for careers in information technology and a dedication to community involvement and leadership. She also serves on customer and industry event advisory boards.
Yvonne holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Science degree in General Management and Accounting from Purdue University. In addition, Yvonne has published articles in professional journals, frequently presents on IT leadership at professional association meetings and supplier conferences, and has served as a CIO panelist at several conferences and seminars. She is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Certificate in Data Processing.
Leon Logothetis is a global adventurer, speaker, philanthropist and has a series streaming on Netflix called, the Kindness Diaries. He discusses his metamorphosis from an extremely shy person to a fearless world traveler who relied on kindness from strangers to help him on his journey. On the outside, Leon had everything. On the inside, he felt he nothing. Leon believes the crazy ideas can be the best ideas, and it’s is about smiling at the world and seeing what happens when the world smiles right back at you. Listen in to learn how to how connecting with yourself, is what helps you connect with others through compassion and empathy to realize… it’s not about you!
Key Takeaways
[2:01] Leon had dreams of adventure, but grew up to be a broker. Unsatisfied and depressed, he continued in place until he watched the movie, The Motorcycle Diaries. His adventurous desires were reawakened and he quit his job and traveled the world, relying on kindness for support. The kindness of people became a large part of his journey.
[5:28] While hitchhiking across America, Leon experienced extraordinary acts of kindness. He concluded that all people have kindness, but they need to connect to it. There is a generosity of spirit in Americans that is not portrayed in the media.
[8:24] Leon’s emptiness came from being bullied as a sensitive boy. As he grew, he allowed society to guide his decisions, but it was pain and depression that forced him to break free and start a life of adventure. He advises people to share their pain with one person who will listen without judgment. Leon made commitments to fix himself, and come to a place of kindness and empathy.
[16:31] When you are really seen, you feel it. You feel that the other person actually gets who you are. Social media is not a substitute for human-to-human connection to truly feel each other’s energy.
[23:33] Kindness is not weakness. Leon offers the example of Muhammad Ali, as a man who touched people’s lives with kindness from the heart. You can be strong and still be kind.
[25:00] Trust comes by intuition. You find yourself in a situation and you quickly determine if it’s a safe situation or not. If not, you extricate yourself as quickly as you can. If it’s a safe situation, then you try to connect with the person by finding something in common that interests you both deeply.
[31:07] Leon gives to people who need help from his own resources. He creates opportunities for people to grow, develop, and flourish. He works to empower people.
[38:27] Leon’s most unexpected situation came in Pittsburgh. He asked a man in the park if he could stay in his home that night. The man turned out to be homeless, but he said, stay with me tonight, and I will feed you, and protect you. Leon’s rational mind said no, but his intuition told him to do it. He learned you don’t have to have a lot on the outside to have a tremendous amount on the inside.
[41:09] After their night outside, Leon was able to offer the man an apartment and an opportunity to go to cooking school. Tony accepted and took the opportunity. They changed each other’s lives. Leon learned from him to see the kindness inside a person, and not just what is outside. Tony has made some serious mistakes since then, but he is working his way back from them.
[44:05] Leon knows he’s not a perfect person. He’s relatable because he’s just like you. He says human nature makes us all the same.
Facebook: @LeonLogothetis
Twitter: @LeonLogothetis
Website: LeonLogothetis.com
Netflix: The Kindness Diaries on Netflix
Brett Mitchell is the Music Director of the Colorado Symphony. He discusses leadership and teamwork, and how the best orchestras don’t just play with each other… they play for each other. He considers trust to be the first step to leadership and shares his philosophy and methods. He talks about the discipline of music, and how music theory can inform innovation, leadership and teamwork.
Key Takeaways
[2:51] As a young music director, Brett works consciously at leadership.
[4:29] Brett’s last position was with the Cleveland Orchestra, one of America’s Big Five orchestras. He started there in awe of the training and skill of the elite musicians. Brett learned that the better the orchestra, the more they want to be led. The musicians make music with each other and the conductor helps guide them, but does not dictate to them. The conductor is the arbiter of taste.
[10:06] Leonard Bernstein did a video with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducting them with his facial expressions alone in supreme trust and joy. Brett attributes his own career to the path Leonard Bernstein blazed for American orchestral conductors.
[16:20] The Conductor leads an orchestra; the Music Director is responsible for the artistic side; the Executive Director is responsible for the business side; the Maestro is a teacher. Brett studies the score, learns everybody’s part, listens to the orchestra, teaches the orchestra what the composer is saying through the score, and guides them through the execution of the score.
[26:38] John Williams’ film scores gave Brett the inspiration to study composition. Brett discusses how he and the staff at Public Radio Station WCLV happened to create the award-winning documentary on John Williams’ Star Wars movie scores, The Score Awakens.
[34:33] Brett is also on a guest conductor series. Trust comes from being reliable, getting right to work, showing you are prepared, and being authentic. The goal is not a flawless performance, but a performance as close as humanly possible to being flawless with passion. Beethoven said a wrong note is nothing, but to play without passion is inexcusable.
[43:00] Brett talks about dealing with mistakes during a performance. The conductor needs to find the mistakes that will not fix themselves, and correct and direct for them.
Twitter: @MaestroMitchell
Facebook: @brettmitchellconductor
Instagram: @maestromitchell
LinkedIn: Brett Mitchell
Website: BrettMitchellConductor.com
Website: ColoradoSymphony.org
Rick Nelson is a leader, and as the CEO of Direct Technology, his team went from 12 people in 2006 to over 650 employees today. Rick shares how his Air Force background serves him today, and speaks candidly about owning up to his own strengths and weakness. He explains how he tackles today’s business challenges, and how he values quality people over people skillsets.
Key Takeaways
[3:53] Almost all issues, challenges, and opportunities exist within people. Individuals want to know they are contributing in a meaningful way to something that has a purpose, and that they can grow personally and professionally within the organization.
[6:00] Rick looks at challenges by root cause analysis. He asks himself what he’s trying to accomplish; is it broken; and if so, why? He asks why, seven to ten times to get to the root cause. With the root cause, he calls in outside help, develops the vision, describes the vision, gets leader agreement, and executes. They ensure the mission is consistent with the goals.
[7:30] Rick talks about a challenge buying a sizeable organization and integrating it into the company. It meant aligning the company vision, getting individuals aligned with their work, with their units, and then into the overall company.
[8:59] Rick realized that maintaining a consistent customer experience meant he needed to delegate the assignment to others with a better ability to focus on customers, so he could maintain the big picture.
[13:50] For Rick, personal coaching provided great value to him, and he saw a need for business coaching. He recommends not waiting for a catalyst. Get an an outside coach.
[21:47] Rick talks about creativity, rigor and tight discipline in business. Each business has its own story, but they all sell (creativity), deliver (rigor), and get paid (tight discipline). All problems relate to these three areas. Business problems are innately hard to solve. Coaches have solved this problem before.
[29:02] Pride is a powerful motivator, but if you hold on to it, and it leads you to insist on your way instead of the right way, it can be a problem. Focus on giving your best effort, and letting your pride show in the excellence of your performance. Vulnerability and candor inspire people to follow you.
[33:29] Veterans bring skillsets and the capacity to drive further, faster, than others. If you start with the individual, and look at the characteristics gained by their military experience, including EQ, you’ll see an outstanding person. Rick talks of veterans he has hired that he calls business athletes.
[40:41] CEOs need a succession plan. He and his partners worked the succession plan into the development of the company from the beginning when there were only 12 people.
Website: DirectTechnology.com
Website: TAGroupHoldings.com
Facebook: @DirectTechnologyInc
Twitter: @DTChief
Twitter: @DirectTechHQ
LinkedIn: Rick Nelson
LinkedIn: Direct Technology
Summary & Ideas for Action
Rudy Ruettiger is a motivational speaker and author, and best known for being the subject of the movie, Rudy. Rudy talks about anonymous helpers in his life, and the rules he lives by. Listen in as Rudy talks about his own brand of positivity.
Key Takeaways
[2:33] Despite his small stature, Rudy was a walk-on for the Notre Dame football team. He first had to meet the academic challenge of getting into Notre Dame. Playing on the team, he says, was just a matter of hanging in there and not giving up.
[3:48] Rudy was a little older, having just come out of the military, and he hadn’t played organized football for years. Rudy says getting the movie made was as hard as being on the team.
[8:49] Rudy was inspired by Sylvester Stallone, and how he fought his challenges to reach his dream of making Rocky. He didn’t listen to negative voices, but surrounded himself with supporters, and relied on his faith in God to follow the path he felt to follow. He recalls a moment he shared with Sylvester Stallone when they met.
[17:08] Eliminate negative people from your life, and be with people who want to help you. Rudy talks about a bad business experience that he let go, although it was very expensive to him.
[21:26] Rudy had a special helper, and knows he would not have gotten through the tough times without him. He says this person does not need or want public recognition. It is enough that he was there when he was needed.
[27:46] Rudy became a motivational speaker, in spite of being “a terrible speaker.” He just wants to communicate, authentically. Rudy captivates audiences with a natural connection.
[30:53] Rudy only quits things if he doesn’t believe in them. It’s energy and time wasted to pursue things that are out of line with your values. Rudy does what he does, because he loves it.
[35:03] The Rudy Foundation is run by Rudy’s ex-wife, for youth. Rudy’s legacy is to inspire people to do what they love, and to persist.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Rudy: My Story, by Rudy Ruettiger and Mark Dagostino
Rudy’s Insights for Winning in Life, by Rudy Ruettiger
Rudy's Rules for Success: How to Reach Your Dreams, by Rudy Ruettiger and Mike Celizic
Rudy’s Lessons for Young Champions: Choices and Challenges, by Rudy Ruettiger, Cheryl Ruettiger,
Bill Atkinson, and Rebecca Wolfe Atkinson
Rudy & Friends: Awesome and Inspiring Real Life Stories of Ordinary People Overcoming Extraordinary Odds, by Rudy Ruettiger
The Rudy in You: A Guide to Building Teamwork, Fair Play and Good Sportsmanship for Young Athletes, Parents and Coaches, by Donald T. Phillips, Rudy Ruettiger, and Peter M. Leddy, Ph.D.
Bio
Against all odds on a gridiron in South Bend, Indiana, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, in twenty seven seconds, carved his name into history books as perhaps the most famous graduate of the University of Notre Dame. The son of an oil refinery worker, and third of 14 children, Rudy rose from valleys of discouragement and despair to the pinnacles of success. Today, he is one of the most popular motivational speakers in the United States. It took years of fierce determination to overcome obstacles and criticisms, yet Rudy achieved his first dream — to attend Notre Dame and play football for the Fighting Irish. As fans cheered RU-DY, RU-DY, he sacked the quarterback in the last 27 seconds of the only play in the only game of his college football career. He is the only player in the school’s history to be carried off the field on his teammates’ shoulders. In 1993, TRISTAR Productions immortalized his life story with the blockbuster film, RUDY. Written and produced by Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh, the award-winning team who brought us HOOSIERS, the critically-acclaimed RUDY received “Two Thumbs Up” from Siskel and Ebert, and continues to inspire millions worldwide.
Today a highly sought-after motivational speaker, Rudy entertains international corporate audiences with a unique, passionate, and heartfelt style of communicating. He reaches school children, university students, and professional athletes with the same enthusiasm, portraying the human spirit that comes from his personal experiences of adversity and triumph. His captivating personality and powerful message of “YES I CAN” stays with his audiences forever. Rudy’s opening remarks receive thunderous applause and standing ovations from audiences of 200 to 20,000 people who emotionally chant RU-DY, RU-DY!
Rudy has appeared on various high-profile nationally televised talk shows and radio shows across the country, is featured in national magazine publications, and has been honored with the key to many cities in the United States, with special proclamations for his inspiration, commitment, and human spirit. Rudy received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Our Lady of Holy Cross College, the Distinguished American Award, A Proclamation from the Governor of Nevada granting an Official Rudy Award Day, was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame, and spoke at the White House during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
In addition to his motivational speaking, Rudy has co-authored several books, including: RUDY’S INSIGHTS FOR WINNING IN LIFE, RUDY’S LESSONS FOR YOUNG CHAMPIONS, RUDY & FRIENDS, THE RUDY IN YOU, and RUDY: MY STORY. He co-founded the RUDY FOUNDATION, whose mission is to strengthen communities by offering scholarships in education, sports, and the performing arts. The Rudy Foundation makes a positive impact by bringing people together. The Rudy Foundation develops and supports programs that positively impact the lives of children cognitively, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The RUDY AWARDSTM Program was created by the Rudy Ruettiger Foundation to recognize children who make an outstanding, exceptional effort to do their personal best everyday, overcome obstacles, set goals, stay on track to reach their Dreams, and build the qualities of Character, Courage, Contribution, and Commitment into their lives everyday. The RUDY AWARDSTM is about a child’s heart, will to change, and desire for self-improvement. Rudy has two awesome children: Jessica Noel Ruettiger and Daniel Joseph Ruettiger.
Email: RudyInternational45@gmail.com
Website: Rudy45.com
Facebook: @RudyInternational
Facebook: @RudyFoundation
Twitter: @RUDYINT45
Twitter: @RudyFoundation
Email list: Facebook.com/RudyInternational/app_141428856257
Summary & Ideas for Action
Bo Burlingham is the author of Small Giants: Companies that Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, and co-authored with Jack Stack, The Great Game of Business, on open-book management. Bo says the question is how to accomplish business in a way that is highly productive, allows for the creation of great things, and enhances the lives of the people in the business, and those whom the business touches.
Key Takeaways
[2:51] Bo is not sure he’s a thought leader, but he is a journalist. In 1982, writing at Fidelity Investments, he started learning about business; shortly after, he was invited to write for Inc. That was his introduction to the entrepreneurial economy, and to many of the leaders of companies that have since become household names.
[7:11] Bo captures the essence of leadership and stewardship in his books. There is a theme of ownership, and engagement with the entire company. Bo starts with the essential concept of capitalist business: a group of people working together to create something that other people want to buy.
[10:13] The question is how to accomplish business in a way that is highly productive, allows for the creation of great things, and enhances the lives of the people in the business, and those whom the business touches. A leader is someone who educates people on what they are doing together, and how they are creating value and making the world better. A leader helps people learn and grow.
[13:04] Bo observes that great entrepreneurs live a life of value. Entrepreneurs are idealists and dreamers, and are driven to change the world for the better. The great entrepreneurs are primarily motivated by vision, not by gain.
[20:09] A business gets to a certain size and complexity, and the numbers become very important. Entrepreneurs are generally not accountants, and they need to learn that aspect of business to see how the enterprise is creating value. This was the basis of The Great Game of Business, with Jack Stack.
[24:40] There is a trend among young professionals to reject capitalism, while taking its benefits for granted. There is ignorance about how business works, while the media focuses on the problematic aspects of business. Business is a tool to use to meet your goals.
[28:49] There has always been tension between the numbers side and the people side of business.
Jack Stack said that’s only a problem when the numbers are not in the hands of the people themselves. When the people know the numbers, it becomes a matter of figuring out together what to do to create a more successful business.
[44:15] Be careful about choosing your employer.
Website: BoBurlingham.com
Website: Small Giants Community
Conference: Gathering of Games Conference
Twitter: @BoBurlingham
Facebook: @BoBurlinghamAuthor
LinkedIn: Bo Burlingham
Summary & Ideas for Action
Jim Gilmore, best-selling author and co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, discusses his experiences, books, and the importance of mastering the various modes of observation to innovate and improve decision making.
Key Takeaways
[6:50] Jim explains how he came to write Look. After studying Edward De Bono, he had an insight into thoughts, actions, and observations, which inspired him about six looking glasses to represent modes of observation.
[11:27] The six looking glasses are: Binoculars, for surveying and scanning, Bifocals, for comparing and contrasting views, Magnifying Glass for pinpointing the main point, Microscope, for scrutinizing the details, Rose-colored Glasses, for seeing potential, and Blindfold, for recalling all you have seen. Together they help people see more of what there is to be seen. Observation is separate from cognition.
[24:40] Watching people in groups and in detail can reveal unseen patterns of behavior that lead to innovation and disruption.
[26:00] When film was an expense, people framed their photos carefully. We lose our sense of framing by shooting carelessly. We take too many shots to curate. Study a scene carefully and limit yourself to framing one shot. Apply this deliberation to business decisions. Apply it to life.
[37:31] The more skilled you are at observing with the first five glasses, the better you will be at recalling blindfolded what you saw. If you don’t look well, you will recall poorly. The best glasses for a leader is to be skilled in using all of them. Particularly consider the bifocals. Pair opposites, and pair things as opposites. All innovation begins with observation.
[45:44] Jim sat next to George Carlin on a cross-country flight in 2000. Jim learned how George Carlin worked and filed his observations. He said, everybody observes, but they don’t know where to put the data. George Carlin maintained 2,500 directories where he recorded his daily observations and he knew each category. Come up with a number of categories of things you want to be consciously observing.
Conference: thinkAbout Conference 2017
Website: StrategicHorizons.com
YouTube: Youtube.com/Jim Gilmore Discusses Look
Amazon: Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, by James H. Gilmore
Linkedin: Jim Gilmore
Email: Jim@StrategicHorizons.com
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles, by Don Norman
Bio
Jim Gilmore coauthored the highly influential book, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre
& Every Business a Stage (Harvard Business School Press). Now published in nineteen languages — and in an updated paperback edition — the book spawned worldwide interest in experience design, experiential marketing, and customer experience management.
Jim’s other book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (Harvard Business Review Press), prompted TIME Magazine in a March 2008 cover story to name its insight on the subject as one of “Ten ideas that are changing the world.”
Jim is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, based in Aurora, Ohio. He is a Batten fellow and adjunct lecturer at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, where he teaches a course on the Experience Economy. Gilmore is also a visiting lecturer in Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, where he teaches a course on cultural
Hermeneutics. He also teaches a design course at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
He is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an alumnus of Procter & Gamble, and, before co-founding Strategic Horizons LLP, was head of CSC Consulting's Process Innovation practice.
Conference: thinkAbout Conference 2017
Website: StrategicHorizons.com
YouTube: Youtube.com/Jim Gilmore Discusses Look
Amazon: Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, by James H. Gilmore
Linkedin: Jim Gilmore
Email: Jim@StrategicHorizons.com
Summary & Ideas for Action
Tim Cole, Founder, author of The Compass Solution, talks about his 37-year career in one company as a pharmaceutical executive, and he’s sharing what he wish he had known early in his career!
Key Takeaways
[2:33] Tim worked at one company for 37 years. His book comes from his experiences through many corporate changes. He wrote the book as a compass and map to help people stay on track.
Tim’s career compass has four cardinal points. As he developed and followed these points along his journey, his career ascended.
[8:05] Tim wrote his book for Millennials trying to find traction in their careers. As the book evolved, it became more focused on the majority of the workforce who are disenfranchised. He also addresses CEOs, on creating a culture where people want to be. In his book, Tim covers transformative leadership and transactional management and the difference between.
[12:22] Transformative leaders create enduring impact that motivates, years later. Tim learned on the Crucible that adversity and discomfort can be wonderful, that depending on the team is everything, and that debriefing each day is powerful.
[17:59] The larger the organization, the more there are delays in quality decision-making. Create a culture where you think like a small company. This happens when leaders embody two traits: first, they are responsive to market change, and second, they foster a culture that status quo is not good enough.
[20:12] Influence does not come with a title, but by how you conduct yourself and treat others. Great companies focus on people and culture. When people want to be there, everything becomes easier.
[29:21] Tim identifies five timeless leadership principles: having credibility, caring, being trustworthy, being committed to a vision of excellence, and helping to make people better. These are supported by asking the right questions to find what is important to the ones they lead.
[37:00] Tim started his career working longer and harder than others, but learned later in his career to network, and build relationships. Tim’s loyalty was earned by leaders and people around him who had values and philosophies that Tim believed, that carried him through the hard times.
Website: TheCompassAlliance.com
LinkedIn: Tim Cole
Twitter: @officialtimcole
Instagram: @officialtimcole
Summary & Ideas for Action
Lessons from a 20-year Microsoft Executive
Sherlaender “Lani” Phillips is a 20 year executive at Microsoft, and she describes mentoring techniques that create a growth mindset culture where people are valued, and accountable. She believe mentors hold people accountable to invest in themselves. She values authenticity, honesty and even difficult times as ways to inspire the team to bring their best every day.
Key Takeaways
[2:39] Lani was invited to join Microsoft after she gave a presentation about the Windows platform.
[4:06] Mentorship is very valuable to Lani. It comes naturally, but she continues to invest a great deal of time developing her mentoring strengths. Lani constantly feels like a student, and a work in progress.
[8:36] To hear the unheard, Lani has created listening forums in her organization. The People Team pulls from all teams and is facilitated by a manager sponsor. The team gives direct feedback to improve the experience within the culture.
[9:49] Lani is clear about cultural values.
[17:03] Adversity makes you stronger. Look for the lessons in the difficult times. As an African-American woman, joining Microsoft 20 years ago, there were not a lot of people who looked like her. She struggled, especially in seeking to transition from the technical area to the sales area. She considered leaving the company, but was able to clarify her conversation until she got the opportunity to transition.
[21:30] Confidence comes from being prepared. Humility means being willing to receive feedback, and to take action from it. The environment must allow authenticity, vulnerability, and making mistakes. When it’s time to show up, be prepared, and be confident.
[24:27] Delegate authority around tough decision making. Managers need to foster dialog where the team arrives at the right solution, instead of telling them the right answer. When people ask Lani a question, she asks them questions that help them solve problems. Don’t provide the answer.
[27:40] Mentor leadership is part of the legacy Lani wants to leave behind. Lani comes to work as her authentic self, and leads by example. She wants to create an environment where more people feel like it’s OK to be like Lani. You have to be collaborative from the get-go.
Twitter: @phillipslani
LinkedIn: Sherlaender "Lani" Phillips
Summary & Ideas for Action
Lida Citroën, international reputation management and branding specialist, and CEO of LIDA360, shares her expertise on repairing reputations, and what to include and exclude from your personal brand. Your personal brand is the public extension of you. It represents the expectation of the experience people will get from you. She talks about the importance of protecting your reputation before you need to repair it.
Key Takeaways
The key question for personal branding is how do you want to live this life, what type of person do you want people to believe you are? What do you want to solve? Do you want to solve issues, do you want to solve things for your family? What problem or issue or concern are you passionate about solving?
[9:12] In some cases, people don’t need a new image, but they want awareness of how they got to their image, and how they can maintain it.
[10:53] Personal branding is very simple, but not easy. Simple things matter — your LinkedIn profile, how you dress for meetings, and your body language and eye contact.
[14:00] Reputation repair is a complex process. How much of the damage is emotional, and how much is financial and professional? In ten years will it have any effect on your business? Does it affect your core audience, or an external audience? Different circumstances require different approaches. You have to accept accountability.
[19:20] Posting affects your reputation. When you share something, the person who shared it before you is irrelevant. If it is wrong, or insensitive, the offense attaches to you for sharing it. Social media is part of your reputation management strategy.
[21:09] What do you want people to find about you on social media? Who do you want to find you? Social media is not about being flawless. It is about being consistent. Be relatable, human, and compelling to your target audience. Stay real. Your profile should be authentic, vulnerability and all.
[23:17] Social media is for collaboration and networking. We form relationships, and create content, ideas, movements, and thoughts. Across all platforms, be consistent with who you are.
[29:22] You set your own rules on social media. Social media is a marketing channel, not a place to unwind.
[35:37] It can be healthy to observe what your competition is doing on social media. Sometimes you can identify opportunity. It can help identify your unique value proposition, and it can also lead to collaboration.
[27:39] It does matter what others think of you. Reputation, or brand, is about an expectation of experience. If the expectation is shattered, the reputation is no longer trusted. Ensure expectations are met.
Website: LIDA360.com
Website: Reputation360Book.com
Website: YourNextMissionBook.com
Website: LIDA360.com/EngagingVeterans
Facebook: LIDAthreesixty
Twitter: @LIDA360
LinkedIn: Lida Citroën
YouTube: Youtube.com/LIDA360
Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and director of Everywoman’s Leadership program, talks about her passion for leadership and the power of diversity. Nina exposes the biases that hinder us from realizing the full spectrum of human contribution. In all her work, Nina aims to reveal deep, insidious imbalances, or ‘stories,’ that underlie our leadership. Cultural values form biases within us. Revealing those biases can offer a greater array of leadership choices.
Key Takeaways
[3:12] “Cultivating Women’s Leadership” workshop participants are selected from diverse women who are purposeful and motivated to effect change. They clarify their leadership motivation. They explore gifts of women’s leadership and growing each other’s leadership skills. “Regenerative Leadership” workshops are for all. Participants improve their effectiveness and ability to recharge and regenerate.
[6:55] In all her work, Nina aims to reveal deep, insidious imbalances, or ‘stories,’ that underlie our leadership. Cultural values form biases within us. Revealing those biases can offer a greater array of leadership choices.
[10:47] Nina’s career has been informed by a passion for diversity — of agricultural seeds, of the ecology, and of society. Diversity is nature’s safeguard against extinction. Bioneers involves 13 constituencies for global change. WDN involves women philanthropists to effect progressive change. Everywoman’s Leadership features diverse women as leadership models.
[17:41] Nina gives advice for leaders to build diverse teams. Cultivate a deep valuing of the multiplicity of ways that human beings show up. Recognize our own lenses and blinders, so we create a work environment that invites and includes all.
[20:23] Nina worked at Bioneers with Dawna Markova, author of numerous leadership books, who said, “One of our most common mistakes as leaders is that we think that people who think like us are smart, and people who don’t think like us are not.” This taught Nina that Bioneers needed to draft people who did not all think alike, for a system that represents the whole of human capacities.
[23:29] As leaders, one of our greatest assets is our vulnerability. Owning our mistakes cultivates us as learning organisms and organizations. We need diversity of mind, heart, spirit, and body. Nina says we all have masculine and feminine within us, and as leaders, we want to be able to pull from that spectrum traits that are needed at any given time.
[26:06] Nina discusses the confidence gap between women and men. It starts when girls are trained not to boast, not to assert themselves, and to hold themselves back. Girls orient more toward service for other people. Boys tend to orient more toward achievement for themselves. We need many more role models of women in STEM and other technical fields. Self-assurance is needed.
[29:29] The Iroquois Six Nations were inspirational to the suffragettes, as a culture where women’s wisdom was valued. Women select Chiefs based on their observations of young boys’ behaviors, seeing which of them are most attuned to the needs of the whole. The drafters of the Constitution drew upon elements of the Six Nations, but they did not adopt gender equality.
[32:00] Moonrise features 38 women and 2 men. Common themes were leaders responding to internal motivation, not external authority. It was the work of their hearts spirits to respond. They led with their whole person; body, spirit and mind. Vulnerability was a strength. They were collaborative, using relational intelligence, modeling respect and dignity for all living things.
[38:40] Nina notes leaders who inspired her: Terry Tempest Williams, who led her to imagine herself in multiple roles, Nalini Nadkarni, creating social innovation to save rainforest canopies, and Judy Wicks, co-founder of the business alliance for local-living communities.
Website: Bioneers.org Look for the Bioneers Conference in October.
Website: CultivatingWomensLeadership.org
Website: WomenDonors.org
Website: NinaSimons.com
Facebook: Nina Simons
Facebook: Bioneers.org
Twitter: @ninabioneers
LinkedIn: Nina Simons
Bio
Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and director of its Everywoman’s Leadership program, is a social entrepreneur passionate about reinventing leadership and restoring the feminine in us all.
Nina’s work currently focuses on writing, speaking, and teaching about women, leadership, diversity, nature, and systems thinking. Nina’s career has spanned several decades and has traversed working within the corporate sector, and working within the nonprofit sector. Nina has a bird’s-eye view around leadership and how it manifests in those different realms.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly
Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, Edited by Nina Simons
Also mentioned on the show:
http://www.ucodegirl.org/ourstory/
Summary & Ideas for Action
Pilar Gerasimo, journalist, social explorer, podcaster and self-proclaimed healthy deviant, talks about the leadership benefits of good health. She explains the effects of the ultradian rhythm with periods of intense focus separated by periods of relaxation. She also cites recent research on high-intensity performers, how they recharge, and offers her favorite revolutionary ways to better health.
Key Takeaways
[4:04] A healthy deviant is above-average health, and making deliberate, healthy choices while sidestepping unhealthy norms.
[6:10] Pilar notes research that good health supports leadership success. Healthy, happy people are more capable leaders, and more able to manage stress and challenges. It takes a significant amount of resilience to be a good leader, when stress climbs.
[9:58] A major source of stress is having negative experiences, or unresolved conflicts, or friction with other people. Job satisfaction relates directly relationships with peers, and with bosses. Stress adds to your reactivity, which decreases ability to lead and manage teams.
[11:15] Early philosophers and scientists used their time to observe how things are and how they work. In spite of progress in technology, things have not really changed since then. What works for people, still works. What degrades quality of life, or presence with other people, is still true. A return to the philosophies of old is a refreshing break from sensational ‘listicles,’ and soundbites lacking substance.
[14:30] Pilar recently published a podcast episode of The Living Experiment, on attractiveness. She discusses the factors that contribute to attractiveness, and how attractiveness relates to promotability. Attractiveness is, in part, a reflection of health. Stress degrades health and attractiveness.
