I explore why today’s C‑Suite environment feels exponentially more complicated than anything leaders faced in previous generations. As I note in the episode, “You’re navigating complexity that is not just different from what your predecessors faced. It’s of a different order altogether.”

To understand why, we step back nearly 200 years to the birth of the modern corporation.

In the early 1800s, when the first states allowed the creation of corporations, businesses were small, local, and limited by daylight, geography, and manual labor.

But as steam power, railroads, electricity, and national communication networks emerged, everything changed. Competition expanded. Companies grew. And leadership challenges multiplied.

The 19th century introduced Expanding Competition — a relentless push to innovate, specialize, and reduce costs. The 20th century layered on Entrenched Complexity, as supply chains, regulations, global markets, and technology created a web of interdependencies no leader could ignore.

And now, in the 21st century, we face what I call Endless Disruption — a world where shocks like the dot‑com bust, the financial collapse of 2008, the COVID epidemic, and now AI reshape industries overnight. And where markets and technology change so rapidly that survival demands constant realignment and frequent restructure.

As the episode puts it, “Executive leadership today must therefore contend with Endless Disruption sitting on top of Entrenched Complexity which in turn sits on top of Expanding Competition.”

These forces aren’t slowing down. They’re cumulative. They’re synergistic. And they’re redefining what it takes to lead.

If you’ve ever felt that leadership today is more perplexing than ever, you’re not imagining it. This episode gives you a historical lens — and a strategic framework — to understand why.

A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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Drawing on years of firsthand experience in both nations, he challenges a prevailing assumption in the U.S. negotiating strategy.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he managed widespread humanitarian efforts in both Russia and Ukraine. His organization's largest operations center was located in Donbas, the primary battlefield of the war.

On the eve of Russia’s 2022 invasion, he used this podcast to predict that Ukraine would mount a fierce and unexpectedly effective resistance, contrary to global expectations of a rapid Russian victory.

Time proved that prediction correct. Now, as new peace proposals circulate among world leaders, he warns that another flawed assumption may once again lead policymakers astray.

Some of their peace proposals seem to be guided by a belief that Russian‑speaking Ukrainians are naturally aligned with Moscow. In this episode Dr. Armour explains why this assumption is not only inaccurate, but dangerously misleading.

He uses this development as a case study in strategic blind spots—how leaders, even at the highest levels, can make consequential decisions based on incomplete or oversimplified assumptions that later prove costly.

A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership/transcripts/2511-flawed-assumption.pdf.

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Using Nokia’s dramatic fall from market dominance as a cautionary tale, he arguex that traditional business scorecards often measure the wrong things—relying too heavily on past performance to forecast what lies ahead.

KPIs and automated scorecards reflect historical success but fail to anticipate emerging threats or shifts in customer sentiment.

Examples like Wells Fargo, Blockbuster, and Kodak illustrate how companies can meet internal targets yet lose market trust or miss disruptive trends.

To counter this, he proposes a four-dimensional framework that serves as a counterbalance to overdependence on business scorecards:

1. Strategic Foresight – Leaders must scan the horizon for change, test assumptions, and prepare for volatility rather than merely optimize current operations.
2. Cultural Resonance – Leaders must stay emotionally attuned to shifting preferences and purchasing trends among their customer community to assure that their brand still connects meaningfully.
3. Trajectory of Trust – Leaders must view trust as a form of capital that is to be monitored as carefully as any physical asset. Declining trust—internally or externally—is a warning sign that demands attention.
4. Adaptive Capacity – Leaders must develop organizations that learn, unlearn, and relearn quickly. The ability to pivot strategically and culturally is essential for survival.

Dr. Mike closes the episode with a reminder that leadership effectiveness depends not just on tracking performance, but on cultivating clarity, trust, and adaptability in the face of uncertainty.

A PDF transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2510-biz-scoreboards.htm.

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Research consistently confirms that customers will pay more for a product or service if they trust the provider. Companies should therefore cease on every opportunity to foster a climate in which trust can flourish.

Customer loyalty never takes root where trust in a brand or company is low. And trust takes shape only in settings where ethics are held in high regard.

This episode explores five factors which are particularly powerful in determining whether customers will trust a company enough to be loyal to it. These are basically common-sense principles. But it's always worthwhile to be reminded of them so that they are not allowed to languish.

A PDF transcript of this program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2509-trust-and-loyalty.htm.

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For the first time in years, the possibility of peace in Ukraine is in the headlines. Ignored in most media coverage, however, is the immense complexity of getting the country back on its feet economically, industrially, and in terms of fundamental services.

In this episode, I examine realities that are unknown by most Americans, but are momentous challenges that Ukraine's postwar government must confront. The price tag for meeting these challenges is as great as the price tag for the war itself. Yet little is said about them -- or known about them -- outside of Europe.

Not the least of these issues is a nation that will have a disproportionately small population of young families, which creates demographic imbalance for decades to come. With relatively few young families, Ukraine has an exceptionally small replacement population of children and teens. Rebuilding any economy with a shrinking population is a staggering task.

Unlike nations who have made the investment to allow disabled workers to be integrated into the workplace, the infrastructure in Ukraine (and Russia, as well) is horrendously inadequate to accommodate people with physical liabilities. With hundreds of thousands of people now maimed by the war, the available workforce for rebuilding the nation will be terribly lacking in numbers.

The podcast takes up other related postwar issues. A transcript is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2508-postwar-ukraine.pdf.

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Have you known people with tremendous promise as managers or leaders whose careers got derailed and they never rose to the heights that they seemed destined for? No doubt you have. And as a leadership development coach, I’ve seen plenty of them.

Of course, we could cite hosts of reasons why this happens. From what I’ve observed, failure to make appropriate change in one of five mindsets may be the single greatest the single greatest contributor to derailed careers.

In this episode, I chronicle these five and explain why they are so pivotal in determining how high up the ladder you can climb.

A PDF transcript of the program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2507-management-ladder.pdf

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Our business world is not merely competitive. It's hypercompetitive. Run-of-the-mill performance is no longer acceptable. To stay ahead, companies need leaders who build and maintain sustained high performance.

Over two decades ago, I began studying leaders who had done

that very thing. I started to identify common denominators in organizations –

both profit and nonprofit – which had attained exceptional, pacesetting

performance.

Even more importantly, I began to condense what I learned into

models and methodologies which I could share with clients. Along the way, I came to realize that I could categorize the leadership principles for achieving peak performance under four

headings:

·   

People      

Alignment      

Culture

·        

Engagement

Recently I've embarked on developing an online course entitled how to be a PACEsetting leader, with the letters P-A-C-E intentionally capitalized. These letters form an acronym consisting of the first letters of the words people, alignment, culture, and engagement.

In this podcast, I survey critical leadership traits under each of those headings. They are indeed the pillars that support PACEsetting leadership.

A PDF transcript of this program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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The Future of the Beneficial Ownership Information Report Remains Uncertain

After bouncing around in district and appeals courts for months, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its mandated Beneficial Ownership Information Report had their first day before the Supreme Court this month.

On January 23, the Court lifted a temporary restraining order (TRO) which had suspended enforcement of the reporting requirement since December 2. But perhaps for the first time in the history of the Supreme Court, the justices lifted a TRO and their decision made no practical difference whatsoever.

I trace this strange development in this episode and lay out the possible scenarios which may play out in the weeks ahead with the CTA. I look at the question, is the Beneficial Ownership Information Report going away? Or coming back? Some 30 million small business owners are waiting to find out.

You can download the script for this program at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2505-boi-coming-back.pdf.

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One of the shortcomings of modern accounting systems is that they have no mechanism for showing the capability and dedication of your workforce as an asset on a balance sheet. Workers appear only as liabilities: payrolls due, cost of benefits, Social Security obligations, etc.

Yet workers are the manager's most valuable asset. That's one of seven things that I feature in this podcast about the relationship between managers and workers. Seven things which should always be front-of-mind for anyone in a managerial position.

A transcript of this program can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2504-seven-things.pdf.

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Recent studies confirm that worker distrust of the company and its managers is solidly entrenched.

These studies found that fewer than half of employees trust their manager. And only one in three trusts upper management.

In today's episode I examine some historic roots of this distrust. It gained its foothold in the business and corporate world in the 1980s. I trace what happened in those years that provide the backdrop for the kind of distrust that has plagued companies ever since.

A printed copy of today's podcast is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2503-workplace-distrust.htm.

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The Latest Legal Maneuvers

As I predicted in my podcast two weeks ago, the court challenge to the Beneficial Ownership Information Report has now made its way to the steps of the Supreme Court.

At the time of my previous podcast regarding this case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had given assent to a nationwide temporary restraining order on the Corporate Transparency Act, which is the legislation authorizing the BOI Report.

In this episode, we look at what happened within hours of the podcast going live and in the days since. Presently, the Supreme Court is in the early stage of deciding whether to override the Fifth Circuit's decision. Today's episode looks at possible scenarios which could play out, depending on what the Court decides.

I also sound a warning about a proliferation of scams that try to trick small business owners into filing their Beneficial Ownership Information Report with bogus firms who take the owner's money, but never file a report.

You can download a transcript of the podcast at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2502-boi-latest-turns.pdf.

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Here's What I Want Instead

I've dropped "buy-in" from my leadership vocabulary. I guess I've led to many initiatives where people "bought in," but never became engaged.

We all buy into great causes, but never become actively involved. For example, everyone buys into the value of ending world hunger. But only a few ever take up the fight personally.

Both within organizations and in the broader life of our communities, far more ideas and initiatives languish because of insufficient engagement than because of insufficient buy-in.

Personal engagement demands personal investment. The investment may be in the form of time, energy, talent, imagination, money, or resources. Buy-in requires only mental consent that an idea or initiative has merit.

In this episode I explore what leaders must do to bring about worker or volunteer engagement. Too often we focus on why workers are not engaged. A far more profitable exercise is to discuss whether we as leaders are doing what we should to elicit engagement from those whom we lead.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2501-buy-in.htm.

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Constitutional challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act have been making their way through the court system. In rapid-fire fashion judicial decisions have been made, then reversed, followed in short order by a reversal of the reversal.

The result is widespread confusion as to what the status of the Beneficial Ownership Information Report is at present. In this episode, I bring you up to the minute on that question.

A transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2411-boi-twists-and-turns.pdf

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Two Very Funny Stories

I live just north of Dallas, so we are in the direct path of this month's complete solar eclipse. It's all the buzz around here.

I'm sure that the event will spin off lots of personal stories as people relate what happened around them during the eclipse. But I doubt that any of these stories will top two of mine from my last total eclipse. And they won't be nearly as funny.

The stories occurred in Siberia, where I was conducting a series of workshops along the Op River. I think about them often, because they revolved around two of the most humorous statements I've ever heard.

So, I'm taking a departure from my normal topics for this podcast to share them with you. I believe you'll get a good chuckle from them.

A PDF transcript of this program is available for download at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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Now that the spring thaw has begun in Ukraine, the year's most intense season of combat is about to start. How will this war end? It's almost anyone's guess.

But whatever the outcome, it will be shaped by the influence of the backstories which we've focused on in the last three podcasts. With this episode, we bring the series to a conclusion by examining the prospects for both Russia and Ukraine, however the war happens to conclude.

Putin believes that time is on his side, that he can persist in his efforts until he wears down Ukraine and exhausts the resolve of Ukraine's allies, so that he has the upper hand in dictating the terms which eventually bring the conflict to a close.

A host of practical questions will shape the contours of any final settlement. One of these is whether Ukraine, economically depleted and with a population millions smaller than when the war began, would have the manpower and wherewithal to defend its borders should they be restored to their prewar status.

And if Ukraine does not regain those border, the its future may well hinge on the answer to one question: how many of its ports can Ukraine reclaim through combat or peace negotiations.

