“Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun. If it ain’t fun, don’t do it.” – Dean MacDonald

My guest on The New Leader Podcast today is St. John's-based Dean MacDonald, a seasoned business executive, entrepreneur, investor and all-around great guy. He had me laughing pretty well the entire time – I wish I could've recorded a few more hours with him (keep an ear for his awesome 90s era Blue Jays tale). Dean has an incredible life story and I was taking copious notes between questions.

He was President of a cable company at 25, held several high-profile roles as COO (Rogers), CEO (Persona Communications, Clearstream Energy), and was chair of the BoD for NL Hydro. Did I mention he also owns the Newfoundland Growlers hockey club (2019 ECHL champs)? He knows a thing or two..

In this episode you'll learn:

- Why hiring is a critical skill for all business leaders, how much time you should spend on it, and how to get it right (hint: it's not about the interview guide)
- What mistakes young leaders typically make and how to avoid them
- Why culture is king and how to build it effectively
- How unusual and awkward stories can make you memorable, and more!

Special shout out to fellow Newfoundlander Ryan Hurley for making this episode happen ;)

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

I think I matured as a manager by being a better listener – using my ears instead of my mouth. My early mistakes were ones of either thinking I knew it all, or thinking I needed to know it all because I was the boss – and that’s just a classic mistake.

Hiring the right people

I spent an inordinate amount of time on hiring and ended up with absolutely fantastic people who were a part of my leadership teams through the various companies – many of them I’ve worked in many different companies together. Also hiring the right people who were super smart.

At the end of the day, I’d like to say that in the companies I worked with, it didn’t matter where the best idea came from. We had an environment where an idea can come from anywhere and we can act on it, and everyone took pride in it.

Lots of debate, lots of discussion and lots of discourse, but that always led to a better answer.

This may sound odd, but I don’t tend to get too worked up about whether they went to Harvard or they went to a much lesser-known University, because a lot of that sometimes is based on privilege and other things.

If they’ve got the basics, they’ve done their education that’s helpful, I like to look at the non-standard stuff. Were they a team captain in sports? Were they a leader in their school choir, or cub scouts? All that stuff that tells you who that person is. What were their summer jobs? What’s their background?

I love getting people who play sports, because they’ve won, they’ve lost, they’ve learned how to deal with both. Team sports is a great builder of character, goal-setting, etc. So I tend to move a little more in that direction, because that’s something I know more and I’m comfortable with.

I also see it in people who have an interest in the arts. I love hiring people out of the Humanities, because they have a very interesting problem-solving ability than someone who’s very binary.

Links and Resources

Connect with Dean: Twitter

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

My guest on The New Leader Podcast today is Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry. He’s the co-founder of the Institute for Health and Human Potential and a New York Times best-selling author of Performing Under Pressure. JP is also the host of his own podcast called the Last 8% Morning where he talks about a routine which integrates movement, mindfulness and mental training to help you start your day and be at your best.

He is an advisor to the US Army and Navy, Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Mercedes Benz, and Goldman Sachs, and performance coach to NFL, NBA teams, and Olympic medal-winning athletes.

In this episode you'll learn:

• What the Last 8% is and why we struggle with it,
• What we can do to get over that last 8%,
• The BBIIGG structure,
• The benefits of Movement, Mindfulness and Mental Training,
• How to perform better under pressure, and much more..

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

We’re pretty good at covering 75-80-85-90-92% of what we want to say, but when we get to the last 8%, that more difficult part of the conversation, we struggle.

Say, you and I are having a conversation. I’m giving you feedback, and when I get to the last 8% of the feedback, what’s interesting is that as I get to that last 8%, you start to get a sense of where it’s going. You realize that there’s consequences attached to what I’m going to say to you. Now you start to get a bit triggered and emotional, and now you infect me with your emotion.

Here’s the interesting part – I get infected with your emotion and without even realizing it, as opposed to approaching that last 8%, I avoid it.

This is what we found that’s consistent – it’s a pattern. I avoid that last 8% and we both leave that conversation and you think we had a conversation. I think we had a conversation, but of course I conveniently left out that last 8%.

