Curious Leadership with Dominic Monkhouse

If you’re the owner of your business and you’re keen to improve productivity, or you want your business to run 200X better when you’re not there, why not get your employees to step up, not step back, from the challenge of running the business as efficiently as you do. Don’t miss Andrew Holm and Julian Wilson of Matt Black Systems on this week’s episode. Some of the challenges that they’ve solved are probably some of the challenges that your business is facing today. Andrew and Julian turned their business around by whittling the organisation down from 30 people to five over two years and dissolving the former hierarchical business model and creating a network of one person businesses. The result? Two employees now produce the same turnover each year as 30 people used to do. They spent £250m trying to improve productivity by implementing lean and then agile processes, but every time the consultants left, the business reverted back to how it operated before the change.So they decided to change some stupid rules, triggering an awakening in their employees, encouraging their employees to think for themselves:“On a roundabout, every car has a controlling mind in it. In a traffic light, there's only one controlling mind.”This episode is slightly longer than normal, but it’s worth it. Julian and Andrew explain, in detail, precisely the experiments they undertook to create their current business model. This is an absolutely fantastic conversation. On today’s podcast:Lean and agile are outcomes, not processesNatural human behaviour at workThe invisible managerTraffic lights vs roundaboutsCreating a central marketLinks:Book - 500%: How Two Pioneers Transformed Productivitywww.fractalwork.com

If there's a problem in your organisation, but you can’t put your finger on what it is, have you considered it might be a trust issue?Today’s guest studied trust as an undergraduate and 23 years later, David Horsager, CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, has dedicated his career to researching trust, looking at the data, and seeing how trust is built with individuals, in companies, in countries, with brands. Every year he publishes an annual trust survey in the US and this year he’s got a new book coming out called Trusted Leader, which provides a framework for building trust so that you and your organisation can perform at your best.In today’s episode, David talks about what the 8 pillars of trust are and how his publisher wanted him to make it a more catchy number, but how he wouldn’t be swayed to change them, because that’s what the research revealed - the data says there are 8 things that underpin how we trust each other. And, says David, trust is usually where the issue lies. When companies say they have a sales problem, they really have a trust problem - there's something about the character or the clarity of their message that's not getting through to clients. When a leader can't bring his team with them. It's a trust issue, etc. As well as delving into the 8 pillars, David also shares some case studies, some observations and some hints and tips along the way. This is a fantastic conversation. And we’re sure you’ll enjoy it as much as we did. Below, listeners will find links to some assets that David has made available to fans of this podcast. On today’s podcast:The real issue in an organisationResearching trustThe impact of trust on salesThe 8 pillars in Trusted LeaderHow to bring about change in your organisationLinks:www.trustedleaderbook.com/meltingpotBook - Trusted Leader

If you’re tired of being overworked and underpaid, If you lack the ideal clients, or you don’t know how to find, attract and close clients, If you keep experiencing project creep,If you’re an expert in what you do, but you’re constantly overlooked and having to explain the value of what you do,Then you need to listen to Pia Silva on this week’s episode of The Melting Pot. Pia is a partner and brand strategist at Worstofall Design where they build entire brands in 1-3 day intensives. But these days she is just as focused on helping other small branding and marketing companies build profitable, lifestyle businesses using her No-BS model. She’s a TEDx speaker, a Forbes contributor, author of Badass Your Brand and host of the podcast Show Your Business Who’s Boss. And on today’s episode, she talks about how she went from being $40,000 in debt, working 100 hours a week for clients she didn’t want to work for, delivering work she wasn’t happy with, to 12 months later, making $500k, being profitable and working with a client she wants to work with. Pia does the work she wants, her way, and she charges proper money for it. This is a fascinating story about the benefits of niching, adopting a no-BS approach and creating authority to drive business in. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Pia as much as we did.On today’s podcast:How she built her own brandFrom debt to success with Worstofall DesignNiche downDefinition of badass brandingCreate authority building contentCharge proper pricesLinks:TedX talk - When You Bank True Confidence, Anything Is PossiblePodcast - Show Your Business Who's BossWorstofall DesignBook:Badass Your Brand

Do we really need another book on leadership? Well, when it’s been written by two global heavy hitters - Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer, yes we do.Adam was a 30 year journalist and editor at the New York Times where he did a weekly column called From The Corner Office, where he chatted to CEOs about the transferable skills that they've learned, not so much about their industry or their business, but about what lessons life had taught them that were transferable and that they could share. Kevin is the former CEO of Amgen, the world's largest biotech company. He was an extremely successful CEO who went on to teach strategy at Harvard Business School. What these guys have done isn’t write just another book on leadership, no, what, what they’ve done is put together a book - The CEO Test, which is, if you want to be the best as a leader, top of your game, not the table stakes, then these are the seven hardest things that the best leaders in the world managed to get good at. Can you develop a simple strategy? Easy to say hard to do. Can you build a culture? Can you build teams that are true teams, not just a collection of individuals. Can you lead transformation? Can you learn to listen? Can you handle a crisis? And can you master the inner game of leadership? This is a really great conversation about what Kevin and Adam think are the hardest of these tests. We also discuss which are their own personal kryptonite, and then we get some fantastic book recommendations. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.On today’s podcast:Why another book on leadership?From 150 - 7 testsBuilding a diverse teamCreating the culture you want The simplification of strategyThe hardest testLinks:The CEO Test

