Values-based leadership is the number one catalyst for cultural change.

On the Lead Up Podcast we talk a lot about the power of values and how they can be leveraged to improve your hiring process, elevate coaching efforts, and guide decision-making. 

However, it’s important to remember that your values don’t work unless you do. 

Simply listing out values you believe in isn’t enough. 

You and your people must embody them as a non-negotiable standard of behavior.

Check out this week’s episode to hear host Mike Harbour and special guest Ryan Miller discuss the importance of values-based leadership and how YOU can bring your values to life in your workplace. 

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

To learn more about Ryan and PWI here.

Annual reviews serve as a great opportunity for both the team members and the leaders conducting them. Unfortunately, most leaders don’t have a structured plan to make the most of the opportunity. 

In this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, your host, Mike Harbour shares 4 P’s that you MUST implement into your annual review to launch you and your team into the coming year.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

If you want to get the most out of your employees, develop a thriving culture, and retain great employees, then your primary objective should be to develop authentic connections with your people. This means showing up consistently. Not once a year, or once a quarter. 

You have to make intentional connections a regular part of your routine. 

In this week’s episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike and special guest Ken Schmidt talk about “Making Some Noise” and making people your priority to improve results.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

You can learn more about Ken here.

On this episode of The Lead Up podcast, Mike is joined by guest Paul Gustavson.

Mike and Paul speak about the power of imagination and how you can optimize your imagination to shape the future and those around you.

Paul provides us with an insight into full-spectrum innovation and how you can implement it as a leader. They also discuss why it’s better to live in imagination as opposed to living in memory.

Paul talks about his book, Imagine: The surprising truth about hope and the 12 powerful ways to invent the future. He shares how the inspiration came during the pandemic when he noticed that everyone just needed hope – and hope comes from imagination.

Mike and Paul talk about one of the most impactful chapters in his book, The Power of Curiosity, and how it’s an absolute must-read, not only for leaders but for parents and anyone that still dreams.

Paul states that success is when imagination meets reality, so make sure to give his book a read so that you can begin maximizing your imagination and your team's imagination!

For more information about the book and Paul, head over to his website:  www.Theimaginebook.com/leadup 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by Mickey Trent. Mickey works with Anteris Talent Advisors, a retained executive search and talent acquisition consulting firm. Mickey has over 20 years of healthcare executive recruiting experience and she shares how she got into recruiting and how the pandemic really changed the game for recruiting.

Mike and Mickey talk about their favorite aspects of recruiting and Mickey shares how she loves working with so many different people and seeing them grow in positions. They also talk about the challenges recruiters are facing right now and how money is not the driving force for people leaving their jobs to go to similar positions at different organizations.

They discuss why it’s so important for companies to hire the right people in today's workforce. Mickey speaks about how she’s seeing, particularly in the healthcare sector, that employees are doing a lot more and with less so it’s crucial that organizations are finding the perfect fit. Mike shares his ideas on ‘closed-loop systems’ when it comes to the hiring process and why ensuring you let people know when they don’t get the job is so important. 

Mike and Mickey discuss the main questions organizations need to ask why they’re looking for leaders as being the following:

• Can you provide examples of times you applied the skills we’re looking for and the results you’ve experienced from using said skills?
• What are the processes and systems you have put in place to sustain the success you’ve had?
• What are some critical errors you made, how did you fix them and what did you learn from them?
• Can you share some information on how many people you’ve helped to develop into becoming leaders and how you did that?

If you’d like to work with Mickey or would like some more information about the work she does you can reach her by phone: 615.519.6955, email: mtrent@anteristalentadvisors.com, or website: www.anteristalentadvisors.com 

In this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike talks to us about dreaming big.

He shares an acrostic for DREAM

D is for desire

R is for relationships

E is eliminating bad relationships/habits

A is action

M is make mistakes

Listen to this episode to learn how each of these can help you to dream bigger and achieve those dreams.

We would love for you to leave us a review on your preferred listening platform and the podcast with your friends.

Be sure to follow us on social media - our links can be found at www.harbourresources.com

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is on his own today for episode 308 to share with you why mindset matters and how you can begin to strengthen your mind for success in all areas of leadership and life. Mike is also going to share with us 3 books he highly recommends, three practices you need to implement to create habits around, and three ways you can protect your mindset as you strengthen over time.

Mike remembers a rhetorical question asked by a speaker, “Do you want to know what the next year or next five years is going to look like for you?”. As he listened the question became more interesting as he was in a growth period and looking for life’s easy button. His answer which stuck with Mike was “Your life one year from now, your life five years from now is going to be exactly like it is right now, unless you change the way you think”. 

Mike goes on to share his three ideas to shift your mindset.

1. Read good books.
2. Surround yourself with people who think differently than you think and bigger than you think.
3. Invest in a coach.

The three books Mike recommends are The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry, a biblically routed mindset book, As A Man Thinketh by James Allen, a small book written in 1902 but the principles are still the same, and finally Mindset by Carol Dweck, which teaches the difference between growth and fixed mindset. 

After touching on the personal journey he’s been on, Mike gives us three tips to sustain our mindset.

1. Get proper rest, without your phone.
2. Eat really well
3. Be really good with your exercise habits

All the links to the books are available below and to check out some more information and see the partners of the podcast go to LeadUpPodcast.com. If you enjoyed please leave a 5-star review and subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss a new episode.

As a Man Thinketh

The 4:8 Principle

Mindset

On this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike is joined by guest, the human igniter, Carolyn Swora! Carolyn joins the podcast from Burlington, Ontario. She shares spent 17 years in the corporate world before branching out into her own business working on culture, leadership and helping leaders realize that self-awareness is the key way to lead in the workplace and in life!

Mike and Carolyn speak about the following topics leaders should be aware of:

• How to deal with burnout
• Enneagram types; what they mean, how we can leverage them
• Igniting the spark within your workforce as we are all holding something back
• Tapping into your heart center
• The importance of regulating your nervous system

Carolyn gives her best advice to leaders listening to this episode. She encourages you to listen to your body, trust your own intuition and get curious about how you respond to situations. Mike and Carolyn speak about how self-awareness is like an onion, there are so many layers we need to peel back, and how self-awareness is the differentiator between successful and unsuccessful leaders.

Mike encourages you to check out Carolyn's book, Rules of Engagement to learn more about these critical topics, which you can find here: Rules of Engagement. Carolyn also gives some exciting information about her new book, Ignited Leadership. The book includes vital information about how you can gain an understanding of the three centers of intelligence and trauma-informed leadership. This is definitely a conversation leaders need to be having to progress in the future of leadership, post-pandemic. Ignited Leadership will be released in Spring 2023.

For more information head over to: www.carolynswora.com.

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode and leave a review on your listening platform, as it helps us grow and reach new audiences to spread the message. Thanks for listening!

In this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike is sharing the importance of choosing the right coach.

What is a coach:

• someone that comes alongside you and maybe helps instruct you in a specific area.

Why choosing the right coach is so important:

• A coach can help you to set your goals and start living the dreams you have for yourself. We all have goals and this time of year we look at what we have accomplished with the goals we set for ourselves. We will soon be setting new goals and may need someone to help us achieve those or exceed the expectations we have. 

Why investing in yourself is so important:

• You can read books, and listen to podcasts or books on audible to grow. But the fastest way to grow is to invest in a coach. A Coach can help you create clarity and to move to the next level. 

