Leadership is a Journey and NOT a Destination | Episode 225

Recently I saw an add that someone said that they would turn you from a follower to a leader in 90 days or less! I was absolutely floored, irate, and embarrassed as a coach! This ideology means that leadership is a destination. That it has a start and end point. Which, yes I will agree that at some point you started leading and at some point you’ll stop leading, but that was not the meaning of this message. Rather that within a specific period of time you can become a leader and say that’s all folks! I’ve made it so I can stop trying now. THIS IS WRONG!
Through this episode, I get a little ranty, a bit fired up. It’s likely different than anything you’ve heard from me to date. But I am passionate to say that leadership is a journey. We must continue to develop, evolve, learn and grow as leaders to remain effective. That is why, leadership is a journey and not a destination. Enjoy!
Developing a Social Purpose in Your Organization | Carolyn Butler-Madden | Episode 224

Social purpose in business has become increasingly important for employee engagement and customer retention, yet many leaders still struggle to understand what it means for their business. So, how can defining your purpose help you grow a profitable business that people love? Sharing inspiration from organizations such as Intrepid Travel, Patagonia, Unilever and PayPal, Butler-Madden explores the intrinsic connection between the two things that drive successful purpose-led businesses: Love (of people, planet and humanity – the raw emotion behind purpose) and Money (profit and commercial success). When purpose drives profit, it offers the ability to be ambitious in the change you seek to create over the long term. Meanwhile you build a meaningful business for everyone involved; you attract invested employees, customers, and investors; and you build trust, the currency of a valued business.
Carolyn Butler-Madden is inspired by a future where business is a force for good and brands drive profit through purpose. Her mission is to make social purpose a vital part of business in Australia and beyond. She does this through speaking, writing and consulting, and advising small, medium and large organizations. Her first book, Path To Purpose, was Australia’s first on cause marketing. Carolyn’s 30-year international marketing career includes 18 years as an agency owner, working with some of the world’s best brands.
Creating a Powerful Strategy in Uncertain Times | Rosie Yeo | Episode 223

Good leaders know that strategy is vital when it comes to organizational longevity, but it’s not always easy to come up with fresh ideas needed for success, let alone bring them to life. Uncertainty about the future, the pressure of competition and risk aversion saps confidence and enthusiasm and produces timid templates for maintaining the status quo. There’s a better way.
Creating a Culture of Opportunity | Mark Monchek | Episode 222

Mark Monchek is the Founder and Chief Opportunity Officer of Opportunity Lab, a strategy consulting firm focused on helping businesses thrive through disruption. He is the author of the Amazon nonfiction bestseller “Culture of Opportunity: How to Grow Your Business in an Age of Disruption”. Mark has worked with leaders from Google, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Adorama, TerraCycle, Feltsberg, The New York Times, Wharton School of Business, New York University, Columbia University, NBC, Time Warner, and the United Nations. Mark has a passion for empowering conscious leaders to build great companies that make a difference in the world. Through his strategy, he discovers and develops opportunities that merge profitability with sustainable growth, creating organizations that are more conscious, making life better for their customers, employees and communities.
Show up, Speak up, and Inspire Action | Heather Hansen | Episode 221

Heather is an outspoken advocate for global voices. She raises awareness around microinequities related to language and accent in international teams and helps companies build UNMUTED communication cultures where every voice is heard. Her 2018 TEDx talk titled 2 Billion Voices: How to speak bad English perfectly has had over 150,000 views and is used by university professors and English language specialists throughout the world in their own teachings.
Heather’s views on global communication have been featured in national media outlets across the globe: National Public Radio (NPR) in the USA, ABC Radio National in Australia, and multiple print and radio outlets in Singapore, including The Straits Times and CNA 938 (93.8 FM). She often appears on global podcasts and webinars
Today’s Leadership Challenges | Episode 220

In this week’s episode, I go solo again and answer your challenges! I asked a question in our free Facebook Community this week “What is your current leadership struggle?” and the replies were wide ranging and deep. Lots of things to consider and many different themes. Just shows leadership is not a single line process but rather an ever evolving dance. Nonetheless I decided to provide some advice to three different members’ problems live online. Here they are.
How to Lead with Questions | Bob Tiede | Episode 219

Bob Tiede has been on the staff of Cru for 48 years. He currently serves on the U.S. Leadership Development Team and is passionate about seeing leaders grow and multiply their effectiveness. He is committed to helping leaders shift their paradigm from the pressure of having to have all the right answers to simply having a few of the right questions. In 2006, while browsing in a bookstore, he came across Leading With Questions by Michael Marquardt. He only had to peruse a few pages before declaring, “This is a keeper.” He then launched Leading With Questions—a blog with a companion ebook, Great Leaders Ask Questions—with the goal of changing forever how he and others look at leadership. Bob and his wife, Sherry, live in Plano, TX, and are blessed with 4 incredible children and 6 remarkable grandchildren.
Being the Right Leader at the Right Time | Robert Jordan | Episode 218

Robert Jordan leads InterimExecs, providing access between the best interim and project executives in the world and company owners seeking brilliant leadership on demand. Robert has helped launch, grow and ultimately sell a number of fast growing companies. His first company, Online Access, put him on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies. After selling Online Access, the first Internet-coverage magazine in the world, he launched InterimExecs LLC, which works with public and private companies and nonprofit organizations. He is author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America and author of the Nightingale Conant audio production, How They Did It: Real World Advice from Today’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.
Resolving the “You vs Me” Scenario | Episode 217

It’s happening again. One of your employees and you are not seeing eye-to-eye. Tension is high, there’s disrespect in the air, and results are just not what they should be. You keep pointing the finger at their performance, they keep pointing the finger at your attitude towards them. Congratulations, you found yourself in the “You vs Me” scenario. A scenario where the outcome is almost guaranteed to not yield the results you want.
If this situation sounds familiar, I’m (un)happy to tell you that you are not alone. In fact, it is all too common that supervisor and subordinate don’t get along or see eye-to-eye. Yet, in order to achieve peak performance we need to have a respectful work relationship. Thus, this episode is all about repairing that relationship to achieve these results.
Getting the Results You Want | Episode 216

In the end results do matter. It matters to your company’s bottom line, it matters to your team’s morale, and it matters to your personal pride. But yet all too often we don’t get the results we are looking for, why is that? Sometimes we need to look inwards to find out that it is us as leaders who are the cause of our own burdens.