Episode #295 // “We make mistakes, at each new level that we move to – it's an essential part of our growth and development. But the higher up you go, the bigger the impact that those mistakes have.” One of my recent social media posts went viral (this one - 2.7mill views as of writing this), as I outlined the three biggest mistakes I made when I was finding my feet in my first few senior leadership roles. The good news is that, once I was aware of them, I was able to put some strategies in...

Moment #65 // If you want to be a great leader, you have to learn to read the play – to know when it’s appropriate to push one of your people harder, when it’s appropriate to work more closely with them, and when it’s appropriate to stand back and let them get on with it. In this Moment, I take a look at Situational Leadership Theory (SLT). This model gives us guidance for how to adapt our style so that we have the best chance of getting through to our people, and enabling them to be...

Episode #294 // “If you can create a culture that values momentum, you will almost always outperform teams that don't!” I often talk about the need for speed. As a leader, placing a premium on forward progress is one of the most reliable tools you have to achieve execution excellence in your team.  If you can create a culture that values momentum, you will almost always outperform teams that don’t.   Teams that don’t value speed just seem to stagnate. I’ve seen lots of them over the years,...

Moment #64 // Many CEOs and senior executives talk a good game when it comes to culture change and transformation… it’s almost expected. But, even though they might make the right noises, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have the commitment to set a higher standard, or generate the level of momentum it would take to lead the change successfully. Pretty much every senior leader says they want a constructive, high performance culture. But very few can clearly articulate what this means… and...

Episode #293 // “I look at my high performers with one thought in mind: What will it take for them to get to the next level?” When you focus on setting a high standard for performance, it’s easy to fall into the habit of managing the exceptions — to focus on the people who fall behind, or don’t meet the minimum standard you’re trying to preserve.  The old saying that the squeakiest wheel gets the oil is as true in the leadership context as it is in every other aspect of life!   When people...

Moment #63 // Times are tough and, when the pressure is on, it doesn’t take long before companies start to squeeze their suppliers in an attempt to find cost savings. Unfortunately, your suppliers are facing exactly the same pressures you are. Their costs are rising too, and they’re experiencing the same difficulty in finding and keeping their best people. Knowing how to manage your suppliers for optimum long-term benefit is critical, especially as you seek to outsource more and more of the...

Episode #292 // “In team sports, “leading from the front” means a completely different thing than it does in business.” There are a number of elements that contribute to your leadership identity. Many leaders let their identity form organically, without much conscious thought or planning. That’s fine, but there’s an enormous amount of upside to be captured, if you choose to be deliberate and methodical in your approach. For every leader, regardless of level, industry, company size, or...

Moment #62 // The board of directors is increasingly seen as the accountable body for ensuring ethical, responsible behavior from companies. But we still seem to be witnessing some pretty spectacular failures in corporate governance. To me, this isn’t at all surprising. The board has very little influence over what the management team does on a day-to-day basis.  Boards have limited control over what really goes on. I’m sure that many professional directors will disagree with me on this… but...

Episode #291 // “The boundaries between our work and personal lives have shifted, and leaders need to deal with the fallout.” When I began my corporate executive career, the only concern leaders had for safety was to ensure that people working in dangerous environments didn’t get seriously injured or killed. Then, there were a lot of businesses that didn’t even need to think about the word “safety”, because they were predominantly white-collar, office-bound enterprises. For most of my senior...

Episode #61 // What if your people knew exactly what to expect from you? What if they understood your style, the objectives that drive you, and the things you value the most? If you want your people to be really clear on what you’re after, developing your own Leadership User Manual can be a simple but effective way to lay out the ground rules, and establish your expectations in an unambiguous way. This could save years of trial and error, and give your people a clear path to thriving under...

Episode #290 // "The best leaders do what's needed to master their stakeholder ecosystem, taking it from chaos and unpredictability to control and alignment." In last week’s episode, I outlined the 10 key ingredients that contribute to your promotion prospects. In doing so, I realized that, after almost 300 full-length episodes of No Bullsh!t Leadership, we hadn’t yet produced one that deals specifically with the key discipline of stakeholder management. Well, this is it! In today’s complex...

Moment #60 // I’m a big believer in avoiding the problems that inevitably emerge when you become too isolated, or spend too much time cocooned in your own little world.  There’s no end to the number of consultants out there who hold themselves up as experts, and promise to make your business better in oh-so-many ways. How would you know which options are likely to give you real value for money, and which are likely to be an expensive waste of time? The management consulting market is...

