Unleashed - Conversations to Elevate Your Business

Most employees want to do a good job, be valuable, and have an impact. Yet in many companies leaders don't foster Impact-Player traits. This leads to disengagement and poor results. Leaders must recognize, develop, and support their Impact-Players. Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with Liz Wiseman a world-renowned expert in organizational leadership about what it means to be a impact player.

Champions live in a state of Wonderhell, constantly bouncing between feeling wonderful and being overwhelmed and uncertain. Recognizing these feelings, leaning into the emotions, and developing loving critics are the keys to ongoing success. Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with best-selling author Laura Gassner Otting about her upcoming book.  Wonderhell explores the traits and strategies of successful people in various vocations and walks of life.

At times leading our companies is like walking through a minefield. One wrong step could be disastrous. Being able to first recognize and then step around these mines is essential for getting to reaching our destination.   Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with Nick Thompson, the former CEO of North America's largest promotional products conglomerate.   Instead of focusing on what we should do in leading our firms, Nick shares a few pitfalls we must avoid to succeed.

Recruiting the best talent doesn't drive performance. Only 40% of a team's performance is linked to the skills and knowledge of the individuals. The rest comes from how the team functions.   Listen as host Jeff Tetz speaks with David Burkus, a global expert on team dynamics and performance.

Today we overvalue security and comfort. If we stay in our comfort-zones too much, we won't grow, learn, and progress. Our organizations won't innovate. We must get comfortable with discomfort. Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with Tom Morris who is known as the World's Happiest Philosopher. In this episode, Tom describes how our society has swung too far towards security and comfort, and how we must push ourselves to take more risks and get used to living in uncertainty.

Avoiding all risk is a path to failure. If we never take risks, we stay in a comfort zone and never grow, change, or learn. But approaching uncertainty and risk in the right way ensures that we maximize the benefits. Join host Jeff Tetz as he talks with adventure athlete Will Gadd about his philosophies and process for operating in uncertainty.

Most first-time managers fail. This is costly for organizations. However, with the right playbook, managers can improve their chances of success, and better recruit, engage, and develop their people.   Listen as host Jeff Tetz as he talks with Dave Kline about his management playbook and how it can improve the odds of having successful managers and leaders in your organization.

Remaining in the status quo is dangerous for both individuals and organizations. If you don't drive change, you are likely to be changed by some kind of disruption.   Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with author and innovation expert Shawn Kanungo about how innovation and adaptation need to be part of every healthy culture.

Lack of self-awareness could be costing you time, money, and relationships. 95% believe they are self-aware, but the research shows that only 10-15% of us truly are. But the good news is we can train ourselves to be more self-aware and help those around us do the same.  Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with Dr. Tasha Erich, a researcher, author, and organizational psychologist who's passionate about helping leaders, employees, businesses, and marriages get better by focusing on raising self-awareness.  Insight Quiz Working with People Who Aren't Self-Aware

The best vision, strategy or talent will fall short if people in your organization don't get along. Could incivility, friction and conflict be holding you back? Listen as host Jeff Tetz talks with Amy Gallo, an expert in human interactions and workplace dynamics, about how a lack of harmonious relationships can hold people and organizations back, and what to do to address this problem.

Have you set a worthy goal for your development? Join host Jeff Tetz as he talks with Michael Bungay Stanier about his research into what makes a goal worthy, how to set one, and why it's important we have one.

Misinformation is all around us. It can create tension and polarization in the workplace, in our homes, and in our social circles. The good news is if we can learn how to debunk it right out of the gate, it can't take a foothold in our work culture or our relationships.    Listen to host Jeff Tetz's conversation with Tim Caufield to learn how to spot it, how to debunk it, and how to help others do the same. 

Is persisting always the best decision? How do we decide when to stick and when to quit?  In this episode, host Jeff Tetz talks with former world poker champion turned leadership scientist Annie Duke about Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away.

