No Bullsh!t Leadership

Episode #11 // Now, no one can accuse me of not taking on the big issues in this podcast, and this one is particularly vexed because, although there's almost universal acceptance of the value that a diverse team brings to an organisation, very few organisations actually have a diverse workforce.In this episode, we question why it’s so hard to create this. I’ll go straight to the punchline - there is no silver bullet: it takes time, effort and the right approach through every level of the business.I try and cover this topic as simply as I can, and that starts with examining our own belief systems. From there I cover:Why it is so hard to build diversity at the top levelA quick note on reverse discrimination, privilege and unconscious bias (this one is going to take some self-reflection)The different types of diversity we need in our organisations - gender is an obvious one, but there are also other areas of discrimination such as industry and function backgroundThe need to balance the ‘diversity premium’ with individual capability when building a high performing teamBeing aware of hiring in our own likeness, and how dangerous this isHow organisations need to make the commitment not to do ‘dumb sh!t’ when it comes to penalising great, talented women who want to step out of the workforce for a period of time to start a familyA great recently released study from McKinsey and Co about the differences between the way men and women are treated in the workplace - this is based on four years of data from over 460 companies employing almost 20 million people, so it’s pretty solid dataThe pay parity question and a quite detailed example of how my team created a “pay parity guarantee” whilst I was CEO at CS EnergyWhy it can be difficult to bring balance to a senior leadership team based on the available candidatesMy key learning around how to ensure that strong, diverse candidates are developed (hint: you need to start early and build it from the ground up)Nine ways to foster diversity in your team or organisation - I’ve put those points in an easy to follow PDF for you which you can download at www.yourceomentor.com/episode11This episode is one of the grittier ones. I’m not proclaiming to be a diversity guru, and I definitely regret not being able to move faster on this critical issue when I was at CS Energy, however the learnings I had whilst I was trying to make changes were invaluable. I hope they enable you to reflect upon this topic with a different perspective!As always, I’d love to know what you thought of this episode, and if you have any extra tips or strategies on increasing workplace diversity, so please shoot me an email at 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 having challenges with their careers.👉 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 #10 // Leaders tend to talk glowingly about their own values, and every organisation has an advertised set of them. But how many actually behave in accordance with their values? In this week’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to get this right. In addition to talking through why corporate values are so often meaningless (with a few fun real world examples to prove my point) I’m going to cover:A really interesting perspective from Denise Lee Yohn who wrote a brilliant HBR article in early 2018 about the five words that should be banned from corporate values statementsSome of my rules of thumb for how we should view the corporate values statementA great example of a company who I think walks the walk in terms of their company values - they have built their values into their DNA and I’ve seen this first handHow leaders can lead through their personal values even if they are different to those values that the company sets (first step to getting this right: you’ve got to eat your own dog food!)The punchline of this episode is simply to pay attention to your values, and the leadership brand that you're creating for yourself. Company values have a place, but ultimately, it’s more important to develop and live by your own personal values - that’s what will turn you into a person that other people will follow willingly.You want people to aspire to be some of the things that you are already, in their own unique way.To help you with this, I put the key points into a PDF download for you ‘The 7 Ways to Set Values & Lead Through Them’ which you can get at www.yourceomentor.com/episode10.When you’ve had a chance to go through these points, I’d love to hear what your values are so send me an email at hello@yourceomentor.com or send me a message on LinkedIn.If you haven’t rated or subscribed to the podcast yet, please take 2 minutes to do it - it really helps us reach even more leaders who may be having challenges in their career!👉 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 #9 // This episode is going to be just a little different to our normal format! We've had a lot of really great feedback on the podcast and quite a few questions from listeners who either want us to do deep dives or look into a specific issue that they're having. I thought we'd turn this into a Q&A episode, where I can answer a couple of these questions for you.We love getting feedback from you, so if there's something that has come up for you this week or anything that you'd like some advice on, let us know and we'll record an episode on it for you.To help me with this Q&A segment, so that I wasn’t asking myself the questions, our producer and the other half of Your CEO Mentor, Em, joined me.In this episode, we discuss two questions:How do you maintain your mojo at the top? What are some tips and techniques for coping with an overwhelming workload, having multiple, often conflicting issues in a day, etc.? (this one is up first)How do I give feedback to my boss? (skip to 10 minutes in)We’ll cover a bunch of easy to implement tips and strategies that address the above questions and to make life even easier for you, we’ve put them in a PDF for you to download at www.yourceomentor.com/episode9! That way you can keep them on hand to reference later when you are stuck in a rut or need to have a tough talk with your boss.We’d love to know what you thought of the format of this episode, and if you’d like us to answer any of your questions, so please email us at hello@yourceomentor.com, and we’ll either reply with an answer to work it into one of the upcoming episodes!If you're enjoying the podcast, please rate it and subscribe, so that we can reach even more leaders!