With its economy centered on grain transport, and with only the port of Odessa still under its control, the resolution of this issue is pivotal to Ukraine's viability after the war. In this wrap-up episode, I explore a host of questions along this line.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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The Historical Backdrop

This is the third program in a four-part series examining historical and cultural factors which shape the backdrop against which the war in Ukraine is playing out. Having devoted the first two programs to Ukrainian perspectives, in this one we shift to how Russia views both the war and Ukrainians themselves.

For reasons which I explain in this episode, there is a paranoia that is characteristic of the Russian people in general and its leaders in particular. They have long seen themselves as surrounded by enemies, both east and west.

Historically, they have built vast buffer zones of territory to protect their European centers from invading forces. Traversing those buffer zones exhausted Napoleon's men and supplies in 1812, then did the same to Hitler's armies in the Second World War.

The war with Ukraine stems in large measure from a resurgence of that paranoia. During the Cold War, the Warsaw Pact, controlled from Moscow, buffered against another invasion from Germany or France. Ukraine buffered against attack from the Mediterranean.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, with former Warsaw Pact nations joining NATO and Ukraine declaring its independence, these strategic buffers were lost. With Ukraine moving to join the European Union and perhaps NATO, the last semblance of a buffer zone disappeared.

Early on, as the Warsaw Pact fell apart, Russia could do little to counter its reversal of fortunes, because Russia itself was in such social turmoil and economic chaos. The calamitous fall of the Soviet Union was a sore blow to Russian nationalistic pride, even among those who were not particularly fond of the Communist regime.

Putin has been successful at merging that injured pride with the historic sense of paranoia to justify reclaiming Ukraine as Moscow's own vassal. Human nature becomes more determined when its pride is injured. And paranoia will motivate people to take irrational measures.

All that comes together in the way that Russia is prosecuting this war. And because of these factors, finding a workable peace settlement, short of Ukraine's complete annihilation, will do little to ease Russian paranoia. And being fought to a stalemate by a supposedly second-rate power will only add to Russia's injured pride. At best, therefore, any peace settlement promises to be a recess from hostilities, not the end of them.

_________

You can download a PDF transcript of this program at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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An Unintended Gift from Putin

It's clear that neither Vladimir Putin nor his war planners ever anticipated the strength and the tenacity of Ukraine's resistance to the Russian invasion.

A war which the Russians expected to last a few hours or days has now entered its third year, and Russian offensives have been stymied month after month.

What explains this Ukrainian determination to in the face of what would appear to be overwhelming odds? It stems in part from a sense of nationalism and patriotism which the Ukrainians have developed for the first time in their history.

Prior to the invasion, Ukrainians had a sense of pride in their country and their culture. But they had never been united around patriotic fervor. The war has changed all that.

In this episode I explain how this happened and what it implies for the future course of the war. I also explain why the Ukrainians are likely to fight on, even if their aid from the U.S. and western Europe dissipates entirely.

A PDF transcript of this episode can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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Not only that, my duties required me to travel widely in Russia and from corner to corner of Ukraine. I became intimately acquainted with how Ukrainians feel about Russia and how Russians feel about Ukraine.

In spite of their cultural, historical, and linguistic commonalities, I soon learned that Russians tended to view Ukrainians with disdain, and Ukrainians tended to view Russians with resentment.

Those deep-seated, historic feelings aggravate the challenge of finding a solution to the war now raging in Ukraine. Yet, most Americans -- even otherwise well-informed political commentators -- are either unaware of this attitudinal divide or disregard it in analyzing the conflict as it has unfolded.

With this episode, I undertake a series of podcast programs dealing with this attitudinal divide and other critical backstories which make resolution of this conflict highly complex and perhaps impossible. Even if one side triumphs militarily over the other, the tension -- and now, outright animosity -- will live on.

I give this first episode to the roots of Ukrainian resentment of Russian rule. I zero in on two events in the 20th century that permanently poisoned Ukrainian outlooks toward their huge neighbor to the north.

A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/.

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This is the fourth episode in a series examining the meaning of leadership. Previous programs explored the people-centric nature of leadership and the orchestrating role of purpose at the heart of the leader's endeavor.

This final episode in the series examines the three-part action agenda which every leader must carry out. First is to rally people around the purpose. Then motivate them to pursue it. And third is to mobilize them to achieve it.

I discuss the importance of each of these functions and why their success depends in large measure on the leader's personality and strengths. As a leader, where does your effectiveness lie? In rallying people to your cause? In motivating them to get behind it? Or mobilizing them to make it happen?

The first two of these functions are people-centered. The third -- mobilizing -- is process-centric. The most successful leaders move effortlessly from motivating and inspiring people to managing processes, and vice versa.

Others are not so versatile. They excel at engaging and inspiring people, but pay insufficient attention to the process side of leadership. And naturally, there are leaders for which the opposite is true. They are superb at managing processes, but weak at bringing out the best in their people.

You will find the analysis of these dynamics quite thought-provoking. You can download a transcript of the episode at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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In my early 20s, when I began conducting trainings on leadership, few books on the subject existed. The business world was somewhat exclusive enthralled with management, and that was reflected in the inventory choices at the typical bookstore.

It would be another 20 years before Warren Bemis and others began publishing works which drew a sharp distinction between management and leadership. The popularity of their books touched off an steady outpouring of leadership books ever since.

The explosion of interest in leadership toward the end of the 20th century resulted from a striking change in the American labor force. At the outset of the century, workers were largely uneducated and somewhat limited in their skill sets.

By the end of the century, the workforce was highly educated and thoroughly advanced as skilled specialists. To bring out the highest performance of a worker community like this, companies had to adopt a more people-centric approach from those which had prevailed just two generations before. Leadership filled that bill.

But the way that corporations initially attempted to create a leadership culture had an unintended consequence. The concept of what it means to be a leader became somewhat muddled.

It In this episode I trace how that happened and elaborate on three questions which I developed to determine whether someone is indeed a leader or merely wears the title. This episode not only expands on those questions. It also explains the historical influences which made them important.

A PDF transcript of the episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/transcripts/2404-muddled-concepts-of-leadership.pdf.

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Last week we began parsing the definition of leadership which I developed 20 years ago: Leadership is the art of rallying people around a shared purpose, then motivating them and mobilizing them to achieve it..

In that episode, we examined the import of the terms "people" and "shared purpose." This week we take up a third term: "art."

Last week we examined two key terms from my definition of leadership. This week we take up a third term, "art." Leadership is far more akin to an art than a science.

And because it is, there are no objective measures by which to judge a leader's work, no more than there are objective measures by which to judge an artist's work. People either like it or they don't.

In fact, people might like the results a leader gets, but dislike the leader's style or personality. And since their judgment of the leader is entirely subjective, it is not easily refuted.

Leaders must therefore have a strong enough sense of self that they are not knocked off course by criticism that is uninformed, mean-spirited, or the product of personal prejudice.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2403-leadership-as-art.htm,

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Any quick search on the internet will uncover dozens of definitions of leadership. Some are more appropriate to leadership at very high levels than they are to leadership in day-to-day life.

About 20 years ago, I developed a definition intended to capture the essence of leadership wherever its found: Leadership is the art of rallying people around a shared purpose, then motivating them and mobilizing them to achieve it.

At the heart of this definition are the words "people" and "shared purpose." Those two terms capture the essence of what leadership grounds itself in. It is ultimately about people -- rallying them around a cause, motivating them to lend their effort to it, and mobilizing them to carry it out -- and the cause itself, the purpose.

For leaders to be effective, they must never grow lax in either staying involved with their people and rivited to their purpose.

A transcript of this program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2402-leadership-anchor-points.pdf.

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In every arena of life, what once seemed like great decisions turned out, in hindsight, to have brought about unintended consequences. Often these consequences imperil the benefits which the decision was to provide.

As managers and leaders, finding solutions to problems is our daily task. But when a solution leads to adverse unintended consequences, at times (to quote an old adage) the cure is worse than the disease.

This episode explores a variety of scenarios in which otherwise good decisions led to negative consequences. Then it offers suggestions on how to minimize the frequency with which this development occurs.

No one can foresee every consequence which will flow from a decision. But careful application of these suggestions will reduce the number of unexpected problems which emerge once key decisions are implemented.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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In my management trainings, I often ask people to identify the things which have surprised them most about being a manager.

Toward the top of their list is often the problem of disruptions. They came into management unprepared for how many times a day their work on critical projects would be disrupted. At times they feel that they don't get one issue settled before three or four others are demanding immediate attention.

They can therefore go hours on end without spending more than a token amount of time on their primary responsibilities. The result is that their frustration builds steadily and they become increasingly impatient. They begin building resentment toward the party or parties responsible for the disruption. And the resentment spills over into their actions and their tone of voice.

In this episode, I share lessons which I've learned from letting disruptions frustrate me. It's certain that disruptions will never go away. But they don't have to aggravate us to the point of frustration and resentment.

A transcript of this program is available at https://www.usizeyourleadership/episodes.

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Have you ever read a book on management or vision which did not include a section on the importance of vision? It's hard to think of one. Vision-casting is a standard topic anytime management and leadership skills are discussed.

As a C-Suite leadership coach and a business consultant, I've coached scores of clients through the process of articulating their vision and mission. I've worked alongside hundreds of others as they put a corporate vision into effect.

From that experience, I've noted a pattern of recurring mistakes which people tend to make in vision-casting. In this podcast, I look at four of the most common ones:

Failing to have clarity on the distinction between vision and mission

Choosing a vision statement which is not particularly "envisionable"

Reducing vision to little more than a slogan, motto, or tagline

Not being rigorous in communicating their vision repeatedly

Because corporate vision is so vital to success, putting it together well and communicating it properly is essential in any mission-driven organization.

A transcript of the program may be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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It's that time of year again. Time to set goals for the year ahead. Soon everyone will be putting together their New Year's resolutions.

But by this time in 2024, how many of those resolutions will have become reality? Odds are, most of them will not. Many factors contribute to the failure. One of the most common, however, is inadequate focus on the goal itself.

Many factors contribute to this loss of focus. Life comes at us in torrents, engulfing us in countless distractions. A friend of mine describes it as "being nibbled to death by a duck." No one nibble takes much out of us. But collectively, they draw our attention away from the things which are truly important.

In this episode, I offer some guidance on implementing personal goals in a way that enhances their odds of success. In particular, I argue for limiting how many of goals which we set out to accomplish in any one-year period.

Further, I recommend sequencing the pursuit of those goals in such a way that, at any given moment, we are working on no more goals than we can focus on intently.

What I suggest is no panacea. It is, nonetheless, a simple and practical way to keep our most important personal goals in sharp focus at all times.

You can download a transcript of the podcast at https://www.UpsizeYourLeadership.com/episodes.

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Texts and courses on planning abound. And they all call for starting with a clear definition of the desired outcome. Once that eventual outcome is defined, they tend to use a methodology which calls for starting at the present and building systematically toward that goal.

In this episode I propose an alternate approach, one I've used for decades to great effect. It calls for beginning the planning process at the point at which the outcome is achieved, not at the present. Instead of building steps sequentially from the present to the future, this alternative approach starts at the end of the process. It then builds steps sequentially from the desired outcome back to the starting point. I call it "planning backward."

As conventional planning defines a step in the process, it asks, "What must happen next?" The approach which I'm suggesting takes an opposite tack. Once it defines a task, it asks, "Before this step can occur, what must be in place?"

In the podcast, I spell out the distinct benefits of this technique, especially when planning entails a large numbers of moving parts. With so many considerations to account for, planning forward from the present can easily fail to recognize and make provision for one or more critical components. Later, when these neglected elements are recognized, timetables for the plan are disrupted as accommodations are made to address them.

Planning backward minimizes that risk. This podcast explains why. A transcript of the program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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No One Warned Me About It

The old adage "lonely at the top" has more substance to it than most people imagine. Although many leaders never combat pronounced bouts of loneliness, many do. I have been one of them.

And when I began talking about my loneliness with other leaders, I was amazed at how many of them wrestled with it, too.Yet, having discussed the problem with upwards of a hundred senior executives, I'm yet to find a single one who was forewarned it before they entered senior management.

