Leadership Biz Cafe With Tanveer Naseer

One of the perks of hosting my leadership podcast is I get to speak with some fascinating and thought-provoking people whose insights help us to learn and grow. So for my last episode for 2020, I wanted to share some of my favourite moments from this past year where my guests shared insights that are both timely to what we’re dealing with right now, and timeless for how it will help us in 2021 and beyond.Now to be clear, this isn’t some kind of Top 10 list of mine, given that I’ll be publishing in mid-January 2021 a list of the most popular episodes from 2020 based on listening/download metrics.Instead, these are moments from conversations I’ve had with some of my guests that in some cases were prescient in addressing the challenges we’re now dealing with, even though at the time of our recording we weren't in the midst of a global pandemic.In other cases, my guests offered insights that can help us to not only get through what we’re facing today and for the next few months in 2021, but even beyond the pandem

Few words inspire optimism and hope for the future like "opportunity". But as I reveal in this latest installment of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, the truth is our relationship with opportunity is much more complicated and worthy of more reflection and review.Granted, in light of the pandemic, pondering our relationship with opportunity might seem like something that should be examined at a later date, when the situation is calmer or at least more certain. But that’s why in this episode I share quotes from such innovative thinkers and doers as Thomas Edison and Sir Richard Branson to remind us that conditions are always ripe for finding opportunities and that the real challenge is how we understand and evaluate them.Now I don’t want to write anything more as I don’t want to give too much away. But given how my Leadership Espresso Shot series on my leadership podcast is designed to offer these condensed, but thought-provoking insights into how to improve your leadership craft, I can tell you it’s worth t

For most of us, the best leader we ever worked for not only led our team to succeed, but also helped us fulfill our career aspirations. So what is that ‘secret sauce’ that allowed these leaders to not only achieve their organization’s goals, but attract and grow employees under their care? That’s a question I’ll be putting to my guest, Professor Sydney Finkelstein, in this episode of the Leadership Biz Cafe podcast.Sydney is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management and is on the global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Sydney has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers “Why Smart Executives Fail” and his latest, “Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent”, which Sydney and I discuss in this episode.Over the course of our conversation, Sydney shares:What traits leaders who are able to attract and build talent within employees share in common.Why superbosses lov

One of the key responsibilities of leadership is to provide a workplace environment that encourages people to do their best work. In this edition of the Leadership Espresso Shot series for my leadership podcast, I share 4 steps that can help leaders cure a toxic workplace.In my previous piece, I asked the question as to whether your leadership inspires collaboration or conflict amongst your employees and shared strategies for how leaders can not only avoid organizational silos, but the more damaging mindset of seeing people as us vs. them.This piece certainly proved to be popular, with many people reaching out to share with me various measures their organization has had to put into place to ‘keep the peace’. But I also had a few leaders reach out to say how they’re struggling with how to overcome a toxic workplace environment that is not only impacting employee productivity and morale, but understandably leading to higher than normal turnover rates.So to follow up on that piece I mentioned above, I decided to

If ever there was a singular event that brought to the forefront the influence - if not importance - of good governance, there’s little question the pandemic fits that bill. Indeed, throughout the world, we’re seeing a critical examination of not only how effective governments at all levels are at not only protecting its citizenry from this global pandemic, but doing so in a way that doesn’t create long-term damage to their economies and societies at large.While in some countries this discussion has become highly politicized, the fact is leaders in both the private and public sectors have a vested interest in how well - or how badly - their governments manage this crisis.That’s why I wanted to sit down with Adrian Wooldridge, the political correspondent for The Economist who along with John Mickelthwait, editor in chief of Bloomberg News, have written their 7th book called “The Wake Up Call - Why The Pandemic Has Exposed The Weakness of the West, And How To Fix It”, to talk about what governments in Europe an

During challenging times, it’s critical that leaders boost their communication time to provide clarity and assurance to their employees. In this edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, I make the case that it’s equally important for leaders to express more gratitude through their leadership when faced with uncertainty about the future.Now this past Monday was Thanksgiving Day here in Canada which commemorates the end of the harvest season. For my family, this long weekend holiday is our favourite time to visit with our extended family and share laughs, good times, and warm memories. Unfortunately, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians have been advised to stay home to slow the spread of this virus. But while we weren’t able to visit with family, I still found myself thinking about all the things I’m grateful for, despite all the challenges and problems this global pandemic has given rise to.And this got me thinking about how important it is for leaders to express gratitude through their leadership

