The Lead Up Podcast

In this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike is sharing the importance of choosing the right coach.

What is a coach:

Why choosing the right coach is so important:

Why investing in yourself is so important:

You can learn more about Harbour Resources Coaching here or email us at [email protected]

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by special guest, Chris York. Chris shares his journey throughout his career and how he has been in healthcare leadership for 30 years now, despite starting in industrial engineering.

You will learn how Chris led his team through the greatest challenge to our healthcare system over the last two years. He shares what he learned about leadership, his people, and the challenges we need to fix.

These are some vital lessons he learned as a leader during the pandemic:

Also, we get into some discussion about the healthcare workforce shortages and how Covid accelerated the pace. Now we are in the early stages of a more critical challenge and have some ideas on how we can face the people and talent needs. 

Chris wrote a book titled Set The Standard and shares a call to push against unbelief and the unknown of what we have never done before. And how Chris is using this rally cry today when most of our staff feel overworked and burned out.

We will learn how to develop our mindset which determines our ability to outpace our problems and push through with grit and persistence. You will also learn why trust in leadership is at an all-time low, and how can we use love to raise the bar and bring trust back to our teams.

Mike and Chris discuss the importance of mentorship. Chris shares how one of the best mentors he’s ever had, completely changed his life with one small task that helped him achieve his career goals. This was to set himself a career path from 25-65 and work back in increments of 2-3 years. Chris also tells us about how being a mentor for others is a huge part of his life now and how he has mentored three different individuals who have gone on to become hospital CEO’s. Mike and Chris talk about how when we as leaders take care of our people, the profits take care of themselves.

They also talk about mental health and well-being issues we face as leaders and share their best advice on how you can address these issues with your team and how you can be there and be supportive of your people.

Make sure to check out Chris’ amazing and knowledgeable complete book: Set the Standard

On this episode, Mike shares 3 ways leaders can destroy confidence and sabotage high-performers in the workplace. 

If you are trying to retain, but are vague with your words you could be doing more damage. You need to be specific when sharing praise for a job well done. Show you appreciate and value them as a team member.

Being specific with how or what they did will let them know they were noticed and will in turn make them feel valued. 

Comparison praise is the second type of toxic praise. We as a society are constantly hit with comparisons between social media and tv. So, as leaders when we compare our team members to one another we can create resentment and decrease the trust in the team.

Results-based praise is the third form of toxic praise. If we put so much emphasis on the results we get away from the individual and create burned out and leave the individual feeling unappreciated.

Mike has written about these and other ways to retain your current team in Quit Losing Talent. You can click here to get your copy. If you would like more information on how to create a Quit Losing Talent Culture you can schedule a call with Mike. 

Be sure to leave us a review and rating on your favorite platform. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Nicole Malachowski. Nicole shares her incredible story of being amazed and inspired by the United States Air Force at the age of 5 years old. She joined the Air Force and served for over 20 years until her life took an unexpected turn due to an illness which lead her to become a leadership development coach and trainer!

Nicole shares about growing up in a family where both her grandfathers and her father served in the military which resulted in her understanding that serving in the military was an honorable thing to do.

Mike and Nicole discuss how being in the Air Force helped her grow into the leader she has become today and how the military is full of growth opportunities.

They share stories about people who had major impacts on their lives. Nicole tells us that you should always believe in the people who believe in you as you may not always see your own strengths as others do.

Nicole provides us with an insight into her Loosen your Grip Leadership approach. She advises all leaders to be efficient with how they use their time, talent, and treasure by figuring out what they do have control over and finding resources to help manage the things they don’t have full control over.  

Nicole also shares her incredible recovery story and what she learned about herself, and the world during the process. She explains how she was diagnosed with a Neurological Tick born illness and suffered extreme loss overnight and became completely dependent on other people while being bedridden for 9 months.

Nicole shares some encouraging words and expresses how we all have the power to reinvent ourselves! 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by returning guest Rachel Gillette, a fantastic leader and CEO of Studer Community Institute! Throughout this episode, Mike and Rachel discuss topics such as the change leaders are being faced with due to COVID-19, the younger generations having different values and goals, how to create comfortable conversations with your teams around mental health and general well-being, and many more helpful topics that leaders can take some tips from to improve their leadership today.

Rachel gives us an insight into how Studer Community Institute is a non-profit focused on improving the quality of life for people which she has heavily contributed towards by building jobs and through leadership growth and development.

Mike and Rachel discuss the change leaders are facing with a younger generation coming into the workforce. Rachel explains how we as leaders need to be looking at their needs and understand the growth they are striving for. Mike and Rachel also speak about the change in the workforce that was brought on by COVID-19. Rachel shares he experiences on how the workforce is re-assessing what’s important to them and individually redefining what success means.

