Episode #133 // INTERVIEW After 130-odd episodes of me giving my two-cents worth on all things leadership, we’re starting to introduce the occasional interview with a leader who has really made a difference in the world. In this episode, I interview Luc Robitaille , President of the Los Angeles Kings National Hockey League franchise. After a 20-year career as an elite athlete in one of the toughest sporting arenas on the planet, Luc made the successful transition to corporate executive ranks. We...
Mar 16, 2021•28 min
Episode #132 // There are many variables that have an impact on what a CEO role entails at a given point in time - industry, company size, maturity of the business, external market forces, customer segmentation, ownership structure etc. On top of this, every day can be vastly different, which is why some of the most important attributes for a CEO to possess are adaptability, change tolerance, and mental agility. Add to these the ability to communicate and align the organisation around a compelli...
Mar 09, 2021•19 min
Episode #131 // I run into leaders all the time who struggle with the personal impact that a leadership role has on their lives. It can be emotionally draining, and it can have far reaching impacts through every aspect of their lives. To be a successful leader in the longer term, and at the most senior levels, you first have to learn how to manage yourself. As they say during the airline safety briefings, “ if oxygen is required, fit your own mask first before assisting others ”. Strong leaders ...
Mar 02, 2021•21 min
Episode #130 // As leaders, we expect most things to be logical. They should make sense to us, and be easy for us to explain to our people. And to a large extent this is true. But we also can’t overlook the fact that some of the most important principles of success are actually counterintuitive, and we need to be able to hold this dissonance in our heads. It’s in our nature to look for easy answers to the things that challenge us. The fact of it is, though, there are no silver bullets. Any groun...
Feb 23, 2021•15 min
Episode #129 // INTERVIEW In today's podcast, I talk about the 'Executive Breakthrough' with Michelle Foley, Chief Customer Officer at The Arnott's Group. Michelle has been with The Arnott’s Group for over 17 years now, and knows the company intimately. The iconic Aussie brand that brings us Tim Tam cookies and Jatz crackers is now going through some change, and Michelle is one of the key executives guiding the company through its next phase. In this exclusive pre-recorded interview, Michelle sh...
Feb 16, 2021•29 min
Episode #128 // In this episode, Em & I discuss a few brilliant listener questions relating to promotions. The first question is from Anne, who asks about breaking through the middle management ranks to get to more senior levels when you think you’re overdue for a promotion, but your bosses don’t see your potential the same way you do. The second question is from John, who asks about some of the ways you can prepare the future leaders whom you’re intending to promote from within the organisa...
Feb 09, 2021•22 min
Episode #127 // We’ve had a lot of people recently asking us about the role of purpose in business. In this episode, we answer a great question from one of our Leadership Beyond the Theory alumni, David. What should we make of the push for organisations to be ‘purpose-driven’? Can we truly put people before profits? What are the pros and cons of setting up a purpose, and trying to use that to drive your organisation? And is there ever justification for putting people through the pain of restruct...
Feb 02, 2021•19 min
Episode #126 // At some point, every leader needs to present proposals to their boss in order to gain approval for deploying the organisation’s resources. After years of analyzing and approving investment proposals (many for hundreds of millions of dollars), I demystify the process, giving you the practical tips that will enable you to deliver a winning proposal, every time. Whether you’re asking for $50m to invest into a research and development project, $5m for a new software package, or $5,00...
Jan 26, 2021•22 min
Episode #125 // How do you develop a mindset to make decisions confidently, while removing any concerns about the implications it could have for your job - your promotability and future prospects? This can be a particularly vexed question when you work in a larger organisation, where the politics can sometimes be quite vicious. So how do you learn to take smart career risks, knowing that things will work out for the best? Is it at all possible to teach this to others? In this episode, I offer so...
Jan 19, 2021•20 min
Episode #124 // There are very few people who are totally comfortable presenting in a public forum, whether it’s a submission to the board, a ‘town hall’ style meeting for people who work on your team, or a sales presentation. We released an episode over 12 months ago, called “ Epic Presentation Fails ”. This focused mainly on how to structure a presentation, and how to not bore your audience to death by simply delivering dry information without insight and context. This week, we’re going to go ...