And I should add that, while loneliness is not isolated to the top tiers of management, it's particularly common at that level. Or so it seems from my personal experience and observations.

Why is that the case? Much of it has to do with the nature of the job. When lower and middle level managers run into thorny situations, they have managers above them who can serve as a sounding boards or advisors.

As we move up the management ladder, however, the number of managers above us grows steadily smaller, until at the C-Suite Level, we have only peers to draw on. Experienced peers, no doubt. But not necessarily any with proven experience in our specialized field. And if the problem we face centers on problematic relationships with other members of the C-Suite, we are genuinely on our own.

I use this episode to examine the dynamics and ramifications of contending with loneliness as a leader. A transcript of the program can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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For thousands of years, hierarchical management styles reigned unchallenged. Then, early in the 20th century, a literate and often highly-educated workforce emerged. They were no longer content with the top-down management of traditional organizational structures. They wanted a voice in decisions.

This led to the first experiments with collaborative management styles. Very quickly, this new approach created impressive results in engagement, creativity, motivation, and morale. As a result, collaborative management styles have grown steadily in popularity for more than a century.

Yet, for all of its benefits, making decisions collaboratively does hold the threat of some distinct pitfalls. This podcast identifies five of them and highlights what managers must do to avoid them.

A transcript of this episode can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/episodes/2323-collaborative-decision-making.htm.

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Genuine innovation unfolds through a process of trial and error. It takes time. It takes tireless effort. It takes money. In a word, it entails a lot of hard work.

The hard work begins, however, long before the trial-and-error process is underway. The initial hard work is creating a culture which is primed for innovation. Not all are.

Innovation always involves change. And to deserve the name "innovation," the change must be significant enough to disrupt the status quo -- either the status quo in general or the status quo within the organization which adopts the innovation. That was the theme of my previous episode.

However, not everyone is eager to embrace change. They prefer to keep things stable and predictable. When resistance to change is ensconced widely, it impedes or totally thwarts any effort at innovation.

Thus, for innovation to thrive, leaders must first cultivate the cultural soil. This episode identifies eight qualities which they should strive to embed in their corporate culture to make it a promising place for innovation to blossom.

A transcript of the episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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We are constantly bombarded with marketing messages proclaiming some new product or service labeled as innovative. Being innovative has broad appeal.

Indeed, when companies outline their core values, innovation appears on the list more often than any other quality. It even outranks integrity and respect.

Yet, when we delve into what companies are calling innovation, it's soon evident that they often confuse innovation with mere ingenuity or inventiveness.

Ingenuity is often no more than a clever or imaginative solution to a pressing problem. Innovation is far more than that.

In this episode, I examine five criteria which must be met for something to be properly called an innovation. I do not take up this theme to be picky about word choices. Rather, it's to protect the true meaning of innovation in the popular mind.

Our world faces monstrous challenges. They beg for innovation. But if we debase the word "innovation" so that mere ingenuity and inventiveness pass for it, we lose the ability to talk about innovation in a meaningful way, because any improvement can pass as innovation.

It behooves all of us, therefore, to protect the integrity of the term "innovation." This first step in that direction is to gain clarity on what the word itself means. This episode strives for that goal.

A transcript of this episode can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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I have a friend who has been known to say, "If you can fake integrity, you can fake anything."

Whenever he throws out that line, it gets a laugh. There's something comically nonsensical about combining the words "fake" and "integrity."

Integrity is the bedrock on which healthy societies are built. Yet, we seldom delve deeply into what the word means. We generally describe it in ways that make it almost synonymous with honesty and truthfulness. And indeed, a person of true integrity will be honest and truthful.

But integrity entails far more than being honest and truthful. In this episode, we examine the hallmarks of what constittues genuine integrity.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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Both managers and leaders are charged with getting things done. How they get things done is one of the key contrasts between managing and leading.

Managers always occupy some slot in the organizational chart. As a result, they have what I call positional authority that allows them to compel compliance with what they want done.

Leaders, however, do not always have positional authority. It's common to find people within an organization who hold no managerial title, but whose judgment and expertise are so respected that a following gathers around them. They man be described in a variety of ways. As opinion leaders. As thought leaders. As subject matter experts.

Whatever our name for them, they have the ability to make a telling impact on how the organization functions and the kind of culture it spawns. And they exert this influence, not because they have any power to compel, but because they have telling influence.

The source of this influence is credibility. Without it, no one can lead. And credibility, in turn, rests on three considerations: the leader's character, the leader's competence, and the leader's ability to achieve desired concrete results.

This podcast takes up these three considerations and examines how they contribute to optimizing a leader's credibility.

A transcript of the program is available through the index at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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One of the nation's preeminent podcast hosts, Jeremy has interviewed hundreds of highly successful men and women, many of them internationally renowned for their influence and accomplishments. From these 1200 or so interviews, he has gleaned a dozen traits which all of these successful people have in common.

These traits form the framework for his book. In this episode he shares the thought process that went into choosing these traits and his aspirations for how the book can be most beneficial for ordinary people who choose to become extraordinary in their life pursuits.

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How They Interact to Shape Your Life

Even though I've taught principles of values-centered leadership for decades, I was well into that process before I recognized the complex conceptual framework within which values function. And each of our values has its own unique framework.

For reasons which I outline in this podcast, I began referring to this framework 20 years ago as a molecule. At the center of the molecule is a value. Surrounding this nucleus are our beliefs which we hold about the value. Then, attached to each belief are principles which we derive from that belief -- principles which dictate how we should implement that value in our approach to life.

I refer to this construct as a VBP molecule. Values, Beliefs, Principles. I first introduced it in 2006 in my book Leadership and the Power of Trust. Since then I've fleshed it out extensively in keynotes and trainings. It helps me provide clients with a more comprehensive understanding of motivation.

We've long recognized that all motivation is based on values. That is, we are not motivated to pursue anything which has no value to us. This would imply that behavior (which is prompted by motivation) is the product of the values which we cherish.

In reality, however, behavior is not the direct by-product of a value or particular set of values. Behavior is a by-product of what we believe about those virtues. And the pattern of our behavior stems from the principles which we deduce from those beliefs.

Therefore, we do not change behavior by changing people's values. We change behavior by helping them change what they believe about their values. When beliefs change, principles change. And when principles change, behavior changes.

A transcript of this podcast is available for download at UpsizeYourLeadership.com. That same link will give you access to a downloadable graphic which provides a visual depiction of the VBP molecule.

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What My Two Most Important Mentors Taught Me

Over the course of my life, I've had a variety of mentors in a number of different ventures. Two stand out as having had a particularly telling impact on my career and on me as a person.

In this episode I relate two maxims which they instilled in me and describe how these maxims have shaped my life immensely.

One has made me far more effective at building strong teams in organizations which I've led. And it has contributed in large measure to the success of these endeavors.

The second has expanded my grasp of the world around me, so that I can make better decisions and offer clients wiser counsel.

Both of these maxims are just as valuable for anyone else as they have been for me. And they are especially valuable for those in leadership.

The first maxim is this: We all have a flat side on our wheel someplace. The sooner we can identify that flat side and build people and systems around us to compensate for it, the sooner we will be successful and the more successful we will be.

The second is: Read wisely. Read widely. Read well.

The podcast shows how both of these maxims have empowered my work as an executive leadership coach, keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, not to mention my effectiveness in a variety of high-demand leadership posts.

A transcript of the episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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We've all heard the adage, "People don't like change." What I've found is that people don't dislike change so much as they dislike the way it is often implemented.

It's easy to confuse their discontent with the implementation process as resistance to change itself. No one can survive in today's world without accommodating change. But accommodating it and accepting it are two different matters.

While we have a vast array of books, seminars, workshops, and podcasts on managing change, there is one aspect of change which these programs rarely address. And it's a major contributor, I've found, to people's discontent with change initiatives.

Thomas Sowell famously noted that there are no solutions, only tradeoffs. That's particularly true with major change. Something must be given up in order to take advantage of the benefits of the change.

But if what must be given up is something treasured or enjoyed, the tradeoff brings sadness. And if leadership fails to take that sadness into consideration, they are likely to misread a worker's reaction as opposition to change, when in reality, it's mere hesitancy to embrace something new until there has been time to process the loss of something they value.

This episode explores the "sad" side of change. It looks at a classic example of a company which failed to do so, and the dysfunction which resulted put them out of business.

A transcript of this program is available for download at https://www.upsizeyourleadership/transcripts/2315-sad-truth-about-change.pdf.

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Historically, mankind has been more inclined toward political leaders who are autocratic than those who protect liberty and freedom for their people.

The fact that America has kept the idea of personal freedom alive for 12 generations is an unprecedented human event. Yet freedom always hangs by a precarious thread, even after enduring for nearly two-and-a-half centuries.

It is forever threatened by what I call the deceptive allure of authoritarianism. As Erich Fromm explained so powerfully in his book Escape from Freedom, maintaining a society based on genuine principles of liberty is a daunting task.

Freedom mandates personal autonomy and self-responsibility. And being responsible for self often brings more anxiety that some people can bear. They are therefore forever susceptible to the enticing claim of authoritarian leaders that they can eliminate whatever gives rise to the anxiety.

This promise inevitably proves false, because autocratic leaders cope with their own anxiety by imposing repressive and intrusive regimes. More than one electorate, however, has been seduced by the the illusory promise of authoritarian movements.

Today's episode delves into the intrapersonal dynamics which bring such leaders to power. It highlights why the greatest threat to democratic governments is not a takeover by an external enemy, but by the internal threat of citizens quietly acquiescing to authoritarianism.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2314--allure-of-authoritarianism.htm

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The Secret Is in the Preparation

Done properly, delegation is one of the most powerful weapons in the manager's arsenal. Done poorly, it results in untold problems later on and no small amount of lost productivity, momentum, and effectiveness.

When delegation is unsuccessful, it's usually before insufficient care was given to the preparation phase of delegation. Indeed, I'm struck by how many online guides on effective delegation don't even mention a preparation process.

In my judgment, however, the preparation phase is even more important than the execution phase. When preparation is done properly, making the actual delegation is teed up for success. Without that preparation, delegation is typically performed in a "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants"fashion. And that approach is fraught with endless possibilities for miscommunication or confusion about expectations.

Therefore, in this episode I offer an eight-point checklist for making proper preparation for delegation. The checklist is workable in any delegation situation and in any type of organization.

A transcript of today's podcast can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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Wherever you exercise your leadership, one of the highest expectations of you is that you will be an effective problem-solver.

As leaders, much of our problem solving is in group-settings, where controlling the process can be a challenge. Strong personalities and opinionated voices frequently exert themselves so forcibly that they take over the discussion and drive the solution which they want, not necessarily what the group wants.

In today's episode I examine a six-phase problem-solving structure which minimizes the opportunity for problem-solving exercises to be derailed by personalities or lack of an orchestrating focus. This structure assures that every aspect of a problem-solving endeavor is given due time in a setting where everyone can be heard.

The structure I describe is adapted from Edward de Bono's book 6 Thinking Hats, an approach that has been used globally to tackle thorny geopolitical issues. If it is helpful in problem-solving scenarios such as that, it's certain a technique that can benefit any of us in problem-solving roles.

A transcript of today's podcast can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2312-imaginative-problem-solving.pdf.

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No one questions the creative genius of Walt Disney. What most people don't know, however, is that he developed a three-phase process to maximize the creativity which he brought to decision-making. It was the process his studios used for decades to make some of the greatest innovative breakthroughs in the early history of the film industry.

In this episode I explain his method in detail and examine the neuroscience which explains why his techniques were so effective. His problem solving approach is simple to understand and easy to implement. And it's equally effective for both group and individual decision-making.

A transcript of the show is available at https://www.upsize-your-leadershipcom/episodes.

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As a youngster, I stared many a time at flocks of geese flying high overhead during migration season. Every goose was committed for the long haul.

Later in life, I came to see leadership -- particularly strategic leadership -- as a long-haul enterprise. That reminded me of those geese and their characteristic V-formation.

