The test of a leader is often in times of crisis. What if you had to deal with disaster compounded by disaster? Three bushfires including the most devastating one of 2020, followed immediately by Covid19. This is exactly what Mayor Kristy McBain has faced since first being elected the youngest councillor in Bega Valley Shire at the age of 29, and then as the youngest Mayor in 2016. She shares her biggest leadership insights.
Why you should listen:
How to find opportunity after a crisis - so relevant to all businesses right now
Why communication is still the biggest challenge even in the age of social media and the internet
The secret of successful representation: ‘you can never lose points for listening’
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Read MoreOnly 20% of teams are operating at their full potential! What gets in their way? Poor emotional intelligence. Author Kerry Goyette shares her research and experience when it comes to building high performing teams that can collaborate effectively, especially through crisis situations. Plus we dive into the trickier people stuff issues: dealing with narcissists, psychopaths, and power hungry leaders.
Why you should listen:
Learn why some people triumph from adversity and others don’t and what you can do to be on a winning side
How to label and overcome the 6 key derailers
How to develop self awareness in yourself and others
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Read MoreWhat makes a great leadership performance? What aspect of leadership is performance? If a great performance that is genuine can inspire us, how can we do more of that as leaders? Diana Theodores is an expert in theatre skills for business. She shares what she believes is the natural intersection of performance skills and leadership in this deep dive interview.
Why you should listen:
Discover specific theatre practices that liberate your authentic voice
Learn how the simple steps of being intentional and acting allow us to become what we practice, well before we have belief
Why being authentic is not who you are habitually, but the full expression of all aspects and all roles of yourself
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Read MoreWhere are you playing it safe in your life? What is the emotional landscape of your life? What is your fear costing you in life and in leadership? These are some hard hitting questions from coach, author and speaker extraordinaire, Margie Warrell. You’ll be mesmerized by her energy and passion for emboldening people to live with courage.
Why you should listen:
Leadership is not about a title or position, it’s about how we show up every day being our best selves, and backing ourselves to make a contribution
How men and women need to do some deep work to buck social trends - playing it small for women, being more open-hearted for men
How to confront the parts of ourselves that we bury when we judge others - and what it can do for us
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Read MoreChris Griffiths was an unlikely leader, bullied as a kid, who went on to create a highly successful tech company, sell it, and then lose all his wealth on a bad investment. He reinvented himself and built a number of successful enterprises at the intersection of creativity and technology. Chris has a wealth of experience and practical advice on how to innovate better and avoid cognitive bias traps. A must listen for those interested in innovation and creativity, and leadership built out of the ashes of failure.
Why you should listen:
How traditional to-do lists are too linear and not effective for helping us prioritise - and how we can make them visual instead (hint: this is a game changer)
How he had the opportunity to run a brainstorming session with a group of Nobel Laureates at the invitation of his Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan at the Petra Nobel Conference and why it totally flopped! (turns out smart people have some significant cognitive biases)
4 definable steps to innovation that avoid cognitive bias traps
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Read MoreAre you undergoing a big transformation project? Are you in charge of leading a significant change in systems or processes or structures? Then best be across some of the core fundamentals of doing it right and avoid common myths about change. Change leader expert Julia Steel shares her insights from her own lived experience.
Why you should listen:
Learn the 3 Cs of buy-in that go straight to the heart of neuroscience
How to build collective influence so you stay out of the command control paradigm
Why it’s a total misconception that people resist change and what to focus on instead
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Read MoreDo you have fear of public speaking? How about a fear of failure? Do you lead a team of diverse personalities, and some big ones that are more like divas? Radio Host extraordinaire Erik Johnson shares his leadership nuggets in a career that celebrates the people stuff.
Why you should listen:
Learn how to deal with a diva
Discover how to wrestle well with the fear of failure
Learn how to avoid the classic Achiever trap that can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction
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Read MoreThe coronavirus experience is unprecedented in our time for leaders. How do we make our way through the uncertainty and fear? Transformational leadership expert Barry Pogorel and I talk about there is no ‘going back to normal’. We need instead to create a new normal. This offers huge opportunities! In our energising and uplifting conversation, we get down to brass tacks on what leaders need to do to start crafting their own new normal.
Why you should listen:
If you need to know where to start in dealing with uncertainty and acknowledge what is here right now
To understand why taking a stand is the most powerful thing you can do to catalyse a new possible future
To recognise the power of questions to drive new possibilities
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Read MoreNot-for-profits are too important to fail. They offer critical services to the most vulnerable. In robust economies, NFPs struggle with business resilience at the best of times. In crisis? The stakes can mean do or die, on all fronts. Toni Pergolin is CEO and President of Bancroft, one of the largest healthcare providers in New Jersey. She led a huge turnaround in an organisation that was facing significant financial difficulties. Ten years later, Bancroft is now thriving and has doubled in size. In our interview she shares her insights and priorities in leading through this turnaround, and what is practical and applicable to NFPs and leaders in any business today.
Why you should listen:
If you are a CEO shouldering responsibility for dealing with a crisis and how you can deal with the pressure
To learn lessons from those organisations who don’t make it and help you to make decisions faster
Help you decide what you can do right now, today, to help chart the course through uncertain times
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Read MoreUncertainty, fear, and unprecedented circumstances. What can we do? There are things we can do right now to lead ourselves and help others. We can also start to navigate the ship through uncharted waters - we can craft a better future, now. We look at how to frame our challenge, how to look after ourselves, how to deal with amygdala hijack responses, confront the brutal truth of the pandemic, and then start to shape what’s next.
