Out Of The Comfort Zone

One of the qualities of admired leaders is their level of energy. Regardless how tough the going gets, these leaders seem to be able to keep their energy up. So what is it that they do that the rest of us don’t do? To answer this question, we are going to look at our sources of energy and at what drains energy. We will focus on what we strategies have proven successful in managing energy zappers. And, we will discuss how all of this affects a leader’s presence.

Relationships are critically important to success at work yet they are fraught with challenges. What is it that makes relationships so complicated? Where do we get stuck? What can we do to make relationships easier? Ultimately, how can we have a more positive impact on the organizational culture?

Some of the trickiest situations to navigate are ones that involve disagreement, conflict, with someone who has more power than you. So how does power alter your approach to conflict? How can you recognize the type of conflict situation you find yourself in? What can you do? Tune in to find out.

Hardly a day goes by when there isn’t some discussion on stress in the workplace. Increasing workloads, competing demands, global teams and multiple bosses are adding to stress levels. How much stress is too much? What can you do to manage stress levels? And, how do you generate greater resilience so you are less affected by stress? Join us to find out. Today we are going to talk about how to recognize when the stress levels are in the non-productive zone for you, what to do to recover and how to have more resilience in general so demands are less taxing.

Ever wonder what successful people know that you don’t know? For one, successful leaders tend to have mental toughness – they can let things go, they don’t take comments so personally and they focus on what matters to name a few. My guest today has the answer to what mentally tough people do and discovered 13 things they don’t do. Tune in to hear the 13 bad habits you should break today along with tips on how to do that.

Most of us have heard how important networking is: but, usually we see that as a means to get a new role or a promotion, to raise visibility or profile. We want to challenge the notion of why and how you network. We want you to see networking and building bridges in a whole new light. Have you ever considered networking as a route to innovation? What mental models do you hold about effective networking and are those the most effective ones? What new tactics could you use for building bridges? Join us to find out.

Want to know how a leader actually moves to a new role, leading experts and gaining their trust without having any experience in the area? How does such a leader deliver results, decide what is most important and have impact? Tune in to hear the lessons from a successful executive and how he transitioned from role to role.

Most of us, at some point in time, find ourselves struggling with a co-worker. Either the style doesn’t suit us, the values are inconsistent with ours or the behaviors are not what we expect from others. Learning to navigate these situations is just part of managing your career. But what do you do when the behavior tends towards bullying? How do you recognize bully versus other annoying behaviors? What can you do to keep your sanity? How do you win against a bully? Can you? What if the bully is more senior than you? Join us to hear practical, tested solutions.

How do you define what gives you meaning and purpose? If it's about achieving a goal like getting promoted or being best in class, then tune in to learn how that frame undermines success and what works better. Then stay tuned to learn how to unlock change and to persuade others.

Ever since Tom Peter’s wrote Brand You, we have been talking about our personal reputations as our brands. Your reputation, your brand, is an important component of your career success without a doubt. How can you as a person define what you want your personal leadership brand to be in a way that gives you purpose and direction? Equally, how do you begin to turn that image into a reality in your organization? Tune in for an insightful perspective on what brand means and a very practical approach.

The ability to spot and shrink capacity gaps is an urgent responsibility for all leaders. What’s your capacity at work? Can you take on more or are you at or beyond your limits of effectiveness? Do you even recognize when you have reached the peak of your capacity? More importantly, what can you do about it for yourself and for your team? Join us to for tips on how manage capacity.

It seems that there is no end to the feedback we get – especially at work. While some of it may be constructive and well delivered, a lot of feedback isn’t that useful. Yet, being seen as someone to “takes feedback well” is important. And of course, without feedback, we don’t grow enough. How can you best receive feedback, get the best from the message even if the deliverer isn’t so skilled? How can you better hear, respond to, act on, and dismiss feedback? How can you take it “less personally”?

As leaders, most of our time is spent in conversation – some of it highly effective and some of it less so. Yet, the most admired and productive leaders show greater Conversational Intelligence. What is this secret skill? How can you improve your conversational intelligence?

Peter Drucker says: 'The leader of the past may have been a person who knew how to tell, but certainly the leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.' Asking great questions may well be the secret to inspiring, motivating and engaging people. What are the questions great leaders ask? If you want to learn the secret using great questions or you want to expand your repertoire of questions, tune in.

Have you ever wondered why some leaders just manage to consistently out-perform everyone in their field? They out-produce, they transform industries and they develop great teams. Have you ever noticed that these leaders have a huge fan base of people who have worked for him/her? What makes this group of leaders so special – what do they do that the rest of us don’t do? Tune in to find out

Discomfort isn’t always pleasant but it can be a good thing if you know how to manage it. Expert leaders in particular get used to being right, having the facts at hand, knowing the work is accurate because you did it or you could verify it – in effect, being in their comfort zone. But to grow and to expand your responsibility, leaders have to lean in to discomfort. That means changing some practices like not using time as an excuse for telling versus leading, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and learning to nudge your employees into discomfort also without pushing them over the edge. Tune in to hear the tactics and advice for yourself and for leading your team.

These are turbulent times – with uncertainty, volatility, instant access to information and chaos just to name a few driving forces for leaders today. Most of this is outside of your control. How then should you think about leading through such times? What are the key skills that will get you through the turbulence and to the other side? Our guest calls these skills “artful leadership.” Join us to learn that that means and how to develop your capability.

What do you need to do to be sure you land that dream job – whether it’s inside your current company or in a different company? The interview is scheduled, you are excited, how do you make sure you are prepared and will leave a great impression? How do you negotiating the offer (including salary)? And, how do you make sure you avoid the biggest mistakes people make?

Mentoring, advocacy, sponsorship – so much has been discussed about the importance of these key relationships. How do you build a strong mentoring relationship? What is the natural cycle of a mentoring relationship? As a mentor, are you doing the best for your mentees? As a mentee, what can you do to get the best out of your mentor relationship? Join us to learn more.

Managers who coach their people get better performance, greater loyalty, higher engagement and stronger brands – to name just a few of the benefits. The great news is that coaching can be done is 10 minutes or less and anyone can do it. What to know how? Tune in to hear the five best questions to ask in any situation and more.