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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Onboarding isn't admin. It's where standards, trust, and performance begin. When someone new joins the team, it’s easy to take it for granted that they’ll know what to do. But, no matter who they are, they need a comprehensive onboarding process. The onboarding process consists of two distinct parts: the administrative elements (most of which apply only to external hires); and the leadership elements (which apply to everyone). In this Moment, I remind you how to use the onboarding phase to set y...
Every executive wears two hats. Most only know how to wear one! Are you currently part of your organisation’s senior leadership team (SLT)? Or are you just watching from below, wondering what the hell they’re doing? In this episode, I look at how SLTs actually work, as opposed to how they should work. I cover off on the things that make the most difference to SLT culture, and I take a deep dive into what it means for executives to wear “two hats”. Most importantly, I give you 3 tips for interact...
If you have ambitions to achieve excellence in anything , it’s important to tap into the wisdom of people who’ve been there before you…to stand on the shoulders of giants! Leaders are learners, and in this moment I give you key three lessons from some of the world’s most accomplished CEOs. If you want to take a deeper dive into what you can learn from those who’ve already walked the path, have a listen to Ep.266: What the Best CEOs Do ———————— Have you taken our free Leadership Blindspot test ? ...
BONUS 🔥 You can't get promoted out of a team that can't function without you. This is the final bonus episode of our Leadership Reset Workshop, and if you've made it to Day Three, you've already done more honest reflection than most leaders do in a year! Over the last two days, you reset your standards and closed the accountability loop. But here's what happens next for a lot of leaders: everything still comes back to you. You're making the calls, clearing the roadblocks, rescuing the decisions...
BONUS EPISODE 🔥 Here's the truth: you can reset your standards, communicate them clearly, and feel great walking out of that conversation. But the moment someone misses the mark, that's where leadership actually starts. In this episode, Marty and Em cover: Why most leaders don't fail because they lack vision, they fail in the split-second moments when standards get tested The difference between empowering your people and setting them up to fail Why "bring everyone along for the journey" is ofte...
When your team gets comfortable and performance slides, that's leadership drift. Here's your reset. In this episode, Em and I give you 7 Ways to Reset your leadership standards, and get your team back on track. Leadership drift doesn't announce itself. It creeps in slowly and quietly until one day you realise your team isn't performing the way it used to, and the uncomfortable truth is that they were following your lead the whole time. Missed deadlines, blame culture, broken commitments, slow de...
You’re constantly being asked to do more with less . But that only increases your likelihood of burnout! Instead, your goal should be to reduce your load by eliminating low-value work entirely, and concentrate solely on delivering value. A culture of Simplicity and Focus will enable your team to deliver the things that matter most, and ignore the noise of low-level distractions. If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can help your team to get greater traction, have a listen to Ep.67: Sim...
Most leaders don't struggle because they're bad at leadership. They struggle because leadership is the only critical job on Earth that people are expected to just figure out (well, that and parenting!). No training. No playbook. No feedback loop. If you've ever thought, "I don't know what I don't know", that's not self-doubt. That's the system working exactly as designed. Most leaders learn by copying what they were exposed to. If your previous bosses were average, chaotic, or absent, that start...
Smart leaders fail when they can’t read the numbers, so don’t let data illiteracy hold you back! Is your inability to understand and analyse the numbers holding you back? If you can’t make sound decisions using complex data, you may have already built your own glass ceiling. But, if you’re a non-finance leader, how do you get good at the numbers? In this Moment, I reveal the best way to quickly climb the experience curve of numerical literacy. If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can g...
Tired of being the glue holding everything together? Learn how to build a team that can handle the pressure, even when you're not there! You might be resilient, but that won’t stop your team from crumbling at the first real sign of pressure. When you’re a leader, building your personal resilience is a given… but do you know what it takes to build resilience into your team ? How do you get a better handle on the concept of team resilience? And what essential leadership tools could you use to pred...
Are you struggling to lead older workers? Learn how strong leaders bring out the best in legacy employees. It’s not uncommon to have more experienced workers, who’ve become part of the organisational furniture, reporting to you… and that can be quite intimidating. Even though you may feel like you have to treat older workers differently, you shouldn’t. Just like anyone else on your team, you have to work out how to stretch them, and get the most value possible from their skills and capabilities....
Management by Walking Around has often been touted as a critical activity to motivate your people and give them greater clarity. But we don’t often talk about how valuable it can be in helping you to get a handle on what’s happening below you. The concept of Management By Walking Around was pioneered almost a century ago, but it’s still as relevant today as it ever was. Your people need to see you; but it’s equally important that you see them . Truth doesn’t travel up. You have to actively pursu...
