Positive Leadership with Dr. Dave Martin

Conflict is a natural element of organizational life.  How we deal with it defines us as leaders.  As an aspiring leader, you must learn how to recognize and deal with conflict as soon as it emerges.  Some leadership experts will argue that conflict is good for an organization.  Dr. Dave says, hold on - not all conflict is healthy.  Dave talks about the difference between...

In this episode, Dr. Dave grapples with that age-old question; can leadership be taught?  Listen for Dave's unique perspective on this question that leaders have discussed and debated over the years.

This is a short but critical podcast about trust that I recorded for another channel.  It is probably the most important issue in the entire domain of leadership and management.

In this episode of Positive Leadership, Dr. Dave calls out  managers who are overly reliant on managing processes to accomplish tasks in their organizations.  Dave talks about some very robust and well-known studies conducted by Dr. Jim Collins in over 100 companies in many different US industries that show leadership factors play the most significant role in the success of the best comp...

If you want to achieve greatness in live, especially as a leader, you have to dig deep and find internal motivation to drive yourself to do great things.  Dr. Dave talks about how to 'Find your Mojo.'

In this episode, Dr. Dave talks about how critical it is for a leader to learn how to delegate effectively.  Once you step into a leadership role, you are no longer responsible for directly performing tasks - they have now been turned over to your subordinates.  If you can't learn to trust your team and delegate your tasks to them, you'll find your leadership or management career will qu...

Dr. Dave talks about the importance of leading non-profit organizations and the unique challenges they provide that a leader won't find in professional organizational life.  It's a vital podcast for any leader who wants to navigate a leadership role in any non-profit or NGO.  I want to thank some medical interns at the University of Houston who are in non-profit leadership roles for insp...

In this episode, Dr. Dave talks about the importance of being transparent in all of your corporate or organizational communications.  Your people are smarter than you think, and they will find ways to find out about issues within the organization - either directly from the leadership, or through the rumor mill, which is usually far worse.  If you have to share bad news, try and do it in...

In this episode, Dr. Dave shares his earliest leadership experience where he learned how important it was to have respect from your team when you assume a leadership role.  Once you become a leader, you need to be prepared to 'walk a lonely road' sometimes.  Leadership requires your team to respect your leadership role; they may not like some of your hard decisions, but if they respect y...

In this episode, Dr. Dave talks about how critical mentoring is for good leadership and how mentoring differs from coaching, as coaches are teachers, but mentors lead their proteges down the path of self-discovery.  Being a good mentor is an important part of being a positive leader.

In this episode, Dr. Dave discusses the importance of dealing with toxic people and offers some unorthodox but necessary ways that you can eliminate their effects on you and your organization.  You HAVE to deal with them - for your well being, and the well being of your teams and your organization.  Your success as a leader may well depend on it.

The leaders you hire will ultimately determine the success or failure of your organization.  Look for leaders who have passion and confidence, but also display some genuine humility.

If you are really going to have a long-term successful career in leadership, you must learn how to set boundaries in life.  In this episode, Dr. Martin discusses work-life boundaries,

In this second episode, Dr. Martin explains that a vision that is not communicated to everyone in the organization and excites the people within the organization is really no vision at all.  Dave goes on to use the competing visions of Lean Sixma Six and Sequestration in the US military to point out problems with poorly communicated vision and provides some practical advice on how to turn you...

Welcome!  I'd like to use this first episode to introduce myself to both aspiring and experienced people in leadership positions around the world.  Having served in many leadership positions in the military and the private sector over the past 30+ years, I wanted to share some of my observations about leadership from 'down in the trenches.'  We will discuss everything from developin...