"Think carefully about where you want to go. Make plans, but hold them lightly."  - Dr. Sunil Raheja

Do you repeatedly get in the way of your own progress? Find it easier to blame others than to change yourself? If so, today's podcast episode is for you.

We'll hear from Dr. Sunil Raheja, a psychiatrist and executive coach, and dig into his book, "Dancing With Wisdom: A Sacred Quest to Restore Meaning, Purpose and Fun to Your Life and Work."

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the first step in moving forward is realizing that you need to make a change
• How Mindset, Motivation, and Methods all play a role in your progress
• The importance of re-connecting with your values
• Why shutting down the noise is critically important..and much, much more!

The beginning of wisdom

Wisdom begins with the realization that there are things you have no control over and things that are not in your grasp. But you have agency, more than what you give yourself credit for. You may not be able to change the weather, but you can always choose how you’re going to look at life. You can change your attitude and choose to look at the good rather than the bad.

Mindset is everything

I used to think that mindset was important. Now what I say is, “Mindset is everything.” The reason being is if your mindset is not right, no matter what you’re doing, you’re not going to be satisfied.

One advice you’d give young managers today

Think carefully about where you want to go. Make plans for your future but hold them lightly, and look at everything as a learning experience. There’s no such thing as failure. Pace your life for the long haul.

Links and Resources

Connect with Dr. Raheja: Website, Podcast, LinkedIn

Dancing With Wisdom by Dr. Sunil Raheja (book)

Jim Kwik

The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha (book)

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (book)

"Where you read information isn't where you need information."  - Mark Herschberg

Do you ever find yourself consuming great content, but then struggling to find it later when you actually need it? If so, today's episode is for you!

MIT instructor Mark Herschberg makes a return visit to the show to discuss his innovative new platform, Brain Bump.

In this episode, you'll learn:

- How powerful peer learning can be for your development

- Why the content we all consume is rarely accessible in critical moments

- How Brain Bump only sends the tips you want, when you request them; it never sends an unrequested notification

- Bonus: you don't even have to open the app!

The challenge with traditional learning

When we think about most of our knowledge, it has just been direct information transfer, such as when you learn the quadratic formula. It is very black and white and you know exactly where to use it. But the skills that we use as leaders, from leading people to communication, negotiation, team building – these are not cut and dry. There’s no formula for leadership.

Peer learning’s edge over other learning styles

Peer learning is not about memorizing formulas. It’s about learning subtle skills that are often circumstantial. So by coming together as a group and having discussions, like I’m going to gain your perspective and you’re going to get mine… that’s how we learn.

Ineffective learning

The problem is two-fold. First, where you read information isn’t where you need information. And the second is that you read a book or listen to a podcast episode, and then you forget it. I wanted to address it.

Links and Resources

Connect with Mark: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

The Career Toolkit by Mark Herschberg (book)

Brain Bump (app)

"Create the vision, and step back."  - Karl Hebenstreit PhD

Are you intrigued by the Enneagram? A believer or a skeptic?

Today is the first episode of The New Leader Podcast for 2023, and my special guest is Karl Hebenstreit PhD. I was skeptical when approached about this topic, but glad I kept an open mind as we had a really interesting chat.

Karl is an executive coach, speaker, and organizational development consultant, and author of the book, "Taking Care of Business with The Enneagram."

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The 9 primary core motivators not covered in other personality tests
• How understanding this framework can help you create a better path forward in 2023, both personally & professionally
• The difference between the Golden Rule vs. Platinum Rule, and how to leverage this when leading for the first time.
•  

The ‘Platinum Rule’

Most people are familiar with the golden rule ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’. And I was going along with that philosophy until I presented at a conference… and learned that it’s about invoking the ‘Platinum Rule’ of finding out how people wanted to be treated. That is going to be different than the way you’d want to be treated.

What sets apart the Enneagram

Any tool like the Myers-Briggs, DISC, Insights, or Hogan – these tools focus on the behaviors. They don’t focus on the purpose or the motivation or the reason behind these behaviors. And that’s where the Enneagram comes in.

It boils it down to the nine primary core motivators that we have in our lives. And each of us is going to be affiliating with one of them more than the other eight.

