Let's Fix Leadership

"That's not how I remember the conversation……"

"I forgot that we made that decision…..."

If you've ever said any of these statements to your team, you may have a case of executive amnesia.

Many leaders struggle to remember every detail, decision, and piece of information they encounter, and who can blame them? You have to wrap your mind around so much data and make so many decisions, it leads to mental overload.

Executive amnesia has a significant impact on an organization's effectiveness, but the good news is, we can do something about it.

In this episode, I share how to overcome executive amnesia and minimize your mental load so you can function more effectively.

Let me paint an all too familiar picture for you. A new leader comes into your organization, you're so excited to work with them and learn from them. Then you discover they don't have the leadership skills you thought they would have.

We've all been there.

Maybe they lack vision or they are terrible with accountability or they don't take responsibility for their actions. Either way, a disappointing leader can knock the wind out of your sails, and if you're not careful, your career too.

Instead of letting a disappointing leader hold us back, what steps can we take to maintain control of our careers? In this episode, I talk about mitigating the effects of a disappointing leader.

A few weeks ago, I shared 15 questions that drive innovation, and y'all loved them. (If you missed them, you can check them out here) I wanted to share more powerful questions that will change perspectives, challenge assumptions, instill trust, and get you out of trapped thinking.

Whether you're a leader or a team member, these questions will pull your organization forward.

In this episode, I'll give you questions to add to your innovation bank, so you can be the leader people describe as "the leader who ask the best questions!".

When things go wrong in our organizations, the common immediate reaction is panic… and when we are in a state of panic, we stop thinking clearly, and then we react.

Unfortunately, this sequence of events doesn't make for a good outcome. Because, when we react, we aren't in a place to make the best decisions. We're more likely to act in fight or flight mode. If we respond, we are able to self-author the situation and create better solutions.

In this episode, I share how we can get ourselves out of reaction-mode and into a responsive-mode.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Signs of reactive leadership If the priorities in an organization are constantly changing, you're a reactive leader. If it feels like the team goes wherever the wind blows, you're definitely not in response-mode. Reactive leadership creates chaos, which kills innovation and that's the last thing we need.

Not so fast… When you find yourself in a difficult situation, it's human to want response to it immediately. This makes the fear and discomfort go away. Making the problem go away quickly doesn't lead to long-term solutions. Slow down, take a breath and allow cooler heads to prevail. Don't make decisions for instant results, think about the long-term business impact.

Taking control of the situation The difference between reacting and responding is the difference between being driven by the situation and driving it. When you act from a place of methodical response, you have purpose and control, and you get to self-author the situation.

Feedback, they say, is always good for us. It's necessary, strengthens our weaknesses, and makes us better, right? Well…not always.

Sometimes feedback, even if it's well-meaning, can do more harm than good. It can inadvertently make us suppress our superpowers, and no one wants that!

Whether you're giving or getting it, be careful not to kill all the goodness with feedback. In this episode, I talk about how sometimes feedback can be a curse, and how to avoid this.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Feedback can make you doubt what makes you amazing Let's say you're highly creative and you love finding new ways to do things. The feedback you might get is, "You have too many ideas, you go after too many priorities." The truth is, innovation and the ability to see what's possible is extremely necessary on the team - why would you want to eliminate it? Situationally managing your superpowers Your best friend can also be your frenemy. A superhero's powers can also be dangerous. Our superpowers can be that way sometimes. Now, that doesn't mean you get rid of your best friend, we just have to rein them in. When you can turn your strengths up and down like a dial in different situations, they become even more powerful. Don't kill their greatness As leaders, we're often guilty of giving feedback that compromises people's greatness. The next time you provide constructive criticism, ask if it's going to dull their superpower or if we're asking them not to do what makes them great. Be careful not to rob your organization of that person's gifts.

As leaders, we can either have a team full of innovative thinkers or a team too scared to share their thoughts and ideas. This distinction is driven entirely by the kinds of questions we're asking.

We can stifle creativity or encourage it based solely on what we say. As a gift to you, I've compiled a list of 15 questions that will create tons of creativity and innovation, while fostering the kind of environment that will help your organizations thrive.

So grab a notebook, start using these questions, and see what they will do for your team!

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Stop asking "why" Anytime someone asks us "why", we're immediately reverted back to being in trouble as children, so we can't expect a why-based question to get people into an innovative state. The grown-up workplace version of why is "help me understand." As soon as we ask "why?", consider all innovation dead and gone.

Tap into the possibilities Nothing stifles our creativity and innovation like feeling limited, so why don't we use language and ask questions that make our people feel like the possibilities are endless? Ask them what they'd do if resources were unlimited. It allows people to think big and take the guardrails off their minds, which produces great results.

Change your perspective When we feel stuck on an idea or a project, nothing makes a big impact like a little change in perspective. Ask people if they were someone else, what they'd do differently. It's a small tweak, but it gets the innovation going because they see the situation through a different lens.