Mike and Rachel talk about how leaders can improve their leadership today. Rachel expresses how one of the No.1 things she’s seeing the workforce prioritizing is flexibility. Rachel states that work has had a shift down on the list of what’s important to people and how leaders need to embrace that change in order to continue to be successful. Mike shares how it is incredibly important that leaders learn to manage expectations as opposed to managing the clock.

Mike and Rachel share their best advice on how leaders can support other leaders as well as how to create comfortable conversations around mental health and well-being.

Rachel provides us with information about the upcoming EntreCon event: Moving from Surviving to Thriving which will be held in Pensacola, Florida November 16th and 17th. Rachel suggests that you can connect with people from all different industries virtually or at the live event so make sure to check it out!

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by returning guest Kerry Wekelo! Kerry returns to the podcast to share some more inspiring motivation tips for leaders to use to motivate, encourage and create a goal-driven culture within the workforce.

Kerry gives us an insight into her career background as the Chief Operating Officer for Actualise Consulting. She has been working with the company for 17 years with the past 12 being heavily focused on people and the culture within the organization.

Kerry shares the importance of getting to know your people so that you as a leader can help them to meet their own goals and the company goals.

Kerry encourages great leaders to ask these questions during regular and consistent check-ins:

Mike and Kerry discuss how mental health checks should be a huge priority for leaders. Kerry gives us some of the things she does for her workforce that other great leaders should do to promote honesty and openness around mental health:

You can connect with Kerry through LinkedIn 

You can check out Kerry’s book, Gratitude Infusion,  

This is a special episode of The LeadUp Podcast - It is episode 300! 

WOW! It has gone by so fast.

On this episode, Mike is sharing 3 things that he has done to be successful and also sharing some mistakes he has made during the process. 

Mike's goal has always been to deliver content to help you as a leader and give you tangible tools to grow and to help you help your team. He continues to strive to get better himself to ensure he is always following through on his commitment.

He is offering a free gift on this episode, so listen, take some notes and take the challenge.

Sign up so you get notified when a new episode is released. 

Let us know if you have any questions or something you may want to hear more of on the podcast. Just click here to send us a message.

 On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by special guest SandyFenili to discuss how leaders can motivate and engage their employees. They talk about the difference between the old, ineffective ways leaders used to motivate and engage their workforce to the new, improved, and adapted methods leaders are using.

Sandy Fenili created Modern Motivation, a women-owned business designed to help leaders create a more meaningful and personal approach toward overall employee experience in 2020 when she realized the old methods weren’t working as effectively anymore and the workplace needed to see progressive change. 

Sandy shares her thoughts from her 30 years of experience on how engagement drives motivation and Mike explains how inspiration comes from the inside out and engagement is an external drive within people.

Mike and Sandy provide new and improved, free, practical tools leaders can begin implementing in their workforce today that will help create human connections to drive motivation and engagement. Mike states that in today’s workplace we need to evaluate people based on what they get done not how many hours they put in. 

Mike and Sandy conclude that these practical tools won’t cost you a dime, however, it may cost you to not apply these new motivation and engagement techniques in your workforce.

If you found value in this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star rating on the streaming platform of your choice and share this podcast with a friend who may also benefit from the great content Mike and his spectacular guests! For more information about Modern Motivation.

In this episode, Mike is sharing How to Get Annual Reviews Right. 

Mike shares why he hates annual reviews and why companies should get rid of them.

Take a listen before you judge this statement. He continues with why this should not be the only time you are reviewing your team.

Reviews should be done on a regular basis -  weekly at first, then monthly. You have to be engaged with your new employees before day 90- otherwise, you will lose them.  

Every employee deserves a monthly meeting to check in and to know what expectations they are expected to meet. Not the performance based on comparison of others but their own performance. 

Be sure to read our blog post 3 Things You Should Never Say in a Performance Review to learn more about how to give the best reviews. 

Also, be sure to get a copy of Quit Losing Talent and learn more about how to prevent turnover with your team. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Capt. Tim Kinsella. Mike and Tim discuss the mindset effective leaders need to maintain as well as practical tools and strategies professional leaders can use to help improve the work of their teams through their leadership.

Tim provides an insight into his working background and shares how he learned a lot of his leadership skills during his time in the Navy. Tim shares that while working as a Defence Planner with NATO he was educated on the importance of understanding and expressing different cultures within an organization. Tim also talks about his childhood, and how he gained an understanding of what makes people tick growing up in his father's pub. 

Tim shares a powerful lesson he learned when dealing with a terrorist attack in December 2019 as a leader. Tim talks about the importance of becoming the person your people need in moments like that so that you can effectively lead them and not get caught up in your own emotions and headspace as negativity is catchy for people. He says that if you don’t have courage as a leader then you’re in the wrong profession as you are susceptible to all the external fears that are pressing in on you.

Tim states that the following are the most important things experienced leaders need to be thinking about and doing today to be effective leaders:

Finishing off the episode, Tim provides us with some information about his Leadership Program commencing August 2023 so make sure you keep your eyes and ears peeled for that amazing experience!