Is your team pushing back? Uncover upward bullying and take control as stronger leader. We hear a lot these days about work-related anxiety, which can easily lead to claims of bullying and harassment. But we rarely hear about the impact this has on leaders like you, who bear the brunt of people’s personal problems in the workplace. For many companies, the explosion in stress-related claims has pushed them to pursue more conservative HR policies, playing right into the hands of the small but powe...
Nov 16, 2025•5 min
Every leader faces recurring challenges, the kinds of problems that don’t go away, they just evolve as you grow! In this rapid-fire Q&A, Marty and Em tackle 9 of the most common leadership issues that came in from our listeners across Instagram, LinkedIn, and email. From surviving a toxic boss and getting out of the weeds as your business scales, to knowing when “checking for standards” becomes control, this episode is packed with practical, real-world solutions. You’ll hear how to: Tackle m...
Nov 11, 2025•22 min•Season 1Ep. 376
If you’re struggling to work out how to manage your boss, it’s probably because you’ve never truly assessed the situation. You have to know who you’re dealing with, and what makes them tick. In this Moment, I reveal the questions you can ask yourself to work out exactly what type of boss you have. Only then, can you understand how to manage up effectively. If you want to go deeper on how to build the most productive relationship you possibly can with your boss, have a listen to Ep.162: Managing ...
Nov 09, 2025•5 min
Get buy-in fast, and learn how to consult without slowing change or losing momentum. I’ve spoken quite a bit over the years about organisational change, particularly as it relates to leading people through major disruption. Humans aren’t particularly adaptable, which is why a whole industry of organisational change management theory arose in the mid-1990s. In this episode, I take a slightly different angle on change, as I explore the question, “ How much input should you take from the affected p...
Nov 04, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 375
We all get things wrong, sometimes… but if we apologised every time we made a mistake, we’d be forever grovelling to someone . If you never apologise, you’ll seem arrogant, disconnected, and out of touch… but if you apologise too much , you’ll appear weak, indecisive, and ineffective. When should you drive forward confidently, and when should you take a step back and show remorse for the impact this can have on your people? If you want to go deeper on how to strike the balance between decisivene...
Nov 02, 2025•5 min
Are your people truly empowered, or just waiting for permission? Find out here. “Empowerment” is a word that seems to be used in an increasingly offhanded, throw-away fashion. When that happens, it loses both its meaning and its power. But, despite the dumbing down of empowerment, it’s still one of the most critical ingredients of execution. If you can’t empower your people effectively, you’ll stymie them; they’ll never willingly accept the level of accountability that would supercharge their re...
Oct 28, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 374
Protecting your people feels kind…until it destroys their resilience and results. As the older generation vacates the workforce, companies are making way for fresh talent, new ideas, and different ways of working. This brings with it a number of challenges, as we transition from a workforce that has historically been compliant and robust, to one that has an elevated sense of entitlement, and a worrying lack of resilience. How do you balance your duty of care for your people, with the obligation ...
Oct 26, 2025•5 min
Are your long-tenured employees blocking performance? Here’s how real leaders respond. Every organisation has them…long-standing employees (“lifers”) who have built their personal reputation and perceived value on a deep knowledge of the business. They’ve also built a power base using this knowledge that they’re reluctant to surrender… and they won't do that without a fight. If you're brought into an organisation with a mandate for change, then making that change is exactly what you have to do. ...
Oct 21, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 373
What if expecting more isn’t harsh, but the most caring thing a leader can do? If you want to produce outstanding results, there is no easy path… for you or your people. Are you the type of leader who sets people up to achieve difficult things? Or do they dictate the terms? If you don’t set an expectation of excellence, there are devastating implications for both team performance and individual job satisfaction. If you want to go deeper on how to take people where they don’t necessarily want to ...
Oct 19, 2025•5 min
If AI can do a $440k job better than Deloitte, what does that mean for consultants? Of all the industries that are on the chalkboard for major disruption by AI, the consulting sector must be high up in the batting order. You’d think that, right now, consulting firms would be keener than ever to demonstrate their value, and extend their longevity: anything to prolong the mystique that surrounds what they do. Interesting, then, to read about the report that Deloitte submitted to an Australian fede...
