Leadership Biz Cafe With Tanveer Naseer

When it comes to improving our leadership skills, there's an understandable tendency to seek insights on how to succeed at leadership. But what about taking a closer examination at how we lead to better understand the ways that we fail at leadership? It's something I explore through one leader's example in this episode of the Leadership Biz Cafe podcast.If I were to ask you right now to think of the name of a leader, what names come to mind? Many times when I ask this question in my leadership keynotes or training sessions, the typical answers I get are Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Malala Yousafzai, Richard Branson, and Mother Teresa. Invariably, the reason why these individuals are on top of mind for so many people is because each of them in their own way serves as inspiration for how to face adversity or challenges and come out stronger and better in the end.Of course, as I remind my audience in this exercise, as much as we should make note of those leaders who overcame variou

It's become a reality of today's workplace that many of us feel swamped with demands on both our time and attention. But is the problem less a question of how we manage our time and more about how to better manage what we pay attention to? That's the idea I'll be exploring further with international speaker and trainer Maura Nevel Thomas in this episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Maura is the most widely-cited authority on attention management, in addition to her work on productivity and work-life balance. Her insights on attention management have been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and Huffington Post, and she's also a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review. She's the author of three books, including her latest “Attention Management – How To Create Success And Gain Productivity Every Day”, which serves as the focus of this episode.Overthe course of our conversation, Maura and I talk about:How attention management differs from all the other time management strategies out there – and why this one

Most people who choose to become leaders do so with the best of intentions because they naturally want to succeed. So why is it still common to hear people saying they left not because of their organization, but because of their boss? That's the question I get to the heart of with leadership expert Victoria Roos Olsson in this episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Victoria Roos Olsson is a senior leadership consultant working with FranklinCovey, as well as a keynote speaker and author. She has lead learning and development organisations for large corporations across Europe and the Middle East. In fact, learning is one of her key interests and she loves to learn new things, as well as passing on knowledge to see others grow. She is also the co-author of the book “Everyone Deserves a Great Manager”, which is the focus of this episode. Among the topicsVictoria and I discuss:Why one-on-one meetings are so critical to leadership success – provided you have the right mindset about how you approach them.Five energy driv

Have you ever worked for a leader who inspired you to do your best work? Why were they able to? What was their secret? It's a question I aim to answer by sharing a personal story of working for one such leader in this latest installment of Leadership Espresso Shot for this 50th episode of my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.If you're like me, you've probably had your share of horrible to mediocre bosses and if you're lucky, you've also had a few bosses who truly exemplified what it means to be a leader. And maybe luckier still, that working for these bosses not only allowed you to do some of your best work, but also helped you learned a little bit about yourself and where your real purpose lies.I can honestly say I'vehad the good fortune of working for two such leaders and althoughit's been many, many years since the time I work under theirleadership, their example and the lessons they taught me aboutleadership and how I can make a difference still echo and influencethe work I do today.And so, to cel

Digital transformation has become a key focus for many organizations. But is the focus leaders put on digital transformation too limited and consequently leading organizations to miss out on the real potential of digital transformation? That's the focus of my talk with Cisco Chair and IMD Director, Michael Wade in this episode of my podcast, "Leadership Biz Cafe".Michael Wade is the Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation and a Professor of Innovation and Strategy at IMD Business School. He is also the Director of the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, an IMD and Cisco Initiative. Before that, Michael was the Academic Director of the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA Program in Canada.Michael has been named one of the top ten digital thought leaders in Switzerland and he has published works on a variety of topics, including digital business transformation, innovation, strategy, and digital leadership. He’s the author of more than thirty case studies and eight books, his latest being “Orche

If someone were to ask you what 3 personal lessons do you attribute as being key to your success, what would you say? It's a question I've been asked and I thought it would be fun to share the answers in this 10th edition of Leadership Espresso Shot on my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Of course, the motivation behind this being the theme of this episode is not simply because this is the 10th episode in this Leadership Espresso Shot series. Rather, as I've mentioned previously here on my blog, I've been in a celebratory mood around the fact that my leadership firm, Tanveer Naseer Leadership, has celebrated its 10 year anniversary alongside reaching the 10 year milestone in writing for my award-winning and internationally acclaimed leadership blog.When we come upon such important milestones, there should naturally be a desire to not only celebrate the achievements, but to also reflect on what it took to get there. Of what hard-earned lessons were revealed that made the journey possible and success a

Creating alignment in your organization's various processes is critical to being able to achieve your long term goals? But what about creating alignment in terms of how you relate to one another? And how do you go about achieving that? CEO and author Susan Steinbrecher describes how in this latest episode of my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Susan is a business consultant, licensed mediator, and the president and CEO of Steinbrecher And Associates, Inc. a management consulting firm. She's an Inc.com columnist and has been featured in The New York Times and Entrepreneur.com. Susan is also the author of 3 books, including her latest “Meaningful Alignment: Mastering Emotionally Intelligent Interactions at Work and in Life”, which is the focus of this episode.Over the course of thisepisode, Susan and I discuss:What is meaningful alignment and why it's as critical to your success as a leader as achieving alignment in your value chain, business processes, etc.What positive (and negative) impacts arise fr

