Grow and lead for all of us

Podcast

Episode 20: Robert Augustus Masters On True Masculine Power [The Amiel Show]

Episode 20: Robert Augustus Masters On True Masculine Power [The Amiel Show]

by ·

Men, listen up. This one’s for you.

In Episode 20 of the podcast, I speak with Robert Augustus Masters, author of the new book To Be A Man: A Guide to True Masculine Power.

Robert models the kind of manhood he aims to foster in the world: big heart, sharp mind, and firm backbone. Compassion without the B.S.

This is one interview you won’t want to miss. Whether you are a man or a woman.

robert-augustus-masters

Highlights

  • 6:00 Shame: what it is and why men need to face it head on
  • 16:30 How to make an authentic apology
  • 20:30 Why the movie Fight Club is popular with so many men
  • 25:00 The difference between empathy and putting up with bullshit
  • 26:30 Why men love giving and receiving healthy challenges
  • 31:00 Bringing together your heart and guts at home and work
  • 36:30 The challenge of dealing a with a difficult boss
  • 46:00 What’s possible for men in the later stages of life
  • 48:00 How Robert practices gratitude

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 20: Robert Augustus Masters On True Masculine Power [The Amiel Show]

Episode 19: Wendy Wallbridge On Spiraling Upward And Women’s Cocreative Powers [The Amiel Show]

Episode 19: Wendy Wallbridge On Spiraling Upward And Women’s Cocreative Powers [The Amiel Show]

by ·

Great interview with Wendy Wallbridge, founder of TEDx SandHillRdWomen and author of the new book Spiraling Upward: The 5 Co-Creative Powers for Women on the Rise. We discuss:

  • 9:00 A life-threatening disease that changed Wendy’s life in her 20s
  • 13:36 What is feminine leadership?
  • 24:45 Bringing women into the workforce after motherhood
  • 32:26 When two women executives vie for a CEO’s attention
  • 40:00 Asking your body, “Is it a Yes or a No?”
  • 42:30 The cocreative power of speech
  • 45:45 How to make a counteroffer to your boss
  • 55:00 What Wendy is deliberately practicing to grow as a person

Wendy-Wallbridge

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 19: Wendy Wallbridge On Spiraling Upward And Women’s Cocreative Powers [The Amiel Show]

Episode 18: Brian Underhill on executive coaching, politics, and presence [The Amiel Show]

Episode 18: Brian Underhill on executive coaching, politics, and presence [The Amiel Show]

by ·

Brian-Underhill

Brian Underhill founded the world’s most experienced leadership coaching company, CoachSource. And he’s personally seen it all. So, I thought, what better person to ask about the “undiscussable issues” in leadership coaching?

In Episode 18 of the podcast, we discuss:

  • 10:30 Why many people still associate executive coaching with being messed up
  • 16:45 When leaders’ direct managers want them to be more like them
  • 19:45 The crucial role that HR leaders play in coaching
  • 23:00 How companies discuss the ROI of coaching
  • 29:00 Executive presence, grooming, and media skill
  • 38:00 Political challenges around executive coaching
  • 41:00 When coaches are asked to be surrogates for managers like George Clooney’s character in the film Up in The Air
  • 43:00 The challenge of integrating leaders from other cultures
  • 48:00 Brian’s personal use of peer coaching to stick to his goals

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 18: Brian Underhill on executive coaching, politics, and presence [The Amiel Show]

Episode 17: Teri Woodland on China, leadership, and cross-cultural complexity [The Amiel Show]

Episode 17: Teri Woodland on China, leadership, and cross-cultural complexity [The Amiel Show]

by ·

A fascinating interview with Teri Woodland about developing leaders in China over the past three decades. Teri helped build McKinsey’s China practice, led the first ever business climate survey in China, served on the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and sees the complexity there as an incredible opportunity for leadership growth.

I learned so much from my hour with Teri and know that you will, too.