Breaking out of the box

Human beings are very fond of categorizing people. So how do you break out of the box that you’re put in? And so knowing which box you are put in is actually a release because now you know, “Oh great, I know what box I put myself in and what other people are probably putting me in. Now, how can I break out of that box?”

So [knowing your Enneagram] is really a way of breaking out of your box by identifying what box you’re already in.”

Links and Resources

Connect with Karl: Website, LinkedIn

Taking Care of Business with The Enneagram by Karl Hebenstreit PhD (book)

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith (book)

"Now is the time to set yourself apart. Don't wait to be rescued or magically promoted - take back control."  - Ian Daley

As we start to wind down another year in this crazy world, I want to share a special offer for my podcast listeners. I have something that can help you elevate your career in 2023 and beyond...at a significant discount ;)

It's my way of saying thank you for listening - all the posts, comments, and messages mean a lot. I appreciate you, and hope you have benefited from the sharp insights and teachings the show has provided over the years.

Curious? Hit that play button to learn more.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

Connect with Ian at [email protected] or on LinkedIn to learn more about this limited-time offer!

Links and Resources

Connect with Ian: LinkedIn, Email

"Many of us forget to be in service to the most important person in our lives - ourselves." - Earle G. Hall

Do you find vulnerability scary? Have you ever been told you need to become more self-aware? Then today's episode is for you!

My guest is Earle G. Hall, CEO of AXES.ai, a fintech company present in over 40 countries dedicated to the eradication of money laundering, addictive gambling, and illicit activities.

I took furious notes during this interview because when you've traveled to 108 countries like he has, you learn a few things ;)

Earle is Vice-Chairman of the International Gaming Standards Association and a Government Blockchain Association board member. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and a Veteran Army Officer. He also holds a master's degree in Public Administration and has undertaken doctoral studies in Organizational Psychology.

He hails from my home province of Newfoundland, and in this episode you'll learn:

• Why one of the greatest qualities a new leader can cultivate is self-awareness, and how to crack that code early in your career
• The power of humanizing your colleagues in a world of lost connection (hint: it's easier than you think)
• A life-changing tip he received from General Romeo Dallaire, and how it can help elevate you, too...and more!

How Vulnerability Inspires Others

The more I showed them my real, authentic, and vulnerable self, the more engaged they became with me and the more productive they became. That’s when I learned that there’s something more to leadership than just giving direction, orders, and getting things done.

Overcoming your fears and insecurities

When you look out to the group and you’re trying to guess everything they’re judging about you, you’re just judging yourself.

So what you can do as a new leader is you can take note of everything you think people are judging you about, because all that is is chatter coming out of your brain. It’s doubt, lack of confidence, self-esteem, and these are the things that you need to overcome to sit inside yourself and just be authentic.

Making the most out of your new leader role

New leaders have a competitive edge. Because when you’re a new leader, you know almost nothing, and so you get to ask questions and learn many things. You get to listen actively and engage with people sincerely.

And when an employee sees a new leader that is interested, engage, and genuinely wanting to understand, that employee will open up their entire knowledge base and hand it over to you for free.

Links and Resources

Connect with Earl: LinkedIn

Richard Beckhard books

Trello

"There's no easy way to make hard decisions." - Jacques Lopez

Are you a leader who has to sell to/collaborate with leaders outside your organization? If so, the latest episode of The New Leader Podcast is for you!

My guest today is Jacques Lopez, Sr Director North American Channels at Veracode.

Jacques holds a BSc from Northeastern University and a MBA from Dalhousie University. And, we used to work as doormen at a campus bar way back when. It was a blast to trade a few stories back and forth, as well as hear Jacques' keen insight on how to work successfully with leaders outside your organization.

In this episode you'll learn:

• The importance of knowing exactly what you want (and how to create a partner profile)
• How to ensure you're working at the right level (where decision-making happens)
• The power of a "frame of reference" and how to create one that works effectively… and much more!

Getting on the right foot

If you have an idea of what’s the ideal partner profile or what the ideal relationship would look like, having that as a starting point is very helpful. Because if you don’t know what you want, you can spend a lot of time running circles around people that have interest but don’t have a good alignment with the company, or the value proposition you have for them just won’t land.