Lise Vesterlund's research has uncovered that organizations are wasting precious skills and knowledge by assigning a disproportionate amount of non-promotable work to women. For women, this leads to working longer hours leading to burnout, stress, and disengagement. Are you underutilizing the skills and knowledge of the women in your organization? Listen now as host Jeff Tetz talks with Lise Vesterlund about Putting a Stop to Women's Dead End Work.

Do you live a life without regrets, or do you wish you could have a “do over?”  Most people have regrets, according to Dan Pink's research.  And there is a right and wrong way to deal with them to maximize their benefits for you personally and for your organization.  Listen now as host Jeff Tetz talks to best selling author Dan Pink about The Power of Regret.

We live in a time where work and career achievements often become our identities. If we live our lives for the rat race, says Bob Sutton, we tolerate a lot of stress, friction, “bullshite and clusterfugs.” Having spent his entire life training leaders and managers, he shares his surprising rules for success.   Three reasons to tune in: Learn Bob's “twelve things I believe in” when it comes to running a successful business. Understand the core causes of workplace frustration, headaches and friction, and how to avoid them. See how reframing work, life and success makes all the difference.

According to Roger Martin, efficiency has turned into a damaging obsession for business leaders. Instead, we need to seek a productive balance between the pursuit of efficiency and the nurturing of resilience. Three reasons to tune in: Understand how the principles driving 200 years of remarkable economic growth are now casing more harm than good. See how to flip-the-script to a more sustainable approach to performance. Learn the productive and practical roles for business executives, political leaders, educators and citizens to bring about this productive balance.

We live in an additive time, a time of more - more to-dos, choices, information, change, and options which can quickly overwhelm us. Leidy Klotz believes what we really need to do is subtract. Subtraction helps us to right size our companies, strategies, and lives so we can better surf the waves and achieve better focus and results. Three reasons to tune in: Learn how designers, rock stars, Nobel-prize winners and everyday heroes are using subtraction to dismantle racism, advance knowledge, heal the planet, and even tell better jokes. Understand how to revamp your day-to-day life to do less and achieve more. For leaders, explore how to take subtraction to your organization and make results easier for those you lead.

Problem solvers love to use the word, “but” which unfortunately is one of the most polarizing words in the English language; it can push people away and make them feel like you are against them. Instead, Tim Arnold tells us that great leaders choose to use the word “and” builds a bridge to collaboration, openness, and engagement. Three reasons to tune in: See the power of moving beyond traditional “either/or” thinking by unlocking the power of “both/and.” Understand how AND thinking is not about compromise (splitting the pie) but about true collaboration (increasing the size of the pie for all parties). Use balanced tensions alongside AND thinking to move from one right answer to exponential opportunities.

In a world of rapid, disruptive change, how can you grow your business with more certainty and confidence? Dr. Ichak Adizes developed a system to build mutual trust and respect in a company so that it can better handle risk, surprises, and change. He spent the last 50 years proving out the system which has now seen remarkable and consistent results in a broad range of organizations, industries, and groups. Three reasons to tune in: See how organizations that are better integrated internally grow faster externally. Explore how to unleash diversity to its fullest through a safe, full-participation culture. Remove cultural and leadership impediments to growth and achieve higher performance. Read the episode summary here!

How often do unpopular opinions, information and perspectives go unvoiced and later come back to bite us? Kim Scott took her experiences of working at leading companies like Apple, Google, and others, and unearthed what makes some teams thrive while others struggle. In a phrase, radical candor. Three reasons to tune in: Hear how great teams interact differently than those who struggle, and how they communicate with facts, directness, and care. Learn the two dimensions of radical candor and how with both we can communicate powerfully, directly, and still maintain engagement and buy in. See how, as a leader, you can model the way to radical candor within your organization. Join the Live Shows!

