Blanchard LeaderChat

In this episode, organizational change expert Jake Jacobs shares how to make any change initiative successful by using the techniques from in his latest book, Leverage Change: 8 Ways to Achieve Faster, Easier, Better Results. Jacobs encourages you to embrace change, learn to love the troublemakers, and find ways to help people make a meaningful difference during the change process.

In this episode, hear author Robert “Bo” Brabo share personal examples of delivering servant leadership in military, government, and business environments from his latest book, From the Battlefield to the White House to the Boardroom. Brabo explains how leaders can thrive by putting a focus on people and acting in alignment with the core values of their organization, whether big or small, public or private, for-profit or not-for-profit. Leaders who demonstrate consistent behaviors to support these values will be able to show long-term results for themselves and their companies. For more information about Robert “Bo” Brabo, visit www.robertbrabo.com

In this episode hear renowned business culture expert Stan Slap explain the difference between understanding your employees and understanding your employee culture. The distinction isn’t semantics; it’s the key to whether your strategies will succeed or fail. He shares tips for getting maximum business performance from his book, Under the Hood: Fire up and Fine-Tune Your Employee Culture.

In this episode, hear performance coach Victoria Labalme share strategies for moving forward in times when your goals aren’t precisely clear. Some people know exactly what they want and go for it, but others aren’t quite sure. Labalme talks about the tips and techniques from her new book, Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius. About Victoria Labalme: For more information about Victoria Labalme, go to  www.riskforward.com/book or www.victorialabalme.com

In this episode hear business strategy expert Berta Aldrich describe how the global marketplace has changed and explain why companies are struggling to hire and retain high-performing talent. She shares tips from her latest book, Winning the Talent Shift to show you how to overcome the three main barriers to unlocking the potential in today’s workplace. By redesigning your talent acquisition strategy, you will increase revenue, engage teams and leaders, and set your company apart from the competition in the marketplace. About Berta Aldrich For more information about Berta Aldrich, go to www.bertaaldrich.com, or LinkedIn “Winning the Talent Shift” by Berta Aldrich.

Join us to hear learning strategy and design expert Julie Dirksen explain how to create a learning experience that’s effective instead of one that gets forgotten as soon as the learner completes the session. The first important steps in Dirksen’s process are to understand who your learners are, then define the behavior you want them to learn. This might seem obvious—but the trick is to identify the specific steps required to make that behavior visible and then teach them in a way that is both memorable and applicable to the learner. Dirksen understands that the goal of good learning design is to help learners emerge from the learning experience with new or improved capabilities—skills they can take back to the real world and apply immediately. With the recent shift to virtual learning, this includes using methods to keep people engaged in the session. Dirksen encourages you to use tools available on learning platforms to keep people active, such as asking participants to write on a whiteboard or put comments in the chat, or calling on them to unmute and answer a question. She also stresses the important role that repetition plays in the transfer of knowledge and offers methods to enhance memory. Dirksen’s favorite learning tip? Designers should ask themselves one question about every single thing they are trying to teach: Can I provide a real-world example that will illustrate this learning point?   About Julie Dirksen: To learn more about Julie Dirksen, go to www.usablelearning.com.

Marcus Buckingham believes there are some basic assumptions about work that are just no longer true in the business environment today. In this episode, he shares his insights on eight of the nine lies featured in his latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, including ideas such as: People care which company they work for; The best plan wins; The best companies cascade goals; The best people are well-rounded; People need feedback; and more.

In this exciting episode, you’ll hear how aviation pioneer Carey D. Lohrenz learned what Fearless Leadership means in two of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Through her experiences, Lohrenz identified a fundamental truth: high performing teams require fearless leaders. “Fearless leadership isn’t about not feeling fear. It’s having the ability to feel uncomfortable and to move through it and show up to be the best you can be,” explains Lohrenz. Hear her describe the fundamentals of Fearless Leadership: Courage: If you cultivate courage in yourself, you’ll have what it takes to see limitless possibilities for yourself as a leader. Tenacity: Embracing the persistence it takes to keep going after a goal—even when it becomes difficult or risky—and continuing to take action. Integrity: Do the right thing, be honest, be trustworthy, and lead by example. Lohrenz also describes how to put Fearless Leadership into action by first setting a clear vision, then being the catalyst for moving your team toward that vision by creating the culture to support it. She also illustrates the importance of being resilient as a leader and describes the seven steps you can take to become more resilient: Reject victimhood Embrace change Focus on what matters Find a wingman Know what you can control Learn from adversity Take action “Above all, Fearless Leadership is the difference between having the life, team, culture, and organization that you want, and settling,” says Lohrenz. So risk more, worry less, and take action—because bold, fearless action drives success. For more information about Carey Lohrenz, visit www.careylohrenz.com

A finite game has known players, fixed rules, and a clear end point, like baseball. But with infinite games such as business or politics, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined end point. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game—there is only ahead or behind.

In this episode, hear virtual training pioneer Cindy Huggett share information from her book Virtual Training Tools and Templates: An Action Guide to Live Online Learning. She offers tips to ensure your virtual training is successful by meeting the specific needs of your organization. The first step is to define what virtual training means for your company. For example, if you are trying to replicate an in-person experience for a small audience, your design will have different requirements than it would if you were trying to reach a large audience. When creating a virtual program, the three most important things to consider are an engaging facilitator, an interactive design, and prepared participants. Preparation is a key to success. Virtual facilitators must understand the specific features of the technology they are using and have backups in place. Huggett’s book offers a virtual trainer checklist to help. Most of all, facilitators need to realize that delivering in the virtual arena involves much more than simply making a presentation. Facilitators must make learners the focus—and think of the training as a conversation. To help the learning come alive, make use of the time together in the virtual setting exactly as you would in a face-to-face session. About Cindy Huggett:   To learn more about Cindy Huggett, go to www.cindyhuggett.com, or find her on Twitter: @cindyhugg.