Episode #325 // I’m sure you hear me talk frequently about value creation. As a leader, your primary objective above all else is to deliver value. How you do that depends on your context.  One of the key principles that enables this razor-sharp fixation on value is simplicity and focus. Simplifying your company's objectives, its work program, and its customer value proposition is a complex and difficult process – but if you can get it right, it opens the door to greatness. In this episode, I...

Moment #95 // Working successfully in complex organizations requires collaboration. But you shouldn’t sacrifice strong accountabilities for the sake of collaboration. When you don’t structure your team’s work program around single-point accountability, it’s hard to know who’s doing what.  Accountabilities  become opaque, confused, and misunderstood… and performance suffers accordingly. Most of the epic fails I witnessed in my corporate career were the consequence of shared or unclear...

Episode #324 // Welcome to a special episode from our recent No Bullsh!t Leadership Live event in Sydney! Marty dives into the real, pressing issues leaders are facing today with his no-nonsense insights. In this episode, he tackles questions on: Managing a “Nike Boss”: How do you handle a boss who ignores resource limitations and expects you to “just do it”?Effective Downward Communication: How can you ensure that strategic messages reach all levels and don’t get lost as they filter through...

Moment #94 // During my corporate executive career, not working at the right level was probably the most common problem that I saw holding leaders back, and it happens at every level –  from front-line supervisors to CEOs of major companies. Most leaders say they want to delegate more… to give their people more responsibility, and not have to do so much themselves… but even before those words have passed their lips, they manage to shoot themselves in the foot. In this Moment, I give you my...

Episode #323 // Last week, we launched our No Bullsh!t Leadership Hub community, and it’s already firing on all cylinders.    For those of you who have joined, you may have answered the initial survey questions, some of which highlight the common problems that every leader faces.  One comment in particular, which was articulated beautifully by Sarah, really hit home. She said, “I think a big leadership challenge right now is capturing and communicating the nuances of what is slowing down...

Moment #93 // Middle management jobs are the toughest jobs in any organization. You’re effectively the meat in the sandwich, and the senior leadership might see you as just another person in the concrete layer. You get pressure from above, and resistance from below, creating incredible dissonance. This can increase your stress levels to the point where you’re downright miserable. How do you rise above the concrete layer? How do you make your objectives clearer? How do you stop the...

Episode #322 // This week, I’m announcing something big: The No Bullsh!t Leadership Hub, our brand-new free community built for leaders who are serious about cutting through the noise and creating real impact. Em and I have been doing this podcast for over six years, and it’s time to take it to the next level by giving you a place to connect with like-minded leaders.  In this episode, I share why community is a game-changer for growth, how our Member-Led Podcast Club will help you bring NBL...

Moment #92 // Whenever you need approval to allocate resources, you’ll most likely need to convince your boss that it’s a good idea. All organizations have scarce resources, and have to allocate these resources carefully. The only thing I know for sure about your business is that you will never have enough time, money, and people to do everything that you’d ideally like to do. So, you have to do the things that give you the biggest bang for buck. If you want to learn how to wow your boss with...

Episode #321 // In the final part of my conversation with leadership expert Pat Lencioni, we take a quick dive into the complex dynamics of working with family and close friends in a business setting. Whether you're leading a family-owned company or managing close-knit teams, this episode is packed with insights on how to set the right boundaries while nurturing important relationships. Here’s what you’ll take away from this episode: Balancing Standards for Family: Learn how to navigate the...

Moment #91 // You’ve no doubt heard the expression, Employee Engagement. It’s roughly equivalent to the age-old concept of job satisfaction, or JSAT. The big question is, does increased employee engagement improve performance? It sounds like it should be true – as long as you believe that happy workers are productive workers. Unfortunately, I don’t! Most often, happy workers are just… happy! If you want to find out more about the reality of leading employees to be happy, and to perform at...

Episode #320 // Was Lucy Letby wrongly convicted in her healthcare murder trial? We may never know… but what we do know is that her trial was plagued by serious flaws in the statistical evidence presented by the prosecution. I find it just a little disturbing that the judge, lawyers, and jury were so innumerate, that they accepted the bogus statistics on face value. This lack of numeracy is probably just as endemic in business! But everyone talks a good game, and it’s often difficult to see...

Moment #90 // There’s a lot of talk these days about purpose… we’re indoctrinated with the notion that, if you don’t pursue your purpose, what you choose to do has no meaning or value. I’m calling bullsh!t… I didn’t find my true purpose until I was in my mid-50s – but in the years prior to that, I loved my life, and made a hell of an impact. If you want to find out more about the reality of pursuing your purpose, have a listen to Ep.201: Finding Your Purpose ———————— FREE QUIZ: I’ve developed...