A month later, I’m looking at you and I’m saying, “Ian, what’s going on? I thought we had a conversation? Why are you still doing that?” You’re looking at me, saying, “JP, I thought we were on track. Why are you being so passive-aggressive?”

The problem is we never had the last 8% of the conversation.

It’s not just the last 8% of conversations that we struggle with; it’s also the last 8% decisions. We fall into what we call a predictable default behavior of either avoiding or making a mess.

What I want you to walk away with is, what’s the last 8% situation you’re struggling with? What’s your pattern? What’s your predictable default behavior? If you know that, then you can do something about it.

Movement, Mindfulness and Mental Training

Movement

We now know that there’s an internal pharmacy in our body. When we move, our quads spit out - more than any other muscle – myokines. When we exercise, myokines go into our bloodstream and can cross the blood-brain barrier. Now we know it has three specific effects:

1. They move into our brain and they make us more stress-resilient.
2. They help us enjoy pleasure more.
3. We feel more trusting of others so we can collaborate more effectively.

Just by doing 15-20 minutes of moderate exercise, like going for a walk, will turn on these three effects.

To learn more about Mindfulness and Mental Training, listen to the podcast here or by clicking the play button above.

Links and Resources

Connect with JP: LinkedIn

Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most by  Hendrie Weisinger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry

http://ihhp.com/

The Last 8% Morning

The Last 8% Project Facebook Group

“You gotta go to grow.” – Amber Reimer

My guest on The New Leader Podcast today is Amber Reimer, a seasoned leader with a background in executive coaching, change leadership, and building workplace cultures.  She is currently Director, Learning & Organizational Development at WestJet Airlines based in Calgary, Alberta. You can check out the episode in the comments section below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Amber holds an MSc in Organizational Development from Pepperdine University and has been a part of the WestJet family for over 10 years; she walks the talk.  WestJet's world famous "culture of care" has paved the way for employees since the late 90s, and will be the foundation of their future - especially in an industry that's been turned upside down with COVID-19.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why new managers need to meet people where they are; not where they think they should be
• Why humility matters - take your job seriously, not yourself!
• How to grow your career by finding a "truth teller"
• How to create a promising onboarding experience that employees will love
• The power of grittiness, and much more..

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

I assumed that everyone else had the same career desires as myself. That might have been one of my biggest learnings about how to meet people where they are at. As a leader, that’s one of the most important things we can do.

I look back on my relationship with my team and I projected all of my own stuff and ambitions on to them, and was frustrated that they didn’t want the same things as me or didn’t have the same level of efficiency.

Looking back, I lost out on activating what was possible in them, rather than just tying to drag them through what my own ambition was at the time.

I’m grateful that I learned that early and I’m grateful that some of those people are still my friends and we made it through.

As leaders, it’s important we don’t project our own story onto those folks, because what they offer a team is so valuable, and we can’t overlook it.

If you’re looking for certainty, you probably signed up for the wrong job. As a leader, you are responsible to build the aircraft as you're flying it – to use our own metaphor – and you’re not going to have all the answers. The step by step roadmap isn’t just going to appear for you.

What you will always have is your values – what you stand for, the experiences that can inform the future. You apply that to the never-been-done-before, and that allows us to navigate unprecedented events.

Going back to our culture of care, we want to show up that way to our people, our guests, the marketplace, and staying authentic to that is going to be critical. It’s what made us successful in the past, and it’s what’s going to be critical to our culture.

Get to know yourself. Know what matters to you. Understand your values – what motivates you? What are your vulnerabilities?

I think people who have that sense of clarity and purpose, they show up humbly, they show up of service to people, to their organizations, to the people around them, and that’s really quite instrumental.

The balance to that as well is find a truth-teller who also knows you – a handful of them – so they can affirm your strengths, your values, how you’re showing up.

They’re that reflection you could trust when they say, “You’re not really showing up how I’d known you to be” or “I know you’ve got more in you.” They can push you from the sidelines and they will be your true partners in your success.

