Coaching for Leaders

Latest Episodes:

581: Handling a Difficult Stakeholder, with Nick Timiraos May 23, 2022

Show notes

Nick Timiraos: Trillion Dollar Triage Nick Timiraos has been the chief economics correspondent at The Wall Street Journal since 2017, where he is responsible for covering the Federal Reserve and other major developments in U.S. economic policy. He joined the Journal in 2006 and previously covered the 2008 presidential election. He wrote about U.S. housing markets and the mortgage industry as a reporter based in New York. His coverage included the government’s response to the foreclosure crisis and the takeover of finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nick is the author of Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic -- and Prevented Economic Disaster*. Key Points Some of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome “Jay” Powell’s core skills have helped him navigate difficult stakeholders: He’s highly regarded as a good listener with excellent emotional intelligence. He’s intentional about creating strong teams and espoused the value of teamwork regularly. He is mindful of daily events, but is always playing the long game. He speaks in plain language that makes sense to many people, regardless of their education level. Specifically, four unwritten rules of dealing with a difficult stakeholder like Donald Trump emerged in Nick’s analysis of Jay Powell’s public appearances: Don’t talk about Trump. When provoked, don’t return fire. Stick to the economy, not politics. Develop allies outside the Oval Office. Resources Mentioned Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic -- and Prevented Economic Disaster* by Nick Timiraos Nick Timiraos website Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Listen When Someone Is Venting, with Mark Goulston (episode 91) How to Handle a Boss Who’s a Jerk, with Tom Henschel (episode 164) The Way Out of Major Conflict, with Amanda Ripley (episode 529) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

580: Help People Show Up as Themselves, with Frederic Laloux May 16, 2022

Show notes

Frederic Laloux: Reinventing Organizations Frederic is the author of Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness*. The book is a global word-of-mouth bestseller with over 850,000 copies sold in 20 languages. Frederic’s work has inspired the founders of Extinction Rebellion, the Sunrise Movement, and Project Drawdown, as well as countless corporate leaders and faith movements. In a past life, he was an associate principal with McKinsey & Company. He's also the creator of the Insights for the Journey video series. In this conversation, Frederic and I explore a place where almost every leader can have a meaningful impact: helping people show up as their whole selves. We discuss how critical it is for leaders to lead the way in doing this — and how storytelling can be an important entry point. We look at some of the practical actions leaders can take to enter into a place of wholeness, including elevating beyond content, using everyday language, and integrating with the work at hand. Key Points As a leader, wholeness begins with you. Exploring wholeness yourself sets the stage for everyone else to be able to engage more fully. Rather than talking lots about wholeness, it’s often helpful just to begin modeling it. When you do, everyday language us useful to help others engage. Your personal history, the history of the organization, and the organization’s purpose are often helpful stories to share that open up a space for wholeness. You can turn any conversation into a moment of wholeness. One invitation for leaders is to stop talking about content and elevate the dialogue to “what’s happening” overall. Resist any temptation to disconnect wholeness from the work at hand. Bringing these together helps people to show up at work more authentically. Resources Mentioned Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness* by Frederic Laloux Reinventing Organizations: An Illustrated Invitation to Join the Conversation on Next-Stage Organizations* by Frederic Laloux Insights for the Journey video series by Frederic Laloux Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Way to Stay Grounded, with Parker Palmer (episode 378) How to Be More Inclusive, with Stefanie Johnson (episode 508) The Path Towards Trusting Relationships, with Edgar Schein and Peter Schein (episode 539) End Imposter Syndrome in Your Organization, with Jodi-Ann Burey (episode 556) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