[20:41] Pilar discusses the 101 Revolutionary Ways to be Healthy. Some favorites: #5 Repossess your health; #9 Safeguard your juju; Don’t let yourself get run down, depressed, negative, or reactive; #68, and #89 slow down, and pace yourself. As people are rushing, they can lose sight of the fact that rushing is physiologically and mentally toxic.
[27:06] After about 90 to 120 minutes of focused effort without a break, the neurological systems start to degrade, mistakes happen, accidents happen, creativity, productivity, and capacity break down, along with the immune response, and you are unable to use new information until you rest.
[29:25] Ultradian rhythm breaks of 5, 10, or 20 minutes are recommended every 90 to 120 minutes. This keeps our focus fresh and inflammation down. This can be a walk, a nap, or other shift to low-focus activity. You produce energy resource adenosine triphosphate (ATP) during your break. You get an immediate pay-off. Come back to your project, and you see a solution quickly. You get more done.
Website: PilarGerasimo.com
Podcast: LivingExperiment.com
Website: TheHealthyDeviant.com
Facebook: Pilar Gerasimo
Pinterest: PilarGerasimo
Instagram: @PGerasimo
Twitter: @PGerasimo
LinkedIn: Pilar Gerasimo
Summary & Ideas for Action
Kyle Lamb, President of Viking Tactics, talks about military and business leadership behaviors — what works and what doesn’t — with entertaining stories along the way. His authentic conversation reflects lessons learned that he energetically shares with others. He tells how his entrepreneurial journey started on the family farm, continued through the military, and takes full form in his company, and in writing his books. His main focus is unflinching honesty when appraising team member and mission performance. He talks about his team-building training exercises, and how they are not for feeling good, but for learning to execute the mission with excellence. He uses humor, but keeps the serious moments completely serious. He stresses the importance of the debrief. He tells how his wife debriefed him after reading the final draft of his book, and made him improve it. Listen in to learn how mission skills apply to every endeavor, and in your organization.
Key Takeaways
[5:15] First, know your mission. In business, some people do not understand what the mission is. Teamwork starts with the mission.
[16:05] Kyle talks about dads, needing to be there for their kids, and making sure they perform. Dads should have their children play in very competitive sports. People need to put forth 110%, and win. If you lose after your best effort, it is better than getting a participation trophy for little effort.
[20:41] Kyle has always kept his sense of humor. He disrupted school with pranks. Kyle sees humor as a part of quick thinking. He points out sports heroes who have a great sense of humor.
[28:24] Kyle explains that his team-building seminars teach you how to do your job. He uses the basics of gear, respecting the team, planning, execution, “hotwashing” (debriefing), and repeating with a different leader. Team-building helps weaker leaders grow stronger. Kyle recalls an interaction with a troop commander who needed to learn the value of the skills of his team.
[33:18] Kyle is very serious during the hotwash. He asks, “Do you understand where I’m coming from with this shortcoming that you have?” If they say no, Kyle continues to explain it until they do. Be honest with people. If they bail, that is better then continuing with incompetence. Don’t be mean, but honest.
[37:07] Kyle puts mission over money. VTAC builds the best products for their customers. If you’re about the mission, you’re ultimately going to be successful. Kyle reminds his military friends that when they’re out of the Army, they’re no longer commandos, and no one cares what they did as commandos. They have the skillsets to be successful as civilian entrepreneurs, if they apply them to their new mission.
[44:00] Kyle’s his first two books trained him for writing his third book, Leadership in the Shadows: Special Operations Soldier. He was unimpressed with leadership books about clawing to the top. A friend offered to help him write a leadership book in return for three V-back T-shirts. So he did. Then his wife read it, and told him to re-write five chapters, this time with a positive attitude.
[48:17] Kyle wanted a book to read in five-minute windows. It is a book for busy people. He was inspired by The Warrior Ethos, by Steven Pressfield, that can be read in bits. Kyle includes a hotwash at the end of chapters.
LinkedIn: Kyle Lamb
Facebook: Kyle Lamb
Facebook: Viking Tactics
Instagram: @vikingtactics
YouTube: Viking Tactics
Twitter: @VikingTactics
Website: Vikingtactics.com
Website: Leadership in the Shadows
Summary & Ideas for Action
Retired Lieutenant General Frank Kearney works with the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point. In this discussion, he covers his military and post-military career in leadership development, and shares the wisdom of his experience in building leadership within organizations. He stresses culture, selecting leaders, training, communicating intent, and how intent is reflected back so there is clear guidance. He talks about the continual leadership training within the Army, and how those principles of training apply to the corporate world. He mentions Team Red, White & Blue and their work to help returning veterans network and stay physically active and connected in society. Listen in to learn more of how Special Forces and veterans have leadership abilities that transfer well into the civilian office.
Key Takeaways
[2:43] Frank spent 35½ years in infantry, airborne, and in Special Operations leadership. He praises the people he worked with, especially the Ranger Regiment. He learned to be a good soldier and a good leader, and he advanced to a level where he could represent the organization in the Pentagon and in Congress. Frank’s last assignment in the military was at the National Counterterrorism Center.
[4:31] When Frank left the military, he wanted to build leaders. He sought out the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point, and asked for the opportunity to demonstrate a role as senior advisor to help stitch programs together. He is able to work with a lot of great companies in the United States, and to learn about them.
[5:59] Frank points to the cultural level of an organization as the point where team dysfunctions start. When you set up a climate of a leader development culture, then the tasks of picking the right people, training them the right way, and adapting the organization to today’s environment will all follow.
[7:00] Since 1775, the U.S. Army has processed every generation, adapting to the environment around them, and giving every young man and woman who stays past their first enlistment a leadership opportunity. The Army is always building leaders focused on mission and success, strategy, and resourcing for that strategy. The Army uses assessment, selection, and training for mission success.
[10:12] Selection for Special Operations assumes a given number of years of future service. In corporate America, employment is at-will. Frank says people stay in special units because they love the culture, the environment, the mission, and the camaraderie. They are incentivized by purpose. Corporate leaders have the job to create that climate and culture that will incentivize their teams.
[14:15] Frank says the key to culture is to understand why you are doing what you are doing. Know your mission and make your culture. The military and business share a clear vision with a clear purpose. Every organization has its purpose. Great organizations have connected teams that share camaraderie and vision. Frank talks about the purpose of Team RWB, giving veterans purpose through physical training.
[20:51] Frank serves on the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee. He speaks about the work they do. It involves the art of influencing up, using his unique counterterrorism experience to continue to serve the security of the country. People are more aware of threats because they are more broadcast. We are in no greater danger, but there is an ability to influence, alarm, and excite people beyond the existing threat.
[27:35] Frank has been fortunate to serve on a lot of teams with great men and women. He shares one team story from the invasion of Panama. The night of December 20, 1989 went off like clockwork. It was the result of years of planning, with late changes. In a coup de main, the Special Forces hit so many targets the first night that it overwhelmed the enemy. The intent had been clear, and they succeeded.
[33:10] Frank talks about laying out intent, so the team is able to act with purpose. Good strong leaders want to get in and help, but should resist. They need to train the team, so the team can plan, and brief leadership on their plan. The briefback allows leaders to coach people back within the margin of risk. The three keys to the leader development cycle are intent, briefback, and coaching within the margin of risk.
[38:03] The military is a place to give back. Millennials also want to give back to society at large. Frank sees a trend of purpose among Millennials. They want to know why they are doing things. Frank advises executives to treat them the way they want to be treated, and communicate with them in the medium in which they communicate. Leaders have a responsibility to learn how to connect with their employees.
[41:20] Intent communicates two levels down — to your direct reports, and then to their direct reports. This way, intent is communicated to every level, and vertical alignment is in place. The magic in intent is the immediate reflection back to you, “This is what I heard.” Then you validate, or correct. People do not always understand without reflecting back, and having it validated or corrected.
LinkedIn: Frank K.
Facebook. Frank Kearney
Website: ThayerLeaderDevelopment.com
Website: TeamRWB.org
Summary & Ideas for Action
Jim Hake is Founder and CEO of Spirit of America. Jim founded Spirit of America after the events of 9/11. The Spirit of America provides privately-funded humanitarian, economic, and non-lethal assistance to projects around the world.
Key Takeaways
[2:21] A Stanford grad - Silicon Valley captivated him. New opportunities spark new inspiration. He worked for a startup in school. Later, he started a company with partners. With success on the early internet, they sold the company. After four years, Jim left to start an internet company. The dot.com bubble burst, and his company failed.
[6:52] Jim was looking for a buyer when the attacks of 9/11 occurred. Jim immediately committed to help. Tragic circumstances may awaken heroic aspirations to help in meaningful and substantial ways. Jim decided to do something substantial to make a meaningful difference.
[8:30] Once Jim had an idea, he stuck with it. He had no Government or nonprofit experience; he just moved forward. A National Geographic Channel story about Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Jay Smith organizing baseball for local Afghan youth inspired Jim. Baseball helped Jay and his team build better relationships.
[11:29] Jim realized other men and women serving would like to do the same. He wanted to provide resources for them. Jim learned his own background as an entrepreneur was relevant to Special Forces. The Special Forces lack access to venture capital. Windows of opportunity close too quickly for channels.
[15:10] Jim gives examples of projects in the Middle East to support the war effort. SOA has provided targeted humanitarian assistance, economic assistance, and non-lethal assistance to get basic services back up and running, and build trust and prevent insurgency, in 50 countries, to date.
[17:08] Jim describes a large, long-term successful operation in Niger, working under the guidance of the Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOCs). They represent the best of American ideals, and support the U.S. mission abroad working with the military and with diplomats, in their missions.
[24:43] Jim stresses the importance of listening to learn. Jim knew, starting Spirit of America, that he had no knowledge of what to do in a village in Afghanistan or West Africa, or what the military should do. So he knew his organization would need to listen to and respond to the front lines.
[28:30] Jim considers the struggle between listening, and being aggressive. Be aware that between the two approaches, neither one is always right. General Mattis said, “We’re going to be no better friend, and no worse enemy.” General Mattis gives repeatable direction. It is simple and understandable. It involves active listening and verifying understanding.
[32:42] Jim has worked with a lot of great people, but his father was his greatest mentor. His father had a sign, “Instead of thinking of reasons why you can’t, think of how you can.” He also told him, “You can do anything, you’re a Hake.” Jim learned confidence to try things, experiment, and become what he is today. Early childhood influences set the course for future aspirations.
[35:30] Former SOS George Shultz, is on the Spirit of America advisory board. Jim went to his office at Stanford, and asked him how he stays looking so great. Sec. Shultz stood up and said, “Look at a young man like you. You have your whole life ahead of you!” At age 59, it gave Jim a great boost.
[37:24] Jim’s lessons: People everywhere have much in common; people want a better life for their children; people want meaning in their life.
Website: SpiritOfAmerica.org Pick a project to support. Sign up for email updates.
Email: Staff@SpiritOfAmerica.org
Twitter: @JimHake
LinkedIn: Jim Hake
Website: Hooverpress.org/Warriors-and-Citizens-P627.aspx
Summary & Ideas for Action
Susan Barton is the Founder and CEO of Bright Solutions for Dyslexia. Susan shares the story of her inspiration to start Bright Solutions for Dyslexia 25 years ago, when dyslexia was largely unknown, and information about it was hard to gather and share. Over the years, over 200,000 families have contacted Susan for help. She provides an overview of the effect of dyslexia on one’s ability to learn, and how it is important to see it as a learning difference; not a learning disability. Through her talks around the U.S., she educates parents, teachers, and professionals on how to reach these students to give them the advantages they need to excel in life.
Key Takeaways
[2:25] Jim describes how Susan played a transformative role in the lives of his family and son. Jim’s son had undiagnosed dysgraphia and dyslexia, and so did Jim, as he learned after researching why his son couldn’t write. Susan keeps records of all requests for help, about 200,000 so far. Jim first contacted Susan at Bright Solutions for Dyslexia in 2007.
[7:57] Susan explains her interest in dyslexia. Susan does not have an education background, and never taught in a school. Susan started in computers. Her bright, lovable nephew Ben struggled badly in school. He failed kindergarten. He qualified for Special Education in first grade. In third grade, the family was in a panic when nothing was working. All the family’s resources were devoted to helping Ben.
[10:14] Ben’s self-esteem plummeted and he became a mean, angry, sullen, and withdrawn teenager, at high risk for dropping out. In 10th grade the school told his parents that not all kids were meant to read, despite his IQ in the gifted range. One teacher told them he might have dyslexia, but if so, it’s too late to help him at his age. That was the first time they had heard of dyslexia.
[11:58] After weeks of crying, praying, and looking for alternatives, they accepted the school’s recommendation to send Ben to a voc-ed school, to learn to support himself. Having no idea how hard it would be to find the answers, over 25 years ago (pre-internet), Susan began her journey to help Ben. She started at the library; they didn’t have much, but she found an adult literacy program seeking volunteers.
[12:56] Susan volunteered. At the first volunteer training session, Susan told Ben’s story, and learned that the center was one of six adult literacy programs in California, devoted solely to adults with dyslexia. She was at the right place. Susan eventually took a full-time position there, leaving her good-paying computer career, because of her passion.
[13:49] After four years Susan switched from adult literacy to clinics that worked with children after school. She learned a lot about the school system and IEPs, and found that the problem isn’t dyslexia. The problem is they aren’t training teachers and parents about it, and to teach for it.
[14:19] Susan knew there were millions of children affected, and it was ruining their lives, without resources to help them. So she decided to leave the clinic and start Bright Solutions for Dyslexia, a free information resource center. All day long they answer phones and emails, provide webinars, videos, interviews, etc., to try to spread the word so children can be taught. 20% of children have dyslexia.
[17:23] Susan explains why dyslexia is not an invisible condition. You just have to be familiar with the traits. Jim looks back at his life, and sees so much that is explained by dyslexia, including the extra care he takes in writing, and why he doesn’t write by hand. Jim also notes that in people with dyslexia, there is engagement of both sides of the brain, allowing great empathy and great logic at the same time.
[22:16] Susan addresses self-confidence in relation to learning. She tells parents to spend one hour or more finding and growing their child’s gifted areas for every hour spent working with their weak skills. There are 14 key areas where children with dyslexia do better than others. Parents need to encourage these strengths. Confidence comes from being successful. Schools do not focus on these strengths.
[23:58] In the business world, leaders should focus on strengths. StrengthsFinder, by Tom Rath is a good resource. Finding five good things to tell someone for every criticism is helpful for confidence. You build your understanding of yourself, and how you fit into society, when you are five to eight years old. If you are feeling left behind at those ages, it will affect your life, if someone doesn’t help you work through it.
[26:32] Susan is an effective communicator. Her audience is dyslexic, and she treats everybody as though they have it. She gives the big picture first, gets their attention up front, gives lots of examples, and writes cleanly and clearly with simple language in short sentences. She spends a lot of time practicing, making the wording shorter and more direct, before she records a video or speaks publicly.
[35:33] Susan finds education to be the most effective tool to fight ignorance. She gives free talks all over the U.S., and the people who come to those talks are the people who are curious and concerned. If they care enough to come to a three-hour talk, she can reach them. They will go back and try to make change in their school. Susan won’t retire until she knows the children are being taken care of well.
Facebook: @SusanBartonDyslexia
Twitter: @DyslexiaBarton
Website: BrightSolutions.US for free dyslexia information and videos
Website: AskSusanBarton.com
Website: BartonReading.com
Phone: (408) 559-3652 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT
Summary & Ideas for Action
Gus Lee, bestselling author, and expert on leadership and courage, presents a mini course for developing leadership. He says it starts with moral character and courage, and builds up through practices of respect and and integrity. Gus talks about the many challenges of his youth, and the rescuers and mentors he found along the way who taught him the principles of true character. Gus looks to the words of Aristotle, Confucius, and modern teachers, for the principles that lead to moral character, courage, and authentic leadership, starting with positive respect. Listen in to learn more about how leaders can strengthen themselves and their teams.
Key Takeaways
[2:08] Gus got involved with leadership in an effort to learn American culture, as he had come from a broken immigrant family. He was essentially raised from the age of seven by the boxing faculty of the downtown YMCA. They took him in, and kept him in the ring for 10 years. Then, Gus attended West Point, a premier leadership institution.
[3:17] At West Point, he was mentored by H. Norman Schwarzkopf, a young engineering professor, who modeled leadership development for Gus throughout a 47-year relationship. Later, Gus taught Leadership at USC, along with Warren Bennis, who invented modern leadership theory. However, Gus was in denial that he lacked the character to be a good leader. He says he didn’t have the moral spine.
[4:59] Gus went on to become West Point’s first Chair of Character Development. Gus says his first influence was Aristotle. Aristotle said it’s simple to understand and grasp both character and leadership. First, get rid of your bad habits. Second, practice the behaviors of courage. It’s not a feeling; it’s a discipline of hard practice.
[7:55] Gus says that by developing habits, you change your inner disposition — your inner deep attitudes — and then you achieve character. He learned from Aristotle: stoicism, or grit, as traits an individual needs to survive, and moral courage and character, which are only for the benefit of serving others.
[12:14] Gus’s upbringing was tough. Gus grew into an isolated, intellectual introvert, fearful and distrustful, and prepared to be a hermit. What he learned through his education was that character allows us to assess our disadvantages from the past, and to face them with a great deal of nobility, without blaming the adults.
[15:10] Gus talks about the integrity related to moral courage. With the behaviors of moral character, we can have a splendid life, regardless of the tragedies of the past. For most of Gus’s career of teaching, he relied on the psychology model of leadership. He has moved to a platform of the character of leadership.
[18:47] Gus credits a host of people for turning him around. It started with his first friend on the street, at age six. This friend, also six, taught him the six behaviors of character as he had learned them from his mother. At seven he went to the YMCA and found three boxing coaches, from the Bronx, Manila, and Oakland. They mentored him in boxing and life, and served as his Dads, for 10 years.
[21:27] Gus says it is hard to develop character. He describes how he learned the behaviors of boxing, and compares boxing to character and leadership. We have to witness the behaviors and the modeling of character in our homes and by our teachers. Character, leadership, and boxing are not academic subjects. They are taught by observing and doing.
[24:45] Gus warns that leaders cannot expect behaviors out of those they lead that they do not model for them. As a leader, it’s not about your needs and your ego, but it is about your character. Gus offers clear steps: take responsibility to change yourself, stop your bad behaviors, develop other leaders intentionally, and be accountable always. Adopt the six behaviors Aristotle endorsed.
[29:59] Gus explains the first product of moral courage is a set of behavioral tools to not be controlled by fear and emotional reactivity. The second is that you learn to be humble — “I need to improve in order to be of value to others.” The third is self-sacrificing, selfless leadership. Gus points out that many in our culture have poor values that cannot lead to happiness. He is grateful to his mentors, especially his wife.
[34:17] Gus comments on what is the biggest, most common leadership stumbling block — it is the first required behavior of high character and moral courage, to unconditionally, positively, non-negotiably, honor all persons; to respect those we dislike, to listen truly, and be attentive to, and even love, the person who drives you nuts, and is most dangerous to your organization.
[35:47] Gus says the all-purpose tool to improve all relationships is to have the moral courage to respect, care about, and listen to the other person, even as that person is attacking you. That’s the Achilles’ heel in how we to teach leadership. We don’t teach to UPR — unconditionally, positively, respect all persons, under all circumstances. It doesn’t mean endorsing; it doesn’t mean approving of bad behavior.
Website: GusLee.net
LinkedIn: Gus Lee, Owner, Leaders of Character LLC
Facebook: Gus Lee
Howard A. Tullman, CEO of 1871,share his advice and wisdom from his years as an entrepreneur, academic, speaker, columnist, futurist and community leader. The conversation starts with the sudden growth of Chicago’s tech sector, supported by 1871, and the objectives of 1871 in preparing entrepreneurs to build a business community and innovate for growth. Howard discusses the business and university partners of 1871, and the programs they sponsor. He also talks about Bunker Labs that helps returning veterans to become entrepreneurs. The discussion turns toward principles of entrepreneurship, trends in the workplace, and why everyone will need to be entrepreneurial before too long. He says, if you’re not in a hurry, you’re probably too late. Listen in to learn how entrepreneurism is leadership.
Key Takeaways
[2:38] Howard was involved in 1871 from the beginning, and took the CEO role after a year, taking it from a community hub to a sustainable business. The state and city had ceased to support them. Howard’s ‘Job One’ was to make themselves into a profitable self-sustaining nonprofit.
[4:53] Howard stresses the key message of moving faster than your competition, and being in a hurry to get to market. In five years, Chicago has moved from virtually not having a tech sector, to being the top U.S. city for successful tech startups. Chicago, with its many universities and industries, is a natural center for talent, capital, and customers.
[7:09] 1871 connects startups with large corporations looking for ‘innovation juice’ and ‘disruption stuff.’ They all have the same five problems: being much too slow, doing insufficient R&D, not being attractive to young creative digital workers, thinking the leaders who broke the company will fix it, and not passing institutional knowledge between generations of workers. 1871 addresses all these problems.
[8:43] Howard notes that besides large companies, 1871 has seven university partners. They have a different problem: they have many inventions and new ideas, but the faculty is not interested in the messy work of commercialization. 1871 builds companies around the tech and brings it to market.
[9:42] Bunker Labs at 1871 specifically helps veterans to become successful entrepreneurs. Howard talks about the range of entrepreneurs, young to old. Right in the middle are the vets, who are mission-focused, more mature, and more committed — this is their shot. The Bunker has been a critical way to smooth that transition. With 500 companies, they can find someone they can help, or go solo.
[12:55] Howard wrote an article about his long-time friend Bruce Springsteen, and how he brings everyone’s experience alive. “The Boss” embodies entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to have: passion to make a difference, preparation, perspiration to do the hard work, perseverance, and principles. These are all values-based attributes. These are values shared by veterans.
[16:03] Howard speaks frequently in Chicago on future trends. He says 1871 is designed to produce serendipity and synergy. Real innovation occurs at the edges and at the intersections of different interests and domains. Leadership requires showing a vision and a path to get there. Howard does homework to keep current in about 20 fields. He works to help people not repeat familiar mistakes.
[23:32] Howard talks about effective leaders. They eat the elephant one bite at a time. They don’t try to boil the ocean. They nail it before they scale it. They don’t care who gets the credit. They make real things happen. Make it easy to do business with your business — audit your website for ease of use!
[29:26] Howard looks to entrepreneurs, not to government, for change. Regulations lag innovation by about 10 years. Uber and Airbnb are the cheerleaders for asking for forgiveness, not permission. If the government doesn’t catch up, that’s the only way change is going to happen. 1871 is going to be teaching a ninth-grader class. High school students, rock stars, and jocks all want to be entrepreneurs!
[33:46] Howard wrote recently that not only are the business schools not teaching leadership, but they are not teaching the equally important subject of sales. A leader starts by selling himself. Howard models behaviors he wants the startups to incorporate into their business. Build the culture right, and people who come in will adopt it, or will leave. Entrepreneurship is all about execution, and hard work.
[36:31] Howard cites Andy Warhol, “Being good at business is an art.” Entrepreneurs paint a roadmap on a blank canvas. 1871 is filled with art to show various ways to achieve excellence. Entrepreneurs take their satisfaction from performance.
[40:57] Howard notes one huge difference between Special Operations Forces and entrepreneurs. The Special Ops have a team behind them. It’s lonely to be an entrepreneur. It’s hard to build that team, but you need a team.
Website: 1871.com Celebrating our 5th year!
Website: Tullman.blogspot.com
Twitter: @1871Chicago
Twitter: @Tullman
Bio
Howard A. Tullman is the CEO of 1871 in Chicago – where digital startups get their start – and the General Managing Partner for the Chicago High Tech Investment Partners, LLC and for G2T3V, LLC – both Chicago-based venture capital funds. He most recently was the Chairman/CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint College which he co-founded in 2007. He is the former President of Kendall College in Chicago and the former Chairman/CEO of Experiencia, Inc. He is also the Chairman of the Endowment Committee of Anshe Emet Synagogue, a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE); a member of Mayor Emanuel's ChicagoNEXT and Cultural Affairs Councils; the Innovate Illinois and Illinois Arts Councils; a member of President Preckwinkle’s New Media Council, an Advisory Board member of HighTower Associates, Built in Chicago, and Imerman Angels, and an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School, as well as a regular guest lecturer at the Northwestern University School of Law. Mr. Tullman also serves as a Director of Vehcon, SnapSheet, and PackBack Books and served as a long-time Director and Board Chairman of The Cobalt Group, a Trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and of the New York Academy of Art and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, and as the lead Director (and briefly Chairman) of The Princeton Review. Over the last 48 years, he has successfully founded more than a dozen high-tech companies.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
“What 'The Boss' Can Teach Us About Loss,” Inc. article by Howard Tullman
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
Dr. Linda Sharkey and Morag Barrett, co-authors of The Future-Proof Workplace, share their views on how the industrial revolution left us with the broken and toxic workplaces we see today. Virtual enterprises and aspirational millennials do not thrive under command-and-control leadership. Linda and Morag talk about how a culture of curiosity, learning, diversity, growth, and purpose can future-proof the workplace to lend purpose and power to individuals and teams.
Key Takeaways
[5:40] Linda explains that the rules of industry were designed for an era with different values and beliefs, such as the belief that people need to be controlled and managed to achieve their goals. The manual manufacturing environment is replaced by automation. ‘Command and control’ is still seen in the office. Linda would rather see ideas put in place to help people be the best they can be, and contribute fully.
[9:59] Linda comments on command and control. She considers the pressure to produce and sell, which has been present since the Great Recession, causes leaders to revert to the default style of command and control to meet high-pressure deadlines.
[16:09] Linda says more books are written on leadership than any other topic. Leadership has been an issue for thousands of years. The style of leadership that is engaging, focused on development and on the individuals you are leading, with heart, has always been successful. People have tolerated command and control, but changed conditions and technology have made it unsustainable for this century.
[17:41] Linda considers how current massive changes may cause us to step back and ask how can we really get to that place we’ve all been talking about for the last 50 years, of belonging, of diversity, with a culture that values people, and makes them feel they can participate and innovate, and feel appreciated. Things will never be as they were in the 1960s, so embrace the change and transform along with it.
[20:11] Morag studied authors Christophe Morin, Sebastian Junger, and Robin Dunbar for her first book, on the importance of professional relationships. Technology gives us an illusion of connection, but social media friends are not friends to call on in an emergency. The neuroscience of what makes us human — how we work together, is important. Morag cites Daniel Pink on autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
[23:02] Linda stresses the importance of purpose. Purpose needs to be the rallying cause. People get much more excited about what they’re doing, when thinking from a purposeful perspective. Deep down, people do want to help other people, and want to make and do things that will make a difference and leave a legacy.
[24:56] Connection and empathy are basic principles. Morag suggests pausing to check in, and connect, before you dive into the project. Relationships are critical to success in the 21st century. Linda says technology gives us information very quickly, but the emotional connection, and feeling of a relationship is what makes a difference to people. Google research shows that the best teams care about each other.
[34:18] Morag says leaders today need to have these conversations: what culture do we have on this team, what are our rules of engagement, and how are we working together? Start creating a language and framework that effects change, at your level of influence, if you are not in the C-suite. There will be a ripple effect to the rest of the organization.
[39:17] Deal humanely with people that don’t produce. But saying that a certain percentage will be cut is toxic. Look at your strategy, and look at your people. Who has the skills now to move the strategy forward, who needs development, and who would work better in another area, or at another company? Keep the workforce vital, to deliver on the strategy. Dump the rules, and grow people with the company.
[43:49] Morag shares case studies. They helped someone pivot from the mindset of a treadmill career track to a portfolio career, where the same skills performed a different role, and provided empowerment and fulfillment. Linda and Morag helped a team move past the way it has always been done, to an innovative, influential solution. Linda and Morag helped an organization find hidden talent in-house.
[47:18] Linda shares a cultural transformation story of a Canadian division of a global company. With six months of serious effort, they really changed how leadership acted, and how they were interacting with the company. They measured the results with psychometric tools. Over a year, they were able to turn the culture around to become a star division in the company. Use science, not hunches, to make changes.
Book: The Future-Proof Workplace: Six Strategies to Accelerate Talent Development, Reshape
Your Culture, and Succeed with Purpose, by Linda Sharkey, PhD. and Morag Barrett
Website: FutureProofWorkplace.com For a special 40% discount on the book.
Website: LindaSharkey.com
Website: SkyeTeam.com
Twitter: @TheLindaSharkey
Twitter: @SkyeMorag
Twitter: @SkyeTeam
LinkedIn: Linda D. Sharkey
LinkedIn: Morag Barrett
Facebook: The Linda Sharkey
Facebook: Skye Teamn
Bio
Dr. Linda Sharkey is the author of The Future-Proof Workplace and a trusted transformational expert, author, speaker, and global leadership development coach.
Through her programs and no-nonsense approach, she helps create high-potential leaders and shapes company culture. Linda has deep experience working with Fortune 50 companies, and held senior human resource executive positions at Hewlett-Packard and at GE Capital.
Her co-authored book Winning With Transglobal Leadership was named one of the top 30 best business books for 2013.
Dr. Sharkey is a founding member of the Marshall Goldsmith Group, and an inspiring keynote speaker at many global events, including the Global HR Academy with the Conference Board and the World Human Resources Development Conference, where she was honored with the “Super Women Achievement Award.”