Growth and innovation strategy will either make – or break – your business. Tiffany Bova has de-mystified growth in the face of stiff competition and a fast-changing business environment. She has identified 10 simple growth paths, and how to apply them to build the right strategy for you.  Three reasons to tune-in -   Understand how to evaluate your competitive landscape to know which growth path will have the greatest impact.  See how great leaders are countercyclical, knowing that the best time to create the next big opportunity is when things are going well, not when things are struggling.  Learn from the experiences of diverse organizations like Red Bull, Marvel, and Starbucks as well as smaller, owner-operated firms.    

We are all expected to think, but how often do we question our own thinking processes? Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds, and his recent work focuses on unlearning, relearning, and thinking again. Too many of us favor conviction over controversy, status quo over innovation, assumptions over facts, and certainty over doubt. But it is within these very habits that, if we can rethink, we can grow. Three Reasons to Tune In: Understand how biases, habits and assumptions undermine our critical thinking skills. Supercharge your ability to influence by recognizing that persuasion is less about truth and reason, and more about process, questioning and listening. Learn how to develop a rethinking habit for yourself and your organization to ensure better decisions making and greater success.  

What do you do when faced with a big decision? Generate a pros and con list? Get caught in analysis paralysis? Only to finally go with your gut? There is a better way to make quality decisions. A way that allows you to think clearly, feel more confident, second-guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive. Bestselling author and former professional poker player Annie Duke lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. Tune in to - Learn how to identify and dismantle your own hidden biases. More accurately identify the influence of luck in the outcome of your decisions and therefore how to learn from past decisions. Know when to decide fast, when to decide slow, and when to decide in advance.  

As leaders we need to be effective influencers to be productive. But did you know that the specific words you choose can have a significant impact on your ability to influence and motivate others? Shelle Rose Charvet has spent the past three decades helping people leverage The Language and Behavior Profile (LAB Profile®), a tool for understanding how people and groups process information, make decisions and are motivated to act. Using this tool allows us to notice and respond with just the right influencing language to persuade and inspire those around us. Three Reasons to Tune In: Understand the different profiles people have for taking in information, making decisions, and choosing actions. Discover how language and word selection triggers specific responses in listeners depending on their profiles. Learn a methodology to use in conversation to effectively influence others.

Does your organization embrace a culture of courage? Or do you - or others - bite your tongue in fear of saying something unpopular or facing recrimination? How often do the people in your organization fear speaking up to you? Workplace courage is acting because it feels right and important to stand up despite the potential for serious career, social, psychological, and even physical repercussions for doing so. Jim Detert has discovered that workplace courage is in short supply today and has become a champion of helping individuals and organizations become more courageous. Courageous cultures help people feel safe and help surface more diverse viewpoints, leading to better decisions and actions. Three reasons to tune in: Explore the concept of Truth to Power, the set of behaviors for confronting or challenging others, acting with more autonomy than you technically have, protecting or promoting others, and owning your mistakes. Learn how to have candid conversations that ensure commitment to bold aspirations and actions. Understand the steps in the Courage Ladder, a development process we can all follow to develop our own workplace courage.  

Human beings are wired for story. From our earliest ancestors, knowledge, culture, and information was passed from one generation to the next through story. Even today, research shows people are persuaded more and learn faster through story than through charts, graphs, and facts. Yet how often do we skillfully leverage storytelling at work? Karen Eber, a top TED speaker and “Leader Whisperer,” believes anyone can learn to be a great storyteller, and story skills are essential for leaders. Three Reasons to Tune In: Learn why stories are more effective than data in building trust and how storytelling affects our brains. See why people respond to vulnerability in storytelling. Discover how to come up with good ideas for your best stories.  

