Out Of The Comfort Zone

Working 24/7 has become new standard. Managers, teams and clients expect us to be available always, enabled by technology. The result is that we have little capacity to adjust to change or to recover, re-new, re-generate as human beings. What do we know about peak human performance and what we should be aiming for? What can you do to cope with the demands of 24/7 working? What does the latest research suggest?

Radical collaboration. What would that look like on your team? What if you could bring down defensiveness and increase true collaboration – which means more dialogue, openness, risk taking, cooperation, support, trust and optimism? Sound impossible on a limited time and budget? It isn’t, tune in to see what you can do as a leader, even as a colleague, to create radical collaboration.

Resilience is the ability to face adversity and to bounce back from set-backs. Some individuals show enormous resilience in the face of adversity – such as first responders, Navy SEALs and top athletes. Leaders who instill resilience inspire us to do things we never thought possible, encourage us during a crisis, help us adapt to change, guide us through adversity. They are leaders we admire. What distinguishes people with great resilience? Tune in to hear the insights gained from individuals who survived enormous adversity (e.g. Boston Marathon bombing and those who led during major crises (e.g., Hurricane Katrina). Learn the latest insight about resilience from neurology.

The way we work is changing. What we expect of our employer is changing. “Hot-desking”, where you no longer have a permanently assigned desk at work, is becoming more and more common. Millennials are increasingly satisfied with freelance, temporary employment because it gives them greater control of their time. Robots are being considered for far more jobs that you would expect. How realistic are these trends? What other trends will change the way we work? More importantly, what are their implications for how we lead teams? Tune in to find out.

Everyone complains about the number of meetings and the ineffectiveness of meetings. What if you had tools and processes that would help you lead more productive meetings? What if those same processes helped make all conversations more effective? Tune in to find out how.

As a leader, you want creative ideas. You know that without creative solutions, business stagnates and competition gets ahead. At the same time, people, including leaders, resist change – particularly creative change. Those two statements work against each other in ways that are counterproductive to the bottom line, to engagement and to teams. How can we reconcile the two? More importantly, what can you do about it as a leader or as a creative solution provider? Tune in to hear how.

Truly great leadership doesn’t just happen. Great leaders, the ones we admire, know the value of taking time to reflect on their own beliefs and patterns. While the outer work of leadership – looking at behaviors – is critically important; equally, the inner work of leadership is critical. The inner work is about examining ourselves, our beliefs, our expectations and noticing how those impact the outer image – the behaviors. Great leadership is more of a yin and yang process – looking at the inner and the outer, being versatile in what is required of you. Tune in to understand 4 mental models of leading and to see why just playing to your strengths isn't the best course of action.

Managers who coach their people get better performance, greater loyalty, higher engagement and stronger brands – to name just a few of the benefits. The great news is that coaching can be done is 10 minutes or less and anyone can do it. What to know how? Tune in to hear the five best questions to ask in any situation and more.

Collaboration and collaborative leadership are hot topics in the business press today. However, practical realities today also expect leaders to control risk, meet targets and manage the performance of the team. Most of us have a deeply ingrained view that our role as leaders and managers is to be in control of the team we lead, make decisions and drive the team to success. This view leads to a hierarchical perspective of leadership instead of a collaborative one. There is another way and it’s called the Collaborative Operating System. Are you ready to break out of your hierarchical mythology and see the world of leadership in a new, totally different way? Do you want to challenge your thinking and your approach? Do you want to know how to lead in a different way even if your boss is very hierarchical? Tune in to find out.

Are you curious about the experiences of people who successfully navigate career transitions? And, interested in knowing what it takes to create a truly diverse and inclusive culture? Tune in to hear Jennifer’s personal experiences and the insight she has gained.

Everyone wants to know how to have more influence. So many roles require cross team, cross functional, cross divisional or cross border coordination where the leader is accountable but has little formal authority over the resources that are needed. Or, if the leader does use formal authority, reactions are not usually very positive. What is the secret to influencing without using or having authority? How can you influence upwards? What if the influence is through virtual channels only?

Often I talk with authors and consultants about their advice to leaders. In this show, I will be talking with a leader about his experiences - particularly those that involve a transition into unknown territory. Tune in to hear his experiences, insights and advice on influence and politics.

The more successful you are and the more responsibility you take on, the messier the problems that you face. All the “easy” ones can get solved in the layers beneath you. The “tougher” one get escalated – and now that’s you. So how can you manage the areas of gray more constructively? What’s the role of reflection in a world that’s packed with to do’s? How should we think about our view of the leader as the hero? Tune to hear more.

Given the pace of change today, companies need to innovate just to stand still. Whose job is it to drive innovation? Where does it happen? What does it take to innovate as a company? What does innovation mean about how we lead? What should you be thinking about as a leader? Tune in to find out how to drive innovation in your company – and it’s probably not what you are doing now.

Curious about your host? Want to know about her experience and perspective? Tune in to hear why expert leadership is such an important phenomena today along with the key barriers for expert leaders to overcome in moving to the next level, the secret to building dream teams and what it takes to build strong business relationships.

For all of us, the person we do not get along with so well, who gets under our skin, presents the most difficult case for working through conflict and disagreement. It’s not just about the content, it’s also about the personality. Why are these situations so difficult to deal with? What can be done when such conflicts arise? Is mediation something to consider and how does it work? If you need advice on how to work with someone who is fundamentally different in style from you, tune in.

Have questions you want to ask? Need advice about your career? This week, we are hosting a call-in show. Call in to +1-866-472-5790 or email your questions to wanda.wallace@leadershipforuminc.com

Millenials, the group of workers just now entering the workplace, are the largest cohort ever in history and they will change by virtue of their size all of our workplaces. Yet for all the conversation, there is a lot of hype, some mythology and limited advice on what really works. We have topics for the show: First, what is myth versus what’s reality and what does it mean? Second, what should we do on our teams and as managers that’s productive? Third, how can we meet in the middle? What’s to be gained – on both sides – from including millennials and managing them well?

The ability to spot and shrink capacity gaps is an urgent responsibility for all leaders. What’s your capacity at work? Can you take on more or are you at or beyond your limits of effectiveness? Do you even recognize when you have reached the peak of your capacity? More importantly, what can you do about it for yourself and for your team? Join us to for tips on how manage capacity.

Communication is a critical skill to lead people. However, we rarely get advice on how to do two aspects of communication effectively: Handle difficult, loaded or leading questions and interrupt a long-winded or off-point speakers to bring a discussion back on track. Our guest today says we should use all questions as an opportunity to tell our story, promote an agenda and get the outcome we need by using bridging techniques. She will show us how to use bridging to handle tough questions and how to anticipate bridging in others to interrupt other speakers politely and return the focus of a conversation back to the issue at hand. Tune in to learn techniques for doing both and improve your communication as well.