The New Leader with Ian Daley

Be a student of your craft and of management. Have the mindset that even if you might be doing a good job, you know you can get a lot better. There’s so much to learn. – Andy Storch

Hi everyone! Welcome to today’s episode.

Our guest for today is Andy Storch. Andy is a Talent Development Consultant and Partner at Advantage Performance Group based in sunny Orlando, Florida. He’s the host of two podcasts: Talent Development Hot Seat, and The Andy Storch Show.

Today we talk about:

• The importance of personal and professional branding
• Impostor Syndrome,
• Understanding and acknowledging your own strengths and weaknesses,
• Putting yourself (and your content) out there
• and a lot more.

Click that play button to listen! Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Impostor Syndrome

I remember the first time I was an analyst at a large insurance company in California. I got promoted as a product manager, and I had an analyst reporting to me.

I realized very quickly that she knew more about the job than I did, and that was an intimidating and humbling situation because I didn’t really feel like I should be her manager. I felt like she should by my manager.

I know a lot of people end up in situations like that – whether it’s legitimate or not – because many people have a little bit of “impostor syndrome”, where you don’t think that you really deserve the title or the position that you’re in. I definitely had that then.

What I’ve learned later on in life is that being a manager is not about being the smartest person. It’s not about knowing more than the people who report to you.

It’s about being able to coordinate, put them in the right position to do their jobs, be there to coach them and help them with issues they’re dealing with.

Personal and Professional Branding

I really believe that in the future of work, things are changing. We hear about the so-called “gig economy”. It doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to be a freelancer or an independent consultant like me, but I do think that companies are going to be going to more project-based work. People are going to be moving around more, working remotely, working in different positions, different places, changing jobs a lot more often.

Therefore, I think it becomes more and more important for people to understand their own strengths and the strengths of the people around them, and getting different roles based on what those strengths are. And they’re often going to assign those things based on what you’re known for.

Everybody has a brand, something they’re known for, whether they take time to define it or not.

Stay hungry

Keep that mindset that you’ve never really reached your destination, or you’re on a journey of learning, of growth, even when you are 50 or 60 years old and pretty established in your career. That you don’t know it all, you don’t have it all figured out. That you could always learn from other people, and you have this curiosity, always.

Links and Resources

Connect with Andy: LinkedIn

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman

Talent Development Think Tank 2019

http://www.talentdevelopmenthotseat.com/

http://bit.ly/AndyStorchShow

Knowing who you are and knowing what drives you – that will allow you to be more true to yourself, and it will allow you to have a more authentic leadership journey. – Steve Kent

Hi everyone! Welcome to today’s show. Our guest for today is Steve Kent, Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland.

Today we talk about:

• His background in volunteerism and community service,
• Mentorship,
• Failing forward,
• The ever-elusive work-life balance,
• The importance of authentic and genuine leadership, and a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Find a mentor

When I found myself sitting in the council chambers for the first time, of course there’s a degree of intimidation that naturally goes with that. But very quickly, some of the senior members of the council took me under their wing and were able to provide advice and feedback and coaching and support.

Some of those folks, for years, have remained close advisors and friends.

I did a lot of listening than talking in the early days. It’s really important to not go in with guns blazing and really get the lay of the land, listen carefully, learn, demonstrate that you are interested in listening and learning, and pick your moments in terms of weighing in on the discussions and debates.

That’s what set me up for success in local government.

Work-Life Balance

I allowed myself to be completely consumed by the work, and it was hard not to be, because I was so passionate about the work we were doing. It consumed me. It affected my relationships, my health, and other aspects of my life – whether it was volunteering or my political life. I was still studying, and that proved to be challenging.

That work-life balance thing is something that we’ll always struggle with, but I’ve had some wake-up calls in the early days about the importance of consciously trying to find that balance. When I failed to do so, I got myself in some tough spots.

I still struggle with work-life balance, but I’ve learned along the way. You learn to make better decisions and take more time to reflect, plan, cope and seek support.

Staying true to yourself

I’ve spent a lot of time in public life and elected office, there were lots of difficult moments in politics – some I can talk about and some that I swore an oath that I won’t talk about. But the times when I got myself in trouble was when I wasn’t completely true to myself.

The advice I have for any new leader: no matter what situation you’re in, don’t compromise your principles. Be true to yourself, lead with integrity, lead by example, be honest, be genuine, be authentic, be your own dog.