Episode #319 // We are constantly inundated with media reports, LinkedIn blogs, and conversations around the water cooler about the amount of stress we face in today’s work environment.   What’s changed since I was a young leader at the dawn of my career? The ability to disseminate information has far outstripped our ability to absorb it and make sense of it;We are “on” for a much greater percentage of our day than we ever have been; andAt the same time, we’re dealing with major social and...

Moment #89 // You can tell the character of a leader by watching what they do under pressure. Some choose to do what’s in the best interests of their team and their company. Others just let gravity take over, and head down the slippery slope of self-interest. If you want to be a strong leader – a person of character – you need to work out how to overcome your self-interest. I stumbled across an awesome hack many years ago that was pivotal for me in learning to put my own self-interest aside....

Episode #318 // Peter Drucker, one of the founding fathers of modern management theory said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”  This highlights just how much of what our people do, doesn’t add any real value to the company’s performance.  You’ve no doubt heard me talk about value in the past — it’s the centerpiece of the No Bullsh!t Leadership framework, and it should be front of mind for every leader, every single day.  But this is a lot...

Moment #88 // When you get promoted, you may expect your boss to spend time with you to induct you, to explain what’s important in your new role, and to walk you through the nuances of the transition. This rarely happens, if ever. But, once you understand the reasons why your boss doesn’t give you sufficient attention when you need it, you may be a little more forgiving. You need to take control of the transition to the next level, if you want to ensure predictable success in your new...

Episode #317 // Research from top executive search firm, Russell Reynolds, recently found that leaders’ confidence in their executive leadership teams (ELT) is falling: and this 3-year trend shows no signs of being reversed. What drives this erosion of confidence in the people in charge? What are leaders seeing in their ELTs that makes them question whether they know what they’re doing?  We’re all aware of how rapidly the world is changing – generative AI is still in its infancy; global...

Moment #87 // A “captain’s call” is a decision made unilaterally by a team leader without consulting colleagues, often resulting in a massive clusterf*#k. In the majority of cases, captain’s calls are seen by their team members as being out of touch, nonsensical, and driven by self interest. This begs the question: are there any situations where making a captain’s call is appropriate and, if so, what might those be? If you want to work out when it might make sense to overrule a team member,...

Episode #316 // I'm releasing Part 2 of my interview with Patrick Lencioni today, where we're going to dive straight into how you can use his Working Genius assessment to unlock the full potential of your team! If you’ve ever struggled with team members not being in the right roles, or felt frustration when your own work drains your energy, this tool is definitely worth checking out. Here’s what you’ll get from this episode: Learn how to leverage the six types of Working Genius to align your...

Performance reviews seem to have fallen out of fashion in many companies, particularly those companies that focus purely on people’s short-term needs and wants. This does your people a huge disservice, because they never gain real clarity on what’s expected of them, and whether their performance is in line with those expectations. No performance review process is perfect and, like any tool, it can be incredibly valuable in the right leader’s hands, and incredibly destructive in the wrong...

Episode #315 // I frequently mention high performers in passing, but I don’t often talk about how to find them, how to keep them, and how to get the most out of them. Many teams never get to experience the joy of having a star performer in their midst. And the thought of leading a real superstar can be daunting… especially if you aren’t confident in your leadership ability, or if you don’t have the appetite to stretch every individual in your team. Let’s face it, genuine high performers...

Moment #85 // Enabling perfectionism creates all sorts of problems. Even though the quest for perfection sounds noble, in reality, it's mostly driven by fear of failure! It adds an enormous amount of time, cost, stress, and complexity to any piece of work, without any material improvement in the outcome. A quest for excellence is infinitely more useful: be smart, make good decisions, and keep moving. This is why, instead of perfectionism, you should think about deploying layers of excellence...

Episode #314 // Politics exists in every organization. Some companies tolerate it more than others, and it’s not uncommon for ego-driven leaders to encourage poor behavior from their most ambitious people. Leaders who tolerate or encourage political maneuvering will find that it has a direct impact on team culture, cohesion, and performance. But politics is so ingrained in human nature that it can be really hard to identify and neutralize. Politics is the path that many leaders choose when...

Moment #84 // At some stage during your career, you’ll no doubt find yourself in the position where you need to drive a turnaround in your team’s culture and performance.  When you’re faced with that proposition, it’s really important to recognize that you can’t expect the same people to do things in a radically different way. If you want a culture change to be successful, the trick is to blend the best of the existing capability and culture with new ways of thinking, behaving, and...