Links and Resources

Connect with Amber: LinkedIn

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

The Kanban Board

“The idea that ‘I know it all’ does not exist. Instead, I’m always hungry and thirsty for learning. I want to be a ‘learn-it-all.’” 

Magdy Karam

My guest on The New Leader podcast today is Magdy Karam, a passionate leader who has been a part of the Microsoft family for over 20 years. He’s currently the Chief Learning Officer of Microsoft Canada based in Mississauga, Ontario.

I first met him at the Learning and Development Masterclass 2020 in Toronto, as were both speaking at the event back in March.

His talk was really interesting, especially for leaders looking to better understand the importance of a learning culture and why it matters - and how to start building one in their own organizations, which is exactly what we will talk about today.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why you should not stay in one role for too long
• How to create a learning culture in your organization
• How a growth mindset connects to learning culture
• Four ways leaders can role model a growth mindset
• The challenges of creating culture change, and much more..

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Don’t stay in one role for too long. Take your time moving from one job to the other and make these moves intentional.

I’m not saying haphazardly move between the roles, but every time you land on a job, learn it well. And then start thinking,

“How can I move again?”
“Where to?”
“What is complementing my set of skills?”

And make that move intentional. Make your learning continuous and purposeful.

I’m trying to create this insatiable desire for learning. At Microsoft, we call it creating fans, and what I’m trying to create is Learning Fans.

If I can get to a point where people go, “I want to be doing that. I want to be learning continuously. I want to be as efficient, as valuable, as marketable” and they become a learning fan, then my job is done.

My vision is to get to a point where people love to learn, and this is something that becomes part of who they are. There’s no cajoling or trying or pushing or anything like that; people just want to do it for their own benefit. That’s the vision.

Your Role in Creating a Learning Culture/Growth Mindset

The leadership has a key role to play here. We expect them to role model a growth mindset in four ways.

In their daily behaviors, patterns and habits. For instance, leading from the front and be the first to consume their own training and talk about what they learned.

Things like in the systems and processes they put in place. For instance, their governance and review meetings should be much more focused on learning as opposed to inspection, that people will get used to that and have an understanding that it’s okay to come to a meeting and learn, as opposed to them fearing the meeting because of the “inspection.”

We also expect them to show it through the symbols, the things they highlight and focus on. For instance, what gets highlighted and rewarded? If you’re encouraging curiosity and giving rewards for people who have learned something, then again it sends a strong message around the learning culture.

Finally, we talk about storytelling. This is basically how you talk every day in your meetings, in your email, online. The language must change. The questions they ask must change.

Things like, “What have you learned?” or “If you can do it all over again, what would you change? How are you going to share this information with others?” These are the types of messages and questions and language that we expect our leaders to continually say again and again.

And they have to be consistent. Otherwise, people will get skeptical that this is just a fad and it will go away.

Links and Resources

Connect with Magdy: LinkedIn

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

The Sticky Note

“Work on yourself harder than you work on your job. All leadership development starts and ends with personal development; you cannot separate the two out, so find ways to grow and improve yourself.” – Alain Hunkins

Welcome back to the show, everyone! Thanks for being here.

My guest today is Alain Hunkins, TEDx Speaker and author of the new book, Cracking the Leadership Code. Over the last 20 years, Alain has trained tens of thousands of leaders across 25 countries, helping them shorten their leadership curve and accelerate growth. He also serves on the faculty of Duke Corporate Education.

Today’s topic is Old School Leaders in a New School World.

We also talk a bit about:

• How to build your focus and communication,
• The 3 secrets to building strong leaders,
• The 4 fundamental needs that need to be satisfied for people to perform at their best,
• Why the old school leader flounders in today’s current environment,
• What led us to that point today, and
• What they can do to remain relevant and effective.

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Some of the things I learned early on through failure is that whether it’s kids or adults, people need really clear instructions on what to do. If people don’t have clarity, it’s a mess.

Give people an understanding of why we’re doing what we’re doing, and that ‘why’ needs to relate to something for them. What’s in it for them to listen?

