Out of the Comfort Zone
There is no growth in comfort and no comfort in growth. Business today typically values and promotes leaders for their subject expertise. Leaders who have command of the details and execute based on knowledge and experience are highly respected. However, to grow as a leader you have to get out of your comfort zone – that means learning to lead without just being the expert. Learn to gain the trust and respect of a team that might know more than you do. Get comfortable with ambiguity and with not having all the information. Develop the skills and confidence to lead in a different way.
For female leaders, subject expertise is usually the source of their confidence. Learning to lead outside your comfort zone is one step for breaking through the glass ceiling.
The show’s purpose is to give you tips on how can you develop the capability to lead – to get out of your comfort zone?
Episodes
589 episodes
Outwitting the Swirl of Mind Drama with Donna Jackson Nakazawa
You know the experience – something happens at work, you can’t stop thinking about it, you keep talking about it, the feelings are intense and you probably feel the tension in your body. You keep ruminating over and over. How can you stop the c...
Debriefing to Drive Performance with Jeff “Bones” Bonner
We believe that experience is the great teacher and that what we do in a classroom or team room isn’t as powerful as learning by experience. I have seen people learn the wrong lessons from experience and I have seen people repeat the same mista...
Shadows in Leadership with Steven D’Souza
As leaders, all of us are capable of doing things for “the greater good” and all of us also have a shadow side that can cause stress in those we lead, maybe even harm at times. These two - the bright side and the shadow side - have been researc...
Taking Time Off with DJ DiDonna
What if your company offered a sabbatical? How does a sabbatical help you be a better leader and help your company at the same time? What are best practices? Is a mini-sabbatical effective or not? Those are the questions we are talking about.
Doing Better Good with Scott M. Curran
Rarely do we talk about ways to boost our mood, build a sense of community and just plain feel good about ourselves. Doing good for others is one way of feeling good. How does this work? How can you think differently about your opportunities to...
Being Effective and Doing Great Work with Melissa Swift
The pressure is on. Demands on your time and attention are unrelenting. The fears from AI abound. The team expects an incredible amount of your time and energy. Everything feels chaotic. Given that state of affairs, what can you do to make sure...
Finding a 25th Hour with Neal Schore
There are two facts I would like you to consider:1) If you are working in a role that matters, there will never be enough time. 2) You waste more time than you realize. How do you carve back minutes and hours that...
The Power of Pace with Elizabeth Svoboda
The pace of everything today in every aspect of life takes a toll eventually. How do you know when enough is enough? What can we learn from athletes about pacing? What do you do without damaging your reputation?
Phenomenal Communication with Jennifer Logue
Communication is everything in business – getting people to understand, to change, to see an opportunity, to buy into your approach, to buy into you – everything. The more effective you are at communication the more successful you will be as a ...
Data-Inspired Organizations with Sebastian Wernicke
Data is king – or is it? What pitfalls should we watch out for as we move towards a more data-centric, AI world? What are we getting wrong about how we use data to drive decisions? What do we need to do as leaders to create a culture that is da...
How Your Brain Creates Reality with Daniel Yon
What if what you think you see is not actually what is really present? What if you knew that your brain was constructing reality? Would that cause you to re-think your decisions, how you see people or your interpretations of what is going on? W...
The Elevated Leader with Laurie Maddalena
I know you are busy, are you having the impact you want to have? Are you stuck in too much execution without enough time to see the larger landscape? How do you shift into facilitation mode as a leader and leverage yourself out of execution mod...
How the Marvel Characters Influence Your Leadership with Sy Islam
All of us are influenced by others in what we think is the right way to lead, collaborate, team up or even ask for help. Some of those influencers are other people in life, particularly in early life. Some of those influences come from movies a...
Surviving the Aftershock with Caroline Stokes
The shock forces are coming from all directions and they are powerful. How ready are you as a leader to navigate not just the shocks but also the aftershocks? What do you need to do to be mentally, emotionally and socially prepared?
Making Decisions in an Uncertain World with Haywood Spangler
There is never enough data to be certain any given decision is a good one or not. The more senior you become, the harder it is to be sure. Data is incomplete and unclear, there are competing interpretations, and advice goes in different directi...
Wired on Wall Street with Tom Hardin
Sometimes the choices we make work out brilliantly, for the “greater good”. Sometimes the choices we make do not work out so well. And sometimes those choices are a slippery slope that puts you making more choices you never expected to make. It...
Keeping Your Team Engaged with Nick Smallman
A Nightmare Scenario: You have a massive project to deliver, you and your team are just barely managing the tasks, and an important team member resigns unexpectedly. It’s more common than you might think. So what can you do to make ...
Jolts That Leave You Wanting to Quit with Anthony Klotz
One day, something happens and you snap. Maybe you loved your work yesterday, but today you are ready to just walk away. Maybe it’s a new manager you are not happy with, maybe it’s some other change, maybe your colleagues are leaving. ...
Calming Your Brain in an Always On World with Shaady Harrison
You think you can handle the stress in your life. Your team will tell you otherwise because they live with the consequences. As a leader, you cast a long shadow that destroys the team’s productivity. An off-handed comment by you bec...
Leading at Edge of Familiarity with Amy Clark
Breaking out of your comfort zone is breaking away from the need to know everything about the work your team is doing. It is also about breaking away from the familiar, the known, the day-to-day and facing that edge of uncertainty. How do you d...
Hidden Project Drivers with Kursten Faller
AI will force us to be “more human or be obsolete”. So what does it mean to be more human as a leader and still drive results, get great performance, keep a team engaged and motivated? Especially in a world that is driven by project after proje...
Understanding the Impact of Your Past with Ilona Cepelakova
To lead well, you must maintain some degree of emotional balance. Otherwise, people stop wanting to tell you the things you most need to know and they stop creatively solving problems just to name two consequences. Sometimes though what is caus...
Thriving & Feeling Alive at Work with Aoife O’Brien
Thriving at work sounds like a pipe dream. The question for the day is what you can do as a manager to create the conditions for each of your team members to feel that they can truly thrive at work.
High-Altitude Leadership with Chris Clearfield
Too often leaders create more problems for themselves and for the team by being the one who solves problems, is in the middle of KPI’s, juggling multiple priorities. It’s a well-intentioned trap but a trap nevertheless. How can you get out of i...
Speaking Out, Speaking Up and Collaborating with Betsy Kauffman
Suppose you are charged with a challenge and you know there are obstacles that are not being addressed. How can you speak out to your leaders without risking it all? How can you encourage your team to speak up to you? How can you get your peers...
