What does it take, day in and day out, to lead a group of people effectively? It’s not easy, that’s for sure. On a very granular level, leading is balancing a thousand decisions, huge and small, every day. So what guides your hand? Republican Governor of Utah Spencer Cox is an anomaly in a time of waning bipartisanship. His vice chair in the National Governor’s Association is a Democrat – and a close friend at that. He’s also been a bit of an anomaly in how he’s charted his life, too, turning down Harvard and a cushy lawyer job for his family farm in Fairview. But Governor Cox is an anomaly we can learn from. How do you build a belief system as a leader – and strengthen it, when it seems like the political winds are blowing against you?   

357 Gov. Spencer Cox: Lessons On Inclusive Leadership, From The Farm To The Governor’s Mansion

Best-selling author Whitney Johnson (“Disrupt Yourself”) explores her passion for personal disruption through engaging conversations with disruptors. Each episode of this podcast reveals new insights about how we work, learn, and live.

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Management

Self-fulfilling prophecies – and falling into their trap – are part and parcel of being human. From ancient Greek tragedies to television like Breaking Bad, they’ve popped up time and time again. We just can’t escape our flaw of telling ourselves stories about the future, and then making them reality. But what if it… wasn’t a flaw? What if there was a real power, a real gift in being about to tell yourself a story and see it through? You might know Steph Curry from his legacy at the Golden State Warriors, but would you believe he wasn’t even scouted coming out of high school?  Our guest today is a big believer in turning the self-fulfilling prophecy stigma on its head. Nathan Tanner thought he finally had it all with a cushy investment gig at Lehman Brothers. The problem was, he joined up in 2008, right before Lehman went through the biggest bank collapse in history. To hear him say it, it would have been the easiest thing to write a personal story… of failure.  But since then, Nathan’s worked through top positions at LinkedIn and DoorDash before settling into his own coaching practice. Today, he’s out with a new book, suitably titled The Unconquerable Leader – Mastering the Internal and External Game. It’s all about learning to show up for yourself so that you can properly show up for others.  

373 Nathan Tanner: Are You Neglecting Your Internal Game To Succeed At The External Game?

Today, we wanted to bring back a conversation I had with Michael Bungay Stanier back in 2018, where we explored what it really means to be a coach. His self-published book The Coaching Habit had only been out for two years, and it had already sold 300 thousand copies. Bringing the philosophy of coaching into our lives can be one of the most personally disruptive and rewarding projects we take on. It changes and strengthens how we support others in our lives, and the support we receive in return. Michael breaks this down in such an accessible way that we felt a re-air was more than worth it.  

372 Michael Bungay Stanier: How You Can Turn Coaching Into An Automatic Reflex

So much of what we talk about on here is change – navigating change, embracing change, creating change. I think it’s fair to say that if you’re listening, change of some form is on your mind. We’re no strangers when it comes to figuring out how to get from A to B. But what happens when we have to change… how we’re changing? What happens when we plateau with our progress, and the old models of learning just aren’t sticking anymore? What does jumping to that new S Curve look like? That’s where our guest today comes in. Eduardo Briceno is the co-founder of Mindset Works, a firm dedicated to bringing Carol Dweck’s growth mindset to workplaces world-wide. He’s out now with The Performance Paradox, a book dedicated to that question of changing how you’re changing. From Caracas, Venezuela to the Stanford Business School, Eduardo has navigated all kinds of change, even a fear of public speaking. So what do we have to learn from him?  

371 Eduardo Briceno: When You’re Not Seeing Growth, Learn To Change How You’re Changing

This week we’ve got a special episode, a longer one than we normally do. But when you have an opportunity, to talk to the person who built the Rotman School of Management into the powerhouse it is today, you have to use every minute you get.  Roger L. Martin was told that the Toronto’s Rotman School wasn’t worth his time, that it was a quote – cesspool of intrigue. Roger himself will say that he didn’t do much in his 15 years as dean, just tinkering and prodding. He’s a bit of an understated enigma, as you’ll soon find out. But when Rotman’s prestige today ranks up there with Stanford and Harvard, you can’t really argue with his results.   There’s so much to mine in this conversation, we thought it would be a shame to cut it down and fit it within our normal episode length. If you have the time, I’d love for you to give it more than just one listen.  

370 Roger L. Martin: How To Turn Around A Failing Business School – Without Doing A Whole Lot Of Anything

Ask a thousand people how to make a house a home, and you might get a thousand different answers. Some will say it’s family; others say it’s all in the interior decor – neighborhood pride, or a furry friend, maybe.  Regardless of how you answer the question, you can’t just sit back and wait for it to become a home – everyone agrees that something needs to be done.  Our guest today is an expert on making that transition from house to home. Moving every 18 months or so, Ruth McKeaney raised five kids alongside her husband. Move into a fixer-upper, fix it up with the family’s help, sell it, rinse and repeat. It was only a matter of time until Ruth’s ability to structure her family’s systems came to the attention of book publishers. Hungry for Home is Ruth’s manual on building a home, everything from home restoration to frozen cookie dough.  

357 Gov. Spencer Cox: Lessons On Inclusive Leadership, From The Farm To The Governor’s Mansion

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