You can learn more about Harbour Resources Coaching here or email us at contactus@harbourresoruces.com

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by special guest, Chris York. Chris shares his journey throughout his career and how he has been in healthcare leadership for 30 years now, despite starting in industrial engineering.

You will learn how Chris led his team through the greatest challenge to our healthcare system over the last two years. He shares what he learned about leadership, his people, and the challenges we need to fix.

These are some vital lessons he learned as a leader during the pandemic:

• How to deal with mass fear
• Communicate; keep your people in the know with transparent and frequent communication
• Provide people with a pathway forward 

Also, we get into some discussion about the healthcare workforce shortages and how Covid accelerated the pace. Now we are in the early stages of a more critical challenge and have some ideas on how we can face the people and talent needs. 

Chris wrote a book titled Set The Standard and shares a call to push against unbelief and the unknown of what we have never done before. And how Chris is using this rally cry today when most of our staff feel overworked and burned out.

We will learn how to develop our mindset which determines our ability to outpace our problems and push through with grit and persistence. You will also learn why trust in leadership is at an all-time low, and how can we use love to raise the bar and bring trust back to our teams.

Mike and Chris discuss the importance of mentorship. Chris shares how one of the best mentors he’s ever had, completely changed his life with one small task that helped him achieve his career goals. This was to set himself a career path from 25-65 and work back in increments of 2-3 years. Chris also tells us about how being a mentor for others is a huge part of his life now and how he has mentored three different individuals who have gone on to become hospital CEO’s. Mike and Chris talk about how when we as leaders take care of our people, the profits take care of themselves.

They also talk about mental health and well-being issues we face as leaders and share their best advice on how you can address these issues with your team and how you can be there and be supportive of your people.

Make sure to check out Chris’ amazing and knowledgeable complete book: Set the Standard

On this episode, Mike shares 3 ways leaders can destroy confidence and sabotage high-performers in the workplace. 

If you are trying to retain, but are vague with your words you could be doing more damage. You need to be specific when sharing praise for a job well done. Show you appreciate and value them as a team member.

Being specific with how or what they did will let them know they were noticed and will in turn make them feel valued. 

Comparison praise is the second type of toxic praise. We as a society are constantly hit with comparisons between social media and tv. So, as leaders when we compare our team members to one another we can create resentment and decrease the trust in the team.

Results-based praise is the third form of toxic praise. If we put so much emphasis on the results we get away from the individual and create burned out and leave the individual feeling unappreciated.

Mike has written about these and other ways to retain your current team in Quit Losing Talent. You can click here to get your copy. If you would like more information on how to create a Quit Losing Talent Culture you can schedule a call with Mike. 

Be sure to leave us a review and rating on your favorite platform. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Nicole Malachowski. Nicole shares her incredible story of being amazed and inspired by the United States Air Force at the age of 5 years old. She joined the Air Force and served for over 20 years until her life took an unexpected turn due to an illness which lead her to become a leadership development coach and trainer!

Nicole shares about growing up in a family where both her grandfathers and her father served in the military which resulted in her understanding that serving in the military was an honorable thing to do.

Mike and Nicole discuss how being in the Air Force helped her grow into the leader she has become today and how the military is full of growth opportunities.

They share stories about people who had major impacts on their lives. Nicole tells us that you should always believe in the people who believe in you as you may not always see your own strengths as others do.

Nicole provides us with an insight into her Loosen your Grip Leadership approach. She advises all leaders to be efficient with how they use their time, talent, and treasure by figuring out what they do have control over and finding resources to help manage the things they don’t have full control over.  

Nicole also shares her incredible recovery story and what she learned about herself, and the world during the process. She explains how she was diagnosed with a Neurological Tick born illness and suffered extreme loss overnight and became completely dependent on other people while being bedridden for 9 months.

Nicole shares some encouraging words and expresses how we all have the power to reinvent ourselves! 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by returning guest Rachel Gillette, a fantastic leader and CEO of Studer Community Institute! Throughout this episode, Mike and Rachel discuss topics such as the change leaders are being faced with due to COVID-19, the younger generations having different values and goals, how to create comfortable conversations with your teams around mental health and general well-being, and many more helpful topics that leaders can take some tips from to improve their leadership today.

Rachel gives us an insight into how Studer Community Institute is a non-profit focused on improving the quality of life for people which she has heavily contributed towards by building jobs and through leadership growth and development.

Mike and Rachel discuss the change leaders are facing with a younger generation coming into the workforce. Rachel explains how we as leaders need to be looking at their needs and understand the growth they are striving for. Mike and Rachel also speak about the change in the workforce that was brought on by COVID-19. Rachel shares he experiences on how the workforce is re-assessing what’s important to them and individually redefining what success means.

Mike and Rachel talk about how leaders can improve their leadership today. Rachel expresses how one of the No.1 things she’s seeing the workforce prioritizing is flexibility. Rachel states that work has had a shift down on the list of what’s important to people and how leaders need to embrace that change in order to continue to be successful. Mike shares how it is incredibly important that leaders learn to manage expectations as opposed to managing the clock.

Mike and Rachel share their best advice on how leaders can support other leaders as well as how to create comfortable conversations around mental health and well-being.

Rachel provides us with information about the upcoming EntreCon event: Moving from Surviving to Thriving which will be held in Pensacola, Florida November 16th and 17th. Rachel suggests that you can connect with people from all different industries virtually or at the live event so make sure to check it out!

No matter how amazing your company is, you will lose people. 

Even the most impressive team cultures experience turnover. 

The problem is, that most companies sort exiting employees into either the “don’t leave” or “good riddance” categories instead of latching on the opportunities that leaving employees offer.

Check out this week’s episode of the Lead Up Podcast, where we discuss 5 Tactics for you to make the most of employee exits and start releasing talent to sing your praises!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by returning guest Kerry Wekelo! Kerry returns to the podcast to share some more inspiring motivation tips for leaders to use to motivate, encourage and create a goal-driven culture within the workforce.

Kerry gives us an insight into her career background as the Chief Operating Officer for Actualise Consulting. She has been working with the company for 17 years with the past 12 being heavily focused on people and the culture within the organization.

Kerry shares the importance of getting to know your people so that you as a leader can help them to meet their own goals and the company goals.

Kerry encourages great leaders to ask these questions during regular and consistent check-ins:

• How are you doing on a personal level?
• What are the biggest challenges you are facing right now?
• How can I help with some of these challenges?

Mike and Kerry discuss how mental health checks should be a huge priority for leaders. Kerry gives us some of the things she does for her workforce that other great leaders should do to promote honesty and openness around mental health:

• Do regular wellness check
• Create various ways your team can ground themselves and talk about what they’re experiencing through a yoga class, a mindfulness class, a meditation class, a fitness class, etc.
• Be honest as a leader, share your struggles and how you manage them

You can connect with Kerry through LinkedIn 

You can check out Kerry’s book, Gratitude Infusion,  

This is a special episode of The LeadUp Podcast - It is episode 300! 

WOW! It has gone by so fast.

On this episode, Mike is sharing 3 things that he has done to be successful and also sharing some mistakes he has made during the process. 

Mike's goal has always been to deliver content to help you as a leader and give you tangible tools to grow and to help you help your team. He continues to strive to get better himself to ensure he is always following through on his commitment.

He is offering a free gift on this episode, so listen, take some notes and take the challenge.

Sign up so you get notified when a new episode is released. 

Let us know if you have any questions or something you may want to hear more of on the podcast. Just click here to send us a message.

