The Lead Up Podcast

On this special guest episode, we are joined by Brian Cunningham. Brian considers himself a student of leadership and life. He has worked his way through every level from parking lot attendant to CEO of a hospital. 

Brian shares that we are all in a leadership role on some level and our leadership role is a genuine path for our awakening as human beings. 

Brian says "I grew up confused about life and got into the workspace, I was even more confused. What I thought I would see from leaders, I wasn't seeing that. So it's been a long journey as a student, looking for people that expressed sort of a more expanded version of service."

"I was a parking lot attendant there. And I loved that job, and I'm really good at parking to this day, Mike. You know, I knew as a parking lot attended, something was different about healthcare"

"Leadership is not about title or position it is about who you become and the value you can add to others."

"Having a limited amount of awareness causes us to have blinders on and to restrict our possibilities." 

"When you look at what they are directing their staffs to do, especially in healthcare, you got to standardize your key processes. Quint says you've got to stand at the most important processes to standardize are your key leadership processes. But leaders, many leaders don't want that. They just want to kind of wing it. And so we don't have enough people who are committed to dance and that doesn't mean cookie-cutter. That just means that awareness of a developmental progression."

Listen to this entire episode to find out more about how to increase your AQ.

You can follow Brian on Facebook, and LinkedIn

Brians's book Our AQ(Awareness Quotient): The Missing Link to Extraordinary Leadership and Life is available here.

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We are joined by our special guest Tom Dahlborg. Tom is the author of From Heart to Head & Back Again...A Journey Through the Healthcare System. Tom has over 35 years of hospital leadership and is passionate about compassionate care and servant leadership.

In our world right now we all need to take the time to see the perspectives of others and not judge. Compassion for others seems to be missing in so many areas right now in our society but one place it needs to be strongest is in healthcare. 

Tom shares why it's so important to engage the heart and why It's so important to engage the mind. It can't be either or it has to be both and we need to embody compassion, care, and love.

It's not a weakness, to love, and it's not a weakness to be compassionate, it's not a weakness to be vulnerable and to open our hearts up. Because how many of us have been told, you know, man up or something like that when we're younger? 

Tom is a brilliant communicator around the heart of leadership and you will learn this and so much more from this episode.  

You can follow Tom on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter

Show sponsors:

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Hey Friend, what are you thinking? 

Thomas Edison said, "Five percent of people think; ten percent of the people think they think, and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” 

Are you a thinker? We have a thinking problem in the world today. Most people are letting others do their thinking for them. As leaders, we have to engage our conscious thinking to effect change and influence others in a positive direction. 

Approximately 6,200 thoughts run through our heads daily! Not all of these thoughts should be acted on, much less thought. We are getting so much information from others and our smartphones and what we do with that is critical.  How are you using these thoughts and information to be a great leader?

Today in Episode 254 I talk about revolutionary thinking that is needed in our leadership today. I hope you will take 20-minutes and listen, then act on the advice. 

Thank you our sponsors for today's podcast

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Joe Tye joins us on this episode of The LeadUp Podcast. Joe is CEO and Head Coach of Values Coach. He is the author or co-author of 15 books, his latest book is Building a Culture of Ownership in Healthcare.

Joe explains that the #1 challenge for any leader, not just in healthcare but in any organization is going to be building a team and inspiring loyalty in that team so you don't have this turnover every year.

Employee engagement is one of the topics organizations have been talking about for the last 15 years. People can be engaged with their job and those they work with but not with the organization. This can result in organizations losing great members of their teams. 

Employee ownership is important, so they feel a part of the organization not just holding a position. You have to teach them like owners if you want them to feel and act like owners. 

The culture in an organization is made up of the attitudes and behaviors of those in the organization. People will not change unless you provide the tools and techniques to inspire those changes.

One way companies can help improve these is by defining their values. You can create a value and mission statement for your organization. When you define what you stand for and what the behaviors look like it is easier for your employees to recognize and implement those. 

You can learn more about Joe and purchase his books by visiting www.valuescoach.com.

You can follow Joe on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

We are in the final quarter home stretch of 2021 and Episode 252 is for you if you want this to be a great quarter to set you up for next year.

Mike is a firm believer the final quarter determines the pace of the next year. 

As you listen in to this episode learn from one of the great all-time thinkers in history, James Allen, and his book written in 1902, as Mike applies a couple of James' thoughts to modern-day leadership.

We are living in a time of great distress and most of it is created by outside forces and distractions. But, we can unleash ourselves from those conditions and change everything in our life and leadership if we will do a few things right today.

Mike shares 3 things leaders must do to unlock their full leadership potential. 

Mentioned in this episode is Mike's High-Performance Daily Compass Tool. Find it Here

Our fantastic show sponsors are:

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Shelby & Company Inc.

Encouraging those around us especially those we lead is so important. 

One of the biggest struggles across the board today for employers is finding and keeping employees. If you drive to the grocery store or to work, I am sure you will see several businesses with signs that say HIRING. There is a lack of people wanting to work or work harder.

Mike is sharing 4 ways that you can begin to encourage others. 

Check out our Coaching Program and let us help you.