If you are sticking out like a nail, someone will try to hammer you down and it’s important that you don’t let that happen.

Links and Resources

Connect with Steve: LinkedIn

Facebook, Twitter

[email protected]

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath

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

Lists

Electronic Calendar

Fully understand where you are and maximize it.

Welcome to the show, everybody! Today’s guest is Jared Kligerman, President of The Think Tank, a boutique integrated marketing agency based here in Toronto, Canada.

Today we talk about the importance of networking as a new manager, and the power of those networking relationships.  

We also discuss

• Jared’s early leadership blunders lessons
• Networking tips for introverts
• Why and how you should be networking
• How to choose the right networking events
• Pruning your network, and a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Come without expectations

Some people go into networking with the objective of landing a job or a client. This is one of the reasons why networking “doesn’t work” – the expectation that you’re going to get something out of it.

What really did it for me was meeting a bunch of people at networking events, who, from the beginning of the conversation, I knew there wasn’t going to be any business opportunity there.

We hit it off around a bunch of different topics – some of them were around business, but a lot of them were about personal stuff or sports. Those were the people I’ve kept in touch with, who I call up on a regular basis.

My perception and my objective now when I go to networking events is, when I go, I try to meet 15 new people. Truthfully, I very rarely hit that goal, mostly because along the way I end up meeting people I really jive with and I end up having a fantastic conversation with.

Find someone you enjoy talking to

Don’t expect that everybody you meet will have a strong connection with you and will want to have a long-term relationship with you. That’s just not the case.

You’re not going to have a rapport with every person you talk to.

Once I start getting comfortable talking to three different people, I up it to four people, then five. Then I start saying, “Now I want to try and meet five people, and I’m going to see if I can get one of those to be someone who’s really worth connecting and staying in-touch with long-term.”

Now I’ve built a new layer of objective where it’s still not about the sales; it’s about meeting five people, and meeting one who’s really going to be helpful in some way, or just someone I want to talk to.

It’s OK to be Picky

Being a dad, I want to see my little one more often, and recognizing how much time and energy my wife puts into it, I also wanted to be an active part of it.

I’ve built my personal rule that I’m only out one night a week, sometimes two if I have a lot of heads-up notice. And usually that second one’s with my wife.

Because I’m only allowing myself to be out one night a week, I’ve had to really get picky about which events I’m going to. There’s a lot of networking events hosted on any given night, in any big city, and I know a lot of people who bounce around all of them. I’ve done it, and it’s exhausting, with very low returns.

Links and Resources

Connect with Jared: LinkedIn

http://tttmrktg.com/

Fuckup Nights

Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: The Ultimate Guide to Leadership in the New World of Business by Greg Witz

One Powerful Mind: The Complete Approach to Emotional Management at Home and at Work by Paul Witz

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Work-Life Balance

Lists

Healthy and engaged employees, in concert with a strong Growth Mindset workplace culture, are the secret sauce for business success.

When it comes to performance, it’s no surprise that the right mindset is critical to success. Today we’re going to talk with Dave Buzanko about how you can leverage a growth mindset to level up your results.

Dave is a Growth Mindset Strategist with over three decades of Marketing and Communication experience across many industries, including Banking, Retail, Wellness and Learning.

In this episode, we talk about:

• His wellness journey,
• Missed leadership opportunities,
• How Leadership styles evolved over the years,
• Leading your immediate circle of influence,
• Growth vs Fixed mindsets,
• How to develop a growth mindset,
• the five pillars of growth, and a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Leading your Inner Circle

To me, I always think, “I lead my family, my friends, and my co-workers around me.” I don’t lead thousands of people; I know that we can only manage so many relationships, so I try to focus on the ones that are closest to me. If I can teach those people how to care for the people in their charge, then my job as a leader is to pass that knowledge on.

That’s how I approach leadership today. It’s

Who’s in my immediate circle of influence?
What can I teach them?
How can I teach them?

How can I be the leader that they hope that I would be so that when they run into a tough situation, not only do they not feel embarrassed or ashamed or scared to speak up and say “I don’t have the answers,” but they’re willing to speak up and say, “I need your help”?

What is a growth mindset?

A person who has a Growth Mindset is somebody who is open to learning and improving their skill sets, while somebody with a fixed mindset believes that they’re born with a certain set of skills; they can’t improve upon those skills so they spend their lives measuring those skills and competing against each other, trying to define what they can do, but believing that there’s a limit to it.