 On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by special guest SandyFenili to discuss how leaders can motivate and engage their employees. They talk about the difference between the old, ineffective ways leaders used to motivate and engage their workforce to the new, improved, and adapted methods leaders are using.

Sandy Fenili created Modern Motivation, a women-owned business designed to help leaders create a more meaningful and personal approach toward overall employee experience in 2020 when she realized the old methods weren’t working as effectively anymore and the workplace needed to see progressive change. 

Sandy shares her thoughts from her 30 years of experience on how engagement drives motivation and Mike explains how inspiration comes from the inside out and engagement is an external drive within people.

Mike and Sandy provide new and improved, free, practical tools leaders can begin implementing in their workforce today that will help create human connections to drive motivation and engagement. Mike states that in today’s workplace we need to evaluate people based on what they get done not how many hours they put in. 

Mike and Sandy conclude that these practical tools won’t cost you a dime, however, it may cost you to not apply these new motivation and engagement techniques in your workforce.

If you found value in this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star rating on the streaming platform of your choice and share this podcast with a friend who may also benefit from the great content Mike and his spectacular guests! For more information about Modern Motivation.

In this episode, Mike is sharing How to Get Annual Reviews Right. 

Mike shares why he hates annual reviews and why companies should get rid of them.

Take a listen before you judge this statement. He continues with why this should not be the only time you are reviewing your team.

Reviews should be done on a regular basis -  weekly at first, then monthly. You have to be engaged with your new employees before day 90- otherwise, you will lose them.  

Every employee deserves a monthly meeting to check in and to know what expectations they are expected to meet. Not the performance based on comparison of others but their own performance. 

Be sure to read our blog post 3 Things You Should Never Say in a Performance Review to learn more about how to give the best reviews. 

Also, be sure to get a copy of Quit Losing Talent and learn more about how to prevent turnover with your team. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Capt. Tim Kinsella. Mike and Tim discuss the mindset effective leaders need to maintain as well as practical tools and strategies professional leaders can use to help improve the work of their teams through their leadership.

Tim provides an insight into his working background and shares how he learned a lot of his leadership skills during his time in the Navy. Tim shares that while working as a Defence Planner with NATO he was educated on the importance of understanding and expressing different cultures within an organization. Tim also talks about his childhood, and how he gained an understanding of what makes people tick growing up in his father's pub. 

Tim shares a powerful lesson he learned when dealing with a terrorist attack in December 2019 as a leader. Tim talks about the importance of becoming the person your people need in moments like that so that you can effectively lead them and not get caught up in your own emotions and headspace as negativity is catchy for people. He says that if you don’t have courage as a leader then you’re in the wrong profession as you are susceptible to all the external fears that are pressing in on you.

Tim states that the following are the most important things experienced leaders need to be thinking about and doing today to be effective leaders:

• Be Self-Aware
• Learn Your Triggers and Stress Points
• Understand Your Barriers to Empathy
• Lead Through The Prism of Love
• Take Care of Your Mental Health

Finishing off the episode, Tim provides us with some information about his Leadership Program commencing August 2023 so make sure you keep your eyes and ears peeled for that amazing experience!

When you are judging people do you judge them by their intentions or their behaviors? You don't judge people? Are you sure? 

In my experience in working with thousands of leaders, everyone is judging almost all the time. Unless you have raised your EiQ lid and developed the ability to give people a chance before you judge them you are almost always judging others. 

Me too, by the way. I work extremely hard to not judge others but the reality is, that I have agendas, and goals, and biases and it is sometimes difficult to not allow those to interfere with great communication with others. 

But my original question was do you judge people's intentions or their behaviors? Most judge behaviors. Why? Because we don't know people's intentions until they explain them and usually the explanation has come after the behavior we have already judged. 

Typically when we judge we then create communication challenges. You can't know people's intentions until you ask or they explain. I challenge you before you judge, seek to understand. Ask the other party for clarification of their intentions. Then evaluate if their behaviors match those intentions. 

There is no greater skill in life than the skill to communicate effectively with others. 

The real problem is when most people think it has occurred, it hasn't. 

As you go through your week slow down and seek understanding. If you are the communicator, slowing down can create clarity. Share your intentions before you act. Proactively remove others' judgment of your behaviors by explaining upfront what you intend to create with your behavior. 

And remember people do not judge us by our intentions, they judge us by our behavior. Especially if we have left them guessing. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Tony Alessandra. They dig deep into company philosophies, the risk of predicting the success of people, the pros of assessments in tight labor markets, and much more. Make sure to grab a pen and notepad so you can take away some of the many knowledge bombs dropped in this episode!

Tony gives us an insight into his career over the years and how he was a Sales and Strategic Marketing Professor for two years before deciding to create a career in content-orientated speeches on non-manipulative selling which he has been successfully doing for 30 years now. Tony shares how he did 100 paid speeches a year all over the world in previous years but currently only gives speeches for his assessment clients and their clients.

Following his own advice, Tony says that the company philosophy is to build long-term customers not short-term sales, even if that means losing money on a transaction. He explains the long-term value of a customer is greater than any single transaction. Mike and Tony speak about his book, What Makes Humans Tick, and Tony shares some fantastic advice and real-life experiences he’s had where he learned that you have to be able to adjust to the needs of others.

Tony talks about some of the reasons behind why it’s risky business to predict people's success and shares the format of one of his assessments:

• Look at the top salespeople
• Create a profile of the top salespeople
• Create a profile of the bottom performers
• Use the above information to create a report/benchmark
• After all, candidates have taken the assessment, match the results against the benchmark to create a percentage match

Mike and Tony also discuss the joy they find in the simplicity and practicality of the D.I.S.C Assessment. Tony shares that he is also currently working on a new D.I.S.C and EQ assessment so make sure you keep an eye out for that.

Links:

Reach out to Tony here on LinkedIn

Purchase Tony’s Book to gain a deeper insight into the best-validated assessments here.

Find out more about Harbour Resources and how we can help you and your team.

In this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike shares ways to avoid ghost hires.

I hear more and more about hiring managers making job offers to candidates and they never show back up. 

I am going to try and give you a few tips today, but make sure you listen to The Lead Up Podcast this Friday for Episode 294 for more tips and tools and depth on how to implement. 

I wish I knew why someone would say yes to your job offer and then ghost you. To me, this makes no sense at all. I have always been a person who will tell you yes and mean it or tell you no if I am not interested. 

We have a lot of challenges in the workforce, and you know I have been writing, podcasting, and teaching about this for a while now. I wrote about it in my book Quit Losing Talent. Do you have your copy? 

Here are a few ideas to reduce ghost hires:  

1.  Once you make an offer, ask them if there is anything that will prevent them from showing up on an agreed-to-start date. Often, we get excited and forget to close the candidate down or ask for any objections. They may say yes, but still, be looking at another job and don’t want to say no to you right now. I suggest asking the candidate if they are considering other jobs in the market and what would change their mind about your offer if they were still looking. 
2.  Once the offer is made and they accept, walk the candidate to HR and get the pre-employment work start right away. We can often lose a candidate in the waiting. We must be swift in today’s climate. Don’t delay the HR paperwork, drug screen, health screen, or anything that can be done now or at least scheduled for immediate follow-up. 
3.  As soon as they leave, HANDWRITE them a notecard, and mail it to them to welcome them to your team. Let them know how excited you are to begin onboarding them and developing them to be awesome in their new role. 
4.  THIS ONE IS GOING TO HURT: STOP GHOSTING PEOPLE. I have literally interviewed over 20,000 people. The number one complaint I hear from job seekers is they hate getting ghosted by employers and do not know what is going on. If you don’t like them for your role, tell them. If you do like them but still need some approval from others, keep the candidate informed. BE A PRO and treat them like you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes. 

