The Visible Leader – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Danny Wareham, an organisational psychologist, coach, and speaker with over 25 years of experience. We took a deep dive into organisational culture - what it is, what it isn’t, and the common missteps leaders make when trying to improve it. Danny has such a wealth of experience and shared incredible insights on how to align culture with strategy to get real results.

We covered answers to questions, like:

• Why isn’t creating a “fun” workplace enough to drive success?
• What’s the real purpose of organisational culture, and how can leaders use it as a tool?
• When does communication actually undermine engagement?
• Why do we still think pay is a motivator when all the evidence says otherwise?
• How can leaders step back and focus on leading environments instead of people?

Find out more about Danny Wareham at dannywareham.co.uk or connect with him on LinkedIn

Enjoy!

Get your free copy of my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time at visibly-different.co.uk/increasing-your-impact

And if you enjoyed the Podcast please share with someone who might benefit and leave a rating and review.

Got a question for me? I'm just a message away on LinkedIn.

I talked to Scott Allen about tackling some of the most persistent myths about leadership.

Why do these myths continue to hold sway, and how do they shape our understanding of what it means to lead?

Scott dives deep into the origins and impact of these myths, encouraging us to rethink traditional views on leadership.

Key questions explored:

• Are leaders really born, not made? Scott’s insights challenge this well-worn belief.
• How do we define leadership? Spoiler: it’s far more than just holding a title.
• Does charisma automatically make someone a good leader, or can it sometimes be a drawback?
• Why do so many leaders feel compelled to have all the answers? Scott turns this idea on its head.
• Should leaders always be ethical, and is there ever a place for lying in leadership?

Join us as we challenge these myths and offer fresh perspectives that will make you reflect on your own leadership journey. This episode is packed with ideas that could transform your approach to leadership.

Intrigued? Listen now and prepare to rethink what you thought you knew about leading.

Mentioned in the episode:

• The Leader’s Framework for Decision Making by Snowden & Boone – A must-read Harvard Business Review article exploring decision-making in leadership.
• Research on charisma by John Antonakis – Groundbreaking research on how charisma influences leadership from a professor at the University of Lausanne.
• Psychological Safety by Amy Edmondson – Learn more about Amy Edmondson’s pioneering work on creating environments where teams can thrive.
• Dissent in organisations by Megan Reitz – Explore Megan Reitz’s research on speaking up and dissent in the workplace, and how leaders can foster open debate.

Find out more about Scott Allen at scottjallen.net or connect with him on LinkedIn

Contact Me:

• Book your free 30-minute Leading Smarter Discovery Call https://calendly.com/visiblydifferentcorine/1-2-hr-discoverycall
• Download my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time https://www.visibly-different.co.uk/increasing-your-impact/

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who might benefit and don’t forget to leave a rating and review!

Dr Nia Thomas is a thought leader in self-aware leadership and practices self-aware leadership every single day in her role as Director in a Children’s Charity.

She has an allergic reaction when she hears the phrase ‘you shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks’.

We talked about the perils of heeding that advice and how to avoid going the other way and becoming a total people pleaser!

Topics we covered:

• How to become aware of your blind spots.
• The pros and cons of 360 feedback.
• The cautions around self-awareness. How to avoid overthinking every encounter you have with your team.
• How you can be an authentic leader whilst taking others' opinions into account.
• How to judge when constructive feedback is useful or noise that should be disregarded.
• How can leaders navigate the fine line between caring about others' thoughts and maintaining their authenticity?

Find out more about Dr Nia Thomas: https://knowingselfknowingothers.co.uk/

And connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nia-d-thomas/

Get your free copy of my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time here:  www.visibly-different.co.uk/increasing-your-impact

And if you enjoyed the Podcast, please share with someone who might benefit and leave a rating and review.

Dr Katharina Schmidt completed an executive MBA at Kellogg Business School and then for the next 20 years had an international career with various professional services firms before she started her own business as an Executive Coach & Leadership Team Developer.

She’s lived all over the world and speaks 5 languages fluently. And she had a career as a professional volleyball player!

We talked about Confidence and Vulnerability – and how to show both as a leader to build trust in your team.

We covered:

• The link between vulnerability and psychological safety
• The right balance between confidence and vulnerability
• What being a vulnerable leader actually sounds like
• How imposter syndrome fits into the picture of confidence and vulnerability
• What experiments you can try that will encourage you (and everyone around you) to be more vulnerable and build trust

Find out more about Dr Katharina Schmidt: https://www.inspirationanddiscipline.com

Read more of her articles: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/people/katharinaschmidt1/

And connect with her:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-katharina-schmidt-psyd-343612/

Click here to get your free copy of my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time

Are you struggling to turn your vision into reality? Learn how to become an execution-focused leader and drive results in your organisation.

Monte Pedersen is dedicated to helping organisations manage their strategy execution -  he wants this to be a competency within every one of his clients.

He wants to eliminate all the bad habits they’ve developed over the years so they have a repeatable operating model that will teach their teams how to manage execution and get better at doing it each year.

Discover the key to effective strategy execution in this episode and learn why working longer hours doesn't always equal greater productivity.