Why you should listen:
Tips to look after yourself: increase (or introduce) meditation, get fresh air and sunshine, stop doing stuff that affects your immune system, create connection and build interactions.
Be mindful of the uncertainty effect: survival mode and panic buying, distraction, short term memory suppression, irritability, adrenaline and getting hyped up.
How to look after your people: online collaboration tools, instigate virtual social interactions like online scrabble or virtual happy hour, support those who live alone the most - think plants and pets, share stories of generosity and appreciation, set up regular daily and weekly routines for remote teams
Confront the brutal truth: the future progress of the pandemic effect
Start creating a new normal: we aren’t going back to the way things were
Make a stand and a declaration: what kind of future do you want to create?
Lead with questions: Share interesting questions (not answers) to spark possibilities!
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Read MoreWant to be seen as the best candidate for your next CEO role? Want your brand to stand out? Want to build trust with your consumers? Want to build engagement with your staff? The magic solution is Connected Leadership - how to create connections through a personal communication plan. Connected Leadership expert Mel Kettle walks us through key components of building a digital presence that builds trust and credibility.
Why you should listen:
If you need help with where to start in building your personal communication plan
If you need help with how to systemise listening to help build a stronger connection with a broad cohort of stakeholders
If you need help with how to build interesting content and stories no matter how boring the topic may seem at first glance
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Read MoreDo you have too much on your plate? Looking for ways to cut costs and boost productivity? Do you have 26 projects going at once? Ishan Galapathy shares his approach to solving these chronic workplace stressors.
Why you should listen:
Learn how to qualify your problems before you set about solving them
Learn how to identify the four types of problems and how to resolve them
Learn how to ask better questions to solve complex problems
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Read MoreCulture is a fluid thing, one simple act can send it in a new direction - for better, or worse. Author and entrepreneur Chris Dyer shares his research on what can turn a good culture bad (and it’s a simple fix), along with some simple distinctions that can make a big difference in your culture strategy.
Why you should listen:
Avoid making the mistake that Disney made that could send your culture into a spin
How to reward self-motivated sales people in a way that does not turn them into dog-eat-dog lone wolves
3 key tips for effective listening
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Read MoreHow do you approach your work and life? Is it a serious endeavour? Or is it a game? I think we can choose really fun games to help us evolve as humans and leaders. There are games like Achieving, games like Freedom, games like Happiness. In this Thought Nugget we take a look at what kinds of games you can play, and some ideas to get started.
Why you should listen:
How to avoid the pitfalls of the Achiever game
Some fun games you can play to help focus your world for a more rewarding experience
Three questions to ask to make sure your game doesn’t derail you
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Read MoreIs there something that really gets your goat? Something that you can’t stop thinking about? Something you are longing to see different in the world? Then you might be a Changemaker. Find out what you can do to satisfy that itch.
Why you should listen:
Learn what a Changemaker actually is and if you’ve got the goods to be one (I hope so! We need you)
How to find your Big Question as a Changemaker, and how to wrestle it to the ground
How to design your world for inspiration - for those Big Ideas
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Read MoreAre you moving into a new role? Are you taking on more responsibility? Is the scope of your work becoming more complex? Are you hoping to win new business, charge more for your services, or launch into a brand new project? Acclimatization is what is required. Key tips for you today.
Why you should listen:
What you need to adjust from a physiological point of view for new responsibilities
The big shift you need to make in your attitude
How perspective changes how you be
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Read MoreWant to be the next Uber and shake up your industry? Chances are you are doing it all wrong. Thinking a disruptive idea will create exponential change is missing the boat. Author, researcher and speaker Charlene Li says focus obsessively on your future customer and burn the boats to serve them best. This kind of commitment creates growth that is disruptive. Join us for some awesome and inspiring insights from her latest book, The Disruption Mindset - why some organisations transform while others fail.
Why you should listen:
Why you need to redefine growth as impact for more sustained and meaningful change
The most disruptive organisations are the ones that are the most structured - and what you can do to emulate their success
How to identify your future customer - and why you need to obsess about that
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Read MoreDo you do annual anonymous culture reviews? Do you subject people to anonymous 360s? Should you do any of this? Here’s the better approach than letting people hide behind surveys (and also when they might be good).
Why you should listen:
What needing anonymous surveys says about your culture
4 things you should look at instead
Two situations when you SHOULD use anonymous feedback
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Read MoreDid you scope a career, focus on getting the skills, and hoped the lifestyle would work out? That’s how we were taught, back in the day. Gung-ho drummer extraordinaire Nick Gross is upending what it means to build a career, by helping students (and older folk like me) determine what lifestyle they want, what strengths they have, and THEN what career might work. Welcome to a new way of thinking about your passion and your work.
Why you should listen:
How to check if your lifestyle, strengths, and careers are aligned (or how they could become so)
Why the future belongs to the misfits, and why you want to be one
How to create communities that go beyond geographical location to a global bridge based on interests
Read MoreWhat can art, train stations, and toilet seats tell us about problems in systems? In this Thought nugget, we look at Italy and Japan - how values create entirely unique systems, and how you can use this to solve your own workplace challenges.
Why you should listen:
Book recommendation hits and misses
Insights into systems that can save you wasted hours of work
Fun insights into Italian and Japanese culture
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