Choosing the right person to work with

Make sure you’re working with someone at the right level to accomplish the goals that you have. You can’t go too low or too high. If you go too low, somebody may not have the authority to try and get other people involved in the company, to help build out a better alignment. And if you go too high, you get connected to other people but, things aren’t necessarily happening at the tactical level when you’re dealing with a strategic CEO. So that’s something you need to be aware of as well.

One critical lesson in relationship building

Not everybody operates the way you operate. There are some people that are more relationship based, some are very detailed when it comes to numbers. You have to meet people where they’re at and help them be successful the way they do things.

Links and Resources

Connect with Jacques: LinkedIn, Email

The Exceptional Presenter Goes Virtual by Timothy J. Koegel (book)

The Productivity Game PDF Package

"Perfection equals disconnection." - Dr. Michelle K. Johnston

Are you a perfectionist? Do you struggle to connect with your team? Your boss? If so, the latest episode of The New Leader Podcast is for you!

My guest today is Dr. Michelle K. Johnston, author of The Seismic Shift in Leadership.

Michelle holds a PhD in Communications from Louisiana State University, is a member of the MG100 Coaches group, and serves as the Gaston Chair of Business at Loyola University New Orleans. An absolute class act, and we had such a fun and informative chat!

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why connection drives results
• How to determine if your people feel seen, heard, valued, respected and appreciated
• How to use the 5 elements of assessment to determine how connected you are with your team, and what to do next...and much more!

Be intentional about connecting

It takes intention to carve time in your meetings to ask about that person on a personal level, ask them how their kids are or about their travel plans or whatnot. That’s what drives results.

Connection drives results. Connection is the only way you can disrupt.

First steps to connecting to your team

The first thing you can do as a new leader is a self-assessment. Ask yourself or your people, do your people feel seen, heard, valued, respected, and appreciated? Because those are the five elements of how to meaningfully connect with your people.

Connection drives results

I had this realization that number one, command and control is no longer effective. Jerk bosses no longer allowed. Number two, that it was all about connection.

Only after I have conducted all my interviews did I realize how much connection drives results. So connection first and foremost drives well-being. Well-being then drives team collaboration and psychological safety, which then drives productivity, increased decision-making, which then drives innovation, and innovation drives financial performance.

Links and Resources

Connect with Michelle: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter

The Seismic Shift In Leadership by Dr. Michelle K. Johnston (book)

"Get up and meet people!" - Joe Kwon

The latest episode of The New Leader Podcast is here!

My guest today is Joe Kwon, who's also known as "The Connection Counselor."

He is a privacy attorney, coach, podcast host, and currently Associate Director, Global Quality & Risk Management at KPMG (US). And, he is a genuinely good human being!

Joe is also an author, and today we dig into his excellent book, "Unlock Your Executive Presence." In this episode you'll learn:

• The importance of 'blending' - what that is, and how to use it
• The six degrees of executive presence and how to leverage them to your advantage
• How to develop the ability to inspire confidence to lead...and much more!

How you grow as a leader 

Whether it’s your manager, people from other departments, CEO, etc., if they know you, do they put their confidence in you? If they don’t know you, how are you being represented?

What is that thing that can make people confident in you? Once you discover that, blend it with what you already have – your skills, personality, et cetera. Because it’s not about just giving them what they want, it’s about bringing out the best version of yourself.

Executive Presence in a nutshell

Executive presence is the ability to inspire confidence that you can lead well in a given situation. That because of your presence and the way you are, people will want to put you in charge.

Key to Executive Presence

The key is to look at the presence, not the trappings of an executive – but what is the presence of an executive? When you’re in a room and there are five people, and one person clearly seems like the executive, why is that?

And I’ll tell you, it’s not the way they dress, it’s not the way they communicate and it’s not their gravitas. It’s their state of being in the situation.

Links and Resources

Connect with Joe: LinkedIn, Instagram, Website

Unlock Your Executive Presence by Joe Kwon (book)

Implicit Leadership Theory

Executive Presence and the Diversity Dilemma (Udemy course)

The latest episode of The New Leader Podcast is here! 

