Archives

Guest: Michael Sayre

As part of the executive insight series, I invited Mike because he has transformed several companies – mostly building for sale-exit. He is known for his ethical and caring approach to driving results over the past decades. In a time where people struggle to finding their own approach – Mike has lived his values and delivered strong results. Mike will discuss: 1. His approach to transformation across multiple industries 2. Common themes 3. Leadership qualities required for successful transformation 4. His collaboration on the Innovative Leaders Guide to Transforming Organizations – award winning guide 5. Key take-aways from his recent executive roles Mike provides great insight into what has made him successful. While a leader who is behind the scenes rather than grabbing credit – he is the quiet and stable force that ensures difficult challenges are resolved and companies thrive.

Season 2 Episode 42

Guest: Paul Smith

Paul talks about the power of story for leaders. He shares his insights about what works, why it works and how you will be more effective as a leader if you master the use of story as one of your skills. Paul recounts a compelling story told by Bob McDonald, CEO of Proctor and Gamble and connects it to a primary leadership and parenting lesson for him. Through his use of story he illustrates: 1. What is a great leadership story? 2. What are the primary elements? 3. Why use stories to lead and sell? 4. What are the most common mistakes of using story? You will walk away with a foundation for using story in your role as a leader. You can also learn more about using story in leadership by reading Paul’s book: Lead with Story.

Guest: Mansour Javidan

Season 9 Episode 41

What do getting a little drunk and meeting quarterly quotas have in common for leaders? They each build trust with your team — depending on what country you’re in!

Guest Mansour Javidan has studied the similarities — and differences — in effective leadership in cultures across the globe. He shares the results of his research in this episode…especially the common qualities you’ll need to be a great leader no matter where you are.

Here’s what Mansour and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

1. The importance of crafting a story with your team, no matter what nation they’re in;
2. The roots of trust, and why it’s a need hard-wired into our biology; and
3. The universal traits of good leadership (plus a few fun differences!).

This episode is produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

• The Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership – with Ruchira Chaudhary
• Building Trust in Uncertainty: A Personal & Professional Journey – with Dr. Mary Jo Burchard
• Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust & Connection – with Erica Dhawan

Guest: Victor Prince

Victor talks about the power of applying the “Leadership Matrix” -the box- to team management. He will describe what it is, how it works, and how it will help you get the best out of yourself and your team. 1. Who should read Lead Inside the Box? What problem does it help them solve? 2. How do you help people solve that problem? 3. Walk us through the different parts of the Leadership Matrix? 5. What are the four boxes and how do you use this tool -box- to allocate leadership time by group? Victor provides great insights about how this structure helps managers and leaders think through what employees need using a framework to categorize where they are right now. This tool can also help shift people to become more productive.

Guest: Robert Falcone

Bob takes on large roles to solve complex problems mainly in the space of health care. His ability to evolve as a leader is at the core of what will be required for leaders going forward – especially in the health care field. During this conversation Bob and Maureen talk about Bob’s path from artist to trauma surgeon to CEO to the Veteran’s administration to running a medical association. Since this show is about helping leaders create their own personal innovation strategy, Bob’s journey is a particularly interesting one because it highlights multiple successful reinventions. For physicians and physician leaders it may be even more interesting because of the volume of change facing the medical industry overall. Bob talks about his overall journey including knowing when to leave and his own internal thought process and motivations.

Guest: Carla Paonessa

As part of the executive insight series, I invited Carla to talk about her ongoing impact in innovating organizations from the employee level, leadership level and board level. As we talk about how leaders innovate themselves and their organizations, Carla is one of the people I look to share significant insight! I consider her my model. • How did you get started with your career? • You were an early woman in a male focused industry – can you give us some insight about how you navigated this situation? What factors allowed you to blaze trails for people like me who followed and had an easier time because of your work • You were one of the key founders of the Change Management and Leadership practice at Accenture please share some thoughts about how you helped facilitate the innovation of that practice. • You retired from Accenture and moved on to the next phase of your career and you now serve on several boards including LeaderShape. What guidance can you share?

Guest: Paul Pyrz

As part of the executive insight series, I invited Paul to talk about his ongoing impact in with young and emerging leaders focusing on identifying what is possible in their lives and bringing that possibility into action. By shifting mindset to what is likely given our limitations to what is possible, leaders generate significantly greater and more fulfilling results. Questions we explore: 1.Why is it so hard to “live in possibility” these days? 2.What does it mean to “live in possibility”? 3.What is the importance of adopting an attitude of possibility? 4.How did you come to adopt this sort of thinking? 5.How can I help my team embrace living in possibility? 6.How does living in possibility connect to leadership? Why is the connection important? 7.Why do people typically dismiss those that have this attitude?

Guest: Gary Weber

Gary and Maureen talk about the leadership “operating systems” we are working with based on our brain programming and our level of conscious awareness of this operating system. When we increase our awareness, we can reprogram this operating system to move beyond the survival and ego based system to a more deliberate, service based, long term success oriented system. In our current time with increasing complexity and challenge, we as leaders need to commit to updating this operating system to ensure future generations thrive. This is something that must be done by each leader – we can’t look to those in political roles or senior roles to take care of it – all of us have a responsibility. 1) Over 99% of our thinking and actions take place automatically – can you talk more about that? 2) Pain is weighted 3-5 x higher – how does that impact our lives? How does that impact us as leaders? 3) The way our brains are working is not okay (we need to upgrade our operating system) – how?

Guest: Christoph Hinske

Christoph Hinske gave a keynote speech to the World Green Building Council in Venice focused on retrofitting all buildings in Europe. The gathering was part of the EU funded BUILD UPON project, the world’s largest collaborative effort on building renovation – bringing together over 1,000 organizations, across 13 countries, at over 80 events in 2016-17. As leaders focusing on implementing multiple concurrent changes – it is imperative that we understand what drives change and what inhibits it or just drains our energy. He discusses the following: 1. Tell us more about the World GBC project. 2. How does your work with agreements increase the probability of successful transformation? 3. What is an agreements map and the cost of scarcity calculation? 4. How does mapping and calculating the cost of agreements drive change? 5. What concrete steps can I take to evaluate my agreements?

Season 2 Episode 11

Guest: Paul Gibbons

Paul Gibbons talks about his new book (continuation of an earlier interview) focused on large scale change and the concepts of agility and anti-fragile. These are foundational concepts for leaders looking to build organizations that are able to respond quickly to predicted and unpredicted change. Being agile and ‘anti-fragile’ positions organizations to be resilient to the shocks they will face and enable them to be proactive – leveraging the shocks that adversely impact other organizations. Paul and Maureen will discuss: 1) What is anti-fragility? 2) What are some real-world examples of anti-fragility? 3) Why should this be of interest to business leaders? 4) Do we know of business organizations that are anti-fragile? 5) How might a leader use these principles? 6) How can a leader use these principles to position the organization to proactively respond to threats?