Moment #35 // There are many ways to end up in the C-suite. You can just choose to work hard, and wait for your promotions. But, in larger organizations, this can take many years. And, at each new layer, you're in competition for the next spot above you with a bunch of other smart, ambitious people from both inside and outside your organization. Even though I’d never hold up my own career path as something you should try to emulate, there are some interesting learnings to take from it. Int...
Sep 24, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #264 // I read an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, titled The Art of Balancing Autonomy and Control , which outlines how to get the best results from the innovation activities your company undertakes. The moral of the story is, nose in, fingers out! This led me to think more broadly about the concept of autonomy v control, in particular how it relates to optimizing both performance and employee satisfaction. If you give your people too much autonomy , you risk wasting a lot of...
Sep 19, 2023•17 min•Ep 264•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #34 // They say that the best disinfectant is sunlight, and I'm a huge believer in that principle. If my direct reports in CS Energy heard it once they heard it a thousand times: transparency is everything. But just how much transparency should you give to your people? Issues of trust, accountability, confidentiality, and context all play a part in how much transparency it’s reasonable to offer. Like many areas of leadership, it can be a complex balance! I wrote an article on this s...
Sep 17, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #263 // After speaking to a group of Executive MBA students last week, I had pause to reflect on my career journey, my educational choices, and what I considered to be the determinants of my modest success to date. If I really distilled the key things that have helped me to grow rapidly over the years, what would they be? I’ve often said that leaders are learners, but you could spend a lot of time these days consuming information, without getting traction: and by traction, I mean gaining...
Sep 12, 2023•21 min•Ep 263•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #33 // Why is it so difficult to get over the need to be liked? Because it’s completely ingrained… it's programmed into all of us. It's part of our DNA and it's controlled by our reptilian brain. It's an instinctive response. But, counterintuitively, to be a competent leader you have to overcome that fundamental evolutionary urge. Putting Respect Before Popularity requires a huge amount of empathy, which is why it’s so important to have a highly-developed EQ. Isn't it ironic t...
Sep 10, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #262 // Really good people get stuck in their careers, for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, it’s obvious why it’s happening to them, and other times it’s a little more perplexing. We get questions from our leadership community all the time relating to career progression, and they come from all levels—even C-suite executives who want to break into their first CEO role: What do hiring managers look for? What foundational behaviors and capabilities do you need? How do you becom...
Sep 05, 2023•18 min•Ep 262•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #32 // I went through some incredibly disruptive events during my corporate career - and it's fair to say that some of them pushed me to the edge of my personal capacity. Despite the personal toll, when I look back I’m so grateful that I was able to experience those situations. I never felt that there was anything I couldn't ultimately handle, and the accelerated learning that I took from each situation really turbocharged my career. I couldn't have achieved anywhere nea...
Sep 03, 2023•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #261 // The central element of the No Bullsh!t Leadership Framework is value . It should be the primary focus of every leader, at every level, in every organization. Value first… that’s it! Although we automatically think of financial value, value can be created in many different forms. Your imperative, as a leader, is to understand which of the things your people do genuinely create value, and which things simply generate activity for its own sake. If you can manage to align the ...
Aug 29, 2023•20 min•Ep 261•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #31 // How comfortable are you when making “ high-impact ” decisions? You know, the ones that really test you… the ones that scare you... the ones that you know can potentially have serious consequences if you get them wrong. You don't have to be the CEO of a Fortune 100 company to make high-impact decisions. The founder of any small business has to make decisions every day, many of which can potentially make or break their business. No matter how big or small the decision, using yo...
Aug 27, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast *SPECIAL EPISODE* #260 // Are you fed up with average team performance and missed targets? Or maybe you feel like your passion for leadership has been on the decline? Get ready to breathe new life into your team with Day 1 of the Motivate to Elevate bootcamp - Setting the Bar: Raising the standard of leadership excellence. Soon you'll all be saying goodbye to mediocrity and embracing a future of exceptional results! ———————— LEADERSHIP BEYOND THE THEORY DOORS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE SEPTEMBER 2023 ...