Bio
Morag Barrett is the author of The Future-Proof Workplace and Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships. She is also the founder and CEO of SkyeTeam, an international HR and leadership development company.
With a background in corporate banking, Morag brings a pragmatic perspective to her work with forward-thinking organizations, from start-up to FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 companies. She is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur.com, CIO.com, and the American Management Association.
Prior to founding SkyeTeam, Morag held leadership positions at Level 3 Communications, and NatWest Bank where she advised international organizations on their corporate strategy and growth plans. Originally from the UK, she has experience working with more than 3,000 leaders in twenty countries on four continents.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and In Life, by Tasha Eurich
Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer's Brain, by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
How Many Friends Does One Person Need?: Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks, by Robin Dunbar
Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships, by Morag Barrett
Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink
"The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team," Google work article by Julia Rozovsky
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Reinvention Roadmap: Break the Rules to Get the Job You Want and Career You Deserve, by Liz Ryan
The Future of Management, by Gary Hamel
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
Scott Mann, storyteller, rooftop leader, military expert, and author, shares his experiences and research into the tribal origins of leadership. He tells of desert villages fighting terror, and C-suites dealing with massive trust deficits, with both groups in need of the same tools for success. He reminds us that technology does not change what we need, or how we connect. Scott sees a great deterioration of trust and social capital in Western life, and, to combat that erosion, he teaches how stories work to bridge gaps to create trust. He also expresses his concerns for transitioning warriors, and talks about his book, Mission America, helping veterans work in society using their team-building skills. Listen in and tap into your team’s innate tribal need to work together effectively.
Key Takeaways
[3:07] ‘Rooftop leader’ comes from Scott’s book Game Changers, from the Afghanistan Village Stability Program. Late in the war, Green Berets led improbable and dangerous missions, inspiring locals to stand on the rooftops and fight alongside them to defend their communities. Scott was the program manager, taking it from village to village. Scott applies rooftop leadership in coaching today.
[5:19] Scott’s plan on separating from the military was to go fishing! But he started writing. He compared social capital and trust in America and in Afghanistan, and worked with social scientists, anthropologists, and dispute resolution experts. In 1972, Gallup asked Americans, “Do you trust your neighbor?” and ⅓ did not. In 2016, Gallup asked the same question, and ⅔ did not. Scott works now to restore trust.
[7:46] Corporate America, law enforcement, and other disciplines are dealing with massive trust deficits. The skills necessary to restore trust are very similar to what our Green Berets do. There’s a real demand signal for it, so Scott is responding. It is done incrementally, one group at a time, and it is not easily done.
[12:00] Scott talks about the warrior-diplomat role of the Green Berets. Green Berets work by, with, and through indigenous people to help them do things they otherwise wouldn’t do, that result in strategic outcomes, in places most people don’t want to go. Scott teaches Green Berets, and law enforcement going into rough communities; his entrepreneurial training is very similar.
[13:26] Humans haven’t changed. Electronic devices do not revise our nature. Humans are the most tribal creatures on the planet, and we respond tribally in danger. Turning the instincts of physical connection, empathy, reciprocity, deep listening, and others, into cognizant skills, will allow you to make deeper connections in most places, than people without these skills. Reciprocity brings people along.
[16:25] Scott discusses his nonprofit, Mission America, and his book of the same title, helping Special Forces and other warrior veterans transition to civilian life. Leaving the mission creates a disconnect, isolation, and a void to fill. Scott is passionate about helping warriors make that transition.
[20:30] Scott says that corporations may be able to approach the purpose and trust of Special Operations, in small steps. We can do better than we are doing now. Scott also believes men and women in service need to be coached on the transition, before they leave active duty. Scott wants to see a brotherhood and sisterhood of veterans organized to help the transition process.
[24:43] Scott says that a business can approach an honor-based tribal society. Scott sees this culture among small business entrepreneurs. Scott has friends at Amazon and Google who love the cultures there. Scott cites Capital One for a fantastic culture. He sees the problem of eroding trust as an obstacle and a division between people, not just in the workplace, but in all of American society.
[27:35] Scott talks about restoring trust. He cites Simon Sinek and Bo Eason on leadership. Scott’s rooftop leader has a crystal clear vision of a better world that doesn’t yet exist, and a dynamic ability to inspire others to help them build it. First, you have to restore the trust gaps. Leave tracks. Serve a bigger purpose. Begin with the end in mind (Steven Covey). Have clarity. Believe fully in what you are doing.
[30:06] Scott advises leaders to connect deeply. Work for deep human connections. Scott says to value connections, meet people where they are, and lead with stories, to build empathy.
[31:55] Scott tells of a TED Talk, where he faced a hostile audience. He spoke first about rooftop leaders, and then about his Dad’s battle with cancer. No one was with him, until that story. People identify with stories that move the storyteller. That identification elicits empathy and connection. That story, when Scott tells it, always shifts an audience. To tell a story well, you must reveal your pain and vulnerability.
[38:25] Scott gives another skill tip for stories: It’s not just the stories that we tell that restore trust, it’s the stories that we ask to hear. If you can find a way to ask questions that let people tell you their stories, and let them tell you how things got to this place, you not only learn what the problems are, but you validate their humanity, at the most visceral level. Lean in, listen, and work it into your story. It’s magical.
[45:22] Scott tells Green Berets as they start their training: “You’re going to have to be three avatars: Jason Bourne, Lawrence of Arabia, and the Verizon Guy.” Jason Bourne to manage lethal and coercive threats with precision, Lawrence of Arabia to manage emotion, perception, and status, and the Verizon Guy, to build a network and tribe who will listen and work around a common problem.
Book: Mission America: Straight Talk About Military Transition, by Scott Mann
Email: Scott@Mannup.com Veterans — ask for a free copy of Mission America.
Website: Therealmissionamerica.org (Soon to be Warrior Voice, The Hero’s Journey Continues)
Website: Mannup.com
Podcast: MannupReport
Twitter: @RealScottMann
LinkedIn: Scott Mann
Faceboook: Scott Mann
Bio
Scott Mann, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) — Green Beret — Storyteller — Rooftop Leader Scott Mann spent 23 years in the United States Army — 18 years of that as a Green Beret in Army Special Forces, where he specialized in unconventional, high-impact missions all over the world, including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. Scott’s problem-solving abilities were honed during long deployments in places where trust was absent, conflict rampant, and he had seconds to make real connections with local communities using his head, his heart — and when threats closed in against these Communities — his hands. With those skills, Scott now helps organizations gain a better understanding of their internal culture, and their external relationships, while exposing the potential for conflict that exists when trust has deteriorated.
In the same way he empowered local tribes in Iraq and Afghanistan to make transformative decisions, using very few resources, Scott teaches corporate leaders, special operators, law enforcement, and high-performance entrepreneurs and their teams to create strategic opportunities through the relationship-building techniques that drove so many of his successful Special Forces experiences.
Scott appears frequently on CNN, Bloomberg, Fox and Friends, Fox Business News, News Max, and dozens of syndicated radio shows including National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal Radio, Fox News Radio, and the Jim Bohannon Show. His op-eds have appeared in The Tampa Tribune, Washington Post, and the Small Wars Journal.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E. Lawrence
Game Changers: Going Local to Defeat Violent Extremists, by Scott Mann
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Dr. Tasha Eurich shares her experiences as an organizational psychologist, researcher, coach, and New York Times bestselling author along with her new book, Insight for improving self-awareness. Tasha explains the dangers inherent in poor self-awareness in leaders, individuals, and teams, and she provides specific solutions for achieving the self-awareness that will improve corporate culture, and client relations while supporting sustainable profit. Listen in for key self-awareness practices, and to download her free self-awareness quiz.
Key Takeaways
[2:38] Tasha discusses self-awareness at work. There are severe consequences in the workplace when people believe falsely they are self-aware. Having more self-aware executives brings financial returns to a company. Unaware behavior at any level has financial consequences. Tasha’s research says we live in a world where people don’t tell each other the truth, because the truth is uncomfortable.
[6:10] Tasha worked with 50 people who had made dramatic transformations in their self-awareness as adults. Many common methods of finding self-awareness are more myth than reality. Jan and Jim were in the group of 50 test subjects. Tasha found that ‘unicorns,’ as she terms them, fight against personal and societal defaults to arrive at self-awareness. Unicorns seek feedback from people they trust.
[12:08] Tasha discusses psychic frailty and psychic safety. Our biases tell us we are better than we are. Seeking feedback from others exposes our frailty. Psychological safety in organizations involves self-aware teams and organizations. It requires people to let their guard down and trust and support each other enough to tell each other the truth. It includes vulnerability.
[14:50] We assume that the people that love us will tell us the truth, but research shows, they will tell us neither our weaknesses nor our strengths, without being asked. Ask them, “What annoys you the most about me?” You might hear something you’ve never heard before. It’s up to you to ask those questions.
[18:18] Tasha gives an example of one of her self-awareness heroes, Alan Mulally (of Boeing Commercial and of Ford Motor Company). Tasha saw a person who has self-confidence, but who acutely appreciates his weaknesses, and is constantly questioning his performance. She illustrates this with an anecdote.
[20:06] Tasha says unicorns are willing to admit what they don’t do well and question their own view. They also have self confidence. Tasha’s research differentiates between people who have unwarranted high self-esteem, and people who have self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is to appreciate your own strengths and weaknesses, and be willing to forgive yourself for your flaws, and find out the truth.
[21:43] Tasha offers cues to look for in your team to see whether someone needs to be coached for self-awareness. Look for those who speak about themselves in a way inconsistent with their behavior, or with other’s perceptions of them. Coaching for those who are willfully disruptive is different than coaching for someone who is ignorantly ineffective.
[24:48] Tasha offers suggestions on feedback in the organization. The mindset of giving feedback only once a year leads to embarrassment about problems that are not mentioned as they occur. At the very least, offer regular touch points of feedback that are informal and in the moment, to reap the biggest benefits of self-awareness and improved daily performance. Tasha tells how teams can do this.
[28:07] Tasha offers thoughts on team awareness and individual awareness. Tasha tells of three building blocks for self-aware teams: a leader who models the way, the expectation and accountability to tell the truth, and an ongoing process to stay self-aware. You need an agreement to constantly check in with each team member, and the collective team, to stay self-aware together.
[36:56] First-time CEO’s can suddenly find an absence of feedback. Tasha talks about Ed Catmull of Pixar., who, on becoming the boss, knew that he wasn’t any different, but the second he showed up in that new title, he knew the employees saw him differently.
[38:10] Tasha talks about the adversity of looking for a new job. Don’t wait until you wake up one day and find you need a new job. Ask yourself everyday what you did that day that fit your passion, or what you did today that you never want to do again. The cumulative effect of these questions can lead to self-awareness. Don’t wait for a big event, like a job loss, to catalyze insight.
[41:48] Tasha explains the Candor Challenge. Self-aware teams commit to doing this at least once a year. It’s a process of individual openness with the full team about the positive, the negative, and areas for improvement for each member, and commitments for accountability. Tasha includes a worksheet to download from Insight-book.com.
Website: Insight-book.com
Quiz: Insight-quiz.com Fill out a free quiz to discover your level of self-awareness.
Twitter: @TashaEurich
LinkedIn: Tasha Eurich
Faceboook: Tasha Eurich
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and In Life, by Dr. Tasha Eurich
Courage: The Backbone of Leadership, by Gus Lee
With Schwarzkopf: Life Lessons of The Bear, by Gus Lee
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, by Brené Brown
Reinvention Roadmap: Break the Rules to Get the Job You Want and Career You Deserve, by Liz Ryan
The Six Question Process by Marshall Goldsmith
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: A Round Table Comic: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith
Bio
Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author (Bankable Leadership). She is also the founder of The Eurich Group, where she’s helped thousands of leaders and teams improve their effectiveness through greater self-awareness. She’s been named one of Denver Business Journal’s ”40 Under 40,” as well as a “Top 100 Thought Leader” by Trust Across America.
Sebastian Junger’s insights on leadership and teamwork within a community - and civilization at large - are remarkable. His broad range of experiences as a war-correspondent, anthropology student and tree cutter inform perspectives that have made him a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker. Sebastian is known for his insights on the extraordinary bonds formed in combat. He has also studied PTSD, and the connection with depression and suicide; which he attributes to a loss of deep communal bonds. He says the basis and prevalence of mental illness and depression today may be derived from a society where all of our material needs, but none of our evolutionary social needs are met. Sebastian’s insight on the the importance of leadership and team accountability harken back to base needs that have been lost in the progress of civilization.
Key Takeaways
[2:09] Although having written on and off for newspapers and magazines in his 20s, Sebastian earned his living as a climber and tree cutter until he was sidelined by a chainsaw injury. During his recovery time in Gloucester, Mass., a local fishing boat, the Andrea Gail, was lost to a storm at sea, and this disaster crystallized his desire to write about dangerous jobs. The Perfect Storm was his first book.
[4:29] Sebastian discusses the social nature of humanity, attributing our survival to our ability to coordinate our efforts. We’re smart, we can build tools and weapons, and we work together. One of the ironies of modernity and of wealth is that people are able to be more independent of their community.
[6:51] Sebastian comments on teams in business, and how they differ from evolutionary social groups. Life-and-death stakes bring out the best in people. A platoon will have greater devotion and loyalty than an office team.
[9:35] Sebastian sees the infrastructure that keeps us alive today as separate from our immediate lives. We don’t eat locally. Everything is part of some larger process. There are huge physical advantages to industrialization and mass society, but also huge social and psychological deficiencies. When you don’t depend on, or even know, the people around you, that isolates you, and leads to depression and suicide.
[12:46] Sebastian notes that PTSD cases outnumber the returned military who have actually served in combat. He explains why that may be. We are wired to deal with trauma, but not with the alienation and isolation of the American suburb. Addressing leadership, he suggests that skills that work in combat are the ultimate leadership skills and traits, and business leaders need those traits. Leaders eat last.
[18:32] If you have a leader who takes a bonus while firing his people, that’s terrible leadership. In a band of hunter-gatherers, that leader would be killed. When we allow that type of leadership behavior, we are radically departing from our social communal past.
[21:01] In the military, leaders give orders in their own name. There is no passing the buck. Sebastian recalls an incident of grave danger, where the lieutenant took a life-and-death risk to assess the situation. His sergeant immediately stepped up, following his example.
[25:44] Two reporting situations altered Sebastian strongly. First, Afghanistan in 1996 and 2000, fighting the Taliban. For the first time, Sebastian saw extremely wounded people. He unknowingly had PTSD on his return. The second was being with the 2nd Platoon, Battle Company in the Korengal valley. The bonds he experienced were intense and changed his life.
[28:27] Sebastian felt that the loyalty he observed, and was part of, in the 2nd Platoon, turned him inside out. Returning home, he was so altered that he could not continue leading his life as it was. He says it was not trauma; it was something much more positive.
[30:38] There is much more to war journalism than being embedded with the U.S. Military. That feels so much safer than going by yourself to a civil war in Africa, or Afghanistan, or to the Arab Spring countries, on your own. You’re not even sure you can trust the people with you. The country needs journalists.
[32:17] Sebastian’s degree is in Cultural Anthropology. He wrote his thesis on a Navajo reservation, on Navajo long distance runners. That thesis sparked his interest in writing. Anthropology informs everything he has written, especially his research on PTSD. PTSD is much more widespread today than in any previous generation. We are no more a communal society.
[39:05] Sebastian shares a new issue he is exploring: raising his six-week old daughter. He is interested in evolutionary parenting. What infants need is closeness to their parents. As children grow, girls stay close to home; boys form groups and range farther away from home. We are not allowing boys today to roam.
Website: SebastianJunger.com
Watch for Hell on Earth, on the National Geographic Channel in June, 2017
Twitter: @SebastianJunger
Books Mentioned in This Episode
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, by Sebastian Junger
Fire, by Sebastian Junger
A Death in Belmont, by Sebastian Junger
War, by Sebastian Junger
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind, by Melvin Konner
Bio
Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Perfect Storm, Fire, A Death in Belmont, War, and Tribe. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world, and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film Restrepo, a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Restrepo, which chronicled the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, is widely considered to have broken new ground in war reporting. Junger has since produced and directed three additional documentaries about war and its aftermath. Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? which premiered on HBO, chronicles the life and career of his friend and colleague, photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed while covering the civil war in Libya in 2011. Korengal returns to the subject of combat and tries to answer the eternal question of why young men miss war. The Last Patrol, which also premiered on HBO, examines the complexities of returning from war by following Junger and three friends — all of whom had experienced combat, either as soldiers or reporters — as they travel up the East Coast railroad lines on foot as “high-speed vagrants.”
Junger has also written for magazines including Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Men’s Journal. His reporting on Afghanistan in 2000, profiling Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated just days before 9/11, became the subject of the National Geographic documentary “Into the Forbidden Zone,” and introduced America to the Afghan resistance fighting the Taliban.
Junger lives in New York City and Cape Cod.
Susan Morrice, a geologist, explorer, chief executive, and global visionary, shares how to tap into energy you didn’t know you had, and how that can be a contagion for influence. Susan has always dreamed big, and she has discovered the successful people start with “Know Thyself.” Susan discovered oil in Belize despite naysayers, obstacles, and adversity. Her organization is now the largest producer of income in Belize. She fell in love with the people and this love inspired her to give back to the country and its people in the form of a philanthropic BNE Trust for the education of children. Listen in and you too will feel Susan’s energy and passion!
Key Takeaways
[4:44] Susan talks about inventing the successful International Pavilion at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, but being unable to explain how she did it. She started to study human systems.
[8:20] Susan shares how she went to an EduCo seminar and learned to conquer her doubts. On finishing the seminar, Susan went to Belize, fell in love with the people, and started Belize Natural Energy, with Mike Ushe. On the first drill, exactly one year after Mike Usher had died, BNE found the best oil deposit in Belize. Major oil companies had failed 50 times. The 22 wells are named for Mike.
[15:02] Susan speaks of her cousin Josh Stewart, who grew up in Belfast, was a pilot, and flew packages into Africa. He visited Susan in Denver and told her he didn’t feel fulfilled. She told him to take time and get to know his true nature. He also took the EduCo seminar and came back with the vision of XJet. XJet is now number one in private jets in the Americas and in Europe, after nine years of operation.
[18:00] Susan and Josh send all of their people, from BNE and XJet to the same EduCo seminar, to allow that creative force and energy to lead out, front and center.
[19:58] Susan shares a story of Andelina of the cleaning staff, who took the seminar and came back with a clear vision of excellence, so visitors would note the shine of the glass, the polish of the handles, the beautiful flower arrangements, and the smiles of everyone, whether they have a brush, or a briefcase. She took the vision home and, with her family, developed one of the best cacao plantations in Belize.
[25:06] Susan reveals the story of how Jan introduced Susan to a friend, Norman, at an innovation center in Belfast, who invited her to Buckingham Palace and to brainstorm with Prince Andrew on developing entrepreneurism in Northern Ireland. You need people with the entrepreneurial spirit and the ideas to innovate and create companies that call for people to fill those jobs.
[27:41] Susan’s BNE Trust subsidizes education for Belizean children. $8 million has gone into scholarships, building little schools, playgrounds, and music centers, and bringing forth the entrepreneurial spirit by sending Belizeans to the EduCo seminar. One of them has come back to become the youngest mayor of the capital city of Belize. Another now has an EduCo gym.
[30:16] Susan founded BNE in Belize to change the country, because she had fallen in love with the Belizean people, and she saw their potential. She says, our goals are just not big enough. She quotes an astronaut, “We are custodians of this one planet. There are no country boundaries.” Susan says we are of one mind, spirit and entity with nature. This holistic model gave birth to BNE and XJet with great success.
[34:56] You’ve got to come into total alignment yourself, so you are not held back or distracted by thoughts, doubts, or fears. You are not the lens of inferiority through which you may be looking. Take off all the lenses and be a beacon and show the way to express the key energy within.
[40:17] Results are essential. Susan had to have results. Then she had to be able to replicate them, not just in the energy industry, but in a different industry, in a different country. Those who are leading and getting results attract other leaders.
[45:00] A leader first needs to understand what trust is, and to understand their true nature, to walk the talk, so they can bring forward trust in others. They need alignment.
[47:07] Susan would love all the listeners to know that they can live the life of their dreams, and that there are steps that they must take for themselves to be that person that they really know they are, inside. That’s the key.
LinkedIn: Susan Morrice
Website: SusanMorrice.com
Feature Article: "BNE, Forces of Nature" in Oil, Gas & Shipping Magazine
Bio
Denver-based Susan Morrice was born and raised in Belfast Ireland, with a MoD degree in Geology from Trinity College Dublin. Grounded by her love of nature and community, Susan lives to create positive change in the world. As an experienced geologist, explorer, entrepreneur and dealmaker, Susan is renowned for her down to earth approach to all aspects of business. She has a passion for the protection of the environment and a vision of uncovering the true potential of everyone with whom she meets. It is this New Educo Business Model at the core of her Companies that has attracted the leaders of the UAE to partner with the Country of Belize in an unprecedented global partnership throughout the entire region.
Susan is Founder and Chairperson of Belize Natural Energy (BNE), International Natural Energy (INE), CHx Capital, and original investor/partner in Xjet Worldwide. BNE has become a global oil industry beacon that has made a real difference in the Country of Belize. It was through Susan’s gift of exploration, and an understanding of the power of untapped human potential that she was able to find oil where it was believed by all of the Majors in the Oil industry that there was none. Not only did Susan and her BNE team find oil in Belize, they found it on the first well, which is unheard of. BNE just celebrated ten years of production and over ten-million barrels of oil, and is the #1 revenue generator in the country.
Susan has applied this same Holistic Educo Business Model to her investment in XJet in Denver, a 7-star service private jet company that is continually ranked among the best and most elite in Private Aviation services. XJet was also granted the coveted license in the New Dubai Airport beating all the long established industry players and Xjet is rapidly expanding rapidly into the Europe including London, and into the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates.
Susan was most recently awarded the AAPG Presidential Award for Exemplary Service in recognition of her exceptional service to the geoscience profession and AAPG. She is continuously recognized for her contributions, including just this year the Denver Business Journal’s Top Women in Energy and the CoBiz Magazine’s Top Women Owned Companies. These are just a few of the numerous acknowledgments and awards that Susan Morrice has received in recognition of her contributions worldwide.
Books Mentioned
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Ryan Mundy, eight-year veteran of the National Football League, Super Bowl champion, and angel investor at Techlete Ventures, discusses leadership in football from his father’s coaching in Pop Warner, through his high school, college, and NFL achievements. Ryan is grateful for all the people who helped him along the way, but he is most grateful for his father, who taught him to be self-reliant, and to commit to his goals. Ryan recalls the diversity of his NFL teams, and how he learned from people of different backgrounds. He stresses the importance of proper leadership on a team, and how it leads to success. Besides being an angel investor, Ryan is on the board of the NFLPA, and is solving problems athletes encounter as they transition from a sports team to a business career.
Key Takeaways
[3:18] Ryan was recruited by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of college, and played in (and won) the Super Bowl his first year. After the Steelers, he played for the Giants, and then the Bears. After eight years in the NFL, one day he began to think, ’Wow, that looks like it hurts!’ He saw that he had lost his drive, desire, and passion, so he retired from the NFL, and completed his MBA.
[7:14] As a rookie, Ryan looked up to backup QB Charlie Batch, a great locker room leader. Charlie’s even-keeled demeanor demonstrated how to be a pro, on and off the field. Charlie now runs the Best of the Batch foundation, unlocking potential in communities. Charlie always performed when he was called, and serves with the same drive in his post-retirement career.
[9:55] In business, a consultant is called in from time to time, but in football, a backup QB is there all the time, so he’s vested in the team. Even as a 10-year veteran, Charlie was a great example to Ryan, who knew he had to stay in line, or be weeded out.
[11:42] At the age of seven, Ryan’s dream was to make it to the NFL. By his junior year in high school, he started believing it could be a reality. Ryan tells of a setback in his college football career that caused him extreme stress for months. His responses to the challenge built up his courage, and the confidence he could do what he wanted.
[17:13] Ryan is a self-starter and go-getter, and was taught by his father to believe in himself. In college, he was a model student athlete, setting the example in the classroom and on the field.
[19:14] Ryan discusses some of the leadership problems hindering the Bears since the ‘85 Super Bowl, and the condition of the team, coaches, and management when he played for the Bears. He contrasts that with the continuity of leadership within the Steelers’ organization.
[24:22] Ryan’s father has been with him since the beginning, when he coached him in Pop Warner football. He is Ryan’s example. Others have helped along the way, but his father was a constant guide. He had a plan, he was committed to the plan, and he made sure Ryan worked out and did his school work.
[27:28] In the NFL, Ryan’s teammates’ backgrounds were diverse. He appreciated the opportunity to get to know more about the world and about people. Football gives you a window into what sort of person somebody is. He developed greater self-awareness and ability to interact with people.
[28:11] Ryan has great concern for transitioning athletes, especially those who didn’t make much money, and don’t have a degree. Most athletes are not rich. Ryan is a board member on the NFLPA and is trying to solve for the problems of transitioning.
[33:46] You need a level of passion and desire to be elite, either in Special Forces, or in pro sports, and as you develop, that passion becomes your ‘normal,’ which allows for a balance between emotion and performance. You always have to be aware and maintain that balance without losing your passion.
[38:11] Ryan recalls the feelings of being part of the high-performance team of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and would love to be part of such a team again. His aha moment is that he knows what a high-performance team takes, and he has the power to create it.
[41:18] Ryan is going on the Crucible, along with a retired 3-star general who commanded Special Forces. This will be Ryan’s first camping trip! He looks forward to the wilderness experiences, and to connect with other high-performing individuals across various fields. He loves hearing people’s stories.
Twitter: @RyanGMundy
Instagram: @Munzilla
LinkedIn: Ryan Mundy
Website: RyanMundy.com
Website: Angel.co/ryan-mundy-1
Bio
Ryan Mundy, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, is an eight-year veteran of the National Football League. He attended college at the University of Michigan (Liberal Arts) for undergraduate studies and West Virginia University (Athletic Admin) for post graduate courses. Also, Ryan recently finished his MBA studies at The University of Miami (FL). Drafted in 2008, Ryan spent five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl XL Champion), one season (2013) with the New York Giants and two seasons (2014-2015) with the Chicago Bears.
Ryan is now an Angel investor, through Techlete Ventures, in technology starts that focus on cultural shifts that impact the way we live work and play.
Ryan currently resides in Chicago, IL with his wife Jillian and daughters Ryan-Taylor (5) and Camryn (2).
John Kelley, Chair and CEO of CereScan discusses his early career, and how the Xerox sales and leadership training prepared him for a lifetime of leadership growth and challenges. He discusses turnarounds, startups, ethics, culture, team support, interdependence, and the power of delegation and trust. He also stresses the importance of diversity of expertise, and the work ethic. Finally, he discusses leadership in the field of brain imaging, and the application of big data to inform more effective treatment for severe brain injury and neurological disease.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] John went to MU, then was drafted into the Army, and served as a radio operator. In the business world, he received great sales and leadership training at Xerox, where he stayed for 11 years. He used the principles he learned at Xerox, later, at several companies, and now at CereScan.
[5:07] Through his initial Xerox training, John found confidence in himself, and an ability to take on conflict and new things. After seven years in sales, developing interpersonal skills, he felt ready for a leadership role. For five years he was in what he calls, retrospectively, management practice. In the third chapter of his development, he took on big challenges such as turnarounds, both financial and ethical.
[9:43] John describes how to avoid ethical problems by doing little things right every day, making course corrections, and encouraging interdependence. Good people do not let people down. The collective wisdom of the group ends up helping out each individual. The team is important, under the right leader.
[13:45] Leadership is doing a lot of small things consistently well, around the big things. John writes hand-written notes to people, and gives and asks for feedback as quickly as possible. Prick small problems before they become big ones. Ask, “What could we have done better?” It’s extremely important to have a culture of “we.” John shares a story where he could have cashed in, but didn’t.
[20:50] John believes in letting poor performers go, and hiring winners. Good people win. They should be diverse and have different opinions. John goes out of his way to have the right people on the bus. At CereScan, and on their board, there are “no jerks allowed.” Make sure you have high-performing teams, and delegate to them.
[24:28] John discusses the variety of brain medical professionals, and the difficulty of the problems they attempt to solve within their silos. So many problems are missed. John explains how the CereScan methodology was developed, examining a broad range of patient issues, with the best data scientists in Colorado, to find neurological bases of many apparently psychological issues, for optimal treatment.
[32:11] John talks about the cost savings, and world-wide accessibility, of migrating the data to the secure Amazon Cloud. The more doctors contribute to the data, the better is the information available. This will give doctors and their patients around the world, access to the world’s greatest brain analytic data, without traveling to specialty research hospitals.
[35:22] John discusses the tech meltdown of 2000, which sent many C-level executives to prison, and the more recent banking recession, and where boards went wrong. Boards should include diversity, bona-fide CFOs, GMs, etc. John describes his experiences with great boards. You need to have a collection of people with different perspectives, including a knowledge of Millennials.
[39:43] John played baseball at MU. He describes his thoughts on teams, and tells a story about the need always to be prepared before you are called to play.
[42:11] Having the best arm in the Big 8 doesn’t mean you are ready for the Major Leagues. See where you stand relative to the gold standard. Look in the mirror realistically about your skillset.
