The Unlock Moment: The Inner Shift That Changes How You Lead

Today we’re getting into the space of high performance. How can you give more energy to others? How can you increase your mental agility? How can you adapt to disruption? How can you lead with impact? Chris Males is Managing Director and form Head of Performance Coaching at TIGNUM, the world leading Sustainable High Performance development firm. A former athlete, Chris is also himself a sought aft...

I was working with one of my coachees this week who is figuring out a career change. She’s built up her expertise, her credibility and her personal brand in a particular field for many years and she’s in demand for her services as a practitioner and as an expert. But it doesn’t bring her joy any more. It’s a classic example of ‘something needs to change, but I don’t know what’. And though it can f...

Adwoa Akoto is a British-Ghanaian actor, writer, model and entrepreneur who appeared in HBO & the BBC's hit series 'I May Destroy You'. She talks about her unusual route from economics and finance into acting and how her experience working with NGOs shaped her desire to create impact in this world. In this short extract she describes how she explored different ways to connect with her purpose and...

If you’ve been listening for a while then you’ll remember psychiatrist and suicide expert Dr Mark Goulston’s powerful episode here on The Unlock Moment called Catching People When They Fall. I heard today’s guest in conversation with Dr Mark on his own podcast and was compelled to invite her to come and tell you all her story. I’m so grateful that she accepted the invitation. Alexandra Wyman is an...

You might have heard the 1% mantra. … Every day become 1% better. Just 1%. It seems so tiny. Multiply that up through the course of the year, 1%, 1%, day by day, and by the end of the year you’ll be almost 40 times the person you were at the start. It’s beautiful maths … but of course hopelessly unrealistic for virtually all of us. As Dr Ruth Gotian said on this podcast, if self-improvement were s...

In this fascinating conversation that flows from music school to investment banking, from balance in your career to balance on the dance floor, this interview with world-leading coach Whitney Johnson is quite the journey. With millions of followers, she's the celebrated CEO of Disruption Advisors, a leadership development company helping you grow your people to grow your organisation. A Wall Stree...

A bit of motivation as we go into the long weekend! It was Simon Sinek whose iconic TED talk in 2009 brought the idea of Start With Why to the world – one of my favourite business books. Tens of millions of people have viewed that video, where a speaker on a stage, armed only with a pen and a flipchart, changed the way people around the world view how great leaders inspire action. You don’t have t...

Today’s guest is something of a legend in the world of coaching. Dr Carol Kauffman was ranked the number one leadership coach in the world by Marshall Goldsmith. She is an international thought leader and practitioner in the field of coaching, with over 40,000 hours of practice working with people from all walks of life, from aspiring leaders to CEOs, elite athletes and royalty. She launched the I...

My name’s Dr Gary Crotaz, award-winning author of ‘The IDEA Mindset’. In this Unlock Micromoment, you’re hearing a short extract from one of my top guests on The Unlock Moment podcast. Dolly Waddell is an executive coach, team facilitator and all-round joy magnet whose upbringing in the orbit of a highly successful family luxury jewellery business honed her natural instinct for entrepreneurship. A...

Recently our two little dogs Mochi and Beansprout have been burning the candle at both ends. No matter how late at night I take them out for their last bathroom visit, they still wake me up between 5:45 and 6:15 in the morning for another trip. It’s left me feeling oddly disconnected when I start my work for the day, almost as though my brain is struggling to get into gear. I’ve had many times in...

If you’ve ever experienced the so-called fight or flight response, you’ll know about the rush of adrenaline you get when something triggers your sense of fear. Your heart beats faster. Your blood pressure goes up. Your breathing gets more rapid. Why? Because the adrenalin that your body produces interacts with receptors on cells around the body. Like a key in a lock, the adrenalin binds and trigge...

I was delighted last year to welcome Canadian retail leader and a former colleague Normand Ciarlo to The Unlock Moment. At the time he had recently left Holt Renfrew where he was in charge of their flagship Montreal luxury department store, Ogilvy. Since he recorded he’s become a Director at the iconic Canadian retailer Chaussures Yellow where he looks after over 90 stores in Quebec and New Brunsw...

There’s a Taoist proverb in my book The IDEA Mindset. We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see. For most of my career, my mindset was running water, the bubbling brook, the racing stream, sometimes the whitewater rapids. I considered it my superpower that I could go fast, manage complexity, be decisive. It was in the pandemic that circumstances force...