With the global pandemic expected to continue well into 2021, pandemic fatigue has become a real issue as prolonged stress has been shown to impact our critical thinking skills. In this special episode of my leadership podcast, I share 3 simple steps that will help you boost your critical thinking skills during this global pandemic.https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wx3RexJpxz0UJG0f6pjCe?si=6CItbQe4SQm4ssx5Tlv3yA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's no question you'll make mistakes as a leader, no matter how experienced you may be. What really matters is how well you manage mistakes, especially when you're the one responsible for them. In this episode of my leadership podcast, I share 3 questions you should ask yourself to determine how well you manage mistakes.Of course, it's never easy to have discussions around mistakes that were made, regardless of who made them. And so, to help ease ourselves into this conversation, I share in this edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series a personal story about one of my daughters. If you've ever attended one of my leadership keynotes – either in person or lately in one of the virtual conferences I've done online, I'm sure you've noticed how I enjoy sharing stories to help illustrate a point, if not also to make the ideas more memorable. And when you hear how this story ends, I'm sure you'll understand why I enjoy sharing this one.Now as I mentioned at the end of this episode, not only are we hard at wo

In many organizations, it can take up to 10 years before new leaders get leadership development training, leaving most to figure things out on their own. So what should new managers be paying more attention to? And what mistakes are they more likely to make? That's what I'll be discussing with my guest, Inc columnist Peter Economy, in this episode of my leadership podcast, "Leadership Biz Cafe".Peter is a best-selling business author, developmental editor, and publishing consultant. Some of you might know him as The Leadership Guy from his popular column on Inc. He's also the best-selling author of over 100 books, his latest being “Wait, I'm the Boss?!? The Essential Guide for New Managers to Succeed from Day One” which Peter and I will be talking about in this episode.Over the course of our conversation, Peter and I discuss:The key to measuring employee progress and performance that every manager should be employing in their leadership toolkit.4 factors critical to assessing employee performance.How new mana

How can leaders overcome those typical assumptions that not only distort what realities their employees have to deal with, but what their employees really need to be successful in their efforts? In this edition of Leadership Espresso Shot, I share 4 questions leaders can use to gain greater clarity in their leadership.The inspiration for this latest episode of my leadership podcast actually came to me while I was on summer vacation with my family. As an avid reader, I like to bring along books that give me a mental break from the usual material I read either to prep for interviews with my guests on my podcast, for developing content for new leadership keynotes or corporate training events, or even to get inspiration for a new piece for my leadership blog.It was while enjoying one of these summer vacation reads that got my mind thinking about how often leaders confuse how they view their leadership as being the same as the experience their employees have under their leadership, a phenomenon I referred to in my

There's been a growing demand for leaders to be more 'human' in the way they lead. While this approach offers many benefits, it also can amplify our inner negativity that leaves us doubting our abilities. So how can leaders balance being more human with overcoming these negative elements that can drag us down? That's the focus of this episode of the Leadership Biz Cafe podcast with guest Beth Weissenberger.Beth is the co-founder and President of Corporate Division of Handel Group, an executive life coaching company. Her corporate clients have included Live Nation, Ticket Master, AMC, Core Club, Liberty, Ogilvy, and many more. Beth is also a regular contributor to Business Insider, Forbes, and the Huffington Post.Some of the things Beth and I discuss over the course of our conversation include:Why we should change looking at the word human as a verb instead of just a noun.The 3 distinct inner voices that weigh you down and make you doubt your abilities to succeed.What are “career hauntings” and the 3 steps we

Without question, the global pandemic has created unexpected hardships and uncertainty. It's also amplified issues many leaders have failed to adequately address. In this latest edition of Leadership Espresso Shot, I delve into one of these leadership blindspots and reveal why leaders can no longer afford to put it on the back burner.In my previous piece, I shared some strategies based on neuroscience on how leaders can boost their critical thinking in light of the chronic stress environment the current pandemic has created. Based on the overwhelming, positive response to this piece (who knew so many people would be inspired over taking walks to help them boost their critical thinking skills), I wanted to address another critical aspect of leadership that needs to be addressed during this global pandemic.Without question, the current global crisis has not only upended any sense of normalcy, but it has created some wide-ranging economic hardships that many expect will take years to recover from.And while the p

Psychological safety in today's workplaces has been garnering a lot of attention as leaders and organizations look for ways to boost productivity and retention in their workplace. But is our understanding of this concept too narrow? Are we missing out on real opportunities to not just fuel engagement and collaboration, but innovation and untapped growth opportunities? That's some of the areas I'll be exploring with my guest Dr. Timothy Clark in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Tim is the founder and CEO of LeaderFactor, a consulting firm that specializes in organizational change, strategic agility, psychological safety, and emotional intelligence. In addition to attaining his PhD in social science from Oxford University, Tim is a two-time CEO and he has written five books, including his latest, “The Four Stages Of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation”, which is what Tim and I discuss in this episode.Over the course of our conversation, Tim and I discuss:What psychological saf

