How can leaders overcome those typical assumptions that not only distort what realities their employees have to deal with, but what their employees really need to be successful in their efforts? In this edition of Leadership Espresso Shot, I share 4 questions leaders can use to gain greater clarity in their leadership.The inspiration for this latest episode of my leadership podcast actually came to me while I was on summer vacation with my family. As an avid reader, I like to bring along books that give me a mental break from the usual material I read either to prep for interviews with my guests on my podcast, for developing content for new leadership keynotes or corporate training events, or even to get inspiration for a new piece for my leadership blog.It was while enjoying one of these summer vacation reads that got my mind thinking about how often leaders confuse how they view their leadership as being the same as the experience their employees have under their leadership, a phenomenon I referred to in my first book as “Leadership Vertigo”.So what's this have to do with the picture of the fish bowl above? Well, you're just going to have to listen to this episode to find out, along with learning about these 4 powerful questions that will help improve your ability to succeed at leadership.Now if you aren't familiar with my Leadership Espresso Shots, as the name infers, these are short episodes that are designed to provide listeners with a strong dose of leadership insight to help improve the way you lead. And trust me when I say I expect this one to give many of you a lot of food for thought – if not also some actionable steps you should be taking on a regular basis to improve your leadership awareness levels.Now if you enjoy this episode, I'd appreciate it if you could share it with others. You can also share a link to our podcast page where you can listen to every past episode as well as find links to subscribe on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3RzHsIQPtWYRKjBQsfKJ1ONoteworthy links:Learn more about my book “Leadership Vertigo”Recognizing The Perception Gaps In Your Leadership3 Critical Factors To Help Your Team Stay The Course Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's been a growing demand for leaders to be more 'human' in the way they lead. While this approach offers many benefits, it also can amplify our inner negativity that leaves us doubting our abilities. So how can leaders balance being more human with overcoming these negative elements that can drag us down? That's the focus of this episode of the Leadership Biz Cafe podcast with guest Beth Weissenberger.Beth is the co-founder and President of Corporate Division of Handel Group, an executive life coaching company. Her corporate clients have included Live Nation, Ticket Master, AMC, Core Club, Liberty, Ogilvy, and many more. Beth is also a regular contributor to Business Insider, Forbes, and the Huffington Post.Some of the things Beth and I discuss over the course of our conversation include:Why we should change looking at the word human as a verb instead of just a noun.The 3 distinct inner voices that weigh you down and make you doubt your abilities to succeed.What are “career hauntings” and the 3 steps we can take to resolve them in order to move forward.And as mentioned during our conversation, Beth has arranged a special offer for Leadership Biz Cafe listeners on the various online programs her company offers. Just go to https://www.inneru.coach/ and enter the code LEADERSHIPBIZCAFE75 to get discounts and package offers unique for listeners of my podcast (my thanks again to Beth for the kind offer!)Also, as I've written before, what's critical to our ability to continue to put these shows out for you to learn about how to improve your leadership skills is building our audience and getting the word out about our show. To that end, I'd appreciate it if you could share a link to this or any other episode of my podcast that you've enjoyed. Better still, why not share a link to our podcast page so people can not only check out the episodes they'd like to listen to, but find out where they can subscribe to my leadership podcast.https://open.spotify.com/episode/6wnETeLYu6Geo1BwLFXjIF?si=89b2f8ac82d44a04Noteworthy links:Why Leaders Should Empower Employees To Bring Their Dreams To WorkDo You Have The Courage To Change How You Lead?How To Put A Stop To Negative Self-Talk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Without question, the global pandemic has created unexpected hardships and uncertainty. It's also amplified issues many leaders have failed to adequately address. In this latest edition of Leadership Espresso Shot, I delve into one of these leadership blindspots and reveal why leaders can no longer afford to put it on the back burner.In my previous piece, I shared some strategies based on neuroscience on how leaders can boost their critical thinking in light of the chronic stress environment the current pandemic has created. Based on the overwhelming, positive response to this piece (who knew so many people would be inspired over taking walks to help them boost their critical thinking skills), I wanted to address another critical aspect of leadership that needs to be addressed during this global pandemic.Without question, the current global crisis has not only upended any sense of normalcy, but it has created some wide-ranging economic hardships that many expect will take years to recover from.And while the pandemic has shone a bright light on various discrepancies found in