Today’s episode is really an incredible story. A rising star in the hedge fund industry in New York, in 2019 Mike Ott experienced a near-death event that in just one moment changed everything. Today we’re going to hear from him about his journey of rehabilitation, recovery and reinvention and how it transformed his outlook on life. This is an episode you will not want to miss. -- Mike Ott: https:/...

Tayo Rockson calls himself a polymath-in-progress. He is a writer, speaker, consultant, podcaster, poet, professor, co-founder and brand strategist at UYD Management, a strategic consulting firm that empowers organisations to incorporate sustainable diversity and inclusion practices. In this short extract he talks about his philosophy in life and how a dramatic life event gave him remarkable clari...

In my book The IDEA Mindset, I wrote “Freedom is the day you realise that it’s ok not to be good at everything. Choose the path that plays to your strengths.” It sounds so obvious, but often the simplest things are the ones you need to pay most attention to. I spent a lot of my life trying to overcome my weaknesses and fill my gaps. I noticed what I couldn’t do much more than I noticed what I did...

Whatever we do in our work or in our life, we're all selling something. Influencing others is selling. Getting buy-in is selling. Teaching is selling. Sharing an idea you're passionate about is selling. And when you ask people who they think is the best salesperson on the planet, alive or dead, most commonly they say 'Martin Luther King Jr.', 'Steve Jobs', 'Jesus'. Selling isn't only about selling...

My name’s Dr Gary Crotaz, award-winning author of ‘The IDEA Mindset’. In this Unlock Micromoment, you’re hearing a short extract from one of my top guests on The Unlock Moment podcast. Nick Novak is a good friend, a social impact entrepreneur, an investor, non-executive director and consultant. With over 15 years of driving growth for social enterprises across the UK, US and Africa, Nick is passio...

This morning I was thinking about how running used to be so much easier than it is today. I wish I'd been more appreciative at the time. It makes me think about how regret holds us back in life. We regret decisions we made, or didn’t make. We regret opportunities not taken. We regret not trying harder when, with hindsight it feels like that was our big moment. But in reality, the only moment that...

Today’s guest on The Unlock Moment is John Baldoni, renowned US coach, keynote speaker and the author of no less than 16 books translated into 10 languages. He hosts the ‘Grace Under Pressure’ interview series on LinkedIn Live, and famously integrates piano improvisations into his keynotes – now that’s definitely a love we share. Thinkers 360 has named John a Top 10 Thought Leader for both Leaders...

My name’s Dr Gary Crotaz, award-winning author of ‘The IDEA Mindset’. In this Unlock Micro-Moment, you’re hearing a short extract from one of my top guests on The Unlock Moment podcast. Hayley Thomas is the vibrant and dynamic founder of Eleven Loves, an online fashion brand centred around effortless style, feelgood designs and sustainability. In this short extract she talks about how her husband’...

Time after time people say to me in coaching sessions, “I wish I’d done it sooner, when I still had time.” Whether you’re in your twenties or your eighties, everyone feels like they’re running out of time. And yet it couldn’t be further from the truth. People are uncertain about what the future holds, but as world-leading coach Marshall Goldsmith said in Episode 36 of The Unlock Moment, “There’s o...

Today’s guest is someone I’ve been following for a while and hoping to bring on to The Unlock Moment – I’m so delighted she said yes. Dr Ruth Gotian is a leading executive coach and trusted mentor. She was ranked as the #1 emerging management thinker in the world by Thinkers50. She is also the Chief Learning Officer in Anesthesiology and former Executive Director of the Mentoring Academy at Weill...

The Unlock Moment is that flash of remarkable clarity when you suddenly know the right path ahead. Listeners to this podcast are discovering their own Unlock Moments, by bearing witness to the stories of others and by learning from experts on coaching, psychology and motivation. Every lock needs a key, and for you to discover your own Unlock Moment, you’re going to need to find the right key for y...

My name’s Dr Gary Crotaz, award-winning author of ‘The IDEA Mindset’. In this Unlock Micro-Moment, you’re hearing a short extract from one of my top guests on The Unlock Moment podcast. Simon Alexander Ong is a personal development entrepreneur, coach and public speaker. Since we recorded this episode, his book Energize has topped the charts and he’s been invited to speak around the world on the s...