Now let’s talk about losing new hires after they show up. 

If you can keep a new hire past 6-months, you are likely to keep them for 3 years. But how can you make sure this happens? 

3 tips that lead to excellence. 

1.  Create a robust 90-day onboarding checklist and plan that you share with them on day one and follow it like their tenure relies on it…it does. 
2.  Deal with bully employees and your tenured staff that mistreat new hires and run them off. I often hear that older employees treat new employees like the new slave help, and the last time I checked we don’t allow that in America. If you have an older employee mistreating new hires, coach them up and hold them accountable or fire them immediately. This person/s is costing you 10s of thousands of dollars in recruitment, training, and productivity cost. 
3.  Meet with your new employee weekly for the first 12 weeks and have a talent lock conversation with them each week. 

There you have it. 7 Great tips that didn’t cost you a dime to read but will cost you time to implement and 100s of thousands of dollars if you don’t. 

Check out Quit Losing Talent to learn more. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Jim Wetrich. Jim is the CEO of The Wetrich Group of Companies and the author of Stifled: Where Good Leaders Go Wrong.

Jim has worked in a multitude of roles within the last 40 years. Jim has all the experience and qualifications needed to share advice on how to inspire leaders to increase their influence and impact in a positive manner so make sure you grab and pen and paper for this one so that you can make note of the key teachings found within this episode.

Mike and Jim discuss how we are currently seeing a workforce pandemic and how only great leaders will be able to make the biggest difference and positive change for the future. Jim mentions how we often default to what is familiar, what worked in the past, how we did things before that worked, and what feels comfortable to us. Jim explains how as leaders we have to do everything we can to avoid defaulting to those habits. Mike and Jim talk about how leaders need to be challenged to continue to push forward and harvest the knowledge and value of the people within their organizations so that they can feel involved in the progression of the organization.

Mike and Jim also touch on the importance of transparency and how we are seeing more and more that people want honesty from their leaders. Jim mentions his book, ‘Stifled’ which is a fantastic and knowledge-filled book that we highly recommend you read. You can find out more about the book and purchase it from Jim’s website: https://jimwetrich.com/

You can contact Jim through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgwetrich/

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and leave a 5-star review so we can continue to grow and continue to bring you some more quality content. Thanks for listening!

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Cynthia Restivo. Cynthia is talking about the book she has just written, Stuck In The Wrong Story, that will help you as a leader during these critical times that we have been and are currently facing.

Cynthia shares her motivation for writing the book as an invitation from God to share her knowledge and experience over the years from working with other amazing leaders and coaches to helping, even more, write stories of their own.

They discuss how sometimes our own story can keep us stuck and prevent us from being the best version of ourselves. Cynthia says what we believe about the situations and circumstances in our lives becomes a lid and the narrative of our lives and our belief system is built to support that story. They also discuss how you can challenge that and break free of being stuck in your own story.

Mike touches on the importance of self-awareness and being able to step back from situations and analyze them to see what you can learn and grow from, not only as a leader or coach but also as a person.

Mike and Cynthia discuss the workplace environment and how when it is unhealthy it can be detrimental to the success of the business. Mike shares a recent experience he had with a coaching client about how we have to quit blaming the people that we promote into leadership roles and expecting them to be successful if we’re not helping them to be successful. He explains how this can look different for everyone, some may need to work on themselves to be a healthier mentor and others may need to challenge their behaviors and beliefs because ultimately leadership is about people.

You can find out more about Cynthia through her website:

http://www.dynamicprospectives.com/

You can also find Cynthia’s book through Amazon which we highly recommend reading and sharing with a friend who could benefit from breaking free of their own story.

If you found value in this episode make sure to visit www.HarbourResources.com to find out more about how we can help you ignite your leadership!

One of the most important things to emphasize when trying to lead and encourage the behavior of others is trust. 

For people to willingly accept your guidance and example, they have to trust you.

In this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike and special guest Michele Thomson discuss how ANYONE can take on a leadership role and begin fostering trust within the workplace.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

To can learn more about Michele here.

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by Tommy Newberry! Tommy has been coaching entrepreneurs, business leaders, and couples for over 30 years. Tommy explains how his niche is working with people who are entrepreneurial in mindset, who are leaders, and who want to reach the next level financially but refuse to do it if it requires compromising their faith, family, or health. Mike and Tommy discuss the system Tommy has created, aimed to help entrepreneurs get from where they are now to where they want to go with predictability.

They also speak about Tommy’s book, The 4:8 Principle. Tommy shares how he began writing the book 18 months prior to it being released. He explains the ideology behind the book as being a guide to help people realize that they can take command of their thinking and that when they do they take control over the rest of their life. Tommy states that the five practical questions he has created to help people achieve this are:

1. What am I grateful for
2. What are my recent victories
3. What are my strengths
4. What am I looking forward to and excited about
5. In what ways can I increase my service and value to others

Tommy mentions how you can take any of these five questions and give them a time frame or quantity. Mike suggests you don’t even need to create more time in your day to complete these questions, you can answer them while you’re in the shower or at the gym.

Mike asks Tommy about how his book and the principles he teaches within his writing help someone who needs to focus on their well-being and how people can use the knowledge provided In the book to replenish the mind. They also talk about the increase in self-image issues and how it impacts people's daily lives. Tommy speaks about taking control of your mindset and how your brain is the hardware and your mind is the software full of a collection of beliefs and expectations we have created for ourselves.

You can find out more about Tommy on his website. 

Mike shares 8 Communication Musts on this episode.

There is an art and a science to great communication in leadership. The number 1 issue in any team or organization is communication. 

When leading your team you have to let go of any ego you may have. You can't just give orders or you will get major push-back. Your team is wanting information, not orders.

You will have to let go of any self-image - get a mentor or a coach to help you with speaking to and in front of others. 

                            Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication ~Coach K

Things you must communicate

1. The Facts - the best you know them
2. The Plan 
3. The Cost and Challenges
4. The expectations
5. Belief in people and the plan 
6. The desired outcome  
7. Authentically - even if it is uncomfortable or uneasy 
8. The truth

These 8 Communication Musts will help you be a more effective leader.  

Visit us at Harbourresources.com to learn more about how our team can help you and your team be the best.

This week Mike is joined by Kevin Kluesner. Kevin is an author and has served as an administrator of an urban safety net hospital and has been in healthcare for 40 years. He just released his debut novel The Killer Sermon.

Kevin talks about the increase in mental health challenges and how he is helping to build a Mental Health Emergency Center. This may be the first of its kind to specialize in mental health 24/7.

Mike and Kevin discuss the importance of knowing who you are and how you relate to others. Kevin says, "You have strengths and you have weaknesses. You've got tendencies, you've got blind spots. And if you don't know those, then you'll never be the leader that you want to be." 

Kevin shares a story about getting to the right answer fast. But even if you get the right answer and want to move, you need to come to the answer that you can get your team behind. You have to be willing to answer questions so that people understand the why behind the plan.

You can learn more about Kevin on his website.

Be sure to listen to this great interview and share it with others on your social media platforms.

On this episode of The LeadUp Podcast Mike shares these 5 areas that need clarity to move yourselves and your team forward. 

