Leadership Biz Cafe with Tanveer Naseer

When I started my leadership podcast almost 10 years ago, I had a very simple goal - I wanted to create a platform where I could get the chance to talk with some very smart and really cool people. That’s why the first guest I had on the “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast was Guy Kawasaki. But I have to admit all these years later, I never thought that the journey I started with this podcast would open the door for me to have a one-on-one conversation with Tom Peters. Without question, Tom is one of the world’s most pre-eminent leadership thinkers, if not also a leadership rebel in his decades-long pursuit to educate and persuade leaders everywhere that at its heart, leadership is all about people under your care and doing right by them. This is a must-listen episode if you want to better understand not only what it takes to lead right now, but in response to the inevitable changes that will completely transform the way we work going forward. And as an extra bonus, you’ll even hear Tom talk about something he hasn’t spoken of before my conversation with him for this podcast (I bet that’s piqued your curiosity!) And to give you a taste of what you’ll find in this episode, here’s some of my favourite Tom Peters gems he shared over the course of our conversation: “You don’t know more than two percent of the person you’re talking about to. And besides they are different on Tuesday than they were on Monday. And it’ll be different again on Wednesday.”“The goal during the pandemic is family and community first, productivity third. And of course, which is true of all the things we’re talking about, if that’s the way I treat you, I’m going to have more productivity coming from you than I would under any other circumstances.”“There are no tombstones with net worth on them. That is not the measure.”“Be kind. Be caring. Be patient. Be forgiving. Be positive. Be present. Walk in the other person’s shoes.”“They are a million strokes of luck along the way, and you do your best and try to be helpful.” When Tom’s assistant reached out to me saying that Tom was interested in appearing on my podcast, I couldn’t believe it. As you listen to this episode, you will no doubt clearly hear the excitement and joy I had of being able to talk about leadership with Tom. So I hope you’ll take the time to check out this episode and please do share me with me your favourite insights you learned from my conversation with Tom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During a recent conversation with a group of executives about the growing importance of empathy and leadership, a few leaders brought up the issue of addressing failure and the importance of not only “failing fast”, but making sure efforts are made to understand what can be learned from this setback. As we didn’t delve much further into this subject, it got me thinking that this would be a great topic to bring up in my Leadership Espresso Shot series.Many leaders and organizations openly speak of embracing the idea of “failing fast”, of accepting failure as part of the journey and using that understanding to help get past it and keep going.Unfortunately, as many of us know first hand, not all failures are created equal. So while some failures are easy for us to get over, others can have a palpable impact, not just in terms of our organization’s progress and momentum, but also on our emotional state.That’s why in this edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, I share a series of three questions that will help you learn to value failure, questions you should ask yourself not just when those moments of failure occur, but especially in those moments when things are going right.That way you’ll be adequately prepared to respond and deal with that inevitable failure we’ll all experience on that journey to achieving our goals.https://open.spotify.com/episode/2qMOwlv4glYb9bLxqjGz79 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the many years I’ve been doing this leadership podcast, one of the common themes that comes up in any given episode is the fact that leadership is not about you; it’s about the people you lead. That’s why I’m delighted to speak with my friend (and fellow Canadian) Dan Pontefract about why the most successful leaders are those who care on this episode of "Leadership Biz Cafe".Dan is the founder and CEO of The Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria Gustavson School of Business. Prior to this, Dan was the Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company. Dan is and the best selling author of four books, including this latest "LEAD. CARE. WIN." which is what Dan and I discuss in this episode.Over the course of our discussion, some of the topics Dan and I talk about include:Why leaders need to be relatable and how the way we view our mistakes is directly connected to it.How so many leaders are poor at managing their time and the critical activity they need to schedule in their work flow.How leaders can be more present in order to better connect with their employees.Why leaders need to make a commitment to balance if they are to both attract and retain the best talent to their teams and organization.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3b4FQb96z48dsnCzUiwTV0Noteworthy links:Buy Dan Pontefract’s book “Lead. Care. Win.” on Amazon*Learn more about Dan’s work - danpontefract.com*Sponsored link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

