No Bullsh!t Leadership

Episode #21 // Formal and informal education plays a critical role in any leader's development. Having said that, we need to be realistic about the role that education plays in our career paths and ensure that our experience and achievements are commensurate with our qualifications. Not all education is equal!When I talk about education, I'm going to completely ignore the realm of specific competency certifications. So that's things like undergraduate disciplines (law, architecture, commerce etc.) and professional certifications or tickets required by tradespeople to certify their competencies.So I start this episode talking about why education is so important, and the different types of education I’ll be referring to. I’ll then cover off:The 70-20-10 principle, which I’m sure you’ve heard of before but it’s a good reminder to check your percentagesThe role that education plays in your careerWhy not all MBA’s are equal and some reasons why I think it’s worth doingAn analogy that'll help you to think through the relative value of your experience in education to work at where you need to go from here (this is one of my favourites and should make it crystal clear for you!)For those of you who are interested, I finish this episode by sharing an overview of the educational choices that I've made throughout my career, including why I made them, and what I think the result wasSome of my ‘everyday’ education recommendations - an overview of the things I read and make sure I do as a discipline, to increase both my hard and soft skillsMy answer to one of our most commonly received questions, “Should I do an MBA?”This episode should give you a really good understanding of where you’re at, and get your brain working on where you want to go and the types of education you think you’re missing in your toolkit.Em and I created a great little quiz that should help you figure out which professional development option is best for you this year, so spend 30 seconds doing it here at www.yourceomentor.com/quiz and find out what your education path could look like this year.To further support this, if you’ve got a program or course that you’d like your organisation to pay for, but you’re not sure how to discuss it with your boss, we created a really simple business case to help you put it together, including a full email script! You can download the free business case here at www.yourceomentor.com/businesscaseI’d love to hear if this has helped you choose an education path, and what your thoughts are on education vs. experience from your personal journey, so please send me an email to hello@yourceomentor.com with your thoughts!👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #20 // There are so many factors to making great decisions. Some of these factors are technical and analytical, but many are based on your leadership skill. In today’s episode, we deal with the fundamental question of how to get the most from your people, to enhance and improve your decision making capability.I start this episode by asking the question, ‘Why all the fuss about diversity and inclusion?’ From there I go on to cover:How great leaders set an appropriate decision making cultureWhy it is so important to foster a culture where robust challenge is the normSome key questions that will help you to reflect on your behaviour when faced with robust challengeThe five ways to drive better decisions through your people - these are simple but powerful, and will make a huge difference to the quality of your team’s decisions if you have the patience and will to implement themWhat I believe the ‘perfect template’ for great decision making looks likeThree 'traps for young players' that I see many leaders unwittingly fall into - there’s no reason to fall foul of these once you’re aware of them, so make sure you write these ones down and check in with yourself every now and thenThere are so many great gems in this episode! Most of the strategies I talk through require you to step outside your comfort zone and reflect honestly on your behaviour, but if you can do this, you’ll be able to create a culture of confidence and speed in decision making.If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast - it means a lot to us and it gives us an idea of what you are getting the most value from, so that we can make more of it!👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #19 // It’s no secret that any number of things can sub-optimise execution inside an organisation. One of the most insidious, in my experience, is a weak accountability culture. So whereas lack of strategy, planning, and resourcing are relatively obvious, a weak accountability model is not always apparent to senior management and this will work against virtually anything you're trying to achieve.So in today’s episode, Execution for Results: Driving accountability in your team, we're going to kick off by talking about what a weak accountability culture looks like, because if you can’t recognise it, you can’t fix it. I’ll then go on to cover:Management vs leadership - what I really think about these two concepts and how they fit togetherThe key issues you’ll come across if you have a weak accountability culture - hopefully there are some lightbulb moments for you hereWhat drives this weak accountability culture? The 5 key drivers that I talk through will likely give you something to reflect upon when you look at your own organisations cultureMy experience of having to turn around CS Energy’s culture from weak accountability, to full accountability - one of the toughest things I had to overcome as CEOThe principle of one head to pat, one ass to kickThe six ways to get superior execution through setting up the right accountabilities inside your organisation - these are GOLD so make sure you download the free PDF ‘Six Steps to Creating a Strong Accountability Culture' from www.yourceomentor.com/episode19 where I summarise all of these points for you - even if you don’t listen to the whole episode, I strongly encourage you to download this and use it as a framework in your businessThis episode is pretty meaty, but if you commit to reflecting on and evaluating you team, your organisation, or even your own personal behaviour in light of these points, you will be so much closer to driving exceptional results through team accountability.I feel so strongly about this being a success driver for leaders, that I dedicate an entire module of Leadership Beyond the Theory to it. In ‘Module 6: Drive Accountability’, I spend 5 lessons talking through all the strategies and techniques I use to create a really strong accountability culture, jam packed with real world examples from my own experiences. I highlight the struggles just as much as the successes, so that you can really get a 360 degree view of what it takes to drive accountability successfully in your organisation as an exceptional leader.If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast - it means a lot to us and it gives us an idea of what you are getting the most value from, so that we can make more of it!I’d love to hear your stories of creating an accountability culture within your organisation, or any of the pitfalls you’ve come across while trying to do so! Shoot me an email with your feedback at hello@yourceomentor.com.👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #18 // As the New Year's hangover subsides, we need to start thinking about what we're going to makehappen in 2019, and it is absolutely up to us to make it happen. For ourselves, for our team andfor our organisations.So in today’s episode, the first of the year, I’m going to start by talking about why New Year'sresolutions don't work - so I hope you made all those yesterday, because today's the 2nd, youcan forget about those and move on!From there, I’ll cover:• Why having a great year is all about setting up better habits - I’ll give you some examples of the habits I practice in my life• Why paying attention to what you’re doing, is going to make the difference between reaching your goals, and not• Some questions to help you reflect on where you’re going, both long term and short term• A technique that I use with senior leaders that is extremely powerful in working out what these goals are (this is the gold of this episode, and you’ll want to spend some time on this before you head back to work!)• Why modelling what it looks like to take personal accountability for your growth as a leader is so important• How you can hold yourself to account and actually achieve the things you have committed to for 2019• The free downloadable for this week is the Five Steps for Setting Yourself up for Success in2019, which you can download at www.yourceomentor.com/episode18 - I encourage you to download this and spend an hour or two with a pen and paper, working through these questions and getting your plan really clear, so that you can deliver on it throughout the yearI also talk about Leadership Beyond the Theory, our 7-week online leadership program that iskicking off in February. If you know that 2019 is your year to accelerate your leadership skills andbecome a leader who stands out from the pack, I strongly recommend getting on the waitlist forthe program. We’re only taking limited entries for the February cohort, and it won’t open againuntil July, so head to www.yourceomentor.com/program to work out if it’s a good fit for you.I am really looking forward to 2019. It's going to be an incredible year. I'm going to be ridingshotgun with you on your journey all the way through. Em and I will continue to release apodcast episode every Wednesday morning, and we're going to continue to deal with the issuesthat we think are most going to be able to improve your leadership performance - with some helpfrom your fantastic listener questions of course!As always, if you're enjoying this podcast series, please share it with your leadership network,because we want to reach as many leaders as possible, and help them through their leadershipjourney.I’d love to know what you thought of the tips and strategies that I covered in this episode, and ifyou’ve got any strategies of your own that you use in the new year to get yourself on track forsuccess! Shoot me an email with your feedback at hello@yourceomentor.com.👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #17 // In this Boxing Day episode, we’re doing things a bit differently! Em is back on the show, and we are going to talk through our five favourite episode of 2018. We released 16 episodes this year, and we might be biased, but we think there's some incredible leadership content there.This week, we’re going to point out the five episodes that we think you should either listen to for the first time, or if you've heard them before, go back and review. Hopefully, if you're in Australia, you're lying around the pool relaxing! If you're in the US or the UK, you'll hopefully be sitting around a fire with a cracking Shiraz. Either way, take some time out over the next few days and review these episodes so that you can ready yourself and reset for the new year.Em and I will talk through the key points of each episode, and why we think they take the cake! The episodes we cover are:Episode #3 Excellence Over Perfection: Laying the foundations for successful executionEpisode #6 The Psychology of Feedback: Stop avoiding leadership workEpisode #7 Working at the Right Level: What got you to here won’t get you to thereEpisode #2 Building a High Performing Team: Weak team = poor resultsEpisode #8 Are Happy Workers Productive Workers? What really drives your peopleI hope you get a chance to go through some of these over the holiday break. They'll hold you in really good stead for the new year. If you want to download the free resources attached to each of these episodes, just go to the episode page (eg. episode #3’s page is www.yourceomentor.com/episode3)We want to say a big thank you to everyone who's listened and supported us this year, we absolutely love making this podcast. Our purpose is to improve the quality of leaders globally and this podcast is just one step in making that happen.If you liked any of these episodes, the best Christmas gift you can give us is rating, reviewing and subscribing to the podcast - and sharing them with a leader who you think would benefit from them! You might completely change someone's career.What was YOUR favourite episode of 2018? We’d love to hear from you, so shoot us an email at hello@yourceomentor.com.👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #16 // Back by popular demand, this week we're going to do another Q&A episode! It’s likely that you’re winding down as the holiday period approaches, and we've had so many good questions from listeners that there's a few more we need to deal with before the year ends.To help me with this Q&A segment, Em has joined me again. Each of these questions could be an episode in its own right, but hopefully we’ve covered them thoroughly enough for you to take action on some of these issues, immediately if need be.So in this episode, Em and I discuss three listener questions:People shares: "I was intrigued by the people share concept. We always do a safety share, but I haven't heard of too many other teams doing a people share, and would love to hear more on it." (this one is up first)Egotistical bosses: "For an aspiring leader in an organisation where the leader above them is self-indulgent and egotistical it can be really difficult to reach their full potential as the competent, capable leader that they are. It's difficult to manage up with this type of leaders. The types who promote a 'Those below me should do everything for me,' culture, and only want to see green on the dashboard because anything less makes them look bad. The good leaders end up frustrated, and either eventually complying for a short amount of time, or just leaving. Either one robs the organisation. So what would you suggest someone in this situation do? How should these aspiring leaders realise opportunities, and provide value with an egotistical boss in the way?" (skip to 7 minutes 30 seconds in)Office politics: “With politics in the workplace, how do you stay aware, and not involved? (skip to 14 minutes 10 seconds in)We’d love to know what you thought of the topics we covered in this episode, and if you’ve got any strategies of your own that you use or have used to combat these issues! Please email us with your feedback at hello@yourceomentor.com.If you're enjoying this episode, please rate, review and subscribe to it (it takes less than 2 minutes of your time) - it will help us reach even more leaders, and hopefully help them on their leadership journey!👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #15 // I’ve got to say, we get some seriously great listener questions every week! When we started the podcast we were coming up with our own topics, and now we get so many questions, that we get to make what you guys want and need to hear - which was our ultimate goal of the podcast from day one!The question I'm answering today is no different, in fact we liked it so much we moved this episode up the priority order as I suspect this is something that happens far more frequently than we might imagine. Listener James asked:"In a recent leadership transition from individual contributor to management, I was tasked with delivering tasks above my competency and was under supported in acquiring these skills, resulting in damage to my career brand. When acting in a new level, how do you ensure a safe learning approach and don't damage your reputation?”A cracking question James, and first of all I want you to know - you’re not alone! I’m going to answer this question by covering the below:My own experience of none of my bosses EVER having a conversation with me about the differences I was about to face in a new levelThe issue with most of the cookie cutter training many organisations have their leaders completeA great analogy from Monty Python demonstrating the gap between most leadership education and the actual practicality and implementation of these skills (I’m a big Monty Python fan!)The five key generic skills that I believe are needed at any level if you want to be a good leaderWhy your boss can’t be your mentor, and what to look for in oneAnd finally, how to take control of your own career development destiny - I’ve put these all in an easy to download free PDF which you can get here, called ‘Five Tips for Taking Control of Your Own Development’Now I’m going to make a pretty educated guess and say that because you’re listening to this podcast, you’re already going down the self development path, however I hope this gives you clarity on what you need to focus on, and how to move yourself forward, even if you’ve been stranded by your boss!As always, I’d love to know what you thought of this episode, so send me any of your feedback to hello@yourceomentor.com.Have you checked out our Leadership Level Up online masterclass yet? These 5 bite-sized video lessons were designed to help you level up your leadership skills quickly and effectively! If you haven’t taken it yet, go to courses.yourceomentor.com, spend 20 minutes going through the lessons and find the parts that are going to make a difference for you and where you’re at in your leadership journey!👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #14 // This week's topic is another slightly controversial one, but has turned out to be a very common question from listeners, so we thought we’d dedicate a whole episode to tackling how you as a leader, can set the right boundaries in your work relationships.The key questions here is, how do you strike the balance between maintaining professional distance, while establishing a trust based, caring relationship with your people? In this episode I’ll answer this question by covering the following:Outlining what type of relationships you should try to create (I’ll give you some examples to demonstrate these points)A classic insight from author Jeffrey J Fox on who you should spend most of your time focusing on, and what to watch out forThe dynamic of a professional relationship when you’re leading a friend, and the potential outcomes of this - some good points in here about subconscious favouritismWhat it looks like to be a friendly leader and some key points on how to create these friendly relationships without crossing the lineHow to behave at work functions such as Christmas parties (which is very appropriate for this time of year!) when you’re a leader - I’ll give you some of my favourite rules of thumb that have worked for me for yearsWhen it is appropriate to take the relationship outside the officeI’ll then delve into romantic relationships in the workplace - the ramifications if they go sour (I use a few high profile examples here that are currently topical), the potential imbalance in power dynamic and what to watch out for if you do decide to date a coworker/boss/subordinate etc.The free resource for this week is ‘The Dos and Don't’s of Appropriate Leader Relationships’, which should really help you with drawing a line in the sand. You can download this resource from www.yourceomentor.com/episode14This episode is one to mull over in the coming days. When you first listen to it you may think, ‘But I met my wife at work!’, or ‘I met some of my best friends at work!’, and that’s great, there are always exceptions to the rule. What I’m doing in this episode, is showing you the boundaries, the ramifications of different decisions, and what are in my opinion, the best types of relationships to create if you want to be able to lead your team effectively.As always, I’d love to know what you thought of this episode, so send me any of your feedback to hello@yourceomentor.com.If you haven’t rated or reviewed the podcast yet, please do it now! It helps us reach even more leaders who are potentially struggling with appropriate leader relationships!👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #13 // We spoke last month in the Q&A episode about giving your boss feedback. As this subject comes up again and again in your questions to us, this week I've expanded on the topic. To give it some context, I framed it around one of the best questions from our listeners, thank you Jordan.The question was:“I’m finding it difficult determining the boundaries between demonstrating a proactive approach to leadership and work whilst also making sure I don't overstep my current job title. I believe I have the support of my peers; however, I don't wish to upset the balance by overthrowing my current senior somehow. What's the best way of dealing with this? Or is it just something that'll run its own course if I just keep working hard?"Such a good question, and one that I’m sure you can relate to in some way, shape or form. So to tackle this, I start with discussing how to work out what type of boss you actually have (I’ll do this by asking a bunch of questions that you can answer in your head as you listen), which is imperative in making a plan for how to deal with them. Following this I cover:What all bosses THINK they want - you might be familiar with ‘independent, hard-working, innovative, self-starters’What competent leaders actually DO want, that incompetent leaders don't (and let’s make a distinction here, incompetent leaders are not bad people, they’re just not great leaders yet!)The types of behaviours that work almost universally, and yes, making your boss look good is one of these points!What you need to communicate to keep them out of your knittingSome suggestions on to talk to your boss and approach difficult subjects without being disrespectfulMy five rules of thumb for stepping up and out of your current role, without pissing your boss off, which is going to help you big time with navigating that journey - you can download this at www.yourceomentor.com/episode13Once you’ve digested all of this, you’ll see that the underlying message is that for you personally, you've got to be robust. You've got to know that pissing people off and stepping on toes occasionally comes with the territory, so don’t be discouraged at the first sign of political backlash.The good news is though, if you can actually pull this off, you'll be establishing yourself as a high potential leader of the future. And this is going to be noticed up the line from you.I’d love to hear if this episode has helped you work through a difficult relationship with your boss, and if you’ve got any other strategies that you use to combat their insecure behaviour!If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and rate the podcast it in your favourite podcast app - it helps us reach even more leaders so we really appreciate you helping us increase our impact!👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode #12 // Building the best team you possibly can is a prerequisite to delivering the results that will make you a successful leader. It begins with the hard yards of capability building that we spoke about in episode two ‘Building a High Performing Team’; there's also the need to attract and retain the best talent into your organisation, and you're in competition for that talent with other similar organisations.So in this episode, I’m going to focus on the fact that we all want to hire the best people, but sometimes this is easier said than done, and our industries and our companies have their natural limitations. I’m going to pull apart how we attract and retain the best talent we can by covering the below:Some of the macro-factors in your organisation that make hiring the best people a little more challengingWho the best employers are and why, with some help from a Business Insider article on The 50 best places to work in 2018, according to employees A great perspective from Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg, an example of how he sets the expectations for employees so that they know what to expect before joining the companyThe three firms that are renowned for attracting and retaining the best talent, and the similarities between them - this is a good indicator of what worksWhat we can do to give ourselves the best chance we can of hiring the best peopleHow to attract talent by being able to articulate an organisations benefits to prospective employees (hint: this is a process that you can start to implement in your organisation TODAY)My very easy to follow seven ideas for attracting and retaining the best possible talent which you can download at www.yourceomentor.com/episode12Now, I know that a lot of you listening to this podcast don't have the ability to influence the recruitment and retention cycle in your organisation. But if you don't, I think this presents a great opportunity for you to show some leadership from below, and to take this up the line and say, “Hey, I've got some ideas for how we can get better people into our organisation and into our business.”I challenge you to try that this week, and do something that's going to set you apart as a leader of the future.If you liked this episode, please share it with your leadership network on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram so that we can reach even more leaders, and make sure you tag us @yourceomentor so that we can connect with you!I know you'll take every opportunity you can this week to be a No Bullsh!t Leader.👉 Doors are open for Leadership Beyond the Theory. Be the boss you wish you had.🔗 Enroll now at leadershipbeyondthetheory.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.