Aug 22, 2023•29 min•Ep 260•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #30 // Why are such vast numbers of senior leaders so prone to believing their own bullsh!t? There are a bunch of underlying (but observable) factors, which we’re all subject to, that push us to believe our own bullsh!t. It takes discipline, self-awareness, and insight to overcome them, and to rise above the facade. This moment looks at four of the key psychological drivers, and how they operate on our subconscious mind. You can take a deeper dive into these insights by listening to Ep.14...
Aug 20, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #259 // I’ve been doing quite a few guest appearances on other people’s podcasts in recent weeks, and I’ve been asked on several occasions, “ Marty, what do you know now, that you wish you’d learned earlier? ”… There are any number of life lessons that I could absolutely have used earlier on, and lots of stuff that would have made me a better leader way sooner. But, then again, with the benefit of hindsight and wisdom, I’ve come to realize that the depth and value of any les...
Aug 15, 2023•20 min•Ep 259•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #29 // Having close friends is one of life’s ultimate joys. But, as a leader, that’s the last thing you want. Being friends with someone who works for you dilutes your objectivity. And no matter how much you think you can overcome this, the reality is… you can’t! A friend in your team will take advantage of your good nature… and you’ll cut them more slack than you should. It’s not intentional, but it is unavoidable. This kills the meritocracy culture. When friendliness turns i...
Aug 13, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #258 // One of the principal occupations of many consultants, speakers, and business experts is to try to predict the future. And, although this is virtually impossible, it doesn’t stop them from trying! If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that I try to stay away from predictions for the most part. I’d rather deal with the leadership imperatives that drive performance, and work out how to apply these timeless principles to any given context… This is a subtle but ...
Aug 08, 2023•17 min•Ep 258•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #28 // How do you go about making an outsourcing decision for your company? It’s important to be clear on exactly why you want to outsource, and to understand the relative cost of doing something yourself, as opposed to having a specialist external firm do it for you. Knowing when to outsource is as critical as any skill you need in business, and this Moment exposes the key questions you need to ask to nail it. You can take a deeper dive into these insights by listening to Ep.95: Th...
Aug 06, 2023•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #257 // I came across an article by Shanna Hocking , which introduced me to the concept of the Leadership User Manual . Hocking credits its origins to Adam Bryant, who wrote an article almost 10 years ago titled, What if you had to write a user manual about your leadership style? Imagine the power of a physical document that can help your people to understand how they can best work with you. What a great idea! Knowing how your boss operates, and what he values, could save y...
Aug 01, 2023•19 min•Ep 257•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #27 // Weak leaders are characterized by what they’re not prepared to do. Weak leaders are unwilling to push back on the boss; they don't put the team's interests ahead of their own; they’re unwilling to set ambitious goals; they’re afraid to challenge, coach, and confront their people; and they’re reluctant to challenge the status quo. What's the price of leadership weakness? Unrealized potential; poor performance; lack of market competitiveness. Eventually, this leads to job cuts, restr...
Jul 30, 2023•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #256 // The concept of EQ isn’t new. It was the subject of academic research way back in the 1960s, but it took another 30 years before we gained widespread awareness of it through Daniel Goleman’s classic book, Emotional Intelligence . These days, we have fairly robust tests to measure a person's EQ, and I would never hire a senior executive without having them take those tests… it’s not the be-all-and-end-all , but it does provide another data point to calibrate the observations you ma...
Jul 25, 2023•32 min•Ep 256•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #26 // Of the many mistakes that new leaders are prone to make, over-functioning for certain individuals is one of the most common, and the most insidious. When you do this, it tells your people that what they're doing isn't good enough. It trains them to be lazy and complacent, because you'll always step in to finish their job for them if you’re not happy. And they'll keep getting paid for not doing their job to the standard you expect. Excellent leaders give their people cla...
Jul 23, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #255 // Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “ Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door! ”. This quote, espousing the value of innovation, has been liberally used and abused over the years. I came across it again recently in an article from McKinsey: Turning Around the Productivity Slowdown … so, what is productivity? And what’s the relationship between productivity and innovation? In today’s episode, I look at productivity from a number of different angles. What d...
