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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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 t...
Nov 17, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 continuo...
Nov 10, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ‘g...
Oct 20, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 109•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 108•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 107•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 106•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 105•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 104•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #103 // We’ve had lots of questions lately from listeners asking how to implement the learnings from the podcast into their organizations, and to get their leaders to pick up on the concepts and actually use them! Unfortunately there are no simple answers to this question. The podcast is designed for leaders like you, to expose you to different ways of thinking, and to give you some practical tips, from the leadership “front line”. But for most of us, including me, when we listen to a po...
Aug 18, 2020•24 min•Ep 103•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #102 // It’s no surprise that leaders increasingly fall into the trap of acting only for short-term results, not really considering what they leave behind in the longer term. This trend seems to have accelerated with the instant availability of information (both true and fabricated). Do leaders ever think of their legacy after their postings? Do most even care? The issues that drive leaders to act in the short term are complex: Why is there such a disproportionate focus on short term res...
Aug 11, 2020•15 min•Ep 102•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #101 // What keeps your people engaged, motivated, and committed? This week, we explore the world of talent retention. Staff turnover is expensive, but it’s not always undesirable. How do you keep the people you want, and turn over the ones you don’t? Obviously, if you get the right people on the team in the first place, life’s a lot easier. And if you pay them enough, you can actually take money off the table as a retention issue. But how do you lead your people in a way that makes them...
Aug 04, 2020•17 min•Ep 101•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #100 // Today, we’re going to take a quick breather from our normal content, and talk about all things Your CEO Mentor related to celebrate our 100th episode! In this episode, Em and I talk about our first two years of operation, and our bold plans for the future. Em will tell the story of how she actually convinced me to set up Your CEO Mentor with her in the first place, and we’re going to take a behind-the-scenes look at how I landed my book publishing deal in the US! We'll also chat ...
Jul 28, 2020•24 min•Ep 100•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #99 // How would you know if you’ve reached your use-by date in a role? Great organisations rise and fall - very few stand the test of time. What’s the connection between the executives that run these exceptional businesses, and their eventual demise? In this episode, we look at some of the reasons for organisational failure and why, individually, we tend to lose our effectiveness over time. How do you avoid the pitfalls that successful leaders encounter, which can result in the eventual...
Jul 21, 2020•18 min•Ep 99•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #98 // There have been a couple of questions that we’ve seen appearing as common themes over the past few months, so Em and I thought we’d tackle them today in a Q&A! First, we answer a question from Dave, who asked about effective delegation: “How, why, and when should you delegate, and how do you ensure outcomes are achieved?” This is a common question that cuts across many of the themes we talk about and provide leadership tools for in No Bullsh!t Leadership, so it’s a good opport...
Jul 14, 2020•18 min•Ep 98•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #97 // Many people suffer from addictions, and they don’t check them in at the door when they turn up to work each day - their choice is to either function through their dysfunction, or lose their job. How should we, as leaders, handle incidences of addiction in our people? What are the boundaries we should maintain, and how much slack should we cut people who suffer from these issues? We look at why no team is immune to the effects of addiction, the link between substance abuse and impa...
Jul 07, 2020•15 min•Ep 97•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #96 // As we’ve just hit the end of the Australian 2020 Financial Year, a lot of our local listeners are about to step into the performance review cycle, and go through the gruelling schedule of meetings, documentation, and feedback. Episode #96 // This episode examines the trend of major companies going away from the annual performance review process, and replacing it with regular, timely feedback from leaders to their people at all levels of the organization. What could possibly go wro...
Jun 30, 2020•17 min•Ep 96•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #95 // What should we outsource, when should we outsource, and how do we avoid the common pitfalls? In the 90’s, outsourcing became all the rage, particularly in the IT world. But the principles behind it go back to the economic theory of comparative advantage , first proposed by David Ricardo over 200 years ago, in the early 19th century. We explore some critical questions in this episode, like why you would want to outsource something, and what process you should go through to make a s...
Jun 23, 2020•21 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #94 // This episode is another value-packed live mentoring session with two of our past Leadership Beyond the Theory students, Leina Broughton and Fleur Richardson. Leina is an Australian fashion designer and entrepreneur who, with her business partner Fleur, has brought the Leina Broughton label to market. We’ve taken the two topics from this session that we think are most relevant to the current circumstances. They are applicable to everyone, regardless of your industry, the size of yo...
Jun 16, 2020•22 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #93 // Through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen some stark examples of leadership in crisis, both good and bad, as countries have tried to come to terms with the pandemic, and the impacts on their people and economies. Some leaders have fared better than others. This episode looks at some of the misconceptions about what constitutes good leadership (hint: look at the results first), and identifies some of the poorer leadership behaviours and approaches that we’ve witne...
Jun 09, 2020•23 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #92 // There’s a great documentary series currently streaming on Netflix called The Last Dance , which looks at The Chicago Bulls basketball team, one of the most successful sporting teams of all time. The Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, one of the greatest players to ever lace up a pair of Nikes, won six NBA championships in the span of eight years. We look at what made this team so special, and analyze some of the critical elements that unfold during the series. There are some great lead...
Jun 02, 2020•24 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #91 // We're constantly receiving questions from listeners about leading when there is a significant age difference. And this can flow in both directions. In this episode, we look at what to do with an older person in your team who reports to you, and is difficult to manage. We also consider the case of working for an older leader who uses bullying, intimidation, and control as their primary means of achieving outcomes. Either way, as a leader you are going to have to work out how to dea...
May 26, 2020•15 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #90 // We had some fantastic feedback on the first live mentoring session that we released a few weeks ago, Episode #87, so we’ve decided to continue this theme and bring more of these in-depth conversations to you. This episode is an excerpt from a mentoring session I had a few weeks ago with Martin Bishop . Martin is the Chief Operating Officer for a transport company, based in Australia. For context in this fast-moving world, to give you an idea where we were up to in pandemic terms, ...
May 19, 2020•23 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast 