Bio
John A. Kelley, Jr. has been the Chair and CEO of CereScan, a functional brain diagnostics company headquartered in Denver, Colorado since 2009. Previously, John served as the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of McDATA Corporation, until its acquisition by Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. in 2007. Prior to McDATA, he served as Executive Vice President of Networks at Qwest Communications International after it acquired US West. His tenure at US West included President of Wholesale Markets, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Large Business and Government Accounts, and President of the Federal Systems Group. Prior to US West, he was an Area President and a Vice President and General Manager at Mead Corporation.
Mr. Kelley has been a member of the board of directors of Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ), and Emulex Corporation (NYSE). His private company board work has included, Aztek Networks, Stored IQ, Circadence Corporation and 3 Leaf Networks.
Mr. Kelley has been a frequent keynote speaker focusing on technology, leadership, best practices management, and corporate ethics on a local and a national level.
Mr. Kelley holds a B.S. in business management from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He served in the U.S. Army from 1970 to 1972.
Website: Cerescan.com
Twitter: @JohnAKelley
Facebook: John Kelley
LinkedIn: John Kelley
Jan, Jim, and their guests discuss the importance of trust for teams, how to build it, and what roles vulnerability and shared experiences play in creating trust. Also, is there a disconnect from people being motivated by autonomy as an individual, and the need for selflessness when it comes to what’s best for the team?
Jim and Jan are joined by Isaiah Burkhart and Clay Othic from past Crucible expeditions; from DKS Associates, Jim Peters, Jim Strain, and Chris Maciejewski; curiosity expert Becki Salzman; Intel PhD/executive Candi Cook; Mara Othic, special operations veteran and currently in law enforcement; former Ranger turned entrepreneur, Kyle Morris; and senior executives Ken Schrader and Ed Stoner – both with stellar business and academic backgrounds!
Key Takeaways
[1:55] The first Leadership Podcast dinner party, in Portland, Oregon, starts with a discussion of trust. In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni resolves the dysfunctions with a foundation of trust, leading to healthy disagreement, commitment, accountability, and results. Trust provides strength.
[2:59] Daniel Pink, in Drive, says to motivate people, you need mastery, autonomy, and purpose. Members of a team need to be selfless, and let trust reign. Zack, the videographer on the first Crucible, establishes trust with locals in dangerous places through interviews, references, and triangulation.
[5:57] Trust may be tied to interpersonal skills, or organizational design, or both. Building trust takes time. On the crucible, Clay Othic had pointed out the Point of No Return (PONR), and Jan realized how much they needed to rely on each other. Trust was mandatory. In business, a goal large enough may create a circumstance of mandatory trust.
[7:25] Jim Strain, of DKS, in watching the Patagonia Crucible documentary, was struck by the transition from level ground, where everyone was independent, to crossing a glacier, where they had to rope up. The glacier crossing required a higher level of awareness, communication, and trust, to work as a team. He then used that transitional analogy of roping up, in an actual business structural change at his firm.
[11:22] Isaiah Burkhart participated in the Patagonia Crucible, mostly out in front. Every day they held an After Action Review (AAR), which allowed each team member to process the mistakes they had made. Everyone was comfortable to make suggestions, which helped build trust. To be a really great team, people have to receive correction for the good of all.
[13:36] Becki Salzman was curious what would have happened if the PONR had been on day one, before the team had learned to know each other. Clay Othic referred to competence in the basics, shared by the military members. With competence, comes confidence, which leads to trust. He believes they could have observed enough in 30 minutes to have managed the PONR on day one.
[16:14] Circumstances are important for establishing trust. Jim relates how, when he was tired on day two, Clay Othic stood up for Jim’s need to carry his own load up the hill, and then stayed by Jim, reciting the Ranger Creed while they climbed. Clay’s outreach inspired Jim to find strength and manage his burdens up the glacier. To honor Clay, Jim toasts him with Three Rangers Whiskey.
[20:17] Clay speaks on the Three Rangers Foundation, a veterans nonprofit based on the brotherhood and friendship Clay found early in his Ranger career. You always have the back of your military family, even years later. After 20 years, brother Ranger John Collett approached Clay for help. John was distilling whiskey, and wanted to support a foundation for Rangers. They created the Three Rangers Foundation.
[21:39] 100% of the money donated to Three Rangers Foundation goes to the veterans they assist. The Foundation staff works without pay. All administrative costs of the foundation are paid for by Three Rangers Whiskey, and a portion of the profits from the sale of Three Rangers Whiskey is also donated to the foundation. Clay explains the four symbols on the bottle label, starting with the Gold Star.
[25:16] Ken Schrader gives his experiences of turning around small companies, where trust is mainly absent. Ken discovered most people just wanted to be heard, and to be understood as people. As they told their stories to Ken, and he authentically listened, trust grew. Ken turns the discussion to explore how trust grew on the Crucible.
[27:12] Pairin behavioral assessments were administered to all before and after the Crucible. At the beginning, trust wasn’t high, but self-confidence was. After the Crucible, there was a movement away from individuality and toward teamwork. In addition to behaviors, the desire to be a team player also improved. For the two weeks, no one complained about anyone.
[28:46] Isaiah talks about his experiences with trust, and how his trust was fairly low before he got acquainted with the non-veterans.
[31:35] Becky suggests exploring uncommon commonalities to build trust. She illustrates it with a story of how she marched on Washington, and created a motorcycle interest commonality with Bikers for Trump, that allowed them to take a selfie with her, although of a different political stand.
[33:42] There will be a Crucible in September, with an equal number of men and women, hoping to explore unconscious assumptions made around gender issues, and how to apply more diversity to business, to make better decisions. Candi Cook will be one of the team, climbing Sacagawea Peak.
[34:23] Jim Peters is trying to relate the military family to the business world. You can go a whole day in the office without interacting with any of your coworkers. He comments on the After Action Reports from the Crucible. We need to have that AAR in the business world, to slow down and give feedback. It depends on making time, making it about the other person, and seeking to understand.
[36:03] Jim notes that in business there is generally only an AAR after an absolute train wreck. No one talks about normal activities, even if they could have gone better. You don’t get better if you don’t have a feedback loop. If you don’t know if you’re meeting expectations, you’ll never exceed expectations. This is the role of a leader. Jim and Jan create feedback loops for themselves.
[39:04] Isaiah talks about the many leaders he has had, in the military, and now in the fire service. He has seen fantastic leaders, and some that could have made some self-adjustments and changed an entire organization. The leader must foster an environment where trust is a key component. He tells a story of an unsympathetic leader who eliminated trust immediately.
[42:16] Chris Maciejewski comments on developing staff, and creating new independent project managers. Relating to the roping up concept, he talks to managers about the difference between leadership and directing. Chris discusses the career path with staff. Getting to project manager is a hard achievement. Directing staff does not develop their decision-making abilities. Working with them, does.
[44:48] Clay says Isaiah’s story shows that trust is built through shared challenge. Leaders can’t always be present for the experience, and must give task and purpose, but they can choose to lead, or just to manage. He answers Becki’s question about gender dynamics. His wife Mara is also special operations, and she would have had some effect on the dynamic, but she would have been tight with the team.
[49:04] Jim summarizes: Trust is the foundation of a team, the foundation of relationships, it takes a long time to earn, and it can be gone in the flash of an eye. Leaders need to give trust to get it. Don’t beat people down for mistakes; help them learn, and grow. He opens the floor for Lighting Round comments.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink
Website: TheLeadershipPodcast.com
Website: Leadership Podcast Academy
Website: ThreeRangersFoundation.org
Website: ThreeRangers.com
Jen Paquette, Executive Director of the Green Beret Foundation, discusses how her husband’s injury changed her mission, and how she leveraged her business experience to lead a dynamic non-profit organization. Jen covers the lessons learned running a not-for-profit; the difficulty of fund raising; building her own credibility; and effective board management. Jen also discusses the women of Steel Mags, and the vital role they play in the organization. Most important to Jen is that a fallen Green Beret is never forgotten.
Jen is an Honorary Member of the Special Forces Association - only the sixth woman in history to receive this honor at the National level.
Key Takeaways
[2:03] Jen became involved in the Green Beret Foundation from her husband, Roland’s, experience in Special Operations Forces. He was traumatically injured by an IED, and stayed a year at Walter Reed; then they moved to San Antonio. In San Antonio, SOC asked her to help start a program for all of SOF. She used her business experience to help, but saw that the Green Berets had no program of their own.
[5:35] Jen resigned at SOCOM and started working at the GBF, with no salary for the first 24-30 months, running it out of the Anderson and Paquette homes.
[7:13] Jen covers some of the lessons learned running a not-for-profit; the difficulty of fund raising for a not-for-profit, the complexity, building her own credibility, building institutional credibility, donor fatigue, and dealing with a board.
[11:16] Transitioning from an executive business role to directing a not-for-profit taught Jen to do more with less. Jen hasn’t been on a vacation since 2005. The staff is small, and emergencies happen. She either had to figure out various jobs herself, or find someone to help her. She has learned to network.
[16:15] Jen talks about Gold Star families. Jen’s commitment is to improve their quality of life, and to make sure that that soldier’s name does not get forgotten.
[20:49] Jen talks about transition support.
[25:53] Jen has noticed that ranks such as Sergeant Major and above have a rougher time to humble themselves. They have to be audacious in battle, but in civilian life that has to be unlearned. The younger guys are still in learning mode, and have an easier adjustment.
[29:29] Jen discusses her involvement in the Steel Mags. They are purpose-driven, just like the Green Berets. This is a lifestyle for us, not a 9-to-5. They also do good in the community outside.
[34:01] Jen explains her lifestyle with one word: passion! It’s not emotion; it’s drive.
[36:47] Jen ends with a story.
Bio
Jen Paquette is the Executive Director of the Green Beret Foundation. At Jen’s request, her children call her Mrs. Boss Lady. Her community calls her MBL.
Jen has served as Executive Director of the Green Beret Foundation beginning 1 August 2011. In 2009, Jen served on the GBF’s Board of Advisors helping establish the Foundation and later as Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer since January 2010. She has identified and developed programs and services, planned and executed GBF’s numerous fundraising events raising millions of dollars and awareness for the US Army Special Forces. She has fostered business relationships with other not-for-profits and corporate sponsorships for the Foundation.
Jen is the founder of the GBF’s sorority, the Steel Mags. She manages critical aspects of day- to-day operations and handles strategic business development at the Foundation including strategic planning, fundraising, building and maintaining donor and investor relationships, coordination of services with USSOCOM Care Coalition, USASFC, USASOC and delivering those services to Green Berets and their families.
Jen’s number one and most important position is being the wife of SSG(R) Roland Paquette III who was an 18D (Special Forces Medic) and now an Emergency Room Physician Assistant and owner and operator of Med Training Group LLC. Roland was traumatically wounded by an IED blast while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom giving both legs above the knees.
Prior to her work at the GBF, Jen was asked by USSOCOM Care Coalition leadership to help develop and start the USSOCOM Care Coalition Recovery Program. This program was developed for traumatically wounded SOF warriors and their families’ long term recovery and support.
Jen has worked for companies such as Intel Corporation and Phelps Dodge Corporation now Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. holding various positions. She has extensive experience in managing high profile multi-million dollar projects, developing and delivering leadership training throughout the country to private companies and schools, and providing consulting for private and not for profits businesses. Jen has over twenty-five years of experience in planning and executing complicated events of various sizes and formats and managing, networking and liaising, between contrasting demographics in all the different circles within her network.
Ms. Paquette earned her B.S. in Business Administration majoring in Supply Chain Management from Arizona State University and her Master’s in Public Administration with a concentration in Not-for-Profits and Public Policy from St. Mary’s University. She is a member of Business Executives for National Security, the San Antonio Downtown Rotary Club, the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and an associate member to the OSS Society. She is the Vice President and a Board of Director for Dancing Angels Foundation. Jen is also on the Board of Advisors for the National Special Forces Green Beret Memorial Project near Ft. Bragg, NC. She has been active with JINSA, AIPAC, and Catholic Charities. She was selected for the 2012 Outstanding Young San Antonian award. Jen is an Honorary Member of the Special Forces Association. She is the sixth woman in history to receive this honor at the National level, and the second within the SFA Chapter XV. Most recently, Jen was selected for the United State’s Special Operation Command highest award- the Patriot Award, Jen splits her time between DC, NYC, Ft. Bragg and San Antonio, Texas where she lives with her Green Beret and their youngest son.
Website: GreenBeretFoundation.org
Facebook: Green Beret Foundation
Instagram: Green Beret Foundation
Website: DancingAngelsFoundation
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Tommy Spaulding - the author of “Heart-Led Leader.” The conversation explores themes on being humble, authentic, and honorable vis-a-vis grit, edge, and tenacity. Tommy wrote about Return On Relationship (ROR), and says that with authentic relationships, you get lifelong customers. When you have a genuine interest in others, they will ask you, “What do you do? How can I help you?” Tommy believes the greatest leaders are the ones that connect the head to the heart.
Listen in to learn more about leading with your head and heart..
Key Takeaways
[1:59] Tommy’s career started at Up With People. In the course of that job he met Ken Blanchard, who changed his life. Tommy followed his footsteps to become a thought leader, speaker, and author.
Tommy sees his success as being based on ‘heart.’ He categorizes thought leaders as either arrogant about success or humble about their path to learning.
[4:39] Tommy says within minutes of entering an event he can tell if the CEO is respected and loved. You can choose to work every day on being humble, authentic, and honorable. It’s Not Just Who You Know is about ‘net giving,’ not networking. Net giving is where your heart should be when you meet people. Don’t sell yourself, but learn about others, and how you can serve them and give to them.
[12:03] Leadership books must deliver bottom line results. Tommy wrote about Return On Relationship (ROR) to steer people toward relationship building. Authentic relationships become lifelong customers. Tommy reveals the ‘magical’ key to monetizing relationships. Without this key, the relationship will fail. When you have a genuine interest in others, they will ask you, “What do you do? How can I help you?”
[18:16] As Tommy met leaders, he observed the ones that people particularly loved. He started taking notes, and listing leaders that he felt were servant leaders, and interviewed them. The greatest leaders are the ones that connect the head to the heart. People want to follow them.
[20:31] Tommy defines a great leader as one people choose to follow, because they love and are loved. Tommy uses the example of Roger Eaton, the global President of KFC. He is not just respected, but is loved by his people. Tommy talks on love in the workplace. Millennials will not follow you, unless they know that you are creating a place of goodness.
[27:38] Tommy wants a Maserati, but he won’t leave Lexus, because of service manager Kelly Kennedy. Kelly provides incredible customer service, and hugs Tommy every time he sees him. Any leader would want customers to feel about their staff the way Tommy considers Kelly.
[36:54] In building authentic relationships with people, the goal is not get on their Christmas card list. The goal is to be invited to their Christmas (or Chanukah) dinner. Make a list of the top 20 important people in your life, and ask what kind of relationship you have. Ask, how would you love and serve them more? It can transform your life. It takes time. Tommy discusses authentic philanthropy.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
The One Minute Manager, by Kenneth Blanchard Ph.D. and Spencer Johnson M.D.
Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership, by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi
The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading From the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life, by Tommy Spaulding
It's Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life (and Your Organization) by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships, by Tommy Spaulding, Foreword by Ken Blanchard
Bio
Tommy Spaulding is the Founder & President of Spaulding Companies, a leadership development, speaking, training, and executive coaching firm based in Denver, Colorado. A world-renowned speaker on leadership, Spaulding has spoken to hundreds of organizations, associations, educational institutions, and corporations around the globe. His first book, It’s Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life and Your Organization by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships, published by Penguin Random House in 2010, quickly climbed to the top of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today national bestseller lists. His new book, The Heart-Led Leader, published by Penguin Random House in October, 2015 is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal national bestseller and was also listed on Inc.com’s Top 100 Business Books of 2015.
Spaulding rose to become the youngest President & CEO of the world-renowned leadership organization, Up with People. In 2000, Tommy founded Leader’s Challenge, which grew to become the largest high school civic and leadership program in the state of Colorado. He is the Founder & President of the Global Youth Leadership Academy as well as the National Leadership Academy, a leading national non-profit high school leadership development organization.
Previously, Spaulding was the Business Partner Sales Manager at IBM/Lotus Development and a member of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. He received a BA in Political Science from East Carolina University (1992); an MBA from Bond University in Australia (1998), where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar; and an MA in Nonprofit Management from Regis University (2005).
In 2006, Spaulding was awarded the Outstanding Alumni Award by East Carolina University (ECU) and in 2007, Spaulding received an Honorary PhD in Humanities from the Art Institute of Colorado. In September, 2012 Spaulding was named by Meetings & Conventions Magazine as one of the 100 MOST FAVORITE SPEAKERS in the nation.
Tommy resides in the Denver metro area with his wife and children.
Website: TommySpaulding.com
Website: NationalLeadershipAcademy.org
Website: GlobalYouthLeadershipAcademy.com
Facebook: Tommy Spaulding
Twitter: @TommySpaulding
LinkedIn: Tommy Spaulding
Summary & Ideas for Action
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Liz Ryan - the CEO and founder of Human Workplace. According to Liz, the mistrust of employees is baked into organizations. Liz says, “It’s toxic, it’s sick, and it’s bad for profitability, for shareholders, for employee health, and the planet.” Liz advocates that leaders need to “be human,” and to make every workplace a human workplace. Trust your people. Liz considers infrastructure, control mechanisms, and performance appraisals, to be disgusting. She says It’s a bad message: “You are not a fully fledged, adult, independent, creative, vibrant, amazing person, when you’re at work.”
Listen in to learn more about humanizing our workplaces.
Key Takeaways
[1:51] Liz waited tables while in school. She dropped out, moved to Chicago, and found she was too young to wait tables in Illinois. She became an office worker, and later moved into HR, with no experience. HR workshops and seminars taught her the laws, but she felt that HR practices did not create a great working environment, or take really good care of employees and applicants.
[3:38] In her first HR job, Liz’s efforts to improve the workplace and hire great people accompanied a growth in annual sales from $1 million to $200 million. Her second HR job was with a tech startup. While she was there, the company grew from $15 million in annual sales, into a $3 billion company.
[6:21] Liz objects to the theory of HR’s and leaders’ roles being to guard against bad things that could potentially happen, rather than to hire people who are unlikely to do bad things. The mistrust of employees is baked into organizations. It’s toxic, it’s sick, and it’s bad for profitability, for shareholders, for employee health, and the planet. Liz calls this entrenched system Godzilla.
[9:54] Be human. Make every workplace a human workplace. Trust your people. Liz considers infrastructure, control mechanisms, and performance appraisals, to be disgusting. It’s a bad message: “You are not a fully fledged, adult, independent, creative, vibrant, amazing person, when you’re at work.”
[10:58] The transactional nature of employment can obscure the real rewards beyond the check. If employees are paid fairly decently, they appreciate different motivations, such as intellectual growth and creative challenges. People need to connect to their own power source, whatever that is. Work can be art. See Liza’s article on rewarding employees for free. She wrote it in response to multiple requests.
[14:30] Liz sees a paranoia, that when we let employees work from home they’re going to be watching daytime soaps and eating bonbons. In 2017, we are using an 1850s employment model of a factory with supervisors watching from a catwalk, as in a prison — it is hierarchical, bureaucratic “terror.”
[17:35] The fix is to embrace your power. You can choose another job. You can speak up, or hold your tongue, because you choose to, not out of fear. Whether you are entry-level, or in the C-suite, you have the power to create a human workplace around you. That is adulthood. You are the CEO of your own life.
[19:39] Liz says you must understand your path, and get that vision of what your life is supposed to be. For her, focusing on what you want, and where you are going, is not about sacrifice, but about choice and determination. Really listen to your gut and your heart, and follow them. Take a step every single day. Come out of your comfort zone.
[21:50] Liz tells how she found her voice. She was shot down for using calligraphy on internal mail. She got no answers for questions about the roles of men and women at work. She asked questions in her HR role that had no handbook answers. She felt so strongly about things, that she just started speaking out. The job is to be a human, not a bureaucrat. Liz did HR from the heart, organically, and in the moment.
[32:27] The story of Kitty Genovese’s murder, where 37 witnesses didn’t act, is compared to the workplace, where we have “permission” not to act, when it’s not our job. Workplace hierarchy gives us permission to mistreat people. Instead, take permission to treat people humanely. Run your career as a business. Do not tolerate things in your business that should not be tolerated. Do not abdicate control.
[37:07] Liz asserts that somebody restricting your words and acts, because they pay you, is out of bounds. If you say something, it’s personal, and it will have a personal impact on someone. If you fear to say something important to you, say it anyway. It will work out better for you, even if you lose your job.
[41:51] Liz tells a couple of frameshift stories involving young people, to illustrate a point. Generation Y employees are not impressed by authority and tradition, but want opportunities to work to their strengths. Not every employee has every strength, but the strengths they have can be great.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
"Ten Ways to Reward Your Employees — For Free," by Liz Ryan
Reinvention Roadmap: Break the Rules to Get the Job You Want and Career You Deserve, by Liz Ryan
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini
Liz Ryan’s LinkedIn Bio
I was a Fortune 500 Human Resources SVP for eons. I've launched HR departments for several successful startups. While I was building HR functions from the ground up, I first questioned and then rewrote the practices for HR, recruiting and leadership in organizations.
My vision for a workplace focused on people became the Human Workplace in 2012.
Human Workplace is a publishing, coaching and consulting firm whose mission is to reinvent work for people.
Our teaching and speaking, writing and artwork coalesce to turn conventional leadership, employee communication, recruitment and HR on its ear. The future of work is human, and Human Workplace employers use our curriculum, tools, coaching and private consultation to re-launch their cultures in the 21st century mode, to meet the challenges of the new-millennium workplace.
I started writing about the workplace in 1997, with a column for the Chicago Sun-Times. Now you can find my stories and artwork here on LinkedIn, on Forbes, TIME, Business Week, Kiplinger's Finance, Yahoo!, Inc., Huffington Post, Denver Post, Harvard Business Review and other publications.
We launched Human Workplace to teach the practices that I've been speaking and writing about for years. Human Workplace is a global movement to humanize work, with millions of numbers around the world.
I live in Boulder, Colorado. My husband and I have five angelic bratty kids.I sing opera and draw the images you see in our columns, eBooks and lessons.
Website: HumanWorkplace.com
Facebook: Human Workplace
Twitter: @humanworkplace
LinkedIn: Liz Ryan
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Chris Paton (2 weeks before he had a brain tumor removed - see notes below which are published with Chris’s permission). Chris is the founder and Managing Director of Quirk Solutions, a company that specializes in delivering Business Wargaming to many organizations. Chris was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines and an advisor to the Cabinet and National Security Council on Afghan strategy, and he leverages the wargaming he learned as a tool to pressure test and evaluate business plans before committing resources into action.
Listen in to learn more about how you can lead stress testing in your organization to strengthen your plans and execution.
Emails we received from Chris - this is one tough hombre - and hope this inspires you as much as did us...
Feb 7 - Date show was recorded
Feb 24 - date of Chris’s surgery - his comments below right after surgery:
Hi Jan & Jim. All done. Feeling a bit rubbish and just recovering from anaesthetic now, but thanks to your kind thoughts and prayers have come out the other side of surgery ok.
Won't know more re how cancerous/benign it is for 2-3 weeks but already feeling up for the fight.
Whatever it is; It picked on the wrong dude.....
You know me; not about to let this get in the way of what I want to do.
Really hope I smash the ball out of the park for you.
Looking forward to hearing what you come up with as a title. Will cheer up a few days in hospital!
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I'm out of immediate danger and now turning my energy back against my opponent!
March 9
As it happens, we had some amazing news this morning. The results of the biopsy are back and not only did they get all of the tumour out, but it seems it was totally benign and there's no risk of cancer at all.
Big smiles this side of the pond!
God bless,
Key Takeaways
[3:21] In the Royal Marines, Chris co-authored an article on planning in fluid situations. That led to talks and consulting, and he realized he had something important to contribute to the corporate world. He left the military to create a business planning consultancy. At each point of a client strategy, Chris would pressure test it to find gaps and weaknesses. He would also pressure test the options he delivered.
[6:24] Chris started to have clients create more of the strategy, with more self-reliance; more responsibility for their own planning. Chris ‘blew on the embers,’ with pressure tests, to add the real value to the planning process.
[7:56] Military people go into business, aware that the consequences of getting something wrong are so catastrophic, that they don’t want to engage with it. Because of that, they spend a lot of time preparing to get it right for the actual action. Corporations sometimes just give it a whirl, to see what happens. Military will not do that, because the cost of failure is too great.
[11:05] Chris runs sessions three ways. The first is a pure pressure test. The second is to train the people to run their own tests. The third is to train the trainer, to do it independently. The pressure test is oriented around a Blue idea team and a Red critical team. The Red are the people who will be affected by the plan. Blue runs the ideas like game plays against Red team. An umpire facilitates the wargame.
[17:38] Matthew Syed, in Black Box Thinking, suggests an evolutionary process of trying and testing, failing, trying, and testing. Chris combines that with technical expertise, to start with a good initial plan. All affected parties are needed. Executives arguing against executives will not find all problems.
[19:54] One cause of organizational blind spots is always recruiting people to be a good fit. Over time they end up recruiting very similar people, who see things the same way. Another blind spot is wilful blindness, from fear of the awful consequence of failure. Chris insists organizations draw from their own experiences in solving these challenges, for buy-in, using him as a safety net.
[24:50] Representatives of every affected group are in the room, and the facilitator urges them to use their voice to discuss all aspects of the plan. It’s about giving people a platform to critique the plans positively, and be a critical friend: “I get where you’re trying to go, but if we did it slightly differently, we’d probably have more success.”
[26:17] A leader who is too controlling causes paralysis by fear among employees. By giving people permission to fail, leaders reduce the instances of failure. A leader can humbly say, “I don’t have all the answers; you’re going to have to help me. I will make the decision, but I need you to provide me with the expertise to help me make the right decision, at the right time, and in the right place.”
[30:44] Chris hires people who want to contribute and make a difference. To deliver the workshops they must be ex-military, but Chris also requires three years of challenging commercial experience before he will hire them. They need to have engagement, warmth and openness. They are connected, and engaged, and Chris rewards them.
[34:55] Chris has a story from his early business days that still makes his toes curl. One of the corporate Blue team members gaver a great presentation of his segment, but when challenged, was unable to defend it, because he didn’t have a good grasp of it. The Red team was recruited to generate ideas, and Chris learned that he needed to pre-qualify all the presenters for competence before pressure testing.
[39:50] Chris, 40 when he started, had no previous business experience, but had a mortgage and teenage children. He relies on his wife and family to sustain him in his entrepreneurial journey. Chris also asked clients for testimonial support, which they supplied freely. That was invigorating for him. Chris also finds strength volunteering at CHICKS, a week-long outdoor experience for disadvantaged children.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn from Their Mistakes--But Some Do, by Matthew Syed
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, by Stephen R. Covey
"How the UK's Royal Marines Plan in the Face of Uncertainty," by Arnoud Franken, Chris Paton, and Simon Rogers
Bio
In his former career, Chris was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines and advisor to the Cabinet and National Security Council on the Afghan strategy. He was responsible for the design of the drawdown of the UK presence in Afghanistan. He saw active service in a wide range of places including Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Georgia and Afghanistan.
In 2010, Chris co-authored a HBR article on planning in fluid situations. This then led to his leaving the military to create Quirk Solutions Ltd. Chris has worked with BUPA, Heineken, Standard Life Investments, Shell and a wide range of SME businesses. He uses his leadership, strategy and planning experience to give organisations increased coherency, direction and efficiency. Chris is also one of the UK’s premier exponents of Business Wargaming; stress testing plans to identify risks and opportunities.
Bi-lingual in French and with a Masters Degree in International Liaison and Communication, Chris also provides French-speaking performance consultancy to clients. Chris Paton is an extraordinary polymath. His exceptional intellect and leadership skill set is faultless and is combined, in his new career, with an empathy to deliver, which at once inspires as much as it educates.
Chris is an avid rugby man, as well as many outdoor sports, trying to surf, and expending vast amounts of futile effort trying to make his garden look presentable.
Website: QuirkSolutions.org
Twitter: @quirkwargaming
LinkedIn: Quirk Solutions Ltd
Blog: ChrisPatonWargame.wordpress.com/
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Becki Saltzman. Becki is a curiosity expert and an applied-curiosity trainer and consultant. In this interview, Jim, Jan and Becki discuss the nature of curiosity training vis-a-vis your curiosity muscle. Becki points out that asking additional questions is better than getting quick answers to obvious questions. Leaders can encourage innovation by fostering a culture of curiosity in their organization.
Listen in to learn more about how peak curiosity can clarify your vision and guide decisions.
Key Takeaways
[4:03] Becki notes that you can control whether you are interested, more than whether you are interesting. If you are not interested in people, you don’t know about them, so you don’t know what will make you interesting to them. Curiosity can lead you to find uncommon commonalities with them.
[4:50] Becki was raised by auctioneers, and attended hundreds of auctions, where she found a variety of people and objects to stimulate her curiosity. In graduate school she realized that curiosity was relegated to an ingredient in the greater studies of innovation and creativity. She chose to study it in its own right.
[7:14] Becki tells leaders that curiosity is a muscle, to be exercised before judgment, criticism, fear, and complacency. Because it is a tool, peak curiosity is to be used in some, but not all, situations.