Jul 18, 2023•18 min•Ep 255•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #25 // High-performance is fragile. Teams can lose their lustre for a whole range of reasons, and leading a team of high performers can be incredibly challenging. The best teams push each other pretty hard, and it can be difficult to maintain constructive tension, without it boiling over into acrimony. And, yes, sometimes your people just stop listening to you. Over time, familiarity breeds contempt, and the downside of consistency (a much sought-after leadership characteristic) is predic...
Jul 16, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #254 // We’re approached all the time to interview other thought leaders on this podcast. However, since No Bullsh!t Leadership is predominantly a solo cast, we reluctantly decline 99% of these requests. But one email popped into our Inbox a few months ago, and we couldn’t resist it: Scott Jeffrey Miller is a speaker, author, and podcaster (sounds familiar, I know!) What’s different about Scott is that he’s worked for over 25 years with FranklinCovey, the legendary company ...
Jul 11, 2023•48 min•Ep 254•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #24 // As a leader, how do you set appropriate boundaries in your work relationships? How do you strike the balance between establishing trust-based, caring relationships with your people, and maintaining professional distance? The social pendulum has really swung in the last 3-5 years. Organizations are increasingly seeking to impose themselves in the personal decisions of their people. As a leader, you need to be hyper-vigilant about how these shifting dynamics can potentially aff...
Jul 09, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #253 // In life, there tend to be two kinds of people: there are lifters and there are leaners . Lifters carry the burden for themselves and others… they take on more accountability than the average person, and they don’t rely on anyone else to make things happen. And leaners are happy to let them do so! In this episode, which I hope you find to be pretty straightforward and easy to absorb, my goal is to do just one thing: to explain the differences between lifters and lean...
Jul 04, 2023•19 min•Ep 253•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #23 // You don't want your business to suffer the impact of poor decisions that are driven by fear. If you can sense, and then short-circuit your physiological reactions as they arise, you’ll be in a better position to implement some coping strategies, rather than just letting nature take its course. If you learn to control your physical state, it opens up the pathways for your conscious mind to handle things. Once your response is in the conscious, you can ask yourself a series of questi...
Jul 02, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #252 // Chris Licht, the former CEO of CNN, resigned recently after a scathing exposé in The Atlantic. What was supposed to be an opportunity to provide a firsthand account of a miraculous company turnaround, ended up in embarrassment, reputational damage, and the inevitable sacking. This isn’t the first time someone has invited the media to make a contemporaneous record of a firm’s excellence, only to have it backfire spectacularly! In the 1970s, British Steel was the subject of a docum...
Jun 27, 2023•17 min•Ep 252•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #22 // Some people really don't want to lead. But they don’t necessarily know that they don’t want to. So, why would they take on a leadership role if they have no desire to lead? And how do you identify a reluctant leader? The clue is in the expectations they place upon their team? Do they lead them to greater heights, or just accept whatever an individual chooses to do on any given day? Weak leaders lower the standard to meet the performance, strong leaders lift the performance to meet ...
Jun 25, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #251 // There are a range of competencies required to forge a successful career. On this podcast, of course, we focus predominantly on how to develop and improve your leadership capability to uplift your team’s performance. Leadership competency gives you leverage : it enables you to multiply and accelerate the results you can achieve through others. And the higher up you go, the more valuable this capability becomes. But there are a number of other vital ingredients that I speak ...
Jun 20, 2023•20 min•Ep 251•Transcript available on Metacast Moment #21 // There are a few key things you need to do in order to maximize your promotability. How do you stamp yourself as a trusted advisor, rather than just a workhorse? Why should you strive to make yourself redundant, rather than indispensable? And why is it critical to focus on your leadership capability just as much as your business acumen? Your goal should be to position yourself as a trusted advisor, who thinks about the broader issues, while energizing your team to deliver ext...
Jun 18, 2023•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode #250 // One of the most intractable issues affecting gender equity in the workplace is maternity leave. Companies and countries are trying to find ways to make it easier for women to have families, without significant disruption to their careers. Our CEO, Emma Green recently became a mother. She’s just flown half way around the world, by herself with 9-month-old Florence to attend a Mastermind of elite business owners who’ve built huge companies, while balancing the demands ...
Jun 13, 2023•25 min•Ep 250•Transcript available on Metacast 