Teri-Woodland

 

Episode Highlights

8:15  “The State Department thinks you should come home” (after Tiananmen Square)
11:45  McKinsey’s China practice—the early years
18:00 The challenge of recruiting Chinese nationals from U.S. back to China
21:15 Doing the first business climate survey in China
30:15 A place where Chinese leaders could speak up
36:45 A time Teri missed cultural signals
42:15 How a complex environment helps people develop
50:15 “Moving jobs to China”
53:15 Women in leadership in China

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 17: Teri Woodland on China, leadership, and cross-cultural complexity [The Amiel Show]

Episode 16: Julie Daley on creativity in leadership [The Amiel Show]

Episode 16: Julie Daley on creativity in leadership [The Amiel Show]

by ·

Imagine that:

  • Creativity isn’t something “other” people have
  • Creativity is much broader than art–or even new ideas and products
  • Creativity isn’t just about you. It’s about what you create with other people
  • Creativity isn’t even just about creativity. It’s about being skilled in emotions, difficult conversations, and leadership

Many people consider these a stretch. Not Julie Daley, who teaches Creativity in Leadership at Stanford and helps women become a force of nature through her company, Unabashedly Female. Julie sees these as starting points for guiding people to access their creativity in leadership and the rest of life.

Julie-Daley

 

Episode Highlights

  • 6:00 Julie guides me to access my own creativity–live
  • 15:00 The man who used Julie’s class to decide whether to propose marriage
  • 23:00 How judging others keeps their ideas from coming forth fully
  • 28:00 What you can do to work with your inner critic
  • 32:00 How to see with your heart…or your toe
  • 35:00 How a single conversation can ignite you to feel more alive
  • 37:00 What creativity teaches us about difficult conversations
  • 51:30 What leadership from a place of love is like
  • 55:00 What Julie is personally practicing to grow as a human being

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 16: Julie Daley on creativity in leadership [The Amiel Show]

Episode 15: Cliff Atkinson on giving high-stakes presentations [The Amiel Show]

Episode 15: Cliff Atkinson on giving high-stakes presentations [The Amiel Show]

by ·

Cliff Atkinson wants you to nail your presentations–particularly when the stakes are high.

Cliff designed the slides that won a $253 million jury verdict in Texas. And he wrote a book called Beyond Bullet Points that shows how to truly inspire and inform people. In episode 15 of The Amiel Show, he tells the back story of that trial and describes how to start strong, break presentations into powerful chunks, and create effective slides.

Cliff-Atkinson

We discuss:

  • 4:00 The back story to Cliff’s work in the Vioxx case
  • 12:00 Strong openings. Don’t start with an agenda
  • 19:00 People like mysteries and challenges
  • 26:00 Start with the story, then create the graphics
  • 32:00 Make information easy to digest. Stop overwhelming people
  • 38:00 Start with a powerful visual, not your agenda or corporate overview
  • 44:00 How we’ve misused PowerPoint
  • 47:00 Chart junk
  • 48:30 Corporate capabilities presentations are about the wrong people
  • 63:00 How groups can collaborate

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 15: Cliff Atkinson on giving high-stakes presentations [The Amiel Show]

Episode 14: Jennifer Garvey-Berger on Simple Habits for Complex Times [The Amiel Show]

Episode 14: Jennifer Garvey-Berger on Simple Habits for Complex Times [The Amiel Show]

by ·

What do you get when one of the world’s experts in adult development, an aspiring novelist, writes a practical guide for organizations on leading through complexity?

Simple Habits for Complex Times, the new book by Jennifer Garvey-Berger (co-authored with Keith Johnston). What I love about it: not only does it entice the reader to see organizational life through a powerful new lens, it’s a great read!

The book is built around two stories, both with leaders in over their heads in complexity yet willing to stretch their minds and habits to rise to the challenge.

After the great response (nearly 2,000 downloads) to my earlier interview with Jennifer, I just had to interview her about the new book. Fortunately, she was game.

Jennifer-Garvey-Berger

In Episode 14 of The Amiel Show, Jennifer and I discuss (times are approximate):
  • 5:00 How complex systems differ from simple and complicated systems
  • 10:00 Our hunger for cause-and-effect
  • 12:40 The “rich picture of now” brainstorm—and the importance of not being aspirational
  • 17:00 The purpose of safe-to-fail experiments
  • 23:00 Why pilot experiments piss people off
  • 27:30 How job surveys don’t just measure a system. They shape it
  • 33:00 How people create phantom rules that everybody hates
  • 38:00 How complexity principles work at every stage of adult development
  • 40:00 Looking for the attractors that contribute to compliance-based behaviors
  • 44:30 What we miss by assuming we are emotion-less Vulcans rather than human beings
  • 48:30 “We hire the smartest people” and other well-meaning habits that can block learning
  • 53:00 Creating more complex ways to think about performance at work

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

[Read more…] about Episode 14: Jennifer Garvey-Berger on Simple Habits for Complex Times [The Amiel Show]