One of the key metrics to gauge your success as a leader is how well you're able to get your employees to work together as a team. That's why in this latest Leadership Espresso Shot edition of my podcast, Leadership Biz Cafe, I share 4 lessons on successful team-building inspired from an unlikely source.Now there's no question team-building is both an important and often-discussion topic in the leadership space. In fact, doing a google search for team-building will give you over five billion search entries – evidently, there's a lot of team-building going on out there.Granted, most or at least the top search queries are for various team-building exercises and a lot of times that's what we think of when we think of team-building. Of how to create camaraderie amongst your employees to ensure they'll all work together.While this is important, it's not the only thing leaders should be focusing on in terms of not only building their team, but sustaining their ability to continue to collaborate and work off of each

In today's increasingly complex workplaces, leaders need to be experts who can make the best decisions for their team. But how do you succeed at leadership over areas where your expertise is limited? That's what I'll be asking my guest, Wanda Wallace, in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Wanda is the managing partner of Leadership Forum, where she coaches leaders and works with teams to improve leadership capability. Prior to founding Leadership Forum she was the executive Vice President at Duke Corporate Education, Associate Dean of Executive Education at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, as well as assistant professor in marketing.Wanda has worked with American Express, Deutsche Bank, Ford Motor Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase, and has also written several academic publications.Wanda is also the author of several books, including her latest “You Can't Know It All – Leading In the Age of Deep Expertise”, which serves as the focus of this episode's conversation.O

When it comes to leadership success, a key foundational stone is your ability to gain and foster trust within the organization. So why are we continuing to see low trust levels for those in leadership positions? What's missing in our understanding about fostering trust? That's one of the questions I ask my special guest, Stephen M.R. Covey in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Stephen is the cofounder of CoveyLink and the FranklinCovey Speed of Trust Practice, as well as being the former President and CEO of the Covey Leadership Center. Regarded as a global authority on trust, leadership and culture, Stephen has worked with leaders to help them understand what it takes to nurture, extend, and restore trust throughout their organization. Stephen is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Speed of Trust – The One Thing That Changes Everything”, which serves as the focus of my conversation with Stephen in this episode.Over the course of this episode, Stephen and I discuss:What's behind the current low

When it comes to managing setbacks, the typical approach focuses on discovering what went wrong to prevent a similar issue from arising. But what we often overlook is the emotional context of managing setbacks, something I explore through a personal example in this latest edition of Leadership Espresso Shot on my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Now there's no question many of us are grappling with how to manage and lead in this unprecedented time of uncertainty. It's certainly unprecedented in how practically every industry and type of work is grappling with some form of setback and conditions that make it difficult to make concrete plans for how to get back on track.It's not surprising then why there's growing concern and wary, not just over when the pandemic will end, but how the idea of us all merely being on pause is more wishful thinking than a realistic understanding of the long-term impact and fallout from this global health crisis, but economically and socially.That's why as leaders, it's im

Many of us recognize the importance of storytelling in leadership to improve the way we communicate. But the truth is there's more than one story that a leader should be able to tell at a moment's notice in order to inspire, inform and provide direction to those they lead. So what are those different story types? That's what I'll explore with my guest, Paul Smith, in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Paul is one of the world’s leading experts in business storytelling. A former consultant at Accenture and former executive at Proctor & Gamble, Paul has since done research into storytelling where he's documented over 2,000 individual stories through which he's identified the components of effective storytelling. Paul's work has been featured in Time, Inc Magazine, Forbes, and Fast Company to name a few. He's also the author of 4 books, including “The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell”, which is the focus of my conversation with Paul in this episode.Over the course of this episode, Paul and I discuss:What are t

This pandemic has certainly created an unprecedented global crisis, leading to a wide range of responses and actions. In this special episode of my leadership podcast, I look at how one leader has been successfully managing this crisis and what 3 important lessons on crisis management we can learn from their example.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GaKc47iJz3xG6gORZ916W?si=ee12b4b82c96499c Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If there's one aspect of today's workplaces most of us could do without, it's office politics. And yet, the simple truth is you need to master it to grow your career. Unfortunately, for most women, this is easier said than done. So how can they overcome this hurdle and become more valued contributors to their organization? Renowned executive coach Bonnie Marcus shares how in this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe.Bonnie is a renowned executive coach who specializes in helping women decode their organization's culture in order to not only help them advance in their careers, but become stronger contributors to their organizations goals. In fact, since 2014, Bonnie has been recognized by Global Gurus as one of the top 30 coaches in the world.In addition to her coaching work, Bonnie has been a regular contributor to Forbes, as well as having her work appear in Fortune, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and Fast Company. In this episode, Bonnie and I talk about her book “The Politics of Promotion: