Out Of The Comfort Zone

Working hard is important. Sometimes others have more of an edge or advantage that your hard work alone just cannot overcome. How can you create that edge for yourself particularly when you feel disadvantaged? Tune in to learn how.

I am getting a lot of questions from leaders about how to keep their teams motivated and focused through all the uncertainty of coronavirus. At the heart of those questions are really three elements: 1) how can we live with the uncertainty about our future and the lack of control over so much, 2) how can I best help myself and my team cope with the broad range of emotions we are experiencing and 3) how do we strengthen resilience in ourselves and in our teams. Tune in to hear what studies of leaders in various crises have to say about all three.

70% of the important innovations come from employees who are inside the organization. How can leaders increase the opportunities and success of employee innovations? How can employees increase the speed and acceptance of their innovative ideas? Tune in to hear more.

Most companies are keenly aware of the need to build an inclusive culture. Senior leaders know the critical importance of strong mentors and sponsors for any talented person coming through their organizations. When the talent is a different gender, mentoring isn’t as easy as it should be. What do you need to know to be a strong mentor and sponsor of talented women? Tune in to hear what separates the average from the great.

Agility and adaptability are at the heart of real collaboration. However there are so few ways to truly practice being more adaptable, more collaborative or better communicators. Improvization work is probably the best laboratory that’s available – but we need proper alignment with business practices. Tune in to learn more about a unique approach.

Leaders, seeing a problem in their organizations, develop a strategic plan, announce it to the organization and watch it fail to deliver. This happens over and over. There is a different way to realize the gains of a strategic initiative. Tune in to hear how.

Given how important relationships are for getting anything done, trust thus becomes a key factor in success. However, we know too little about what to do to quickly create trust with teams, co-workers and clients. Tune in to hear the 4 facets of trust and how to do each more effectively.

Uncertainty is all around and expanding, it seems, by the day. Each of use reacts in habitual ways to the unknown that comes with change and uncertainty – and the complexity of the problems we have to solve. Tune in to learn what else we can do to live with the unknowns.

No doubt you have heard how important emotional intelligence is for leading and motivating people. Do you know what derails you and your team? Do you know how to motivate yourself and your team? If you want to raise your game and improve your emotional intelligence, tune in for some practical tips on how to do just that.

If data, and going digital, are seen as the future in your business, then this is the interview for you. Whether the focus is on data science, machine learning or AI, the messages are highly relevant. What are the pitfalls and how do you avoid them?

Many of us feel overwhelmed by work and by life outside of work. All of us have to make choices about how we do those things that matter most to us. Join us for the latest research on leading as a parent and learn how to think about your role as leader and as parent in a different way. If you don’t have children, tune in because the methodology applies to everyone.

Playing to your strengths is always part of any leadership strategy. But is it enough? Can you afford to just emphasize your strengths? What should you do to excel and to advance your career?

Conflict, disagreement and debate are a routine and necessary part of business. Most people tip on one side or the other around conflict - either trying to avoid it or being too confrontational. Either way, execution suffers. Tune in to hear how to think about conflict, how to break out of conflict traps and free yourself.

Engaging your whole brain is a good strategy particularly when you can gain a different perspective in doing so. New metaphors, new angles and new experiences give leaders a different lens on the path ahead. Tune in to hear about a new methodology and the experiences of one executive using that methodology.

VUCA is everywhere: Volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous. An organization somewhere in the world seems to fail about every week because of a factor that in retrospect seemed obvious – it wasn’t at the time to them. Why are we so poor at seeing and anticipating the changes ahead? Has the pace of change outpaced our capability to cope with it? More importantly what can we do about it?

Being remarkable is a worthy goal whether you are leading a team, leading a project or leading yourself. What does it take to be remarkable? What do remarkable teams do that is unique? What creates remarkable conversations and remarkable meetings? Listen in for insight on how you can be more remarkable.

We see everyday that the world is changing – more chaos, volatility, mistakes, uncertainty. But, do we really have enough tools to spot the right signals before it’s too late? If you want to think more strategicially, prepare your business for shifts in the marketplace and anticipate what’s ahead; tune in to learn how to see around corners.

Feeling that you are being or will be marginalized and that you are losing your base of power is no fun. It happens to many people – of different ages, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds. What can you do if you feel marginalized? What can you do to minimize people feeling marginalized? How does all of this impact aging in the workplace?

How do you give feedback without being too harsh or too kind? How you can create a team culture where people are more candid in giving feedback to each other? The secret lies in being personally caring while being directly challenging. Tune in to hear why that makes a difference and how to do a better job of being candid without being inhumane.

Collaboration is listed as a core cultural value in many organizations. Yet, many fall far short of creating a truly collaborative culture. Where is your organization and your team? What can you do the foster greater collaboration? One of the highest downloaded podcasts, we are diving deeper for more advice and greater insight.