Drama Free Living with Dennis and Lisa McIntee

Following their three-part retention series, Dennis and Lisa are digging into the workplace culture that forms the foundation for all retention efforts. This week’s episode focuses on the importance of building inclusive leadership, emphasizing how leaders must shift their practices to meet the varying needs of their team members and the unique motivators driving them. The Leadership Development G...

Dennis and Lisa return with part three of the three-part retention series focusing on how to lower turnover, save money, and build a stronger organization. Today’s episode explores the four top causes of employee turnover and how to solve them. When you understand the challenges your organization faces on the turnover front, you can begin solving them and enhance retention as a result. Telling the...

Dennis and Lisa return with part two of the three-part retention series focusing on how to lower turnover, save money, and build a stronger organization. In today’s episode, they focus on the root of retention problems–which in actuality are culture problems. Retention is merely a symptom of a bigger, cultural issue. Dennis and Lisa offer concrete strategies to build a better culture, defined as t...

The topic of employee retention in a tight labor market has perhaps never been more important than it is in the summer of 2022. Dennis and Lisa McIntee return to the Drama Free Living podcast with a new series on retention, brought to life by real conversations with real clients around the country. This week’s episode focuses on the importance of retention according to the unique needs of your emp...

If you haven’t listened to part one of this two-part series, go back to Episode 61 to lay the groundwork for today’s episode. Dennis and Lisa are exploring the perspective shift of thinking about what you will actually care about in 40 years–but more importantly, how can you start thinking that way now instead of waiting? Their conversation explores an original article written by author and coach...

It has often been said that on your deathbed, you will care little about how much money you made or the accolades you received throughout your life. You will care about the people you love the most. In a two-part series that begins with this episode, Dennis and Lisa explore the perspective shift of thinking about what you will actually care about in 40 years–but more importantly, how can you start...

After last week’s episode offering strategies to help you overcome hurry sickness (uncontrollable time urgency that can affect your health), Dennis and Lisa present strategies for what to do when you feel like you have no power. Essentially, hurry sickness is harder to overcome when the things causing you anxiety do not feel like something you can control. The good news? You are never truly powerl...

Dennis and Lisa return with a powerful discussion of a condition coined by cardiologist Dr. Meyer Friedman, “hurry sickness.” This nonmedical terminology refers to a harrying sense of time urgency but it can lead to real medical issues, including a correlation with heart conditions. Thankfully, there is hope for recovery. This week’s episode provides five key strategies to help you beat hurry sick...

After last week’s episode diving deeper into the fatal flaw of needing to be liked, Dennis and Lisa are going a little further into a topic they touched on briefly: being completely obsessed with what others think about you. They refer to this concept as “renting space out in your head” because it literally can take control of your thoughts and your motivations. It all can be solved by being your...

Sometimes Facebook can lead to some interesting discoveries, like this quote that was circulating recently: “If you or I die tonight, there might be ten people who will care deeply for 10-15 days. Focus on those people.” This week’s episode is all about investing in the people who value you or your wisdom and leaving a real, permanent mark on this world. Dennis and Lisa’s conversation includes pra...

Dennis and Lisa return to their top list of mistakes leaders make with a deep dive into the fatal flaw of having a high need to be liked by others. As leaders, the drive for affirmation makes it extremely difficult to make decisions that are best for an organization when burdened by how your team will perceive them. The key to overcoming this need is honing in on your self-confidence and discoveri...

When it comes to leading a team that is productive and self-directed, drama is your biggest enemy. In today’s episode, Dennis and Lisa return to a key mistake leaders make: treating all of your team members the same way. This is a sure way to invite drama because everyone on your team has a different driver and a different fear–the most successful leaders know what they are and lead their team mem...

Dennis and Lisa are pulling from the archives again for some of the top mistakes leaders make–which originally began as a list of 76. In today’s episode, they cover the topic of playing the ostrich where leaders bury their heads in the sand avoiding problems or hoping they will go away if they ignore them. We all know this is not the way things play out, but Dennis and Lisa will take you through t...