My guest is the one and only, Tom Kolditz. I cannot recall an episode that included so many actionable pieces of advice. It was truly a pleasure to hear his perspective on what leadership skills are needed for the next generation. Grab a pen!

Tom's resume is stacked, but here's a snapshot:

- Highly experienced professional public speaker, and global expert in leading in crisis and in extreme circumstances
- Retired Army general officer
- Founder of 5 (!) successful leader development start-ups, including:
- West Point Leadership Center
- Leader Development Program at the Yale School of Management
- Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University

We sat down to chat about critical skills that the next generation of leaders will need. You don't want to miss this one!  A few example of what you will learn: 

- What a leader's most important obligation is (this one may surprise you)
- How an outward focus on others can set you apart
- Why new leaders ask surface questions and successful leaders ask tactical questions 
- And much, much more!

Ps. My favourite line? "Be kind to yourself. You will never get leadership exactly right." 

Being influential

I think it’s important for leaders to understand that being a leader is not about them. Being a leader is about having influence and being effective at improving the performance of other people. So it doesn’t have to do with any particular quality you have as a person – doesn’t matter if you are an extrovert or an introvert – you should pretty much be yourself.

Success or failure is determined by your influence on others and by their actions, not by any personal qualities you have as a leader.

Be kind to yourself

I don’t care how long you’ve lead or how many people you’re in charge with, you will never get leadership exactly right. It’s too large. And the best leaders that I know make mistakes all the time.

So be kind to yourself; when something happens in your organization that you did not expect, just be kind to yourself because things like that will continue to happen throughout your entire career.

Things that should be done in private

In making corrections, always do it in private. If you have to call somebody out, do it in private because you don’t want that negativity poisoning the whole team. Because when they look at how you treat someone else, they’re going to assume that that’s how you’re going to treat them if they are in the same situation in the future. That also goes with firing people.

Links and Resources

Connect with Tom: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook

The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner (book)

Good to Great by Jim Collins (book)

Good to Great For the Social Sector by  Jim Collins (book)

Jim Collins books

Simon Sinek books

Marshall Goldsmith books

"If you solve the problem on the whiteboard, you're only 10% of the way there." - Greg Rice

Sometimes I'm lucky to listen to a leader who walks the talk.

Someone who exemplifies leadership in all they do, and genuinely cares about treating people right. The type of leader you'd want to work with, and work for.

That person is today's guest, Co-President of Klick Health, Greg Rice. He shares valuable insights from his career journey, from his early days as a new pharmacist to being part of the leadership team at the world's largest independent health marketing agency. And we also chat about the famous Klick culture!

In this episode, you'll learn:

- How leaders can create clarity and calm amidst the chaos

- Why aligning your values to your work is critical to long-term success

- The importance of amplifying the voice of junior staffers

- What makes Klick's culture so special vs. other companies..and much more!

Don't miss it!

Hiring the best talents

When we go and pitch a large piece of business, sure the spec work that we showed them on that day is important, but we all know that spec work will never see the light of day. What they are buying into is the capability. And at that moment, we are also trying to build instant trust with them, and that comes down to the talent in the room.

So if it’s about talent, then from a leadership standpoint, we better try to find the best in the business and that’s what we really strive to do.

Delivering clarity as a leader

A leader’s job is to create calmness and clarity. And that level of clarity takes time and effort. And if you get stingy on that, it can bite you. It can result to this unsettled, exhausting atmosphere that lack of clarity creates within an organization.

So make sure you pause and communicate. And for any change that happens, get a feedback and continue to refine that overtime and you’ll be highly rewarded for that high amount of clarity that you delivered as a leader.

Training your replacement

Find and coach your replacement. What that means is scaling your capability to a point where you can have someone step in and you can focus your energies elsewhere, maybe into some new initiatives, new areas of interest or opportunities for you.

That inherently means you coaching and guiding someone else into your role. That kind of scale mindset may not be applicable to all leaders in different roles, but certainly it has been for me in scaling and growing a successful business.

Links and Resources

Connect with Greg: LinkedIn, Website (Klick)

Link by Author (book)

Conscious Business by Fred Kofman (book)

Todoist app