If your company is an early stage or scaling startup looking for support to help you hire and attract the best talent when you don’t have a brand. If you need help building a highly engaged, productive, high performing team, (and that’s not the destination, it's a journey). Or if you’re wondering how to create another layer of management underneath the founders and management teams, then don’t miss this insightful episode with Anouk Agussol, founder and CEO of Unleashed. “So my name is Anouk Agussol. I'm the founder and CEO of a company called Unleashed. And we work with early-stage and scaling startups on all things people and culture to make sure that their scaling journeys are successful, speedy and sustainable.”Unleashed started life as a lifestyle business for Anouk to run from home a couple of days a week. Today, Unleashed is a team of 10 and they’ve helped 90 high growth companies over the last few years solve their challenges. To find out how Unleashed work and how they can help you and your team, download and listen to this latest episode of The Melting Pot. On today’s podcast:How Unleashed help companies growThe unexpected problems startups faceCommunication can be a core problemHow to hire for greatScaling culture remotelyLearning FridaysLinks:https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoukagussolhttps://twitter.com/oz_anoukhttps://unleashed.company

Does your team need training and coaching to help people find a fit, alignment, productivity and clarity to exceed their potential? Do you feel like you were made for more? Are you ready to take your team’s communication up another gear?Then you might need Bert Robinson, President at Inpowering People.“I do coaching and consulting with my company Inpowering People. I'm in Firestone, Colorado, out in the Rocky Mountains, and have been doing this for over 12 years now. And basically, when I'm at my best, I inspire and align people to be their creative best.”Twelve years ago, Bert had an epiphany relating to the notion of positive psychology - if you can harness the talents and the job you're in, and those two things come together. You’ll never work another day in your life.Bert and his team help people and businesses discover their untapped talents and potential, building them into performance that achieves tremendous success professionally and personally. In this genuinely insightful episode, Bert talks about CliftonStrengths, how to help an executive team develop the language to have difficult conversations and the positive elements of strengths. We rattled on for a bit, so the episode is a bit longer than usual, but we thoroughly enjoyed the conversation; we hope you will too. On today’s podcast:The Inpowering People toolsetFinding your strengths with CliftonStrengthsUnderstanding your top five talent themesWe all think differentlyLearning to ask for helpInpowerULinks:Listeners discount

Happiness vs workNic Marks grew Friday Pulse from a career-long passion for work-life happiness. He draws from Daniel Kahneman's 2004 Day Reconstruction Methodology, in which people were asked to divide their day up into activities they did and then rate each in terms of how happy they felt. The data shows that the time spent on the activity is almost exactly opposed to the amount of happiness gained from it. Nic says, "I found this kind of desperately sad for the human condition. You know, we spend a lot of time at work, and we find it the least enjoyable activity."Feelings are dataTherapists often look at feelings as data and information we can use in decision making. Nic discusses Antonio Damasio's understanding of feelings as a way of receiving signals from our environment. And how feelings help motivate us and adjust to our environments. These elements can help measure happiness "in every data set there is. It's called an Eigenvalue, but basically it's the structure of the data. So in the middle there's a big Good/Bad signal". Friday Pulse Friday Pulse grew from Nic's passion for finding the Good/Bad signal for happiness and translating it into something usable. "We can look at happiness as our Good/Bad signal, and we can put numbers on that... we can say give me a 1 for this, give me a 5 for this, and suddenly we've translated a feeling into data". Friday Pulse collected data on happiness across all client teams in the run-up to 2020, and through the first lockdown. This allowed clients to monitor their happiness each week. Positive and negative emotions It is important to point out the different forms of happiness. Emotions have multiple meanings and evolutionary formations - anger to deal with threats and sadness to deal with loss. So in assessing happiness at work, you also have to understand what type of happiness, and what forms of happiness you want to promote. For example, you want your team to feel curiosity as a form of happiness that is really intellectually engaged. These types of emotion are often harder to measure quantitatively and, as a result, require qualitative data and looking for trends against more obvious measures like staff retention and success. Success = happiness We all want to build happier, more successful teams to scale our companies faster, and Nic's data shows that you can't really maintain one without the other. "If you're building an organisation, don't think that team building and happiness is a nice to have, it's essential". Of course, happy unproductive teams may exist - but as you would expect they will quickly collapse and some teams may be successful even though they are unhappy, and members are likely to leave. "There is a correlation coefficient.  It's true that success does lead to more positive feelings...but the other way round it was twice as strong." To grow though the pandemic at a continued speed, teams will need positive energy for a creative, successful environment. As "in a world that demands more and more innovation from us all the time, mood is massively important." Recommended ReadingThinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel KahnemanThe Strange Order of Things- Antonio Damasio Drive- Daniel Pink You can also find the video of this talk here on our youtube 