[11:55] Becki talks about managing familiarity and heightening curiosity in a business setting, and also in a personal setting. When her son was hospitalized, instead of just accepting a nurse’s statement about a test, Becki engaged her curiosity to ask a critical question that made a big difference.
[15:25] Becki distinguishes the difference between free-range, basic curiosity vs. applied curiosity. Applied curiosity training concentrates on using curiosity as a tool in three areas: busting cognitive biases and brain bugs, creative problem-solving and innovation, and sales and influence.
[17:26] George Loewenstein identified the information gap between what you want to know, and what you do know. Becki found gaps between what you do know and what you need to know, and between what you want to know and what you need to know. Thinking, before you whip out a cell phone to search, is enough to keep the curiosity gap alive. Easy information can make us think we know enough.
[29:39] Elevating curiosity ahead of criticism, judgment, fear, and complacency is often enough to question why you make the decisions you make. Elevating curiosity makes your judgment more accurate.
[31:59] Becki starts curiosity training by identifying your curiosity archetype, or how you default to using curiosity. Each archetype has its own set of cognitive biases, fueled by assumptions. Once your biases are identified, you can evaluate whether to use them or not, in making decisions. Familiarity and expectations are the basis of assumptions.
[34:15] The minimum viable question in sales should be meaningful, unexpected, and not infused with any judgment. The reply is how you get your best information about the client or prospect. Becki’s MVQ is, “What did your childhood smell like?”
[39:26] Becki employs Richard Feynman’s learning technique of taking something very familiar, and manipulating your sense of familiarity about it, to bring yourself to peak curiosity.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Living Curiously: How to Use Curiosity to Be Remarkable and Do Good Stuff, by Becki Saltzman
Arousing the Buy Curious: Real Estate Pillow Talk for Patrons and Professionals, by Becki Saltzman
"The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation," by George Loewenstein
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick.
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Bio
Becki Saltzman holds a masters degree in behavioral science from Washington University in St. Louis, and has spent the last two decades studying curiosity and the role it plays in innovation & creativity, problem solving and decision-making, sales, and adventure. She is the author of Living Curiously: How to Use Curiosity to Be Remarkable and Do Good Stuff, and Arousing the Buy Curious: Real Estate Pillow Talk for Patrons and Professionals. She is a trainer & consultant, professional speaker, and ex-real estate broker and fashion buyer. Becki is the founder of the Living Curiously Lifestyle and creator of Applied-Curiosity, Peak Curiosity, and the Living Curiously Method — frameworks and teaching programs for using curiosity to accomplish remarkable things in work, adventure, and life. She is the spawn of master persuader auctioneers and breeder of boys. When she’s not traveling to speak about curiosity, Becki lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband. She loves great travel adventures, crowded dance floors, and brown drinks.
Website: BeckiSaltzman.com
Google: Join the Tribe of the Curious
Facebook: Becki Saltzman
Twitter: @BeckiSaltzman
LinkedIn: Becki Saltzman
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Steffan Tubbs. Steffan is best known in Colorado as the co-host of Colorado’s Morning News on KOA NewsRadio in Denver. Overall, Steffan has more than 26 years of news experience and is a four-time winner of the Edward R. Murrow award for national reporting. In this interview, Jim, Jan and Steffan discuss whether some people are born to be leaders, and then assume leadership responsibilities; or some are thrown into circumstances where leadership is demanded and step up to the occasion. Also discussed is why some seek leadership positions with no motivation for personal gain. When Steffan covers people who complain and blame their circumstances, he challenges them that a single individual can still make a difference.
Listen in to learn more about how passion for a cause can inspire others to achieve heroic aspirations..
Key Takeaways
[3:39] Steffan first embedded in Iraq in March 2006, to report to his audience firsthand on conditions. He saw our men and women carrying out orders, and also going beyond to fulfil humanitarian missions.
[6:16] At home, an email informed Steffan that a new friend had lost his life to an IED, in the same Humvee they had shared less than a month earlier. Steffan vowed that his mission would be to remember our troops — men and women — and their sacrifices. This has led to incredible experiences.
[10:34] Filming ACRONYM, Steffan had many opportunities to talk and travel with WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan veterans, who spoke to him about wanting to protect our country, the Constitution, and our democracy, but suffered terribly doing so. This day, more than 20 veterans will take their lives, and 75 more will attempt it. Steffan spreads awareness of this tragedy.
[12:39] Steffan’s life changed on April 19, 1995, when the AP ticker reported an explosion in Oklahoma City, at the Murrah Federal Building. Steffan arrived within six hours, and was on site for a week. That was his first tragedy coverage of many. In the aftermath of tragedy, he saw ordinary people become leaders, as they evacuated buildings and saved people’s lives.
[17:53] Some people are born to be leaders, and find leadership positions. Some are thrown into circumstances where leadership is demanded, and step up to the occasion. Some seek leadership position with no motivation for personal gain. Some people do not seek to lead.
[21:04] When Steffan covers people who complain and blame their circumstances, he challenges them. A person can still make a difference, living in this, the greatest country on earth.
[22:51] WWII veteran Joe LaNier grew up in segregated rural Mississippi, grandson of a slave, and became a Navy Seabee. He always looked at life’s positives After interviewing with Steffan, he became the subject of Steffan’s first book and documentary film, Life, Liberty & Resilience. Taking on the dual project “just about killed” Steffan, but he and Joe had great experiences working together.
[29:29] Steffan tells of his early life, and the resilience of his divorced mother, as she provided for him as well as she could. Steffan knows both poverty and comfort. He rejects keeping the hand you were dealt. He creates opportunities, makes things happen, and believes others can, too. Resiliency helps in any hard circumstance. Steffan is an eternal optimist, in part through the examples of people he meets.
[34:00] You can learn optimism by paying attention around you. There’s always someone who is in a worse situation than you. If you see them coping, and being resilient, take a lesson from it.
[37:40] Steffan tells why he likes to create documentary films. His company trademark is Documentary Films That MatterTM. Everybody has a story, and most people have a compelling story. Steffan’s curiosity drives him to discover, explore, and share these stories in documentary form.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Life, Liberty & Resilience: A Man’s War on Three Fronts, by Steffan Tubbs
Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities, by Paul G. Stoltz
Bio
Steffan has funneled his passion for fair, honest reporting into Mountain Time Media and making Documentary Films That Matter.™ His first 3 films, Life, Liberty & Resilience, Droughtland, and ACRONYM: The Cross-Generational Battle With PTSD, all have been critically acclaimed and created amazing engagement opportunities, including a private screening on Capitol Hill for the House Veteran Affairs Committee. In addition to his radio experience, Steffan has spent more than six years as a national correspondent with ABC News based in Los Angeles, and nearly two years as a reporter/anchor for Fox5/WNYW-TV in New York City before moving back to Denver in 2005. Steffan hosted Studio 12 on Colorado Public Television for eight years. He has covered the Oklahoma City bombing and subsequent trials, Columbine, 9/11 recovery from Ground Zero, the Virginia Tech and Aurora Theater shootings and every type of natural disaster – from fires to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, drought, and tornadoes. His sports coverage has included Super Bowls, World Series, NBA, and Stanley Cup Finals. Steffan is a frequent contributor to the Fox News Channel and ABC News. He is a proud supporter of our military and was twice embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq (2006 & 2010.) In both 2010 and 2012, he assisted WWII veterans back to the island of Iwo Jima. He ends his show daily by reminding us to Remember Our Troops.
In 2012, Steffan published his first book Life, Liberty & Resilience – the story of a segregated WWII Iwo Jima veteran who grew up in rural Mississippi. His first film of the same title was released in 2013. In 2014, Steffan’s second film Droughtland was released to critical acclaim. His latest film, ACRONYM: The Cross-Generational Battle With PTSD has garnered overwhelming support in Colorado and Nationally.
Google: ACRONYM PTSD
Website: MountainTM.com
Facebook: Mountain Time Media
Facebook: ACRONYM: The Cross-Generational Battle With PTSD
Twitter: @MtnTimeMedia
Twitter: @Acronym_ptsd
Twitter: @KOATubbs
Twitter: @TubbsKOA (This links to a specific Tweet on the Official U.S. Navy page)
Heroic Aspirations & Team Commitment – A Profound Disconnect?
Summary & Ideas for Action
On this Mastermind episode, co-hosts Jim Vaselopulos and Jan Rutherford discuss the inside scoop on The Leadership Podcast. Jim and Jan cover the questions that have been asked when they’ve shown the Patagonia Crucible documentary in four cities so far. They segue into themes The Leadership Podcast guests have discussed most often, and they conclude the episode with two important announcements.
Listen in for what Jim and Jan have learned as they continue to study leaders!
Key Takeaways
[2:30] Jan and Jim took the Patagonia documentary to Denver, Portland, Seattle and Chicago. Self-Reliant Leadership studies the qualities of elite military units to understand the recipe for accelerated team development in all environments - from Patagonia to the boardroom. In October 2016, a team of Special Operations veterans and business executives completed a 54-mile circumnavigation of Cerro Torre and Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia, Argentina. During the six-day expedition, the team tested audacity, adaptability, and compassion to determine if team development can be accelerated. The team found that selflessness, positivity, and curiosity were the key ingredients to a team with an absolute commitment to achieve at an elite level. These conclusions created a "recipe" to develop your own elite teams that gel quickly, gracefully handle changing business conditions, achieve challenging goals, and perform with absolute commitment.
[3:12] “What did you forget to take?” Special Ops guys knew somebody would have what they didn’t. Executives packed every possible item. Everyone shared.
[5:59] “How do you translate that to business?” Daily, you have problems. Somebody on your team has already solved that problem. Ask. You’re as strong as the team. Always have instant messaging on, so if someone has a question, you’re there. To be part of the team, you have to be available.
[7:52] “How did you select participants?” Participants were selected who were: selfless, adventurous, and had heroic aspirations. Those criteria were constantly reinforced: “You have been selected because you are selfless, adventurous, and have heroic aspirations.” People realized it’s all about everyone else.
[8:44] Participants were expected to read the bios of the others going; to answer, “What do you hope to get out of this trip?” and to set up one-on-one calls to know their teammates. He set expectations of camaraderie, selflessness, vulnerability, sharing, and learning.
[11:27] “If someone’s hurting, shouldn’t they acknowledge it honestly to the team?” Recognize something bad happened. Respect burdens without dwelling on them; let each overcome their adversity. Be inspired by the good coming out of it. Be self-aware, both internally, and of how you affect others, and self-regulate. Ask yourself, ‘What emotions do I want to show, that are best-suited for the team?’
[17:38] ‘Slowing down to speed up,’ is critical on the crucibles and in business. “I don’t have time to develop my team,” is not a strategy. Point of no return (PONR) goals are really big and really hard, and the team has no choice but to gel, bond, and take care of each other. Executives need a team that has each other’s back, with shared accountability and selflessness. Set ‘stretch’ goals.
[23:27] Planning for Patagonia involved team decisions. Things were discussed, not dictated. One discussion was on heavy snowshoes. They finally agreed to bring them. In hindsight, they needed them. Leadership has to be patient, and let the team all come to the same conclusion.
[26:16] “What was different when you were roped in, and how does that relate to the business world?” Walking on the glacier and keeping everyone at the same pace, with the right spacing and tension, physically forced you to understand the interdependencies of your team. You are all tied together.
[29:45] Themes from guests: (1) Vulnerability shows authenticity, earns credibility, and builds confidence. (2) Humor. Be self-deprecating. Allow a culture of fun, not at others’ expense. (3) Deal with conflict. Provide consequences. Uphold standards and culture. Turn negative energy into positive.
[41:02] General McChrystal said: “Most organizations today were designed for an environment that no longer exists.” Gary Hamel wrote that the system is not creating the environment where most of the people can do the right thing most of the time, with minimal supervision. Executives must transition to lead the full organization. Self-reliant leadership has three pillars: self, others, and organization.
[42:36] Announcements: (1) Jim has joined Jan as a partner in Self-Reliant Leadership, with plans, vision, and P.O.N.R.’s. (2) Jim announces The Leadership Podcast Academy, at WeStudyLeaders.com. Sign up there for the featured course, Fundamentals for Self-Reliant Leaders. The first 10 to sign up using the code, launchparty, will get a 50% discount for the course.
Books Mentioned on the Show
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert P. Cialdini
The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
The Future of Management, by Gary Hamel
The Littlest Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership, by Jan Rutherford
With Schwarzkopf: Life Lessons of The Bear by Gus Lee
Bios: http://theleadershippodcast.com/our-team/
Website: SelfReliantLeadership.com
Website: TheLeadershipPodcast.com
Website: WeStudyLeaders.com
Twitter: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: We Study Leaders
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Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Greg Adams and Blake Miles. Greg was a Special Forces officer, and is now the Co-founder and CEO of Stabilitas, a real-time threat intelligence and communication platform for security professionals working at global organizations. Blake was a Special Forces soldier, and currently is working as the Director of Support for Stabilitas. Greg and his team help safeguard companies and secures travelers with location specific safety information and a lifeline to help, all through their smartphones.
Listen in to learn more about how these former Special Forces operators bring military-strength intelligence to corporate security.
Key Takeaways
[4:24] The Stabilitas team mission is to keep stakeholders safe, communicating risks arising from world conditions.
[13:32] Greg had had a learning experience in Afghanistan, where his fundamental assumptions were challenged. Greg said you have to be curious, informed, and confident in your decisions, and always open to new information.
[19:27] Greg’s top value is to surround himself with quality people, like Blake. It’s a combination of taking care of the customer, and building a team of people that care about each other.
[21:53] Greg deployed to Afghanistan during the financial crisis. The war wasn’t resonating with people who were losing their homes. This event made him want to study the big picture, through empirical economics, which helped him to find data to test big assumptions. Applying this to Stabilitas, they use machine learning to process open source risk data, map it, and dynamically deliver intelligence to a smartphone.
[23:39] In the commercial security space, they’re at a confluence of markets between intelligence and geopolitical risk, and communicating that intelligence to security staff, giving them civilian equivalents of military tools.
[27:30] Stabilitas is exploring social media. The goal is to demonstrate they’re doing something new, and social media is a new approach to reach security firms.
[33:56] Bringing people with different backgrounds onto the team, means Greg had to find similar and trustworthy people with great autonomy and specialized skills.
[38:59] Blake recommends Jan’s Crucible cross-pollination of military and executive styles.
Bios
Greg Adams is passionate about geopolitical risks, empirical research, data analytics, technology, building a team, and getting out in the Pacific Northwest. When he’s not building a great product with the Stabilitas team, or running around in the mountains, you can find him at Stabilitas.io. Greg has an undergraduate degree in physics from West Point, and studied economics and business at Harvard.
Website: Stabilitas.io
Email: Greg@Stabilitas.io
LinkedIn: Greg Adams
Twitter: @Greg_ii
After serving in Special Forces, Blake Miles spent time as a recruiter for the Army National Guard before separating from the military in 2011. While working toward his bachelor’s degree, he began his role as Director of Communications for the Green Beret Foundation, and also began writing for the website, SOFREP. Blake earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne.
Twitter: @BMiles84
Facebook: BMiles84
LinkedIn: Blake Miles
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Lana Holmes. Lana served as a proof-of-concept CEO for 6 companies, and an investor/advisor to over 30 technical startups in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the founder of four companies, she has deep expertise in the complete entrepreneurial journey. Sensing the marketplace needed more than business expertise, Lana invested in her personal practice with an eight-year journey in earth wisdom and oral indigenous traditions.
Listen in to learn more about how to be inquisitive, find passion, and navigate your journey so as to pass down wisdom for generations to come.
Key Takeaways
[3:21] Lana’s early career was an executive path, starting at Xerox, where she learned to ask questions. She was also one of the first employees at WebLogic as Director of Operations.
[6:56] Looking for passion in her life, Lana went on a year-long walkabout, spending time in nature. She found teachers who were students of indigenous oral traditions, and she asked to study with them.
[11:39] Lana discusses the hero’s journey. She cites Brian Johnson, who is launching Hero Training 101, after a life of leadership and being a hero in his own right.
[14:42] Jim notes consistent similarities shared by the various leader-focused guests on the podcast: asking questions, telling stories, being curious, concern for legacy, listening. Jan cites a TED Radio Hour podcast on “The Hero’s Journey,” and the crucibles heroes experience. Lana talks about timeless earth wisdom.
[17:32] Earth wisdom provided Lana with the essential elements for navigation. Her organizational development work has been influenced by earth wisdom teachings, and medicine wheels, in relationship with nature. She takes clients into nature, diving deep with them to make a quantum leap toward understanding their life’s purpose.
[19:29] Lana notes that Crucibles impact people by the power of the earth. She provides people with tools, or custom questions, built on the energies of a medicine wheel, to navigate their lives.
[26:02] Lana urges aligning business with our values. Disruption creates superstorm systems, that are complicated and challenging to fix.
[29:54] Jim considers cycles to be critical. Ancient wisdom teaches balance, and give and take.
[35:45] Leadership is one of the highest forms of service. We must first come into right relationship with ourselves, in order to be extraordinary leaders. Service begins at self-care. Lana asks questions to reveal the brilliance that is already within people
[39:32] The first step is listening to our own voice, which requires asking ourselves the right questions, and listening deeply to what’s moving within us, and then having dialog with people, about those questions and findings.
Bio
Drawing upon the combined resources of a 28+ year executive career in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lana Holmes served as a proof of concept CEO for 6 companies and is or has been an investor or advisor to over 30 technical startups in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As a founder of four companies (2 consultancies, 1 service, 1 product), she has a deep expertise in the complete entrepreneurial journey. More specifically, a refined knowing of the inner and outer structures needed for successful implementation in the current market place.
Sensing that the marketplace needed more than business expertise, Lana invested in her personal practice with an eight-year journey in earth wisdom and oral indigenous traditions. Lana has developed skills uniquely suited for the opportunities and challenges of our current world community and serves as an advisor and guide to high impact individuals and couples.
Always listening and connected to a deep conviction that the feminine voice holds healing and wholeness for what is needed to restore balance and order among all humans, Lana accepted the role of Vice Chair and Chair of the Nominating Committee on the World Pulse Board and continues to invest her energies toward all that serves and sustains life.
LinkedIn: Lana Holmes
Instagram: LanarenHolmes
Website: LanaHolmes.com
Email: Lana@LanaHolmes.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Josh Spodek, an Adjunct Professor at NYU, leadership coach, workshop leader for Columbia Business School, columnist for Inc., founder of Spodek Academy, and author of Leadership Step by Step (launching February 2017). Josh talks about how academic teachings failed to prepare him for entrepreneurship, and how learning a theory is insufficient without practicing it. They discuss the critical need for emotional intelligence, and psychological safety, and how they can be developed, and the techniques Josh uses to strengthen them.
Listen in to learn more about leadership practices, releasing passion, changing beliefs, and nurturing teams.
Key Takeaways
[2:59] Josh is concerned that academic education is emotionally and socially passive. At Ivy League schools, Josh learned was intellectually challenged, but he was not taught socially and emotionally. Josh had trouble working with others when he founded his first company. His leadership was ineffective during the recession, and investors forced him out as CEO.
[10:34] Reading books, and learning theory, but not learning how to practice the theory, you might as well read about weights, but not actually lifting weights. Josh wanted a place to teach leadership. For Spodek Academy, Josh researched fields that show leadership, to learn from their techniques. He created exercises, tested and refined them, to teach sensitivity to others’ emotions.
[18:32] Joshua cites exercises by Marshall Goldsmith, such as “FeedForward,” and “No, But, However,” that taught him so much about listening and empathy. Small changes in behavior change your worldview. Josh organized Goldsmith’s exercises, and others, into a progression of learning, with each exercise being more challenging, and all tied together.
[19:58] One exercise is to write down your inner monolog, the voice inside your head — not what you’re thinking about, but the actual words. A later exercise is to speak your inner monolog. That’s scary, because people hear it. It turns out to be authentic, and people respond genuinely. Further exercises are to write your mental model (what creates the inner monolog), and models of others.
[25:12] We’ve all been hurt. When part of your identity is mocked, you can’t get rid of it, but you can hide it. We don’t get hurt by casual acquaintances, but by people close to us. We learn to close off our vulnerabilities. Leaders who learn to get people to get past vulnerability to share their passion can get them to engage in their work, for purposes about which they are passionate.
[26:50] Jim talks about psychological safety, determined by Google’s Project Aristotle to be the number one key performance driver of high performing teams. With psychological safety, it is easier to have discussions in touch with your inner monolog. Josh says Laszlo Bock’s research at Google revealed the need for our educational system to educate to emotional intelligence.
[29:47] Josh teaches adopting a challenging belief, in Unit 2 of Leadership Step by Step. Unit 1 is Understand Yourself. Unit 2 is Lead Yourself. A leader needs to know that beliefs affect how people view the world. Two people, looking at one thing, see two things. To change motivation, change belief. Joshua describes changing the “dandelion belief,” to the “burning building belief.”
[33:36] If you can look at a difficult problem from a different perspective, and solve it that way, you have an additional way to solve problems, or more intelligence. Helping someone change a belief is simpler than convincing them of something. The progression in the book is, understand your belief, adopt a challenging belief, understand other’s belief, and help them adopt a belief.
[37:48] Visiting North Korea taught Josh about himself. Seeing pictures of Kim Jong Il everywhere, and tuning them out, made him wonder what he tunes out here in the U.S. It hit him, that advertising and brands are what he tunes out. We incorporate into our reality things that are actually aspects of our external culture. Sometimes it takes an outsider perspective to see it.
[40:48] Josh teaches entrepreneurs, when they find an industry where everybody has the same fixed beliefs, it is a huge opportunity, especially when the beliefs do not match the interests of the market. The more fixed the belief, the more the opportunity. Google is an example. Before Google were simple site aggregators, like Alta Vista. Google tried to sell “search” for $1 million. No takers!
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Leadership Step by Step: Become the Person Others Follow, by Joshua Spodek (Available February 16, 2017)
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Marshall Goldsmith author page on Amazon
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
NYT Magazine, "What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team,"
article by Charles Duhigg
Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead,
by Laszlo Bock
Bio
Joshua Spodek is an Adjunct Professor at NYU, leadership coach and workshop leader for Columbia Business School, columnist for Inc., founder of Spodek Academy, and author of Leadership Step by Step (launching February 2017).
He has led seminars in leadership, entrepreneurship, creativity, and sales at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, INSEAD (Singapore), the New York Academy of Science, and in private corporations. He holds five Ivy League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA, and studied under a Nobel Prize winner. He helped build an X-ray observational satellite for the European Space Agency and NASA, co-founded and led as CEO or COO several ventures, and holds six patents.
He earned praise as “Best and Brightest” (Esquire Magazine’s Genius Issue), “Astrophysicist turned new media whiz” (NBC), and “Rocket Scientist” (ABC News and Forbes) and has been quoted and profiled by ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, Fox, NY1, CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Newsweek, Forbes, Esquire, The Guardian, Nikkei Shimbun, Taipei Times, Salon, and more.
He’s an award-winning artist, marathoner, world-class Ultimate Frisbee competitor, fitness fanatic, and world traveler. He lives in Greenwich Village and blogs daily.
Website: SpodekAcademy.com
Twitter: @Spodek
Website: JoshuaSpodek.com
Facebook: Spodek Academy
LinkedIn: Joshua Spodek
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Mary Kelly, CEO at Productive Leaders. They speak with Mary about the challenges of leadership in industry, and what happens when a leader tries too hard to be liked. They also discuss how employees perceive leaders differently than leaders perceive themselves. They discuss accountability, fairness, consistency, and mentoring. They end with a discussion on motivation, happiness, and contributors to depression.
Listen in to learn more about steps leaders can take today to build trust and accountability in their organization.
Key Takeaways
[3:23] Productive leadership is hard, with competing demands from above and below. In the military, everyone wants to lead; to be productive. In many cases in business, we take the enjoyment out of being a leader. We’ve made it difficult to be a leader. If leaders make mistakes, they get fired. Some ineffective leaders put themselves first, and lack compassion.
[6:34] Simon Sinek did a video on Millennials, whose parents wanted to be liked instead of being respected. Jim says, being respected is hugely important. If you care about people, they will like and respect you. Mary says, they like you, until you make a decision that is not in their best self-interests, and then they don’t like you — but, if you made a fair decision, they will still respect you.
[8:38] For Peter Stark and Mary Kelly’s recent book, Why Leaders Fail, they studied over 100K employee surveys from over 10 years, used that data, and crafted a survey for the employee’s bosses. They received 1,000 survey responses. The responses exposed a large disconnect between the bosses’ thoughts and the employees’ perceptions of what was happening.
[9:28] The book observes seven common leadership failures: (1) lacking vision and clear goals, (2) sabotaging trust, (3) self-interest, (4) unfairness and inconsistency, (5) not understanding how to build a team, (6) wanting to be liked instead of respected, and (7) turning confidence into arrogance. This last failure stirs the most emotion.
[15:55] Hold people accountable for their actions, for what they do, as well as for what they don’t do. Encourage them to take initiative, even if it means risk. The right risks are acceptable. Make sure people are doing their job. Don’t just go to your go-to person and let others skate. Assign jobs consistent with people’s job responsibilities, and then hold them accountable.
[20:12] Jan talks about succession planning throughout the organization. People want to know what their path is, and that there is a concerted effort to develop their skills for their future aspirations. Mary sees some who come into an organization for a specific job, want to do it well, and not to be promoted. Leaders will recognize where individuals can do their best work.
[24:23] Big companies in many ways have outsourced the risk-taking to startups; and if they’re successful, then they absorb them, destroying the startup culture. Big companies just aren’t good at taking risks. Risk is the path to growth.
[26:36] Jan quotes Dan Pink and Frederick Herzberg about motivators. Mary says attracting top talent is critical for every organization. The happy medium between Herzberg and Pink is that people are individuals. Everyone needs different motivators. Most people leave jobs because of their boss or coworker. They knew what the job and salary were when they walked in the door.
[31:30] Mary believes in strength-based jobs. Don’t “work on” weaknesses. Develop existing strengths. Student report cards with five A’s, but consistent D’s in Economics, give awesome clarity. It means their strength is not in Economics, but in the A subjects. They should not try to be economists. Employees with a project that they love, and have passion for, lead themselves.
[40:16] Mary did a study on happiness vs. the need to feel valued. The age group with the highest suicide rate is people over 85, because they feel as though nobody cares, and they’re not valued. The next group is 45 to 65. They also feel they’re not valued. Being valued, needed, and feeling as though you are contributing, is the most important support we have for mental health.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Why Leaders Fail: And the 7 Prescriptions for Success, by Peter B. Stark and Mary C. Kelly
Master Your World: 10 Dog-Inspired Leadership Lessons to Improve Productivity, Profits and Communication, by Mary C. Kelly
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
The Motivation to Work, by Frederick Herzberg, Bernard Mausner, and
Barbara Bloch Snyderman
Bio
Raised in Texas, Mary Kelly is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and spent over 20 years on active duty in intelligence and logistics. She retired from the Navy as a commander, has a Master’s degrees in history and economics, and a PhD in economics.
With over 20 years combined experience at the Naval Academy, Hawaii Pacific University, and the Air Force Academy, she taught economics, finance, history and management. She has experience in business development, human resources, finance and organizational leadership. Mary has a track record of success as a leadership expert and executive coach.
Mary’s sister and brothers were also in the military. Mary is the author of 11 books. She was once the Chief of Police, she makes her own wine, and she’s never played a video game.
Through her work in college teaching and in the military, Mary discovered the need to make the principles of leadership and communication available to all types of businesses. Her book, Master Your World, became a bestseller and launched her career as an author and speaker.
After publishing additional books on leadership, productivity, communication, business growth, and organization, Mary desired to make leadership fun and fulfilling. Mary views conferences and events as a partnership, and she works to eliminate worry and uncertainty for her meeting professionals. Mary knows leaders today are developing talent, managing change, building teams, communicating across multiple platforms, and worried about profitability. Mary helps leaders and managers save time, reduce conflict, decrease absenteeism, resolve challenges, gain clarity, and make decisions that boost morale and productivity. “Great leadership can be learned.”
Website: ProductiveLeaders.com
Website: 7PrescriptionsForSuccess.com for a free chapter (the Trust chapter) of
the book, and a free 36-question leadership assessment to use with your team.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrMaryKelly
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/DrMaryKelly
Twitter: https://twitter.com/marykellyspeaks
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/maryaloha/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MaryKelly
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview John Brumer, Jason Ginos, and Micah Niebauer, founders of Southern Pines Brewing. The three entrepreneurs first met while serving in the 3rd Special Forces Group. John enlisted right into the Special Forces qualification course. Jason went to Millikin University, and was a psychological operations specialist before heading into the 3rd Group. Micah attended Wheaton College in the ROTC Program, and went to the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, joined the 82nd Airborne, and then joined the 3rd Special Forces Group.
These men served with distinction, with multiple active-duty tours. John, or Juan Peligro, as the Patagonia crew referred to him, has been a GORUCK Cadre since 2014. Jason and his wife, Aleah, have been married nine years, and have three young children, Tanner, Luke, and Charlotte. Micah and his wife, Patricia have been married for 10 years, and have three young children, Eva, Claudia, and Wyatt. Micah is the CEO, Jason is the CFO, and John is the COO of Southern Pines Brewing, in Southern Pines, North Carolina, where they all reside.
