The Unified Team

When we're stuck in our careers, how do we get unstuck?

How do we get recognition and value for our efforts?

How do we avoid being misunderstood in our communications?

This was what Johan Meyer and I discussed in this podcast episode.

If life is a river, Sandy De Jesus is diving right in!

He's an experiencer of life. A Seeker of truth. And a Creator of the future.

From class clown to entertaining, engaging and educating on social media.

Sandy is about the same age as my eldest daughter. He told me about his journey and how he sees life. We talked a lot about the generation differences and how Gen Z'ers see life.

Organisations around the world have operated in certain ways.

Almost every generation has followed the rules. They served their time. Worked their way up.

Then when they earned the right to lead, suddenly these kids are changing everything.

We can moan and complain. Call them snowflakes and work-shy. Or we can try to understand how they see the world.

Today's podcast is a fascinating insight into the world of Gen Z.

Told through the charismatic and engaging lens of Sandy

Imagine we could take x-rays and see people’s emotions

You could see the layers of hurt and pain. You could see the fears and insecurities. You could see a tiny seed of potential.

You could soothe the pain and reassure the fears.

Then you could take that seed and bring it into a safe incubator. You’d water it. And nurture it until it sprouts.

The seed would grow.

And that is Sarah Gruneisen's superpower. She sees the seed of potential in people and she nurtures it into a great oak.

When everything changes what stays constant?

We live in a world where the world is rapidly changing. Technology becomes obselete. We are continually changing.

Lisa Cunningham Delauney has been exploring change for decades.

An early proponent of Change Management professionally. She has also experienced change personally. Living in nine countries and speaking six languages.

While many of us grumble and resist change, Lisa has run full pelt into change and embraced the journey.

In our conversation she explained the difficulty in making change happen. The barriers and resistance. And the importance of communication in bringing people along on the journey.

How do you lead a remote or hybrid team?

The world has changed after Covid and the genie isn't going back in the box. We have to get used to a world where we work with people we don't regularly see. We have to become more flexible and face new challenges.

Curious about what leading a tech team in a modern world I spoke to Paul Chen about the work he's doing.

He shared his insights and experience with me. We looked at how his cultural background and childhood experiences. And how they have shaped his leadership style.

Stories are inspiring and they can teach us lessons about what works.

But they also have their limitations. Stories have specific characters and are bound within a context. Someone in a different situation with a different style might not be able to replicate that.

Maths is the language of purity.

An equation abstracts what is universally true. As soon as it doesn't work in a given context, it is no longer true. So an equation can give us a frame of knowledge that empowers everyone.

In this episode we set out to try to identify what are the universal elements of a team that any leader could use as a guide.

How do you unlock the potential in your people?

The basic constraint in your business is in your people.

When you can unlock that potential, you turn your team into an elite team. The million dollar question is how to unlock that potential. Saieed Sadeghzadeh has some interesting thoughts on how to unlock that potential.

As someone who grew up in the UK to Iranian parents, Saieed experienced two cultures.

This sensitivity helped him see the importance of culture. Working in both helps him to see how dynamics express themself differently. Now he assesses cultures as an indicator of the health of a team.

Saieed was a high performer right out of the gate.

But it took him to crash to learn the lessons that help him improve businesses today. First as a first time manager. And later confronting the demons that drove him to perform at the expense of his health.

Now he shows businesses a pathway to higher performance through:

• Self awareness
• Self care
• Empathy
• Communication
• Culture

Is it possible to manage people?

If not, how do Managers hold people accountable and manage projects?

How do we distinguish between Leaders and Managers?

These were some of the questions Matthew Ward helped me to clarify my thinking on in this fascinating hour long podcast episode.

Have you ever listened to a piano that was off-key?

The Pianist could be trying their best. Yet, whatever they do it won't sound right. Until the piano gets re-tuned it was always be that bit out.

Sometimes people are a little off-key.

There's something that isn't working. We can all know it. But how do you get them tuned back in?

When a leader is off-key it affects them and their team.

In this episode of The Unified Team I spoke to Michalina Buenk.

Michalina is a Coach who works with leaders on career and leadership transformations. She has a a range of qualifications and experience, but also empathy and intuition. She has a very different style to the way I work.

One I dubbed the piano tuning style.

Listen in to see why...

How do we perform under match pressure in the moments that matter most?

That's what I discussed with Tony Walmsley - Performance Specialist in the first episode of the relaunched Unified Team Podcast.

I've often shared ideas and examples of how football managers unify their teams. So I was thrilled to have the chance from someone who's spent 30 years working at the top level of football. Tony's great skill is helping people to perform at their best in the moments that matter most.