In business and in life, we can easily be fooled into thinking that we are what we create for ourselves and we are nothing more.

The Five Pillars of Growth

For me, to make things actionable, I actually have five pillars of growth mindsets, and they’re based on five of the best scientific books.

Five Pillars of Growth:

1. Understanding Why You Do What You Do
2. Defining Happiness in Your Life
3. The Ripple Effect
4. Critical Mistake Analysis
5. The Power of Identity

Links and Resources

Connect with Dave: LinkedIn

[email protected]

www.heartfit365.com

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

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

Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek

The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life by Shawn Achor

The Ripple Effect: Sleep Better, Eat Better, Move Better, Think Better by Greg Wells, Ph.D.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Today’s guest is Sara Gallagher. Sara is the Vice President of Client Delivery, a Senior Consultant, Speaker, and Learning Facilitator at The Persimmon Group.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The lessons she’s learned and unlearned during her career,
• Impostor syndrome, mindfulness, and self-awareness,
• The importance of self-inquiry,
• Time/Energy Management, and a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Leaders need to be self-aware

You have to develop the skill of self-inquiry.

“What is this?”
“What am I feeling?”
“Why do I feel it?”

And stay with that train of thought. Don’t accept your first answer as true.

If meditation is too woo-woo for you, that might be something you could do and achieve the same type of awareness and result.

Be your kind of leader

If you’re familiar with Myers-Briggs, I’m an INTJ. INTJ’s are always the villain. I’m Emperor Palpatine in Which Star Wars Character Are You?, I’m the butler from Downton Abbey. My boss, Bill, is an ENTJ. We approach things in very much the same way, except that he’s very much an extrovert and I’m an introvert in an extroverted job.

One thing I was doing wrong (for me) for a long time was I was trying to be an ENTJ because that’s what was being modeled for me. And I was exhausting myself.

I have things I bring to the table, but I can’t work as many hours, in the same hours, in the same types of hours – meaning, always with people – that Bill can, and be successful. It’s being honest about that, and realizing that to be at my best, I will have to approach things my way.

Letting go of the belief that you have to be what has been modeled for you is really important.

Sara’s advice to New Leaders

I think when you first become a leader, you rush out to the bookstore or podcast menu and you look for

“How do I fix other people?”
“How do I get my team to do x?”
“How do I get them to do y?”
“How do we achieve results?”

And those are really valuable skills, but it’s so easy to lose touch with your own growth and your own development, and to forget that you still have growing to do.

Never invest more into someone’s personal development than they’re willing to put in themselves. Be others-focused, but also realize that that doesn’t mean you’re now the camp director over everybody’s professional development.

Links and Resources

Connect with Sara: LinkedIn

https://www.thepersimmongroup.com/

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

A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life by Parker J. Palmer

Hi everyone! Welcome to the show. Today we’re flipping the format a little bit and we’re going to hear from the employee standpoint of what they look for in a new manager. If you’re an aspiring leader, this is a great perspective to hear.

Today’s guest is Craig Rosenstein, a young man at the front end of his career. We talk about what’s important for a new manager to know from the eyes of someone they would be managing.

In this episode, we talk about the two big things employees are looking for in a new leader, credibility being a two-way street, starting new work relationships on the right foot and a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Give your Employees Support

I always see these posts on LinkedIn and they say, “Here are the things that are important to employees: Being compensated fairly, being recognized, having development” and they are all very valid and important points.

But the one word I never see is “support”. At the end of the day, you want your employees to feel empowered and feel supported enough to succeed. Everyone’s human and we have motivations, challenges and doubts, and the way to work through those situations is if you have that support system.

From a leadership perspective, what I look for is, firstly, someone who’s available, and secondly, someone who either has the information or tools to help me when I’m missing something, or at least could direct me to that avenue.

Give your employees Vision/Direction

Do I know what my manager, and specifically, what the organization is trying to accomplish and how they’re trying to accomplish it?

Even if I feel supported in a role, if I don’t see the bigger picture, or I’m not able to really understand how what I’m doing day to day impacts the business or the organization, then 1) I might not be as effective in my role, and 2) it might be like I’m doing things without a direction.

Consistently check-in

As a manager, sometimes you assume that they’re (your employees) are good – you’re checking in, you’re meeting frequently. But even as a manager, you need to continually check-in when people are getting busier or have more on their plate.