👉 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 #8 // There is a common misconception, which has been perpetuated by recent academic research, that happy workers are productive workers. This has changed things somewhat in terms of work perks over the past decade - think ping pong tables, 4 day work weeks and free Friday afternoon wine & cheese. In this episode, I examine the factors that drive workforce productivity, and how your role as a leader influences this. I talk through the following concepts:Sometimes happy workers are just happy workers, nothing more!Which comes first, happiness, or productivity?Why being a permissive leader builds people who are neither happy nor productiveWhy challenging, coaching, and confronting is the path to helping people to be both happy and productiveI’ll give you my four ways to make happy workers productive - these are gold so take notes!I hope that after listening to this, you understand that unhappy workers will never deliver for you, but many happy workers won't either. As a leader, you need to help your people to be successful in a way that grows their self-esteem and confidence, and that's the right kind of happy.If you're afraid of challenging, coaching, and confronting, you can never help your people to achieve this and your team will be less than it should be!As always, I’d love to chat with you one on one so feel free to add me on LinkedIn and send me a direct message, or email me 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 #7 // Many leaders fail to work at the right level. When you're promoted, there is a subconscious tendency to remain at the old level, trying to do the same things that you did before. But just because you were successful at that level, and as much as it might feel comfortable to stay there, this is a sure fire way to kill your career, and disempower the people around you. So in this episode I’m going to talk about why what got you to here won't get you to there. I’ll cover the following:A resource that I believe to be the definitive work on managing the transition through different layers in an organisation, and how to approach each transition, both for yourself and the people you're leading (you can win a free copy of this resource at www.yourceomentor.com/pipeline if you enter in October 2018)The fact that the higher up you go, the more you lose your original career identity - this can be really challenging and confronting for a lot of people, especially those whose self identity and worth is wrapped up in their professional expertiseI’ll talk about at what point you need to let go of your technical expertise - when do you need to become a leader instead of the expert in your fieldI’ll finish up by outlining a five-point plan for how you ensure your transition to the next level is successful (download this PDF here or on our website at www.yourceomentor.com/episode7 and keep it handy so that the next time you're promoted, you can go back and refer to it, helping you to navigate your way through that transition a little easier)Once you’ve listened to this episode you’ll recognise that working at the wrong level has an incredibly negative impact on a leader and their team. Their inability to work at the level they’re paid to leads to micromanagement, team demotivation, excessive hours and a dysfunctional culture. It’s near impossible to deliver brilliant results when you’re suffering from this.I know I said that last week’s episode, The Psychology of Feedback, was the most important episode you’ll listen to this year, but I think this one comes pretty close!It will also help you identify when leaders around you are having difficulty transitioning, and may give you some insights into their struggles. If there’s a leader who you know is struggling with working at the wrong level, please share this episode with them! They may have never heard the concept of getting stuck at level, and this could truly change the trajectory of their career.Now for those of you who want to get your hands on a copy of The Leadership Pipeline, head to www.yourceomentor.com/pipeline and give us your feedback - we are LOVING the thoughts, reflections and questions that come in each week, it’s helping us create content that you actually need.As always, I’d love to chat with you one on one so feel free to add me on LinkedIn and send me a direct message, or email me 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.

In this podcast, the importance of giving and receiving feedback as a leader is emphasized. It explores the common fears and concerns leaders have when engaging in difficult conversations. The speaker highlights the negative impact of avoiding confrontation and the need for competent leadership to build high-performing teams. It also emphasizes the significance of providing early feedback and consistent follow-up on performance issues.

Explore the different types of power leaders possess and how it affects their relationships with subordinates. Understand the impact of coercive, reward, and legitimate power on leadership. Learn about the concepts of legitimate, expert, and referent power, and the importance of using them wisely. Discover how to utilize reward power and develop referent power to motivate and inspire followers. Don't slip into a permissive culture and check out the free download 'Rules of Thumb for Exercising Power'.

