The Remarkable Leadership Podcast

Today's episode is the second in a series where I will connect weird or unusual items to leadership. And these items are coming from the challenge that I put out on our social media channels – asking our viewers to submit their suggestions for these items. So catch up on last week's episode and then check out this week where I will talk about the leadership lessons that we can glean from… a pencil! And believe it or not, I've made four connections between the two!

Picture a conference or a large meet and greet situation. How do you feel? Some of us are excited about all the new people we will meet. Others of us, let's just say a root canal sounds like a good alternative. Devora Zack is the author of Networking for People Who Hate to Network. She joins Kevin to look at real networking. It really is about building mutually beneficial connections and we all have a different way of getting there; whether we identify as an introvert or an extrovert. Devora suggests we find our primary temperament and let that work for us, rather than against us and customize the networking to our advantage.

Check out this week's episode where I will compare and contrast the leadership lessons from… a pogo stick!

Tom Ziglar joins Kevin to talk about his new book Choose to Win: Transform Your Life, One Simple Choice at a Time, and yes, the name sounds familiar. Tom is the son of Zig Ziglar and joined his dad's company in the warehouse, to sales, to management, and then on to leadership. Tom is proud of his dad's legacy and carries on the Ziglar philosophy, "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." In his latest book, he builds upon those lessons and discusses how we can find our "why" make simple choices in our lives to build better habits, leading to greater success.

Dr. Jeffrey Hull believes there is a need for new leadership agility. Varying demographics, working across cultures and where folks are located have changed the way leaders need to approach their team to get the best out of them. Dr. Hull is the Director of Education & Business Development at the Institute of Coaching, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate and the author of FLEX: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World". Based on his experiences and other research, Jeffrey shares with Kevin 6 elements leaders need to have success in their organizations.

If you're like most, when you think of "mashup", you think of music. And while this is one way to look at mashup, today we are looking at it as it relates to creativity and leadership. And we'll start by using this definition of mashup: Mashup: a mixture of disparate elements.

Although he has baseball roots, Pat Williams is a basketball Hall of Famer and currently serves as co-founder and senior vice president of the Orlando Magic (NBA). Pat is also the author of over 100 books and sits down with Kevin to discuss his most recent book highlighting the leadership secrets of the United States Military Academy at West Point in Character Carved in Stone: The 12 Core Virtues of West Point That Build Leaders and Produce Success. Pat talks about the inspiration for the book and focuses on character leaders and what it means. He tells stories about the virtues and links them to West Point graduates.

Studies show 70% of the workplace is disengaged, costing $500 billion of lost productivity? Do you find these results surprising? Drew Tarvin is a self-proclaimed "Humor Engineer" and believes we should move beyond how to do a job to ow to enjoy a job for better results (more impact on the bottom line). So, should work/can work be fun? Drew joins Kevin to discuss his book, Humor That Works: The Missing Skill for Success and Happiness at Work. Drew shares that it's not about the jokes or wisecracks; it's about looking at the job in a new and energizing way. He reverse-engineers the skill of humor in a way that you can use as a tool for better results.

Have you ever noticed that how closely you look at something determines what you see? As leaders, it's really important that we look closely so that we can really understand what's going on in our team, in our organization and in our jobs. Check out this episode to learn more about what I mean.

The workplace is changing; it's the technology, it's the location, it's the diversity of the people. So, if we know the workplace is changing, we need to be thinking about how we change our leadership. Ty Bennett is an author and founder of Leadership Inc. Today he sits down with Kevin to discuss his most recent book, Partnership Is the New Leadership. Ty believes that we can no longer rely on leading from a place of authority or title. By showing up as a partner with our team, they will show up for you. This means a direct result to the bottom line. Ty shares his thoughts about the balance between care and candor and looks at commitment.