Oct 14, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 372
I’ve heard leaders at all levels say something like, “ Marty, I have a staff member who’s a high performer, but their behaviour is just awful! ” If you relate to this, then in all likelihood you’re not actually dealing with a high performer: what you have, is a talented jerk ! If that talented jerk is in a leadership role, you should err on the side of intolerance , rather than allowing their bad attitude to permeate through the team. If you want to go deeper on how to lead these difficult perso...
Oct 12, 2025•5 min
Even the best leaders fail without strong management. Here are 6 lessons for phenomenal results. This episode started with a Simon Sinek post on LinkedIn, and ended up being one of the most practical, implementation-focused episodes I’ve ever produced. The Sinek article was titled, 5 Things Managers Do That Leaders Never Would . It got me thinking again about the fundamental nature of leadership and management. The very best leaders understand why high order management skills are core to their s...
Oct 07, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 371
Learn why your boss might not be telling you the truth, and how to spot real feedback. Feedback is a gift… but, can you believe what you’re told? It’s rare to find a leader who gives consistent, high-quality feedback. It’s even rarer to find a company where feedback is part and parcel of the culture. This is why it’s so important to know how to read the play – the context is all-important. If you want to go deeper on how to interpret any feedback you’re given, have a listen to Ep.327: Your Boss ...
Oct 05, 2025•4 min
Talk is cheap. Discover the 3-step process to align leadership values with actions. You can stick your values in a glossy brochure or an annual report…you can talk about them in your town hall meetings…you can make them part of the onboarding process… But your people don’t care what you say your values are: they only care what you do when the chips are down. That’s when the real test comes…because, make no mistake, your people are watching you. They see the difference between what you say and wh...
Sep 30, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 370
Build resilience by pairing optimism with hard truths. Master the Stockdale Paradox today! The strongest, most resilient leaders are optimistic, by nature. Rather than being blindly optimistic, though, they are incredibly pragmatic. Instead of worrying, retreating, or avoiding, the best leaders step into the problem … they face it, and deal with it head on. If you want to go deeper on how you can remain optimistic, while staying grounded enough to chart a path through the most difficult challeng...
Sep 28, 2025•4 min
Win trust fast, prove credibility, and lead with impact in your first 90 days of any new role. If you’ve just been promoted… or if you anticipate a promotion sometime in the next 12 months… or even if you were promoted some time ago, but don’t feel as though you have solidly established your credibility in the new role, you’re going to find this episode invaluable. Breaking your first 90 days up into three distinct one-month phases, I outline specifically what you need to do to ensure a smooth a...
Sep 23, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 369
Unlock peak performance with the 3 keys every leader must use: Challenge, Coach, Confront. The Challenge, Coach, Confront framework is the foundational toolkit for setting expectations, helping people to meet those expectations, and responding when they don’t. Many leaders have the skills to challenge and coach…but the real key to improved performance is what you choose to do when one of your people doesn’t perform. Everyone in the team calibrates their own personal standard against the low wate...
Sep 21, 2025•5 min
Stop flying blind! Here’s how leaders uncover the real truth happening below them. Every day CEOs, boards of directors, and even middle managers are blindsided by things that happen below them that they didn’t know about, or failed to anticipate. If you’re a leader of leaders , you know how difficult it can be to navigate multiple layers in your team’s hierarchy. Any information that you try to disseminate is diluted at each layer, as it makes its way down to the front line. But this is even mor...
Sep 16, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 368
Micromanagement kills performance. Here’s how to lead without paralysing your team. You’ve all probably worked for a micromanager at some point in your career. It’s not fun. What makes leaders feel as though they have to micromanage? Is it a fundamental lack of trust? Or an inability to let go of control? Whatever the reason, you need to make sure that you’re not that leader. If you want to go a bit deeper into how to stay out of your people’s knitting, have a listen to Ep.264: Controlling Witho...
Sep 14, 2025•5 min
Learn how to build high-performing teams by setting and enforcing clear standards. The colourful expression " It's Easier To Rein In a Stallion Than To Flog a Donkey" gives you pretty much everything you need to know about talent management and team performance. But it’s advice that's rarely heeded by leaders. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get people to reach a level of performance that, quite often, they simply have no interest in achieving. It sucks our time, our energy, and ...