Episode #4 // Now that you are getting a flavour for my style, and the type of things I focus on, this episode gives us an opportunity to step back and ask the questions about what leadership is, at its core, and what it would mean to be an exceptional leader. This is just a baseline, as we will have a range of other episodes, to deal with subjects like:The differences between Leadership and Management;The attributes of great leaders; andQuite a few episodes on traps for young playersIn today’s episode, we’re going to cover a few key concepts that I think every leader needs to know, regardless of how new or experienced a leader you are. I’ll talk through:How to pick a leader who will growWhy leadership is a privilege, and a brief story on how I learned not to be an arrogant leaderWhat the ultimate goal should be for a leader, and what happens when poor culture and weak leaders are allowed to thriveWhy creating the right environment for people is critical (not the touchy-feely stuff, the useful stuff)My six daily focus areas for leaders (there is some serious gold in here, so make sure you download the free PDF cheat sheet and refer to these as much as possible while you’re leading your people to greatness)This episode was created to give you a baseline for how to look at the leadership challenge. Save the worksheet on your desktop and refer to it when things get tough - it will help you look at the bigger picture and not get bogged down in the details.Once you’ve listened, I’d love to know what you thought of my perspective on leadership, so head over to my LinkedIn page and send me a direct message with your thoughts.If you’re loving the podcast, please subscribe and leave a rating, so that we can reach more leaders like you, and share it with another leader who you think would benefit from 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 #3 // If you want your organisation to deliver outstanding results, as a leader you must adopt a mantra of “excellence over perfection”. In this episode we uncover why perfectionism can be debilitating for an organisation, and how your people will respond to the goal of delivering excellence.Many of you would be familiar with the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule). However, no matter how much we believe it, driving a culture of excellence through your organisation can be difficult. In the context of increasingly high expectations from customers, boards, shareholders, investors, and executive teams, many leaders are overcome with a quest for perfect outcomes, preventing their people from producing the excellent work that moves an organisation forward.This is one of our favourite topics, because it can almost immediately lift the results that your organisation is able to achieve, even without changing anything else! Today we’ll cover:How does perfectionism work against you personally, and simultaneously demotivate your team?Why do some people intuitively choose perfection over excellence? Hint: Most of these are subconscious choices but make so much sense when you’re aware of themA lesson that Zoolander can teach us about perfectionismThe 5 benefits of developing a culture of excellence over perfection (these will get your head around how it will make your team work significantly better overall)A story from my own experience of being a perfectionist without even realising it, and the negative effect this had on my teamThe 6 key strategies that you can implement TODAY to engender a culture of excellence - these are available to download belowI hope this episode gives you some great tips on how to create a culture of excellence over perfection in your team, or at the very least, provoke some self reflection on the impact your pursuit of perfection has on your team’s output and attitude.I strongly encourage you to download the worksheet and pick a few of your favourite points to implement with your team immediately.I’d love to know how you go with this, so as always, if you’ve found this useful, head over to my LinkedIn page and send me a direct message.If you’re loving the podcast, please subscribe and leave a rating, so that we can reach more leaders like you!👉 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 #2 // If you want to be successful as a senior leader, you first have to build a team of successful individuals. A key part of this is recognising when someone is not going to be successful in their current role, and freeing them up to be successful in another organisation. From there, it’s all about culture and team dynamics.So many people say that they have built a 'high performing team' - but how many high performing teams have you actually seen, or been part of?In this episode we’ll cover:What is a high performing team, and how can you recognise if you have one?World class wisdom from champion athlete Benita WillisThe seven characteristics of high performing teams (you can download this checklist below and rate your own team)How to look at the individuals in your team and work out whether they should be on, or off the bus (a la Jim Collins!)Some of the excuses and rationalisations you may come up with to avoid dealing with individuals who are not up to scratch, that are preventing you from creating a high performing teamA cautionary tale about how tough it was to create a high performing team at CS EnergyIf this episode strikes a chord with you, download the high performing team checklist below, and rate your team honestly. This will help you see your biggest opportunities for improvement!I’d love to know how you go with the checklist, so if it’s useful, head over to my LinkedIn page and send me a direct message.If you’re loving the podcast, please subscribe and leave a rating, so that we can reach more leaders like you!👉 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.