Jan and Jim speak with John, Jason, and Micah about how disciplines learned through their Special Forces service helped them unite in a business partnership, and how they chose to advance a home-brewing passion they shared into a viable business. They also discuss how identifying with a community, and participating in community programs lends purpose to the enterprise. They discuss the company's mission and values individually, and how these statements of purpose keep them going despite inevitable challenges. There is also a segment about John’s participation in the Crucible in Patagonia, and how he is applying the lessons into the business on a daily basis.
Listen in to learn more about turning a shared passion into a dynamic business partnership.
Key Takeaways
[2:00] John, Jason, and Micah all served in the 3rd Special Forces Group, an airborne unit of the Green Berets. Their common bond, and strong teamwork, allowed them to enter head first into the entrepreneurial world as the Co-Founders of Southern Pines Brewing.
[4:27] As the Co-Founders developed the slogan and mission statement for Southern Pines Brewing, they focused on the community aspect of craft brewing, with the art, history and tradition behind it. They visited many craft breweries to find inspiration for starting Southern Pines Brewing. They adopted some ideas they saw, and suggestions they received.
[6:08] Southern Pines Brewing makes a huge impact on the local community. They participate in Boys and Girls clubs, and the Walter Moss Foundation, and retirement homes. They take their military community sense of belonging with them. Everybody understands beer.
[7:33] Southern PInes Values: The customer is the focus of everything we do. We provide the highest quality products for our customers. We are a professional organization, demonstrating this in everything we do. We are constantly learning and growing. We are good citizens in the community. Fear will not drive decision-making. We are aggressive. Nothing is impossible.
[8:58] Jason explains that their ambition to venture into brewing led them to be aggressive. First, they needed aggressive growth. In the second year they needed growth and financial efficiency. They will aggressively reach for their full effective production capacity, and eliminate choke points. In 2017, they will grow, but aggressively pay down debt and become a better business.
[11:23] Micah talks about overcoming fear, by being proactive in their decisions. Their military experience leads them to take measured risks daily, not for their lives, but for their livelihood.
[15:18] John speaks on how nothing is impossible became one of their values. He recalls a race car course in Special Ops. The lesson he learned was to look where you’re going. Don’t worry about all of the things that could possibly happen. Worry about the outcomes that you’re trying to accomplish. John speaks of his support from his partners to turn a hobby into a viable business. [21:33] Jason recommends, The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, and the Berkshire Hathaway books. He also recommends Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech. Micah recommends two books, Built to Sell, by John Warrillow, and Scaling Up, by Verne Harnish. John recommends, Tribe, by Sebastian Junger, and Nassim Taleb’s, The Black Swan.
[28:53] Micah notes John’s interactions with executives on the Crucible opened opportunities. Jason comments how John was so alive when he got back from being in beautiful landscapes with awesome leaders. The team problem-solving was impactful. John says the biggest thing was the day-to-day training through personal interaction with executives and veterans.
[35:20] The partners finally have the time to look forward five to ten years. What are the best tools to get there? It’s another world from three Army guys making beer in a garage. There are opportunities and responsibilities not available before.
[37:46] John speaks on how difficult it was to get financing. Jason says eight banks rejected them. The local PNC branch backed them, just when they were ready to go to Plan B. Micah adds they are so successful together because they are equally yoked to the success of the business. No one is going home. The business has to succeed. They are past the point of no-return.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing, by Benjamin Graham
“Citizenship in a Republic (The Man in the Arena),” by Theodore Roosevelt
Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, by John Warrillow
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't, by Verne Harnish
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Bios
MICAH NIEBAUER, Co-founder & CEO
Micah Niebauer is originally from Superior, Wisconsin. He attended college at Wheaton College, IL, majored in Political Science, and was a member of the ROTC program. Upon graduation in 2003, he worked at both the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Commerce prior to beginning service in the U.S. Army as an Infantry Officer in the 82d Airborne Division. He later joined Special Forces and served in 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). Micah completed multiple tours in support of the Global War on Terror before resigning his commission in June of 2013. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of Southern Pines Brewing Company. Micah completed the Siebel Institute of Technology’s Concise Course in Brewing Technology as well as the Essential Quality Control Course at White Labs, San Diego. Micah and his wife Patricia have been married for 10 years and have three children, Eva (7), and Claudia (3), and Wyatt (1). Patricia works as an attorney at Robins, May, and Rich in Pinehurst, and they reside in Southern Pines.
JOHN BRUMER, Co-founder & COO
John Brumer is originally from Houston, Texas. He enlisted in the Army after high school and joined Special Forces through the 18X-ray program. John served as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant in 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), completing multiple overseas tours. John was later chosen to serve as an instructor in the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne).
John turned down a promotion in early 2013 and separated from the Army in June of 2014. He is currently the COO and co-founder of Southern Pines Brewing Company. John completed the Siebel Institute of Technology’s Concise Course in Brewing Technology as well as the Essential Quality Control Course at White Labs, San Diego. He has been a GoRuck Cadre since 2014. John resides in Southern Pines.
JASON GINOS, Co-founder and CFO
Jason Ginos is originally from Hillsboro, Illinois. Jason completed two years of college at Millikin University, IL, before enlisting in the Army as a Psychological Operations Specialist in 2003. Jason later joined Special Forces and was assigned as a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant to 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). Jason completed numerous overseas tours in support of the Global War on Terror. He was later selected to serve as a Small Unit Tactics Instructor in the Special Warfare Center and School. After completing 10 years of service, Jason separated from the Army in June of 2014. He is currently the CFO and co-founder of Southern Pines Brewing Company. Jason and his wife Aleah have been married for 9 years and have three children, Tanner (6), Luke (3), and Charlotte (6 mo). Aleah serves as a First Sergeant in Military Information Support Operations on Fort Bragg, and they reside in Southern Pines.
Website: southernpinesbrewing.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Justin Gold, the Founder of Justin’s Natural Foods Company, which produces organic and natural nut butters and peanut butter cups. From their humble beginnings at local farmers’ markets to launching a national brand, Justin’s is now one of the country’s fastest growing natural foods companies. Justin’s has received numerous local and national accolades and ranked in the top 15 on the Inc. 500 and 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies List, in the Food and Beverage category, two years in a row.
Jan and Jim speak with Justin about innovation in sustainable food and reduced packaging, and how entrepreneurial and academic mentors guided Justin in his business start. They also discuss how taking an innovative risk led to becoming an industry thought leader, and how Juston worked out a plan with an acquiring organization that allows him to continue his innovative ways.
Listen in to learn more about how leadership and sustainability can support profitability.
Key Takeaways
[5:24] In a Twitter exchange with musician John Mayer, Justin accepted the challenge to produce the world’s first Chocolate Almond Butter with Cookie Dough. John put a photo of it on Instagram, and wrote, “Thanks Justin. You've ruined me for all other of life's awaiting pleasures.”
[9:27] Justin believes in walking the talk. If we’re going to support sustainable food ingredients, and reducing the packaging on our products, then we should be really mindful of the origin and disposal of everything we use, not only in the company, but in our lives. Their products are actually making a difference to people, with healthier food, and less packaging.
[11:02] Justin challenges his team consistently to question the way it’s always been done in the past. People in companies fall into a rhythm, and keep sustaining this rhythm, because it’s easy. We lose track of how we got into this rhythm in the first place. Whether in packaging, product, or consumer engagement, keep looking for better ways to work. Always question everything.
[12:59] Justin didn’t hit his home run until he moved out of the form factor of jars. After years of really not succeeding with jars, they had the idea of the squeeze pack, and it was a category disruptor for nut butters. Then they tried the peanut butter cup, which led to the snack pack. If he hadn’t started with jars, he would not have gotten to the squeeze pack and beyond.
[14:50] Tips to get momentum: get validation from someone you admire; have the attitude that anything’s possible. When you’re positive and you’re excited, that energy is infectious, and it will draw the right people to help you. Positivity attracts positive people.
[18:37] Justin did not foresee being a thought leader. He sought out early as much help as he could from other entrepreneurs, and they were all open to help him. He made note of that, and realized his obligation and purpose to pay it forward. Knowledge gained can really help a young company. Justin gets inspired by opportunities to share knowledge that did not come easily.
[21:48] Justin got help from the U of C Leeds School to write a business plan. Looking back at his first plan, Justin laughs, because he had no idea what he was talking about, but it was important to get it on paper and declare to the world, this is what I want to do. After a professor’s critique, he rewrote it, and it was spot on. He was able to execute it successfully.
[26:01] Justin’s first hire was a roommate, but his biggest step to success was hiring
Lance Gentry, who became a business mentor and hero. Lance raised investments, saw them through the 2008 downturn with expertise, and landed them Whole Foods and Starbucks national orders. Lance passed away suddenly, and Justin necessarily carried on to become a leader.
[32:54] Justin talks about Hormel. Finances, commodity supply, and manufacturing capacity, required partnering with a big company to provide top quality at the quantities needed, without creating conditions for a food recall. Hormel and Justin inspired each other with their visions of the future of food, so they came to a deal. Justin’s goal is to impact change at a larger scale.
[43:23] Justin loves the Whole Planet Foundation’s Microloan a Month program. It gives beginning entrepreneurs the ability to start a company, which gives people jobs, a sense of importance, and the opportunity to earn money to buy their own food, while building a local economy. Justin’s also sends products to relieve conditions after natural disasters.
Quotable Quotes
“If we’re going to support a healthy lifestyle, then we should be engaged in a healthy lifestyle.”
“When they see me doing it and they see the other leaders ... do it, it gives them permission and a sense of motivation.”
“A lot of times, with technology, or with science, there are new ways to engage consumers or to solve an end-use problem.”
“What I do know, is, if you don’t start with your idea, then it ends right now.”
“Your mission as a business evolves as you grow and become more successful and more powerful.”
“Positivity attracts positive people.”
Bio
Justin Gold is a passionate entrepreneur, who encourages others to follow their passions, and never stop asking questions along the way. In 2013, Justin was recognized as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Mountain Desert Region. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife and children, finding his work/life balance by enjoying an active lifestyle there as an avid trail runner, mountain biker, skier, and backpacker.
Justin is a founding member of the Whole Planet Foundation’s Microloan a Month program that supports microfinancing institutions across the globe. Justin is passionate about pollinators, sustainable sourcing, mindful packaging, and children’s education.
Website: Justins.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Jim Palmer, a marketing and business-building expert, and in-demand coach. The author of five books, Jim is best known internationally as The Newsletter Guru, and creator of No Hassle Newsletters, the ultimate done-for-you newsletter marketing program used by hundreds of clients in nine countries. Jan and Jim talk with Jim Palmer about how he became a business leadership thought leader, and what that means to him; how he grew up with a worker servant mentality, and how he applies it today; some of the principles Jim teaches in Decide and his other books; and what his four pillars are for business success. To end of the interview, Jim and Jan ask for and receive some coaching of their own!
Listen in to learn more about getting past your fears, serving without monetary reward, and achieving growth by building on the four pillars.
Key Takeaways
[3:27] If you put enough good information out there, with a servant attitude, giving value and helping people without expecting return, you get a reputation as a servant thought leader.
[6:17] When Jim became an entrepreneur he remembered Sam Walton’s words about the customer’s power to fire everybody by deciding to spend somewhere else. In online marketing in 2006, everything was ‘free.’ If you are really giving, people gravitate toward you. Jim has a free download, “Serve First, How to Unlock a Life of Abundance and Purpose.” No email is needed.
[10:32] Jim talks about his book, Decide. High achievers, when presented with a challenge or an opportunity, quickly assess the pros and cons, and then make a decision, yes or no, and act. They never go to ‘Squishyville,’ because business and life happen too quickly.
[20:38] Jim’s four pillars of success are Knowledge, Environment, Mindset, and Habits, similar to the growth mindset sought for in special operators. In any field, there are the ordinary, and the high achievers. Very few qualify for the elite. You have to do things that others will not do.
[22:45] Environment is space you create. To write, Jim picks the time, sits at his desk, and puts away all distractions. The only thing he wants to do is type what’s in his head. He can write for two or three hours. You have to be able to control the environment, in order to produce the result.
[24:03] Mindset is much more important than perfecting your skill or talent. Some very top copywriters get 10 times what a normal copywriter gets. They don’t write 10 times better. Habits are self-evident. Rich people have big libraries, and poor people have big TVs. Have habits in place to make your priorities happen, and create and protect the environment to do it.
[26:55] Knowledge for highly successful people means to own who they are; their strengths and limitations. They hire and delegate. To help his business, Jim joined a Mastermind. The leader asked, “What makes you think you’re entitled to the same level of success as these peers ... but you’re not willing to do the same things that they’re doing to grow their business?”
[30:23] The idea of a multi-day live event petrified Jim for a few reasons: picking the right date; renting space with food and beverage and a number of guest rooms guaranteed; and fear of disappointing attendees by forgetting how to present. He kicked his fears to the curb, and found out he’s pretty good at it, with five sold out. That’s when he began to accelerate significantly.
[31:38] Dan Kennedy is the person most influential on Jim’s development. Dan is a blue-collar guy who built a multi-million dollar business, because he understands people, he understands marketing, and he’s not afraid of hard work. He does something everyday that will bear fruit down the road. Jim learned much about writing from reading Dan Kennedy’s books.
[33:40] Jim gave coaching for The Leadership Podcast, which stands in its own unique space. He likes the back-and-forth. His greatest advice to Jim and Jan is to avoid adhering to a strict format and schedule of questions, but to have a lot of conversation starters, and to follow up on answers of interest. Get people to tell stories. Always focus on the listener, not the downloads.
Quotable Quotes
“I shot my first video in 2009, I had three watchers. I was one of them. My wife and my Mom, I think, were the other two.”
“‘It’s no wonder he’s successful. Look at how much stuff he does.’ There’s a real nugget in there, if you think about it.”
“We volunteer for three or four different local charities, which are near and dear to our heart.”
“If you’re going to expect a big reward, you have to be willing to step up and risk.”
“I really think this year is going to be a banner year.”
“Rich people have big libraries, and poor people have big TVs.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Sam Walton: Made In America, by Sam Walton and John Huey
Decide: The Ultimate Success Trigger, by Jim Palmer
Stop Waiting For It to Get Easier: Create Your Dream Business Now, by Jim Palmer
No B.S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Guide to Producing Measurable Monetizable Results with Social Media Marketing,
by Dan S. Kennedy and Kim Walsh-Phillips
Bio
Jim Palmer grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, learning to work, serve, and help people. Jim is the Founder of Dream Business Academy and Dream Business Coaching and Mastermind Program. He hosts Dream Business TV, the weekly web TV show watched by thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners. He’s also hosts Stick Like Glue Radio, a weekly podcast based on his unique brand of smart marketing and business-building strategies.
Jim has been advising business owners for well over 20 years, and has been doing his weekly business videos for six years.
Website: DreamBizAcademy to learn about the upcoming event, February 8-10 in Orlando.
Website: GetJimPalmer.com
Website: GetJimPalmer.com/ServeFirst for a free download on the servant mentality.
Website: DecideForSuccessBook.com for a free copy of the book, for only $6.95 S&H.
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview John Coyle, Founder and CEO of The Art of Really Living. John is one of the world’s leading experts in innovation and design thinking. John is an SVP and Professor of Innovation, and a thought leader in the field of horology — the study of how we as humans process time. His mission is to innovate the human experience, and he has been applying "design thinking" to Fortune 500 companies, careers, and leadership challenges for more than 20 years. Jan and Jim talk with John about his Olympic journey, his pursuit to maximize the ratio of experience to time, how design thinking helped him find the right questions to ask, how to achieve Flow, and when to de-stress to recover.
Listen in to learn more about the path to Flow, the pursuit of excellence, and how to apply it with your team.
Key Takeaways
[3:39] John spent all of his time as an athlete cramming more distance into the same time. In that pursuit, he won an Olympic silver medal. Small increments of time matter greatly, and can change a life. His experience of the passage of time in the working world (slow in meetings, and fast with friends), led him to study chronoception. He now works to manipulate cognitive time.
[7:51] John called every expert he could find on neuroscience and the psychology of time, until he spoke with Dr. Philip Zimbardo at Stanford, who told him everybody experiences the acceleration of time as they age, but nobody has done research on how to unwind it.
[8:24] John used design thinking — a style of creative problem-solving through asking the right questions — to try to discover how to get more experienced time in our years. It is possible, as our brains don’t process time linearly. John helps people reframe their relationship with time.
[17:40] One of the hallmarks of the Flow state is that the brain actually stops measuring time. Most people report this simultaneously as going really fast, and slowing down completely. Your brain is processing really fast, resulting in the ability to thin-slice and rewind moments with exquisite detail. Steven Kotler says extreme sports and meditation both lead to Flow.
[20:28] If you want to slow down time on your vacations, design fear and suffering into them. We are wired for stories. We remember stories much better than data. Stories have a plot, which develops through a crisis.
[22:44] Helping your team members move outside their comfort zones, to find their native strengths, and having them design their roles to do more of that, fundamentally changes their relationship with risk and reward. They will risk more when they excel in what they do.
[25:10] Mike Weldon was John’s coach from age 11 to 25. He taught John, “Race your strengths; design around and train your weaknesses, but don’t make them your centerpoint.” He designed his Olympic training on Mike Weldon’s teaching, and won the silver-medal.
[28:56] John says, ask the right questions in development and leadership. Instead of asking how to fix your weaknesses, ask how to design for your strengths. Don’t ask how to have more years in your life, ask how to have more life in your years. Instead of asking how to maintain a work-life balance, ask how to perform better under increasing stress, and how to recover.
[37:41] Reduce stress when needed, by refocusing on your strengths, and applying these three destressors: low-grade aerobics, social intimacy, and physical contact with your partner or a pet.
[42:20] Regarding having worked with particular individuals who very publicly fell from grace, John says innovation works by ignoring the rules and the status quo while generating ideas. In order to make a good solution, you then need to apply an ethics filter to the idea. Some people skip that step, and they hurt themselves and others.
Quotable Quotes
“The value of an increment of time is not related to its duration.”
“I just started becoming obsessed with … how we experience time … the technical term is chronoception.”
“Cognitively speaking, how can we experience more time, in the same amount of linear time?”
“They can reframe their relationship with time, and actually slow, stop, and reverse the perceived acceleration of time.”
“You can get to the Flow state so many ways, but it is one of the penultimate outcomes of the human condition.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs,
by Kevin Kruse
Neuromarketing: Is There a 'Buy Button' in the Brain? Selling to the Old Brain for Instant Success, by Christophe Morin
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World,
by General Stanley McChrystal
(Upcoming Book) Counter-Clockwise: Unwinding Cognitive Time, by John Coyle
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance,
by Steven Kotler
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Bio
John Coyle has an MBA from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of Stanford University's "d.school" where his academic advisor was David Kelley, the founder of IDEO and Steve Jobs' right hand man. John is an NBC sports analyst, two-time TEDx presenter, author, and sought-after keynote speaker. He won an Olympic silver medal in speedskating, an achievement he attributes directly to his design thinking background.
As a speaker and author, his talent is weaving facts, examples and intellectual principles into engaging stories which bring his topics to life and really make you think. They are inspiring, practical, and actionable.
Website: JohnKCoyle.com
Website: JohnKCoyle.com/Manifesto
Website: TheArtofReallyLiving.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Jim Thompson, Founder and CEO of the Positive Coaching Alliance. Jim is focused on how to get the best from people, especially young athletes, through the teachable moments. Jim started PCA, a national nonprofit organization, in 1998 to transform the culture of youth sports into a Development Zone™ with the goal to develop Better Athletes, Better People. Jan and Jim talk with Jim Thompson about his background with youth, ways that coaching youth sports can build children into better adults, how positivity turns a mistake into an opportunity to improve effort, and what triple-impact competitors can contribute to your organization.
Listen in to learn how sports coaching, and leadership development, both depend on positive attention and natural consequences.
Key Takeaways
[4:16] It took PCA about 15 years to boil their mission statement down to four words: “Better Athletes, Better People.” Their model of the double-goal coach is winning on the scoreboard, and using sports to teach life lessons.
[5:14] Youth athletes, to have a great experience, need to feel connected to their coach and teammates, need to believe that they can improve their performance, and need to know they are part of an organization that does things the right way, that they can feel proud of.
[7:19] Jim tells of his journey, starting as a teacher’s aide for emotionally disturbed, behavior problem kids in St. Paul, MN, under the mentorship of great educators. Very troubled kids were taught with a relentlessly positive approach, every good action receiving positive reinforcement.
[9:21] Jim found out while coaching his son’s teams, that a relentlessly positive approach with the kids caused them to perform really well. They had more fun, they were more aggressive; and even other parents wanted their children to be on his teams for the next year.
[13:29] Jim shares the Sara Tucholsky and Mallory Holtman softball story, when Sara, who had hit a homerun, but injured her knee at first base, was carried around the bases by opposing players Mallory and a teammate. You will have your own Mallory moments, when you can elevate the game.
[16:49] PCA takes insights from academia and great coaches, and turns them into tools that anyone can use. One of their powerful tools is the mistake ritual. When a player makes a mistake, everyone calls out: Don’t worry about it, we’ll get the next one, brush it off! That helps the player focus back on the game, and drop the negative self-talk.
[30:30] Difficult conversations are needed. You want to be a noticer of effort and improvement, but you want the very best performer on the job. Making mistakes is part of the game, A lack of effort to improve is when you want to have that difficult conversation. Even that conversation can be done in a positive way that will build people up.
[33:41] PCA training includes a session where the trainer says, name your first teacher in school. About 50% can remember their name. Then the trainer asks, what’s the name of the first coach you ever had? Almost everyone remembers.
[36:24] The number one lesson from sports psychology: Focus on what you can control, and ignore what you can’t control. This takes mindfulness. Focus on the process. Be positive.
[41:00] Help every player to identify their best self, and make a commitment to be their best self. The triple-impact competitor works hard to make themselves better, the people around them better, and the game better. Coaches help the players to become better persons.
Books Mentioned on the Show
Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self-esteem Through Sports, by Jim Thompson
The Double-Goal Coach: Positive Coaching Tools for Honoring the Game and Developing Winners in Sports and Life, by Jim Thompson
Shooting in the Dark: Tales of Coaching and Leadership, by Jim Thompson
Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple-Impact Competitor, by Jim Thompson
Developing Better Athletes, Better People: A Leader's Guide to Transforming High School and Youth Sports into a Development Zone, by Jim Thompson
Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, by Martin P.E. Seligman, Ph.D.
Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life,
by Barbara Fredrickson
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition, by Harvey B. MacKay
Bio
An Ashoka fellow, Jim Thompson and PCA received the inaugural ETHOS Award from the Institute for Sports Law and Ethics (ISLE) in 2013 and he is now on the ISLE Board. He is on Stanford's Continuing Studies Program faculty where he teaches courses in coaching, leadership, and sport & spiritually. He and his wife, Sandra Hietala, are founding board members of Recovery Café San José, a healing community for individuals with mental illness and drug abuse issues.
Positive Coaching Association (PCA) is a thriving nation-wide organization with 14 chapters, and an expansion plan to reach 20 million youth athletes by 2020. PCA’s vision has attracted the support and involvement of many elite coaches, athletes, academics, and business leaders in this country. Jim has written nine books on youth sports, including, Positive Coaching, The Double-Goal Coach, Shooting in the Dark, Elevating Your Game, and Developing Better Athletes, Better People.
Website: PositiveCoach.org
Website: Development Zone Resource Center
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Scott Friedman. Scott is an internationally sought-after professional speaker and author. As a motivational humorist, Scott inspires and entertains with fun-filled interactive and content-rich programs. Scott’s main area of expertise is employee innovation, customer experience, and using humor and celebration as a strategic tool. In addition to being Chief Celebration Officer at Scott Friedman & Associates, Scott has written many books on celebration, humor, audience engagement, and creating happier and healthier workplaces. Jan and Jim talk with Scott about how good humor, good communication, and good leadership align; some traits that are shared by successful CEOs; the power of stories to build connections; the power of celebration to build employee engagement; and the power of gratitude to inspire philanthropy.
Listen in to learn how leadership, celebration, and engagement work together with good humor to result in consistently successful outcomes.
Key Takeaways
[3:53] Three characteristics really stand out in becoming a great communicator: First is authenticity, second is vulnerability, and the third is a sense of humility.
[8:40] Scott quotes Terry Paulson, who said, “When someone blushes with embarrassment, when someone carries away an ache, when something sacred is made to appear common, when profanity is required to make it funny, when a child is brought to tears, or, when everyone can’t join in the humor, it’s inappropriate.”
[11:03] Jim Collins studied companies, and found 11 that sustained greatness for at least 15 years. Their CEOs had two traits in common: a professional will to succeed, and a sense of humility and a self-effacing style.
[14:30] Stories and humor transcend cultures. They are tools for connecting with authenticity, vulnerability, and humility, in a global community. Great leaders are good storytellers.
[15:18] In your story, make others see their own stories. Make your story about them, as well as about you. But don’t tell too much of the story — less is more.
[19:01] Scott Bemis used to ask in interviews, “If you come here to work at the Denver Business Journal, can we make an agreement that this will be the best job you’ve ever had?”
[25:20] Celebration leads to engagement. Engagement leads to higher productivity and performance. Treat people right, and they will engage.
[27:39] Richard Branson said, first he takes care of his employees, then he takes care of his customers, and then he takes care of his shareholders. In that order, everybody is taken care of.
[31:01] Consider starting a meeting by saying, let’s celebrate for a short moment — what are we doing that works? Bring up the best of the best.
[38:55] The Together We Can Change The World Foundation reminds us we are members of the lucky gene club. We have a lot of great things just by how and where we were brought up.
Quotable Quotes
“Good humor, to accomplish well, is as difficult as good leadership.”
“The best leaders truly care about their people, and they set them up to win.”
“The reason celebration fails in most companies today, is because it becomes institutionalized.”
“Gratitude is the fastest way to happiness.”
“The life you change will be your own. ― Together We Can Change the World Foundation”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Happily Ever Laughter: How to Engage Any Audience, by Scott Friedman
Making Humor Work: Take Your Job Seriously and Yourself Lightly, by Terry Paulson
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, by Jim Collins
Celebrate: Lessons Learned from the World’s Most Admired Organizations, by Scott Friedman
A Celebration a Day: 365 Ways to a Happier Healthier Workplace, by Scott Friedman (to be released in December in the U.S.)
Stop Screaming at the Microwave: How to Connect Your Disconnected Life, by Mary LoVerde
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Bio
Scott Friedman, CSP, travels more than 250 days a year for his fun, which is a humorous approach to workplace motivation and innovation through speaking engagements. For three decades, Scott Friedman has combined his improvisational comedy experience, and the art of storytelling, to help his clients achieve their objectives. A certified speaking professional, and trusted member of the speaking community, Scott continues to have a strong presence, both domestically and globally. Scott is a former president of the National Speakers Association, and was the 2013 recipient of their distinguished Cavett Award. Active in many philanthropic projects, Scott is committed to helping people lead more fulfilled lives.
Friedman’s speaking career is impressive, but his foundation, Together We Can Change the World, might be his legacy. "At this stage of my life, I get the most satisfaction from the volun-tours with global speakers to Southeast Asia to build schools and homes, awareness, self-esteem and hope for the future," he explains.
Website: TWCCTW.org
Facebook: TWCCTW
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Rob “Waldo” Waldman, professional wingman and leadership expert. Waldo is his call sign from his days as a fighter pilot. The Wingman, as Waldo is known, is a professional leadership speaker, and author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller, Never Fly Solo. He teaches organizations how to build trusting, revenue-producing relationships with their employees, partners, and customers, while sharing his experiences as a combat-decorated F-16 fighter pilot and successful businessman. Jan and Jim talk with Waldo about what it means to have a wingman, to be a wingman, to build the trusting, mutually beneficial relationships wingmen share, and what role a wingman plays in the business world.
Listen in to learn how to nurture trust in your organization, and how your core values are central to that trust.
Key Takeaways
[3:25] The term wingman came from the person at the pilot’s 9 (or 3) o’clock position, who could see the pilot’s 6 o’clock, and keep them from being shot down. It’s about mutual support, calling out the threat, and having the trust necessary to take action.
[6:04] From a networking perspective, we’re seeing a lot of that ‘pay it forward,’ honorable behavior, as networking becomes more mainstream.
[6:36] Part of the Code of Honor at the Air Force Academy is, “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.”
[7:31] ‘Wingwork’ is thinking about who you’re going to help; about what questions to ask to help this person who may be struggling; and about who you know, who could also help.
[8:00] Being a wingman takes time and effort. We’ve got to build a relationship, and establish trust, by honoring the relationship with mutual support, by nurturing and appreciating — not just picking each other’s brains to extract value from them.
[13:27] Sometimes it’s important to manufacture pressure in business — business may not seem like a life-or-death situation, but it is the life or death of a sale, a quota, a company, your family’s support, and your dream.
[19:57] When you’re truly afraid of death or loss, that brings out doubt, which destroys a warrior spirit. Turn that doubt into confidence and courage. That’s what peak performers do. On the opposite side of fear is growth.
[24:44] When you focus on serving someone, and being present for them, you leap past your fear into productive action.