Without question, one of the skills to succeed at leadership is being an effective communicator. And one of the best ways to communicate a vision is through the use of storytelling. So how can we use this tool more effectively? That's the focus of this latest episode of my leadership podcast “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Of course, being both a keynote speaker and writer, the art of storytelling and using stories to convey an idea or concept is something I'm quite familiar with. In fact, I've had quite a few conference attendees either email me or come up to me at a conference or meeting and share with me how a particular idea I shared all those months an even years ago that I shared in one of my talks has stuck with them because of the story I used to illustrate the message I wanted to impart to my audience.I even remember a dinner conversation with the CEO of a healthcare organization following my corporate training session with various leaders in his organization and how he complemented me on my use of stories to

One of the key responsibilities of leaders is helping their employees to achieve their goals. And yet, with all the distractions and increased demands we face, sometimes this is easier said than done. Thankfully, Warren Buffet has shared a surprisingly simply strategy to successfully achieve our goals, a strategy I share in this episode of my podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.Obviously, I don't want to give it away here on my blog as I'd rather you listen to this edition of show's feature “Leadership Espresso Shot”, which as the name infers are these short, but powerful segments that dive right in and give you some wonderful insights to improve the way you lead your team and organization.And at only 11 minutes long, this episode is the perfect length to listen to as you go get a fresh cup of coffee (or tea for those tea drinkers out there) to either start your day or to keep the day going strong.On a side note, I have to say I'm delighted by the response this new feature has been getting from my audience. As we'

Conflict is something most of us tend to avoid because we view it as being negative and counter-productive. But what if we're seeing this wrong? Could conflict actually be productive and beneficial for our team? That's the focus of my conversation with organizational psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Liane Davey in this episode of my leadership podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”. Liane is the New YorkTimes bestselling author of “You First: Inspire Your Team to GrowUp, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done.” She is also a regularcontributor to the Harvard Business Review and an organizationalpsychology expert for Quartz magazine. As the co-founder of 3COze,she advises on business strategy and executive team effectiveness andhas worked with executives at companies such as Amazon, Walmart,Aviva, TD Bank, 3M, and SONY PlayStation.In this episode, we'll be talking about her book, “The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track”.Over the course of thisepisode, Liane and I discuss

As a leader, it's important that you're not just ensuring your employees complete the tasks they're assigned, but that you're inspiring and empowering your employees to deliver their very best. Of course, the onus is not on your employees to simply go above and beyond. Rather, as a leader, it's your responsibility to provide them with opportunities to do work that is personally fulfilling and meaningful. Work that inspires our employees to not simply thrive under our leadership, but to be extraordinary in what they contribute.To help illustrate this point, I share a story in this latest edition of my Leadership Espresso Shot series of a simple interaction between an employee and his leader that reveals how we can inspire our employees to be extraordinary ... by simply by recognizing how every contribution matters.I don't want to give away too much as it's a wonderful story that not only reminds us of the power of small gestures, but what we as leaders should be doing to ensure our employees remain committed t

For most leaders, improving the way we lead involves developing new strategies and/or processes to be more effective in getting the best out of others. But shouldn't we focusing more on better connecting who we are with how we lead? That's the idea I explore with renowned CEO coach John Mattone in this episode of my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast.John Mattone is a best-selling author and one of the world’s most in-demand CEO coaches and leadership speakers. Since 2017, he has been recognized by Globalgurus.org as one of the top 3 coaching authorities in the world alongside Tony Robbins and Marshall Goldsmith. John Mattone is the former executive coach to the late Steve Jobs and the former legendary CEO of PepsiCo, Roger Enrico.John's work has been featured in several media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, Fast Company, and Thinkers50. He serves on the executive MBA faculty at FAU and is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Hult International School of Business. John is the author of nin

Key to succeeding at leadership in today is our ability to learn new skills to improve the way we lead. But how can we consistently apply these new skills over the long run, instead of falling back on old habits? In this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe, I share 3 simple steps that will make your learning more effective.As I share in this episode of my leadership podcast, this topic was inspired by a question I got from one of my listeners about how to make sure that when leaders at his organization attend conferences or corporate training events, they take what they've learned and apply it to how they lead their divisions, and not slowly revert back to theirprevious day-to-day work routinesNow I've been asked this question many times at the various leadership keynotes and corporate training events I lead. In fact, I even have a leadership keynote, “Shifting from Training People to Continuously Improving Talent” that I created in response to fielding this question from so many leaders on how to ensure their lea

