No Bullsh!t Leadership

Episode #286 // “ While one in four people in the workforce have managerial responsibilities, very few have actually been trained. 82% of leaders are accidental. ” Many people in leadership positions were promoted because they were good at their jobs — their technical jobs. When ambitious professionals want the status, the power, and the money that come with career advancement, they have to accept...

Moment #56 // We talk a lot as leaders about how to give feedback, and it takes many years of experience to actually get good at it. What we don’t talk about nearly as much is what to do when we’re on the other side of the table!  Receiving good quality, helpful, accurate feedback is essential if you want to reach your performance potential. If this is true, then why are we so averse to recei...

Episode #285 // “ If you make decisions in isolation, you're likely to miss the implications of those decisions on the whole ecosystem, and this is often where the cracks begin to appear .” Like many of you, I’ve done quite a bit of flying over the course of my adult life. I’m not a nervous flyer at all, but I’m always interested to see what’s happening in the world of commercial aviation. This bu...

Moment #55 // Being right isn’t everything – it’s just a good start. Many leaders like to position themselves as “ the smartest person in the room ”. And there’s a lot to be said for superior intelligence. But you have to know how to use your intellect to get the best possible outcomes from your people.  To excel as a leader, you have to go way beyond your pure intellectual horsepower, and en...

Episode #284 // “ There are very few bosses who will say “no” when asked if they’d like feedback. But even though they might say “yes”, you have to read the play – do they really want to hear it ?” I spend a lot of time and energy helping leaders to build their capability in giving feedback to their people: how to engage them in difficult conversations; how to review their performance; how to know...

Moment #54 // We all think we know how to negotiate. After all, our negotiating skills are honed from birth, as we tussle with our parents to try to convince them to do what we want them to.  Despite this, I learned a number of years ago that my negotiation skills were not what I thought they were. I was humbled in a fairly straightforward mock negotiation at business school. But what I learn...

Episode #283 // “ If your people trust and respect you, there's nothing you can't say to them. ” When we talk about trust in the context of leadership, it’s normally about how to get your people to trust you! And, of course, this should be a critical focus for leaders at every level.  But today’s topic runs a little deeper: how much trust should you give to the managers who work for you? ” Re...

Moment #53 // The factors behind the increasing levels of work stress that people are experiencing are many and varied – it’s a complex issue. What is pretty clear, though, is that more and more leaders are reporting that they are burnt out.  But, if you apply a couple of relatively simple and practical remedies, you will be able to protect yourself from burnout. SImple? Yes! Practical? Defin...

Episode #282 // “ A lot of the more senior leaders reject No Bullsh!t Leadership, because the higher up they go, the more they have to lose – they have to protect their position, their image, and their identity. ” Our first episode of No Bullsh!t Leadership was produced in August 2018. This week, we achieved a major milestone - 5 million downloads of the podcast. To be perfectly honest, Em and I a...

Moment #52: Building Professional Credibility // Whatever you try to achieve as a leader relies, at least to some extent, on your credibility. If you have strong personal credibility, it makes everything you do inordinately easier.   Credibility galvanizes your team… it instills confidence in the people above you… and it ultimately becomes an integral part of your leadership brand. Without it...

Episode #281 // “ If you focus on trying to make your people happy instead of providing the opportunity for them to develop their self-esteem, you're missing the point. ” Team morale is built through proactive commitment and focus. It doesn’t just happen.  One of the great misconceptions of leadership is that, if you make people happy, they will perform better and team morale will be high. Al...

Moment #51// We’ve all sat in meeting rooms where we’ve been subjected to death by PowerPoint. For every leader, the ability to present information in a compelling, interesting way is your basic table stakes: it should be a vital element of your core leadership competencies. The good news is, it’s never been easier to put together a great presentation to get your point across. These days, there’s...