[28:28] It all begins with you as a leader. Look at yourself in the mirror and consider your goals and core values. Tap into your core, and hire for it. Create an environment where it’s safe to tactfully call out problems.
[34:21] The biggest challenge in business today is people are afraid to go to each other for help. They’re afraid to show vulnerability — a lot of times, because their leaders are demanding instead of commanding.
Quotable Quotes
"You can’t see your most vulnerable position in combat, which is behind you."
“Trust takes time. It starts with core values, mutual respect, integrity — and it takes effort. ”
“You need to be experiencing it under the gun — that’s where the learning happens.”
“Passion trumps fear. Your passion’s got to be greater than the fear.”
‘There’s no greater impact that you can have on folks who are needing you, than your time.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Never Fly Solo: Lead with Courage, Build Trusting Partnerships, and Reach New Heights in Business, by Robert "Waldo" Waldman Bio
Waldo is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and holds an MBA with a focus on organizational behavior. He is an inductee into the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame, and has many more credentials. He founded The Wingman Foundation to build funds and awareness for soldiers, veterans, airmen and their families.
Waldo believes that the key to building a culture of trust lies with your wingmen — the men and women in your life who help you overcome obstacles, adapt to change, and achieve success. In your business and life, you should never fly solo.
Website: YourWIngman.com
Email: Info@YourWingman.com
On this Mastermind episode, co-hosts Jim Vaselopulos and Jan Rutherford talk about their Crucible expedition in Patagonia. Self-Reliant Leadership has been running Crucible expeditions for a few years now with the primary goal of assisting Special Operations veterans with their transition to the business world. With a recent international expedition, Jim & Jan expanded their goal to include figuring out the recipe for accelerating team development. Based on their work, they know most teams struggle with some degree of dysfunction, and their aim was to prove the hypothesis that a team can gel extremely quickly if the right "recipe" is applied.
So what do you get when you mix Special Operations veterans and executives in Patagonia? Listen in to get the back story, and discover the recipe for accelerating team development!
Key Takeaways
[2:12] Jan gives a quick overview on their most recent Self-reliant Crucible — a venture to digitally detox executives and help Special Operations veterans transition to the business world.
[4:25] Jim talks about the first meeting dinner. People are people, In a few hours they were building camaraderie, and the fun started.
[5:37] Humor is a way to test boundaries. It has limits, and people are always probing them. It lowers barriers and brings in commonality. We share the same sense of humor.
[8:52] You’ve got to be very careful about the use of humor in the workplace, and you’ve got to be honorable. But if you never cut loose, there’s a level of trust you never reach.
[9:30] Curiosity manifest is an important trait on the trek.
[12:54] Team consensus through bad weather and physical distress. Individual self-reliance supporting the team effort.
[18:28] Jan was struck by the 100% commitment to each other and to what they needed to accomplish. He realized that business teams often settle on goals that are not big enough, and they never get to that degree of commitment.
[20:30] The application in business is not just the size of the goal, but how well people understand the commitment of any goal.
[23:58] On the second day, as Jim was leading, someone asked if they should take some of the load out of Jim’s pack, and someone answered, no, let him do this — he’s got to do it on his own.
[31:20] How the military and business leadership skills worked together.
[36:00] Jim shares a favorite experience. On the day he was in charge, climbing with crampons, Jim was slowing down. One of the guys, Clay, stood with him and recited the Ranger Creed. That poured so much energy into him — just what he needed to hear at that exact moment.
[39:59] Your comfort zone is comfortable, but nothing magic happens there. As Bill George said, “The thing that defines leaders, is that they’re constantly testing themselves and reframing their life story.”
Quotable Quotes
“Not only are [Special Operations veterans] great warriors, but they’re also great diplomats, and they have all the skills necessary from a business acumen perspective."
“We might be able to figure out the recipe … Can we simplify ways that leaders can be more effective; teams can come together more rapidly? And I actually think we figured that out.”
“Humor … brings in commonality. Someone’s going to laugh about the same Will Ferrell quote that I laugh about.”
“Mentally, I’m ‘Green.’ Mentally, whatever is hurting, I’m going to suck it up and get through it, because the team’s depending on it.”
‘“Everyone knew the playbook, so they could play any position.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't, by Simon Sinek
Bios
Jan Rutherford brings his training as a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier with over 25 years of business experience. His purpose is developing self-reliant leaders and teams. He is founder of Self-Reliant Leadership, LLC, as well as speaker, author, coach, workshop facilitator, and strategist. Jan teaches organizations to grow through the development of their people.
Jim Vaselopulos brings his years of C-level executive experience as a rainmaker, entrepreneur, new business development expert, and board member. He has turned around underperforming organizations and has been a consultant to various organizations. Jim has an Engineering degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Marquette University.
Website: TheLeadershipPodcast.com
Twitter: @WeStudyLeaders
Facebook: We Study Leaders
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Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Paul Spiegelman, Chief Culture Officer of Stericycle, a NASDAQ listed global services organization, with more than 25 thousand employees. Jan and Jim talk with Paul about his journey from starting a small company, exiting, and taking on a C-suite role. They also discuss The Small Giants community, Paul’s three books, and the reality that the problem is not change, but a lack of transparency.
Listen in to learn how culture is truly about leader engagement throughout the organization.
Key Takeaways
[4:27] If you create an environment in which people love the work and feel cared for personally; if you help them achieve their personal vision, as well as the company vision, they perform better.
[7:48] What was the intention of founding the Small Giants community?
[10:06] Paul and his brothers started their business based on their Dad’s saying, “Always be nice; treat people with respect; and don’t burn bridges.”
[10:55] ‘Command and Control’ leaders need to acquire new skills for a collaborative culture.
[15:02] Leadership balance is a promise to provide an environment in which leaders care as much about employees and their personal growth, as leaders expect employees to care about the organization and its growth. Responsibility and accountability is required on both sides.
[18:52] Respect and trust at the highest level can cascade to the rest of the organization, which takes time.
[29:03] Change becomes problematic when there is no transparency, when employee buy-in is not sought. Leaders lose trust when they don’t communicate the ‘why.’
[30:06] People adjust willingly, as long as you keep them in the loop with what’s going on.
[37:26] Paul recommends reading business books, and seeking mentors to learn and grow. And, as a leader, mentor other people, and master the art of storytelling.
[45:02] Paul’s message is to lead with your heart, and allow people to be themselves. Culture then becomes the driving force of the success.
Quotable Quotes
"When the kids knew that you cared about them, they performed better, and they took feedback better."
“We sold, not what we did as a business, but who we are -- who we were, as a company.”
“I became passionate about this idea of people being the driver for business success.”
“We all want to grow our businesses, but they wanted to grow with purpose. They wanted to lead with values.”
“You not only have to perform, but you also have to have the engagement and respect of your team.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great, Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't, by Jim Collins
Why Is Everyone Smiling?: The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity, and Profit, by Paul Spiegelman
Smile Guide: Employee Perspectives on Culture, Loyalty and Profit, by Paul Spiegelman
Patients Come Second: Leading Change by Changing the Way You Lead, by Britt Berrett, Paul Spiegelman
Bio
Paul Spiegelman is the founder of BerylHealth, the Beryl Institute, and the Small Giants community. Paul is a New York Times bestselling author, and has been honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Paul is a sought-after speaker, and author on leadership, employee engagement, entrepreneurship, corporate culture, and customer relationships. He makes frequent radio and TV appearances, his views have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, and Inc. Magazine, and he’s currently a columnist for Forbes.com.
Paul’s passion is to make culture into a core competency of an organization, not just an accident of leadership.
Website: SmallGiants.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Michael Simpson, Co-Founder and CEO of Pairin. Michael's passion for helping people reach their potential was fueled by his own rise from poverty to international recognition as a market strategist. The son of educators, he went on to become a corporate intrapreneur, and then a three-time entrepreneur. He co-founded Pairin after a decade as a certified coach and six years in Russia, coaching many at-risk young adults to successful careers. He is an avid cyclist; fly fisherman; and award winning chocolatier. Jan and Jim talk with Michael about personal loss and growth, the proper and improper use of assessment surveys, the roadblocks to expression that block some personalities behind “masks,” and realizing the full potential of workers, and teams through assessment and great coaching.
Listen in to learn how assessment surveys can reveal the inherent potential of the people in your organization.
Key Takeaways
[3:03] After the loss of a baby, Michael and his wife took a nine-month sabbatical. Michael studied chocolate, and became an award-winning chocolatier, an enterprise he will continue in retirement.
[5:40] Jan and Jim discuss the Patagonia Crucible, and how Pairin provided participant profiles, predictive analysis and predictive coaching, to ensure an experience as positive as possible.
[8:57] The Crucible team profiles: the former military personnel have incredibly high performance and a very high ability to defer; the executives have high performance, and a very low deference.
[11:39] In December, Business Insider included Pairin in “The 50 Coolest New Companies in America to Work.” Their website blew up with hits. They Googled ‘Pairin,’ to find out why!
[13:31] All people have intrinsic value, but most people never realize what that is. That's also true of employers. They don't know the value of the people that they have.
[20:06] The assessment survey is to identify what makes people successful. Pairin charges by the target, and for access to the system; you can survey as many people as you want.
[21:40] The best teams Michael has been on, coached, or seen, have a diversity of thought, but a predictability of behavior.
[29:45] If team skills were taught in schools, where children are put in teams from the age of four, there would be no need for executive, leader, or team coaching.
[31:59] Michael's mentors were a friend who led him to quit drugs, and an uncle who included him in his family; gave him books, and coached him by questions, without Michael being aware of the mentoring until years later, when he found he was echoing his uncle, in mentoring others.
[37:06] Michael read only non-fiction during his professional development, but then discovered fiction, where he learned to be absorbed in the story. He came to an epiphany on unrealized potential, during the last chapter of Wind, Sand and Stars, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Quotable Quotes
"We reveal that intrinsic value in a person, and we help them aspire, and attain their goals."
"Every single person was created with desire to be deeply known, that is in constant conflict with this fear of being exposed."
“A successful team has healthy conflict.”
“Our greatest strengths are also our greatest challenges.”
“I learned a long time ago, not to 'should' on myself, and not to 'should' on other people.”
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Books Mentioned on the Show
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Wind, Sand and Stars, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Bio
Michael learned to uncover hidden gems in people and products, working closely with CEOs and executives in startup to multi-billion-dollar corporations. The son of educators, he went on to become a corporate intrapreneur, and then a three-time entrepreneur. As the CEO of Pairin, he works to make education more relevant for students and their future employers through the development of attitudes, motivations and behavioral proficiencies. At Pairin, he works to bridge the opportunity gap for future generations by enabling educators and employers to predict and develop behavioral performance. In this role he's had the privilege of partnering with organizations like the U.S. Department of Labor, The Center for Data Science and Public Policy, many post-secondary institutions and many workforce readiness programs. He's deeply involved in the regular analysis of soft skills data from more than 100,000 entrepreneurs, veterans, students, and businesspeople.
Michael has contributed to books on Knowledge Management (KM), Identity and Networking, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). His background in strategy and marketing for all identity, security and management products while at Novell, Inc. contributes to Pairin’s unwavering commitment to digital personal privacy.
Twitter: @PairinCEO
Facebook: PairinInc
Website: Pairin.com
On this Mastermind episode, part 1, co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, former commander of the nation's premier military counterterrorism force. General McChrystal (Ret.) is best known for developing and implementing a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, and for creating a cohesive counterterrorism organization that revolutionized the interagency operating culture. Founder and Managing Partner of McChrystal Group, an elite leadership advisory team, and New York Times best-selling author, General McChrystal (Ret.) shares his insights into learning to lead, sharing power while maintaining ultimate responsibility, the necessity of adapting to external change, and growing from mistakes.
Listen in to discover what it takes to create an adaptable team of teams in today’s demanding environment.
Key Takeaways
[6:16] No plan survives contact with the enemy. Plan, prepare, and then adapt the plan to fit.
[8:07] Entering unknown territory means learning lessons (almost failing), and then turning back and finding a better path. Seeking too much data can delay decisions and cost the opportunity.
[8:50] Create an environment that says, action is essential — in fact, action is demanded. Failure is not sought, but failure goes with the business.
[11:05] Leading is when you’re tired at the end of the day, when it’s frightening, when you have to make those very hard decisions, and you subordinate what you’d like to do to what you know you ought to do.
[23:02] If you want people to like you, there is first a business-like, respectful way in which you treat people, and then you show people you like them.
[26:15] General McChrystal (Ret.) explains the role of competition — It's about the big organization winning, it's about everyone’s success, not just one team. Competition is a human trait, but it's got to be competition more against a standard than against each other, or you get dysfunction.
[31:30] Changes have to be done close to the point of action by people who understand the big picture. This means preparing and empowering front-line staff.
[32:55] Jim cites Team of Teams as a must-read for leadership and personal development.
[36:32] General McChrystal (Ret.) explains he allowed an informal authority within his command organization to make group-to-group trades of low-availability, high-value resources without clearing it through him, the Commanding General.
[40:11] It's important for leaders to be effective communicators. They first have to understand what they're doing in the short-term and in the long-term, and they've got to communicate that to people inside and outside the organization.
[44:41] Leaders have to think of themselves as leaders, and carry responsibility for others and responsibility for tasks, and to accept those responsibilities which will include some failures.
Quotable Quotes
“There are a lot of misperceptions about the Special Operations community from the outside, as there are about business from inside the military. They are a cut of average Americans ... bound together by a common purpose and a trust, which gives them strength.”
"As Heraclitus said, you’re never going to step in the same river twice — and that river is flowing faster than ever!"
“If I told you, you can’t go home until we win, what would you do differently from what we’re doing now?”
“I said, Hey, if you want me to slow this command down, if you want us to do less, I can have perfect knowledge. … But I don’t think that’s what you want.”
“What is my role, and what is my contribution? I try to define myself by living by a certain set of values. … And I try to engage with people so I am a trusted comrade.”
On personal self-discipline and sacrifice: “Subordinate what you’d like to do to what you know you ought to do.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal
My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley McChrystal
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: A Round Table Comic: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith
Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, by Bill George
Bio
General Stanley A. McChrystal (Ret.) served in the U.S. Army for 34 years and founded the McChrystal Group in 2011 — an elite advisory team that improves the performance of organizations and develops the men and women who lead them. Drawing from shared experiences gained while transforming the U.S. counterterrorism effort from a siloed, hierarchical apparatus into a high-performing team, McChrystal Group partners with businesses to build a resilient and adaptable team of teams that can win in today's dynamic environment. He is the author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, and My Share of the Task, both New York Times best sellers. A passionate advocate for national service and veterans' issues, General McChrystal is Board Chair at Service Year Alliance, and in this capacity he advocates for a future in which a year of full-time service — a service year — is a common expectation, and opportunity for all young Americans.
Website: Mcchrystalgroup.com
Twitter: @mcchrystalgroup
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/McChrystalGroup/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1763610?
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Kevin Kruse, a keynote speaker, leadership expert, entrepreneur, NYT bestselling author of six books, and host of the very popular Extreme Productivity podcast. Kevin is one of the most read leadership columnists on Forbes. As a keynote speaker and performance coach, Kevin has worked with fortune 500 CEOs, start-up founders, the United States Marine Corps, and nonprofit leaders. Jan and Jim talk with Kevin about his mentors, his development, his mission to provide life-changing hope and knowledge so that other people can fulfill their potential, and his methods of success.
Listen in to learn how to transform your focus from chasing money to providing effective service.
Key Takeaways
[6:39] You have to get through a bunch of noes to get to a yes.
[8:40] Most people aren't even able or willing to make the extra commitment to follow up and establish a meaningful connection.
[9:19] Which famous billionaire lives by a to-do list, and said he just didn’t have the time to learn to use a calendar?
[14:15] Kevin tells of his transition from chasing and achieving monetary goals that disappointed, to choosing and accomplishing purposeful objectives that fulfilled.
[18:04] The simple secret Ken Blanchard shared with Kevin that changed his life.
[18:48] How every day, Kevin wants to make sure he’s providing life-changing hope and knowledge, so that other people can fulfill their potential.
[23:20] Kevin praises his mentors — from a seventh grade teacher to a CEO who carefully and effectively mentored him.
[28:03] Kevin usually encounters leaders at the top of the organization that have always had and continue to have a lot of flaws — they just play to their strengths.
[30:44] Why slowing down and doing less will make you more effective.
[35:15] Whatever the metric is, be clear on that standard and don't waver. But at the same time, don’t be rude, mean, inconsiderate or authoritarian in your workplace style.
Books Mentioned on the Show
15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs, by Kevin Kruse
Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance (A Real-World Guide for Busy Managers), by Kevin Kruse
Why is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity, and Profit, by Paul Spiegelman
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: A Round Table Comic: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, book by Marshall Goldsmith
Slow Down to Speed Up: How to manage your time and rebalance your life, by Lothar J. Seiwert and Anne McGee-Cooper
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss
TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments, by Doug Conant and Mette Norgaard
Bio
Kevin Kruse is a keynote speaker, leadership expert, entrepreneur, podcast host dispensing nuggets of pure wisdom, and NYT bestselling author of six books, including 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, and Employee Engagement 2.0. Over the last 20 years, he has started and co-founded several multi-million dollar companies, which have won awards from the Inc. 500, as well as Employee Engagement being the Number 4 Best Place to Work in PA.
Website: Productivity-podcast.com
Website: Kevinkruse.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Shawn Trisler, Senior Principal Operations Analyst at General Dynamics Information Technologies. Shawn retired from the Navy after 27 years, and was commissioned as an Operations Limited Duty Officer. Shawn now works on ballistic air and missile defense, keeping our Navy safe. In this engaging and fun conversation, Shawn and Jan share jabs on “Army versus Navy,” and reminisces with Jim on stories of his growth from Enlisted Sailor to Navy Mustang. Shawn speaks about his service, cherished traditions, earning trust, and principles of leadership and success.
Listen in to learn what it takes to rise to the top in any worthwhile endeavor in life.
Key Takeaways
[5:25] Shawn shares his journey to becoming a Navy Mustang, a tradition with a proud heritage.
[9:15] Shawn recalls that 30 years ago in the wardroom, 45 out of 50 officers were Academy graduates. Today, the majority have an enlisted background.
[13:34] Mustang leadership brings to a company the ability to communicate across multiple levels of staff and leadership, technical knowledge, empathy with team employees, understanding of the goal, and buy-in.
[24:35] Shawn suggests leaders should know the value of employees and their capabilities, and should hold them to the same standard as themselves.
[26:03] Jim mentions the book Extreme Ownership, which explains the importance of managing up the chain of command as well as managing down.
[28:06] You have to be able to serve all types of bosses. If you disagree with them, when the time is right, approach them with honest valid concerns and insight for a better way.
[31:35] Jim encourages all leaders to check out ProjectRelo.org for information on a program teaming skilled veterans with businesses.
[36:29] A fight in a bar carries consequences on the ship, but pledging to do better, and living up to the pledge, also carries weight.
[38:40] Mentors leave a lasting impression on you for the rest of your life.
Books Mentioned on the Show
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Bio
Shawn Trisler joined the Navy as an Enlisted Sailor, and applied himself to rise to the top by doing his best at all times. Shawn was field commissioned as an Operations Limited Duty Officer after a commendation for outstanding performance. Shawn has a rare Tactical Action Officer qualification. He retired from the Navy after 27 years of active service. Shawn now works on ballistic air and missile defense at General Dynamics, keeping our Navy safe. In addition to his work at General Dynamics, he participates in missions for Project RELO, helping veterans find placement with fitting corporations.
Website: Projectrelo.org
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Jacqueline Molnar, Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Western Union. Jacqueline has 20 years of experience as an attorney and compliance officer, focusing on AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism), sanctions, anti-bribery/corruption, consumer protection, fraud, and litigation defense. Her discussion with Jan and Jim unpacks Jacqueline’s tools of leadership and lessons she has learned along the way. Jacqueline values the diversity and ability of her worldwide team, pushing them to play to their strengths, with camaraderie and fun, always following the company mission.
Listen in to learn principles of fearless leadership, backed up with a balance of confidence and humility.
Key Takeaways
[3:23] Jacqueline found the last Crucible expedition in Moab, Utah to be personally transformational — she now makes it a point to get buy-in from her leadership team for big decisions.
[5:15] The purpose of the Crucible is to find out how you show up as a leader, completely out of your comfort zone. The adverse environment brings out your core character.
[10:32] How to recognize and model for everyone that you don't know what to do in every circumstance, that you're vulnerable, and you're learning.
[15:20] Jacqueline suggests giving a strength evaluation to company leaders to figure out what they do best, and then letting them go toward their strengths.
[17:29] How Jacqueline leads her team and advocates for them so that they can do what they need to do.
[19:19] Why having a diverse staff, especially in an international corporation, is natural and crucial.
[20:58] It's important to look at your organization and see where you have gaps in your diversity — Are you recruiting for people who think differently?
[31:07] In order to lead you need to have a crystal-clear vision of where you're headed, and communicate that very simply and very often, and then be completely, utterly, fearless and relentless about getting there.
[40:01] Why workplace camaraderie is critical and that playfulness is also a key leadership attribute.
Books Mentioned on the Show
The Littlest Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership, book by Jan Rutherford
Bio
Jacqueline Molnar, SVP and Chief Compliance Officer at Western Union in Denver, has spent 20 years as an attorney and compliance officer. She has led large international teams and represented numerous Fortune 500 companies in complex legal and regulatory matters across the globe. Jacqueline has been an executive at major banks, served as general counsel for others, and has practiced law in Silicon Valley, in California.
Jacqueline received her Doctor of Jurisprudence and her Bachelor of Education from the University of Hawaii and is a lecturer teaching AML Compliance Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law in Honolulu. Jacqueline clerked for the Honorable Harold Fong at the Federal District Court for the District of Hawaii and for the Honorable Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon, Hawaii State Supreme Court. She is licensed to practice law in Hawaii and California. Prior to attending law school, Jacqueline received her PDP teaching credentials from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, and served as a school teacher and principal in Canada and as a scuba diving teacher in Honolulu, Hawaii.
LinkedIn: Jacqueline Molnar
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Dr. Christophe Morin, CEO and Chief Pain Officer at SalesBrain. With over 30 years of experience in marketing and business development, Christophe is passionate about understanding and predicting consumer behavior using neuroscience. He is an expert on the effect of advertising on the brains of adolescents and young adults. Christophe discusses with Jan and Jim the prime role of emotion in individual motivation, how neuromarketing draws upon the science of neurological testing, and the six factors you can stress to create emotion that works for your product.
Listen in to learn principles of ethical neuromarketing, and steps you can take to become more effective in persuasion for the greater good.
Key Takeaways
[6:11] Neuroscience data doesn’t rely on what customers say, but on the ability to read their nervous system and brain blood flow. Most of this information is not consciously available.
[10:01] Dr. Morin explains how the System One brain system communicates with the System Two brain system and how that relates to advertising.
[12:55] Find out about the up-and-coming field called neuroleadership.
[16:17] How can neuromarketing improve the world?
[20:55] What are the six ways to create the bottom-up effect?
[35:22] The Neuromarketing Science and Business Association created a code of ethics, now used widely by the neuromarketing industry.
[37:17] How neuromarketing is somewhat a natural progression of marketing.
[43:55] People who are willing to show up, look at themselves, work, rehearse, and practice, are those who ultimately can acquire and perfect skills they may not have had when they began.
[45:58] We’re scratching the surface of this big question: What is the ultimate effect of media on us?
Books Mentioned on the Show
Thinking, Fast and Slow, book by Daniel Kahneman
Selling to the Old Brain: How New Discoveries In Brain Research Empower You To Influence Any Audience, Anytime, book by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, book by Barry Schwartz
Bio
Dr. Christophe Morin, CEO and Chief Pain Officer of SalesBrain, has over 30 years of marketing and business development experience. Before joining SalesBrain, Christophe was Chief Marketing Officer for rStar Networks, a public company that developed the largest private network ever deployed in U.S. schools. Previously, he was VP of Marketing and Corporate Training for Grocery Outlet Inc, the largest grocery remarketer in the world.
Christophe has received multiple prestigious speaking awards from Vistage International and Great Mind Research Awards from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).
Christophe holds a BA in Marketing, an MBA from Bowling Green State University, an MA and a PhD in Media Psychology from Fielding Graduate University. He is an adjunct faculty member of Fielding Graduate University where he teaches a Masters/PhD course he created called “The Psychology of Neuromarketing”. He is also a board member of the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA)
Website: www.salesbrain.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Colleen Abdoulah, former Chair and CEO of WOW! Colleen, who was the only female CEO at a top-ten cable operating company, is widely respected for her passionate focus on customer experience and company culture. In this episode, Colleen motivates young professionals to lead passionately with purpose, by first learning the history, then seeking and engaging existing organizations. Colleen maintains that everyone has gifts and passions, and when directed meaningfully, these strengths will help guide leaders to success. She encourages leaders to reflect each day by asking, “How did I show up? Was I an influence for positive or negative?” She discourages passive-aggressive behaviors, and promotes accountability and learning to confront differences with courtesy.
Listen in to learn the value of individual accountability, the best use of the inherent gifts all people have, and why methods matter along the way to your goals.
Key Takeaways
[5:33] Colleen gained awareness as a teenager that women across the world have had to fight for rights. In her 20’s, she was pulled to work for social justice and compassion towards the marginalized, especially women and children, and she continues those efforts today.
[8:01] Colleen’s advice to young professionals looking to help a cause is first to get some context, find out the history and background, and do their homework. She says some young women today don't even know what a suffragette was.
[11:46] Colleen recalls being counseled that if we make a difference in one life, then what we’re doing matters.
[15:16] Ask yourself, “where can I contribute and be fed in the process?” Finding an enriching purpose makes the difference between a passion and an obligation.
[17:15] When looking for a mentor, find people in your communities who have similar values to you, get their attention, share who you are. Your mentor's role is to listen, probe, draw out, and help guide and instruct you, not to advise you what to do.
[20:38] There's diversity of lifestyle and ethnicity, but also diversity of mind. Many organizations make the mistake of finding people who think alike, because it's easier. Getting diversity right comes down to one basic thing — do I value it?
[25:54] Regardless of our background, we all work with the basis that we're human beings who want to know, “Do I belong? Do I have something to contribute? And “A”m I valued and respected?”
[31:03] How you love, how you interact, how you navigate through your career and your exchanges with others, differentiates you as a person.
Books Mentioned on the Show
How to Win Friends and Influence People, book by Dale Carnegie
Bio
Colleen Abdoulah, who was the only female CEO at a top-ten cable operating company, is widely respected for her passionate focus on customer experience and company culture. Currently the Chair of the Board at WOW!, Colleen guided Internet, cable and phone as CEO for 12 years. In those years, WOW! quadrupled the customer base, with revenues of over $1.2B, and earned multiple awards from J.D. Power and Associates, Consumer Reports, and PC Magazine Reader's' Choice. WOW! was named in the National Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in 2012 and 2013. Before joining WOW!, Colleen worked at TCI as Assistant COO and EVP of Cable Operations. She serves on the boards of the American Cable Association and C-SPAN, and is a past Vice President of the Executive Board of Women in Cable and Telecommunications, and past Chairperson for the WICT Foundation. She is past Chair of the Board for the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, serves on the boards for The Women's College of the University of Denver, the Colorado Chapter of the International Women's Forum, and World Pulse.
Colleen is a keynote speaker on customer experience and company culture, and gender-balanced management and leadership, delivering her messages and stories with humor. Colleen has a degree in Public Relations and Marketing from Mount Royal College in Calgary, and an MBA from the University of Denver.
LinkedIn: Colleen Abdoulah
Website: http://www.worldpulse.com
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Schmitt, as he transitions from special operations leadership to corporate advisor after 30 years of military service. Starting his career as an enlisted soldier at the age of 17, he understands the requirement to recruit great people while investing in their development and taking the time to explain the organization's why. He is excited about the future and the goodness he expects to bring to others in the corporate sector. On this episode, Chris discusses principles of military leadership, his participation in the upcoming Patagonia Crucible, and his plans moving forward to support corporate leaders to build high performing teams. Chris wants this next chapter of his life to be about increasing the capacity of purposeful teams, developing positive leadership and mentoring winners!
Listen in to learn the value of trust in enabling your team members’ individual growth and joint success.
Key Takeaways
[3:32] Perseverance and persistence are important virtues to pack in your ruck.
[4:12] The experience of starting as an army private gives great perspective as an officer.
[8:56] Adaptability and moving forward will not happen without trust.
[9:10] Why is trust harder to develop in business than in the military - or is it?
[10:32] To be a rockstar organizational leader you have to take a chance and give some of that trust to the people in your organization.
[14:20] Provide a vision, and then allow people to just go and do it.
[17:38] Always try to do what you can do well, and leverage your core competencies.
[19:38] In order to excel in a new field, start by listening so that you can learn and understand the nuances in culture and language within that field.
[26:23] From Simon Sinek on leadership: Start with the Why. Being kind is important. Allow people to adapt and change.
Quotable Quotes
“My purpose is to facilitate others’ success, and to work toward continuing to help high performing teams succeed.”
“No matter how high you are up the chain...there’s not a little magic box that gives you all the answers.”
“Not taking time to sit back and reflect — that’s when you make small mistakes and difficulties.”
“Having genuine concern for people, pushing your purpose and sharing hardship are the things we need to continue to prepare our leaders for.”