The fastest way to lift performance isn’t more effort. It’s ruthless focus on value. Cost and value are different. Knowing how to separate the two is essential. In this Moment, I identify the 6 biggest barriers to value capture, so that you can attack the problem at its core. Creating a sharper focus on the things that create value will equip your team to effortlessly deliver a massive performance uplift. If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can rapidly improve team performance, have a...
It’s easy to talk about the benefits of leadership, but very few people talk about the cost of leadership. There’s a price to pay, and unless you’re willing to pay it, you’ll never be truly comfortable in a leadership role: You will have to make hard decisions that negatively affect people you care about You will be disliked, despite your best attempts to do the best for the most You will be misunderstood, and won’t always have the opportunity to defend yourself For each of these costs, I’ll int...
If your confidence has slipped lately, this 5-step reset could save your performance. Occasionally, for some unknown reason, you may experience a slump in performance: and it can seriously affect your confidence. How does something like this happen? And, more importantly, how do you dig yourself out of the hole? If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can quickly recognise a performance hiccup and rebuild your confidence, have a listen to Ep.236: The Mental Game of Leadership . ———————— H...
Success isn’t accidental; it follows principles that most people prefer to ignore. In this episode, I show you how to focus on the things that really matter: the timeless principles that will make your success inevitable. Traditionally around this time, we produce an episode focused on the outlook for the year ahead but, heading into 2026, we decided to do something a little different. I'm going to focus on the success principles that will make a genuine difference. Your job is to distil the one...
How to execute layoffs decisively without damaging trust, morale, or talent. Termination for cause? Termination for convenience? Role redundancy? As a leader, you’ll sometimes have to face the difficult task of terminating someone’s employment. How can you do it without spooking your best people, and forcing an exodus of top talent? If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can pull out costs, without losing talent, have a listen to Ep.225: Handling Layoffs Competently . ———————— FREE QUIZ:...
Most leadership content is consumed. Very little of it is used. In this end-of-year episode, we count down the 5 episodes from 2025 that genuinely changed how leaders think and act - not because they were popular, but because they were applied. This isn’t a highlight reel. It’s a practical breakdown of why these episodes resonated, what made them work, and how you can use the ideas immediately. From running better 1:1s, to building real team performance, to leading effectively inside toxic cultu...
Resilient leadership isn’t about toughing it out, it’s about staying calm under pressure. Every leader likes to think they’re highly resilient. But many lack composure in high-stress situations (and also the self-awareness to admit it). Resilience is about regulating your own behaviour. But if you’re a leader, the real acid test is whether you have the mental, emotional, and psychological strength to support your team , so that they remain as calm as you do. If you want to take a deeper dive int...
Your career already has a direction…the question is, did you choose it? In 2026, relying on hard work, loyalty, or good intentions isn’t enough. AI is reshaping roles, career paths are less protected, and the system you’re operating in has plans for you...whether you like them or not. In this annual Crush Your Career episode, we unpack why deliberate career strategy now matters more than ever, and why the leaders who continue to progress are the ones who stop reacting and start designing what co...
Leadership vs management: why great leaders must also manage to make better decisions. While the debates about leadership and management continue to rage, the truth is that they’re intrinsically linked: they live on a continuum, in a spectrum of subtle gradients. You can’t be a great leader unless you’re a good manager. And the converse is also true: you can’t be a great manager unless you’re a good leader. It’s complete nonsense to portray leadership and management as inherently good or bad. If...
You worked hard in 2025. The real question is whether any of it actually mattered. Most leaders roll straight into a new year without ever stopping to review the last one properly. They plan harder, set bigger goals, and hope things improve. That’s how you end up repeating the same mistakes with a fresh calendar. In this episode, I walk you through a clear, no BS review of your leadership in 2025. Not the highlight reel, the real story. Where you actually delivered value, where you stayed busy i...
If leadership feels heavier than it should, this might explain why. To be a successful leader in the longer term, and at the most senior levels, you first have to learn how to manage yourself. Strong leaders are strong people… strong enough to maintain their energy and positivity through years of stress and pressure…strong enough to shoulder the duty of care that comes with any impactful leadership career… If you want to take a deeper dive into how to build the core resilience to help you go the...
You already have a leadership brand…the question is, does it serve you? Every leader shows up with a reputation. It might be clear and consistent…or vague, confusing, and accidental. Either way, your people have formed an opinion about who you are, what you value, and how you lead. This bumper episode covers the three practical building blocks of a strong leadership identity: clarity on your personal style and philosophy, a leadership brand built from the inside out, and a user manual that remov...
Discover the 10-Second Rule that turns pressure into decisive action for real leaders. In situations that feel overwhelming, many people freeze, consumed by their fear. Their ability to make decisions, which might be OK in non-stressful situations, becomes virtually inoperative. The only thing they can do is wait for someone else to step in and take control. This is where you see real leaders emerge, and this is what sorts out the strongest leaders from the weakest If you want to take a deeper d...
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...
