First-Time Leaders Accelerated℠
Leading people is the most important responsibility in the world, yet, alarmingly, 60% of first-time leaders fail.
With over 4 decades of experience in leader development and culture improvement, I created this podcast to help you solve 3 critical and costly people problems:
1. Endangered People Skills: The Communication Paradox
2. Peer to Leader, Now What?
3. Sunday Feelings About Monday Mornings
If you’re a first-time leader, someone who hires or promotes first-time leaders or a solopreneur building your first team, this is your podcast.
I’m Timothy Dean Smith, your host & coach.
Monthly, from January through July, I’ll offer you concise, practical solutions you can apply immediately and benefit from for a lifetime.
If you find my solutions valuable, share this podcast with your collages, wherever they listen to podcasts.
Leading people is the most important responsibility in the world and I’m here to ensure your leadership matters.
Thank you for listening to the
First-Time Leaders Accelerated℠ Podcast.
Take care.
If you need a Leadership Speaker or you need help with Leader Development and/or Culture Improvement, visit tdspi.com and Click on Meet Me.
I look forward to our "get to know each other" conversation.
Treat people like they make a difference and they will.
Episodes
26 episodes
Self-Leadership - One of Four Leader Prerequisites
This episode will be my final episode of 2025. I will be focusing on what I believe is the most important leader skill, Self-Leadership. Self-leadership is a fancy way of describing how you lead your life. Often, the most difficult person to le...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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7:10
Trained to Lead People - One of Four Leader Prerequisites
Often leader candidates don’t receive proper people-centered leader training? You can learn to be a leader in a classroom, but you can’t become a leader in the classroom. There is a huge difference between learning leader skills and experiencin...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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6:29
Inspiration - One of Four Leader Prerequisites
If the leader candidate is lacking one or more of the four prerequisites, the candidate should not be promoted to a leader role. Doing so would be a recipe for failure, not to mention, create a lot of distress and loss of money. It is okay for ...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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5:41
Caring - One of Four Leader Prerequisites
To be a great people-centered leader, you must genuinely care FOR and ABOUT people. You need to do both.1.Caring FOR people is doing something for their well-being and helping them grow. It’s something you do to demo...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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5:06
Technology Timeout Tips and More
We live in an “always on” and “always connected” world. We expect instant gratification, either accessing information or receiving a response.Are you prepared to lead people?
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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9:14
Get Rid of Your Best People and Wreck Your Culture, In Three Easy Steps
It's unfortunate but all too often organizations unknowingly get rid of their best people and simultaneously wreck their culture, in three easy steps. I will explain how and why this problem occurs and how to fix it.Are you prepared to l...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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6:59
Atypical New Year's Resolutions All Year
New Year's resolutions should not only consider improving existing processes but also have an atypical consideration of whether those processes should continue to be performed at all.Are you prepared to lead people?
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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3:54
Sunday Feelings About Monday Mornings
Late Sunday afternoon or early Sunday evening, many people start thinking about Monday morning and their return to work. These thoughts reflect their feelings about their work culture.Are you prepared to lead people?
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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5:53
People-Centered Leader Cycle
Many things in life are cyclical. Leading people is no different. Today I will explain the People-Centered Leader Cycle.Are you prepared to lead people? Find Out
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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8:28
Get the Right People Right - Only Half the Story!
Remember, it’s more than having the right people on the bus, those people need to be in the right seats. This means the right people should be performing using their strengths.If you need help with Leader Development and/or Cul...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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4:48
Improvement or Adaptability? You Need Both!
Improvement and adaptability are our two most important abilities for survival. Just focusing on continuous performance improvement will not necessarily sustain an organization. Adapting to our everchanging world is important to remain relevant...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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5:25
Leader Development, What's Your Plan?
When you transition from individual performer to first-time leader, often you inherit something you did not create. Unless you are an entrepreneur, hiring your first employees, you inherit everything, including the Vision, the Mission, the peop...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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7:00
Delegation - More Than Getting Things Done
Delegation is the process of entrusting another person, to perform something other than their primary responsibility. In this episode you will learn why delegation is more than getting things done.Are you prepared to lead people?
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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5:07
It’s Okay to Say “No, Thank You”
Often top performing individuals are promoted to a leader role, based on their current performance. The flawed assumption is, they will be successful leading people, just as they led themselves, as an individual performer.In this episod...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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5:12
Are you prepared to lead People? Find Out
The common problem I solve is twofold:1. Only 5% of companies have a leader development strategy, because most companies don’t have this competency on staff.2. 60% of first-time leaders fail.I have a phrase that sums up w...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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5:46
Perspective, It Depends!
Perspective is not what you look at it’s what you see. It’s your point of view of the world. Everyone sees things differently. Five people could watch an event and each might have a different recollection, based on their perspective. We are all...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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5:41
Why First-Time Leaders Fail and The Costs
This was one of my most downloaded episodes. I'm offering it as a bonus eposide.I will explain why first-time leaders fail at an alarming rate and the devastating monetary and emotional impacts, your organization will experience for yea...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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4:17
Vision, Mission and Culture Experience
The three most importance foundational aspects of every successful business, is the Vision, Mission and Culture Experience. Successful leaders must clearly understand the importance of these three aspects.Do you know...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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7:36
Know, Like and Trust - One's Missing!
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “know, like and trust”, often referred to as the natural progression for healthy relationships. There is a word missing from this phrase. The word is Distrust. All relationships begin with...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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7:28
Leader KPIs - Not What You Think!
Today our conversation will be about a concept I pioneered, called Leader KPIs.KPI is a business acronym that’s been around for decades. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. These indicators are ab...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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7:12
Communication Paradox - Explained and Prevented
Today I am going to explain why we are experiencing a Communication Paradox and share a couple tips to flip the script in your favor, BIG TIME.Communication is the foundation of relationships and relationships are the esse...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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6:54
Endangered People Skills
Today I will share insight into the 2 most important people skills and why they are endangered. Ironically, with each passing year people skills are becoming increasingly more in demand. People Skills are often inaccurately r...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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7:40
Why People-Centered Leaders Are Desired
Did you ever wonder what makes a great people-centered leader and why the world desires them? This new bite-sized episode answers these two questions and more.If you find my insight valuable, please share this podcast with others...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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8:10
Preventing First-Time Leader Failure
Today I will explain how to prevent first-time leader failure. Before an individual contributor is promoted to a leader role, there are four prerequisites they must meet. You will learn why each prerequisite is important. The four prerequisites...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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8:23
Why First-Time Leaders Fail and The Costs
Today I will explain why first-time leaders fail at an alarming rate and the devastating monetary and emotional impacts, your organization will experience for years. My research and experience revealed somewhere between 40% to 60% of first-time...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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4:17