Topics we covered:

• Strategy is not a linear process: Why strategy doesn't happen in a straight line and how to communicate and adapt as things change.
• Long hours ≠ greater productivity: Why, contrary to popular belief, working longer hours does not necessarily lead to increased productivity.
• Why effective communication is key: And how to make communication the foundation of successful leadership.
• And why you might be getting it wrong if you’re aiming for a work-life balance.

Connect with Monte on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monte-pedersen-9554a1126/

Click here to get your free copy of my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time

And if you enjoyed the Podcast please share with someone who might benefit and leave a rating and review.

Ben Simpson works with leaders and their teams to create better relationships, improve trust, increase autonomy, ditch bureaucracy. He very much sees that you perform best when you’re happy in your work. And he’s a fierce critic of traditional (command and control) management and prefers a more human-centric way of leading and managing.

He co-founded Organisational Vitality, is the Director and Chairman of the Deming Alliance UK, Co-organiser of Reinventing Work in Bath and is a visiting lecturer on the Bath MBA.

And he has the honour of collaborating with me when we work with clients together!

We geeked out in this episode but also made sure we offered practical advice for rethinking your appraisal system.

We covered:

• Is it true that appraisal processes never work?
• So why do they persist?
• The hidden/unintended consequences of annual appraisals
• If command and control should be a thing of the past – why is Amazon so successful?
• If we ditch the concept of an appraisal system what could you do instead?
• What do we mean by ‘ask better questions’?
• What actions can leaders start taking right now?

If you have any questions as a result of this Podcast you have permission to pick our collective brains! Our e-mail addresses are:

corine@visibly-different.co.uk

ben@vitalorg.co.uk

Find out more about Ben here: https://vitalorg.co.uk/

And connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensimpsonbath/

Click here to get your free copy of my Leader's Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time [ www.visibly-different.co.uk/increasing-your-impact ]

And if you enjoyed the Podcast please share with someone who might benefit and leave a rating and review.

Dr Lee Williams is a behavioural scientist with 30 years experience helping organisations improve productivity and performance. He’s done this work across many companies – including American Express,  Tesco and Dupont. He has an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology & Physiology, an MBA and a DBA from Alliance Manchester Business School where he completed the UK's first empirical study of Business Mental Toughness.

He uses this experience to measure employee well-being in his current business, KAYA.

Topics covered:

• What  Lee means by resilience
• What are some common misconceptions people have about resilience?
• How resilience can sometimes negatively impact employee well-being and mental health
• How to get the balance right so you get fewer downsides
• Top tips for leaders who want to help increase wellbeing

Connect with Dr Lee Williams here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thewellbeingchampion/

Click here to get your free copy of my Leader’s Guide to Increasing Your Impact, Influence & Free Time

Marina Nitze is an author and a crisis engineer. She co-authored Hack Your Bureaucracy with Nick Sinai, it contains over 50 tactics, each with real-world examples, for making lasting change in bureaucracies from PTAs all the way up to the White House and Fortune 500 companies.

Marina is currently focused on improving America’s child welfare system, helping organisations solve mission-critical IT challenges. Before this she was the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and helped establish the United States Digital Service. She also served as a Senior Advisor on technology in the White House under the Obama Administration.

We talked about:

• What it means to have a high-functioning bureaucracy
• What hacking your (low-functioning) bureaucracy means
• Where to start to get results
• The mistakes that keen people make
• Why Marina is obsessed with stabbing people in the chest

And much, much more.

Find out more about Marina here:

https://www.marinanitze.com/

And buy her brilliant book here:

Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on any Team https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hack-Your-Bureaucracy-Things-Matter/dp/0306827751

Harrison Ward is better known as Fell Foodie.

He’s an inspirational speaker, outdoorsman and cook who loves to recreate restaurant-style meals on minimal equipment (usually a camp stove) in remote locations.

He has a vast following across various social media platforms and has featured regularly in the media including Channel 5 and BBC. He regularly delivers talks about his personal battle with depression, suicidal thoughts and alcohol highlighting a journey from an overweight, alcoholic, smoker to the fit, mountain-loving foodie he is today.

This is what Dame Mary Berry DBE said about him - "Great, classy food".

We talked about:

• His journey and his catalyst for change
• What he needed in order to support the change
• What challenges he encountered
• What habits he developed
• What sustained his change
• And tips for someone wanting to get healthier and fitter

His debut book is Cook Out: Fell Foodie’s Guide to Over 80 Gourmet Recipes to Cook in the Great Outdoors.

Glyn Potts is the Headteacher of Saint John Henry Newman Catholic College in Oldham. Newman is a large secondary school serving a diverse community where 43% of students are in receipt of ‘Free School Meals.’

Glyn was awarded the ‘Inspirational Teacher of the Year’ award in 2010, has a masters degree in Catholic Educational Leadership and a second masters in Youth Leadership. He is an active member of the Army Cadet Force within the North West.

He is a serving Deputy Lieutenant in Greater Manchester, and he was awarded an MBE in May 2022 for Services to the Army Cadet Force and Education.

Topics we covered:

• Why retention is the new recruitment
• What leadership skills are most lacking today
• Why calling young people snowflakes isn’t accurate or fair
• The leadership theories Glyn is making a reality
• The first place to start if you want to implement change

The leadership books Glyn talked about are:

Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

James Kerr’s Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us about the Business of Life

And here is more about Glyn’s inspiring story:

One year in a struggling British state school