579: How to Pitch Your Manager, with Tom Henschel May 09, 2022

Show notes

Tom Henschel: The Look & Sound of Leadership Tom Henschel of Essential Communications grooms senior leaders and executive teams. As an internationally recognized expert in the field of workplace communications and self-presentation, he has helped thousands of leaders achieve excellence through his work as an executive coach and his top-rated podcast, The Look & Sound of Leadership. In this conversation, Tom and I explore the sometimes awkward moment of needing to get buy-in from your manager on a next step, proposal, or funding. We detail three considerations and how attention to them can help you frame this conversation better. Plus, we share tactics such as making the business case, telling a story, and past interactions — in order to help you get forward movement. Key Points Three lenses of consideration are helpful when considering how to pitch you manager: purpose, preference, and protocol. When framing your purpose in making a pitch, it’s helpful to be able to change altitude. Consider “clicking out” on a map to frame the bigger picture. To be purposeful, make sure you are making the business case for whatever you are pitching. Anger and emotion can be sentinels that you might not have moved past thinking about it personally or framed the business context fully. Consider past interactions with your manager on how they prefer to receive information. The way you pitch them should begin with their preferences, not yours. Get intel in advance from other stakeholders, if practical. They can help you see the variables that might be clouding your judgement if you’re too close to the situation. Clearly frame the problem and examples of it. Consider strutting your pitch in the framework of The Want, The Obstacle, and The Resolution (see PDF below). Resources Mentioned Storytelling: A Three-Part Model by Tom Henschel (PDF download) Related Episodes How to Start Managing Up, with Tom Henschel (episode 433) The Way to Influence Executives, with Nancy Duarte (episode 450) The Way to Make Sense to Others, with Tom Henschel (episode 518) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

578: Leadership When Others Know More Than You, with Bonni Stachowiak May 02, 2022

Show notes

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*. Listener Questions Allison asked for resources on how to lead others who are more knowledgeable than you in the field of work. Everett wondered how he can navigate a situation where accents make it difficult to understand interview candidates. Stephen asked about motivating people independent of incentives. Resources Mentioned The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work* by Peter Block Drive* by Daniel Pink Effective Delegation of Authority: A (Really) Short Book for New Managers About How to Delegate Work Using a Simple Delegation Process* by Hassan Osman The Coaching Habit* by Michael Bungay Stanier Humble Leadership* by Edgar Schein and Peter Schein HBO Max Presents Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People* by Donna Hicks On the folly of rewarding A while hoping for B by Steven Kerr Related Episodes How to Improve Your Coaching Skills, with Tom Henschel (episode 190) How to Motivate People, with Dan Ariely (episode 282) The Path of Humble Leadership, with Edgar Schein and Peter Schein (episode 363) Effective Delegation of Authority, with Hassan Osman (episode 413) Start Finding Overlooked Talent, with Johnny Taylor, Jr. (episode 544) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

577: The Path Towards Joy in Your Career, with David Novak Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

David Novak: Take Charge of You David Novak is Co-Founder, retired Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company with over 45,000 restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories. During his tenure as CEO, Yum! Brands became a global powerhouse, growing from $4 billion in revenue to over $32 billion. After retiring in 2016, he became Founder and CEO of David Novak Leadership, dedicated to developing leaders at every stage of life. David is also the host of the top-ranked podcast, How Leaders Lead and founder of the leadership development platform of the same name. An expert on leadership and recognition culture, David is also a New York Times bestselling author. His books include Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen, O GREAT ONE! A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition, and his latest book with Jason Goldsmith, Take Charge of You: How Self Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career*. In this conversation, David and I discuss the importance of finding joy in our careers. David highlights several of the key questions that he utilizes when helping others to uncover how joy can show up their work. He encourages us to surface the single biggest thing that’s important right now in order to get immediate traction. Key Points Sometimes your best (and only) coach is yourself. Use joy as your destination finder. Find your joy blockers by asking yourself: what’s getting in the way of my joy? Your worst days often provide insight on this. Discover your joy builders by asking yourself: what would grow your joy personal and professionally? Your most memorable days are starting points for answers here. Your goal is to surface your single biggest thing. This changes over time, but ideally is only one thing, one at a time. That’s how you gain traction. Resources Mentioned Take Charge of You: How Self Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career* by David Novak and Jason Goldsmith Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Find Your Calling, with Ken Coleman (episode 352) Align Your Work With Your Why, with Kwame Marfo (episode 542) How to Nail a Job Transition, with Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (episode 555) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

576: How to Help People Engage in Growth, with Whitney Johnson Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