You, as a leader, have an agenda, and so do the people you’re leading. If you want, you can take a piece of paper and put a line down the middle. On the left side, build your agenda. On the right side of that line, put down their agenda. “What’s in it for me to listen?” “Why should I be engaged?” “If I do well, what happens?” “If I don’t do well, what happens?”

And then as you’re building out your communication, just forget the left side. Just build it from the right side. Build it out of their agenda. Because the fact is, leaders, we need to frame our focus and our communication from the point of view of those who we want to lead.

If you know that you want to get better, the first thing I would do is reach out and ask for feedback from people around you. Honest, open, candid feedback.

“I want to get better. What do you suggest I do?”

You can use a formal 360 instrument, or you can just go over and have an honest conversation. If you make the introduction and open the door to people, you’d be surprised at what people would give you.

We say 23% of leaders lead well. If I had a room of 100 leaders, I doubt only 23 of them will raise their hand when I say, “Are you an effective leader?” We all like to think we are, but we’re blind to our own blindness. People feel safe when they’re doing these anonymous surveys about how are your leaders, but if there’s no repercussions, they’ll speak up.

The first secret to building strong leaders

The first place I would start is connection. The fact is, leadership isn’t really a job title or a position; leadership is a relationship between two human beings – the person who leads, and the person who chooses to follow.

Connection starts with listening – listening with empathy and purpose. Beyond anything that you have in terms of your intelligence or your technical functional skills, people want to know that you care about them. Leaders who listen with purpose and empathy outperform their colleagues by 40%.

Links and Resources

Connect with Alain: LinkedIn | Twitter

https://www.alainhunkins.com/

https://crackingtheleadershipcode.com

Cracking the Leadership Code: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders by Alain Hunkins

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

Project Aristotle

Productivity Tools: Freedom App, Focusmate

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the show. Today’s topic is How Learning and Development is Adapting to the New World of Work.

My special guest today is Tom Edgar, Learning Visionary at Roche Pharmaceuticals. He’s someone whom I’ve known for many years as we crisscrossed paths in the pharmaceutical world.

In this episode, we also talk about:

• The future of work,
• Why learning needs to change,
• Shifting the accountability to the learner,
• Learning from your network,
• Diversity of thought, and a whole lot more.

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Probably the biggest failure is when you’re under the crunch, it’s so much faster to give that advice as opposed to actually stopping and asking the right questions and allowing it to bring that out.

I can honestly say that there are times, even today, that you really have to stop yourself from falling into – I know you interviewed Michael Bungay Stanier not too long ago around that – “advice trap”.

But if you take that to the learning side of things – and I think this is probably where I have developed, it is really from that learning state – is it actually to, to use the old adage, give people fish or teach them to fish?

The quick way might be to just give them the fish, but in the long run you’re really not doing them any favors. So from the long-run perspective, it’s better to take the time to ask those questions and to really draw out and let those individuals learn because it’s going to benefit them more in the long run.

I think we need to see a shift in accountability to the learner. We talk about adult education and how it differs from educating kids, and I think we really need to take that to heart, not just as learning and development practitioners, but also as employees and as people who are going to have to become continuous, self-directed learners.

I think it was Wayne Gretzky who said, “Great hockey players go not where the puck is, but where it’s going,” and I think you really need to take accountability and say to yourself, “What is it that I want? What is it that I need from a knowledge perspective to be able to go to where the puck is going?”

The content – that’s another big piece of this. Again, you look at how fast information is changing around us. The old way of doing things, learning and development, curating content, is not going to be fast enough. We can’t create courses, we can’t create materials fast enough o be able to me the needs of learners, so learners have to be the ones to curate the content as well.

Diversity of thought

The old way is there’s a tried, true and tested way of doing things, so that was the hierarchical approach to business – this is just the way we do things. In old business, that makes a lot of sense.

In today’s world, things are moving so fast. In order to be agile, we need to be more open to different ideas. Your way of doing something might be a right way, but is it the best way? Is it the fastest way? Is it the most cost-effective way? Is there a way we could do it better? Because that’s going to give everybody a competitive advantage.

