Leadership Mindset 2.0

Courage is not about not having fear. Courage is having fear and doing something anyway. At a recent leadership intensive, we split a room full of leaders into teams and asked who wanted to lead. Almost nobody raised their hand. These are leaders, at a leadership event, and still most of them sat on their hands. In this episode you'll learn; - Why so many capable leaders avoid raising their hand f...

The manager everyone thinks is incompetent probably isn't. She just never got trained. 82% of UK managers are what's called accidental managers, promoted without ever getting the skills or training to actually do the job…so what do you do about it? You’ll learn everything you need to know about leadership training & development for your team including; - Why what looks like incompetence in a s...

Your mind messes with you, and until you know that, it's going to keep holding you back. Today, you're going to learn exactly how it does this and how to make it work for you instead of against you. In this episode you'll learn; - The simple fact versus fiction tool for catching the exact moment your brain starts inventing a story that has nothing to do with reality - Why a great presentation, a g...

A tool every leader needs is the ability to turn negative, complaining people into a positive, effective member of the team. The problem is, if you don't know how to do this, you often make it worse. Here's a simple yet powerful model you can use that does just that. In fact, as you’ll hear, it even works inside of a prison. In this episode you'll learn; - The three roles in the drama triangle, vi...

One of the most frustrating things for a manager is that their team's not performing, and they don't know what to do about it. The pressure starts mounting more and more. They start to doubt themselves, and things get worse and worse for everybody involved. The solution is to evaluate your team on these five pillars and then put in a strategy to solve it. In this episode you'll learn; - The five p...

When trust disappears from a team, even small disagreements can turn into defensiveness, gossip, blame, and conflict...so how do you turn it around? In this episode, Michael breaks down a five-step process for helping a team move out of dysfunction and start rebuilding trust. And it doesn't begin with forcing everyone to get along. It begins with understanding why people are defensive in the first...

Never let someone come to you with just a problem. They need one to three solutions already worked out, because that is the moment a follower starts becoming a leader. Here's the thing. A VP I coach ran a time audit and found he was spending five hours a week with one newer team member. His first instinct was to just cut that time back. That would have backfired. In this episode you'll learn; - Wh...

A burned out team does not need better processes. It needs a leader who knows where they are going. The thing keeping your people stuck has nothing to do with their workload. In this episode - Why the loudest negative person on your team is currently setting the tone for everyone else, and what you have to do about it before anything else can shift - The difference between empathy and direction, a...

I'm away for a couple of weeks, so we're going back into the archive. New episodes return on 26 August. "The real job of a CEO is to go from one uncomfortable conversation to another." If you are procrastinating a phone call, letting a deadline slide, or avoiding an underperforming employee because you don't want to "rock the boat," you are not protecting the team - you are hurting them. Many lead...

Leadership isn't just about making the right decisions. It's about having the difficult conversations, earning trust, and showing up with confidence when it matters most. In this episode, Michael answers questions from leaders who are facing challenges many of us eventually run into. -What do you do when someone on your team isn't improving? -How do you lead people who used to be your peers? -And...

Most leaders spend their careers trying to get rid of fear. The highest performers have a completely different relationship with it. “The day you are not afraid going into a fire is the day you should retire. Because fear is what keeps you aware, keeps you sharp, and keeps you alive.” -Shannon Sedlacek, former attorney and Lieutenant firefighter, my guest for the episode In this episode you'll lea...

If your business depends on you for every major decision, you've built a bottleneck, not a scalable company. In this episode, Michael answers a question from a founder who has successfully grown his business to $4 million but finds himself involved in every deal, every decision, and every problem. The challenge isn't working harder. It's making the transition from being the person who does everyth...

Everyone is talking about AI. Very few leaders are talking about what actually makes AI successful. In this special crossover episode, Michael joins Bart on the Human2Human podcast to explore why so many AI initiatives fail despite massive investment. The answer isn't better technology. It's better leadership. Together, they unpack the leadership challenges that organizations are facing as AI tran...

This is the fifth and final episode in our series on the four leadership types, and this is the one where everything comes together. Two people on the same team, both good at their jobs, who cannot work together and have no idea why. It is not a personality clash. It is two completely different operating systems running side by side. In this episode you'll learn; - How the four leadership types ma...

This is the third in our five part series on the four leadership types, and this one explains why some of the most capable people struggle the most once they reach leadership. Needing all the information before you decide is exactly what makes you excellent at your job, and exactly what makes leadership the hardest job you have ever taken on. In this episode you'll learn; - What actually drives a...

This is the fourth in our five part series on the four leadership types, and this one explains why the most trusted person on your team might be carrying the most unspoken tension. The same instinct that makes someone the glue of their team is the instinct that keeps them quiet when something actually needs to be said. In this episode you'll learn; - What actually drives a Supportive Collaborator,...

This is the first in a five part series on the four leadership types, and understanding this one might explain the most powerful, or the most difficult, person in your organization, possibly you. It is not about being seen as the winner. It is an internal drive to win and to be in control, and left unmanaged, that drive quietly turns into bullying. In this episode you'll learn; - What actually dri...

This is the second in our five part series on the four leadership types, and this one explains why the most confident person in the room might also be the most insecure. The same thing that makes a leader charismatic and well liked is the same thing that gives them more imposter syndrome than any other leadership type. In this episode you'll learn; - What actually drives a Visionary Influencer, an...

Keeping your head down is not humility. It is protectionism. And it is costing you more than you think. Two of my clients got passed over for promotions this month. Both were doing excellent work. Neither had made themselves visible to the people who make those decisions. In this episode you'll learn; - Why performance alone has never been enough to get promoted, and what the leaders who keep movi...

Most leaders end a long day asking themselves: did I actually get anything done today? You did. You just do not have a system that lets you see it. The calmness great leaders project does not come from having all the answers. It comes from an evidence-based confidence that you can handle whatever comes up. This episode gives you the exact practice that builds it. In this episode you'll learn; - Wh...

AI is about to get very good at the two thirds of your job most leaders have been relying on to look successful. What is left after that is real leadership. In this episode you'll learn; - Why the functional expertise and management skills that got you to where you are today are the exact things AI is going to commoditize first, and what that means for how you need to show up differently starting...

There is a 45-point enthusiasm gap between how executives feel about AI and how their teams feel, and most leaders have no idea it exists. And this all comes down to you - your team's relationship with AI is a mirror of your relationship with AI. Not what you say about it...it's what you actually do with it. In this episode you'll learn; - Why the single most important driver of your team's AI ado...

Most organizations are not losing the AI race because of bad technology. They are losing it because honest information about what is not working never reaches the people who can fix it. You'll learn what you need to know to make sure your organization is successful in this new age of AI including; - Why most organizations are sitting in the Exposed Quadrant, high AI spending and low organizational...

Most managers will not be replaced by AI. They will be replaced by someone who understands it. The question is which side of that line you are standing on right now. - Why 95% of corporate AI pilots have no measurable financial impact, and what your organisation is almost certainly getting wrong about implementation right now - Why most leaders are halfway in on AI, and what halfway is going to co...

A burned out team does not need better processes. It needs a leader who knows where they are going. The thing keeping your people stuck has nothing to do with their workload. In this episode I take a real question from inside the Growth Leaders Collective and break down exactly what is happening and what to do about it. - Why the loudest negative person on your team is currently setting the tone f...