Whitney Johnson: Smart Growth Whitney Johnson is CEO of the tech-enabled talent development company Disruption Advisors, an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company in America. As one of the top ten business thinkers in the world as named by Thinkers50, Whitney is an expert at smart growth leadership. She has worked at FORTUNE 100 companies, and as an award-winning equity analyst on Wall Street. Whitney co-founded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with the late Clayton Christensen. She has coached alongside Marshall Goldsmith, selected by him in 2017 as a Top 15 Coach out of a pool of more than 17,000 candidates. She is the author of Disrupt Yourself and the host of the podcast of the same name. She is also the author of Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company*. In this conversation, Whitney and I explore a big reality of growth; it’s often slow at the start. We discuss three practical steps that leaders can take for both themselves and others to stay engaged during the early stages of growth. Key Points Auditing some of your roles, secrets, beliefs, values, and boundaries will help you move forward along the growth path. Listen to the stories that others tell and help them link past experiences with what’s important today. Images are a critical entry point to growth. Utilize them in addition to the new behavior itself to begin to frame your thinking and identity. Circle back after receiving feedback and show others what you’ve learned from it and how it’s changed your behavior. That motivates them to stay invested. Use “I am” statements that have a noun rather than a verb. Instead of “I run,” consider saying, “I am a runner.” Resources Mentioned Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company* by Whitney Johnson Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Become the Person You Want to Be, with James Clear (episode 376) How to Motivate Leaders, with John Maxwell (episode 452) How to Win the Long Game When the Short-Term Seems Bleak, with Dorie Clark (episode 550) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

575: Make It Easier to Challenge Authority, with Richard Rierson Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Richard Rierson: Dose of Leadership Richard Rierson has over 30 years of real-world, practical leadership experience as a United States Marine Corps officer, professional aviator, and corporate executive. His philosophy is that our leadership challenges should be met with the lifelong dedication and pursuit of becoming composed, confident, consistent, courageous, and compassionate. In addition to being a sought after speaker, coach, and consultant, he is the host of the Dose of Leadership podcast. He's also a commercial airline pilot, currently flying as a first officer on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In this conversation, Richard and I explore how professional aviation emerged from the accidents of the 1970’s to improve challenging authority inside the cockpit. We discuss the principles of crew resource management (CRM) and how more structure and intention between crew members vastly reduced the number of aviation accidents. We examine what leaders can do to use similar principles to support appropriately challenging authority inside their organizations. Key Points Almost every accident is a chain of events. The key is to have self awareness in the chain and to interrupt it. Making the invitation to challenge before the work begins makes it far more likely that another party will speak up when they see something. Pilots use green, yellow, and red as simple and immediate indicator to others in the cockpit how much stress they are holding. Three steps are use to pilots to escalate challenging a more senior pilot: ask a question, make a suggestion, take control i.e. “my aircraft.” Resources Mentioned Sully with Tom Hanks The Crash of Flight 401, and the Lessons for Your Company by Dave Yarin The Evolution of Airline Crew Resource Management by Jean Dennis Marcellin Related Episodes The Way to Turn Followers Into Leaders, with David Marquet (episode 241) How to Deal with Opponents and Adversaries, with Peter Block (episode 328) How to Talk to People Who Have Power, with Jordan Harbinger (episode 343) How to Use Power Responsibly, with Vanessa Bohns (episode 551) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

574: How to Reduce Frictions That Slow Good Intentions, with Deepa Purushothaman Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