To be honest with you, that diversity of thought comes from a learning perspective. It really is, “Are you curious about doing things differently?” Learning is going to evolve from this idea of, “I’m going to go to a course and I’m going to learn something and I’m going to implement it in my job.”

Learning happens every single day on the job, and the companies that are going to succeed are the ones that can literally harness the power that comes out of learning every day and learning to do things better, faster. That comes through diversity of thought.

If I’m not open to Sally’s way of doing things because this is just the way we do it, I’m not going to innovate, I’m not going to get better and we’re not going to find ways to do things better.

Links and Resources

Connect with Tom: LinkedIn | Twitter

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge

Trello

Agile

Kanban Board

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness by Frederic Laloux

If you just live a life of ease, then you fashion a mind that can only handle ease.

Hi everyone, welcome to the show! Today’s episode is all about Management with Ryan Hawk. Ryan’s a keynote speaker, author, advisor and host of the wildly popular podcast, The Learning Leader Show. He has millions of listeners in over 150 countries so he’s a great person to talk to today about your first endeavor into management.

He’s been a professional quarterback in the football world, a VP of sales at a multibillion-dollar company and currently heads Brixey & Meyer’s Leadership Advisory practice.

We also dive into:

• His experience in sales,
• Developing self-awareness,
• Leading yourself,
• Creating your personal board of advisors,
• How to build and lead your team,
• Developing self and spatial awareness, and a whole lot more.

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

The specific topic I wrote about in Welcome to Management is really personal to me because I vividly remember when I got promoted at a young age, from an individual sales professional to leading a team of 16 people, and how ill-prepared I was. I thought I was fully prepared because I had been a leader on the football field as a quarterback. I had some success, and I thought that would transition into the business world.

While some of those experiences and actions were helpful, for the most part not much transitioned into the business world and so I had so much to learn.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way by making many mistakes over years before I became an average manager. So I thought there wasn’t really the manual or playbook out there to help somebody in my position when I was making that leap, so I wanted to solve that problem and write that book.

One of the keys when you become a person in a leadership role is you have to get very clear on creating your personal board of advisors. Who are those people that you’re going to surround yourself with, that you can go to when you have questions, problems, issues?

Who are those few people that you can go to to say, “Wow, I had no idea this was going to happen. This was really surprising. How would you handle this?”

You need to be intentional about creating that board of advisors – just a handful of people who are there for you, care about you and willing to be honest with you. That’s something that I would get set and get clear on right away as you’re working to get promoted or you’ve been promoted. You’re going to need those people, so get it set up properly from the beginning.

Be very intentional about first identifying what excellence looks like, what are the qualities you really want, what are the types of behaviors of people that you really want – getting really crystal-clear on that – then creating a system before identifying if the people you are interviewing possess those behaviors and qualities.

That’s something I was not very good at when I was a new manager. I just had a list of questions forwarded to me by another manager who had been in the job for a few years, that had been forwarded to them, and there was no real rhyme or reason for the questions we were asking in the interview. We didn’t even fully know what we were looking for. I would just ask questions and then use my gut instinct to make a call.

When you're talking about the building of your team and the people, they’re going to make or break you as a leader.

Links and Resources

Connect with Ryan: Twitter | LinkedIn

https://learningleader.com/

Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader by Ryan Hawk

Ryan’s Productivity Tools: Calendar, Google Suite, Google Keep, Kindle, Evernote

Hi everyone! Welcome back to today’s episode: How Leaders Can Uncover Their Blind Spots. We’ve all seen leaders who are fully aware of those blind spots, and we’ve seen leaders who are not aware of those blind spots and the impact that can have on their people and their organization.

My guest is Jason Treu. He’s an executive coach and best-selling author of Social Wealth, a how-to guide on building extraordinary business relationships. He’s been a TEDx Speaker, where he debuted his team-building game, Cards Against Mundanity, and he himself is the host of the Executive Breakthroughs Podcast where CEOs, entrepreneurs and experts share their breakthroughs and breakdowns.