1. Vision - the destination of where you want your team to go must be clear.
2. Mission/Purpose - this tells your team why you are moving in that direction.
3. Priorities - we have to connect the tasks to the mission so that we do not get caught up in mundane tasks from day to day.
4. Focus - what needs attention today. Focus on what needs to be done to move us toward our vision. 
5. Truth - this is a principle that generates power. Share as much as you can and be honest with your team.

When you start doing these things you will see more success in your leadership and more high performance in your team. 

On this episode of The LeadUp, Podcast Mike is joined by Danielle Mulvey. Danielle is a former flight attendant turned entrepreneur. Danielle is sharing her success secrets to winning the talent game.

Danielle has developed a 5-Star System to make your team your dream team. By creating this system as an entrepreneur you are allowing yourself to work in your sweet spot. She has been sharing this system for over 10 years with a 90% success rate.

Mike shares how he teaches leaders to be their team's CEO - Chief EntrepreneurialOfficer. They both share about having morning huddles to start the day. Danielle has these with her teams and Mike suggests also having a Start on Purpose huddle with yourself.

They talk about the different stages of hiring- job listings, interviewing the right person, training, and the importance of the first 90 days. You don't want to miss this great conversation to help you to hire and keep your talent on your team.

You can learn more about Danielle at 5staremployees.com 

Pick up a copy of Mike's new book Quit Losing Talent.

In this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike shares 8 ways how to create your high-performance team.

We have some major challenges in our workforce and recruiting efforts today. At some point, we must quit kicking the can down the road and implement the ideas we have been discussing for years. 

In these 8 steps, ask yourself where you are right now and where do you want to be at the end of 2022. Nothing will change until you have done this exercise. 

Here are the 8 steps to evaluate and then act on before we hit July. 

1. Culture—purpose, values, behaviors

    Recognize the importance of a leadership culture

2. Talent—Who, recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and coaching 

     Build the team with the best talent

3. Accountability—coaching and measurable targets

    Enjoy the return of accountability 

4. Vision—can’t go if we cant see 

    Unleash the potential with a big vision 

5. Team building—Daily Rally 

     Require the power of teamwork

6. Development—monthly coaching, push meetings

7. Communication—who are you, who are they, and can you influence them. 

8. Productivity—daily compass tool to keep you on track to achieve daily goals.

Grab Mike's book Quit Losing Talent and call us to help you install a QLT Culture. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by guest Jeff Atwood. Jeff grew up in a small town in Iowa and currently owns a small family farm just outside of Nashville. Jeff provides an insight into his past careers and how he worked in executive roles for multiple hospital companies and what those roles taught him about leadership. 

They discuss why the story of ‘you’ is so important today for leaders when it comes to leading and communicating with others. Jeff shares about how a lot of companies focus on metrics now but people crave authentic relationships and authentic leadership. He tells us that when we set the metrics aside and focus on the person and the relationship the metrics take care of themselves. Mike shares how research has shown that 94% of people say that they would stay with their current employer if they felt valued, developed, and treated like a human. 

They also talk about how the working environment is changing and Jeff shares how he feels it’s not about checking boxes to become successful anymore and suggests that the ideology of College is changing. He talks about why messaging is more important today than it’s ever been and how repeating the message can be super effective within the workplace as oftentimes the company mission can get put on the shelf. 

Jeff shares his best advice to leaders on how to effectively present the company message to their organizations and states that ensuring everyone is aware of and understands the purpose is key.

If you enjoyed and found value from this episode, make sure you leave us a review on the streaming platform of your choice and share it with a friend who could also benefit from this podcast.

You can find out more and contact Jeff through his website: https://www.jeffatwood.com/about.

You can get a copy of one of Jeff's books here.

In this episode of the LeadUp Podcast Mike shares how caring is a competitive advantage.

Mike is sharing 6 ways to help your team create a caring environment. These will help you to attract and retain talent.

Why you do the work that you do is a critical step in being happy because it fills a large part of your life. We should feel good at the end of the day about the work that we do. 

We are all leaders, we may not have the title, but we are always influencing others and having an impact on those around us. 

We are never just what we do..when we can connect to the why behind what we do, we create an energy advantage in our life and work. 

1. Care about the work you do.
2. Care about why you do it.
3. Care about how you do it.
4. Care about who you do it with.
5. Care about who you do it for.
6. Care about the impact it makes.

These steps will help you and your team to Quit Losing Talent. 

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by Don Yeager. Don is a nationally acclaimed inspirational speaker, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated, and author of over 30 books.

Mike and Don talk about the importance of great leadership and how you can stand out as a leader.

Don shares how leadership matters and how great leaders are able to convince themselves and those they lead that every day is an opportunity for you to excel or for someone else to take that medal from you. He talks about his experience studying different organizations and how he came up with the sixteen things that high-performing organizations do differently. Don says that the best teams know who they serve and they know why it matters. They discuss how knowing your why is important, and that great teams thrive when they feel their why.

Don explains to us how great leaders make their teams feel like they’re really part of something bigger than themselves and shares some amazing insights that he has gained from working with teams over the years. Don points out how all the great leaders he’s worked with practice fourth-quarter thinking and operate in a ‘what if’ mindset so that they are prepared for critical situations. Amongst other amazing and knowledgeable insights, he shares how great teams allow culture to shape recruiting, and taking accountability for yourself and your team members will allow everyone to efficiently progress forward.

You can learn more about Don at www.donyaeger.com

Don’t forget to share this episode and other episodes you found helpful with the people in your life who can also benefit from this podcast. And leave a review on your favorite streaming platform – let us know what you think!

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike shares 7 ways to create an unfair leadership advantage today! These 7 pieces of advice will help you attract better talent, and retain and develop the talent you already have so grab your pen and paper for this episode! 

The first performance-enhancing tip is to do more than what is expected of you as a leader. Mike shares how when he was growing up he didn’t have a lot of money but his Grandmother and Dad taught him to always give a little bit more and put in some extra effort even since he was mowing lawns and doing odds and ends jobs during his summers. Mike explains how today’s workforce needs its leaders to have consistent growth, leadership development, and performance development plans. 

The second is to be curious before you are creative and step into problems seeking to understand. Mike states that you can achieve this by doing the following four things:

1. Pause
2. Listen
3. Observe
4. Learn 

Mike’s third way to create leadership advantages is to consistently do the following three things with your teams:

• Visualize the wins
• Vocalize how to win
• Verbalize your belief in what’s possible/ your belief in how they can make it happen

Number four is, to increase your chances of success while others sleep. Unfortunately, studies have shown that 70% of people don’t read another book after they finish their formal education. Mike encourages you to read, listen to podcasts, set goals, and communicate with your teams about how you are going to collectively achieve the company goals.

Mike’s fifth way to create an unfair leadership advantage is to always find the silver lining in everything. Mike speaks about how we live in a great world and every failure is a seed of opportunity – so seek them out! Mike states that there is no limit on where or who we can learn from. 

The second last piece of advice is to develop a power team. Mike states that we are only as good as the people we develop, equip and empower to lead in our absence. 

The final way for you to create an unfair leadership advantage and enhance your and your team's performance is to never tolerate negativity. Mike talks about how you need to protect your attitude and mindset like nothing else. Mike encourages you to take social media breaks to help clear your mind as well as only keep people who are real and optimistic around you.

Mike states that to achieve what others want you to have to do what others don’t! Apply these seven steps to your routine today and you will begin to see a development in your leadership skills. 

If you have been finding value in this podcast, please leave us a review so that we can create space for others to listen and grow with us!

