The Unified Team

What is Leadership beyond the theories?

This episode explores the core principles of effective leadership, emphasizing humility and the importance of values.

Through the lens of experiences in sports and business, the discussion covers situational leadership, the impact of values like honesty and integrity, and the power dynamics in relationships.

The episode features anecdotes, such as Unai Emery's interaction with his set piece coach and the challenges faced by leaders in fast-growing companies. It advocates for a values-driven approach to leadership, recognizing the critical role of self-awareness, the need to yield when necessary, and the importance of relationships in maintaining influence and authority.

00:00 Introduction to Leadership Philosophy

00:16 Analyzing a Real-Life Leadership Example

03:59 The Role of Humility in Leadership

06:05 Challenges of Situational Leadership

15:41 The Importance of Values and Moral Compass

23:46 Building Trust Through Conflict

29:57 The Concept of Leadership

30:20 Defining Good Leadership

32:06 Values and Principles in Leadership

38:23 Leadership in Relationships

49:42 Influence and Organizational Leadership

Do you feel your work brings you purpose?

In all my work with individuals, I've seen three core needs. The first two dominate our early career.

To belong and feel part of a tribe.

To gain status and value within that tribe.

We seek out the field we want to be in. And how we can fulfil our ambitions in that field. But often many then feel a sense that something is missing.

A sense of purpose.

This relates to the third need. The desire to want to be part of something meaningful. And this is what Simon Gallagher coaches Clients on.

In today's podcast we talked about his journey from PHD Chemist to Beer Brewer to Purpose Coach.

Links:

Simon Gallagher's Linkedin

00:00 Finding Your Purpose

00:45 Understanding Core Values

01:20 A Journey Through Education

02:21 Discovering Coaching

03:50 The Power of LinkedIn

05:16 The Irish Influence

13:32 Transition to Coaching

19:25 The Coaching Landscape

24:45 Values and Purpose: The Foundation of Coaching

26:13 The Role of Humor in Personal Values

27:27 Navigating LinkedIn with Authenticity and Humor

30:59 The Importance of Visual Content on LinkedIn

32:37 Mechanistic vs. Aspirational Values

37:53 Coaching for Clarity and Performance

44:00 The Challenge of Freedom and Self-Validation

46:36 The Burden of Comparison and the Education System

47:20 Final Thoughts and Future Conversations

In this episode, we talk about the implications of Blackbox Thinking (by Matthew Syed) for organisations.

We talk about how differing companies such as Kodak, Google, and Amazon either learned or ignored the lessons from failure.

The conversation explored concepts such as antifragility, psychological safety, and growth mindset.

By integrating ideas from various domains, this episode offers insights into fostering a resilient and thriving organizational culture.

Links:

Michael Ward: 

Saurabh Debnath: 

Rob McPhillips: 

00:00 Introduction to Black Box and Rebel Ideas

00:48 Critique of Matthew Syed's Approach

01:31 Ben Hardy and Making Ideas Accessible

03:09 Personal Reflections on Failure

04:32 Learning from Success vs. Failure

11:04 Marginal Gains vs. Kaizen

16:35 Corporate Culture and Innovation

26:36 Processes and Anti-Fragility

30:10 Productivity and Training Methods

30:36 David McClelland's Research on Professional Performance

32:34 The 10,000 Hour Rule and Perfect Practice

34:10 The Role of Psychological Safety in Organizations

35:45 Religion, Closed Loop Systems, and Cognitive Distortions

44:38 Blame, Emotions, and Learning from Mistakes

50:06 System One vs. System Two Thinking

58:46 Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

In this episode, dive into Harit Bhasin's journey of becoming a successful Tech Leader.

Learn the importance of embracing conflict and building trust, as well as the value of a 'can-do' attitude, continuous self-learning, and personal branding. Discover how integrating diverse knowledge and fostering a growth mindset can lead to professional success. Gain insights on effective networking, mentorship, and balancing various perspectives within an organization.

This episode highlights key leadership principles such as empathy, active listening, and resilience in both startups and large enterprises.