Deepa Purushothaman: The First, The Few, The Only Deepa is the co-founder of nFormation, a company which provides a brave, safe, and new space for professionals who are women of color. She spent more than twenty years at Deloitte and was a first herself: an Indian American woman and one of the youngest people to make partner in the company’s history. In her time there, she helped grow Deloitte's Social Impact Practice, served as a National Managing Partner of Inclusion, and served as the Managing Partner of WIN—the firm’s renowned program to recruit, retain, and advance women. Deepa speaks extensively on women and leadership. She has been featured at national conferences and in publications including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Huffington Post, and Harvard Business Review. She is the author of The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color can Redefine Power in Corporate America*. Key Points The corporate space has not fostered true equity. Often, many of us don’t see the systemic examples each day of friction. “We can’t find you,” is an often believed delusion when companies intend to attract more women of color. “I don’t see color,” is often a well-intended belief, but in practice often marginalizes the lives experiences of women of color. “DEI will fix it all,” is an illusion. We all should be supporting peers in formal DEI roes to volunteer, show up, and be key partners in the work that benefits all of you. “You got white-manned,” reflects the belief that the world has to be a zero-sum competition. Resources Mentioned The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color can Redefine Power in Corporate America* by Deepa Purushothaman Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Start Finding Overlooked Talent, with Johnny Taylor, Jr. (episode 544) The Way Managers Can be Champions for Justice, with Minda Harts (episode 552) Overcome Resistance to New Ideas, with David Schonthal (episode 557) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

573: How to Protect Your Confidence, with Nate Zinsser Mar 28, 2022

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Nate Zinsser: The Confident Mind Nate Zinsser is an expert in the psychology of human performance. He has been at the forefront of applied sport psychology for over thirty years. He has been a regular consultant to the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Giants as well as a consultant for the FBI Academy, the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, and the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. Since 1992 he has directed a cutting edge applied sport psychology program at the United States Military Academy’s Center for Enhanced Performance, personally conducting over seventeen thousand individual training sessions and seven hundred team training sessions for cadets seeking the mental edge for athletic, academic, and military performance. His most recent book is titled The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide for Unshakable Performance*. In this conversation, Nate and I explore the reality that almost every leader faces: continual challenges to our own confidence. We examine some of the misconceptions around confidence and how those misperceptions tend to limit us. Then, we discuss the most effective practices you can use to maintain — and improve — the confidence that you’ve already built. Key Points It’s a misconception that once you become confident, you’ll stay that way forever. Confidence has little to do with what happens to you and tons to do with how you think about what happens to you. For a more constructive attitude when bad things happen, use these three elements: decide that it’s temporary, limited, and non-representative. To win the battle with your own negative thinking, acknowledge the negativity, silence it, and then replace it with something better to get the last word. Protecting your confidence is an ongoing practice. You’ll never stop doing it — but the good news is that it will give you an edge if you can develop this practice. Resources Mentioned The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide for Unshakable Performance* by Nate Zinsser Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Way to Make Sense to Others, with Tom Henschel (episode 518) How to Build Confidence, with Katy Milkman (episode 533) How to Speak Up, with Connson Locke (episode 546) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

572: The Key Indicators of Team Resilience, with Keith Ferrazzi Mar 21, 2022

Show notes

Keith Ferrazzi: Competing in the New World of Work Keith Ferrazzi is the founder and chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a management consulting and coaching company that works to transform many of the largest organizations and governments in the world. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Keith rose to become the youngest chief marketing officer of a Fortune 500 company during his career at Deloitte and later became CMO and head of sales at Starwood Hotels. He has contributed to Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal and is The New York Times number one bestselling author of Who’s Got Your Back, Never Eat Alone, and Leading Without Authority. He is the co-author with Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich of Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest*. In this conversation, Keith and I discuss what his team and him have learned from the most resilient teams they’ve supported. We explore some of the most useful strategies to build a more resilient team and highlight key actions that will help leaders and teams through challenging times. Key Points Resilient teams have compassion and empathy for each other. They show care through both success and failure. Humility is the ability to ask for help. Resilient teams have a culture that supports and encourages this. Many leaders espouse candor for their teams, but far less actually have teams with candor. Resilient teams speak truth — and it’s up to leaders to show them the way. Resourceful teams develop solutions at a higher velocity. They use systems and structures to move past challenges and doubts more quickly. Resources Mentioned Competing in the New World of Work* by Keith Ferrazzi, Kian Gohar, and Noel Weyrich 7 Strategies to Build a More Resilient Team* Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How Great Teams Find Purpose, with David Burkus (episode 481) Leadership Means You Go First, with Keith Ferrazzi (episode 488) How to Engage Remote Teams, with Tsedal Neeley (episode 537) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

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