In this episode, we also talk about:

• The importance of making time to build relationships,
• Psychological safety
• Asking for feedback
• Understanding the fundamental patterns sabotaging your success, and a whole lot more.

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

I had to get everyone to buy-in on the team by getting to know them. Just trying to show a great plan or getting some results wasn’t enough to motivate people. I really have to understand and learn a lot about them.

The same thing happened on the client side. I had to build a lot of relationships with people, and then I had to fundamentally understand their business from top to bottom, so I not only could give them marketing advice, but also business advice.

In life, what happens is that you start learning as a kid and over time, you become an adult. Some of the things you learned as a child, no one tells you to stop learning over time. Your parents might tell you, “Don’t talk to strangers” when you were ten because they don’t want you to get into trouble and get abducted or something. But what they don’t tell you when you’re 18 and going off to college is you have to do that to meet people.

What ends up happening is a lot of the things that end up helping you or keeping you safe are now sabotaging your success.

One simple example is, let’s say there’s someone who’s a poor listener and they’re having problems. People around them are telling them they’re not good listeners, they don’t seem engaged, they don’t care about them. When I go back to their childhood, they’ve lived with very large families. They grew up with quite a few siblings and they had to yell over their siblings to get their parents’ attention.

I was working with someone and they wanted to go to a school function back when they were in fifth grade. I was like, “What did you do?” and they were like, “Well, I elbowed my sister and brother really hard, simultaneously…and they fell off their chairs. And then I yelled across the table at my Mom and Dad and told them I needed them to go to some school function. And they said, “Yes.”

Then I asked them, “Could you have gotten them to go any other way?” And they were like, “Probably not, because I wasn’t that loud or overbearing, so it was really hard to get their attention with everyone around, so I was really worried I couldn’t.”

They learned at that point that listening wasn’t helpful, and it would not have gotten them what they wanted. Well, they carried that trait through their entire career, and now it’s killing their success and the people around them are frustrated and won’t talk to them.

Change and great things start inside of you, not out. I always say that that’s the place you ultimately have to start from to learn, and that helps you learn about other people. If you don’t, these blind spots will end up crushing you because you’ll unable to see them but everyone around you will.

Links and Resources

Connect with Jason: LinkedIn

https://jasontreu.com

Social Wealth: How to Build Extraordinary Relationships By Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Lead and Network by Jason Treu

Cards Against Mundanity

Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think by Tasha Eurich

Project Aristotle

The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy Edmondson

The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Shawn Achor

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo

Progress, not perfection.

Welcome back, everybody! I hope you’re having a fantastic day, wherever you are right now. Today’s episode is all about you and your health – Gaining an Edge: Physical Fitness for Leaders. Anybody who’s been in a leadership role will know it’s a critical element to your success. You’re navigating a lot of uncertainty, a lot of the stresses that come with that – the overwhelm, the people, etc.

Carolynne Simons is the Director at Stay Fit Plans, Inc., a triathlete, and an ambassador for Multisport Canada. She is extremely passionate about health and performance – she lives and breathes it, which is why she’s sharing her expertise with us today.

In this episode, we dive into:

• The physical and mental aspects of health,
• Strategies on how to find what works for you and your schedule,
• The benefits of using tools, devices and/or software
• Where and how to start, and a lot more.

Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

At Novo Nordisk, we’re seeing physical education becoming a part of the culture. I get to be part of facilitating the journey of personal development.

Where we can see some success there is when leaders finish up a workout, they just start nailing problem-solving, personal conflicts, strategy meetings, go better, generating ideas, and being flexible on outcomes.

Because the industry is really shifting the way we exercise, using something to help you automate behavior is really great. Exercise is a 365-day thing – it’s hard work, it’s persistence, it’s pain, failure, rejection, late nights. It’s everything, depending on the level you take it to.

“I need to be habit-forming now and get in my exercise for 20-30 mins, 3x/week, I’m going to start using something that’s going to be able to give me that cue.” I find that really important. It has to be something that you like, and you also have to decide if you want this broadcasted or not.