So many of us are waking up to the fact we no longer have to live where we work. COVID has shown us that we can be just as productive, if not more so, WFH. And Paul Bennett, co-founder and CEO of PerchPeek, the AI-powered relocation agent, is cashing in on this realisation. Prior to COVID, Paul and his co-founders set about trying to solve the problem of relocation, having suffered through the process themselves. They initially described their startup as the ‘Tinder for rental’, before pivoting the business in 2020, in response to the specific pain points many people experience when relocating.“People tend to underestimate how many moving parts are involved in a relocation process from deciding the area, to finding your home, to shipping your stuff, to getting your transport, to settling in when you arrive, setting up your utility bills, council tax, bank account, finding friends, finding community.”And so in this post-COVID, hybrid, closed offices, new normal world, if you’re considering relocation, perhaps you might want to draw on Paul and his colleagues’ expertise to get you to your dream location, and maybe without having to change jobs. “I think what people love, and you'll see this in our reviews, is people just love having one place to coordinate and be guided by the relocation experts through all of those different verticals of the relocation.”This is a fantastic conversation. We talk about everything from what's going to happen in the world of employee engagement, to office space and the implications of that. As well as some of the lessons that they've learned in their own business, and how and why they do unlimited holiday and various other perks. We really enjoyed this conversation with Paul, we hope you will too.On today’s podcast:The genesis of PerchPeekPivoting the businessRelocating via PerchPeekThe issues of remote workingManaging unlimited holiday

How is it possible that somebody who (in his own words) literally couldn’t lead a silent prayer, become a Hall of Fame speaker and a speech coach to Verne Harnish, author of Scaling Up and Rockefeller Habits?In today’s episode we speak with Joel Weldon about how and why he became Verne’s speaking coach, because Verne has been public speaking for decades, so why would he now need someone to help him with speaking publicly? But that’s a story he saves until the end of the podcast. Plus, the episode isn’t about Verne, it’s about Joel, a man who brings life to the phrase: find a job you love and never work another day in your life.Joel is 80 and still working full time. He shares some of his backstory: how he thought he would never be the kid that would go on to speak in public. He didn't go to college, he didn't think he was smart enough. He was a former construction worker who was too shy to speak in public and too shy to sell, until he had his transformational awakening.This is a really fantastic conversation, much of which you can put to work today or tomorrow or whenever you listen to this podcast. There are so many takeaways that can change your business in big and small ways. As Joel so succinctly said: “Let me give you 22 words. If you had to take everything that I've learned about communicating, speaking, and put it in one sentence, here it is - speak to your audience about what they need, in an organised way they can follow and get yourself out of the way.”For more gems like this, download and listen to this week’s episode. On today’s podcast:How Joel got into public speakingSpeaking is a learned skillThe ‘you’ factorHow Joel tweaked Verne HarnishThe importance of CTAKnow your audience Love Joel's work?  He has been kind enough to offer subscribers a fantastic 50% discount on his Ultimate Speaking System! To take advantage of this brilliant offer, subscribe to The Melting Pot and get the discount code here on our website.  Links:Toastmasters International

If you’re looking for a virtual, hybrid and in-person meetings software that maximises audience engagement, retention and monetisation, then don’t miss this latest episode of The Melting Pot, with Mike Piddock, founder and CEO of Glisser, the award-winning audience engagement software.Just over a year ago, Mike’s original platform was all about how to drive interactivity in a physical meeting, but like a lot of companies, with physical meetings reducing to zero, he’s had to pivot. Now Glisser is a hybrid events platform. But how do you run an amazing virtual event? How do you make a virtual event as good as it can be? And in a world where hybrid or blended is the future of events, how can you take in-person visitors to an event and blend them seamlessly with people who are coming in virtually? “I think the most common driver bringing prospective clients to us is that they want to go beyond the Zoom meeting, or they want to do more than just another team session.”So if you’re a marketeer, or the CEO, thinking that you won’t ever get to run corporate events again, or you're bored with Zoom meetings, or you want to spice up your internal training by turning it into amazing, interactive, responsive virtual training for your organisation, don’t miss this great conversation with Mike. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Glisser - a virtual and hybrid events platformThe four Rs of event trainingThe hybrid training scenarioMental health and remote workingDifference between live event and contentThe premier league football analogy