No Bullsh!t Leadership is a podcast for leaders who want to become truly exceptional. Each week, your host, Wall Street Journal Bestselling author Martin G Moore, shares the secrets of high performance leadership; the career accelerators that you can’t learn in business school, and your boss is unlikely to share with you. Step away from the theoretical view on leadership, and learn from a successful CEO who’s already walked the path.
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Avoid costly hiring mistakes! Use these 5 interview questions to expose bullsh!t and find real talent. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to attract and retain the best people. But we all know how fickle the hiring process can be… recruiting talent is an imprecise science, which is why you have to get really good at interviewing. This is where you get the opportunity to meet your potential employees face to face. The interview is your best opportunity to separate the most talented candida...
Martin Moore discusses the "black and white" nature of his No Bullshit Leadership principles, contrasting them with the real-world need to navigate shades of grey and make judgment calls. He uses single-point accountability as an example to illustrate how rigid rules require flexible implementation. The episode then provides actionable strategies to build unshakable confidence, encouraging leaders to adopt principles, diligently enforce them, and prove their effectiveness through action to adapt in uncertain environments.
How to spot (and stop) the koalas sabotaging your culture: nepotists, jerks, and ass-kissers. In Australia, koalas are a protected species. When one of the leaders in our No Bullsh!t Leaders Club started talking about the “koalas” in his company, I knew exactly what he meant. Working with koalas can be infuriating. They don’t play by the same rules, or observe the same cultural standards as everyone else. It’s almost as if they’re trying to see how far they can go before someone brings them into...
Leaders who earn trust fast get freedom to execute! Whether you’re trying to build trust with the people in your team or the leaders above you, there are certain behaviours you have to demonstrate in every single interaction. Using the CEO / Board relationship as a model, in this Moment I reveal the 6 things you can do to build trust with the leaders above you. If you want to have a deeper dive into how to quickly build high-trust relationships, have a listen to Ep.54: Managing the Board . —————...
AI is coming for your job…or is it? Right now, boards and CEOs are being sold the dream that AI will replace thousands of people, slash costs, and magically boost profit. Meanwhile, leaders like you are stuck in the middle, trying to keep customers happy and deliver real results with tools that are still hallucinating and half-baked. So how do you cut through the hype and work out what is actually useful for your team, your customers, and your career? In this episode, I’m joined by AI strategist...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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, ...
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...
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...
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 ...
