The Authentic Leader Show

Delegation not only gets work done, but it's also a strategy to be implemented for leading your team. * Without a delegation strategy, you will drift in your delegation methodology and in your leadership. * Without a delegation strategy, you will delegate to everyone the same way or you won't know how to delegate differently based on skill, experience, and motivation. * Without a delegation strate...

A repeated behavior by technology leaders when delegating work is because they see so many other leaders with this same behavior, feel they don't have time for this step and have never made time to fix it or they don't know how to fix it. As a result, technology leaders continue to struggle to consistently delegate work. Less work will get done, as required, and on time. The influence of their tea...

Success-oriented professionals are typically pretty good about annual planning. It feels good to be organized. It can also feel great to think and plan for success. It also creates momentum and energy. But, in January and February, your personal success plan begins to fail for a few key reasons. You miss some key and necessary components to carry your momentum through. You figure out your process...

When dealing with a sudden leadership vacancy, many senior leaders will pretend everything is okay "business as usual" or end up having informal conversations with some team members who want to discuss the situation or seclude themselves to avoid having to discuss the leadership issue with the team.   These same senior leaders are frustrated about restarting from the beginning to establish a new l...

Senior leaders who promote their star performers but end up watching them struggle with leading their technology team are typically doing one of these three things. * They are confused why a star performer is now a low performer as the new leader of their technology team. * They have decided to let their new leader "sink or swim", expecting that they will swim BUT they are drowning. * They are wat...

What do new leaders in technology need now? How can you prepare your star performer for a leadership role? Senior leaders who are struggling with leading teams of technology managers and leaders typically want to reward their star performers with increased leadership responsibilities and promote them to a team-leading role. The problem with filling the role quickly is that you are making a reactiv...

Are you uncomfortable with making changes? Do you feel like you can't fit anything more into your day? Without thinking much about it, do you go through your days getting things done, but 6 months later feel like you are where you were 6 months ago? If you are going through your day "without thinking much about it", then you probably feel like you don't have much room for anything else. The proble...

Do you spend a lot of energy making goals fit into a goal-making formula? Are you writing goals to impress your boss, your team, or someone else? People who get burnt out on goals find the S.M.A.R.T. format is hard to meet the requirements of a "good" goal. Or, once carefully crafting the goals, it's time to jump back to the daily urgencies that take priority. Goals end up being put away to look a...

Have you ever wondered why others seem to have so much success with relative ease? Maybe "the career you are in" simply requires you to wait until the next opportunity presents itself. Are you bored because you don't have much to look forward to today? If you don't recognize the mistakes I share in today's podcast, you will eventually look back and wonder why you didn't recognize them earlier or i...

Do you find yourself learning of one leadership idea, system, or philosophy and jump right to that new one forgetting the last one you jumped to? If you are like I was, you also may be a frustrated leader jumping from one leadership idea, system, philosophy to the next without feeling improvement. The problem with doing that you never give yourself a chance to create momentum and restart from grou...

You are wasting money on training if you are choosing training based on the title of the training. The problem is that you and your team start to see training as a waste of time and you not only spend your valuable budget but more importantly spend valuable time only to make little or no progress.

Frustrated leaders have begun to accept that all teams will always have a bell curve of performers (from poor performers to high performers). The problem is that their effectiveness as a leader erodes over time because the team and others see the leader as avoiding the problem or worse, accepting poor performance.

What does it mean to be an Authentic Leader? How might you already be an Authentic Leader? Today I explain why I call you an Authentic Leader. Frustrated leaders who are constantly defending their team's work to their boss, their clients, or other stakeholders begin to sound like they are making excuses for their team and their reputation as the leader of the team continues to erode. The problem o...

- Leadership and management - Personal productivity - Personal effectiveness - Dealing with conflict - Managing the financials in your business - Removing obstacles and limiting beliefs - Establishing routines and habits

- I explain the bell-curve of teams and why you don't have to accept it. - I define the 4 types of performers on your team. - I also explain not only one of the most important functions as the leader of your team, but also how to apply the tool to use that function.

- I explain why I often get called in by leaders before they fire a low performer. - I share the 6 factors that I ask leaders about to confirm they have done all that they can do.

- I explain each of the four steps I found to be a surefire approach to delegation to your technical teams. - The magic question I ask anyone I am delegating work to that automatically increases accountability to get assignments done on time. - What to do once delegated work is complete.

Here are some of the highlights from this episode. * What leaders must establish before giving feedback to anyone else. * What your supervisor, team, peers, vendors, and clients/customers require of you as a leader. * A very simple 5 step process to seek feedback.

- Why the medium you choose to communicate is part of your communication. - I share the 7 levels of listening. What level are you listening right now? - I even share what's called Digital Body Language.

- How being the Chief Decision Maker caused me to be the major bottleneck in my team's ability to succeed. - What to do when you don't have the luxury of making team decisions. - How decision-making and delegation work together. - Starting today, who on your team can you trust to make decisions. - Where are sources that you can confidently defend any decision.

* I share the first and foundational discipline of authentic leaders and why this must be your foundation for leading your technical teams. *  What is the most powerful phrase a leader can say to their team? Well, I tell you that phrase in the fifth discipline.

Here are some of the highlights from this episode. - Knowing the difference between what you are concerned with vs. where you have influence and what increases your influence. -  How you can identify what might be time-wasting activities. - I explain what happens after you let go of an arrow and how it relates to what you can control.

* Chala shares the "magic formula" so that a prospective client never says "No, Thank You". * She also explains what it means to super niche, which is what every brand (including you) needs to do and how that leads to all content that you share. * I've struggled with being clear about my messaging in my business. Chala demonstrates how she helps her clients create clarity with their super niche. A...

* We talk about her time helping TEDx speakers prepare for their big presentation and what one thing she says any speaker should want their audience to say. * Jennifer disagrees with me about what I think about intuition. * She also shares details of the 4 phases of design cycle thinking to solve big problems. * Jennifer also shares tips for creating memories while in the middle of a pandemic.

* We start by talking about the immense headwinds and tailwinds of business in 2020, how leading now needs to be different. * How leaders can create confidence in what Daniel calls "Thinking Well". * How decision-making and influence alone isn't enough for today's leaders and how to go from leading from defense to offense. * Why intentional curiosity can be used to grow a leader's confidence in le...