Managers are often mistaken for leaders due to their titles and responsibilities. 

But, leaders are rare. Leaders aren’t just managers of people. Leaders make intentional and consistent efforts to inspire others to be more, not just do more. 

In this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike shares what the true distinction is between managers and leaders, and how you can start climbing the ladder to Elite Leadership.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

On this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike is joined by Dan Neufelder. Mike and Dan discuss all things leadership – what it means, how it is developed over the years, and why effective leadership is vital for the success and wellbeing of an organization and its teams. Dan shares how he has been in the healthcare field for 42 years and only recently retired from his day-to-day leadership.

Dan takes us through the most valuable lessons he learned from his years in leadership. He shares how he began his career in 1979 and leadership was quite hierarchal back then. Dan says there was little attention paid to concepts such as change management and employee and associate engagement. Speaking from experience he mentions how leadership is about the engagement of people and how crucial it is for leaders to understand what their teams aspire to do. Mike and Dan also talk about the shortage of healthcare professionals. Dan shares that the healthcare industry is 250,000 nurses short in the country.

Dan tells us how he became a good leader by learning from the mistakes he made early on in his career. He credits the coaches and mentors he has had over the years. Mike and Dan talk about the difference between coaches and mentors and why leaders absolutely need both throughout their careers.

If you enjoyed and found value in this episode, please be sure to share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss a new episode. Also, leave a review on the streaming platform of your choice as it helps us grow and reach new audiences so that Mike can continue to share helpful tools and strategies. Thanks for listening!

Links and Contact Information:

Website: www.harbourresources.com 

Email: mike@habourresources.com

On this episode of the LeadUp podcast, Mike brings us through the three quotes he thinks will impact your leadership, and talks about how they impacted his leadership.

He talks about how he didn’t start out as a good public speaker and regularly failed his speech classes and that he wasn’t born a leader and neither is anyone else. Mike had to search for modeling and mentorship at the age of 23 and has continued on that journey for the next 30 years. 

The first quote which will impact your leadership is “what we are communicated far more eloquently than anything else we say or do” which is from one of Mike’s favorite books, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders. Mike explains you can call yourself a leader but if you don’t have the skills needed to be a leader, that will communicate louder than anything you say. You need to develop and plant the seeds of leadership in others. 

Mike’s second quote is “when you were made a leader, you were not given a crown. You were given the responsibility to bring out the best in others.” Mike feels this is what he has tried to do with this podcast, also explaining how the people Mike leads are the real heroes. 

Mike’s final quote is “People may not remember what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” This reminds Mike to always treat everyone he comes across with respect as that is what will last on people.

If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode, leave us a review, and let us know what you think of the podcast! Thanks for listening!

On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by David Marquette, a former submarine commander in the Navy, who shares his leadership style, and tells us about his new book.

David tells us about high school when he didn’t care about what people thought about him and how he brought that with him to the submarine. He cared deeply about the mission and the people on board, but he wasn’t worried about the next promotion or the next review, allowing him to be the best leader he could be. 

David talks about how he changed the structure of leadership around him. Leaders usually apply their authority to make decisions, although David decided to turn against the grain and shifted it so that he used his authority to structure an organizational design. 

Another change David brings under his leadership is the removal of jumping to the defense of an opinion. Naturally, you will want to defend yourself in a difference of opinion, but David teaches you to ask why first, which can be less confrontational. 

Mike asks what the biggest challenges are in creating a new culture of intent-based leadership, to which David answers we act our way to new thinking, we don’t think our way to new actions. A leader may have a vision of what he wants to see, but nothing changes until he begins to act on it. 

Finally, David tells us about his new book Leadership Is Language, which he wrote after feeling like he was programmed to speak a certain way. He encourages us to stop asking binary questions like “is the covid vaccine safe?” This should be replaced by “How safe is the covid vaccine?” You can buy the book online here.

To find out more about David you can check out his company Intent-Based Leadership. You can also find him on LinkedIn and on Twitter @ldavidmarquette. He also does some short leadership videos on YouTube under the channel name Leadership Nudges you can check out too!

If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode, and leave us a review to help us improve and grow and bring better content to you! Thanks for listening!

On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike shares 3 ways to improve your talent selection. Mike has conducted tens of thousands of interviews, and over his years of recruiting leaders for hospitals and owning his own recruiting company, he has come up with and developed these three ways you can improve your talent selection.

1. Create a WHO sCORE card which you can mark an interviewee based on who they are at their core. As we know, the who is more important than the what. We can use this as a blueprint for you to create interview questions based on the WHO sCORE card.
2. Follow an outlined agenda. Too often interviewers get distracted by something they like about the interviewee and rush to hire them from there. Using an agenda, you get a full picture of a prospect. You can read the blog post 3 Ways To Improve Your Talent Selection and get a copy of our Master of Hiring Action Pack here.
3. Prepare your team to be part of the interview. This means sharing the first two ways with them. You can also prepare a question for them to ask and look out for certain reactions. This can help development, which is the number one thing that attracts talent to a business.

If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode, and be sure to leave a review so we can improve and grow to give you better content. Thanks for listening!

On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike talks to Sandy Stosz, a retired coast guard who served for 40 years, with 12 years on seas. Sandy talks about her experiences with leadership in the coast guard as a woman, and also about her new book Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass. 

After telling us about herself, Sandy explains the differences between the Coast Guard and the Navy and how the Coast Guard gave equal opportunities to women whereas the Navy did not when she was entering the field. 

Sandy commanded 2 ships in her time, one of which she led 75 crew and only one other woman. She talks about how she became a commander, providing a great story about how her boss told her she would be promoted if she stood on the bridge like John Wayne barking orders. She realized quickly she couldn’t be John Wayne so she decided to be Sandy, which worked as she got the promotion in the end. She also mentions how she can use her differences to her advantage and how being the only woman was normal to her. 

Mike asks Sandy about her biggest challenges and she explains that it wasn’t what you think. It was actually to do with funding from the government being insufficient, causing a failure to run critical programs and failure to support people properly.

When asked about what changes she implemented in the coast guard, she talks about how women brought a softer side of leadership with them, which was tough for those there previously to adapt to because it wasn't a common form of leadership. She tells us about how emotional intelligence is the key for a leader today, as well as her three P’s of power;

1. Personal
2. Professional
3. Position

Creating a workplace culture of success and inclusion and helping your people achieve their version of success is also crucial for any leader

To learn more about Sandy, you can visit www.sandrastowes.com, where you can purchase her new book Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass. She also has a weekly blog in Homeland Security Today which you can sign up for and read every week.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us a review, and let us know what you think so we can improve and grow to become bigger and better. Thanks for listening!

On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike goes through the 4 ways to Quit Losing Talent, which happens to be the name of his new book. His book is available at quitlosingtalent.com

In 2021, 57.6% of employees turned over, with 89% of managers believing it was due to money, but in reality, 88% left for different reasons, meaning these losses potentially could have been stopped. 

1. Retention. We must learn to nurture with feedback to make people feel more valued. A way to do this is what Mike calls praise raise, but we have to be careful as it can have the opposite effect if done wrong. We need to be specific and avoid competition.
2. Attraction. We need to compete through development. A staggering 94% of employees who quit say they would have stayed if their employees were interested in their development. It is vital to develop people's careers as not only will this aid with retention, but word will spread, and it will lead to attraction.
3. Activation. Mike calls this onboarding for mastery. You need a robust onboarding plan to be implemented in the first 90 days of every new employee to create mastery in their job. Not doing this could lead to a 33% leave rate in the first 90 days.
4. Releasing. When an employee does leave, you need to know why. You need to create a safe space for the employee to be able to truthfully explain why they’re leaving, and you need to be able to learn from it. 

