No Bullsh!t Leadership

Episode #285 // 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 the wrong reasons...

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...

Episode #284 // 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 even mildly competent as a leader, this is a core skill. It has a technical element (of course) but, even more important are the psychological and emotional elements...

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...

Episode #283 // When we talk about trust in the context of leadership, it’s normally about how to get your people to trust you! And, of course, this should be a critical focus for leaders at every level...

Moment #53 // The factors behind the increasing levels of work stress that people are experiencing are many and varied – it’s a complex issue. What is pretty clear, though, is that more and more leaders are reporting that they are burnt out. 

But, if you apply a couple of relatively simple and practical remedies, you will be able to protect yourself from burnout...

Episode #282 // Our first episode of No Bullsh!t Leadership was produced in August 2018. This week, we achieved a major milestone - 5 million downloads of the podcast.

To be perfectly honest, Em and I are pretty ordinary when it comes to celebrating success… and I often cringe at the thinly-veiled, self-congratulatory posts that seem to dominate LinkedIn and some of the other social media platforms...

Moment #52: Building Professional Credibility // Whatever you try to achieve as a leader relies, at least to some extent, on your credibility. If you have strong personal credibility, it makes everything you do inordinately easier.

Credibility galvanizes your team… it instills confidence in the people above you… and it ultimately becomes an integral part of your leadership brand. Without it, every yard you manage to move forward feels… hard...

Episode #281 // Team morale is built through proactive commitment and focus. It doesn’t just happen. 

One of the great misconceptions of leadership is that, if you make people happy, they will perform better and team morale will be high. Although this is possible in theory, it is highly unlikely to happen in practice...

Moment #51// We’ve all sat in meeting rooms where we’ve been subjected to death by PowerPoint. For every leader, the ability to present information in a compelling, interesting way is your basic table stakes: it should be a vital element of your core leadership competencies.

The good news is, it’s never been easier to put together a great presentation to get your point across...