Leadership Biz Cafe with Tanveer Naseer

One of the biggest challenges – and at times, headaches – you’ll have as a leader is having to deal with an employee who’s under-performing. Of course, it’s not just leaders – we’ve all had experience working on teams where there was one person who wasn’t doing their part to help carry the team’s load. As employees, it’s easy for us to be annoyed and frustrated with these colleagues of ours. But a...

This is one of the interviews for my "Leadership Biz Cafe" podcast that I couldn't wait to share - my interview with Stanford professor and all-around great guy, Bob Sutton . Bob is an organizational psychologist, Stanford professor, and best-selling author of “ The No Asshole Rule ”, “ Good Boss, Bad Boss ”, and “ Scaling Up Excellence ”. My conversation with Bob revolved around his latest book,...

The arrival of Spring often brings to mind the idea of renewal and new beginnings. And it’s not surprising when we see trees waking from their winter slumber to transform their spindly branches into luscious clouds of green foliage.   Or when we see spring flowers like tulips emerge from the ground, erupting into this dazzling display of bright yellows, reds, oranges, and whites.   But t...

There’s no question that being an effective communicator is critical to succeeding at leadership. But as my guest in this episode of my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast points out, a leader’s ability to express the right kind of appreciation to their employees is key to driving employee growth and success.   Dr. Paul White is a psychologist, author, and speaker who “makes work relationships work...

One of the common themes around leadership that I’m asked to speak on for a keynote or a corporate training workshop around is how can leaders create conditions that inspire employees to show up and deliver their best. As a point out in these talks, a key ingredient to making such conditions is defining a vision that helps to inspire purpose in your employees and with it, drive success over the lo...

“The real job of leadership is the chance to sincerely, passionately, excellently elevate human lives. And the best businesses are very mission-driven and purpose-centered.” This is just one of many brilliant and thoughtful insights Robin Sharma shares in this latest episode of my “ Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast . I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this episode with you. When I started this...

I’ve spoken with many highly successful people over the course of career and there’s one interesting characteristic I’ve noticed they all share in common. Each of them exudes this quiet confidence about themselves and their abilities. And to repeat, not just confidence, but quiet confidence, meaning they don’t try to be the smartest person in the room or the one who gets all the attention. And yet...

Over the past several months, there’s been a lot of attention paid to an organization’s workplace culture, particularly in terms of the on-going debate over the future of work. But at a time where it feels we’re going from one crisis to another, it is important for leaders to consider what kind of workplace culture their promoting in their organization, and whether it will help their employees to...

When it comes to success, much of the focus tends to be on how do we go about being successful. We read books and watch documentaries about the lives of successful people in the hopes that we might better understand what allowed them to succeed in the hopes that we might achieve a similar result from our efforts. But a recent conversation with my daughter revealed something we don’t tend to think...

When it comes to diversity in today’s workplaces, understandably much of the focus is on systemic challenges members of various marginalized groups have to deal with. But as my guest in this episode of my Leadership Biz Cafe podcast points out, that doesn’t mean there aren’t measures Black professionals can take at the individual level so they can succeed and thrive in today’s corporate environmen...

How many of us would be happy knowing the high point of our career was that we were good at just getting through the day? Unfortunately, that’s the reality leaders need to recognize as the focus of today’s leadership becomes less and less about achieving long-term goals and more about just putting out fires and ‘getting things done’. While this certainly makes us look good from a day-to-day perspe...

What do Uber, Apple, Netflix, and AirBnB share in common in terms of the successes they’ve achieved? According to my guest in this episode of my Leadership Biz Cafe podcast , what these and other successful companies share in common is that they’re all experience disruptors. And he has a framework based on studies in consumer behaviour, behavioural psychology, and marketing analytics that can help...

The last few weeks of the year are an ideal time for self-reflection and review as on the one hand, there’s an understandable eagerness to plan and map out goals for the upcoming year. But at the same time, it’s a perfect moment to take note of both the successes earned and lessons gained over the past 12 months. It’s in the vein of the latter that I wanted to look back at the numerous conversatio...

If I were to ask your employees if your organization is ready to navigate the next global crisis, what would they say? As much as we’d like to think we’re prepared for whatever crisis comes our way, the pandemic and subsequent global supply chain crises clearly proved many organizations are vastly under-prepared to handle any kind of global crisis, let alone internal ones that risk upending our we...

Have you ever had the experience dealing with after-sales support where you not only get the runaround, but you spend days just trying to get someone on the phone to acknowledge your problem? That’s the situation my wife and I had to content with when we contacted a major retailer about an issue with our newly purchased recliner sofa. While on the surface, this would seem like a problem with custo...

With the explosive growth of AI and other emergent technologies, it’s not surprising to see many organizations focusing on digital business transformation. Unfortunately, many leaders are making a critical mistake in their strategy, something I discuss and explore with my guest Kamales Lardi in this episode of my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast. Kamales is an award-winning digital transformation exp...

Does your organization encourage a sense of curiosity? According to a survey in the Harvard Business Review, 83% of leaders say they do, but barely half of their employees would agree. Far from being something that's 'nice to have', encouraging a sense of curiosity in your workplace is going to become increasingly critical, not only to ensure better agility and adaptability in an ever uncertain wo...

“One of the biggest stumbling blocks for organizations is an unwillingness to be brutally honest about the challenges they face.”There’s no question leadership is becoming a more challenging role than it was 5-10 years ago. The rapid pace of change, the on-going uncertainties, even the very nature of the way we work have made being a leader a more strenuous and stressful job. But another factor th...

Few issues have captured the attention and focus of leaders over the past few years as the ongoing debate over whether to allow employees to work remotely or demand they return to office (RTO).And because it’s a contentious issue, there’s invariably numerous articles and studies out there which are meant to clarify things, but which honestly probably make the situation more ambiguous than it needs...

We’ve all seen the studies that have shown how a diverse workforce leads to better productivity, increased profits and market share, and greater creativity and innovation. But with so many positive outcomes related to diverse workforces, why are so many organizations failing to attract and retain a diversified workforce – including in the senior leadership ranks? What are we getting wrong and what...

It seems like every day there’s another news report about a company’s decision to have their employees return to the office. Of course, if you’ve been following the leadership space for some time, this isn’t too surprising. After all, it was only a few years ago that organizations were limiting smartphone use in in the workplace to company-approved devices, only for their leaders to turn around an...

If there’s one challenge leaders everywhere share in common right now it’s how to ignite employee commitment. From the Great Resignation to quiet quitting, organizations have been grappling with how to motivate and retain employees who are critical to their long-term success and growth. Fortunately, my guest in this episode of my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast has discovered that there are three im...

This might come as a surprise, but one of my favourite things about delivering a leadership keynote is the Q&A session I have afterwards. I love this part not only because it allows me to hear what key insights or ideas have taken hold with my audience, but also because sometimes the questions I get asked spur on new ideas I want to expand on and explore. For example, my TED talk “Forget Passion -...

To offer remote work opportunities or not to offer remote work opportunities? If you look at the articles found in various business outlets these days, it would seem organizations are facing an existential crisis when it comes to how today’s workplaces should operate. At the heart of this debate is an on-going tug-of-war where leaders on the one hand worry about a loss in productivity and organiza...

During periods of economic uncertainty, a common response from leaders is streamlining their operations and focusing on what they deem as being essential to their organization’s ability to ride out the storm. Unfortunately, one thing that often is considered in these moments to be a luxury is taking time off work to go on a vacation. At a time where we’re seeing rising levels of employee stress an...