Episode #223 // There’s a lot going on in the world of work right now. The Covid pandemic was a huge catalyst for a major shift in how people see their careers and, more importantly, their lives. Since then, we’ve come through the Great Resignation , moved onto Quiet Quitting , and now we’re seeing mass layoffs. And the net result of all this? The latest figures in the US show a steep decline in productivity. And then, there’s Elon Musk—always unpredictable, eccentric, and entertaining—but I don...
Dec 06, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 223
Episode #222 // We live in a complex world… a world where, as a leader, you have to find a way to interpret the complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity, and turn that into clarity for your people. The ability to understand and absorb complexity, to strip it down to its most essential form, and then communicate that to others is one of the most valuable skills you can possess… and it’s a skill that can be developed over time. There’s a big difference between making the complex simpl e and oversimp...
Nov 29, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 222
Episode #221 // Times are tough. Inflation is on the rise, input costs are escalating, and organizations are tightening their belts. And it won’t be long before companies start to squeeze their suppliers in an attempt to find further cost reductions. Unfortunately, your suppliers are facing exactly the same pressures as you. So how do you make sure that you’re getting the best deal possible from your suppliers, without putting them at risk too? In this episode, I look at what makes a good contra...
Nov 22, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 221
Episode #220 // Many companies use consultants of one type or another. In this episode, I give a bird’s-eye view of the consulting market, based upon my years of experience as a corporate client, engaging at many different levels. Whether it’s developing a new corporate strategy, embarking on a restructure, improving workforce productivity, or reducing the baseline costs of the business, there’s a consultant for every occasion. But it’s also easy to spend a lot of money with the expectation of a...
Nov 15, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 220
Episode #219 // When it comes to business, the relationship between intellect and leadership can be fraught. A strong leader with high intellect can be incredibly effective, and make a huge difference to the companies they work for, and to every person they lead. But highly intelligent people who rely on their intellect, to the exclusion of the leadership skills that would mobilize their people, generally struggle in the big jobs, and it often ends in tears. There’s a massive difference between ...
Nov 08, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 219
Episode #218 // The dust is well and truly starting to settle on the Covid pandemic, and life is back to relative normality. But one of the lingering hangovers that hasn’t yet lifted is the issue of hybrid work. Many companies are increasingly keen to see their employees return to the office… but many of their people increasingly don’t want to do so. How is the work landscape developing, and what does it mean for leaders who have to manage their people’s return to the office and, in many cases, ...
Nov 01, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 218
Episode #217 // In last week’s episode, we looked at high-impact decisions. They’re the ones that have potentially significant consequences, and strike fear into the hearts of most leaders when they have to make them. But the vast majority of our decisions just aren’t like that. These days, where we have cheap, instantaneous access to virtually limitless amounts of data, you’d think our decisions would be noticeably better… but they’re not. There’s no substitute for judgment, and there are times...
Oct 25, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 217
Episode #216 // Decision-making is a key part of leadership. The ability to make high-impact decisions quickly, under pressure, in a complex and uncertain environment is a core capability for senior leaders… If you want to reach the height of your career aspirations, it’s something you need to develop as early as possible. We make decisions constantly: some big, some small… but all relatively important over time, because they have a cumulative effect. High-impact decisions are different. They’re...
Oct 18, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 216
Episode #215 // Adam Grant produces a huge volume of thoughtful, intelligent, insightful content on leadership and organizational behavior. And although his podcast, Work Life, isn’t on my high rotation list, I try to catch the odd episode now and then. When I do, I often find myself thinking two things: The first is: “ Wow, that is so good, but it would be so easy to misinterpret!” The second is: “ Wow, I agreed with you 100%, right up until the point that you said ‘x’!” The crunch for me seems...
Oct 11, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 215
Episode #214 // In the last four years, we’ve had over 1,000 leaders take our Leadership Beyond the Theory program. We’ve been fortunate to see a really broad cross-section of global leaders, and we’ve learned a lot about what makes them tick, as we’ve answered their questions in the interactive weekly webinars. These are leaders who grow , who are actively pursuing ways to improve their leadership capability and performance. We’ve seen some common threads emerge that are virtually identical, re...
