The 90th Percentile: An Unconventional Leadership Podcast

Details In this enlightening podcast interview, Joe Folkman and Breanne Okoren explore the revolutionary concept of “Strength Builders” in leadership development. Drawing parallels between non-linear approaches and skill enhancement, this discussion challenges traditional linear methods and offers fresh insights into improving leadership skills. Download a free copy of The Extraordinary Leader eBo...

Details In today’s fast-paced, complex world, leaders need mirrors. The mirrors they need, however, go far beyond reflecting their physical appearance. Leaders need mirrors that reflect their behavior and the impact their behavior has on others. That requires much more than a piece of glass with a thin layer of metallic silver on the back. … Continued The post Episode 120: The Mirrors of Leadershi...

Details Poor leadership in good times can be hidden, but poor leadership in bad times is a recipe for disaster. We have found the number one leadership behavior that direct reports expect and need from their boss is the ability to inspire and motivate others. Sadly, it is also the leadership behavior that is ranked … Continued The post Episode 119: 10 Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders first appeared...

Details HR seems to have become every manager and employee’s favorite corporate punching bag, vying with IT for the dubious title of most-irritating function. We have seen a parade of articles recently calling for HR to be blown up, split in two, or at the very least, redesigned. Perhaps this is a good moment to evaluate what it … Continued The post Episode 118: What Separates Great HR Leaders fro...

Details Do personal relationships have the power to shape a leader’s perception of individual performance? The significance of fostering healthy workplace relationships cannot be underestimated. Extensive research has shed light on our ability to connect with diverse individuals, revealing that we are not only happier but also more productive in doing so. However, how much … Continued The post Epi...

Details Meetings are a favorite target of complaints across all levels of an organization. Why is it so hard to have meetings that enthuse every participant? The obvious response is that we often want different things. Some prefer a highly structured, disciplined process of making rapid-fire decisions on a wide range of topics; others seek … Continued The post Episode 116: The Meeting Manifesto: H...

Details Vacation time—the sacred period where you can put your feet up, escape from spreadsheets, and unleash your inner happiness. It’s crucial for our well-being, both mental and physical.  Vacations reduce stress, increase productivity, and help you avoid burnout. However, we live in a fast-paced world where busyness is glorified. People wear their never-ending to-do … Continued The post Episod...

Details There is one behavior that underlies all good leadership: treating everyone with respect. It’s the fundamental foundation of any relationship, and yet many managers struggle to express it, and right now, employees need to hear and feel they are respected. The world seems to have forgotten their niceties, and we all could show more … Continued The post Episode 114: 7 Ways to Make Employees...

Details How hard is it to be coached? You show up, listen, and then great things happen, right? Well, according to Michael Bungay Stainer, we might be looking at being coached in the wrong way. “The term “be coached” lulls you into a false sense of complacency. It assures that you will be pushed, cajoled, … Continued The post Episode 113: Entering the Coachability Learning Zone first appeared on Z...

Details Kevin Wilde, author of Coachability: The Leadership Superpower, joins us to discuss the research on coachability. During his time as CLO at Fortune 500 companies, he saw a lot of career derailment and wanted to understand WHY and HOW it could happen to even the best leaders. His book was originally going to be about … Continued The post Episode 112: Why Coachability is the Leadership Super...

Details If you have ever been lost while driving in a car, your natural reaction is to slow down. When we are uncertain about which direction to head, our natural response is to slow down, look at a map, ask questions, and proceed cautiously forward. We have measured resilience and confidence for several years and … Continued The post Episode 111: Leadership Speed—How to Accelerate Successful Exec...

Details Most of us begin a new position with energy and a desire to impress. Our effort is high. Our passion is infectious. Our enthusiasm helps us to excel quickly. But for some, work becomes mundane and repetitive. They lose some of their passion, and their work can begin to feel like a chore. Eventually, … Continued The post Episode 110: Watch Out For Your 5-Year Workiversary first appeared on...