As I toyed with the idea of flying in V-formation, I came to realize that effectiveness at long-haul leadership depends on how well you utilize a cluster of priorities whose names all begin with the letter V. Names like Vision and Values. But other less obvious ones, as well.

I take up some of those words in this podcast, which encapsulates ideas which I have shared in keynotes and trainings for over 20 years. Vision and values, as you might expect, are pivotal elements of this presentation. But so are some other "V" words you might not have thought of. This episode is sure to give you new perspectives on your leadership role.

A PDF transcript of this program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2310-fly-in-v-formation.htm.

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Bringing Balance to Personnel Reviews

The path to the top, in the opinion of most, is to be an achiever, a top performer. That view is drummed into us from childhood.

In elementary school, recognition and honors go to those whose achievement is superior. There are few awards, if any, for stellar character. The closest to it are good conduct awards, which are themselves more of a reward for performance than character.

And this pattern of rewards continues through our education and into our careers. Interestingly, periodic employee reviews have come to be called "performance reviews." Have you ever heard of companies or organizations conducting periodic "character reviews"?

This suggests that our culture puts much more stock in a a person's achievements than in his or her character. In fact, we tend to praise people almost exclusively on the basis of performance. But when we criticize them, we're prone to ascribe their shortcoming to some flaw in character. It seems that serious conversations about character take place only when it breaks down.

I take up the ramification of these tendencies in this podcast. And I suggest an approach to evaluating employees that is a marked departure from how reviews are typically conducted.

A transcript of today's program is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes.

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This is the fifth and final episode in a series of programs on growing concerns about an emerging accountability crisis in America.

In this episode, I offer my thoughts on how leaders can strengthen accountability in their organization. The strategy aims at countering a situation which is increasingly common: workers who are capable and talented, but whose accountability is lackluster. For whatever reason, they entered adulthood without a mature commitment to being accountable.

What I suggest is not a quick-fix approach. Rather, I look at a three-part strategy which grows accountability gradually and incrementally.

Each part of the strategy centers on some aspect of tasking our people and reviewing their performance. At every stage, the strategy draws on motivational techniques which will profit leaders anywhere, even if their organization does not have accountability issues.

The strategy is easy to grasp, simple to implement, and straightforward maintain. But it does require long-term commitments from leaders to model the way and to conduct frequent informal conversations with those who report to them.

You can download a transcript of this program at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/2308-rebuilding-accountability.htm.

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Mark Twain is remembered for saying, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

For three episodes I have been talking about the erosion of personal accountability in our nation. With this fourth episode in the series, we start doing something about it.

I invite leaders to join a counteroffensive aimed at regaining the ground which accountability has lost. Not a wholesale, frontal assault, mind you. Something more akin to low-key guerilla warfare waged in the leader's sphere of influence.

And our first priority as leaders in this effort is to serve as role models of responsive, responsible accountability. Most of the episode is devoted to showing why modeling the way must be a lead initiative if we are to restore a healthier degree of accountability.

I offer a practical personal exercise which provides a benchmark on how well our current conduct as a leader equips us to be a stellar role model of accountability. It helps us identify where we need to improve our own accountability so that we can serve as a stellar example. I then discuss essentials of using our personal example to maximum effectiveness.

A transcript of the episode is free for download at https://www.lUpsizeYourLeadership.com/episodes/2307-modeling-accountability.htm.

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In the previous two episodes, I've discussed a variety of factors which produced a broad-based perception that personal accountability is greatly diminished. In the last episode, I looked at three cultural trends which have aggravated this decline. These are:

• side-effects of family breakdown
• growth of a victim mentality
• massive urbanization

Today I examine three additional contributors.

• political polarization
• a lost ethical consensus derived from Judaeo-Christian ideals
• radically shortened business lifespans

Here's a summary of how these three work against the interests of personal accountability.

Political polarization has produced the most pronounced social division in our history, with the sole exception of the Civil War. And the distrust which springs from deep polarization inevitably undermines our sense of accountability and responsibility toward those on the other side of the polarizing divide.

Simultaneously, a long-standing ethical consensus built on Judaeo-Christian ideals has weakened appreciably, shouldered aside by a broad embrace of moral relativism. American churches and synagogues historically promoted a vibrant message of individual responsibility and personal accountability. But having steadily lost influence and attendance of late, they have fewer opportunities to promote responsible, accountable living.

As for the third item on our list -- radically shortened lifespans for businesses --its adverse impact on accountability may not be obvious. How could shorter business lifespans weaken accountability?

The impact is subtle, but powerful nonetheless. Compared with businesses historically, companies today are extremely short-lived. The average survival time of companies on the S&P500 is 18 years. Five decades ago it was 61 years. Employees have little assurance that their company will be around for them long-term. They therefore anticipate little benefit from being deeply loyal to the company. And without that loyalty, they may settle for compromised standards of accountability in their work performance.

In the next episode, I turn to strategies which leaders should pursue in response to declining accountability. Accountability may be in decline, but it's by no means dead. It's waiting to be rejuvenated by capable leaders.

A transcript of this episode can be downloaded at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com by following the menu link to Episodes.

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Contributing Factors to a Growing Issue

Everywhere I go, it seems, I hear people expressing dismay at what they see as a decaying sense of personal accountability in American culture.

Many factors contribute to the decline. This episode is the second in a multipart series which analyzes these factors from historical, sociological, and psychological standpoints.

This episode traces the adverse impact of three of these factors on personal accountability:

1. Structural breakdown of the American family -- with 18 million children living in single-parent homes, the stability of marriage and family is clearly on shaky ground. Yet family is the very institution which has historically instilled a sense of personal responsibility and accountability in the upcoming generation.
2. Growth of a victim mindset -- increasingly in recent years, aggrieved parties are quick to describe themselves as a victim. By its very nature, however, a victim mentality minimizes one's sense of personal responsibility for what has befallen us. Someone else is to blame. But without a sense of responsibility, there is little sense of accountability.
3. Expansive urbanization -- one by-product of urban sprawl is a feeling of anonymity, i.e., living as a nameless face in a massive crowd. Because anonymity fosters emotional detachment from those nearby, it likewise invites us to shirk our responsibility and accountability toward them.

Later episodes in this series will delve into leadership's role and options in combating a rising tide of non-accountability. The initial programs, however, are examining root causes for our growing accountability crisis.

A printed transcript of this episode is available at https://www.UpsizeYourLeadership.com/episodes.

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I overhear more and more conversations of late about accountability. Most of these are discussions of what people perceive as an increasing lack of personal accountability in our culture.

After listeners began urging me to speak to this issue, I decided to give the subject more than a single episode. Instead, I'm planning a series of programs on the topic.

This first installment touches on several issues.

• First is the importance of leaders making honest assessments of how well they serve as exemplars of personal accountability for their people.
• Second is the role that accountability plays in building trust within a community.
• Third is relationship between personal accountability and a personal sense of self-worth.
• And fourth, the role of families in establishing a strong sense of accountability and self-worth in their children.

This episode initiates a number of themes which will be explored more fully in later installments of this series.

A printed transcript of this inaugural episode can be downloaded at https://www.UpsizeYourLeadership.com/episodes.

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Far more people take a stab at being an entrepreneur than succeed at it. The failure rate is staggering. And a primary reason for failure is the lack of an entrepreneurial mindset.

People are attracted to an entrepreneurial career because they see the attraction of it. And the life of successful entrepreneurs is especially attractive. Dazzled by the glamorous promise of entrepreneurial success, however, they often fail to see the demand which being an entrepreneur puts on those who seek that way of life.

About one person out of five who approaches me for coaching has an entrepreneurial ambition. What the majority of them lack, however, is an entrepreneurial mindset. The truth is, successful entrepreneurs think differently from other people. It's this mindset, far more than the product or market or team that they choose, which will determine whether they achieve their dream.

In this episode, I examine five key characteristics of the entrepreneurial mindset. I look at how each characteristic is attractive and enticing. Then I examine lurking dangers which are not always apparent to the outside observer.

My purpose is not to discourage entrepreneurialism. Rather, my aim is to help people ask whether their entrepreneurial mindset is sufficient to help them weather those dangers when they arise.

A transcript of this episode is available at www.UpsizeYourLeadership/episodes

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A (New) Best-Seller

Evidence is everywhere that trust is in low repair in our nation. Polarization is deep, and it touches almost every field of human endeavor and opinion.

For almost 20 years, Dr. Mike Armour has been addressing our world's growing problem and how it impacts the world of business leadership. His 2006 book, Leadership and the Power of Trust, has been re-released in an updated and expanded second edition. And within weeks it became an Amazon best-seller in five fields of business and leadership.

In this episode he offers a summary of the book's message about Trust-Centered Leadership. And he highlights the subtitle of the book, How to Build a High-Trust, Peak-Performance Organization. He then shows how one of Microsoft's most pivotal teams used principles from the book to make stellar improvements in performance and effectiveness.

The final part of the podcast examines questions which reviewers have put to him recently about the book. He then shares the answers which he offered to these probing questions.

A transcript of the episode is available in a PDF format at https://www.UpsizeYourLeadership.com by clicking on the link to Download Scripts.

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Sometimes we call them the "number two" person in the organizations. Sometimes we jokingly refer to them as the "second banana."

They are those people who are positioned just below the top leader on the organization chart. Often they are in that slot because they are being groomed for the top position some day.

A great many, however, like that post for an entirely different reason. They don't desire the spotlight themselves. But they find great fulfillment in helping the person in the spotlight truly shine. They have no ambition to move further up the ladder. They are quite happy where they are.

Rarely do we celebrate such second-tier leaders. The gain so little recognition that to the outsider looking in, they may appear invisible. Yet top leaders often get credit for successes that were less due to their own effort and more due to what their second-tier leader contributed.

That certainly held true in my own career in top-of-the-organization positions. As I admit in this progress, I'm as guilty as anyone of not giving proper recognition to the second-tier leaders who made my success possible.

Many of them are dead now, which means that I can never make amends. But perhaps I can repay some of the debt I owe them by urging others to not duplicate my mistake. Find ways to recognize, honor, and celebrate those "second bananas" whose contributions have gone unheralded far too long.

As I say at the conclusion of this podcast, there's nothing second class about second-tier leadership.

You can download a PDF transcript of this episode at https://www.UpsizeYourLeadership.com/episodes.

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At the outset of the war in Ukraine, I produced two podcasts in which I forecast some things about the conflict which would surprise the world. I based my predictions on years of experience managing offices and distribution centers in both Russia and Ukraine. Since then, events have unfolded much along the lines of what I anticipated.

What no one foresaw, however, yours truly included, was how effectively the Ukrainians would mount a decisive counteroffensive. The rapid liberation of the Kharkiv oblast will serve as a case study in military academies and war colleges for decades to come. It is one of the most striking examples of strategic deception and operational security in history.

To pull off a feat like that requires leadership of the highest caliber. Therefore, at the request of several listeners, I'm using this episode to offer updated analysis of the war. And I'm focusing primarily on the total contrast between the two armies in terms of leadership styles. In addition, I examine the historical and cultural roots behind these contrasting styles.

For a transcript of this lesson, go to https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast and click on the link to Download Scripts.

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Marketing has served to blur the distinct nature of innovation. It constantly bombards us with announcements of some "new and innovative product." As a result, we have come to think of anything fresh and dazzling as innovation.

In today's hyper-competitive business culture, success -- if not survival -- depends on the ability of an organization to be be characterized by agility, speed, and innovation. In this episode, therefore, I look at the basic question, "What is innovation?" And then I step you through some of the factors to be taken into consideration if you are to create an culture of innovation in your business or company.

I also lead you through the backstory of how an engagement at Microsoft gave me an entirely new perspective on the process of innovation.

A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to Download Scripts.

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Wherever humans begin a protracted association, a culture automatically emerges. In fairly short order, some things will be valued, Others will not. Unwritten rules will begin to govern the way things are done within the group.