Getting it in during the workday is really important, I believe, if you have the flexibility to do that. But again, exercise, when it comes to the execution, is also knowing how to pull on your systems.

Whether you know how to weight-train, go for a run, go to the gym and jump in the pool, I’m really and firmly rooted in being able to teach a variety of things so that person can pull on that system to make it work for their lifestyle. If you have that variety in your systems, and you know you’re heading into an 8 o’clock work meeting, it’s going to be a busy day – pull that 20-minute yoga practice right in there and get that to be the kickstart of your day.

Looking at the metrics, I find showing it over time is critical, but I really am keen and enthusiastic when we actually show where the individual client’s stress in the workout is comparably different when they started, especially if they’re having difficulty understanding if they’re making any progress.

The software also sparks a little bit of intellect in the client, and it allows them to understand, “Wow, I’m taking this away from all my training? And now, I actually know exactly why my workout is paced like this in two days, why she’s got me recovering in a day or two, and where we need to be hitting more breakthrough workouts.”

The tools that we use are very much a collaborative approach, but I’m extremely keen on making sure that the client knows exactly where we’re going.

Links and Resources

Connect with Carolynne: LinkedIn

https://stayfitplans.com/

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss

The number one reason people leave their managers is they say they’re not listened to. They’re ignored. – Oscar Trimboli

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the show. Today’s topic is all about Deep Listening: Is Poor Listening Costing You? This topic comes up in virtually every episode I’ve ever done, and yet it’s difficult to get a clear answer on how to do it effectively.

So my guest today will tell us exactly that and more. Oscar Trimboli is an executive coach and author of two books – Breakthroughs and Deep Listening. He’s a mentor and speaker to companies and leaders such as Google, Cisco, Microsoft, PayPal and others. He’s based in beautiful Sydney, Australia.

In this episode, we also dive into:

• Growing up in a multicultural environment,
• Listening beyond words,
• How to develop your leadership muscle faster,
• The various (and tragic) consequences of not listening,
• How listening well can help you in your leadership career,
• Giving attention and removing distractions, and a lot more.

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For a first time leader, they should always lead a team that they’ve never been a part of. You will develop your leadership muscle much faster.

The mistake I made and what I wasn’t set up for success is, despite the fact that I was promoted, I still wanted everybody to like me. I still wanted everybody to be my friend. I still treated everybody like a peer.

The relationship changes when you’re leading a team. One of the things I did really badly as a first-time leader is I didn’t lead the team; I led individuals. I never got the full power of the team working together and learning from each other, because I thought my role as a leader was to make each individual better, which is true, but that’s not your only job.

Know that you’re leading a system and you need to lead a team and you need to make sure that everybody knows and plays their position. You might need to change both the positions and the players on the team and you need to be OK with that.

But because I was too busy wanting to be liked, I didn’t make tough calls. I didn’t have the hard conversations; I didn’t have the courage to ask the group to do more than they had done in the past. I didn’t have the courage to look at what worked in the past may not be what’s going to work in the future.

Not listening can cost lives, but for most of us every day at work, listening is not going to cost lives. Listening is going to create confusion. Listening, or the lack of it, is going to create conflict and chaos in the workplace, and later, unprofitable work.

It’s going to lead to lost customers. It’s going to lead to regulators inspecting the business. It’s going to lead to media writing adverse stories about you.

We spent the 20th century learning how to speak with influence, power and conviction. The leadership pack of the 21st century, and the leadership pack that would differentiate you, is the ability to listen.

Developing this muscle will give you a career differentiator. In a world that increasingly is dealing with more complex work, that requires more and more listening and a little less speaking.

If you want to double your listening productivity straight away, switch off your cellphone. Switch off your laptop. Switch off any iPad tablet, any device that buzzes or beeps.

If you really want to listen, the most potent thing you can do is to give somebody your attention.

Links and Resources

Connect with Oscar: LinkedIn

https://www.oscartrimboli.com/

Deep Listening: Impact Beyond Words by Oscar Trimboli

Breakthroughs: How to confront assumptions by Oscar Trimboli

http://listeningmyths.com/