various societies with regards to issues like income disparity and systemic racism, it has also amplified various issues leaders need to address if they are to be successful in their efforts. For this Leadership Espresso Shot, I'd like to focus on one in particular issue in terms of what leaders need to be mindful of in terms of what they're communicating to their employees.Granted, there are many issues and at times fires that leaders everywhere are being expected to address and resolve. But this issue in particular is especially important if you want to make sure you are accessing the full efforts of everyone on your team in order to not just prevail in today's uncertain times, but create the necessary conditions to succeed and thrive when we finally make through to the other side and can begin anew.And as these editions of Leadership Espresso Shot are designed to be short, but powerful episodes of my leadership podcast, they are perfect for many of us who are working remotely and are looking for something to recharge and inspire you in between the various tasks on your To Do list. So I hope you'll check this latest episode out and if you enjoy it, please do share it with others in your network.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QBnoJppqc4EGtosZjJlj3?si=PgItp5k4SLOUlosmNLxKIQNoteworthy Links:3 Steps To Boost Your Critical Thinking Skills During The Pandemic3 Important Lessons On Crisis Management From The Pandemic Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Psychological safety in today's workplaces has been garnering a lot of attention as leaders and organizations look for ways to boost productivity and retention in their workplace. But is our understanding of this concept too narrow? Are we missing out on real opportunities to not just fuel engagement and collaboration, but innovation and untapped growth opportunities? That's some of the areas I'll be exploring with my guest Dr. Timothy Clark in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Tim is the founder and CEO of LeaderFactor, a consulting firm that specializes in organizational change, strategic agility, psychological safety, and emotional intelligence. In addition to attaining his PhD in social science from Oxford University, Tim is a two-time CEO and he has written five books, including his latest, “The Four Stages Of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation”, which is what Tim and I discuss in this episode.Over the course of our conversation, Tim and I discuss:What psychological safety really is and the far-reaching implications it has on an organization's capacity to grow, innovate, and remain competitive in today's global environment.What social movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter reveal about the ongoing gaps and failures found in organizations and communities in terms of creating psychologically safe environments that maximize talent access and development.How psychological safety improves employee learning and development by reducing fear which pushes employees into “a defensive mode of performance”.How leaders approach delegation – and with it, the level of accountability they engender – are tied to a stage of psychological safety that is not a right, but something that needs to be earned.How leaders can ensure they're creating that psychologically safe workplace where employees can be genuine change agents who fuel organizational innovation, instead of simply towing the status quo.If you enjoy this or past episodes of my leadership podcast, I'd appreciate your support for this show by sharing it with your colleagues and others who would also enjoy listening to my podcast. The easiest way to do this is to simply share with them our podcast page on my website. On our podcast page, you can listen to every episode of my show, as well as find links to subscribe to listen to my podcast on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0FrZREcYiKUwso4tu965Ff?si=983fa51ee36647a3Noteworthy Links:Buy Timothy Clark's Book "The Four Stages of Psychological Safety" on Amazon (or Amazon.ca for Canadian listeners).Learn more about Timothy's work - Leaderfactor.comCreating A Workplace Environment Where Employees MatterBuilding Emotional Competencies In Our LeadershipLeaders, It’s Time To Make Work Meaningful Again Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the key metrics to gauge your success as a leader is how well you're able to get your employees to work together as a team. That's why in this latest Leadership Espresso Shot edition of my podcast, Leadership Biz Cafe, I share 4 lessons on successful team-building inspired from an unlikely source.Now there's no question team-building is both an important and often-discussion topic in the leadership space. In fact, doing a google search for team-building will give you over five billion search entries – evidently, there's a lot of team-building going on out there.Granted, most or at least the top search queries are for various team-building exercises and a lot of times that's what we think of when we think of team-building. Of how to create camaraderie amongst your employees to ensure they'll all work together.While this is important, it's not the only thing leaders should be focusing on in terms of not only building their team, but sustaining their ability to continue to collaborate and work off of each other's efforts to help move the team's collective efforts closer to achieving its goal or objective.To that end, I wanted to share 4 important lessons on team-building that will not only ensure