The result is a de facto culture, that is, one which was not purposefully promoted. It simply evolved by chance. Most corporate cultures fall into this category. Unfortunately, de facto cultures have a strong tendency to become dysfunctional, even if they were not at first.

No leadership responsibility is more urgent than preventing dysfunction in their organization. They must proactively nurture a culture which is healthy and constructive. To do so, they must develop, articulate, and inculcate an orchestrating ideology which will produce that kind of culture.

An orchestrating ideology is that set of beliefs, values, assumptions, outlooks, and attitudes which determine characteristic patterns of behavior within the organization. All cultures have an orchestrating ideology. In de facto cultures, the orchestrating ideology is implicit. It must be discerned by drawing implications from the behaviors which are condoned or encouraged in the day-to-day life of the organization.

Wise leaders never settle for an implicit orchestrating ideology. First they make the implicit ideology explicit by identifying the unspoken tenets which it seems to endorse. Then, having given it explicit expression, they critique it, amend it and modify it as necessary to transform it into the most suitable ideology for the future which they envision for their organization.

This episode examines the building blocks which go into shaping the orchestrating ideology of any corporate culture. It identifies eight of these elements and shows how they should be woven together in defining the fabric of a health culture.

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Just like a performer on stage, leaders are under the ever-watchful eye of an audience, The audience constantly makes judgments about the leader's performance based on what the leader says and does. In effect, leaders step on stage every morning.

They should begin the day, therefore, with the outlook of an actor or actress in their dressing room, making preparation for the curtain to rise. Getting ready for the lights to go up. Setting their focus on s singular objective: being at their very best when it's showtime.

For leaders, every day is showtime. And they should approach their day accordingly. If they were literally going on stage, they would strive to show the world the very best version of who they are. Great leaders do nothing less on a daily basis.

This episode maps a number of parallels between performers on stage and leaders fulfilling their role. Both play to an audience that can be quite critical at times. And they can't always determine whose eyes are on them at a given moment. It therefore behooves performer and leader alike to be the best version of themselves when its showtime.

A transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/. Simply click or tap on the link labeled Download Scripts.

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A leader's effectiveness turns on trust. Trust is the confident expectation that a person will consistently do what is right in every situation. How well a leader lives up to that expectation determines his or her reputation as a leader.

In essence, the trust which people put in a leader rises and falls in tandem with the leader's reputation. Strong, positive reputations encourage trust. Sullied reputations undercut trust.

Reputations, however, are vulnerable creatures. They are easily besmirched, damaged, or destroyed. And because reputations are fragile, the trust which a leader enjoys is likewise fragile.

Leaders must therefore guard their reputation with determination and tenacity. This begins by recognizing that both a leader's reputation and the trust people place in that leader are both derived from the same two factors.

The first factor is character. The second is performance. A stellar reputation for character, but a weak reputation for getting things done will impair trust in the leader. So, too, will a reputation for exceptional performance, but a flawed character. To be highly trusted, leaders must build and maintain a strong reputation for both character and performance.

This episode looks at striking examples of how otherwise promising leaders have lost trust either because a serious character flaw was revealed or their performance became subpar. And it highlights how, for leaders, both reputation and trust are fragile. Years of building a powerful reputation and broad trust can be undone in one careless or thoughtless episode which destroys the reputation which has long engendered trust.

A transcript of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to Download Scripts.

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As an essential for building trust in our leadership, truth ranks second only to integrity. Integrity of course, implies telling the truth. But the kind of truth which builds a culture of trust goes beyond the simple, but sometimes difficult task of being honest in what we say.

To build genuine, effective trust we must be equally willing to hear the truth. To confront the truth. To keep the organization and its culture grounded in truth and reality.

People come to trust you as a leader by watching you in action. They especially watch to see if you tell the truth. Consistently. Openly. Even when the truth is unpleasant. Even when truth puts you in a bad light.

Moreover, it's only when leaders model an unequivocal commitment to telling the truth that efforts to create a truth-telling culture are likely to succeed. And without a truth-telling culture, a culture of trust is almost impossible to achieve. Leaders must therefore commit themselves to telling the truth consistently and everywhere that it needs to be told.

Download a transcript of this podcast at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Follow the link labeled Download Scripts.

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The Choice that Makes for a More Resourceful Future

Nothing says more about a leader's character than the way he or she responds to wholesale failure. Is the first impulse to make excuses for what happened? To find someone to blame for the failure? Or is it to learn from the failure so that we are more resourceful in the future?

As leaders, we are charged with giving people hope, confidence, and optimism for the future. We are doing none of those things so long as are offering excuses or pointing a finger of blame. Excuse-making and blaming anchor us in the past, not the future.

But when we start asking about what's to be learned from the failure, we shift our thinking to the future and how we can use lessons learned to make bring greater promise to that future. And the most effective way to draw out those lessons is with quality questions about what went wrong.

This episode looks at perhaps the one question which you should always ask in such assessments. It's actually a question about questions. It helps us identify questions which, had we asked them, might have averted the failure.

You can obtain a transcript of this program at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast by following the link to download scripts..

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The ultimate purpose of feedback is to optimize performance. Ideally, therefore, feedback is a learning experience.

This means that in delivering feedback, managers should avoid any wording or tonality which would invite a defensive reaction. Defensiveness upends any learning potential in the conversation.

This episode, the second in a two-part series on providing feedback properly, examines a technique called the SBI Model. SBI stands for Situation-Behavior-Impact. These three words form a structure for delivering feedback in a manner that minimizes the opportunity for defensiveness.

The SBI approach is used in thousands of organizations, attesting to the value which managers attach to it. This podcast takes you step by step through the SBI structure, highlighting best practices in putting it to good use.

This episode continues the guidance begun in the previous episode, which can be downloaded at https://www.leaderpefect.com/podcast/episodes/2213-feedback-done-right-1.htm. For a printed transcript of this episode, follow the Download Scripts link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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But first we address some misconceptions. We explain why there is no such thing as "negative feedback." We also delve into why the "sandwich" approach to feedback does not work.

Then we outline specific, concrete steps for offering feedback that is genuinely effective. We look at the kind of language to use so that your feedback is clear, precise, and straightforward, without causing offense. Importantly we show how to structure feedback that is can be acted on easily.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simple click on the Download Scripts link.

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I begin with one of my favorite quotes from the famed humorist, Will Rogers. He was one of the first Americans to visit Russia after the Communist takeover. On his return, the press asked him about his impression of the USSR. He answered, "They are the greatest experiment on Earth -- except for us."

In this podcast I share my concerns that this grand experiment may be in danger. Ominous trends pointing in that direction are multiplying. Particularly worrisome -- and the theme of today's podcast -- is the diminishing level of respect for the courts.

In this week's podcast I show how the framers of the Constitution envisioned the courts as the ultimate check on raw power. The Constitution makes all political, social, and commercial power subservient to principles agreed on by all. Constitutional provisions subject even the most powerful government or military figures to the court's interpretation of the governing principles which we have agreed to. This total subservience of power to principle was the nexus of what Rogers called the American experiment.

The experiment has succeeded thus far because, whatever the issue, disputants have respected and agreed to abide by decisions of the court. Only this respect for the courts has prevented ruthless individualism and competition from ripping the American social fabric apart.

In recent years, however, respect for the judiciary has been plummeting. It's now the lowest in our history. If this trend continues, how long will it be before people who are dissatisfied with a ruling of the court opt to take things into their own hands and resort to the raw power to settle their differences.

Such a prospect is worrisome, indeed. Once raw power supplants principle as the way to resolve differences, the American experiment is dead. As leaders, we need to do everything in our power to combat outlooks and attitudes which would hasten that demise.

A PDF transcript of today's program is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast by following the link to download scripts.

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A Uniquely Modern Challenge

The challenge of maintaining balance between work and family life is not a new concern. But it is a distinctly modern one.

For most of man's time on the planet, work and family life were so integrated that there was no clear line of demarcation between them.

Think about American life in the 19th century. The vast majority of people lived in rural settings where agriculture was the dominant way of life. Every family member helped work the fields or tend the livestock. Work time was family time.

In the nearby small towns -- and in many larger cities -- the businesses were family businesses. Mom and Dad ran the store, and the kids all had assigned tasks such as sweeping, dusting, or stocking inventory. Work time was family time.

But no longer. Modern urbanity now sends Mom and Dad separate ways to work and the kids separate ways to school. Families have to make time for quality family life. And when work schedules are not in sync, finding a time slot for quality family activities is not a simple task.

This podcast traces that development and underscores the importance of leaders maintaining a good balance between their own work and family life and to be equally determined to optimize opportunities for their workers to have that same opportunity.

A transcript of this podcast can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to download scripts.

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It's rare for our performance to transcend what we believe is possible for us. Leaders must therefore commit themselves to enlarging their sense of possibility -- possibility both for themselves and for their people.

Our sense of possibility, however, can never exceed what we believe to be true about ourselves and about those whom we lead. Knowing this, excellent leaders are conscientious about ridding themselves of beliefs which needlessly limit their sense of what's possible.

Their best efforts notwithstanding, leaders still frequently remain saddled with disabling beliefs without recognizing it. Why? Because many disabling beliefs disguise themselves by masquerading as facts. Grammatically they look like straightforward descriptions of the way things are. They give no appearance of actually being a belief. That's why I call them "sneaky beliefs."

So long as we see them as "facts," they leave the impression that there is nothing that we can do to change them. By their very nature, facts are impervious to change. But once we recognize these "facts" as beliefs, we can indeed change them and rid ourselves of their their limiting influence. After all, we've been changing beliefs for our entire life, right?

This episode outlines a strategy for ferreting out these culprits and banishing them from our thought process. Each time another of these sneaky beliefs is disarmed, our sense of possibility for ourselves and/or for our people grows larger. This episode is a how-to guide on achieving that outcome.

For a transcript of this episode, visit https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast and click on the link to Download Scripts.

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There is a war within a war on the battlefields of Ukraine. It's a cultural war. Not a war of Ukrainian culture versus Russian culture so much as a war between organizational culture.

On one hand are the Russians, who have maintained the authoritarian leadership inherited from their Soviet past, which in turn inherited it from the czars. By contrast, the Ukrainians have purposefully foregone authoritarianism for a collaborative and empowering style of leadership.

The outcomes which have spring from these opposing leadership cultures provide a monumental case study in the implications which attend one's choice of leadership styles.

By practicing large-scale empowerment of even small fighting units, the Ukrainians have maximized the speed with which battlefield elements can identify targets of opportunity, initiate engagement, and wipe them out. Thus the amazing ability of the outnumbered and out-equipped Ukrainians to inflict horrendous tolls on Russian personnel, tanks, tracked vehicles, trucks, and artillery -- and now even a flagship.

The Russians, meanwhile, are bogged down in a cumbersome decision-making process which does not entrust independent decision-making to those on the front lines. Approval for any action -- an attack, a repositioning of assets, or a withdrawal -- must come from the top. There are fundamentally no non-commissioned officer corps in the enlisted ranks. And leadership training for lower-level officers is minimal. After all, why train someone in how to act independently if they will never be granted that freedom.

In the podcast, I detail the contrast between the two leadership cultures. I trace the historical factors which have led to the Russian reliance on authoritarianism. And then I map out why the Ukrainians abandoned the authoritarian style of leadership from their Soviet past and adopted a collaborative and empowering approach.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Just follow the link to Download Scripts.

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You've probably never heard of paradox management. Management texts rarely mention it. But within every corporate culture, certain paradoxes are at work. And this is equally true in all corporate cultures, whether in the profit or non-profit sector.

In these cultural paradoxes, leaders are confronted with two choices which seem to be mutually exclusive. Doing one precludes doing the other. But the leader must do both. Paradox presents itself as an either-or issue. But it must be managed with a both-and approach.

A simple example is the IT director who is expected to maximize security on company networks, but is also expected to give all workers easy access to all of the data they need. The interests of one expectation undercut the interests of the other expectation. Yet both interests have to be honored.