Oct 04, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 214
Episode 213 // In a sea of potentially valuable career development options, it’s hard to work out which one is right for you. It’s even harder to make sure that the value from that training isn’t lost in the weeks, months, and years after you or your people undertake it. During my own corporate career, I saw a frustratingly large amount of money squandered on training that returned little benefit, either for the individual or the organization. In this episode, I reveal why getting an ROI is a lo...
Sep 27, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 213
Episode #212 // With so many opportunities for professional development, it’s really difficult to know which one to pursue. And the most valuable commodity you have is your own time , which is why you don’t want to waste it on learning that only delivers marginal returns . This episode is designed to take some of the guesswork out of the professional development landscape, and make it easier for you to decide what your best options are to support your career growth in the coming year and beyond....
Sep 20, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 212
Episode #211 // Most leaders understand the concept of delegation pretty well, but they struggle to execute. There are any number of ways that delegation can go wrong… and even if it doesn’t actually go spectacularly wrong, unless you learn to optimize your delegation approach, you’ll never get the most out of your people. You’ll always struggle with the massive workload that poor delegation foists upon you, and it will become a bad habit that becomes even more destructive the higher up you go. ...
Sep 13, 2022•17 min•Season 1Ep. 211
Episode #210 // We still get a seemingly endless stream of questions from leaders who feel as though they’re heading towards burnout, and have very little idea about how to stop the decline. This ultimately comes down to being able to manage your time and energy effectively. Often, burnout is a slow creep, and it just chips away at you over time until you realize you’re not functioning at the same pace, and achieving the same performance that you used to. You get that jaded feeling… you lose you...
Sep 06, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 210
Episode #209 // New leaders : this is the framework you need to follow if you want to be successful in your first leadership roles. Experienced leaders : the reason so many new leaders struggle is because they’re given little direction and, as much as I hate to say this, poor role models to learn from… this is your opportunity to acquire some practical tools that you can use to coach, nurture, and develop your new leaders. In this episode, I take a detailed look at the four key transition areas:...
Aug 30, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 209
Episode #208 // We get an incredible number of questions from our podcast community about career development. Working out how to progress in your career can be as daunting as it is mystifying. We often see other people getting promoted, and wonder how that’s even possible. When you start to get up to the rarified air of the C-suite, it’s even harder: there’s more quality competition for fewer roles. So, what’s the secret? How can you position yourself for a C-level role, and what would you have ...
Aug 23, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 208
Episode #207 // Transparency in leadership is a huge topic! Virtually every leadership pundit on the planet will tell you what an important quality transparency is for a leader to possess. And they’d be right! But it isn’t black and white… there’s an incredible amount of nuance and judgment in this subject. This episode looks at transparency from the macro level (companies and countries), right down to the day-to-day complexities you face in determining the right level of transparency to employ ...
Aug 16, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 207
Episode #206 // The very first episode that we decided to lead out with on the No Bullsh!t Leadership podcast was Respect Before Popularity ! We figured that, if we only ever released one episode, we wanted to expose leaders to this concept, above all others. And it turns out that it’s actually still our most popular episode. So today, I want to revisit that very first episode, and give you an updated version that’s even more accessible… Let’s face it, my delivery in those early episodes was pre...
Aug 09, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 206
Episode #205 // Every piece of content we produce focuses on the link between leadership and performance. Value creation is the name of the game, so knowing what value is in your context is a prerequisite to delivering it. But, despite our laser-like focus, many of our podcast listeners work in organizations that have a very different view on performance. And many of those organizations reward people for not making waves, rather than rewarding them for making a difference. No culture is perfect,...
Aug 02, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 205
Episode #204 // Adventurer and TV personality, Bear Grylls, (protagonist of the docuseries, Man Vs. Wild) said in an interview, “ You have to come alive in the big moments... When it's NOT a big moment, you don't need to be front and centre, but when it's a big moment--BE THERE! ” That’s pretty powerful. Over the years, I’ve found it to be a defining characteristic of the best leaders I’ve seen. That’s when all the talk stops, and you get to see what people are really made of. Because you won’t ...
