The People Leaders Podcast

It’s important for managers to check in on their staff in regular one on one catch ups. But without a process or structure, these conversations can be quite transactional. In this post, we explain how we help managers pave the way to far more valuable and effective catch ups using 4 steps and 5 tips. Episode Highlights: Step 1 - Follow up Step 2 - Share information Step 3 - Provide feedback Step 4...

Influencing is an important skill for anyone, especially people leaders. In this post, we continue our discussion on Influencing, focusing our attention on how best to address those with the personality style of ‘Feeler’. Let’s be clear again - this isn’t about manipulation. It’s about how delivery of a message is integral to how it’s received. To influence someone with a predominant decision-maki...

Today we’re sharing insights about the benefits of preparing tangible takeaways before heading into an exchange with a team member (or a colleague for that matter). We’ve recently come across several situations where we’ve helped leaders prepare for a variety of responses heading into a conversation. Invariably we’ve found that presenting visual materials or specific evidence to back up points or...

For teams to work well collaboratively, every member must be crystal clear on roles and responsibilities. The RASCI matrix (pronounced ‘racey’) is a simple ‘quick view’ tool that defines who’s involved at what stage and in what capacity. In this way, it helps managers keep everyone on the same page. RASCI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Supported, Consulted, Informed. It’s an incredibly strai...

Understanding how team members operate is the key to high-performance teamwork. But it can take some time (and painful trial and error) before you really know what makes each person tick. Through the work we do with managers and teams, we’ve developed a practical shortcut that helps people get to know each other quickly. It’s a simple and highly effective exercise we call, ‘This is me’. This exerc...

The end of the fiscal year can often be a time when people begin examining their careers. They may be reflecting on what has been accomplished and how their current role in their organization fits who they are -- their aspirations and goals. As such you may be thinking it’s time to do some career planning. In order to be thorough, career planning doesn’t have to be complicated but it does take a g...

A big part of any leadership role is knowing how to influence others. Not to manipulate or cajole but to influence so your team can work more cohesively. Because we all see the world differently, not everyone has the same ‘influence buttons’ but the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) gives us clues how to frame an argument based on style or ’preferences.’We covered preferences in more detail in th...

Meditation is a subject full of misconceptions and misunderstandings, yet those of us who do it regularly can’t imagine life without it. It’s one of the best kept secrets around but fortunately it’s becoming more and more mainstream. In fact at the leadership level it’s becoming an essential skill. Mark Bunn, author of Ancient Wisdom for Modern Health sums it up nicely when he says, “Twenty years...

As you move up the leadership chain, your role steadily changes from supervisor to manager to leader. Supervisors are very task oriented and the focus of their work is ensuring that outputs are met in a particular timeframe. Managers and leaders however are more focused on empowering their team members to take responsibility for their own outputs. In the modern work environment, this requires mana...

Feedback for team members in the work environment is a double edged sword. On one hand it can be constructive and useful, while on the other hand it can also cause stress and discomfort. The stress and discomfort usually comes about because of the top-down aspect of feedback. Usually it’s a manager or leader providing feedback to a team member for the purposes of ‘course correction.' Episode...

We’ve previously covered our top 10 tips for communicating with extroverts on our podcast and blog. Today it’s the introvert’s turn*. It may well be that you think you don’t have many introverts on your team or in your workplace but that could be because introversion is often misunderstood. Some think of introverts as shy and/or quiet. This is often the case but these are definitely not universal...

Depending on the nature of your workplace, chances are that half your team (give or take) is likely to be extroverted. Probably less than half if you are running a library and more than half if you are running a sales team. Either way, knowing how to communicate effectively with extroverts is a skill worth having, especially if you are more introverted yourself. That’s not to say that extroverts h...

As a leader or manager you are in a position where you have more impact than most. While your intention will always be for that impact to be positive, sometimes it’s affected by factors you may not be aware of. Your reputation for example. If you have a reputation for being strong or principled, then chances are your words and your directions will have more impact than someone with a reputation fo...

As a leader or manager you are in a position where you have more impact than most. While your intention will always be for that impact to be positive, sometimes it’s affected by factors you may not be aware of. Your reputation for example. If you have a reputation for being strong or principled, then chances are your words and your directions will have more impact than someone with a reputation fo...

Though all of us have the same amount of time each day, it seems that some folks use that time more effectively than others. While we might like to think it’s because they don’t have as much on their plate as we do, that’s often not the case. Often they actually have more to do but they have just set themselves up to be extremely effective. While this may take a little effort to set up, you don’t...

Workplace diversity has been a pretty hot topic in recent years. Most people think of diversity in terms such as gender, age, race or physical or intellectual ability. And rightly so, as diversity based on these characteristics add tremendous value to a workplace. However, there is a less talked about form of diversity that has a huge impact on how teams and businesses operate. Cognitive diversity...

We’ve been long time fans of profiling tools and use them almost every day in our business. Our primary tool is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), but we’re always keen to learn about other tools that can be of value to our clients. We recently became accredited in Clarity 4D and want to share some of what we learned here (you can also listen to us talk about it in this podcast episode).Like...

In a recent post we covered 4 Simple Steps to Create a High Performing Career. Today we’re upping the ante with 10 more, but these are focussed specifically on ramping things up within the organisation that you are currently in. Episode Highlights: You may have or have had a coach or mentor from within the organisation already but we’d invite you to think outside the box with this one. Y ou aren’t...

If you’re an introverted manager, chances are that you will occasionally find your preference for introversion is challenged by your role as a people leader. That’s not to say that introverts don’t make good managers or leaders. It just means that sometimes there’s a need to take on extroverted behaviour in order to be effective. To clarify. That doesn’t mean you have to ‘be’ an extrovert, just th...

Extroverted managers are in their element when it comes to management and leadership. Not necessarily because they are better at it than introverts but because extroverts are people people. They are energised by the group dynamic and develop their ideas by bouncing them off others. In an earlier podcast episode we shared our 3 top tips for introverted leaders. The blog post included a ‘primer’ on...

People leaders are no stranger to  'mind fullness'. Not only do they have their head crowded with their own issues, but usually there are a dozen or more team issues keeping their mind full also. We've got five tips to share that can help you be more mindful. You can hear them on our podcast or you can read them below. Or you can do both. You are, after all, a ninja leader! In this...

Leading people creates stress and puts pressure on your health and well-being. But as a leader, it's important for you to set a standard that not only keeps you in top shape, but sets an example for your team to follow. And while you no doubt know what you need to be doing to take care of yourself, chances are you may not be. We covered our five top tips for self care in this week's podc...

As a manager or people leader, you have several conversations with team members each day. These will often have a coaching or advisory element to them. Some may even be about performance management. And some conversations may in the form of emails or written memos. In any of these cases, using a model or framework for the conversation will help you cover all the bases and influence the outcome. Ou...

In the work we do with leadership teams we often come across teams who are overworked. The impact of this is more than tiredness and inefficiency. It actually affects the character and personality of those in the workplace. People who might usually be optimistic become pessimistic. We've even heard leaders talk about 'racing to average.' This describes the treadmill effect of workin...

Habits are fundamental to performance, not only in the workplace but in life in general. Anytime you create a habit, you free up valuable brain space for more important tasks. You also free up vital energy that you can use better elsewhere. But creating new habits, or getting rid of old habits, is easier said than done. Some say it takes 30 days while other say it takes longer. We don't know...