No Bullsh!t Leadership

Moment #119 // There’s been an increasing trend over the last several years for high profile leaders to come out in support of social issues. Many CEOs have crossed the line, using the company’s brand as a platform to demonstrate their personal virtue, or to support a cause that they believe in. Is it appropriate for leaders to use their professional platform to grandstand on social issues, even t...

Fear of feedback...it's one of the biggest barriers that holds leaders back from reaching their potential. Even some of the smartest, most talented leaders struggle when it comes to delivering honest, direct feedback…and the fallout is huge.  Teams underperform. Culture weakens. Leaders lose confidence. The truth is, overcoming your fear of feedback isn’t about learning a new skill. It’s abou...

Moment #118 // Politics is so ingrained in human nature that it can be really hard to identify and neutralize… Political animals are everywhere. Identifying them, and proactively countering their silent attacks is a leadership challenge that gets more difficult the higher up you go.   If you want to lead at your peak, and deliver superior performance by focusing on the things that truly...

Keeping people happy…it seems to be a constant focus for leaders at all levels, and it spawns all sorts of cultural ills.   But the worst part is that, for all the time, money and energy that goes into trying to crack that nut, most leaders miss the mark… to be honest, the vast majority of leaders aren’t even aiming at the right target.   You could work tirelessly, every day for the rest...

Moment #117 // Short-term focus is one of the biggest problems in business today. And it’s also one of the most intractable. In this moment, we explain why companies that don’t balance the short-term and long-term implications of their decisions often end up destroying incalculable value…  If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can avoid making decisions that deliver today’s results a...

Leading a team in a unionised business is different. It’s hard enough to lead when you have direct line of sight to your people, but when there’s a third party running interference between you, it can be super tricky.   I had the opportunity to work for a number of industrial businesses that had a heavy union influence, and I learned an incredible amount about leadership because of the inhere...

Moment #116 // Leadership power can be dangerous, if you use it thoughtlessly.  But if you take the time to understand it, and use your power deliberately, rather than unconsciously, you will see a world of difference. If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can understand and develop your  performance, have a listen to Ep.5: Using Power Wisely ———————— 🔥 1,800+ Leaders Are Alrea...

Work-related mental health issues are on the rise - and this increase seems to be fuelled by an entitlement culture that’s holding many companies captive. Leading is becoming more and more complicated, as the separation between our work and personal lives is almost impossible to distinguish.   We hear a lot about work-related anxiety, bullying, and harassment, and many well-intentioned leader...

Moment #115 // Written communication in business is pretty poor, for the most part. People put countless hours into writing, and it may or may not surprise you to hear that most of it never gets read. If you start with the premise that most people don’t read what you write, it will liberate you to write less… and that’s better for everyone! If you want to take a deeper dive into how you can improv...

In the high stakes world of Formula 1 motor racing, the difference between the fastest cars and the slowest cars can be measured in fractions of a second.   What is it that separates the genuine contenders for world championship glory, from those that are destined to just make up the numbers on the starting grid? I came across a recent interview in Fortune Magazine with Zac Brown, the CEO of...

Moment #114 // Although we like to create neat definitions for different leadership approaches, every individual has a different style. Any style can be effective, but some leadership behaviors are not negotiable, if you’re serious about performance. Once you’re exposed to these simple principles, you’ll realize how valuable it would be to take a leaf out of the strong leaders’ success playbook. I...

I was preparing a resource for a group of CEOs who are currently in our Business Accelerator Program , and one part of the content jumped out at me— how do you improve your odds of bringing outstanding talent into your team?   You’ve probably heard me say that high-performing teams start with high-performing individuals… and that is absolutely true . It’s almost impossible to take a team of m...

Moment #113 // Many company strategies look good on face value, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re effective. There are many reasons for this, and in this Moment, I look at four of the more common ones. Once you see all the places where strategy can go wrong, you’ll understand why delivering value is sometimes so difficult. If you want to go deeper on how to improve execution by working on...

In this episode of No Bullsh!t Leadership , we’re tackling one of the biggest, most complex issues in the workplace - gender equality. Joining me for this discussion is Helen Conway , one of Australia’s foremost experts on the topic. With an impressive career spanning executive leadership, law, and corporate governance, Helen has spent decades driving change at the highest levels. She served as th...

Moment #112 // Are Your Stakeholders Your Biggest Blind Spot? Too many leaders throw around the word stakeholders without actually knowing who they are or what they expect. And that’s a dangerous game. If you don’t have a strategy to manage them, you’ll get blindsided...fast. In Ep.290: Stakeholder Mastery , we break down exactly how to identify, manage, and get your diverse stakeholders onside, s...

In this episode, I address a question from Virginie Hoareau , one of our dedicated listeners and Leadership Beyond the Theory alumna.   Virginie asked if I could discuss the different stages of a business, and whether a different type of leadership is required for each. How critical is it to match a leader’s style to a business phase? And can any leader be successful in any stage of an organi...

Moment #111 // There are many schools of thought on which competencies are most useful to help you achieve your career ambitions. So, which key areas should you focus on, in order to build the bulletproof competencies that underpin a stellar career? In this Moment, I give you a strategic map of the playing field, which you can then use to focus your professional development efforts at any point of...

Every day, you’ll find countless opportunities to get distracted, which could potentially compromise your ability to deliver on the main game. Many years ago, when I was CIO of an insurance company, I used a simple but powerful mantra: whenever someone came up with a bright idea that would potentially add a task to our work program, I brought some perspective by asking the simple question: “ Will...

Moment #110 // We talk a lot about resilience. These days, just mustering the capacity to cope with the pressures of everyday life is difficult. For leaders though, the challenge is even tougher. You not only need to manage your own physical and mental state – you also have to model self-mastery for your team.  In this moment, I give you a couple of high-value hacks to develop Grace Under Pre...

I’m often asked, “ Marty, how did you manage your career to get to where you are today? ” Like everyone else, I had to start at the bottom and work my way up. My journey isn’t particularly remarkable but, like your path, it’s absolutely unique.   In my usual No Bullsh!t style, I dedicate this episode to giving you a warts-and-all look behind the glossy headlines of my career – the stuff that...

Moment #109 // One of the most important principles of great leadership is to let go of perfectionism, and instead drive towards excellence… it’s the ultimate application of the 80/20 rule! This implies that failure will be an integral part of your career, so it’s important to work out how to accept failure, without allowing it to dent your confidence.   If you want to go deeper on how to use...

Many leaders find it difficult to keep up with the pace of change. And you may be feeling as though that the world is changing faster than it ever has…    If you pay attention to mainstream leadership theory, you’ll often hear that, if you want to have any hope of keeping up in our rapidly evolving world, you need to change the way you lead.   But, do you? The more I see, the more I...

Moment #108 // We often kid ourselves that someone is a high performer when, in reality, they’re just good at one particular aspect of their job. How do you identify your true high performers? And how do you get the most out of them, once you know who they are?   If you want to go deeper on how to lead high potential talent, have a listen to Ep.293: Leading High Performers .  ———————— Ge...

If you’re like most people, there’s probably a key area of leadership that you’ve been struggling with – or even worse, not struggling with, because you’ve decided to avoid it, and convinced yourself of all the reasons you didn’t need to do it in the first place! Success in anything relies on your ability to develop the habits and disciplines that enable you to perform at your best. And, often, th...

Moment #107 // As you rise through the ranks of your organization, you’ll see that your peers are really smart too… increasingly so, the higher up you go.  At the top of virtually every organization, being really smart is the norm – it’s no longer the differentiator that it might have been at lower levels. So how do you differentiate yourself? By delivering superior results that they can’t ig...