Sep 09, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 367
Tired of burnout? Discover 3 leadership shifts that will energise your work and life. We still get a seemingly endless stream of questions from leaders who feel as though they’re heading towards burnout, asking for advice about how to avoid it. Why do many leaders lose their zest and enthusiasm, to the point where they feel as though there’s no end in sight? In this MomentI give you the 3 keys to unlocking limitless energy. It doesn’t involve vitamin supplements or dietary fads… it’s about how y...
Sep 07, 2025•5 min
Are you tired of trying to lift your team’s productivity, only to find that the results remain stubbornly average? The thing that’s holding your people back may not be obvious. Over the years, I came to realise that busy is the enemy of productive . A huge amount of what our teams do each day delivers no value, whatsoever … it’s organisational white noise that serves only to distract us, and create the impression that we’re doing something worthwhile. And although it might seem harmless enough, ...
Sep 02, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 366
Is ‘Imposter Syndrome’ real, or just an excuse leaders use to avoid accountability? Imposter Syndrome is a term that’s really taken hold over the last several years. LinkedIn is full of heart-wrenching confessions from those who suffer from Imposter Syndrome. So, what’s the difference between Imposter Syndrome, and the natural self-doubt that any well-adjusted leader experiences from time to time? Don’t label yourself with the imposter syndrome tag; instead, use your self-doubt as a handbrake to...
Aug 31, 2025•5 min
The #1 performance lever leaders ignore: single-point accountability. I was recently asked a compelling question by one of the leaders in our Leadership Beyond the Theory community: “If accountability is so critical to performance, why haven’t I come across it before? ” This is a leader who already has an MBA… he’s participated in a variety of leadership courses… and he’s read all the classic leadership books. The answer stems from the fact that hard things are often avoided in corporate culture...
Aug 26, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 365
Entitlement is killing performance - here’s how to reset the standard. For as long as I can remember, I’ve believed strongly that leaders shouldn’t give into unreasonable or frivolous employee demands, especially if they clearly conflict with the best long-term interests of the business. This Moment reminds you that your people are there to do a job, not to be entertained and indulged. I also give you the one compelling question that should constantly be in the back of your mind. If you want to ...
Aug 24, 2025•5 min
Not every high performer wants to lead...here’s how to spot true leadership potential! It always comes as a surprise when someone we had earmarked for bigger and better things announces that they have no desire to progress. Our search for talent, and our need to fill the leadership pipeline for our company can deceive us. We occasionally typecast someone who has absolutely no interest in leading. Halo effect often leads us to overestimate someone’s ability, and their intuitive sense of their own...
Aug 19, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 364
Unlock better decisions and protect value by mastering a risk mindset in every situation. We manage risk in order to protect value . So, you have to understand where the greatest value is, before you can decide what you need to protect. Eliminating or reducing the severity of a risk can be expensive, so it’s important to take an 80/20 approach to risk mitigation. Whether you’re making an operational decision, assessing a potential investment, or trying to decide how to go about a manual labour t...
Aug 17, 2025•4 min
Avoid AI & IT project disasters with 10 proven tips from 40 years of hard-earned lessons. 40 years ago to the day, I started my professional career, when I walked into the State Bank of NSW as a newly minted trainee computer programmer. Yep, I was actually a coder… WAY before it was cool! Since then, I’ve been involved in IT projects of all shapes and sizes. In this episode, I’m going to get beneath the surface to explore the fundamentals of IT projects, and reveal the root causes that are l...
Aug 12, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 363
Nothing’s ever perfect, but many leaders say they are striving for perfection – and they say it like that’s a good thing… they don’t understand the dark side of perfectionism. In most cases, perfectionism is driven by fear… fear of making a mistake… fear of not being good enough… fear of losing standing with your peer group. Perfectionism will freeze you. It’s kryptonite for a high-performance culture. If you want to go deeper into how you can build genuine team momentum, have a listen to Ep.169...
Aug 10, 2025•5 min
Think marketing’s not your job? Think again. Why brand is now your leadership edge. In a world flooded with AI-generated noise, brand and authenticity have become your sharpest leadership tools. In this episode, Em and I unpack the most common marketing blind spots leaders have, and what to do about them. We explore how to use AI without losing your voice, why trust is built through proof not polish, and how your employer brand is shaped long before someone hits ‘apply.’ If you lead people, infl...
Aug 05, 2025•31 min•Season 1Ep. 362