When confronted with this kind of paradox, the leader must find an appropriate balance point which adequately addresses the interests on both sides. Odds are, however, that advocates for one interest or both will disagree with the balance point. They will push and politick continually to relocate the balance point to give their interest greater leverage.

The result is an inherent tension within the paradox which always threatens to give rise to conflict. Leaders must be astute at finding a defensible balance point, then marshaling the courage to cope with sometimes pronounced criticism from those who think the balance point inappropriate.

In this episode I delve into the nature of paradox and offer some practical advice on how leaders should manage it. A PDF transcript of the program is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply follow the link labeled Download Scripts.

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Today I look at the ingenuity of the Ukrainians in finding and exploiting weak spots in the way the Russian forces are conducting their offensive.

What is now becoming apparent is that the Ukrainians are demonstrating an amazing ability to learn and adapt much faster than the Russians. Their performance is a real-time example of Peter Senge's argument in The Fifth Discipline that the greatest competitive advantage which companies have at their disposal is to learn faster than their competition.

Senge urged every company to become a "learning organization," a term which he coined. This episode looks at specific examples of how the Ukrainians are putting the "learning organization" concept into practice. They are showing us as leaders and managers the powerful benefit of ,adopting this strategy ourselves.

Download a transcript of this podcast at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the Download Scripts link.

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This episode delves into that question by examining the prospects for Ukraine if Russia wins and Ukraine's defenders are reduced to an insurgency movement. Mike explains why the spirit of improvisation and resistance which are deeply rooted in Ukraine's history and embedded in its collective psyche.

He then contrasts Ukraine's people and their propensity for on-the-spot, innovative decision-making with the rigid command-and-control structure of the Russian army, which withholds the right of independent decisions from anyone except those in the highest echelons of power.

He then looks at the implications of this contrast should insurgency become a way of life for Ukraine.

A transcript of this podcast is available by following the link to download scripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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In this episode, I draw on years of firsthand, on-the-ground experience in Ukraine to give you an important backstory to the current events in Ukraine. It's the backstory of a nation which after centuries of domination by various empires has struggled for the past 30 years to forge its independence and establish its own national identity.

I outline the challenges which Ukraine faces in this effort to develop a sense of true national unity and pride. Linguistic, religious, and cultural differences have compounded the identity-building challenge, as this program explains..

Within the last decade, however, in response to Russia's previous annexation of Crimea, an unprecedented sense of national unity has taken root. And evidence of this pride is likely to manifest itself in whatever combat is about to ensue.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply follow the Download Scripts link.

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In this episode we examine the basic principle of performance enhancement advanced 40 years ago by Timothy Gallwey in his book The Inner World of Tennis. Gallwey had an unswerving belief that people genuinely want to perform well. What holds them back is some type of interference which thwarts their potential.

His formula for performance was therefore to eliminate the interference so that higher performance can blossom. The type if nterference which Gallwey addressed is internal. It's the self-deprecating self-talk which we easily slip into whenever we make a serious mistake, fail at an important task, or face a daunting challenge..

But performance-stifling interference can also be external. And these external performance inhibitors are the subject of this episode. Dr. Mike calls on managers reframe the way that they think about weak performance on the part of their people. He urges managers to develop an initial instinct to look for the interference, whether internal or external, which is choking off greater performance.

A PDF copy of this episode can be retrieved by following the script download link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes/2204-increasing-performance.htm

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General Dwight David Eisenhower is famously known for having said that in preparation for battle, plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. These words from the man who planned the largest operation ever undertaken in human history, the D-Day landing at Normandy.

What we learn during a thorough learning process, Eisenhower knew, is far more valuable for future decision-making than the plan itself, no matter how well it has been put together. the plan is articulated. Like all military leaders, he knew the sobering truth of the adage that a battle plan becomes obsolete within five minutes of contact with the enemy. In battle, few things go exactly as planned.

When that happens, leaders must innovate by drawing on lessons learned during the planning process. Long after the plan itself may have become irrelevant, these lessons learned will serve as powerful guides for making judicious decisions..

The same principles hold in all organization. Wise managers enlarge the number of people who learn from the planning process by enlisting broad participation in the planning process -- especially plans which are long-term in nature. The result is an organization that is more resilient when the unexpected occurs, because they can fall back on lessons learned in the planning process even when the plan proves incomplete or outmoded.

A transcript of this podcast is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Because leaders do not always hold management titles, they lack the coercive power which comes with managerial authority. Their power, instead, lies in their influence.

To maximize their influence, leaders must build credibility in three critical domains. First is the social domain, where their character must give them credibility. Second is the professional domain, where their competence is the key to credibility. And third is the leadership domain, where they gain credibility by achieving the concrete results which are expected of them.

The depth and scope of their credibility determines the degree to which leaders are trusted. For a person to be trusted as a leader, however, there is no substitute for producing desired outcomes. When leaders fail in this regard, they lose the necessary credibility to be trusted as leaders. They may still be trusted as a person of character or as a professional with great confidence. But they will no longer benefit from the influence which comes from having trust in their leadership leader.

This episode takes a penetrating look at credibility and its pivotal role in leadership. For a transcript of the episode, go to https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to download scripts.

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Our world has simply become so complex that no one person can master all the nuances of developing new products, bringing them to market, and promoting them effectively. Strong teams housing a wide variety of talents are essential to leadership achievement in almost every arena.

Recently I was interviewed about leadership on Close-Up Television. Early in the conversation, the host raised the issue of team-building. In this episode I share a portion of the discussion which followed.

I explain why highly authoritarian styles of leadership have had to give way to more participative approaches. Next I explain why, as part of that change, team-building has emerged as a non-negotiable leadership priority. I then look at five essentials which leaders must instill in their teams if those teams are to be strong and vibrant.

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Yet, for all of the attention which the book garnered for humility, enduring interest in the topic is yet to take shape. Rarely do we find articles or books showing how a company has operationalized humility or made it a celebrated leadership trait within the organization.

It would appear that leadership discussions of humility are more of an exercise in virtue signaling than in genuine commitment to humility as a virtue. In this episode I examine the cultural factors which shape this neglect.

Some of those factors are as ancient as classical Greek philosophy and literature. Other factors are rooted in the distorted view of humility which is widespread in modern society. I hold, indeed, that humility is the most misunderstood of all leadership traits.

A transcript of this episode is available in a PDF format at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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At many times in human history, managers have had to contend with losing their workforce for a few days or weeks due to disasters, epidemics, or war. But never have managers been asked to reassemble a workforce which has been working remotely and in isolation from one another for over a year.

Yet, that's the very situation before us as the pandemic begins to recede. In their rush to get the train back on the tracks, however, managers can be blindsided by a reality which they have not allowed for in their planning.

To be specific, workers are coming back together bearing unhealed wounds both emotionally and psychologically. They have been through a year of economic, political, social, and financial turmoil. It has been a year of intense emotions, few of them positive, uplifting, or energizing.

During that time, millions of workers have learned that they can work remotely. And great numbers of them now actually prefer to do so. They will not only return with unhealed wounds from the shutdown, but a resentment of no longer being able to work from home.

What will all of this mean for the atmosphere which prevails as these workers come back together after a year apart? This episode examines possibilities which every manager should take into account.

A transcript of this episode is available as a PDF file at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes/2106-unprecedented-challenge.htm.

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For several years, virtual training has been an option, but not one that many companies chose. Most preferred the more conventional classroom style of training.

The COVID pandemic changed all of that. What training was done in 2020 and the first quarter of this year was largely delivered virtually.

Now, with the COVID restrictions approaching a conclusion, what does the future hold for leadership and management training? Or all training, for that matter? Will virtual training be the default for the future? Or will companies return to in-person, classroom training?

Many strong arguments -- especially economic ones -- can be advanced for virtual training. But there are tradeoffs that every leader and manager should consider before opting for virtual instruction. In this episode I lay out those tradeoffs and build the case that conventional, live training in person will always be the better way to train, given that option.

A PDF transcript of the episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes/2105-virtual-training.

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Leadership is the art of rallying people around a shared purpose, then motivating them and mobilizing them to achieve it. To achieve this mandate, leaders must excel at three interrelated skillsets:

• People Skills
• Communication Skills
• Trust-Building Skills

These are like three hinges on the doorway to leadership success. Unless they are maintained and well-oiled, that door will be difficult to open.

The most basic of these skillsets is people skills, simply because leadership is always people-centric. Whereas management strives to optimize processes, leadership strives to optimize the performance of people.

And to do so, leaders must be armed with effective communication skills. While leaders must lead by example, first and foremost they must lead through communication. Their example merely validates that they truly believe in the message which they espouse.

Further, people perform at their highest level only in an atmosphere of trust. Leaders must therefore excel at creating strong trust bonds among their people. Love bonds people together. Trust bonds communities together, just as it has from the dawn of human society. Leaders who want their people to thrive are ever vigilant to keep trust in strong repair.

A PDF transcript of this episode can be obtained by following the link to download scripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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As leaders and managers, we are regularly approached by people wanting help with solving some problem or overcoming a challenge.

Do you have a set strategy for how to manage such conversations? As an executive coach, I must guide these kinds of discussions in almost every coaching session.

In this episode I offer a four-step process which I follow to make these conversations as fruitful as possible. The approach I use in coaching is equally applicable to management conversations or discussions with friends and family.

To make the steps of the process easy to recall, my name for the process is the CIAA formula (or the CI-double-A formula, as I most commonly refer to it.), Each letter in the name refers to a specific step in the process.

This process is easy to learn. Easy to remember. Easy to apply. Even though this podcast describes it only from a high-level perspective, I provide sufficient detail that you can implement it immediately. For a printable copy of this episode, download a PDF transcript of the program at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Trust is the most fundamental of human social needs. Without trust, the relationships necessary for social and cultural order fall apart. And nowhere is that more true than in leadership. Leaders who are not trusted have no influence.

Gaining the trust of their followers is thus a primary concern for leaders. But if they think that they can earn trust, they are missing a pivotal reality. The truth is, we cannot earn trust. Trust, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Trust is not something we earn. It's something which others bestow on us. If they choose not to trust us, there is nothing which we can do to coerce them, obligate them, or compel them to place trust in us. Our job as leaders, then, is to act in such a trustworthy manner that we make it as easy for people to bestow trust upon us.

And to appear trustworthy, we must first look at ourselves from the perspective of those who lead. From our followers' vantage, what makes us worthy of trust? And conversely, what makes us undeserving of trust? This episode examines the crucial necessity of leaders approaching trust-building from the viewpoint of those whom they lead.

A PDF copy of today's episode is available by following the appropriate download link at https;//www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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From the time children begin to talk well, they are quick to raise an outcry if they feel that they are being treated unfairly. Time and again we hear them complain, "But that's not fair!" or "They aren't playing fair with me."

And we carry passion for fairness into adulthood. Political and social reform movements throughout history have organized themselves around a protest against something judged to be unfair.

As leaders, we are expected to make decisions and adopt policies which are fair. But what constitutes fairness? This episode explores two different criteria which are used to determine whether a decision or policy is fair. And it shows how division over these criteria has led to in our current state of political and social polarization.

Unfortunately, this polarization spills over into organizational life, where people expect leaders to make fair decisions and to take fair positions. Today's podcast aims at helping leaders take fairness issues into proper consideration when making decisions or adopting new policies.

A PDF transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast by clicking on the link to download scripts.

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Vital as they are, strategic plans have one inherent flaw due to their very design. Strategic plans plans typically envision the future as a straight-line projection of the present. They don’t make allowances for wholesale disruptions brought on by forces outside of our control.

Yet, 2020 presented us with one disruption after another. No one's strategic plan could have anticipated the COVID-19 pandemic or the consequences which flowed from it. By mid-summer of 2020, most companies were working completely outside of the strategic plan with which they began the year.