Episode #280 // “ The productivity decline isn’t just a flash in the pan: it’s a structural reset that we're all going to have to grapple with in the coming year. ” At the end of each year, I spend time analyzing a variety of sources to come up with a view on the range of possible outcomes for the year ahead—across business, politics, and society in general. Without trying to make any fearless pre...

Moment #50 // Many young leaders who have to manage older, more experienced workers find the whole process quite intimidating. Equally, older leaders who may have gotten by in their careers using a more directive leadership style, are confounded by their inability to lead millennials to do what they want them to do! If you’re a leader, you may have workers from four different generations in your t...

Episode #279 // “ Most of us are highly rational leaders, and our instinct is to make the long-term planning process a purely intellectual exercise. But when it's done really well, it's much more than this — they have to protect their position, their image, and their identity” Do you want to start the New Year off on the right foot? Forget the New Year’s resolutions… they rarely breed long-term su...

Moment #49 // There are two types of people in the world: lifters and leaners . Lifters carry the burden for themselves and others… they take on more accountability than the average person, and they don’t rely on anyone else to make things happen.   And leaners? Well they’re happy to let the lifters do the work!   Anyone who’s genuinely successful (and I’m not simply talking about people...

Episode #278 // We’ve been producing this podcast now for over five years and, as we traditionally do at this time of year, Em and I are taking a look back on the year of podcast content. We’ve picked out our favorite episodes for you to go back and listen to while you’re enjoying some downtime in the New Year. We’ve had another cracking year at Your CEO Mentor : one where our global reach continu...

Moment #48 // One of the things that characterizes a high-performing team is the ability to withstand and harness the value that lies in healthy disagreement. In this moment, I look at the example of a failed company that demanded their employees needed to be loyal, above all else.  In my book, loyalty means fearlessly telling the truth to the people above you, no matter what. But to them, it...

Episode #277 // The end of year is a time of renewal. We all instinctively take the opportunity to reflect on the year just gone, and reset our expectations for the year ahead. In this episode, Em and I do something we’ve never done before… we pull the curtain back on our business, Your CEO Mentor , and give you a window into our 2023 scorecard.  How did we do? What were the things we focused...

Moment #47 // There are literally thousands of articles and posts written every week about the attributes of great leaders. Humility , Transparency , Fallibility, Integrity . Although it’s fun and interesting to muse on these attributes, they lack any real clarity.  If you actually decided that you wanted to take action to develop one of these attributes, where would you start? What habits an...

Episode #276 // One of the biggest barriers to change, in any area of your life, is your own awareness of the size of the gap —that gap between your current state and your desired state.  And I’m no different to anyone else! I’ve struggled with this principle over the years in a number of different areas…   When I stacked on a few pounds after a running injury, I knew how much work it wo...

Moment #46 // As you transition through to more senior leadership roles, you’ll realize that you can’t continue to compensate for your people when they don’t deliver the results you want. You have to do your job, not their job. There are all sorts of repercussions to dipping down, and not working at the right level. Like, not focusing on your own job; like, diluting the accountability model; like,...

Episode #275 // One of the most common questions I field from our leadership community is, “ Marty, how much time should I give someone when they’re not performing, before I make the decision to let them go? ” Like most questions in business, the answer is, “ It depends ”. Your job, as a leader, is to work out what it depends upon , and to position yourself to make a decisive judgment call in any...

Moment #45 // With the sustained, relentless pressure of performing as a leader in today’s business world, combined with the expectation that you’ll also perform in every other area of your life, it’s incredibly easy to burn out. That’s why it’s so important to have long-term strategies that make your life sustainable: strategies that, even when you hit the peaks of pressure that ebb and flow, you...

Episode #274 // Since releasing our new self-paced short course, Landing Your Dream Job , we’ve had a stream of questions from our leadership community about whether or not the course is applicable to them. In this week's episode, Em joins me as we answer two of the most commonly asked questions, which deal with key aspects of the job search process: “ How do I network and utilize my mentors most...