Coaching for Leaders

Tom Henschel: The Look & Sound of Leadership Tom Henschel of Essential Communications supports senior leaders and executive teams. An internationally recognized expert in the field of workplace communications and self-presentation, he has helped thousands of leaders achieve excellence through his work as an executive coach and his top-rated podcast, The Look & Sound of Leadership.

Have you been told you should take more initiative? Or, perhaps youve been telling that to someone else? Either way, this conversation with Tom Henschel will outline three key steps to help you get started. Key Points Three steps to taking more initiative:

Think and talk about your work. Ideas come through conversation. Execute on your idea. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Communicate what youve done.

Initiative is often in the eye of the beholder. Imagine a scale that goes from bold to cautious. Theres probably room for you to be at least 5% bolder. Feeling like you are waiting on others may be an indicator to take initiative. To calibrate where you land, ask yourself: Whats my typical pattern? In correspondence, consider asking fewer questions and making more statements. Place yourself in situations where youll need to show initiative.

Resources Mentioned

The Look & Sound of Leadership podcast by Tom Henschel Feel the Fearand Do It Anyway* by Susan Jeffers

Related Episodes

Leadership vs. Management (The Look & Sound of Leadership, episode 166) 5 Strategies for Dealing with Narcissists (The Look & Sound of Leadership, episode 239) How to Answer Tell Us About Yourself (The Look & Sound of Leadership, episode 250) How to Talk So People Understand You (The Look & Sound of Leadership, episode 254)

Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Jon Fogel: Punishment-­Free Parenting Jon Fogel is a husband, a father of four, and a parenting educator. His goal is to teach how to parent more effectively, with less stress and more success by combining modern neuroscience, developmental psychology, counseling, and positive, gentle parenting wisdom. He is the author of Punishment-­Free Parenting: The Brain-Based Way to Raise Kids Without Raising Your Voice*.

Most of us aspire to lead well in every area of our lives, not just in the workplace. A key place for leadership with many of us is with our kids and the other young people in our lives. In this conversation, Jon and I discuss how to raise kids without raising your voice. Key Points

Consequences and punishment are not the same thing, even if the words are used interchangeably. Our kids want us to like them. They are not giving you a hard time; they’re having a hard time. Punishment doesn’t “teach kids a lesson.” More often, it crowds out higher-level thinking, and children are unable to remember what they were being punished for. Rather than imposing retribution, help children surface the natural and logistical consequences of their behaviors. Get curious, not furious. Often, there’s a perfectly rational reason that children are acting the way they are. Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.

Resources Mentioned

Punishment-­Free Parenting: The Brain-Based Way to Raise Kids Without Raising Your Voice* by Jon Fogel Jon Fogel on Instagram

Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes

How to Reduce Drama With Kids, with Tina Payne Bryson (episode 310) The Way Into Better Conversations About Wealth, with Kristin Keffeler (episode 606) Supporting Return to Work After Maternity Leave, with Danna Greenberg (episode 639)

Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Qasim Ijaz Qasim Ijaz is the director of cybersecurity at a leading healthcare organization, overseeing detection, incident response, vulnerability management, purple teaming, and cybersecurity engineering. With a strong background in offensive security and risk management, he has helped organizations strengthen their defenses against evolving threats. He is also a dedicated educator, mentoring professionals and sharing his expertise at conferences such as BSides and Black Hat.

You don’t need to go far in the news these days to find out that another organization was hacked. Data breeches are a nightmare scenario for both leaders and the people they support. In this episode, Qasim and I explore what your team and you can do to be a bit more prepared. Key Points

Use multi-factor authentication, passphrases, and a password manager. Freeze your personal credit reports. Do this for free directly with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Leaders in bigger roles (executives, CEOs, board members) are larger targets for hackers due to their access and also their ability to occasionally side-step organizational guidelines. It’s the non-technical pieces of a cyber response that organizations are least prepared for. Conduct incident response and disaster recovery tabletop exercises to uncover vulnerabilities before an attack. Regardless of organizational policy, employees will use AI. The best prevention assumes the inevitability of human behavior and works with it to improve systems.

Resources Mentioned

Recommended password managers: 1Password, Apple password app, Proton Pass Critical Security Controls by the Center for Internet Security Resources for Small and Medium Businesses by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon Business

Related Episodes

Dumb Things Smart People Do With Money, with Jill Schlesinger (episode 396) Where to Start When Inheriting a Team in Crisis, with Lynn Perry Wooten (episode 603) How to Use AI to Think Better, with José Antonio Bowen (episode 689)

Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Andrew Brodsky: Ping Andrew Brodsky is an award-winning professor, management consultant, and virtual communications expert at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. He is an expert in workplace technology, communication, and productivity, and serves as the CEO of Ping Group. He is the author of Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication*.

We’ve all heard the well intended advice that having interactions in person is always best. And that being as close to perfect as possible is ideal. Turns out, not always. In this conversation, Andrew and I explore how adapting to the context of tough situations can help you show up in a way that’s helpful for the other party and for you. Key Points

In virtual interactions, what feels authentic to you may not seem authentic to the person you’re interacting with. While video is best for being present, it may not be best when your underlying emotions could leak into a situation. Surface acting helps us all land with the other party more authentically. Audio only can help this land better. If using a less rich medium to communicate (i.e. email instead of a conversation) it’s helpful to explain why you made that choice. People who appear perfectly competent may not be as likable. Consider surfacing blunders that aren’t central to the core expertise of your work. We often default to the medium that works best for us. Consider what will land best with the other party.

Resources Mentioned

Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication* by Andrew Brodsky

Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes

How to Genuinely Show Up for Others, with Marshall Goldsmith (episode 590) How to Make a Better Impression on Camera, with Mark Bowden (episode 643) How to Grow From Feedback, with Jennifer Garvey Berger (episode 713)

Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Paul Akers: 2 Second Lean Paul Akers is the founder and president of FastCap, a product development company specializing in woodworking tools and hardware for the professional builder. Through a series of twists and turns he discovered Lean and the Toyota Production System (TPS) which was instrumental in propelling FastCap as an example of Lean manufacturing and culture, now followed by thousands of companies around the world. He is the author of 2 Second Lean: How to Grow People and Build a Fun Lean Culture at Work & at Home*.

We often add more in order to make a system better. The opposite tactic is often more useful: making things simpler. In this conversation, Paul and I explore how to make worker better by starting small. Key Points

Your pride will blind you to what you most need to learn. Begin by addressing the things that bug you. Lean is about making things simpler. Instead of batching, consider one-piece flow. This helps you improve as you go. Set the standard at 2 seconds to try something new. Anybody can achieve that. Start in the bathroom. Showing respect in the place everybody visits sets a standard for the rest of the organization. To make something stick, (1) set the expectation, (2) inspect the expectation, (3) reinforce the expectation.

Resources Mentioned

2 Second Lean: How to Grow People and Build a Fun Lean Culture at Work & at Home* by Paul Akers Example of 2 second lean in practice

Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes

How To Create Joy At Work, with Richard Sheridan (episode 122) Engaging People Through Change, with Cassandra Worthy (episode 571) How to Change the Way You Think, with Ari Weinzweig (episode 592)

Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.