So, is there a way to plan for the future in a way which allows for unforeseen disruptions which push our strategic plan aside? And the answer is, "Yes." We do it by supplementing strategic planning with scenario planning. Scenario planning fundamentally answers the question, “How should we respond if horrendous development X were to happen?”

This episode offers an overview of scenario planning and identifies six potential disruptions which every business is well-advised to address with thoughtful scenario planning.. A link to download a transcript of this episode can be found at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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For twenty years I've been observing an intriguing phenomenon: promising, high-potential managers whose careers seem to top out prematurely.

There's no apparent scandal to blame as the culprit. No wholesale failure of a pivotal assignment. No costly mistake as a result of their misjudgments. They simply quit moving up. Or worse still, they are asked to move out.

As a leadership and executive coach, I've often been engaged to work with managers who are in this very situation, or soon may be. Sometimes it's the manager who reaches out to me to explore possible causes for a plateaued career. More often it's a company that contacts me, asking for my help in rescuing the flagging career of a high-promise worker.

After dozens of engagements like this, I came to see that many of these clients already had the personality and the requisite skills to continue their upward climb. But they had plateaued because of factors having little to do with their likability or skill set.

In this episode I look at five of the more common factors which I've encountered that are quietly sabotaging careers. I think of them as "silent killers," because they rarely call attention to themselves. Yet they are choking off what could be a stellar career. As I examine these career-killing villains, ask whether you're taking adequate precautions against them.

For a PDF copy of today's episode, follow the link to download transcripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Leadership is about recognizing the potential in people and situations, then bringing that potential to fruition.

For that reason, serious leaders find it disconcerting when they have a worker or volunteer who shows great promise, but seems content with mediocre performance.

When we encounter people like this, it's easy to say that they are not motivated. Which may be the case. But not necessarily. lack of motivation is only one of several possibilities.

In this episode I look at four issues which result in people performing at a substandard level. I offer a simple template for identifying which of these issues is likely the root of the problem. Each issue calls for a unique leadership solution.

Motivation may indeed be the problem. But an even deeper problem may lie elsewhere. This template helps you decipher the real issue.

A PDF transcript of this program is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes.

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Great transformative movements in history have always arisen from a grand new vision of what the future should look like. Think of the American Revolution or the development of the internet as striking examples.

Yet, behind every new vision for the future is a reframing of how we remember the past. Our memory of the past is always selective. It highlights certain things that happened, but marginalizes or ignores others.

This very process of selection colors how we think of our past and what it portends for our future. This is as true of organizations as it is of individuals. Great leaders have always motivated people to pursue a new future by offering a new view of the past. And they do this by calling attention to overlooked aspects of the past which can be capitalized on to build a desirable future.

For instance, turnaround leaders in troubled organizations utilize this technique routinely. They inherit a situation in which people feel anxious about the future, discouraged about their prospects, or doubtful of their own capability. The leader confronts this situation by reframing how people view their past. The leader underscores helps people see elements of the past and present on which to build a new sense of promise and hope.

In this episode I offer some striking examples of how this technique works. As leaders, we are all charged with painting an attractive vision for the future. That process often begins by sketching a new view of the past.

A PDF copy of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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In today's world, organizations presume that managers will also be team leaders. Strong teams are essential in an era when both for-profit companies and non-profits operate in highly complex contexts.

Countless studies have examined the personal traits of effective team leaders. On the internet you can find lists with as many as 30 attributes which characterize great team leadership. Some are obviously more vital than others.

After decades of leading teams, building teams, and coaching others to do the same, I've identified the ten hallmarks which I personally believe are the most essential traits of superb team leadership. I share these ten in this episode. And I also identify the one leadership characteristic which I consider most critical of all.

A PDF copy of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Leadership is about pointing people to a more promising tomorrow. At its best it instills hope and unshakeable confidence in the people it leads. To do so, however, leaders must be men and women who themselves embody and exemplify optimism. People may be influenced by pessimists. But they are never inspired to follow them.

Pessimism comes easily. Our brains are hyper-attuned to anticipate and recognize threats. That makes us susceptible to fears, anxieties, and foreboding views of the future. Left unchecked, such states of mind easily lead to pessimism.

Yet, I'm persuaded that people prefer to live in hope, to live with confidence that things will be better tomorrow. And they turn to leaders to provide them such assurance. For this reason, leaders must see themselves as guardians of optimism, first in themselves, then in their people.

In this podcast I build the case for optimism as a way of life. I look at the backdrop of uncertainty and unrest which permeates American life today. And I highlight the role that optimistic leaders will play in ushering us out of this predicament into a future filled with promise.

A printed transcript of this episode may be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes/2017-guardians-of-optimism.htm.

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The Greek philosopher Aristotle famously advised, "First, know thyself." That adage serves anyone well. But it is particularly relevant to leadership. Leaders should know themselves, first and foremost.

The most important mentor in my life understood that well. He repeatedly told me, "We all have a flat side on our wheel somewhere. The sooner we can identify that flat side and build systems and people around us to compensate for it, the sooner we will be successful and the greater our success will be."

This episode guides you through a process of identifying the flat side on your wheel. And it explains why knowing yourself is essential to effective team-building -- and in truth, to leadership in any arena.

For a PDF copy of this episode, go to https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. Simply click on the link to download scripts.

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It’s fashionable today for managers to refer to their employees as their team, whether the group actually functions as a team or not. That’s unfortunate. It blurs what makes authentic teamwork distinctive. It cheapens the meaning of “team.”

As a result, many so-called teams are not really teams, at all. They are simply a collection of individual contributors who happen to work together. They are what we might call workmates or shipmates or officemates. But they are not truly teammates.

True teams – especially exceptional teams – embody certain traits and characteristics. These qualities are always evident, whether you’re speaking of a sports team, a research team, a self-directed work team, a special forces team, a management team – any kind of team which genuinely deserves the name.

In this episode we look at eleven of these essential traits. How many of them are characteristic of the team which you lead or teams on which you serve?

For a printed copy of today's podcast, go to https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast and click on the link to download scripts.

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There is hardly a business in America which has not been adversely impacted by the corona virus pandemic. Yet many are learning how to thrive, even while their employees are working remotely for the first time ever.

In this episode Daniel Ramsey shares lessons which he has learned from many of these business leaders who have chosen to tackle the challenges of the COVID-19 shutdown with a CEO's mindset. They are mastering the art of leading teams in a virtual environment, a skill which they never expected to need.

Not only does Daniel relate the lessons which they have learned, he also relates what he has learned as he manages his own team remotely. Toward the end of the episode he offers my listeners a free book entitled Scaling Your Business with Virtual Professionals. To obtain your copy, send a text message to 31996 and include the code: "SVP" in the message.

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One of the weightiest questions in the study of history is how to judge leaders from the past. Not in terms of their military, political, or other achievements. But in terms of their character and morality.

Should their behavior be measured by our standards today? Or should they only be accountable to the standards of their own era?

Recently mob action has toppled several statues of renowned American leaders. The rationale for this action is tha the statue depicted a person who was guilty of grave immoral behavior, at least by today's societal norms, morals, and mores.

But what consequences ensue if we use that standard to determine which leaders from the past we respect and which ones we treat dismissively. The fact is, all leaders are flawed. They are, after all, human. In that regard, they are like the rest of us.

Great leaders, however, are men and women who, though flawed like the rest of us, had exceptional traits which set them apart from the crowd. And we can recognize those things which were exceptional about them without condoning the things which they did amiss. To do otherwise sets in motion a process which little-by-little robs us of the heroes whose example inspires us to press beyond the crowd ourselves.

You can obtain a PDF copy of this episode by following the link to download scripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Whether you lead a company, a non-profit, an institution, or a government agency, people join your organization and remain committed to it for one of seven reasons. And for the most part, money and benefits have little to do with it.

Instead, one of seven intrinsic benefits exerts a gravitational pull on those who choose to become part of your team or organization. This benefit -- what I call a motivational connection -- is the force which draws someone to become part of the group which you lead or manage.

So long as this benefit remains vibrant, people remain committed. However, if the benefit dwindles or disappears, their commitment evaporates, as well. This episode examines each of these seven intrinsic benefits individually and offers real-life examples of the impact they have on motivation, morale, and engagement.

For a PDF transcript of this episode, follow the link to download scripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Few times in our history has political leadership at every level of government been so visible as it has been in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the visibility has been on a daily basis.

People have therefore been able to see great leadership on display, along with other leadership which has not necessarily been so great. Even though the crisis is far from passed, we are far enough along in it to identify some principles of leadership which have been reinforced by events surrounding the pandemic.

In this episode I look at five things which leaders can take away from how the pandemic has been managed from a leadership standpoint. I've chosen "take-aways" which are valid and valuable for men and women in leadership in any type of organization.

These include:

1. The importance of giving people a compelling why when you ask them to change
2. The need to establish clear end-games and stick with them when you ask something extraordinary of your people
3. The danger to leadership credibility when decision-makers are emotionally detached from their people
4. The tremendous innovative capability found in people and what that means for leaders who successfully tap into it
5. The powerful threat which fear poses for clear, rational thought

A PDF transcript of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Occasionally I use this podcast to address topics which are not strictly a leadership core competency, but which could greatly benefit people in certain leadership positions.. This is one of those episodes.

I've aimed today's program at professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders whose businesses rely on the internet to bring them customers, especially local customers. Their ability to use search engine optimization to maximum advantage pays incalculable dividends.

My guest, John Vuong, has helped over 10,000 business owners in 50 verticals dominate their local market in terms of search engine rankings. In this episode he discusses major considerations to keep in mind as you consider marketing on the web. And for those who lack the time or inclination to optimize their own website, he offers helpful guidance on finding a professional to assist.

John also highlights the clear distinction between advertising on the web and marketing on the web. Marketing is likely to succeed, he explains, when you clearly know what potential customers are looking for when they are ready to buy.

John's company, Local SEO Search, Inc. serves all of North America from its base in Toronto, Canada. John's website is https://www.localseosearch.ca.

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The Armed Forces War College uses the acronym VUCA to described the world today. That stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Change, and Ambiguity. Ron Holifield, my guest on this episode and the president of Strategic Government Resources, argues that this state of affairs has brought on a new set of expectations for leaders.

People, he says, are looking for leaders who communicate a sense of clarity, confidence, and certitude. Unlike workers 40 years ago, who tended to accept what leadership said at face value, today's workers are more skeptical, more likely to question leadership decisions. They want to assure themselves that the leader is trustworthy, competent, and authentic.

Authenticity means that the leader has a clear and well-defined set of values and that the leader lives consistently with these values. People, more than perhaps ever before, want leaders to authenticate themselves by walking their talk. According to Ron, a discussion of values is the one topic which creates the greatest resonance in his in his workshops at present.

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The pandemic shutdown has been particularly disruptive for owners of small or medium-sized businesses. Rather than merely hunkering down and waiting out the economic downturn, men and women who are heading and leading smaller businesses should see the opportunity in the moment.

What are these opportunities? To answer that question, I turned to Bob McKinnon, host of RealLeadershipPodcast.com and a veteran expert in the leadership of small and medium-sized businesses.

Bob talks about the importance of using this lull in economic activity to retool your business in terms of your vision, your company strengths, and what he calls your "unfair competitive advantage."

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If any one word describes the American landscape at the present moment, it's "uncertainty." The national shutdown over the corona virus pandemic has left leaders everywhere facing uncertain futures for their people and their organization.

The pressures of leading in times of uncertainty can take a toll on the emotional well-being of any leader. In this episode I share five lessons which I learned from one of my earliest leadership roles. In that role, I had to cope with unbroken uncertainty for four years.

The lessons which I carried away from this experience were:

1. Keep faith in yourself
2. Trust your instincts
3. Avoid needless delays in decisions
4. Be transparent about your struggle with difficult decisions
5. Hold to your standards

A PDF copy of this episode can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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The corona virus pandemic calls for exceptional leadership both globally and at every level of society. This is by no means the worst crisis mankind has faced. But it is no doubt the most extensive.

