The Leader Learner Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: In your opinion, when is innovation overused? Big Ideas: Binary questions - Are they useful or not?  Are creating and innovating the same? Moving from being salaried to hourly and the implications/impact it had Feeling of liberation being hourly rather than salaried Sense of equity - treating all of us the same Mental load and how it's often not counted in salaries...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: Would you tell people if you won the lottery, would you tell people or keep it a secret?  Big Ideas: Exercise: Draw a meeting on a paper. Color code.  RED- people talking too much. GREEN - people talking too little. ORANGE - people speaking in a toxic way What do you notice?  Share of voice When is interrupting others okay?  Cultural differences between share of...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: What cause would you be willing to give up your life for? Big Ideas: gratitude can help us out of dark places attitude of gratitude is not the same as a practice of gratitude gratitude practice as a daily ritual gratitude as a feeling, not necessarily saying "Thank you." feeling proud rather than just lucky Who are you grateful for who supported something you a...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change? Big Ideas: Should organizations provide resources for employee mental health? Mental health is still a taboo topic for many, especially in organizations Not educated about topics of mental health Shame associated with an EAP program Culture of "suck it up," "be strong," and "pull...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: Which superpower would you like to have?  Big Ideas: Definitions of authentic leadership Authentic leaders deeply understand their values, strength and purpose and use that to motivate and inspire others The ability of people to tell their own stories and help people connect to that story 4 Dimensions of Authentic Leadership: Self-Awareness, Relational Transparency, Bala...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: Do you like to be used or second hand items? Big Ideas: Is leadership working? Does leadership training work? Training cannot be done outside of the context Consuming, Connecting, Creating Stopping our ways of being are habitual is more challenging than we thought We are emotional beings Embodiment of the ideas takes longer than a training Being intentional about practic...

Send us Fan Mail SPECIAL NOTE: This podcast was originally recorded as part of the "Talent Unleashed" podcast, which never launched because Theresa was too optimistic about her time capabilities. We decided to honor the guests and publish it under this brand instead. Enjoy :) BIG IDEAS: The F*ck Up List - an explicit place for sharing our mistakes and making it transparent and acceptable...

Send us Fan Mail SPECIAL NOTE: This podcast was originally recorded as part of the "Talent Unleashed" podcast, which never launched because Theresa was too optimistic about her time capabilities. We decided to honor the guest(s) and publish it under this brand instead. Enjoy :) Big Ideas: What does it mean to unleash talent?  When learning spreads out across multiple areas of your life M...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: What's better, love or money? Which has more power, love or money? What's more powerful, love or money?  Big Ideas: Money as a substitution for time Infatuation can be a very powerful motivator.  Differentiation between moments of happiness and love Putting love into leadership  People going back to work just to see the people Power and the complexity of human...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question If you were invisible, what's the first thing you would do? What good can you do while being invisible? Big Ideas: 4 quadrant matrix - Caring Personally, Challenging Directly High Care, High Challenge - Radical Candor High Care, Low Challenge - Ruinous Empathy Low Care, High Challenge - Obnoxious Aggression Low Care, Low Challenge - Manipulative Insincerity...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: What do you think the purpose of life is? Big Ideas: Failing reference models Shift from the meaning of crisis to the crisis of meaning What's the meaning of work? Reference models on how to live together (the Greek pantheon, organized religion, science, governments) Does work give us meaning? When we get the message that meaning at work is overrated Effort in makin...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: If you had the whole world's attention for 30 seconds, what would you say or do? Big Ideas: Hypocrisy and leadership Immorality in leadership Do leaders have to be good people? We think of leadership as for the good of the people What tactics are immoral leaders using to get people to follow them? Leadership as a pipeline - a relationship between people How you posi...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In:  Share an experience when you felt great as part of a long-distance team, or a team in general. Big Ideas: Is virtual the right word? Long distance, remote, or virtual - Are they interchangeable? Long distance being more neutral Virtual teams used to be for individuals meeting for a certain project, where not everyone worked for the same boss Who's the hub for all t...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: What is one key trait that makes successful people successful? Big Ideas: Thinking better with other people "We think best when we think socially."  Social constructivism  Group think -- we let loyalty take the place of our thinking Think for yourself, before you think with others Use tools/methods to help people think better Think first, share second - Alone T...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: Share a memorable meeting experience. Big Ideas: Rituals in meetings Clear structures in meetings get to a result How we feel in a meeting matters Power dynamics in meetings A common ritual - rotating "leadership" of the meeting Rituals can vary depending on the type of organization and their values and the spirit of what you are doing Check-ins would...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: What do you look back and think, "I would never do that again?" Big Ideas: We do our best thinking when are up and moving around Gestures help us think through ideas  "We use our brains entirely too much." Do we use our brains, or does our brain use us? Most of our best ideas come when not trying to think through something Thinking harder is...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: Do you think the internet is making people more or less social than we used to be? Big Ideas Look at the quality of connections Move to virtual was an opportunity for many What is remote work?  What do I do in the office? How do I cope with back-to-back calls? Do I have to watch recordings of missed meetings? How do we collaborate together in this new transforma...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: What are you attached to? Big Ideas: How does our attachment related to our happiness? Relationships have a direct relationship to our health What will continue to shift in our relationships as we work in virtual spaces Desperate for connection Can't escape our need for connection A tribe is 150 people Are people more afraid of connection because of the pan...

Send us Fan Mail Dave Mills Bio: With over 25 years experience in the learning and development industry. In that time he has facilitated internationally and covered a wide number of subjects from driver training on forklift trucks to facilitating senior leaders to flourish through change. He is currently a senior consultant and SME in the People Development and Effectiveness Centre of Expertise fo...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In: Describe a time when you helped a stranger. Big Ideas: sense of ownership autonomy as a cop-out for organizational responsibility not about changing the fish, but about changing the environment When we invite people into our organizations, are we hoping they will be 'unbreakable'? the challenge of changing the whole organization teaching fish to swim in the tox...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question Have you given yourself a life mission? Big Ideas: How different industries look at failure and learning Not being criminalized for making mistakes Can we really trust people? (ie, Body Cams) When to be treated as a criminal for a mistake that kills someone and when not to The situations that draw us into making life/death decisions Does black-boxing situations h...

Send us Fan Mail with Guest, Gwen Stirling-Wilke Dialogic OD Consultant Check-In Question One powerful moment in a virtual space Big Ideas: The Check-in Question Check in questions brings about shifts in the relational space and creates Liminal space can help people transition from one space to another.  It's a punctuation and allows for recalibration Questions can be adapted to the time, the...

Send us Fan Mail An episode of questions, all about 2022. How would you answer these? What was the best $100/100€ you spent in 2022? What compliment did you receive in 2022 that still sticks with you? What book did you read in 2022 that was really impactful?  What is the nicest thing that someone did for you in 2022? What was the best TV show, movie, or series you watched in 2022? What is somethin...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: Are you the kind of person to make the first step in love? Tell us all about it. Big Ideas: 8 different dimensions of culture that show up in work: Communication (low context or high context) Evaluating (indirect negative or direct) Persuading (why or how) Leading (Egalitarian or Hierarchical Deciding (Consensus or. Top Down) Trust (Task-based or Relationship-ba...

Send us Fan Mail Check-In Question: How do you define intelligence? Big Ideas: Is charismatic leadership over-rated?  Likeability versus leadership. They aren't mutually exclusive. Melencholic leaders are more affective Power over (positional), versus power with (relational) What emotions can be shown at work, and by whom? Leadership struggles for Theresa come from trying to be the strong, ev...