Jul 26, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 204
Episode #203 // Episode #85 of the podcast addressed one of the most important (but often misunderstood) business fundamentals: “ Strategy isn’t hard: don’t overcomplicate it” . It demystified some of the core elements of competitive strategy and, hopefully, it served to make strategy a little more accessible. I’m now shifting the focus to look at disruptive innovation. How do you defend against something you often can’t predict or anticipate? How can you prepare for and respond to disruptive ev...
Jul 19, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 203
Episode #202 // Despite the very vocal and public focus on Diversity & Inclusion in the last 10+ years, it still appears to be a huge struggle for most organizations. It seems that the inertia created by the entrenched structures, processes, and attitudes is way harder to overcome than anyone might have imagined. When it comes to diversity, many countries, industries, and businesses have put rules in place to encourage speed of adoption, and to accelerate the rate of change… once again, this...
Jul 12, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 202
Episode #201 // I recently came across two articles on the role that purpose plays in your career. The first, by Marcus Buckingham , proposed the idea that finding a career with purpose is actually a lie . The second, by Tom Rath , argued that without purpose, there will be negative consequences for your long-term prosperity, happiness, and wellbeing. Which of these is true? Are both true to some extent? It feels as though purpose has become a panacea—“ Follow your purpose ”, we’re told. These d...
Jul 05, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 201
Episode #200 // When Em and I started the No Bullsh!t Leadership podcast in September 2018, we spent a lot of time thinking about how we would ensure that our message would stand out in the never-ending tsunami of leadership content. We wanted our content to be clear, no bullsh!t and practical. This might sound easy if you say it fast enough, but creating content about the complexities of navigating the workplace as a leader is incredibly difficult to do in 15-20 minutes without oversimplifying ...
Jun 28, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 200
Episode #199 // In the last 20 years, employee engagement has become the dominant method of understanding and measuring job satisfaction. There are a number of well-worn engagement surveys, which have global reach and lots of historical data that can be used for benchmarking and statistical analysis. Many companies run an annual engagement survey, and pay close attention to the results, as if it were a key predictor of people performance. Some even reward their leaders based on improvements to t...
Jun 21, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 199
Episode #198 // The great resignation is in full swing, and this is causing a shortage of people in the labor market…which in turn, is pushing up wages…which in turn, is increasing the cost of doing business. From the other side, the squeeze is coming in the form of higher inflation…which leads to higher input costs…which leads to companies raising their prices…which leads to reduced demand for their products and services. These market forces are making it harder for companies to remain profitab...
Jun 14, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 198
Episode #197 // I first outlined one of my most important leadership philosophies in Ep.14: Friendly, But Not Friends . Since then, a few things have changed… We’ve listened to over 1,000 leaders, who’ve taken our flagship program, Leadership Beyond the Theory ; societal standards have changed (yes, believe it or not, in only 3 or 4 years); Covid has come and (sort-of) gone; and I’ve been challenged by many leaders who’ve told me that they completely disagree with my Friendly, Not Friends princi...
Jun 07, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 197
Episode #196 // It may surprise you to learn that organizations across the globe spend over US $370 billion annually on leadership development programs. This doesn’t include the millions of other leadership resources that we tap into each day: books, podcasts, networking groups, websites, blogs, social media posts… the content is literally everywhere you turn. But despite this, none of it seems to move the needle . Leadership appears to be in as poor a state as it’s ever been, and people continu...
May 31, 2022•17 min•Season 1Ep. 196
Episode #195 // Albert Einstein said, “ If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough ”. Communication is an incredibly important element of leadership. How you talk to your team… how you deliver a presentation when you’re in a room full of important people… how well you connect one-on-one with your direct reports… these are just a few situations that can have a huge bearing on your performance, and your personal credibility. Knowing how to convey complex information in a s...
May 24, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 195
Episode #194 // In last week’s Q&A episode with Em, I mentioned the revival of the entrepreneur in the context of the Great Resignation: there’s a growing trend for people exiting permanent jobs to start their own businesses. This episode dives below the surface to examine this phenomenon more deeply. Are entrepreneurs truly happier than wage-earning employees? If so, why? Are the longer hours, higher stress levels, and lower earnings compensated by the autonomy and purpose that come with be...
May 17, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 194