Great leaders emerge in times of great crisis, especially prolonged ones. In such moments these leaders have historically pursued five time-proven principles:

1. Stay visible as a role model to your people.
2. Find ways to give your people a sense of hope.
3. Be realistic in sharing your assessments, but never lapsing into pessimism.
4. Respect the feelings which your people need to process in adjusting to the crisis.
5. Spell out specific, concrete actions which people should take in pushing back against the crisis.

This episode expands on these principles with practical examples of how great leaders draw on them. A PDF transcript of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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In many ways, leading a non-profit is more challenging than leadership in the for-profit realm. Because non-profits are so dependent on volunteer workers, the leader must have exceptional skills in engaging people and motivating them.

To accomplish this motivational task, non-profit leaders must be able to draw people to their organization by articulating a distinct and clear sense of purpose. And they must bring this same clarity to the process of fund-raising. While the ability to promote vision and engage workers is important to for-profit leadership, it's absolutely essential for non-profit leaders.

In this episode, I interview Richard Baggett about lessons which he has learned in four decades of successful non-profit leadership. We discuss topics ranging from enunciating vision to marketing to fund-raising to attracting volunteers to board relations.

In recent years, he points out, corporations have begun to invest in social causes which were once the sole province of churches and non-profits. This corporate involvement adds to the number of voices urging the public to support good causes. To build appeal for their own cause, non-profit leaders -- now more than ever -- must be able to clearly define what sets their organization apart and to communicate their vision compellingly.

A transcript of this podcast can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Shortly after the turn of the century, under the leadership of CEO Matt Rose, BNSF Railway initiated a comprehensive leadership development program. Among other things, it provided exceptional mentoring experiences for emerging leaders across the company.

At the heart of this effort was what BNSF calls its Leadership Model. The model centers on five principles:

1. Lead More, Manage Less
2. Cast a Compelling Vision
3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
4. Model the Way
5. Develop Your People

Over the past two decades BNSF has expanded and enhanced the elements of its leadership development system. But the Leadership Model remains at the core of the system. Leaders in any organization would profit from embracing the model's five principles.

This podcast examines these principles and how they interrelate. It also looks at how BNSF implemented the Leadership Model so that it became embedded in the corporate culture.

A transcript of the podcast is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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A basic tenet of leadership is to define the primary values which should guide your organization. These are the values which we espouse. But are they necessarily the values the organization embodies?

What's often the case is that an organization has a set of espoused values which are posted prominently and listed in employee handbooks. But the values which actually guide the organization are altogether different.

One way to identify this alternative set of values is to pay attention to the people who are celebrated as heroes within the corporate culture. What values were behind the actions which led them to be seen as heroes? Those are in fact the values the organization treasures.

And new workers, seeing incongruity between the organization's espoused values and the values it celebrates, will conclude that the celebrated values are the ones they should heed.

You can download a transcript of this episode by clicking on the link to Download Scripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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For leaders who want to develop a high-performing team, here's a template to work from. I call the template the High-Performance Molecule, because my graphic representation of it resembles a molecule.

I structure this molecule around five essentials for any team which wants to perform at an exceptional level. If one or more of these elements is weak or ignored, the team may still be able to function reasonably well. But it will never attain high performance.teams.

A link to download a transcript of this episode can be found at https:www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Andrew Carnegie once described teamwork as "the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." As a manager or leader, your own success is either limited or expanded by the performance of your team. It therefore behooves you to build a team which is uncompromising in its commitment to high performance.

But what does high performance mean, exactly? The team has to make that decision for itself. Your first step in building a high-performing team is to gain team on how it will measure high performance. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind as you guide your team in that process. A printed transcript of this episode is available by following the download link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Studies have repeatedly shown that intrinsic motivations, not extrinsic ones, are the longest lasting in their impact. With an appropriate intrinsic paycheck, people often stay with an organization long after they have concluded that their extrinsic paycheck -- salary, bonuses, benefits, etc. -- is too small.

This episode looks at five intrinsic rewards which determine how motivated people will be to stay with your organization. These rewards have to do with why a person has chosen to be part of your organization rather than some others. If they are not finding satisfaction for that "why," they are already on a path toward disengagement or departure.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Among other things, leaders are consensus builders. That’s part of their mandate to unite people around a course of action. Achieving consensus is not always an easy task. There are countless ways in which a leader’s effort at consensus-building can be blocked.

In this episode I lay out seven time-proven principles which leaders should keep in mind when working to forge a consensus. When these principles are followed carefully, the odds for building successful consensus are greatly enhanced. To download a printed copy of this episode, go to https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast and click on the link to download scripts.

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What are the most important leadership traits? Opinions on the subject are found in dozens of lists. But few of them include gratitude, which is unfortunate. Gratitude is the foundation for many vital attitudes and outlooks which make for great leadership. Gratitude promotes optimism, humility, and openness to others. It safeguards against resentment and bitterness, both deadly to good leadership. As this episode shows, gratitude is essential for leaders.

You can download a printed transcript of this episode at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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With the rise of empowerment styles of leadership, companies increasingly expect those who lead or manage to coach and mentor their people. Over the past 20 years I've helped a number of companies establish internal coaching or mentoring programs. And for several semesters I taught an MBA course on coaching skills for managers.

In this episode I offer an overview of how this emphasis on coaching has evolved and some of the differing approaches companies have taken in creating a coaching culture. For a printed transcript of this episode, follow the download link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

The emphasis on having leaders who coach is a result of the evolutionary development of coaching, which began 30 years ago when executive coaching emerged as a sizable profession. Early on, external coaches were used almost exclusively by companies, and usually in an effort to salvage a manager whose career was tanking.

About the turn of the century, the pattern shifted, so that external coaches were engaged more often for developmental coaching of high-potential workers than for remedial coaching. This then set the stage for companies wanting to broaden the number of people in their organization who could benefit from coaching.

Since extending that benefit would be so expensive if the company relied on external coaches exclusively, interest quickly developed in building a culture of internal coaching, where leaders and managers were routinely coaching their people. This approach continues to expand and mature today. This episode provides an overview of that trend.

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This episode lays the foundation for understanding what truly constitutes communication. It examines four communication processes and analyzes seven levels of communication. Download a transcript of this episode at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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In this program Dr. Mike examines both the popular meaning of these words and their psychological meaning, then explores important considerations when leading a mixed team of extraverts and introverts. Download a transcript of this episode at https://www.LeaderPerfect.com/podcast/episodes.

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This episode looks at what Dr. Mike calls the VBP molecule -- the values, beliefs, and principles at the heart of motivation. Download a transcript of this episode at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes.

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This episode looks at their example and identifies three vital priorities for people who would make personal self-development a daily priority. A PDF transcript of this program can be downloaded at LeaderPerfect.com/podcast/episodes.

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In this episode Mike offers practical exercises for identifying the underlying purpose of our lives and utilizing that knowledge as leaders. A transcript of this podcast is available at LeaderPerfect.com/podcast/episodes.

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In this episode we explore the linkage between character and leadership success. We examine the difference between personality and character and show why consistent character is more important for leaders today than ever before. A transcript of this program is available at https://www.LeaderPerfect/podcast/episodes.

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A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcasts/episodes.

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Unlike other leadership traits, integrity cannot be faked. The very pretense of faking it obliterates it. This episode examines the true meaning of integrity and the role of integrity in building trusted leadership. Download a PDF transcript of the podcast at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes.

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In this episode, Dr. Mike Armour looks at five small words, terms which we use every day, and shows leaders how to harness them to great motivational advantage. Download a transcript of this episode at https://www,leaderperfect.com/podcast/episodes.  You can also contact Mike by means of a link on that same page.

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He also identifies a dozen signs of distrust. And he underscores the urgency of maintaining trust when managing change or reorganization.

You can download a copy of today's program at LeaderPerfect.com/podcast. The page also provides a link to contact Mike personally. 

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Complicating the issue, an organization's list of core values needs to be held to no more than seven values, preferably no more than five. Beyond that number, a list is too lengthy to be readily remembered. And people won't devote themselves to things which they can't easily remember.

Core values are vital to an organization. But not all vital values are core values. Some are strategic values. Others are operational values. This episode explores a method for identifying which vital values in an organization are indeed its core values. 

To download a PDF copy of today's podcast, go to www.LeaderPerfect.com/podcast. Choose this episode, then click on Download Scripts.

You can contact Dr. Mike's email contact is mike@LeaderPerfect.com.

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According to research done by Gallup, low worker engagement costs the global economy seven trillion dollars per year. While engagement is higher in North America than in many other parts of the world, only a third of American workers are truly engaged with their organization.

This does not mean that other workers are unproductive. They may indeed perform at an acceptable level. But they are somewhat indifferent toward the organization. They feel no particular passion for it, no great loyalty to it. It's just a place to earn a paycheck.

In today's podcast, Dr. Mike Armour provides a roadmap for turning this situation around. He offers practical advice on how leaders and managers can enhance worker engagement by pursuing four strategies.

First is to build connections with workers at a personal level. Second is to make collaborative communication between managers and workers commonplace. Third is to demonstrate caring commitment to workers individually and collectively. And fourth is to captivate workers with their leader's aspirations both for them and for the organization.

You can download a script of today's podcast at www.LeaderPerfect.com/podcast/.

Dr. Mike Armour is the managing principal of Strategic Leadership Development International in Dallas. Check out his broad array of leadership development services at www.LeaderPerfect.com.

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Transformational leaders succeed only by changing the organization’s sense of identity – its sense of who it is and what it may become. And this change is not purely marginal or peripheral. It’s substantive.

To accomplish what they aim for, transformational leaders must do more than merely fiddle around the edges of organizational identity. They must change it markedly, so much so that the new identity spins off new patterns of behavior. This is why I describe transformational leadership as not your garden-variety leadership.

To download a transcript of this episode, go to www.LeaderPerfect.com/podcast and click on the link to Download Scripts.

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For example, we speak of managing people and leading people. We also speak of managing budgets and managing inventories. But we would never speak of leading a budget or leading an inventory. We only lead people.

As a leadership coach, I've developed three questions which allow me to quickly determine whether a new client is indeed a leader or is simply functioning as a manager, but calling it leadership.

In this episode I take you through those three pivotal questions and invite you to assess your own leadership performance in light of them.

For a printed copy of this episode, go to LeaderPerfect.com/podcast/. and click on the link to Download Scripts..

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From that starting point to the modern world, every advance in human society and technology has required leaders to master new leadership skills and techniques. For leadership, the challenge to learn and adapt to change is never-ending.

Great leaders are lifelong learners. But true lifelong learning is more than merely learning new things over a lifetime. It is an intentional, purposeful, structured approach to personal self-development.

I've had the privilege of coaching dozens of leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs who exemplified what lifelong learning is all about. They embrace it. They embody it. They make it their way of life.

In this episode I focus on four traits which are common to these exceptional men and women. For a printed copy of today's program, go to www.LeaderPerfect.com/podcast/. Or contact me on the same page.

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The resulting loss of interpersonal connection often leads to problems with worker engagement. Astute leaders and managers counter that tendency by relying on the high-touch strategies espoused by John Naisbitt in his 1982 best-seller Megatrends. He coined the phrase "high tech/high touch" as a catchy slogan to underscore the way that management should respond to a workplace permeated with technology.

Even though Naisbitt first called for high-touch leadership nearly four decades ago, there is even a stronger case for it today. In this episode we revisit his phrase "high tech/high touch" and underscore the urgency of applying high-touch leadership, not merely in a high-tech workplace, but anywhere that worker engagement is weak.

If you would like a printed version of this podcast, use the following link to download a PDF transcript of the program.

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Now, I'm devoting the later chapters of my life to helping others find their own passion for leadership. This episode outlines how I hope to use this podcast to advance that dream. My goal is to make this podcast a regular source of encouragement, enlightenment, and enrichment as you upsize your leadership.

To learn more about how I help leaders enhance their impact check out my website at LeaderPerfect.com.. If you would like a transcript of today's podcast, you can download a PDF copy of this episode.

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