COP26 represented the world’s greatest “strategy off-site” in Glasgow recently, featuring the not insignificant, high-stakes leadership quest of safe-guarding our planet. Whilst our own leadership challenges are, by definition, less lofty and smaller in scale, the same conundrums of clarity of vision & purpose; stakeholders buy-in; sustaining commitment and much more, still very much apply. 

In Episode 46 I explore the lessons and parallels we can extract from the 2 week summit and how they map across to your world as a leader. This episode builds perfectly onto our previous mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos (episodes 39-42).

Insights include:

• The formula for effective leadership revisited E = Cl X Co
• Why Hi-Clarity with Lo-Commitment is like one hand clapping
• The Conflict of the 2 Jerseys (Club Vs Country)
• Best definition ever of Commitment
• What happens when belief in the Vision is low
• Influencing without Authority

Related Episodes 

Episodes 39-42 : Leading Teams in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 12 - 14 : Motivation in Chaos

Episode 5 : Clarity in Chaos

Support the show

Last month saw the passing of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow – the seminal work that describes the human state of happiness, optimal experience and high performance. The book (and his research) has subsequently influenced everything from office design, to how to train soldiers, website and video game design amongst everything else. In this episode, I commemorate the author by synthesizing the essence of his work (in less than 15 minutes!) and describing how the Flow state is an absolute panacea for the 3 symptoms of our present COVID “hangover”.

Insights include:

• Why finding Flow is at the very heart of Leadership
• What is the Flow state?
• Why enterprise became interested and what it discovered
• The conditions you need to know as a Leader to create Flow
• How Flow is a panacea for the 3 symptoms of our pandemic hangover
• Flow’s naughty neighbours : Boredom & Anxiety

Related Episodes 

Episode 34 : Finding Meaning in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 12 - 14 : Motivation in Chaos

Episode 5 : Clarity in Chaos

Support the show

According to Peter Drucker – if management is about doing things right, then leadership is doing the right things. I took a break from the Podcast for some Zooming Out time during summer but, since my return, have found it a very big challenge to return to the discipline of the broadcast because of competing pressures. This episode uses this most typical challenge to ask (and answer!) the question : “How do you get to do the things you need to do but just can’t find the time?”

Insights include:

• How to identify (and remember) the Right Things
• Differentiating the Important from the Urgent
• Why the To-Do List doesn’t help you
• How to translate intentions into action and make it stick
• The 2 sub-skills you need to master to Do the Right Things

Related Episodes 

Episode 32 : Planning & Prioritising in Chaos

Episode 26 : The Leadership Contribution

Episode 19 : Zooming Out in Chaos

Support the show

In this sub-set of the mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos I focus on Trust. Isn’t it peculiar that whilst everyone agrees that Trust is a crucial ingredient to growing high performance in a team, I have never - in almost 30 years working with teams globally - been asked to host a conversation to discuss the topic specifically. In this episode I explore why this is. I also share a more workable definition of Trust and its component parts, that helps turn the abstract into something more tangible and therefore more manageable.

Insights include:

• Why Trust is more important than ever in our evolving hybrid working world
• Moving from abstract to specific - The 3 Legs of the Trust stool
• How to reflect on your Trust levels with your significant relationships in a way you can work with
• Starting to diagnose your own trustworthiness as a leader

Related Episodes 

Episode 8 : Building Trust

Episode 28 : We Need to Talk About Conversations

Episode 29 : Deepening Connections in Chaos

Support the show

In this fourth part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos I reflect on how nearly all leaders know what it’s like to be part of a highly effective team, but very few know how to build one. I also consolidate the 5 Agreements a team needs to make, and explore the 4 Commitment Cards to arrive at those agreements so that the team members feel committed, not just compliant.

Insights include:

• How knowing effective teams is not the same as building one.
• Consolidating the 5 Agreements of a Team and how to get started if you’re stuck
• Moving from My Version to Our Version
• The 4 Commitment Cards and the Conversation Box 

Related Episodes 

Episode 20: Commitment in Chaos

Episode 28: We Need to Talk About Conversations

Episode 29: Deepening Connections in Chaos

Support the show

In this third part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos as leaders look to Reset, Realign and Refocus their Teams, “Agreeing the How” concentrates on the importance of common understanding and commitment to How we best work together to get things done.

Insights include:

• How Behaviour is the orphaned child of Effectiveness
• Why Task is consistently prioritised over Behaviour
• Why talking about Culture empties the room 
• How to agree Ways of Working that gets commitment and lasts

Support the show

In this second part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos as leaders look to Reset, Realign and Refocus their Teams, “Agreeing the Why” concentrates on the importance of connecting a team to its purpose, as a chief source of meaning and motivation.

Insights include:

• Why Purpose and Mission gets a bad rap (and why it’s richly deserved).
• Why it’s so important to approach it right & the pay-off if you do.
• The relationship between the Why and discretionary effort.
• Why (most) leaders ignore the Why.
• How to get started with your Team – or Restarted – on a compelling Why.

Support the show

In this first part of a mini-season on Leading Teams in Chaos, Part 1 observes how the Covid story is writing itself, chapter by chapter, and how the latest chapter is giving grounds for optimism, as Leaders are gradually now looking to Reset, Realign and Refocus their Teams. This mini-season focuses on helping you with the how and why.

Insights include:

·        The 5 Chapters of Covid (so far!)

·        The source formula for Leading Teams:  

          E = Cl X Co

·        Establishing Clarity through the Where, What, Who & How

·        Clarity’s impact on Commitment

·        Direct Vs Consult – Ask or Tell?

Support the show

It’s been a year like no other. To commemorate one year on from the first Covid case in Ireland and the first Leadership in Chaos podcast episode I have Zoomed Out to look back over the past year and look forward to answer the question “How Now From Here?” 

In 4 connected episodes/parts I summarise and highlight the best principles to help navigate our way forward from here.

Insights include:

• Reviewing the context for Leadership
• The Neurology of Leadership in Chaos
• The 5 Cs of Being your Best when things are at their Worst
• Leaders eat last…but they gotta eat!

Support the show

It’s been a year like no other. To commemorate one year on from the first Covid case in Ireland, and the first Leadership in Chaos podcast episode, I have Zoomed Out to look back over the past year and look forward to answer the question “How Now From Here?”

In 4 connected episodes/parts I summarise and highlight the best principles to help navigate our way forward from here.

 Insights include:

• Reviewing the context for Leadership
• The Neurology of Leadership in Chaos
• The 5 Cs of Being your Best when things are at their Worst
• Leaders eat last…but they gotta eat!

Support the show