To get more in-depth information on all these strategies and more, grab a copy of Quit Losing Talent at quitlosingtalent.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review, letting us know what you think of the Lead Up Podcast. Thanks for listening!

On this episode of The LeadUp Podcast, Mike is joined by Bill Eckstrom of Ecsell Institute and Ecsell Sport who is here to talk about coaching and how people can improve their coaching to help businesses, sports teams and education facilities thrive.

After a look at Bill’s background, he talks about the 4 growth activities leaders need to practice, which are stated in his book, The Coaching Effect. He highlights two things; What you do and how well you do it. Bill also explains that good leaders will do one on one meetings, give written feedback, have consistent team meetings, and work with people on career development. These things are nothing special, but vital to be good at. 

Bill also talks about growth rings, which are a model for understanding how environments impact our growth. We have three rings: stagnated, chaotic, and order environments. Ideally, we want to be outside the order environments, as growth only occurs in a state of discomfort and unpredictability creates discomfort.

Bill lists for us some of the ways we can look at ourselves as leaders;

1. Measure - As a leader what are the impacts that you have on your team
2. Analyze and train – understand what behaviors to change to produce new behaviors
3. Walk away and understand if you’re doing things differently and how well you’re doing them
4. Rinse and repeat

Finally, Bill talks about what the best coaches do differently from everyone else. He explains that they let the people on their team know they care about them as individuals, which is the most critical thing, and also they create a psychologically safe environment. 

You can check out  Bill’s book, The Coaching Effect on Amazon, as well as all other major book retailers. You can also check out Ecsell Institute and Ecsell Sport online, as well as Bill’s personal website, billeckstrom.com. 

If you enjoyed this episode please be sure to subscribe so that you never miss a new episode, and leave a 5-star review so as we can grow the podcast and expand to new audiences! Thanks for listening

On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike challenges you to start thinking and stop living in learned reactions. 

Mike starts with his favorite Edison quote; “5% of people think, 10% of people think they think and 85% would rather die than think.”  He then puts it into the context of the 21st century in how people often do the same things with different results. 

He explains that our whole developmental life, we’re taught what to think rather than how to think. We’re conditioned to think about other people in a certain way, we follow the crowd and comply.

He shares how our reactions in all circumstances come from our internal programming and conditioning. If you get to a leadership role, and you haven’t worked on changing your thought process, you’re just reacting to the outside world and using the same practices you learned years ago. We need to upgrade our thinking and upgrade our behaviors. 

Finally, Mike takes us through how emotions and actions are connected and where the end goal comes into the process.

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave a five-star review so that Mike can continue to find ways to add value to people so that they can add value to other people! 

Links and Contact Information:

Website: www.harbourresources.com

Email: mike@habourresources.com

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by Dr. Stephen Beeson. Stephen gives us an insight into his background as an aspiring musician and how one conversation changed the trajectory of his life so that he ended up in the leadership side of healthcare helping other physicians and clinicians practice excellence.

Stephen tells us how he had no intentions of going to college until one conversation at dinner with his uncle, who was a neurologist, about the day in the life of a physician. This conversation sprung the beginning of Stephen’s medical career as he spent the summer working with his uncle and ended up falling in love with the practice. Years later Stephen was offered a leadership role and decided to take the opportunity to help capacitate clinicians to be extraordinary for their patients in a way that gives them joy and meaning within their workplace.

Mike and Stephen speak about the importance of leadership and how leadership is the soil in which people grow. Stephen explains how our engagement, satisfaction, and burnout probability are heavily influenced by how our organization is being led. He shares how he works with people to get rid of their victim thinking by constantly engaging their conscious mind to be better for their patients and colleagues.

They also discuss how defiance is the first stage of change. Stephen gives some tips for leaders to use to re-engage the human side of health care:

• Harvest good things people are doing
• Share those stories in a public way
• Be intentional
• End meetings with callouts so that your teams feel valued and heard 

They talk about the importance of having meaning and joy within your work and the workplace. Stephen expresses how often times if our work is too stressful and not fulfilling we end up taking those negative feelings home and disrupting our home lives and how we treat the people around us. 

Stephen believes that the development of skills to create behaviors and moments to drive meaningful outcomes is an incredibly powerful instrument and you can read more about this belief through his books Practicing Excellence: A Physician's Manual to Exceptional Health Care and Engaging Physicians: A Manual to Physician Partnership.

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave a five-star review and subscribe to the podcast so that Mike can continue to add value to people and you don’t miss an episode. 

Links and Contact Information:

Website: https://www.mikeharbour.net/

Email: mike@habourresources.com

Guest Website: https://practicingexcellence.com/stephen-beeson-md-bio/

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike shares the three questions you need to know the answer to in order to execute excellent leadership. He kicks this episode off by sharing a quote by the publisher and writer Elbert Hubbard ~ ‘The line between failure and success is so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man or woman has thrown up their hands at a time where a little more effort, a little more patience, would’ve achieved success. A little more effort and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.'

Grab a pen and paper and take some notes because this is a powerful episode and you’re going to have some great takeaways from it! 

The three questions we as excellent leaders need to know the answer to are;

1. What is on your quit list?
2. What is on your dream board?
3. What is on your priority list? 

How many times have you been so close to succeeding and it just seemed that overcoming failure was impossible? Mike shares with us how there have been periods in his life where he felt like throwing in the towel because success felt too dark and unachievable. Failure is ok! Sometimes in order for us to achieve the success we desire in life we have to learn from others and also learn from our past selves too. Mike states that excellence is getting just a little better each day, month, and year. He encourages you to spend time reflecting on the year, learn from your success and design the way forward so the next year is your best year ever. 

So, what is on your quit list? Sometimes we want certain things in life but we are unwilling to give up the things that are holding us back from achieving our desires. Make note of what you truly want, is it better performance out of your team? Is it more results? More revenue at the end of the year? Now think about what you need to quit in order to have these things. You might need to quit avoiding difficult conversations with employees. You cannot be afraid of the emotional baggage or the potential outburst these difficult conversations may have because the more frequently you hold these conversations, the lower the outburst will be. He mentions how maybe you need to quit wasting time. Are you being busy but not productive? If so, head over to https://www.mikeharbour.net/daily-compass to grab a free copy of Mike’s daily productivity guide. A good leader knows when to quit and start. In order to create the results you want in life, you need to quit doing the easy things and intentionally put more effort into the hard things, and start today! 

Mike highly recommends creating a dream board not only for yourself but also for your team. Follow these easy steps involved with dream boards to positively impact your leadership;

• Write down your goals
• Create a dream board
• Track your/your team's progress
• Celebrate achievements and successes
• Take care of yourself and create visuals that will keep you and your team motivated and inspired! 

He also recommends that you create a priority list – and prioritize what makes it onto your priority list! If you focus on 1 to 3 tasks a day, you will accomplish 1 to 3 things. However, if you try to focus on 4 to 10 things you’re only going to achieve 3 things. Even more so, if you focus on 10+ tasks to be accomplished in one day... you’ll achieve 0! He tells us that there is no such thing as multitasking. Sure you can chop and change between one task to another, but you cannot truly focus on two things at one time. Prioritize your time and the tasks you need to achieve one day at a time. 

