Out Of The Comfort Zone

Perhaps you have been asked to be a mentor or to be part of a mentoring program. Perhaps you have mentored before and probably had a couple of great mentors. Most likely you haven’t thought about the many different ways you could mentor. And if you are looking for a mentor, perhaps thinking about the different roles mentors play would help you find the ideal mentor for you. Tune in to hear about the 13 roles mentors can take: The secret sauce of each along with the pros and cons of each role.

Leaders faced with decisions often ask if they made the “right” call. Winning athletes and coaches make a constant series of calls. What can we learn from studying how they make the “right calls’? What does it tell us about how to be a better leader? Tune in for fun stories and brilliant insight.

Do you wish you worked in an organization with no hierarchy – where each employee determined their path to achieving stated goals? Are you debating about the ideal organizational structure for your business? Or, do you wonder what you most need to do as a manager that truly helps your team? The debate about hierarchy versus agile or bossless organization is not new. Tune in to learn the pros and cons as well as how to determine the essential role for you as a manager.

No doubt you have heard about mindfulness and may have attended a workshop at your organization. If you are not yet a devotee, tune in to hear why mindfulness has such a powerful impact for leaders given today’s workplace challenges. If you want to start a practice without devoting hours, we will show you how.

Do you think you are good at multi-tasking? Do you wonder why you can’t stay focused and what to do about it? Do you really need to take breaks and for how long? Tune in to hear about the research on the how our attention spans are decreasing and what we need to do to reclaim our well-being?

How you think about a situation impacts how you feel about the situation and ultimately how you interact with people. The problem is that you will only see part of the data, confuse data and judgment, and ultimately act on your beliefs and feelings, leaving you feeling out of control. Changing your understanding, gives you more power than you might appreciate – power to show more confidence, have less anxiety and be more optimistic. All of which ultimately impacts your ability to be persuasive. Tune in to see why and what to do about it.

If you are looking for an inspirational story on the power of one or two words of encouragement, this is the episode for you. We talk about facing intense adversity, controlling your mindset, surrounding yourself with people who celebrate you and whom you celebrate and focusing on the next tiny step. And, there are a few ideas on how to find mentors and build those relationships. Tune in to hear more.

Neuroscience has a lot to say to us today about how our brains default to habits that are not conducive to productivity, motivation, thinking, resilience and ultimately to our reputation as a leader. What does the latest science say? And what practical changes can you make that will increase your performance and that of your team? Tune in to hear more.

No doubt your organization has a diversity and inclusion effort and it may go by any number of acronyms: DEI, IED, DEIB, etc. What do you need to understand as a leader? More importantly, what do you need to do to ensure you have a team that has diverse points of view, that values those differences and that creates an inclusive culture where everyone has a fair shot and an equal voice? If you want to break away from the pack, tune in.

Changing the culture is among the top plans for many leaders whether they lead a large organization or a small team. Yet few really succeed. What do leaders get wrong when they think about culture? What are they missing in the steps? What can be done to more effectively shift a culture? How do generational differences affect culture and culture change? Tune in to hear more.

The impact of stress is not a new topic. However, have you stopped to think about all the tiny, almost unrecognizable things that happen in the course of the day. They hardly register as typical stress but they do add up. The phenonmenon is called “Microstress”. Tune in to hear what you can do about it.

Diversity matters for innovation and performance at a minimum. Why do so many who are part of a minority group within the organization feel so disenfranchised? What is happening that we need to understand as leaders? What can you do as a colleague or a leader that will make a difference? And, if you are part of a minority group, what can you do to build a strong career path? Tune in for a lively discussion and great advice.

Regardless of what you have done, when you get out of your comfort zone to do something new, your confidence will take a hit. How do you claim your confidence? How can you learn to accept change, take things less personally and not obsess about what other people think? Tune in to hear more.

Millennials will make up 75% of most workforces by 2025 and Generation Z is right behind them. The differences in perspectives between the four generations at work today can be frustrating to say the least. What do you need to know about Gen Z and millennials? What can you do as a leader to truly develop the next generation? And if you are a young talent, what do you need to know about the other generations? Tune in for a lively discussion.

What if you had a methodology for looking into the future, drawing implications and taking actions that matter today? Tune in to hear how to apply Future Back in general. Then stay tuned for how we apply that process to think about the future of your office place.

Whether you are talking about your brand or your big idea, being able to show a specific measure of success helps others invest in you and helps you be persuasive. But, where do you start? How do you build a great metric? And, how do you use the process to sell others on you or your project? Tune in to hear the process and learn how to use this process to define the value you add.

Building a culture where diverse opinions are heard, debates happen in the room and people feel comfortable saying what they think in a constructive way generates better communication and better results. For decades we have talked about how to foster diversity and build inclusive cultures without a great deal of progress to show for the efforts. What do we need to do next? Tune in to hear a lively discussion on what actions you can take and how we can all rise together.

Debate, disagreement, different perspectives, different priorities and even different sets of facts make persuading others extremely tough. In addition, when the outcome matters a great deal, emotions always run high. What is needed to win an argument, how can you persuade someone else of a different point of view? Tune in to hear master tips from a world champion debater.

Conflict, tension and disagreement are part of every team and every organization. Those that can navigate through the tension can achieve superb results. However, too many of us aren’t comfortable with conflict and either over react to conflict or avoid it totally. And of course, when the conflict really matters, it does feel personal. There is a way to get more comfortable with conflict and disagreement. Tune in to hear the steps you can take.

How often has you questioned whether your team was accountable? How many times have you told someone on your team to hold others accountable? Accountability may be as important as trust and integrity. But what do you need to do as a leader to drive accountability? Tune in to hear what you need to do.