Jan 12, 2021•19 min
Episode #123 // There was a lot to celebrate in 2020, despite the difficulties we all faced. And whereas much of the world was focused on leading through the pandemic, it still didn’t stop the run-of-the-mill failures that come from deceptive, negligent, and self-interested leadership. As a subscriber to the Australian Financial Review (our daily Wall St Journal equivalent), I just love their end-of-year wraps. The one I focus on in this episode is what the AFR considers to be the best examples ...
Jan 05, 2021•18 min
Episode #122 // As much as I think any day is a good day to rethink what we’re doing in our lives and careers, a milestone like the new year typically prompts us to reflect a bit more deeply. 2020 was a pretty tough year for many of us. This time last year, when we released the Crush Your Career challenge, we had no idea what twists and turns the world was about to take! Having said that, if you did manage to complete the challenge last year, I’m sure it massively helped you to navigate through ...
Dec 29, 2020•7 min
Episode #121 // As we traditionally do in December, Em and I thought we’d take a look back on the year of podcasts, and pick out our favourites for you to go back and listen to while you’re enjoying some downtime in the New Year. It’s been a helluva year and, as I look back, I feel an incredible sense of gratitude for what I’ve personally experienced, and feel especially humbled by both the business and personal success I’ve been fortunate enough to have this year. 2020’s been a big one for Your...
Dec 22, 2020•18 min
Episode #120 // This week, I share a mentoring session with a senior leader from a large industrial business. Vahid ran an extremely successful transformation program in his own business unit, and asked me how he should go about expanding the initiative so that the broader organisation might benefit. Having seen some early resistance in other business units, I talked Vahid through some of the typical blockers that can make it difficult to gain acceptance when trying to influence one’s peers. The...
Dec 15, 2020•23 min
Episode #119 // A lot of leaders say that their organisation is suffering from “change fatigue". Although there are no doubt many impacts from the seemingly endless list of change initiatives that organisations roll out, is change fatigue really a thing? Maybe it’s simply an inevitable part of life in a fast-paced business environment. But the problem with using cliches like ‘change fatigue’ is that they can lead us to overlook the role that our own leadership behaviours play. What’s the differe...
Dec 08, 2020•18 min
Episode #118 // When we spend so much time dedicated to our work, it’s pretty common to feel as though we’re neglecting other important areas of our lives: our families, our health, our friends… we can even lose our basic zest for living. We forget that we’re supposed to be working to live, not living to work. In this episode, we focus on how to have a stellar career, and still be successful in the other critical areas of your life. Our first question from Jay asks specifically about the impact ...
Dec 01, 2020•21 min
Episode #117 // Every organisation inherently has a number of natural tensions between different groups and functions - finance vs marketing; sales vs operations; operations vs asset management; IT and… virtually everyone! Rather than trying to eliminate these tensions, leaders should concentrate on using them to get better outcomes. It’s through nurturing and managing natural tensions that you’ll find a balance - this will improve your decision-making, and ultimately create the greatest value f...
Nov 24, 2020•18 min
Episode #116 // We tend to talk a lot about how important it is for leaders to give their people feedback, but focus much less on how to receive feedback. In this episode, we turn the tables a little. All great leaders were first great followers, and had to experience how life felt on the other side of the table. Listening and learning should never stop, no matter how high up you go. We look at how human nature can get in the way of our ability to hear the feedback that’s given to us. We then ex...
Nov 17, 2020•20 min
Episode #115 // Innovation has become a very overused term, which can be found in the bullsh!t bingo dictionary between agility , and strategic . The term has become so hackneyed that it can sometimes be almost meaningless. In this episode, I strip away some of the mystique around innovation, and offer some practical guidelines for managing the innovation process in your organisation. The value of major market disruption is obvious, albeit risky. But how do you create value from a continuous imp...
Nov 10, 2020•20 min
Episode #114 // Starting a new role can be a little daunting, whether you’re being promoted to lead the team you used to be part of, or moving to a completely different organisation in a new industry. Every new role requires you to go through a deliberate process to set yourself up, and to establish the right expectations with your stakeholders - your boss, your peers, your team and, depending on the role, your customers and suppliers. As someone who transitioned through lots of roles during my ...