team cohesion, but longevity in terms of your collective success. And these lessons were inspired, as I wrote above, from an unlikely source. What is it? Well, to find that out, you'll just have to listen to the episode.And as I mention at the end of this episode, if you enjoyed it and gain some insights from it as I know many of you have from my previous episodes (in fact, a few of you have written to me about how you find yourself taking notes while listening to my podcast), I'd appreciate if you would share it with others – either through your social media channels or emailing it to a colleague or friend who'd also enjoy learning about these 4 lessons.You can also direct them to my podcast page where they can listen to all past episodes of my show as well as find links to subscribe to my show on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more so they can be sure to get my latest episodes when they're released.I hope you enjoy the episode and do let me know what you think. I always enjoy hearing from my audience.https://open.spotify.com/episode/5OSuIc7ZeslrIu1Q5IYvte?si=430da81bee704c14 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's increasingly complex workplaces, leaders need to be experts who can make the best decisions for their team. But how do you succeed at leadership over areas where your expertise is limited? That's what I'll be asking my guest, Wanda Wallace, in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Wanda is the managing partner of Leadership Forum, where she coaches leaders and works with teams to improve leadership capability. Prior to founding Leadership Forum she was the executive Vice President at Duke Corporate Education, Associate Dean of Executive Education at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, as well as assistant professor in marketing.Wanda has worked with American Express, Deutsche Bank, Ford Motor Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase, and has also written several academic publications.Wanda is also the author of several books, including her latest “You Can't Know It All – Leading In the Age of Deep Expertise”, which serves as the focus of this episode's conversation.Over the course of this episode, some of the things you'll learn include:What signs to look for to help you know when to rely on your own expertise and when you need to reach out and tap into the expertise of your employees.How leaders can redefine the value they create through their leadership when you need to lead a team of experts who know more than you.How to shift from doing things right to doing the right things (and knowing what those are).Why the idea of climbing the career ladder into leadership roles is actually misleading and can lead you to fail at leadership.Why it's critical for leaders to broaden their network beyond the people who rely on them for insights or answers.If you enjoy my conversation with Wanda, please do me a favour and share this episode with your colleagues and employees. You can also share with them our podcast page, where you can not only listen to every episode of my leadership podcast using the built-in player, but you will find links to subscribe to my show on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QbFq9DzOpL5WsBSNeUbCq?si=241da1906f474a40Noteworthy Links:Buy Wanda's book “You Can't Know It All” on Amazon (or Amazon.ca for Canadian readers).Read my article mentioned in the episode - Are You Supporting Your Organization’s New Leaders To Succeed?Learn more about Wanda's work - www.leadership-forum.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to leadership success, a key foundational stone is your ability to gain and foster trust within the organization. So why are we continuing to see low trust levels for those in leadership positions? What's missing in our understanding about fostering trust? That's one of the questions I ask my special guest, Stephen M.R. Covey in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Stephen is the cofounder of CoveyLink and the FranklinCovey Speed of Trust Practice, as well as being the former President and CEO of the Covey Leadership Center. Regarded as a global authority on trust, leadership and culture, Stephen has worked with leaders to help them understand what it takes to nurture, extend, and restore trust throughout their organization. Stephen is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Speed of Trust – The One Thing That Changes Everything”, which serves as the focus of my conversation with Stephen in this episode.Over the course of this episode, Stephen and I discuss:What's behind the current low levels of trust in today's leadership and what leaders can do about it.The four cores of credibility and how this impacts our ability to not only extend trust to others, but to extend trust to ourselves as well.How leaders can use results to build credibility in their leadership and with it, foster greater trust amongst their employees and stakeholders.The kind of transparency leaders need to demonstrate to build relationships built on trust.Why it's vital that leaders extend trust in their organization to avoid the growing divisiveness and fragmentation we see all around us.I can honestly tell you this is an episode that's worth listening to as Stephen offers a masterclass here on understanding the true nature of trust and how leaders can tap into this critical skill to strengthen their leadership and ability of their organization to succeed and thrive.And if you enjoy this episode, I'd appreciate it if you could share it with your colleagues and employees to help get the word out about our show so I can continue to get such thought-provoking guests as Stephen to help us all learn how to improve the way we lead. A great way to do this is just to direct people to the show's podcast page where they can find links to subscribe to my show, as well use the embedded player to listen to all episodes of this podcast to date.