Oftentimes, especially with a high performer, you just assume they’re going to get it done and all is good, and they may or may not be of the communication style to let you know. So it’s really important to be constantly checking in and making sure your people, especially your high performers, are in a good place, and not just assuming all is well.

Links and Resources

Connect with Craig: LinkedIn

To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

Craig’s advice: Don’t be overconfident about your memory. Always write things down, right away.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to arrive there.

Hi everyone! Welcome to The New Leader Podcast. Today’s guest is Simon Brocklehurst.

Simon is a commercial leader with a unique breadth of experience working in, and with, many of the world’s leading organizations. He established CommercialSolutions consulting, a different kind of consulting firm, to help you solve your commercial challenges: creating clear, pragmatic plans and supporting their delivery.

In this episode, we talk about

• His first leadership role,
• Staying true to yourself,
• How to create a strategy,
• Disruption,
• And a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Stay True to Yourself

I worked in an organization with a very controlling culture; there was always a culture of fear. There was a lot of inexperience and insecurity in the leadership.

I was delivering the goals, but I think what I did there was I tried too hard to deliver how the people who were in charge wanted me to deliver, rather than how I should have done. I didn’t stay true to myself.

What I realized afterwards was that the internal conflict there was perceived as inauthentic sometimes by some of the people I worked with, and they didn’t see how much I really cared for them, how I really wanted them to be successful.

I think the lesson for me certainly is, whatever situation you’re in, you need to be authentic. Absolutely essential for any leader, new or experienced.

What is Strategy?

For me, strategy should be simple. It should be very practical; it should yield results quite quickly, because you need to have a clear vision and you need to make it happen.

Strategy is a plan. That’s it. It’s a plan to achieve something.

You need to do a couple of things: one, you need to have a clear vision. Obviously, you must have an idea of where you’re going. Pick a destination. The best way to do that is to do it with a group.

Then it’s about what you are going to do to achieve that vision. What are you going to focus on? What are you not going to focus on?

The final thing is who’s going to do what, when and how. Prioritization – don’t try to do it all in one go. Break it down into tasks and say, “Which one are we going to do first, second, and later on to get to where we’re going?”

For me, it’s all about this continuous process of improving and moving towards your vision.

VISTA

I have a process, I call it VISTA – Vision, Strategy, Tactics and Achieve. It’s not rocket science, it’s pretty simple.

• Create a Vision.
• Decide on what are your focus areas, your strategies.
• Get your tactics clear. What are the things you are actually going to do?
• Achieve them. Stay flexible, track where you’re going, keep the discipline, make sure you’re focused on what you’re doing action-wise and everyone knows what’s doing what and when.

Links and Resources

Connect with Simon: LinkedIn

www.commercialsolutions.global

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

Hi everyone, welcome to the show! Today’s guest is Mark Hood. He is a Senior Sales Consultant at Sales Performance International.

In this episode, we talk about

• How he lived through the Hudson River plane crash
• Empowering your subordinates
• Leading from the back vs Leading from the front
• Productivity
• And a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Empower your subordinates

When I first moved into those leadership positions, about 80% of what I did was fly to various engagements and help close business. It’s always fun and always rewarding to be the hero. I could offer certain things that they couldn’t offer, so therefore, it behooved me to go in and close the deals.

That worked very well until I got to the point where I had 125 sales people, 10 regional managers, and I realized that I was going to run out of time, energy and ability.

At that point, a light bulb went off in my head. As a servant leader, you have to empower your subordinates. Help them understand that when they come to you, that they should ask the right questions about what they want or what they need to help close business.

Being a leader is an honor

If you’re selected to be a leader, that’s an honor that transcends just about any compliment that could be paid to you. If you’re going to be a manager and you’re going to wear that mantle of manager or leader, you need to wear that mantle proudly, knowing that you’ve been bestowed with the ability to make someone’s life better. And you should do anything to make yourself better, to ensure that you do that.

Leadership Advice

It’s best to act now and early, than to wait until you have everything lined up perfectly. A moderate decision now is much better than a perfect decision 6 months from now. Actions and proper steps executed early can lead to a quicker decision.

Links and Resources

Connect with Mark: LinkedIn

[email protected]

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General (Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series) by Bill O’Reilly

Why Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou

Welcome to The New Leader Podcast. Today we are going to talk about what to do when emotions come into the workplace. Specifically, what to do when someone cries at the office.

