Explore every episode of the podcast Messy Truth Leadership

Did you ever consider that curiosity might be a superpower for leaders? Don’t you appreciate when someone is wildly curious about you and your ideas? We have a lot to say on this topic including how organizations don’t reward people for taking the time to ask questions, listen deeply and learn more before racing off to solve problems. Join in the conversation.

Quite often, in our first meeting with an executive who is starting their leadership coaching journey, they define their leadership style as ‘leading by example’. But, what does this really mean? And why are such comments so common?

Ki-youn tells us about her inspiring leadership journey, from a designer of state-of-the-art microchips in Korea to the founder of her own health tech start-up in Massachusetts. She talks about her long journey of self-discovery, and why it has been so impactful for her.

We've all experienced this but it's really difficult to come up with effective solutions. Whether you are a team member or team leader, listen in as we discuss some successes and failures.

We thought that leaders were no longer urged to be more “charismatic” but our coaching clients beg to differ. We unpack what the hell this means and offer some alternative language.

We just had to get this off of our collective chests! So many good intentions, so many rating categories, so many people to review, so many people really want the review and so many bosses simply never get around to it. What’s wrong with this picture? Listen in as we b***h and moan.

John talks with us about creating the time and space to know someone else. He talks about what we don’t notice when we interact with someone else, about what we take for granted and about how to pause and how to slow down. John is a researcher, academic and writer who is often in HBR, and the Sloan Management Review. He has published a number of books on dialogue, power, and teams. You can find his most recent HBR piece here. If you’d like to contact John and find out about all his brilliant work, you can do so here.

Dr. Zinsser, an expert in the psychology of human performance, talks about how to stop history repeating itself; if you failed at something in the past, how to be confident that it won’t happen like that in the future. He tells us that to be confident, it does not mean you have to be obnoxious. And he discusses how to be confident even when you do not yet have validation that you can do it.

You can find Dr. Zinsser’s book, The Confident Mind, here.

Simon points out that many founders are reluctant leaders. But they have sufficient self-insight to know they need others to help them. Listen to Simon tell fascinating stories about the growth of two start-ups into unicorns. Simon has been advising start-ups and founders for ages. His cumulative wisdom is in his new book, The Founders’ Legacy.

Find out more about Simon, here. And you can purchase Simon’s brilliant book here.

Josh is Chief Revenue Officer at Quickbase. He has also worked for LogMeIn, Cargurus, Drift and other tech start-ups. He has extensive experience working with founders. In this conversation, he talks about his own leadership journey, including how he learned to work with founders, and the central role of leaders in building teams.