You will want to listen to this entire episode to find out all 4 ways. We offer a lot of different opportunities for you to grow and help your team to grow.

The 40 Day Success Challenge to help you find your purpose.

The Herbal Bath Store- Plant-Powered Bath and Beauty

Shelby & Company Inc.

Resilience -the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. We all have it in us, but is it enough to get us to where we want or need to go?

We are joined by special guest Rachael Gillette, President of Studer Community Institute. Rachael like most of us has worked hard to learn how to grow during this pandemic. She is sharing 7 key skills that we all can use.

Rachael says the first is competence - "If I feel like I have some level of skill in knowing how to handle a stressful situation, I'm going to feel better about it. I know that I've got this competence, the strengths, and then I can have confidence in those because I can lean on them in this difficult or stressful situation."

Rachael emphasizes the importance of connecting with others. "When we're in a situation like the pandemic and we all went home, we talk about social isolation and social distancing, we lose that sense of connectedness. And as human beings, we need to be connected to other people."

Listen to this episode to hear all the 7 C's Rachael shares. 

Learn more about Entrecon.

If your looking to improve your customer service with your company we have partnered with Studer Community Institute and developed the CHAMPIONship Customer Service Course to help you achieve the best in customer service. 

Follow Rachael on LinkedIn and find out what great things she is doing with Studer Community Institute.

Speaking in front of others is one of the top fears almost all humans have, and I know because I used to take F’s in speech class.

Our guest today shares this. “It really is real, it's most people's greatest fear. And the short answer and people have it because it's not natural. You know, if you think about it, most of our conversations are one on one, they're on the phone, you don't see the person. A lot of people these days, especially younger ones, they're just texting or emailing, you don't see or hear them. They get in front of an audience like, wow, this is really, different.”

We are joined by a special guest, Fred Miller. Fred is a speaker, a best-selling author, and an international presentation coach. His books, “NO SWEAT Public Speaking!” and “NO SWEAT Elevator Speech!” are purchased internationally, and have rave reviews on Amazon.com 

Fred teaches we're much too tough on ourselves. One thing I always ask the audience, Mike, I ask,” Is anybody sitting out there thinking, man, I can't wait till Fred screws up?  I'll be on his Facebook page, his LinkedIn page.” Most of them are glad that you're up there, and they're not. This fear of public speaking. And you have obviously also, it's an equal opportunity fear. It doesn't care about your age, education, or occupation.

Fred explains why stories are the emotional glue that connects your audience to your message and what you must do to find and build your stories.

Also, in this episode with Fred Miller, you will learn how to put together a presentation full of imagery and ideas that pop and keep the attention of your audience, whether a team meeting or a keynote speech in front of thousands.

Fred's website is https://nosweatpublicspeaking.com/ and his podcast NO SWEAT Public Speaking!

Follow Fred on FB, LinkedIn, and Twitter 

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In this episode, Mike shares 5 effective reminders to communicating with others. 

It is critical is seek first to understand, then to be understood. However you were raised, however, you were conditioned, as a young person growing up is going to determine how you understand or lack thereof seeking to understand other people's perspectives.

Practice the platinum rule - treat others how they want to be treated. You must first apply the first rule to understand others before you can know how to treat the other person.

Leave your emotions at the door. Do not bring emotions from other relationships or conversations to another. Keeping them in check can keep you from triggering the other person unnecessarily.  

Use questions as a path of understanding. Asking questions in an assuming way will not get you where you want to go in the conversation. You must practice how and what you ask in order to get what you want and to not create a barrier in the communication. 

Be friendly. Sounds so simple but for a lot of people, it is so hard. We cant be friendly when we walk around judging people. We must put down the red pen to mark the mistakes of others and pick up a highlighter and start looking for the best in them. 

I am challenging you to practice these simple behaviors and be intentional at work and home. When you do this I promise you will see a difference in your communication with others. 

Check out our sponsors:

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Shelby and Company - Full Service Marketing Agency

Links to Blog post and webinar:

Personalities Types All Leaders Must Know webinar Mike mentioned in this episode. 

5 Ways to Create a Better Flow of Communication

In this episode, Mike is joined by special guest Mark Herschburg.

Mark is the author of The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success that No One Taught You. He based the book on 20 years of teaching and working in the field, all the skills they left out of our primary and secondary, and college education.

Mike and Mark talk about the essential skills that leaders need in order to communicate and influence their teams. 

Mark shares the best way for us to really learn these skills of leadership and the way top business schools teach them, is to create peer learning groups. So in your organization's, whether this is for yourself, or for your team, you can create groups of people, I recommend groups of about six to eight, but you can do it with larger groups.

You can pick your favorite business communication, a type of book, use articles, you can listen to great podcasts like this one, have your learning group, listen to this podcast every week, and say, we're gonna discuss the topics in this podcast because that's where the learning happens. You take content, and then you have that discussion.

Mark also has The Career Toolkit App you can download on Apple or Android for free.

Listen to this episode to find more great ways to improve your leadership.

Be sure to sign up for our executive book summaries to be delivered to your inbox weekly. Just sign up here.

You can purchase Mark's book, The Career Toolkit on Amazon. Follow Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.