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ExxC1ANTtJTrLmG06DdRH?si=43ca078701c04015Notable links:Buy Stephen's book “The Speed of Trust” on Amazon (and Amazon.ca for Canadian listeners)Learn more about Stephen's work: www.speedoftrust.comWhat Happened To Trust And Integrity In Today’s Organizations?What’s The Truth About Your Leadership? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to managing setbacks, the typical approach focuses on discovering what went wrong to prevent a similar issue from arising. But what we often overlook is the emotional context of managing setbacks, something I explore through a personal example in this latest edition of Leadership Espresso Shot on my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Now there's no question many of us are grappling with how to manage and lead in this unprecedented time of uncertainty. It's certainly unprecedented in how practically every industry and type of work is grappling with some form of setback and conditions that make it difficult to make concrete plans for how to get back on track.It's not surprising then why there's growing concern and wary, not just over when the pandemic will end, but how the idea of us all merely being on pause is more wishful thinking than a realistic understanding of the long-term impact and fallout from this global health crisis, but economically and socially.That's why as leaders, it's important that we not only manage expectations – and provide clarity on what people can and should expect – but that we're also paying attention to the emotional context we're creating around those expectations.In this latest edition of my ongoing Leadership Espresso Shot series, I share a personal story of something that happened to my wife and I many years ago and what it reveals about the nature of how we perceive people and events and the role our emotional state plays in shaping those understandings and expectations.In light of the numerous setbacks many of us are grappling with right now, I think this story and its message is quite timely and will leave you with much food for thought. And if you enjoy it, please do us a favour and help support this show by sharing it with your colleagues and employees.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0pOyPgJJKDKtWxWtMgXkAg?si=f93c3b286bfb405b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many of us recognize the importance of storytelling in leadership to improve the way we communicate. But the truth is there's more than one story that a leader should be able to tell at a moment's notice in order to inspire, inform and provide direction to those they lead. So what are those different story types? That's what I'll explore with my guest, Paul Smith, in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Paul is one of the world’s leading experts in business storytelling. A former consultant at Accenture and former executive at Proctor & Gamble, Paul has since done research into storytelling where he's documented over 2,000 individual stories through which he's identified the components of effective storytelling. Paul's work has been featured in Time, Inc Magazine, Forbes, and Fast Company to name a few. He's also the author of 4 books, including “The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell”, which is the focus of my conversation with Paul in this episode.Over the course of this episode, Paul and I discuss:What are the different types of stories that leaders should have in their leadership toolkit.What kind of story leaders should use to clarify expectations.How to create a story around our organization's values that reinforces what leaders want to see and be seen for.How to craft a story that both attracts and retains employees in your organization.As I mentioned in this episode, if you've been enjoying my podcast, I'd appreciate it if you could support the show by sharing episodes with your colleagues and employees. The easiest way to do that is to share a link to our podcast page here on my website where you can listen to all episodes of the show, as well as get links to subscribe to listen to the show on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more.In the meantime, check out this episode and enjoy!https://open.spotify.com/episode/6htL1y2KSBqx9yL6HuAryG?si=dd6141a80cb04409Noteworthy Links:Buy Paul's book “The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell” on Amazon (or Amazon.ca).Check out “How To Use The Power Of Storytelling In Your Leadership In 3 Simple Steps”.Check out “3 Steps To Create An Organizational Vision That Energizes Employees”.Learn more about Paul's work at leadwithastory.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This pandemic has certainly created an unprecedented global crisis, leading to a wide range of responses and actions. In this special episode of my leadership podcast, I look at how one leader has been successfully managing this crisis and what 3 important lessons on crisis management we can learn from their example.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GaKc47iJz3xG6gORZ916W?si=ee12b4b82c96499c Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.