Let's Fix Leadership

Once upon a working world, the best person doing a job was consistently promoted to the boss of others doing that same job. Now…well, it's a lot more complex.

Conventional wisdom used to be that a leader must possess mastery in the fields they oversee. The world is evolving fast, and that norm is gradually giving way to something more flexible - where leaders must adapt. Ultimately, who knows if your current skills will be relevant to your organization in 6 months?

You can easily find yourself at the helm of an operation that isn't your forte, but that doesn't mean you aren't equipped to do the job and do it well.

How do you learn to lead beyond your expertise? In this episode, I share the skill set leaders need to lead people doing a job you don't do.

"That wasn't my fault". Or how about, "I didn't do it." Or maybe "that mistake is totally on that coworker." We play the blame a lot at work, and though we don't like to admit it, we like it.

We sit in blame because it feels pretty darn good for something to be someone else's fault. What a relief it can be. Here's the problem though, blame makes for bad work environments. It kills collaboration and smothers innovation. How do some teams get weighed down by blame? More importantly, how do we overcome it?

In this episode, I talk about blame - one game we shouldn't participate in at work.

Remember how I said that our brain loves to play tricks on us, and how fear is its device of choice?

Well, that shows up all over our careers, and if we're not careful, that big mean old liar could set us on a downward spiral of paranoia, making assumptions and acting out in ways we aren't proud of.

What if you could short-circuit all this drama and tell yourself something more constructive? In this episode, I share one simple question and one simple statement that will put fear in its place once and for all.

"How did I become so bad at a game I was doing so well at just a second ago?" That's what it feels like when you start a new level in a video game….or when a new career opportunity challenges you. It's daunting and discouraging at first, even downright terrifying, but that doesn't mean we can't master this new level.

After all, fear is nothing more than a chemical reaction, and when we refuse to back down from a new challenge, we grow professionally and personally.

How do we face a new level, and evolve from novice to master? In this episode, I share how to treat your career like a video game.

Alcohol, nicotine, coffee, sugar, and….being right. Yes, being right is something you can be addicted to and unfortunately, a lot of leaders are. You could hold a blue crayon in front of them and they'd swear it's yellow. You can never introduce a fresh thought or new idea. They are never open to learning from their teams. If it's not their way, it's wrong.

You don't want to be addicted to being right, historically it hasn't worked out for organizations, and it can wreak havoc on your team. How do you kick the addiction to being right and become a leader who revels in learning?

In this episode, we talk about the addiction to being right, how it poisons your team, and how to cut it out for good.

Here's a scenario that plays out far too often in our organizations. A resignation letter lands on your desk, and you're surprised: a top performer is leaving.

Wait, what? All this time you thought they were happy, doing great work, here for the long haul. They're paid well, advancing in your organization, so what gives?

Well, dear leader, you're losing them because you've failed to invest in developing them, and now you're paying the price.

How do we stop this scenario from playing out on our teams? If you're lucky enough to have top performers what can you do for them?

In this episode, I share how we can start investing in our best.

"Communication is key." It's a statement we hear so often, it borders on cliche. Well, in the workplace, the power of communication can never be overstated.

It can be overwhelming to think about all the different ways and different reasons we are required to communicate to be successful leaders.

What if we looked at competencies we can leverage across all types of communication?

That's what we're going to do in this episode, as we dig into the many layers of communication that work amazingly well together.

Do you create an environment where it's cool to learn or do you shut down learning and discovery?

Software, business trends, consumer habits, books, podcasts, legal requirements, and more. Keeping up with all the new things we need to learn is like an Olympic sport, but it's a *must* if we want to run great teams.

If we and our teams aren't learning, we aren't growing. If we're not leaders who learn, it's hard to get our team excited to learn new things.

How do we make learning part of our team culture? Make learning cool?

In this episode, I share how leaders can make learning cool, create a team that is focused on continuously learning, and have a little fun celebrating along the way.

Where humans are involved, conflict is sure to be present. On a team, conflict not addressed becomes a toxic, invisible coworker no one wants to be around but is forced to work with.

As a leader, you might think conflict is a normal part of running a team, but this could be hampering innovation and growth.

What effect does unchecked conflict have on team dynamics? How do we mitigate conflict or get rid of it entirely?

What's the cost of conflict? And what will it cost you, your team, and the business over time?

In this episode, I talk about how to deal with conflict and start fostering collaboration and common ground.

Remember when executive leadership was all the rage? It was the one-size-fits-all attribute that was necessary to advance in an organization. Well…I think it's time we retire executive presence for something more fitting of today's dynamic world.

You see, in today's rapidly evolving world, there are endless types of companies with endless types of culture. One type of leadership just won't cut it. This is where dynamic composure comes in - two words that don't seem to go together but totally do.

In today's episode, I talk about how we can build dynamic composure and why it makes us better leaders.