Links:

Harit Bhasin

Rob McPhillips

00:00 Understanding Conflict in Leadership

02:25 Personal Leadership Journey

05:46 Career Growth and Networking

10:36 Entering the IT World

12:12 Challenges and Resilience

16:56 The Importance of Mentorship

22:48 Beyond Expertise: Expanding Your Knowledge

24:35 The Drive Behind Ambition

25:13 The Importance of Continuous Learning

28:51 Balancing Priorities and Consistency

32:56 Empathy and Leadership

34:26 Common Leadership Mistakes

39:18 Mentoring and Coaching

40:30 The CEO Mindset

42:22 Final Thoughts and Advice

How do we lead conversations that engage people and create change?

All change starts with a leader who can engage their team. True leaders open conversations that engage their teams. Leaders through their example create the organisational culture.

They create the context and set the frame that work is done within.

In today's podcast episode I spoke to Rachel Gooen about her work.

Rachel coaches individual leaders in her Engaged Leader programme. She also facilitates conversations throughout organisations.

What's the first question for every leader to answer?

This is the question Romana Prochazkova answered in today's podcast. She explained the answer that is key for every leader. Especially those early in their journeys.

Watch to understand what makes the foundation of your leadership style.

Until you have that foundation, you cannot be authentic. Integrity will be a struggle. And you will find it a challenge to connect with your team.

A key part of authenticity is understanding and embracing your quirks.

People will accept them. And you. But you have to accept yourself and embrace who you are first.

How do we get to peak performance?

In an ever more demanding world there are more and more demands on our time and energy.  How do we ensure that we meet the demands of our work, home and family and yet maintain our health and wellbeing.  Everything we do rests on foundational pillars.  

Performance too rests on certain foundations.  

Performance too rests on certain foundations. I talked to Abigail Ireland about her work and journey in getting people into Peak Performance. What are the habits that will really make a difference?

She has a model of Five Pillars of Peak Performance which you can hear about in this episode.

Why should someone choose you?

For the job. The project. Or the contract.

We live in a world of overwhelming choice and yet each of us is trying to stand out and be valued.

The social media world has created the personal brand which can seem contrived. At it's worst it's creating a false image to sell. But at it's best it's about clarifying what you do best, who for and the unique flavour you bring to your work.

Clark, Tony and I discussed our experiences and understanding of explaining who we are and what we do.

On the surface we each do something similar. But our personality and backgrounds mean our focus and style is different.

Tony gets people ready to perform under high pressure. This comes from his background of operating at the highest level in football.

Clark challenges so people not only make decisions in the right way, but they make the right decision. This comes from his background in manufacturing where decisions make the difference.

I give people understanding about themselves and the context they are operating within. This comes from my therapy background in helping people make sense of their problems.

Each of us is unique, but we have to identify the flavour we bring and who it brings most value to.

That's the core of authentic branding for me. To do the work for others to understand what you do and who for. So they can say yes or no.

Why do groups of the smartest people make dumb decisions?

The Bay of Pigs invasion. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Blair and Bush's war on Iraq.

Every day in smaller ways groups make terrible decisions because of groupthink.

Yet the increasing complexity of the world shows that collective intelligence is key. Overwhelmingly, science, business and social breakthroughs happen through teams. Individual brilliance is no longer enough.

Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed shows how teams get it wrong.

People not speaking up. The people who could see the flaws not being in the room. The unconscious biases that mean we don't know what we're missing.

If you lead or are part of a team, it's a must read.

Here's our Book Club discussion with:

Eduardo Dos Santos Silva

Neil Hamilton

Michael Ward

Whenever we introduce change we meet resistance.

Every change involves loss of some sort for someone. That person is likely to be the person who most resists the change. How well we address their concerns determines the smoothness of change.

We can push past resistance, but when we don't address these concerns we suffer.

Either we get silent conflict and disengagement. We get loss of trust or active sabotage against us. Or we get outright conflict.

The success of any change over the long term comes from the ability to change old beliefs.

When we leave someone behind. Knowingly or not. We have created a pothole that will eventually cost us.

The key to bringing everyone along is empathy and curiosity.

Finding out where people are. How they feel. And what is behind their resistance.

Links:

Clark Ray’s Linkedin Profile

Clark’s Website

Tony Walmsley’s Linkedin Profile

Tony’s Website 

Rob McPhillips’s Linkedin Profile

Rob’s Website