One key to succeeding at leadership is creating a workplace environment that empowers employees to commit their best efforts. To that end, shouldn't leaders also be looking at measures to improve employee health and wellness to help attract and retain employees? That's the focus of my conversation with Virgin Pulse CEO David Osborne in this latest episode of my podcast, “Leadership Biz Cafe”.As CEO of the world’s largest, most comprehensive digital health and well-being provider, David is responsible for optimizing and scaling Virgin Pulse as the company continues an aggressive growth strategy. He is responsible for setting and actualizing the company’s vision – solving the most critical and complex health and well-being challenges faced by employers and employees. David joined Virgin Pulse as chief operating officer in 2016, following the company’s acquisitions of GCC and ShapeUp. As CEO, he has accelerated Virgin Pulse’s growth and expansion, with several successful mergers and acquisitions, all aimed at

Driving collaborative efforts in today's workplaces has certainly become a key focus for many leaders. Unfortunately, there's a common mistake many leaders make about promoting collaboration, a mistake that I reveal alongside 3 powerful strategies to boost collaboration in this fifth edition of my podcast feature, Leadership Espresso Shot.My podcast feature, Leadership Espresso Shot, is a new series of episodes that are designed to be short listens that feature a concentrated dose of insights and actionable advice that are typical of what I'd share with leaders who attend my keynotes or corporatetraining sessions.If you didn’t catch the previous four editions of Leadership Espresso Shot, you can find those along with other past episodes of my podcast on the Leadership Biz Cafe podcast page. You can also find there links to subscribe to my show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more, as well as links to the show notes for every episode.And speaking of which, I'm also delighted to announce that

Over the past few years, there's been a greater acceptance that one critical measure to succeeding at leadership is building and nurturing relationships amongst those you lead. Unfortunately, every few months a new study comes out revealing that many organizations continue to lose employees to their competitors because employees don't feel heard and understood. Meanwhile, a majority of leaders still considerthemselves to be good listeners.So why are leaders convinced they're good listeners when the evidence says otherwise? And what can they do about it? That's the focus of my conversation with Oscar Trimboli in this episode of my Leadership Biz Cafe podcast.Oscar Trimboli is an author, keynote speaker, and host of the podcast, Deep Listening. Since his time working as a marketing director at Vodafone and Microsoft, Oscar has been driven by both a passion for helping others become better listeners both at work at and home, as well by his goal to create 100 million Deep Listeners across the world. Oscar has wor

Earlier this month, my second daughter turned 18 years old. I'll admit it's crazy at times to think the little girl who's artwork used to adorn a previous version of this site is now old enough to vote in Canada's upcoming federal election.But while there are times I miss holding the hand of that little girl who walked alongside me, I must admit I enjoy the conversations I have with her and my other adult daughter about their dreams and aspirations of what type of work they'd like to direct their talents and skills into.Of course, the interesting thing about talking about our dreams for the future is that it seems to be something we think is the sole purview of the young. That at some point in time, we have to let reality in and cast aside those hopeful aspirations of what we can do and who we can become.The irony is that while there may be political and social strife in certain Western countries these days, the fact is that we are living in a time where we can in fact make our dreams a reality. And for leade

There's no question that leadership is hard work and requires a diverse tool kit of skills and abilities to do the job well. But are there actions and behaviours leaders are employing that are actually impeding their ability to succeed in their role? That's the focus of my conversation with this episode's guest, Scott Miller.Scott is the Executive Vice President of Business Development and Chief Marketing Officer for FranklinCovey, a global consulting and training leader in the areas of strategy execution, customer loyalty, leadership and individual effectiveness.Prior to joining FranklinCovey, Scott worked for the Disney Development Company, the real-estate development division of The Walt Disney Company. He has a new book out called “Management Mess to Leadership Success – 30 Challenges To Become the Leader You Would Follow”, which serves as the focus of this episode of my leadership podcast.Over the course of this episode, some of the topics Scott and I discuss include:Why it's important for leaders to 'ca

The arrival of summer-like weather often leads not only to people spending more time outdoors, shaking off the dreariness of the winter months, but also discussions and planning of summer vacation breaks and spending time with family and friends away from work. Or at least it used to be.Every year, there's another study that comes out pointing out how employees are taking less and less time off from work. This year, for example, there was a study that found that only 28% of US employees plan to use all their vacation days, and 4% plan on taking none. And another study by Glassdoor found that 66% of employees admitted that they do work while on vacation.While there are many benefits that we can gain from going on vacation, a study done by researchers at Wharton reveals why taking time off work can help us achieve our goals for this year.It's an idea I explore in this latest episode of my podcast feature, Leadership Espresso Shot, which are short, quick listens that pack a powerful leadership lesson or insight

These days there's a lot of focus on organizational culture in terms of its ability to attract and retain employees in today's shrinking labour market. Naturally, any discussion of an organization's culture also includes an examination of its values, which serve to articulate what that culture looks like in action.And yet, despite this growing focus on organizational culture and values, we continue to see example after example of companies outwardly claiming their organization stands for one thing, but then being caught doing the exact opposite. So how can leaders not only adopt but promote organizational values that impact every decision, choice and behaviour made in the workplace, as opposed to simply being these lofty ideals we simply pay lip service to? That's the focus of this episode and my conversation with brand and change management expert, Mory Fontanez.Mory Fontanez is the founder and CEO of the Eight 22 Group, a consulting firm that describes their focus as being around value-based transformation