Episode #289 // “In the absence of your ability to handle pressure at your current level, your boss is going to think twice about promoting you” Although every episode of No Bullsh!t Leadership is peppered with practical guidance on how to improve your leadership confidence and performance, I’ve never given you the specific recipe for improving your promotion prospects — until now!   In this episode, I lay out a holistic inventory of the things that contribute to your promotability.   As you...

Moment #59 // Collaboration is one of the big buzz words of 21st century leadership. But the concept of collaboration in business dates back to the 19th century, as an underpinning feature of the theory of the firm. Although there are a lot of benefits to collaboration, the pendulum has swung too far. We’ve devolved into decision-making by consensus, and management by committee. The alternative is to empower your decision-makers with strong, single-point accountability. If you focus on...

Episode #288 // “After almost 62 years on this planet, you'd think I'd know better – and I kind of do – but it doesn't mean I always get it right.” We all know what to do, for the most part. Each day when we wake up, we can either choose to do it, or not do it. If we choose to not do it, then our brains quickly come to the rescue to tell us why that’s the best decision under the circumstances — this is rationalization, and we all master it at a pretty young age. But, no matter how hard we try...

Moment #58 // Conventional wisdom tells us that we have to put people before profits… that if we look after our people then, in turn, they will look after our customers, and the business will thrive. But the problem with conventional wisdom is that, even though there’s always at least some grain of truth to it, it’s easy to oversimplify, to rationalize, and to misinterpret. The people before profits mantra is one of the great oversimplifications of leadership. If we did put our people first,...

Episode #287 // “It's way easier just to roll your sleeves up and fix something, than it is to put in the hard work of leadership to lift someone else's capability.” As a leader, you face daily pressures which are quite different from the pressures that confronted you when you were a carefree individual contributor, responsible only for your own work. The type of pressure, and its intensity, depends on a number of things: the sector you’re operating in; the organizational culture; the...

Moment #57 // Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is often summarized as: the survival of the fittest. But, in fact, Darwin’s conclusion was that those who survive aren’t necessarily the fittest – they are the most adaptable. As a leader, one of your most valuable characteristics is your capacity for change. Change is constant. But many of us don’t cope with it particularly well. We often struggle to understand the change that we’re asked to adapt to in our work lives… and what we don’t...

Episode #286 // “While one in four people in the workforce have managerial responsibilities, very few have actually been trained. 82% of leaders are accidental.” Many people in leadership positions were promoted because they were good at their jobs — their technical jobs. When ambitious professionals want the status, the power, and the money that come with career advancement, they have to accept that leading other people comes with the territory. With little leadership training, and even less...

Moment #56 // We talk a lot as leaders about how to give feedback, and it takes many years of experience to actually get good at it. What we don’t talk about nearly as much is what to do when we’re on the other side of the table!  Receiving good quality, helpful, accurate feedback is essential if you want to reach your performance potential. If this is true, then why are we so averse to receiving feedback?  Learning how to receive and implement feedback is a critical skill for leaders who...

Episode #285 // “If you make decisions in isolation, you're likely to miss the implications of those decisions on the whole ecosystem, and this is often where the cracks begin to appear.” Like many of you, I’ve done quite a bit of flying over the course of my adult life. I’m not a nervous flyer at all, but I’m always interested to see what’s happening in the world of commercial aviation. This bumper episode is a mini case study on Boeing, which has been in the news again recently – for all...

Moment #55 // Being right isn’t everything – it’s just a good start. Many leaders like to position themselves as “the smartest person in the room”. And there’s a lot to be said for superior intelligence. But you have to know how to use your intellect to get the best possible outcomes from your people.  To excel as a leader, you have to go way beyond your pure intellectual horsepower, and enter the nebulous world of emotional intelligence and human connection! You can take a deeper dive into...

Episode #284 // “There are very few bosses who will say “no” when asked if they’d like feedback. But even though they might say “yes”, you have to read the play – do they really want to hear it?” I spend a lot of time and energy helping leaders to build their capability in giving feedback to their people: how to engage them in difficult conversations; how to review their performance; how to know when it’s time to say goodbye to someone who isn’t performing. Let’s face it, if you want to be...

Moment #54 // We all think we know how to negotiate. After all, our negotiating skills are honed from birth, as we tussle with our parents to try to convince them to do what we want them to.  Despite this, I learned a number of years ago that my negotiation skills were not what I thought they were. I was humbled in a fairly straightforward mock negotiation at business school. But what I learned in the following weeks equipped me to go on to negotiate and win several large contracts, worth...