These days there’s a lot of discussion around what work will look like in a post-pandemic world. Most of that conversation tends to focus on whether employees will return to the office, continue to work remotely, or opt for a hybrid mix of the two. But in this latest installment of my Leadership Espresso Shot series on my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”, I make the case that what this past year has revealed is not just the necessity of flexibility in how we approach work, but the critical need to connect what we do to what matters to your employees.As I mention in this episode, I was inspired to talk about this topic after serving as the moderator for a virtual roundtable discussion with VPs and senior executives from the FinTech, multimedia, construction, and retail sectors on how they’ve navigated the past year and where their focus will be this year and beyond.Among the many things these senior leaders agreed on was that the days of everyone working in the office during regular office hours are now over and going forward they need to get comfortable leading a workforce that works both in the office and remotely. And key to that new leadership reality was being more attuned to the needs of their employees and making sure they’re truly present to help them adjust to this new reality to how their organization will operate.And so, in this 23rd edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, I make the case for why purpose more than where and when employees work is what will be the critical factor to whether your organization succeeds this year and in the years to come.https://open.spotify.com/episode/54IrILT5EFTUmUbeQBSx5h Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the past few years, there’s been a growing discussion around artificial intelligence (A.I.) and the potential risks that come with it. Just reading comments from Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and other high profile technology leaders about the potential dangers of AI would certainly seem to be reason to give pause on the continued development of this new technology. And yet, early developments in this realm would seem to demonstrate some genuine game-changers that can actually improve both the way we work and live our lives. So given both the public unease and the positive gains from these early advancements, how should leaders be viewing this technological field and what might its impact be on the way they lead? That’s part of the focus of my conversation with A.I. expert Neil Sahota in this episode of my podcast "Leadership Biz Cafe". Neil serves as the United Nations Artificial Intelligence subject matter expert. He's an IBM Master Inventor, and the Chief Innovation Officer at the Irvine School of Law at the University of California. Neil is also the author of the book “Own The AI Revolution, Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy To Disrupt Your Competition”. Although a big sci-fi fan, I’m not too familiar with A.I., so I really appreciated this conversation with Neil over which we touched on the following topics: What’s behind our ambivalence and fear about A.I. and the role it might play in our workplaces and society at large.How do you program computers to learn so we can ensure we’re getting the outcomes we need, as opposed to some of the high-profile PR disasters we’ve seen with some A.I. initiatives.How A.I. can disrupt the way we work for the better and how can leaders prepare for this transformation.The early steps leaders can take to bring A.I. into their workplace to benefit both their employees and their organization. Whether A.I. is on your radar or not, what we learned in 2020 is that disruption is going to come whether you’re ready for it or not. And after talking with Neil, it’s become clear that A.I. will indeed be that next big wave of disruption that will soon hit your organization’s shores. Noteworthy links: Buy Neil’s book “Own The A.I. Revolution” on AmazonLearn more about Neil’s work in the A.I. field - neilsahota.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The success in any change initiative is tied to how well employees are able to learn and adapt. But how can leaders encourage a learning mindset out of these pursuits? In this edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, I share three simple measures leaders can employ to promote a continuous learning mindset within their workforce.As I mentioned in this episode of my leadership podcast, the idea behind this episode was inspired by conversations I had with attendees after some of the virtual leadership keynotes I’ve given over the past few months to audiences across Europe and North America. Although these leaders had managed to help their employees adapt and pivot to various external challenges of the past 12 months, the concern was how to not only sustain this agile mindset, but build on their hard-won successes.In one of my talks I do share insights on how leaders can promote a continuous learning environment in their organization. And so, I wanted to explore one of the ideas I share in this keynote, specifically 3 simple measures any leader can take that will help to encourage a continuous learning mindset within their team and organization.As a reminder, these Leadership Espresso Shot episodes are designed to be these short, ‘bite-sized’ episodes which offer an insightful dose of leadership insight or inspiration to improve the way you lead.We’re now heading into our third year of producing these episodes and it’s been gratifying to see how in the last two years, some of these episodes not only end up making it into the top most listened episodes of my podcast in 2019 and 2020, but how it’s also been a favourite for many people who’ve attended some of my leadership keynotes over the past 12 months.So I hope you’ll check this out and as I point out at the end of the episode, if you’d like to contact me about speaking about this topic, fill out the contact form on my website and let’s talk.https://open.spotify.com/episode/72yyR8AILBcCmRKpFqqpb4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s no question that our mindset plays a critical role in how we relate to our world and those around us. But how can leaders make sure their mindset is helps bring out the best in others and not impede organizational growth and success? That’s the topic I’ll be exploring with my guest, Dr. Ryan Gottfredson, in this episode of the “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast.Ryan is a mental success coach, leadership development consultant and researcher. Ryan is also a leadership professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton. He’s also the author of “Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership”*.Over the course of this episode, Ryan and I cover a number of areas around mindset and leadership, including:How a simple shift in our mindset can lead to positive, tangible change.The four specific mindsets you need to develop to improve your ability to lead and succeed.How leaders can develop and strengthen a growth mindset that’s so critical to fostering innovation and agility.What causes some leaders to inadvertently develop a closed mindset and what they can do to become more open-minded in the way they lead.Now if you enjoyed this or any other episode of my leadership podcast, I’d appreciate it if you could rate and review it on your favourite platform to listen to podcasts. And if you’d like to share this or other episodes of my podcast with your colleagues or employees, just share a link to our podcast page where they can listen to episodes, find links to subscribe to our show on some of the top podcast platforms, as well as show notes like this one for past episodes.https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lEF5M86IvW5EwJLypVjm6Noteworthy links:Buy Ryan’s book “Success Mindsets” on Amazon*.Take Ryan’s personal mindset assessment here.*Affiliate link that’s used to support this podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever thought about how how you’re communicating progress in your organization? In this latest edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series for my leadership podcast, I share findings from a fascinating study that show this can have a powerful impact on sustaining motivation over the long term.With the start of a new year, there’s naturally a lot of focus on setting goals, developing plans, and executing strategies that will help your organization to succeed over the next 12 months.Now most of us are familiar with that reality of how when we take on learning something new, or making a change to our lifestyle like eating better or exercising more, at the start we tend to do very well at keeping up with this new effort.Unfortunately, there comes a moment where that early motivation we had to commit to this change or to learning this new skill starts to wane and we find ourselves reverting back to the old and familiar.Of course, this behavioural pendulum is not limited to changes we make in our personal lives as the same thing happens when the senior leadership proposes changes that we might at first be excited about and want to dedicate our best efforts to, but then over time, our interest deflates and progress slowly comes to a standstill. And if you encounter this pattern enough times in your workplace, it’s not surprising to find a lot of resistance to any change initiative surface as people have learned not to buy into it as it’ll inevitably end up in that pile of good intentions that amounted to little change.So how do we stop or even avoid this cycle? Well, there’s a fascinating study that looks at what the relationship between progress and motivation and to find out what it says and what we can learn from it in terms of how we lead, just hit the play button below and listen to this latest episode of my podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”, and I’ll share all the details.https://open.spotify.com/episode/4a2Q5aRUsCSftJkDNCDPMU Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the perks of hosting my leadership podcast is I get to speak with some fascinating and thought-provoking people whose insights help us to learn and grow. So for my last episode for 2020, I wanted to share some of my favourite moments from this past year where my guests shared insights that are both timely to what we’re dealing with right now, and timeless for how it will help us in 2021 and beyond.Now to be clear, this isn’t some kind of Top 10 list of mine, given that I’ll be publishing in mid-January 2021 a list of the most popular episodes from 2020 based on listening/download metrics.Instead, these are moments from conversations I’ve had with some of my guests that in some cases were prescient in addressing the challenges we’re now dealing with, even though at the time of our recording we weren't in the midst of a global pandemic.In other cases, my guests offered insights that can help us to not only get through what we’re facing today and for the next few months in 2021, but even beyond the pandemic when we finally beat this virus once and for all.What I especially like is how despite their focus being on different aspects of leadership, organizational culture, and business strategy, there is a common thread running through each of them that helps to paint a bigger picture of what leaders need to do to not simply get through the challenges of this pandemic, but what they’ll need to prepare for after this pandemic is over if they are to bring out the best in those they lead.It’s my first time putting such an episode together and I do hope to make it an annual tradition for my leadership podcast. So I hope you’ll enjoy this retrospective look at some of my favourite guest moments in 2020, and I look forward to sharing with you the fantastic line up of guests we have in place for 2021.https://open.spotify.com/episode/2kv69PD431Lif9L7oPU0WMNoteworthy links:How Will You Remember 2020?3 Lessons On How Promoting Sense Of Belonging Can Drive Change Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few words inspire optimism and hope for the future like "opportunity". But as I reveal in this latest installment of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, the truth is our relationship with opportunity is much more complicated and worthy of more reflection and review.Granted, in light of the pandemic, pondering our relationship with opportunity might seem like something that should be examined at a later date, when the situation is calmer or at least more certain. But that’s why in this episode I share quotes from such innovative thinkers and doers as Thomas Edison and Sir Richard Branson to remind us that conditions are always ripe for finding opportunities and that the real challenge is how we understand and evaluate them.Now I don’t want to write anything more as I don’t want to give too much away. But given how my Leadership Espresso Shot series on my leadership podcast is designed to offer these condensed, but thought-provoking insights into how to improve your leadership craft, I can tell you it’s worth taking 10 minutes out of your day and give this episode a listen.https://open.spotify.com/episode/73Rqb4R8ekhoggVAAUZcWW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.