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Everybody in your organization needs to feel like somebody above them cares about them. That’s what makes you feel part of a team. Leaders can do that by listening. More leadership lessons like this coming to you on the podcast this week, from fighter pilot Tammy Barlette.

I talk about surrounding myself with the right people in the latest Better Leadership Show episode.

Growth and scale are not the same thing. Trey Dunavant describes scaling as all about outpacing the average, and doing so while keeping all the wheels on the bus? I love that reframe. He unpacks it all, and how to scale sustainably, in the latest Better Leadership Show episode.

Great strategy, execution, breaking into a new market, creating a new product or a new service, etc. All those are ways to improve top and bottom growth, sure. But THE most direct, the most sustainable, the most important (often overlooked) way to drive growth? Grow your talent.

Coach Jim Johnson is in the business of developing winning players. And the first thing he’ll tell you is that true leadership is never about just winning on the court. There’s a lot more to it. Hear it all in the latest episode.

There’s ONE thing that guides all strategic decision making. Without it, your team is going to have a hard time understanding why they’re doing what they’re doing. That’s your clue. The rest is in the latest podcast episode.

A leader is someone who has followers. What can you offer that is SO valuable that they would want to follow you?

When did you last get together with your team just to learn? Not to make decisions together or to solve problems, but just to learn. Talk about books you've read, concepts you’ve learned, coach each other.

The challenge with customer responsibility usually falling under the head of sales, and employee responsibility usually falling under the head of HR, is that those are siloed organizational hierarchies that rarely interact with each other.

If you want to have a great impact on your clients, you need to start with having a great impact on your people. For that, you need to improve the talent density in your company. Here are 10 ways to help you achieve that. 

Whether it’s for accountability, or for vetting ideas, or for progressing ideas, the power of peer groups cannot be underestimated. My guest on the show talks about how leaders can best tap into the collective wisdom of one.

Do you have a leadership team bench, full of people who are ready to stand up and lead when you’re ready to grow that team, or replace somebody? Listen to this episode to find out why I think you should always think about that question.

Why should leaders care about well-being? Isn’t that every person’s job, to care about their own well-being. 

Assumption of negative intent. That’s what’s at the root of ALL harmful conflict and anger. The antidote to that is so simple, yet so powerful. Listen in to find out how I found this out the hard way.

Because you go looking for a coach, you need to ask yourself if you’re READY for it.

Are you:

• ready to read and learn the content the coach points me to?

• willing to be held accountable?

• willing to invest real dollars?

This is where you start, but there’s much more to it. Listen to the latest episode of the Better Leadership Show to learn more.

Do you follow the law of positive intent? When we’re in conflict, most of us forget all about it. But as leaders, we shouldn’t. I talk about it in the latest episode of the Better Leadership Show.

It doesn’t matter how strong or smart or resilient you are, or whether your genetics are top notch. When you get too much stress, you’re out. And as leaders, we flirt with stress all day long. Which is why I want EVERY LEADER to listen to the interview I did with Kevin Lawrence, author of the book Your Oxygen Mask First.

Are you still doing Annual Performance Reviews? Stop! They don’t work. I talk about the reasons WHY in my latest podcast episode.

You can’t be an advocate until you understand your jury, the way that they see the world and what their perspective is, so that you can change it. 

My guest on the podcast learned that in the courtroom. Tune in to listen to my conversation with litigator, speaker and coach Heather Hansen.

Without vulnerability we hide things: 

• We hide what we don’t know

• We hide our mistakes

• We hide from giving feedback

Hiding all those things…they kill a team. So vulnerability is crucial. You need to work at it every single day. 
But while you can’t work your way to vulnerability just through exercises, there is one exercise that could really accelerate things for your team.