The Culture Nerds - A Leadership Podcast

Text us your thoughts or questions As the close of 2022 approaches, we encourage leaders to ask - Will you be a better leader in 2023 than you were in 2022? Great leaders are constantly improving through a process of reflection and planning.  In this episode, we share a simple framework – and unpack the reflection and planning process of four exceptional leaders we work with, as well as discussing...

Text us your thoughts or questions Todays episode: The Good - Simon shares a story about a recent happening that made him realise the strong link to leadership and trust and what a privelage it is when you have it.  The Bad - The Tossa from Tesla continues... we discuss recent reports that the Twitter takeover is starting to take its effect on Tesla branding The ‘What The’ -  Last week in South Ko...

Text us your thoughts or questions In this episode we discuss Elon Musk and the recent middle of the night email he has sent all Twitter staff . At 2 a.m. on Wednesday November 16th, Musk sent an email to all Twitter employees telling them to be “extremely hardcore” and work “long hours at high intensity,” the Washington Post reported. All employees have to agree to this new workflow by 5pm Thursd...

Text us your thoughts or questions Nick Reynolds is a Director of Engineering for Core Experiences @ Discord, a runner, a dog parent and a party animal (as described by him on his Discord profile!)  Having worked throughout Silicon Valley (Facebook, Air BNB) giving him the experience to know about the culture within Silicon Valley tech giants as well as what good leadership looks like.  In this ep...

Text us your thoughts or questions We're back from our podcasting hiatus - so much has happened. Simon represented Australia at the World Triathlon Championships in Montreal, and then went on to San Francisco to finally (after the past two years of no international travel) got to spend some time with his son Nick (stay tuned for an upcoming podcast with Nick as a guest!). Simon returned and K...

Text us your thoughts or questions In this episode we discuss the recent email sent out to all Tesla staff from Elon Musk where he was very blunt in expressing his expectation of people needing to return to work.  Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has told employees they can no longer work from home, warning they must return to the office or leave the company, according to an email sent to employees...

Text us your thoughts or questions Todays guest is Ken Wood, Exectuive General Manager Queensland, Southern Cross Austereo .  Ken is an extremely passionate senior leader with experience across a number of different media organisations. His insights into the organisations current leadership journey is an amazing example of creating the ideal workplace culture you want, and their commitment to the...

Text us your thoughts or questions In this episode we discuss what was reported as an on field verbal class between two AFL (Australian Football League) players for Essendon Football Club. This was later dismissed by the club coach who advised this was "healthy verbal exchange".  Topics covered in this episode:  The facts  Conversations are "Problem Solving" live Conflict does...

Text us your thoughts or questions Todays guest is Jane Thiessen, People and Culture expert from Tasmania (and yes for those who are thinking the surname is familiar...  Simon is Jane's husband!)  Jane is an extremely knowledgeable P&C leader with over nearly 30 years experience across the range of human resources functions. Her role now sees her both leading a team and sitting on the sen...

Text us your thoughts or questions In this episode we discuss the recent retirement of Australian Tennis Champion and three time Grand Slam winner Ash Barty who shocked the world when she retired in in March 2022 whilst ranked #1 in the world.  Topics covered in this episode: Separating the person from the persona The motivation of a leader "Achievement without fulfillment is the ultimate fai...

Text us your thoughts or questions In this episode we discuss recent workplace issues within the workplace that is Australian Parliament. This is not a political debate, this is discussing Parliament the workplace and the culture that exists within the organisation. Topics covered in this episode: The tragic passing of Kimberley Kitching and the subsequent allegations around the workplace culture...

Text us your thoughts or questions Todays guest is Kirstan Wilding, Leader of Corporate Social Responsibility at TasNetworks. We first met Kirstan when she delivered a keynote at a conference we attended and we knew after listening to her we wanted to have her as a guest on the podcast as soon as we could make it happen.   Kirstan is an extremely grounded and emotionally intelligent leader who sha...

Text us your thoughts or questions In this episode we discuss the recent ABC news article - "As the Covid pandemic rolls on, there's never been a better time for Australia to move to a four-day week. The ABC news article we refer to can be accessed here ****************************************************** Visit our website The Real Learning Experience Thanks to our producer, Josh at JC...

Text us your thoughts or questions This format addresses topical subjects within the media that have a strong underlying and leadership message within. We take the headlines in the stories and we discuss and extract the leadership lessons to be learned for our listeners.   So this episode topic is again around cricket, and was recorded in early Feb 2022 when Justin Langer, Australian cricket coach...

Text us your thoughts or questions Organisational values are one of the most under-utilised leadership and culture shaping tools. They can be meaningless ‘corporate speak – a ‘tick the box’ exercise. Or they can be the key tool in defining the ideal workplace culture, building accountability, and coaching team members. In this episode we are joined by Stuart Hamilton (CEO) and Shelley Williams (Op...

Text us your thoughts or questions Every organisation would like to improve their workplace culture – but defining what their ideal culture is can be challenging. In fact, most organisations are better at describing the current culture – and the one they want to move away from – than the one they want to create. Defining the ideal culture is the first step in creating it. This episode we welcome o...

Text us your thoughts or questions Will you be a better leader in 2022 than you were in 2021? Great leaders are constantly improving through a process of reflection and planning. In this episode, we share a simple framework – and unpack the reflection and planning process of four exceptional leaders we work with, as well as discussing our own plans to grow as leaders in 2022. At the end of a year,...

Text us your thoughts or questions In sporting teams, should leadership and captaincy be synonymous? Is it OK for the best player to be the captain even if they don’t demonstrate leadership qualities and behaviours? This bonus episode looks at the recent appointment of Steven Smith as vice captain  of the Australian cricket team – despite his chequered past. Look out for a controversial take on wh...

Text us your thoughts or questions Workplace culture is something we all create – and something we all have to live with. When people do things that are bad for that culture, everyone arounds them suffer. So why do we tolerate actions that hurt the workplace culture? Perhaps the metaphor we use will make the cost of inaction clear!  This episode we welcome our guest Pete Jensen, Director of Larsen...

Text us your thoughts or questions What does a great (an Authentic) workplace culture look like? In this episode we welcome our guest Rick Lenarcic, Chief Operating Officer of Grant Broadcasters to discuss the critical things that an organisation needs to focus on in order to achievable sustainable excellence. Spoiler: the bottom line is critical but, on it’s own, not enough.   Recap from previous...

Text us your thoughts or questions Every effective leader is striving to create the best workplace culture they can – because that is the key to exceptional and sustainable results. Authenticity is all about defining you’re your ideal workplace culture looks like and then aligning the things that an organisation, and its people, do, say, think and decide with that ideal. We very rarely have the op...

Text us your thoughts or questions ****************************************************** Visit our website The Real Learning Experience Thanks to our producer, Josh at JCALdigital.org