Following the publication of Jim Collins' ground-breaking work Good to Great, interest in humility as a vital leadership trait gained broad interest. The topic of humility took center stage in leadership workshops and keynote speeches for months to come. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Upsize Your Leadership

UYL2107 -- The Most Misunderstood Leadership Virtue

The Unprecedented Challenge Before Management 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2106 -- Managers Have Never Faced This Challenge Before

Virtual Leadership Training: The Pros and Cons 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2105 -- The Tradeoffs of Virtual Training

All Leadership Turns on These 3 Hinges 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2104 -- The 3 Essential Leadership Skillsets

A Four-Part Template for Helping People Solve Problems 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2103 -- How to Guide Problem-Solving Conversations

Leaders Need Trust, But They Can't Earn It 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2102 -- Why Leaders Can't Earn Trust

The Challenge of Leading in a Polarized World 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2101 -- But That's Not Fair

The Inherent Flaw in Strategic Plans 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2022 -- Strategic Plans Are Not Enough

Critical Transitions on the Corporate Ladder 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2021 -- Five Reasons Management Careers Plateau

It's Not Always About Motivation 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2020 -- Motivation May Not Be the Problem: Four Culprits Behind Poor Performance

Views of the Past, Vision for the Future 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2019 -- Build New Vision by Reframing the Past

Personal Traits of Great Team Leaders 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2018 -- 10 Hallmarks of Great Team Leaders

Pessimistic Leaders Can Never Instill Hope 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2017 -- Leaders: Guardians of Optimism

To Lead Well, Know This First 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UYL2016 -- What Every Leader Should Know First

From the smallest of startups to the C-Suite of global corporations, Dr. Mike Armour has shown thousands of leaders how to step up their game. Now he brings this same wisdom and insight to his audience on Upsize Your Leadership. Every episode explores timeless principles of management, leadership, and personal success. Dr. Mike underscores these principles with engaging stories and interviews with exceptional guests. Whether you’re a C-Suite executive, a veteran manager, or even an aspiring leader, you will always find practical, actionable ideas on Upsize Your Leadership.

hubhopper

Upsize Your Leadership

hubhopper