Nov 03, 2020•18 min
Episode #113 // In the last couple of decades, we’ve seen an increasing focus on embracing diversity. The emphasis on this is often limited to gender diversity, as we look to achieve increased representation of women in senior leadership positions. But even though gender is clearly a priority area, diversity needs to go way further if we truly want to achieve better outcomes. There are two distinct steps to harnessing the power of diversity. The first is to select and retain the right people in ...
Oct 27, 2020•21 min
Episode #112 // We get an enormous number of questions on making better decisions, but we haven’t really addressed this subject directly in quite a while. Ultimately your ability to make better decisions, faster than your competitors provides the foundation for execution excellence. In this week’s episode, we go back to Q&A format, where Em and I pick up a couple of questions from our podcast listeners on the finer points of decision making. First, Olivia asks if there’s a place for ‘gut fee...
Oct 20, 2020•19 min
Episode #111 // If you took a poll of 100 leaders, you’d be hard-pressed to find one who’d say that they’d like more meetings in their lives, especially these days where 'Zoom fatigue' has become a factor. However, meetings can be a powerful construct for setting standards, making decisions, and lifting performance. If you're spending a lot of your time in meetings, you want to make them count! In this episode we talk about how to bring together all aspects of the individual AND group meetings t...
Oct 13, 2020•24 min
Episode #110 // We all get busy doing the things we do in life, and sometimes we don’t really think about what we’re actually achieving. Some people love to be in the thick of things, happy to risk success or failure. Others appear to be much more comfortable watching from the sidelines, at a safe distance. Unless you learn how to put yourself “in the arena”, you’ll struggle to find success and satisfaction in your career, whether you’re running a start-up business, or a major global multination...
Oct 06, 2020•18 min
Episode #109 // The concept of “Servant Leadership” was first formulated by Robert Geenleaf 50 years ago, most likely as a reaction to the command-and-control leadership style of corporate America in the 1950s and 1960s. Servant Leadership has a lot going for it. Putting the focus on the growth and well-being of the individual, and using this as a means to achieve organisational outcomes is indeed compelling. And despite the fact that there is little empirical research to support the hypothesis,...
Sep 29, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Episode #108 // This episode takes a look at the delicate issue of relationships at work. Why do we still see a revolving door of very senior executives exiting organisations at incredible personal, financial, and reputational cost? Cultural standards and policies vary wildly from organisation to organisation and, let’s face it, around 1 in 5 of you actually met your current partner at work. But we’ve seen a massive shift in societal awareness and expectations of relationships in the workplace, ...
Sep 22, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 108
Episode #107 // The amount of disruption, challenge, and uncertainty we’ve dealt with in the past six months has tested us all. Who is committed to coming out the other side better for the experience? This episode illuminates the road to true resilience, as we tap into the experiences of those who’ve come before us. How do we cope when everything appears hopeless, and the barriers seem insurmountable? The Stockdale Paradox is a roadmap to surviving even the most difficult and gruelling circumsta...
Sep 15, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Episode #106 // In this episode, we take a look at part of a mentoring session I did with a fantastic young leader named Kate. Kate is a leader in a financial services company that supports a major global manufacturer. We covered a lot of ground in the session, so I actually found it really difficult to select the most valuable piece. But the dialogue I liked best, is the part about enabling people. We go into some detail about what the 3 key things are to focus your leadership attention on each...
Sep 08, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 106
Episode #105 // Sometimes, you come into a new leadership role where the team you take over is broken. This happens with surprising regularity. Why? Because there’s a strong correlation between poor culture, poor performance, and poor leadership. We know that great leaders are in short supply, and the role models we look towards don’t necessarily show us how to improve. So how do you pick up the pieces after a poor leader has left? If you haven’t had to do this yet in your leadership career, jus...
Sep 01, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 105
Episode #104 // Leaders often struggle with their workload, as they move to more senior levels in an organisation. Hard work is a given if you want to be successful in any field, and I certainly wouldn’t make a case for trying to avoid any of that hard work…it builds resilience and character. However, it’s sad to see people become myopically focused on work, to the exclusion and detriment of everything else in their lives. To have a sense of balance, you need to choose where to put your energy, ...
Aug 25, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 104
