Principle Driven Leadership

Leadership is a journey, and one that often requires learning new things and things that you already know. In this episode, host Seth Dobbs wraps up the season by sharing a personal story about recovering from an injury, using it to illustrate six key leadership principles. First, Seth discusses the importance of facing reality or dealing with potentially worse consequences Second, the importance...

The healthiest organizations are learning organizations - ones that engage in continuous improvement both as individuals and as a team. This allows the organization to thrive in good times and to adapt and work effectively during challenging times. In this episode, Seth brings together concepts from the entire season to talk about: 1. What a learning organization is and why it’s valuable 2. How Pr...

Seth shares the story of Soren, a former director of corporate operations at a sports equipment retailer. Soren took a new job as VP of Operations at a small startup serving athletes with direct-to-consumer products and online services to help them grow. He provides his team with a playbook full of best practices that he learned over the years and emphasized the importance of adhering to them. Unf...

Seth introduces the story of Hollis, a digital manager at an advertising agency. After a series of successful projects, Hollis was asked to take on the lead for a large new client running a back-to-school campaign. He had a strong team, and while there were some challenges along the way, the team was able to overcome them. However, at all-company meetings, Hollis took credit for the good work and...

Seth relays the story of Reyna, a software engineer who took a new job to work with Teagan because of how great Teagan’s organizational culture sounded. Over time, particularly when the project Reyna was working on started having problems, she learned that the culture was different than Teagan had described. There was a lot of fingerpointing and blaming when things went bad. She considered leaving...

Seth tells the story of Margot, a newly promoted marketing manager at a consumer packaged food manufacturer. Margot was asked to lead the marketing effort in launching a new product in a new category. Margot assembled a strong team and started leading them like they were followers, meaning she told them what to do every step of the way. This eventually led to the departure of a key team member and...

A big challenge for any leader is sorting out the signal from all the noise of problems and potential problems in the organization. Effective leadership in large part stems from being able to prioritize and de-prioritize issues as they arise, so Seth offers a simple “return on effort” framework to help you analyze your situation. By evaluating the size of the impact and level of effort, you can ca...

Seth describes the experiences of Tobias, an engagement lead for a temp agency who had a long running reliable client. Tobias had built a strong relationship with Erica, the hiring manager of a key client, that enabled him to rapidly place people on her team with minimal friction. Things changed after a merger at Erica’s company, but Tobias didn’t adapt. Instead he complained about what was happen...

Seth recounts the story of Marquita, an engineer and avid cyclist who came up with a new design for a more efficient bicycle. Marquita pulled together a team of advisors to help her launch her product and business but was quickly bogged down with additional ideas, being told that she couldn’t launch a business without a full product line. Unfortunately, pursuing the additional suggestions led to h...

Seth relates the experiences of Joaquin, a newly hired director of facilities at the North American headquarters of a global insurance company. Joaquin quickly settled in and soon started identifying problems in how some of the facility operations were run. He felt that he had seen these problems before and jumped right into solving them. Unfortunately, he did not have a complete understanding and...

Seth tells the story of Carla who was promoted to manager at a marketing services firm and whose first task was to take on a project with a new client. Carla’s diligence led her to ensure no problem remained unsolved, to the point that she and her team spent too much time focused on smaller inconsequential items, taking time and focus away from larger problems that needed to be addressed. Seth pre...

Quite often the success of a vision is far more than just having a good idea. If you are unable to communicate consistently and clearly, even the best ideas can fail. Seth explores three key concepts to help improve how your communicate your vision: What communication is and isn’t How to structure communicating your vision Repeat, repeat, repeat He closes by reminding us that a vision cannot just...

Seth shares the story of Kailani, a leader in the hospitality industry who lands a post as the executive director overseeing hospitality and operations of a boutique hotel. Kailani had been carrying thoughts and plans on how she would execute such a role for a long time and eagerly starts applying them, to the point of ignoring the expertise of the team she inherited. She tries to make all the dec...

Seth shares the story of Alexei, a manager at a mid-sized technology company who was given the responsibility to develop and launch a new software feature that was critical to the company’s future. Over time it becomes apparent that Alexei was working in a kind of information bubble - neither ensuring that others clearly understood him, nor taking the time to understand others. Because of this, he...

Seth shares a story about Lucinda, a leader in the research department of a financial services firm who is given the opportunity to develop a new financial product for first time investors. Lucinda eagerly dives into the role but quickly falls into the busyness trap - confusing a flurry of activity with actual progress. This results in threatening the success of the project as well as her own care...

Seth shares a fictional scenario to emphasize the importance of crafting a vision by understanding what your vision does. The scenario is that you have just taken on the CEO position at a struggling toy company and looks at attempts to rally the organization by sharing “inspiring” visions that don’t have enough clarity to actually drive forward motion. Seth follows this with an example vision that...

Welcome to Season 3 of the Principle Driven Leadership Podcast, where Seth Dobbs shares principles of leadership along with actionable examples to help you become the best leader you can be. In this season, Seth explores dives deeper into the the three core principles of Principle Driven Leadership: Leaders Provide Vision, Leaders Resolve Problems, and Leaders Create More Leaders. Throughout this...

Leadership is a journey, and one that often requires facing change. In this episode, host Seth Dobbs wraps up the season by sharing a personal story from a challenging training hike, using it to illustrate five key leadership lessons. First, Seth discusses the inevitability of change, comparing it to how trail conditions can shift unexpectedly, requiring leaders to recognize and adapt to new reali...

In this episode, host Seth Dobbs is joined by Laura Batruch, the show's producer and content contributor, for a special Q&A session. Throughout the season, listeners have been encouraged to submit their questions and feedback, and now Seth and Laura dive into the most pressing topics. They discuss the importance of maintaining vision, navigating difficult conversations, and the challenges of a...

In this episode, Seth invites listeners to reflect on whether they think about the future, and if so, how they think about the future, particularly in the face of change, uncertainty, and the unknown. Seth emphasizes that leadership requires adaptability and challenges leaders to not just stick to their plans but to be flexible and prepared for unforeseen disruptions - because they will occur! Set...

Organizational alignment and cohesion, especially in the face of adversity, is critical to creating durable results. Drawing from his extensive experience, Seth explores how diverse teams can stay focused and united when challenges arise. Through captivating analogies from the animal kingdom, he contrasts the counterproductive behavior of crabs in a bucket with the highly coordinated and resilient...

In this episode, Seth delves into the true essence of being a team player by challenging the conventional notion that being a team player means going along with the majority and not causing disruptions. He shares a compelling story about a leader, Samira, who hesitated to voice her concerns during a project discussion, believing that staying silent was the hallmark of a good team player. This deci...

The managerial motto, “bring me solutions, not problems,” is popular but has potential pitfalls. In this episode, Seth delves into the story of Jameson, a manager known for his adherence to the “solutions, not problems” rule. When his team faced customer complaints, their initial solutions provided temporary relief but failed to address the root causes. A junior developer, Emily, uncovered deeper...

Team preparedness in the face of change is a critical topic. In this episode, Seth delves into this concept, emphasizing the importance of creating leaders, not followers. Seth shares a compelling story about Kamaria, a VP at a logistics firm and her experiences with a rigid leader whose style stifled adaptability and ultimately led to the business unit's failure. He highlights the core principle...

The core of this episode revolves around understanding the pitfalls of taking on too much at once. Seth recounts the story of Sienna, an ambitious leader at a large tech firm, who aimed to revolutionize the VR industry with an all-encompassing platform. Despite the team's dedication, their grand vision became their downfall as they struggled with scope creep, increased complexity, and burnout. Set...