Details Have you ever been on the phone for an hour with customer service, and once you finally get to talk to a human to resolve your issue, they only say: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you.” And it’s true; they can’t. They don’t have the power or authority to resolve the problem. It’s frustrating … Continued The post Episode 108: How Leaders Focus Externally to Improve the Customer Experience first a...

Details Occasionally, people read articles about the best approaches to giving and receiving feedback and may think, “That all sounds great, but what do the most effective leaders actually do?” To answer that question, we combined a self-assessment measuring feedback preference with 360-degree evaluations of leaders to discover the common attitudes of the best leaders … Continued The post Episode...

Details Some of the most challenging relationships we have to learn to manage in this life are the ones we have with our co-workers. Because we spend a lot of time with them, probably even more time than friends, and we don’t always get to choose who we work with. Amy Gallo is a workplace … Continued The post Episode 106: Getting Along With Difficult People at Work first appeared on ZENGER FOLKMAN...

Details Is it possible to be a high-standards, results-driven leader while at the same time building an engaged, fun-to-work-with team? Many people would contend that doing either of these things well makes it almost impossible to succeed at the other. And yet our examination of 360-degree assessment data from more than 60,000 leaders showed us … Continued The post Episode 105: Behavioral Bridges—...

Details Chances are you think you’re a great listener. People’s appraisal of their listening ability is much like their assessment of their driving skills, in that the great bulk of adults think they’re above average. What really makes a manager a great listener? Many assume that it involves three components: not interrupting the speaker, following along … Continued The post Episode 5: What Great...

Details Regardless of who you are in an organization — a great question can help you learn more about your task, unlock hidden opportunities, deliver better results, and mitigate unforeseen risks. In general, most of us don’t ask enough questions because we fail to recognize the enormous benefits in terms of interpersonal bonding and how … Continued The post Episode 104: The Lost Art of Asking Goo...

Details What skills do you really need from your workforce? What skills are most valuable What are the critical issues? If the answers were clear, every organization would likely change. There are literally thousands of variables that leave leaders baffled as they sift through the clutter of needs and options to decide what is really crucial. … Continued The post Episode 103: Skills, Skills, and M...

Details Leaders are experiencing more demands for compassion at a time when there’s not a lot of room for compromise on what they have to deliver. Do they have to choose between kindness/compassion and the expectations for performance? We wanted to understand how we maximize support and, at the same time, drive performance. In this … Continued The post Episode 102: Leading with Kindness and Accoun...

Details Most managers want their employees to be curious and experimental, to take the initiative and develop new products and solutions. But, as it turns out, managers also like to micromanage and control outcomes through safe, predictable processes. As a result, managers end up stifling the very experimentation they want to foster. In this episode, … Continued The post Episode 101: How to Push Y...

Details We’ve all heard the claims, the theories, and the speculation about the ways leadership styles vary between women and men. There are, of course, many factors that contribute to this absence of a greater abundance of women leaders in senior-level positions. For centuries, there have been broad cultural biases against women, and stereotypes die slowly. In an … Continued The post Episode 23:...

Details No one expects ever to be described as an arrogant or complacent boss. Most leaders we know have the assumption that their career will be akin to a musical crescendo. It may start quietly and slowly, but they believe that as they age, more responsibility will come. And because of their years of experience, … Continued The post Episode 100: The Unexpected Bad Habits of Leaders first appeare...

Details Habits are things you automatically do every day. It’s your morning routine, how you make your favorite drink, or the fact that you always leave every cabinet door open when you leave a room. It is the actions you perform without thinking because they are ingrained into who you are. Researchers at Duke University … Continued The post Episode 99: Ordinary Habits of Highly Effective Coaches...

Details Executives in every company we work with express concerns about their ability to attract and retain managerial talent. The solutions for most organizations are to either recruit young workers directly from school and invest in their development, pirate leadership talent from competitors, or find it internally. Of these alternatives, we strongly advocate that organizations … Continued The p...