As a new leader, what do you do when one of your employees or colleagues starts crying? I have gone through this firsthand with both men and women, so I am going to share four quick tips that will help you when you encounter this type of situation in the future (if you haven’t already).

Hit that play button and don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Maybe you come from a family of “non-criers”, or you believe crying is not acceptable at work. But the moment you see someone’s eyes start to well up and they begin to lose their breath, it isn’t about you. It’s about them. Don’t make it about yourself.

When somebody starts crying and they start to apologize for it, just say this,

“It’s OK. It just means that you care.”

Whether it’s your office or your employee’s office, let them know that the conversation is just between the two of you. Letting someone know that they have a safe zone for moments like this goes a long way.

I cannot emphasize this enough. This isn’t the kind of listening where you’re “listening” but you’re feeling awkward, you’re trying to find a solution, you’re waiting for that person to catch their breath so you can talk – I’m talking about genuine listening to what is, and isn’t, being said.

In highly emotional moments like this, your employee is not looking for you to solve their problems. If they are, they will likely ask you to. But it’s most likely that they just need an ear to listen to them.

Links and Resources

Connect with me: LinkedIn | Facebook

[email protected]

Every time you get to know someone a little bit better, you build a little bit of trust with them, a little bit of camaraderie with them. – Mo Dezyanian

Hi everyone, welcome to the show! Today’s guest is Mo Dezyanian, President of EmpathyInc.ca, a media consulting group.

Mo is a seasoned digital strategist who has spent the past 8 years designing and executing successful digital programs for national and international brands. In 2015 he established Empathy Inc. to help brands navigate the media space in a digital world. With his team of consultants, he is bringing blue chip strategies to national and international companies.

In this episode, we talk about

• Empathy in leadership,
• How to connect and build trust with your team,
• How to bring in more empathy in the workplace,
• Moving your industry forward,
• And a lot more.

Click that play button to listen, and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes!

Empathy in Leadership

One of the very first definitions of empathy in leadership for me is when you’re in a leadership position, very little of what you do in your day-to-day is actually about yourself. Almost all of everything that you do in a day-to-day basis is about your team and the people you are trying to convince to do something for the organization or for you.

Within that mindset, empathy is the key to unlocking all of that. When you understand where people are coming from, what it is that they want from their job, then you get to unlock their talent in an exponential way.

Taking the time to walk in that person’s shoes and see things from their perspective, whether it’s with your immediate reports or whether you’re leading a team through dotted lines or however that looks like within your context – that for me is empathy. That’s the crux to figuring all of this out.

Know what drives your team

The first thing you have to do when you’re tasked to lead others is to get to know your team at a personal level.

I always have this paradigm that it’s never just business; it’s always personal. So get to know your team personally: what’s their life like outside of the four walls of the office, what drives them, what they like, their hobbies. Those things are all important. Nine times out of ten, these are the things that drive people to show up to work to begin with.

Take this one small step

Breathe. I know it sounds simple, but sometimes we’re doing the work and we put our heads down and somebody gives us a different opinion and we don’t breathe and take a second to understand why they are giving us that perspective.

I had a manager and I liked him and we got along well and we’re always doing good work together. Then out of nowhere, he started to become slightly more unresponsive or a little bit more grumpy every day. It was getting harder to get at him and tap through and understand what’s going on. He would show up to the meeting, get the job done, then he will leave.

Me being the junior that I was, my interpretation of that was, “Well, I have to try harder. I have to work for it.”

I started staying in later, doing more work, taking on more projects, just trying really hard to impress my manager, and he was just shutting down. He was not responding to that at all, and that was frustrating to me. I felt like I was failing every day because I was not getting through to this guy.

One day at 7 in the morning, I showed up early to the office, and he walks in. I said, “Hi Mark, how’s it going?” and he just goes, “You know what man? My marriage is going through a rough patch. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m just not there anymore these days.” And he just walks out.

That was the turning point for me. This whole time, it wasn’t even about me. I’m just one of his direct reports; at the time he had five or six others, and I wasn’t even a senior who had other direct reports. I was a junior. I was probably the least of his problems.

I was there busting my butt, and he wasn’t noticing me because…why would he?

Sometimes when you just take a deep breath and take a look around you, why the other person is doing what they’re doing, it can really enlighten you.

Links and Resources

Connect with Mo: LinkedIn | Twitter

https://empathyinc.ca/

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge

UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World by Michele Borba, Ed. D.

Impact vs Cognitive Energy Matrix