Mike’s goal for this podcast is really to help you gain power in your life so that you can positively increase your influence on those that you lead. Mike reminds you that success is easy, but it’s not simple. Be sure to reach out to Mike through mike@harbourresources.com for any assistance. Let him know if there are any topics you would like him to speak more about!

Don’t forget to share this episode and other episodes you found helpful with the people in your life who can also benefit from this podcast. And leave a review on your favorite streaming platform – let us know what you think! Subscribe so that you will get alerts and not miss an episode!

 Check out our latest book Quit Losing Talent.

Becoming an ELITE LEADER is a lifelong pursuit, but the process is sped up when you have more knowledge of what it takes from those who have already achieved what you are after. 

In this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, special guest Jesse Hernandez Jr. shares phenomenal insight into what Elite Leaders practice daily. 

From habits and skills, to mindset and attitude, Mike and Jesse go deep on what leaders must be prioritizing to start stepping into their potential.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a 5-star review on your streaming platform. Mike encourages you to reach out to him through: Mike@harbourresources.com to let him know your thoughts on this episode & to share some topics you would like him to speak on in the future.

You can learn more about Jesse here.

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by Karin Hurt and David Dye. Karin and David speak about their book Courageous Cultures which you can find here. This book is a practical user guide that allows leaders to create a culture for their teams. Mike mentions how culture is everything and how culture eats everything else for breakfast so it’s extremely important that you create the right culture for your team. 

Karin and David provide us with an insight into their lives before courageous cultures and how they both have the practical experiences that aided them to write this book. Karin and David talk about why having a courageous culture within your team is so important as it can lead to breakthrough results and will enable you to create intensive connections and trust with your team. 

David and Karin are focused on human-centered leadership and share some of their top tips for us as leaders to use to create a positive leadership culture; 

• Allocate time to be human beings
• Create time to talk as humans as opposed to just having a task
• Use the reflect to connect method, focus on emotion and start your connections on an emotional level
• Bring healthy transparency as a leader to your team
• Use the four C’s: Curiosity, clarity, connection, and capacity 

Leaders navigate the narrative and create clarity so it’s important as leaders that we define the following with our teams so that they feel engaged and important;

• What does courage mean to you?
• What is culture to you?
• What is it that people like us do?

It is also extremely important that we as leaders encourage our teams to share their ideas and don’t back away from difficult conversations. David states that they wrote this book because they were seeing a consistent pattern when with their clients. Leaders asked ‘Why aren’t more people speaking up and why are they not sharing their ideas, why do I have to discover a good practice?’ and their teams were saying ‘Nobody wants my ideas, the last time I spoke up I got in trouble, nothing happens anyways’. David states that 40% of people lack the confidence to share an idea and that is why it is vital for us as leaders to understand that people hang onto past negative experiences and that we as humans underestimate the benefit that comes from sharing ideas.

Karin and David share some tools we as leaders need to do in order to create a space for our team to share their ideas;

• Understand where your team is at as a team and as individuals on the team in terms of fear
• Build your team up one person at a time
• Create a safe environment; ask new hires for their opinions and come back to them with the same question 30 days later
• Ask your team to write down their suggestions/answers/thoughts on paper – their response will be anonymous and everyone will contribute
• Respond with gratitude

They also, speak about systemizing courage and how the secret to success is in the system. David states that if we can systemize courage, it will help remove some of those fears. Karin and David talk about the power of one leader. If we as leaders are sharing our ideas, asking for ideas in safe spaces, engaging openly, honestly, and vulnerably with our teams we can expect to see the same in return.

For more information visit; Let's Grow Leaders where you will find a weekly blog and all the other information you need. 

David has a podcast which you can find here. 

Karin hosts a live show, Asking for A Friend, on LinkedIn which you can find here.

On this episode of The Lead Up Podcast, Mike discusses all things growth. He shares four very important workouts we need to do as leaders that will help us continue to move to that next level. He takes us through each of these workouts and explains how they help us personally and as leaders. 

‘If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. "~Henry David Theroux

The four workouts we as leaders need to do are:

1. Pull-ups
2. Push-ups
3. Interval training
4. Stretching 

Mike explains how pull-ups aid us in our leadership. It can be really hard when we face resistance and how initially our body weight is against us but we have to face the pain and focus on the end goal. In business, there will be times when we get knocked down and we have to pull ourselves back up. We need to learn from and use the resistance we felt to strengthen us for the next time we get knocked down.  We can build our resistance by listening to this podcast, or other great leadership podcasts. You need to find a podcast or a mentor that will pull you up and help you expand your ability to do more.

Secondly, we need to practice pull-ups. Mike navigates us through how pull-ups contribute to our leadership. Pushing towards our goals as leaders requires a strong core. We need to know who we are, what our abilities are, and what we stand for. We cannot get pushed by the winds of change. We must focus on the results we are after because there will be times when we feel like giving up but if we push for our purpose – we will make a positive impact as leaders.

Mike speaks about interval training and how pushing ourselves to a limit, holding the limit for some time, and then resting will improve our leadership. He encourages us to use our PTO’s! Take time to rest, recharge, energize and then push hard to stretch yourself and your team. This podcast is designed to help you expand and become better at influencing others so that you have a more positive impact on the world which is something we need in today’s society.  Mike talks about how recording a podcast episode for 114 days in a row forced him to learn how to get better.  He said it was worth it even though it was very hard to continue at that pace.

Finally, he takes us through the process of stretching ourselves, mentally, vocationally, physically, and emotionally. Stretching helps keep our muscles from locking up. He explains how we cannot give what we don’t have so we need to be stretching our capacity. You simply cannot challenge your team to stretch if you are not practicing this. Mike mentions how lack of stretching is causing dissatisfaction within the workplace as people are being hired to do a job and then left there but people have desires and purpose within them that need to be exercised. People need to be more and do more and have more so we as leaders need to ensure we are stretching so that we can then encourage our teams to stretch. 

Mike encourages you to make note of the four important workouts we as leaders need to practice so that we can reach our goals and fulfill our dreams. He is working on his Quit Losing Talent and you can find some more information about this here; Quit Losing Talent. Mike encourages you to share your thoughts about this episode and podcast through your favorite listening platforms and also share this podcast with a colleague, friend, family member, or anyone who will benefit from the episodes.

Links and Contact Information:

Website: https://www.mikeharbour.net/

Email: mike@habourresources.com

On this episode of the Lead Up podcast, Mike is joined by Vincent Brown who has over 35 years of experience in the diversity and inclusion sector, words which were rarely, if ever, used when he started.

After Vincent gives us a look at his background and how he got into this field, he explains to us the difference between the de-segregation movement and the inclusion movement and why we changed from one to the other in the last several decades.

Vincent also talks about the importance of getting to know the people across the table from us. He tells us it takes 7 seconds for our brain to make judgments on people but we need to be able to see under this. We can do that by sharing our stories openly and being comfortable asking people to share their own stories.

He explains that we can often exclude people by not allowing them to belong. Vincent describes diversity as a noun, inclusion as a verb, and belonging as an outcome and how it can benefit many businesses. He uses his own company which he sold to Goldman Sachs as an example, which he can trace back the success of it to diversity.

He finishes off by telling us that leaders need to be responsible for inclusion and diversity and they need to be able to discuss these topics with the rationale of their head, the care of their heart, and the action of their hands. 

You can get a copy of Vincent's book, Intrinsic Inclusion here, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave us a 5-star review, which helps the podcast reach new audiences to spread our message.

Thanks for listening!