There are two ways to lead - from a place of purpose or from a fight-or-flight place where you're just doing everything you can to not lose.

Newsflash: one way sets your organization up for bigger and better outcomes, and the other one…well, let's just say, it causes chaos, division, and many other issues that make for a toxic work environment.

Now, you might be asking; How do I know if I'm leading not to lose? In this episode, I'll share how to pivot to a more purpose-driven way of leading.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Why you need to lead with purpose When we lead toward purpose, we're in control and we have a higher ability to influence our organization. From a place of purpose, we are more competent, innovative, creative, and open, and that benefits the team and all the work we do.

Signs you're leading not to lose It's pretty easy to spot an environment or a team that's being led not to lose. Perfectionism, fear, throwing people under the bus, defensiveness - these are all signs that instead of being daring and innovative, we're in survival mode.

Listen to your inner game The language we use in our leadership tells us a lot about our inner game. If we're leading not to lose, there's a root cause. Maybe it's our own fears, how we're led, or how we were taught to lead, but we have to dig down and find the root cause of why we're leading not to lose, so we can start leading with purpose.

This episode goes out to all my perfectionists out there (you know who you are). Everything you do needs to be A+++ work and nothing less, and you're constantly stressed, burnt out, and overwhelmed because of it. Here's a controversial thought that will surely scare that high-performing brain of yours: what if you turned in B work or even C work (gulp)? Not all your work has to be absolutely perfect and a passing grade is still a pass.

How do we distinguish between A, B, and C work? How do we overcome our need for perfectionism at work? In this episode, I talk about getting away from the idea that we always have to do A+ work, all the time. Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

The cost of perfectionism The life of a Straight A adult isn't worth all the hype. You're stressed, overwhelmed, your to-list never gets shorter and it's taking a toll on other areas of your life. I know in school they taught us to be Straight A students, but no one says you have to be a Straight A adult.

Turn in C work (it will be okay)

If you aim for A+ work in every area of your job, you're more likely to end up doing C work everywhere because no one can sustainably do all the things, all the time. If you give yourself the grace to turn in C work in some areas, something amazing happens - A+ work in the areas that matter becomes easy!

Don't overstretch your resources The tasks and projects in our workplaces don't hold the same weight, so that means we can rank them according to how much energy we can give them. For example, client work is A+ work and you and your team can decide that internal communications are B work.

Are false priorities holding you back from what you truly want? Do you find that the thing you should be focused on gets overshadowed by something not as important?

I can give you countless examples of areas where this shows up...choosing social approval over honesty from our teams. Allowing underperformers to negatively impact the organization instead of having the tough conversations.

Choosing to be overwhelmed instead of asking for help. Having false priorities does a lot of damage, so why on earth do we do it?

Well…the scientific answer is...we're human. Sometimes ego, fear, and all sorts of other things get in the way of what matters.

In today's podcast, I'll share how to overcome false priorities.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Why we set false priorities

We fall into the trap of false priorities because very often it allows us to avoid uncomfortable situations or conversations. It could also be because of fear, our egos, and everything else that comes with being a human.

Filter your decisions through what matters

Human beings are prone to setting and even following through on false priorities, so we sometimes need a little reminder to stay back on track. To remedy this, we can create a list of our real priorities and have them close by, where you can view them every single day.

How to identify the false priorities on your team

How do we move from leveraging false priorities that damage our big ideas to our true priorities? If we have individual false priorities, you can best believe that our teams and organizations have them too. To ferret out what those are, we have to start asking questions and really having the patience to get the answer.

Spending hours on busy work that doesn't impact the business? Attending meetings we shouldn't be in because our ego wants us there? Filling our to-do lists with meaningless tasks because we *have* to? These, my friends, are all the height of vanity work, and we're all guilty of it, maybe by choice or by association.

Not all work is created equal - some is vital to the success of the organization and other work…we really shouldn't be giving the time of day. So how do we tell the difference, and most importantly, how do we get rid of it from our teams and organizations and in the words of Elsa, "let it go?"

In this episode, we're talking about why vanity work needs to be banished.

Three Things To Take Away From This Episode

Why vanity work is a problem

Vanity work isn't just a harmless annoyance, it's a huge drain on company resources. It drives burnout, makes our organizations slower, and frankly, there are more important things we could be doing. In today's busy world, no one has time to do work that doesn't matter, so we must make getting rid of vanity work a priority.

How leaders invite vanity work into the organization

One of the biggest causes of vanity work is leaders not trusting their teams enough to just let things go. Whether it's due to poor training, the wrong hires, or our ego, this has to be remedied immediately.

Before you accept that next meeting request…

Meaningless meetings are the height of vanity work, and it's time we get really honest about why they are still on our schedules. Is it because of ego, because we don't trust our teams, or because it's something people in your organization just do?