When Dennis and Lisa first explored the topic of common mistakes leaders tend to make years ago, they came up with a list of 76. Now, they are diving into some of the most important from that original list to help leaders avoid pitfalls keeping them from the drama-free teams they could be leading. This week’s episode focuses on the fine line between rescuing and helping team members–leaders are in...

This week, we are all in on the power of obstacles to help us grow. What happens around us doesn’t matter as much as what happens within us. Dennis and Lisa are here with a suite of tools to help you navigate your personal power to be choice abundant when things do not seem to go your way. By the end of the episode, you will have real tactics in place to help you grow your capability as you walk t...

Whether Dennis and Lisa are conducting a keynote for thousands of people, a workshop for a small team, or coaching a client one-on-one, the issues of trust and communication inevitably come up. These two elements are cornerstones of healthy relationships because they enable hard conversations to take place and therefore increase the ability for growth. In this week's episode, Dennis and Lisa walk...

It is not a new subject for the Leadership Development Group to discuss the power of the stories we tell ourselves when potentially challenging circumstances come our way. But this time, Dennis and Lisa are taking the approach of exploring the role storytelling plays in helping form stronger leaders. Today’s episode dives deeper into the tactics leaders can take to build a culture they desire base...

Productivity tends to have a negative connotation because we associate it with pressure and the never-ending rat race of achieving more and more with greater speed. However, we are human beings, not human “doings.” At Leadership Development Group, we look at productivity completely differently–accomplishing more but in less time and without stress or pressure. It may sound too good to be true, but...

Dennis and Lisa are tackling the big hairy animal of frustration in this week’s episode, with three key ways to deal with it at work. Did you know all problems are process problems versus people problems? If you are feeling frustrated, you have likely lost your peace and joy, and may be taking it out on your people when they are not the problem at all. Self reflecting to source the fear at the roo...

After last week’s episode tackling everything you need to do to start delegating effectively, Nancy Benavides returns to cover the four levels of delegation. If you didn’t listen to Episode 46: The Art of Delegation , it is an excellent companion episode. In today’s conversation, Nancy walks us through the four levels of delegation according to employee tenure, your comfort as a leader, and the go...

Leadership Development Group’s newest executive coach and COO Nancy Benavides joins Dennis and Lisa on the Drama Free Living podcast to share her mastery of the art of delegation. Delegation is vital to achieving your goals and leading your team. However, it takes intentionality, investment in your team, and accountability to delegate effectively. Your ability to delegate directly reflects your ab...

Between Omicron and weather-related physical closures, working from home is back again in the forefront for many. If anything in these past two years, we have all learned the need to adjust to the unexpected. Our best advice is this: you cannot change the cards you have been dealt, but you can change how you choose to play them. In today’s episode, Dennis and Lisa discuss key focus areas when it c...

Winter is a notoriously stressful time of year. On the heels of what is arguably the longest month of the year (January), Dennis and Lisa McIntee join us for four key strategies to take control of the stressors in your life. The kicker? Viewing stress as a good thing that builds your emotional muscles completely subverts its ability to have a negative impact on your life. And that is just tip one....

Fresh from a family vacation in Montana, Dennis and Lisa McIntee are thinking about the power of relationships. Today’s episode focuses on what they call an “Upgrade Mindset” when it comes to the relationships that fill our lives. Transformational leaders always want to upgrade the people around them by focusing more on who they are becoming versus what they are doing. Ultimately, there are four k...

Dennis and Lisa return with a discussion on the four zones of performance that we float between at any given point in time in our lives. From crisis mode to struggling, surviving to thriving, they offer explanations of each and ways to help you identify which stage you might be in right now. The first step of moving beyond one of the more uncomfortable stages is having self-awareness for where you...