“Being in charge is hard work.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, book by General Stanley McChrystal
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, book by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, book by Simon Sinek
Jerry Kramer's Farewell to Football, book by Jerry Cramer
Bio
Christopher Schmitt has developed as a strong leader, coach and mentor over the past 30 years of military service. Starting his career as an enlisted soldier at the age of 17, he then applied to West Point U.S. Military Academy. Working his way up through the ranks after graduation from West Point, he learned the importance to build a core team around the organization's values and purpose. Over the past 18 years as an international project officer and change agent as a deployed Special Forces field grade officer, Chris experienced how to motivate high performing teams to accomplish national strategic agendas.
With 14 years of service outside of the United States, from the destroyed Olympic City of Sarajevo to the dusty outposts of Timbuktu with trips to Afghanistan, as a Paratrooper, Ranger, and Green Beret, Chris has a rich appreciation for good leadership. He has a passion for interacting with leaders and helping them excel. He has a skill for building teams, mentoring their development and coaching them toward success. Chris has stuffed his rucksack with best practices necessary to motivate gifted individuals to perform as high-functioning organizations. Chris plans to transition his passion for building partner nation special operations teams to mentoring development of Corporate Leaders and their organizations. He can’t wait to get started and begin making an impact.
Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/christopherschmitt2
Instagram: chris_promegallc
Website: http://www.promegallc.com/
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Bruce Temkin, Customer Experience Transformist and Managing Partner of Temkin Group. Bruce is widely viewed as a customer experience visionary, helping large companies define and accelerate their customer experience journeys. He trains leaders the principles of purpose, brand value, employee engagement, and customer connectedness, helping them transform their organizations to provide a superior customer experience. Listen in to learn how to improve your organization with purposeful customer connections.
Key Takeaways
[3:35] Customer emotion drives loyalty. We’ve named 2016 as the year of emotion.
[5:26] While in a small group, emotional intelligence is important, and in a big organization, it is even more important to convey a sense of purpose.
[9:35] How to use immersive exercises in experiential design by thinking of it through the eyes of the customer, such as a grandmother who has never purchased online.
[13:31] How people make a majority of decisions based on their intuitive subconscious mind.
[18:13] Managing customer needs in concentric action loops with immediate response, corrective action, continuous improvement, and strategic change.
[22:12] Why the biggest cause of catastrophe is failure in the feedback loop.
[27:12] Is the issue that you don’t have enough metrics on a system, or is it that you don’t understand what’s going on in the first place?
[34:10] The customer experience you deliver is a reflection of your culture. Four elements define a customer-centric culture: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness.
[39:38] As a leader, the question is what do you have to do to align the direction and the perception of all the people who are following you?
Resources Mentioned on the Show
Thinking Fast and Slow, book by Daniel Kahneman
The Power of Habit, book by Charles Duhigg
How to Win Friends and Influence People, book by Dale Carnegie
Intensify Emotion
Bio
Bruce Temkin holds a master’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he concentrated in business strategy and operations. He also holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Union College.
As an executive officer and co-founder of two Internet start-ups, he led the development of the first purely Internet-based retail brokerage system and led operations in the US, China, Israel, and Japan. He also held management positions at General Electric, Fidelity Investments, and Stratus Computers.
Prior to Temkin Group, Bruce spent 12 years with Forrester Research during which time he led the company’s financial services, e-business, and customer experience practices. He authored many of Forrester’s most popular research reports and was the most-read analyst for 13 consecutive quarters and created Forrester’s Customer Experience Index.
He is the Chairman Emeritus and co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.
Bruce’s research focuses on identifying current and emerging best practices. He has published seminal reports such as The ROI of Customer Experience, The Future of Customer Experience, and The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies. He uses this insight to advise companies on their customer experience journeys, and identifying opportunities for sustainable breakthrough performance.
Bruce is the author of the blog Customer Experience Matters®, one of the most popular blogs on customer experience. He regularly posts insights on topics such as customer experience, corporate culture, branding, and leadership.
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Jason McCarthy, Founder and CEO of GORUCK, a company that makes rucksacks (also known as backpacks), and runs rucking events similar to the Special Forces selection process. Jason reveals why and how he started GORUCK, the obstacles he faced along the way, his mission for GORUCK, and his success in building leaders by overcoming adversity as a team. Jason also talks about building better Americans who serve their country and community, explaining the basis of community. He reminds us what freedom means, and how others can fulfill a duty in a variety of ways.
Listen in to learn how you can turn adversity into team building within your organization.
Key Takeaways
[7:38] How the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) or the Q Course forces you to lead.
[8:32] There are always opportunities to lead, you have to seize them. There’s always room for another great leader to step up.
[13:24] It wasn’t about the weight people were carrying, it was about the people carrying the weight.
[13:41] What’s really rewarding, is the impact you can make on people if you serve them.
[14:34] GORUCK became this bridge for Jason, that he was building for people that showed up within the class, and yet he needed to be on that same bridge, as well.
[18:29] Successful teams have got to be fun and it’s got to be about building communities.
[21:57] Americans represent one united community. Bake your neighbor a pie sometime, talk to the person next to you on the plane. We need someone to push us toward more service to each other - to build a better America.
[25:41] To create a culture of leaders you have to trust the people around you, give them things they can do, and let them figure it out.
[33:33] Go find a friend, go for a walk, put a backpack on, and talk to the person next to you. Connect with the people that are around you.
Quotable Quotes
“To lead is to do. You have to actually do it. You can’t learn about it in a book.”
"To lead is to serve."
“People need to like you to spend time with you.”
"Communication is always the glue."
“Taking a walk with a ruck is officially called rucking.”
Books Mentioned or Referenced on the Show
The LITTLEST Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership, book by Jan Rutherford
Bio
Jason McCarthy Graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2001, without a set professional goal. Then came 9/11, which became a call-to-arms to him. Jason enlisted in Special Forces and served in Iraq as a Communication Sergeant in the Green Berets. He calls his experience there a leadership laboratory. Jason founded GORUCK in 2008 after his military service, seeing the need for a great civilian bag, and a way to help veterans bridge military and civilian life. This led to the GORUCK Challenge, where a Special Forces guy builds a team out of the participants who show up.
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos interview Scott Page, Chief Executive Officer of Colorado Business Bank and Arizona Business Bank, on his experiences as a CEO, particularly regarding how the CEO position is distinct from all others. Scott covers the importance of preparation through education, accepting mentorship, and developing awareness and presence in the moment. Scott reveals pitfalls of inadequate leadership, and problems with letting an organization drift in unmanaged directions, as well as lessons learned through personal experience. He discusses the need for teams to hire and promote the right people a structure that provides autonomy, and the importance of performance accountability. He also discusses the power of humor in strengthening team relationships.
Listen in to learn Scott’s tips for transformative leadership in today’s challenged and fast-paced global economy.
Key Takeaways
[4:24] We take our business very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves very seriously―I really like people, and I like to have a little bit of fun.
[7:29] I’m a huge proponent of teamwork. My senior team members partner up to solve problems and I don’t even have to get involved.
[9:59] The biggest surprise when I became CEO was the speed of things coming at me.
[12:36] Put the right vertical structure and people in place.
[20:57] You have to have this mentality of constant improvement. There’s no room for people who retire on the job.
[22:10] You can have a complex organization, but you have to have a very well-defined value proposition and mission. Then you have to message like crazy and support your messaging with the right activities.
[24:14] Slow down to speed up. Adapt. To remain independent as a public company, you must provide superior results.
[27:25] Mentor people--send them through programs and schools that prepare them to advance and maximize their talents in the organization.
[41:19] Accountability has to start at the very top of an organization. Then it can be driven down into the organization.
Books Mentioned or Referenced on the Show
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Bio
Scott Page learned the value of humor while growing up in an immigrant family in a disadvantaged area. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in the Colorado banking community. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of Colorado Business Bank and Arizona Business Bank, since early 2014. Scott joined Colorado Business Bank as market president in 2009. He previously served as Executive Vice President and Director of Community Banking for Vectra Bank Colorado, a unit of Zions Bancorporation, for eight years, and as Senior Vice President and Manager of US Banks Large Commercial Banking at Financial Institutions Group. Scott received his Bachelor Degree and MBA from the University of New Mexico and is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Banking. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and serves on the executive advisory board of Regis Graduate School of Business.
We’re giving this episode out to the world at large today as an example of future Mastermind episodes. In the future, only those who subscribe to our email list will get access to the mastermind episodes… so please take the time to sign up on our website at – www.theleadershippodcast.com.
Our guest, Mike Figliuolo – Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS LLC and Founder at Executive Insight 16 discusses the elusive ROI of leadership training.
Key Takeaways
[2:20] What’s one of the biggest shortcomings you see in leadership development? People have to invest in themselves.
[3:00] Is this an OD issue? It’s about setting expectations.
[6:20] Do most leaders try to grow their organization by growing their people?
[7:55] The ROI of leadership training. Effective organizations establish a “standard,” and apply it to real-world problems and opportunities.
[9:30] Four levels of evaluating training: Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results. Look for tangible indicators/behaviors.
[11:00] Look for specific quantitative measurements – versus “false measurement dynamic.”
[13:50] What don’t people invest? Is there a performance gap? If you were driving home and you had a flat tire, would you get it fixed? Of course! Why would you run with things that are broken? What’s the opportunity cost?
[15:45] Good options for stretching your people? Are mistakes OK?
[21:00] Game theory – guessing if I do this you will do that… and if I do that, you will do this…
[22:20] Key question when developing your team: What this a good use of your day?
[25:00] Executive Insight 16 – Where Leaders Learn from Leaders
[27:30] What to expect from the event in NYC?
[32:00] What will be learned from this forum?
Quotable Quotes
- "There is no leadership dilemma. Just reality.”
- “The less power you have the more strategic you need to be.”
- “Create space for yourself mentally to think strategically.”
Books & Events Mentioned or Referenced on the Show
Leadership Development – A Profound Disconnect?
The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved
One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership
Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results
The Leadership Podcast - Episode 3 - Mike Figliuolo – A Thought Leader on Thought Leaders
Bio
Mike Figliuolo is the founder and managing director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC, a professional services firm specializing in leadership development. He is the author of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership and is a nationally recognized speaker and blogger. Before founding his own company, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., and an executive at Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro.
Co-hosts Jan Rutherford and Jim Vaselopulos, discuss their upcoming expedition – the Crucible in Patagonia, Argentina. They explore the project’s conception, purposes, technical and social challenges, and goals. They also describe the participants’ unique backgrounds, and how they were selected for being selfless, adventurous, and possessing heroic aspirations to make a difference in the lives of others.
The expedition has three goals: Help special operations warriors transition to the business world. Help executives “heard the unheard” as they step back and do a digital detox. Lastly, bring back the recipe for accelerating team development and the growth of leaders. Listen in to discover the plan and the tools they’re using to predict the team’s dynamic!
Key Takeaways
[3:20] There are things that happen out in the wilderness, from a leadership and a team perspective, that just take a long time to duplicate in the business world.
[15:44] Create an A-Team with people that are selfless, adventurous, and who have heroic aspirations – people who are force multipliers.
[20:17] What can we learn from the preparation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
[23:42] Consider Sir Ernest Shackleton's legendary ad: Men wanted: for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.
[29:43] A lot of companies hit a wall at $10 million. To break through the wall, think differently.
[30:29] Don’t just incrementally get out of your comfort zone. Get out of your comfort zone in an order of magnitude.
[32:18] It’s all about focus.
[33:00] Accelerate team development: Form, Storm, Norm, and Perform － Bruce Tuckman.
[39:51] In the end, we’re going to find out that it’s really simple, but very difficult.
Quotable Quotes
- “I wasn’t climbing those mountains for the view.”
- “You’ve always got 40% left in the tank you didn’t realize you had.”
- “The tough times in an organization are the good times, actually.”
Books Mentioned or Referenced on the Show
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Thea Polancic is a passionate advocate for the power of business as a force for good in the world. She is the Founder and Chair of the Chicago Chapter of Conscious Capitalism - a movement dedicated to elevating humanity through business, founded by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market.
The Chicago Chapter is the first in North America, and in less than 18 months it has grown to more than 1,100 members. Under her leadership, the Chicago Chapter produces programs for the general public and private events for senior executives who are committed to leading organizations that are both purposeful and unapologetically profit-driven. As a result of her efforts, the international Conscious Capitalism Annual Conference has taken place in Chicago for the past two years.
Thea is also the Managing Partner of ClearSpace, LLC, a consulting firm that helps CEOs transform themselves, their teams and organizations to meet the challenges of the future and grow and thrive. Over the past 15 years, Thea has worked closely with many senior leadership teams to grow organizations with a higher purpose, creating value for all stakeholders, developing servant leaders, and having healthy, values-based cultures. Her firm’s clients include organizations large and small across the country. She is a mentor to Chicago accelerators TechStars Chicago, Healthbox and The Impact Engine and the Conscious Venture Lab in Maryland.
Thea is sought-after speaker on leadership and the future of business.
Web - www.Clearspace.net
Twitter - @tdpolancic
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/theadurfeepolancic
Summary & Ideas for Action
In this interview, Thea covers the concept that consciousness and profit are compatible. Older executives may need to examine consciousness; younger executives may need to open their consciousness to embrace profit. Purpose is an intentional combination of consciousness and profit that necessitates a great business model, great leaders, and engaged stakeholders—the suppliers, the customers, the board, shareholders, and owners, and the employees of the organization. The growth is a journey, not an endpoint. The CEO is key to the purpose. Purpose spreads from the CEO down through the organization. If the CEO is not engaged in the purpose, the organization cannot prop it up. If the CEO sustains the purpose, then so may the organization.
Key Takeaways
[5:46] Will big business save the world? McDonald’s is the largest employer of teenagers on the planet. To make a difference for teenagers, you should go talk to McDonald’s.
[6:58] My personal purpose is in the form of a promise: By the year 2030, business creates a world of beauty, prosperity, and happiness.
[8:21] The world is a complex, ambiguous place. In uncertain, complex environments there is a specific kind of leadership that is more effective, which starts with a long-term perspective.
[14:15] How do you teach that it’s OK to be unapologetically capitalist and profit-driven?
[17:27] The need for purpose is on the rise and is moving mainstream quickly.
[22:05] This is a journey, not an endpoint. It starts with the CEO’s internal work. A CEO who is not the authentic driver of the purpose will undermine it.
[29:50] Leaders must match the intellectual valuing of mistakes, failure, and the challenges of the climb with the emotional capacity to be compassionate for themselves and their teammates, and create an environment of emotional safety inside of which risk taking can happen.
Quotable Quotes
- “What we want is that caring and accountability.”
- “Doing business in this way is ultimately one of the few remaining sources of competitive advantage that you’re going to have.”
- “Have a stakeholder value creation model, not just a shareholder or owner value creation model.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Leaders Eat Last
Mindset: The New Psychology for Success
The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization
Todd is the CEO and Founder of Bunker Labs, a national entrepreneurship organization dedicated to helping military veterans start and grow businesses. Announced in June 2014 at 1871, Chicago’s Tech Entrepreneurship Hub, Bunker Labs has grown to locations in several other cities through a chapter affiliate model, with further expansion plans underway.
Todd Connor is a former management consultant, U.S. Navy veteran, and has held many leadership roles in the public and private sector. He is a two-time entrepreneur and the founder of Flank 5 Academy. Todd holds a BA from Northwestern University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, previously served as a Senior Administrator at Chicago Public Schools, and is the author of two books on leadership and personal strategy. He is a Commissioner of the Cook County Commission on Human Rights, was honored as a 2015 Crain Chicago Business 40 Under 40, winner of the Chicago Inno 50 on Fire award, and is a 2016 Presidential Leadership Scholar.
Web - www.BunkerLabs.org & http://bunkerinabox.org
Twitter - @ToddConnor & @TheBunkerLabs
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thebunkerlabs/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddconnor
Summary & Ideas for Action
Todd Connor of Bunker Labs joins Jan and Jim in a lighthearted and educational conversation about the leadership qualities that turn veterans into entrepreneurs. Military men and women are required to perform at the highest level in demanding dynamic, complex, and uncertain environments. They are often given ambiguous missions and must rely on their training and foresight to know what must be done today, as well as tomorrow. This is the same for small business owners. When starting a small business there is no framework for guaranteed success a leader must execute and then adapt to the outcome. Todd also shares which great leaders he has learned from and what attributes he feels make them great leaders.
Key Takeaways
[4:47] Todd always wanted to connect with people who were different from him and to give back to the veteran community so he created Bunker Labs.
[10:51] Becoming an entrepreneur is about executing, team building and knowing what to do today while looking towards the future.
[12:41] Bunker Labs gives veterans leadership challenges and helps develop an adaptive mindset.
[14:52] Todd shares his thoughts on leaders with big personalities.
[19:32] What are the common attributes of entrepreneurs at Bunker Labs who find success?
[23:14] What does Todd know now that he wished he had known when he started Bunker Labs?
[28:31] Giving people opportunities to demonstrate success in small ways because that becomes a predictor of the outcome of bigger successes.
Quotable Quotes
- “Veterans are ambitious people. They join the military when they are 18 because they want to be challenged.”
- “The basic fundamentals of working hard are focus, adaptability and finding the right solution for the client.”
- “If you want to get noticed start doing something people can not afford to ignore.”
Books Mentioned on the Show
Mindset by Carol Dweck
Christian Anschuetz inspires the unconventional with a unique mix of strategic vision, adventurous spirit, bold action, and keen sense for calculated risk. He fuses these traits with executive business savvy and bleeding-edge technical knowledge to build high-performance organizations and solutions that enable transformative change.
Mr. Anschuetz is an entrepreneur, business executive and veteran of the United States Marine Corps. His diverse background and interests have helped incubate successful companies, propelled him to the executive ranks of two leading firms, and most recently, inspired the launch of the innovative nonprofit startup, Project RELO.
Christian currently serves as the CIO of UL (Underwriters Laboratories). He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Michigan, a Bachelor of Science in computer information science from Strayer University and is a graduate of Yale’s Executive Leadership Program.
Web - www.projectrelo.org
LinkedIN - ProjectRELO
Twitter - @projectrelo
Facebook - www.facebook.com/projectrelo.org
Recent article - www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6158834221000507392
Summary & Ideas for Action
In this episode, Christian Anschuetz shares his intention-based leadership style, and how his military career influenced his leadership style, and helped him thrive in a corporate career. He also discusses how he aims to change the lives of veterans through his work with Project Relo. He talks about the need for leaders throughout the organization – regardless of title. He also discusses how “followership” is key. He defines effective leadership as one where an environment exists where people work outside their comfort zone, innovate, and work with a “spring in their step.” Basically, effective leadership is when people follow willingly. As a leader, Christian creates teams of people who are innovative, support each other through risky situations, and help one another to eliminate the fear of failure.
Key Takeaways
[3:10] How has Christian’s military experience impacted his role as a leader in the traditional corporate environment?
[6:33] We need leaders throughout our entire organization. Anybody and everybody can lead and that is how you get high performance teams.
[8:18] Christian paints a vision for people of what is expected of them and then follows with the intention behind the goal.
[14:18] If you are going to fail, you are going to fail with your team members who will then propel you past the failure.
[20:36] How to get past the fear of failure by moving into unsafe zones.
[25:20] Project Relo highlights the abilities of veterans and focuses on leadership objectives.
[31:33] When people are pushing themselves into unsafe areas and are innovative, that is when Christian knows he’s being an effective leader.
[39:34] Contact information for Christian and Project Relo.
Quotable Quotes
- “Members of the Marine Corps are known to have a certain level of cockiness. It’s because Marines believe they can do anything.”
- “When you manage risk-to-zero, you simultaneously manage opportunity-to-zero.”
- “In human relationships, technology is our enemy and not our friend.”
Points to Ponder
- How do you help people be confident, but not arrogant? How do you balance this with humility versus insecurity?
- Is visioning the role of the leader, or that of the team?
- Does your team know what extraordinary performance looks like? Is it OK in your environment to make mistakes and sometimes fail because that’s where learning and growth take place?
- How can you stretch people to do more than they thought they could (beyond normal comfort zones)?
- What metrics do you have in place to know that your leadership is creating the right environment for people to follow you willingly?
For most people, stepping out of their comfort zone requires more risk than they are willing to take. In Scott Kinder’s book, The Hill, he points out that the first step in overcoming fear is to identify it as fear, then accept it for what it is and move past it. Scott is a natural born teacher who is determined to assist civilians and businesses in forming high-performance teams. He translates his skills, learned in the U.S. Army Special Forces, to educate and empower business leaders on how to effectively weaponize their communication skills.
Key Takeaways:
[2:13] Scott’s book, The Hill, addresses the methodology of identifying fear, accepting it for what it is and overcoming it.
[8:00] The See and Act model is all about selecting, education and empowering your staff and then analyzing, communicating and trusting in the results.
[12:16] People need to be willing to adopt the mindset that they will be the force multiplier in their team.
[14:50] Business leaders learn to weaponize skills, so they can utilize their non-verbal and kinesthetic communications appropriately.
[24:16] Instilling the right lessons in his children is a source of pride for Scott.
[26:09] What tools effectively measure leaders?
[30:36] Don’t quit.
Mentioned in This Episode:
The Leadership Podcast
@westudyleaders on Twitter
The Leadership Podcast on Facebook
Scott C. Kinder on LinkedIn
@scottckinder on Twitter
The Hill: Invictus Series Book One: Overcoming Fear and Learning to Embrace an Elite Mindset
Leadership BS by Jeffrey Pfeffer
As the Executive Director for the non-profit startup, Team Red, White and Blue (RWB), Blayne Smith feels a deep sense of purpose and believes he is making the world a better place. His goal is to bring veterans out of their houses and into communities where their skills and talents can be recognized and utilized. Veterans are uniquely gifted with the extensive experience of being part of a team, working through abstract situations and solving problems through creativity to enhance the lives of people within their communities. Free workouts and Leadership Athletic Camps are essential parts of the initiative, which brings people together through physical activity.
Key Takeaways:
[2:18] Team Red, White and Blue was founded as a way for veterans to connect with people in their local communities.
[6:09] What makes this program authentic is that everybody gains and everybody gives.
[12:50] We use technology as tools to keep us connected but the real relationships are forged at our Leadership Athletic Camps.
[15:29] What are the most underutilized characteristics veterans possess?
[19:01] High-performers want to be led and to have their efforts reinforced by positive feedback.
[26:02] Team RWB encourages people to get out of their house and connect with their communities, but veterans are responsible for sharing what they have to offer.
[29:18] Many companies haven’t fully embraced the power of building strong teams who trust each other.
[31:53] How to get involved in Team Red, White and Blue.
Mentioned in This Episode:
The Leadership Podcast
@westudyleaders on Twitter
The Leadership Podcast on Facebook
Team Red, White and Blue
Team RWB Podcast
Team RWB on Twitter
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Bios
While a Board Member of Prime Health and a Senior Advisor to 10.10.10, health-tech entrepreneur Mike Biselli witnessed firsthand the tremendous power that a determined community of clinicians, technologists, and investors could wield, and realized just how much more could be accomplished if that power were harnessed. Over the next few years, Mike began developing the industry integrator concept, an entirely new feature of the innovation economy that would allow the healthcare industry to be integrated at the point of innovation by housing an entire health-tech ecosystem in a single location. Now, in partnership with governmental, academic, non-profit, and commercial organizations, Mike Biselli is developing Catalyst HTI, a first-of-its-kind industry integrator in Denver’s River North District (RiNo) that will bring together health-tech startups and Fortune 20s alike in the race to fix American healthcare.
Catalyst site: http://catalysthealthtech.com
Personal website: http://mikebiselli.com
Twitter: @mikebiselli
Summary & Ideas for Action
Mike Biselli brings his dedication, enthusiasm and servant leadership style to digital health innovation as a community leader and collaborator. His character building and leadership journey started early in his life, with athletics playing a huge role. He was awarded a college scholarship for football, which led him to being named 1st Team All PAC-10 kicker in 1999. He now brings those same qualities along with his passion to his business ventures through his industry integrator concept. He believes that through collaboration, diversity and innovation, we will be able to save the U.S. from the financial crisis that exists in our healthcare system.
Key Takeaways
[3:00] Unpacking Mike’s visionary quote about the looming crisis in the U.S. healthcare system.
[7:45] Prime Health is a business ecosystem of collaborators working to extend its vision around the nation.
[11:09] Mike firmly believes in ‘give of yourself first’ as a foundation for his servant leadership style.
[15:02] A football memory: Long-term dedication enabled Mike to gain the trust needed to perform a surprise onside kick.
[20:16] The role athletics played in Mike’s success as a leader.
[27:46] The true measure of leadership effectiveness is to see how many new leaders are created by an existing leader.
[30:40] How to contact Mike, see him speak, and get your hands on his forthcoming book.
Quotable Quotes
“To empower people and to let them grow and develop, a leader must give up power.”
“If we are going to re-imagine this broken healthcare industry, Fortune 100’s need to work with entrepreneurs.”
“Homogeneity squashes innovation, inspiration and opportunity to make something bigger of ourselves.”
Mentioned on the Show
Prime Health - http://primehealthco.com
Points to Ponder
- Regarding Mike’s vision for Catalyst, what are ways you can bring very diverse groups together with common interests to meet today’s challenges?
- How do you “give of yourself first’ as a servant leaders?
- When people stay at organizations for a very short time these days, how do you inspire people to long-term dedication?
- Sports analogies are used a lot as metaphors – what other examples can you use that are inclusive?
- Do you agree with Mike that the true measure of leadership effectiveness is to see how many new leaders are created by an existing leader?
On this 6th episode of the Leadership Podcast, your hosts Jim Vaselopulos and Jan Rutherford will be sharing the how, what and why behind this enterprise. Jim and Jan both ardently believe that a person’s family is their most important legacy. These C-Level executives have very different backgrounds but similar aspirations. They joined forces to accomplish their goal of creating a place for young professionals to build character through mentorship and a habitat for companies to find inspiration from proven and effective leaders. Through this medium, they have the unique opportunity to study the minds and practices of leaders who excel at what they do.
Key Takeaways:
[1:37] Get to know your podcast hosts Jim and Jan, on a professional and personal level.
[8:15] What drives Jim to help young professionals learn to be leaders?
[13:50] The non-traditional ways Jan teaches executives to purge during a Digital Detox.
[17:42] Upcoming episodes will include the #1 doctor in the world, authors, business leaders, and those who embody a growth mindset.
[22:42] Moving forward with the intention of getting in the heads of those who have done great things.
[27:49] How is leader effectiveness measured?
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Colonel Jill Morgenthaler spoke to her experience trailblazing as one of the first women in the direct military chain of command. She outlined her many firsts, told great stories of the adjustments she had to make and what gave her the strength to persevere. She spoke of courage, what it means to fake it 'till you make it and why you want to "stop the stupid." She spoke how adversity is your opportunity to show the world all you're worth and how your view of who you are is more important than how the world views you. Her view on how humility and that demonstrating respect is how you earn respect is colorfully told through some great stories. Col. Jill's viewpoints on women in the military and in leadership positions is informed by her tremendous experience. Her background in the Korean DMZ, in Serbia and with Saddam Hussein makes for a career worthy of a movie!
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Joe demonstrated how leaders, especially thought leaders, have a voracious appetite for information. The conversation addressed how leaders have to manage today and tomorrow; and that leaders have a way of noticing what is already happening, but nobody may have noticed yet. This skill of seeing the unseen or noticing the unnoticed is something Joe has been doing for years. In speaking to his latest book, Infinite Possibility, Joe spoke about digital transformations and how they are having dramatic impacts on the business landscape and assumptions we take for granted. Leaders who are strategizing for tomorrow need to take notice of these trends in order to keep their organizations fresh and free from the paradigms that often cripple great organizations. Joe also spoke to the importance of instilling purpose as the key contribution of a leader.
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Mike used the power of story to cover a key leadership areas in an informative interview. He spoke emphatically about the measure of a leader is the ability to attract talent. He also spoke about the need to invest in the growth and development of people, and that leaders are teachers. Mike shared his stories from being a young platoon leader in the army, and how screwing up once provided one of the most valuable lessons – and examples of a leader who didn’t let a crisis go to waste. Mike concluded with sharing an event he and his team are running. It’s a leadership conference called Executive Insight 16, and it will be held November 10-11, 2016 in NYC.
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Tom asks us to take a break and think – and know yourself. He views philosophy as a mirror to understand one’s true values and beliefs. Being self-reflective is not to slow you down, but make you better. He also said that sometimes, “Talking is a form of thinking – not just communicating.” Great people and great leaders create great relationships, and these same people know that you have to grow people to have great results. He went on to say the most common mistake is “assumptions,” and thinking that everyone is clear on their goals. He talked about the need to balance Nobility and Humility and that you must allow yourself to be vulnerable. Lastly, he believes the centerpiece of culture in an effective organization is where leaders develop people in every aspect of their lives.
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Preston touched on a number of leadership areas in this high-energy interview. For example, the need to stay relevant, and leverage technology as a tool for communicating and measuring more effectively. He also hit on the Law of Reciprocity when it comes to all relationships – boss, peer and direct reports. Preston shared some great stories of courage and leaders he’s learned from with self-deprecating humility. He’s concluded from studying highly successful leaders (and billionaires) that they all share one specific attribute: They’re all voracious readers.
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