Most women don't advance in their careers because of their own limiting assumptions. Often, according to the research, women are far less likely than men to take a shot at a new role or opportunity when they feel they aren't fully qualified. Most women assume that their performance will speak for itself, and opportunities will find them rather than seeking them out. Alison Fragale, a champion for women's advancement, believes that if women could get out of their own way, we would benefit from seeing more of them in leadership positions. Three reasons to listen: Understand the research behind how women and men self-promote differently. Learn approaches to overcoming the self-limiting assumptions. Listen to how we can all be part of the solution to removing barriers to diversity and inclusivity in our organizations. Thanks to our creative partner, Keen Creative @ https://keencreative.com/

September 30th, 2021 marked Canada's first ever Truth & Reconciliation Day. Honour this important initiative by listening to this authentic, raw conversation with Annie Korver. Annie is on a mission to advance indigenous participation and inclusion in Canadian businesses. Grow your understanding of Canadian history, and strengthen your culture of inclusion. More than ever the opportunity exists for organizations to proactively participate in, support, and partner on economic development activities with Indigenous communities and ventures. Through thoughtful conversations and planning, values-led reconciliation can become a reality.  

We all spend time doing things we don't want to – low value tasks and priorities that steal our time, energy, and focus. And then we wonder why we don't achieve the most important outcomes we want in life. Hear Greg McKeown, author of Effortless, debunk the myth that to achieve greater results we need to work harder.

2020 is behind us, vaccine rollout has started, & an economic recovery is coming. Is your business ready to accelerate out of the downturn? We've turned the tables in this episode - our Host Jeff Tetz will be interviewed by Global News Anchor, Quinn Phillips, for this important and timely topic! This conversation explores six important strategies that will help ensure your team is accelerating before it's too late. 

Leaders who understand and create psychological safety build high performing organizations. Psychological safety isn't about being nice though, it's about giving candid feedback, openly admitting mistakes, and learning from each other. It's about trust and vulnerability. Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor and author of the book The Fearless Organization, talks about the concept of psychological safety and how companies with a trusting workplace ultimately perform better.

Tracy Dumas, associate professor of management and human resource at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, talks about how our personal and professional lives interface and benefit one another - and how we should all capitalize on this. When you are engaged at work, you're using a particular set of skills and cognitive resources. When you step away from work, you engage in activities that require a different set of skills. This is incredibly beneficial and allows us to come back to work with a sense of recovery and engagement.

If you can't articulate how your organization is different from competitors clearly and succinctly, what reason does your clientele have to buy from you? There are many good businesses with good people out there, but the businesses that really thrive are the ones that can properly position themselves in the marketplace from their competitors. David C. Baker, the author of The Business of Expertise, talks about how to market and position your organization ahead of the competition.

We are all natural born performers! When we improvise and perform in ways we have not done before, we can discover new internal territory and grow. Cathy Salit, bestselling author of Performance Breakthrough: A Radical Approach to Success at Work, talks about how leaders and organizations can use the art and science of performance to become more than they thought they could be!

The problem with the traditional leader-follow model used by most companies in the world, is that it influences people to comply, rather than think and initiate. Former US Navy Captain David Marquet, bestselling author of Turn The Ship Around, talks about intent-based leadership and how to create workplaces where everyone contributes and where followers grow to become leaders. 

When you lead from the heart, your people will follow. Mark C. Crowley, best-selling author of Lead From The Heart, talks about heart-based leadership and how to create employee engagement that moves people to do extraordinary work and achieve remarkable performance.

Innovation is the hottest buzzword in business! But what if the benefits of innovation have been exaggerated and we've put too much faith in technology to solve our problems? Lee Vinsel, co-author of The Innovation Delusion, talks about how our obsession with finding the next big thing has distracted us from the work that matters most. 

Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? Digging deeper into his award-winning book “The Culture Code”, Daniel shares specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Culture is not something you are—it's something you do.

Trevor is the CEO of Surepoint Group, and is responsible for the strategic direction and operational management of the company. He has a proven track record of maximizing operational efficiencies by focusing on a culture of constant improvement and the highest level of customer satisfaction.

Ted Kouri thrives when working with clients to tackle issues related to growth strategy, business planning, and communications. Ted shares 5 things organizations can immediately start doing to position themselves for success in 2021.

Positive Leadership shows how to reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness and spectacular results. Kim Cameron will explores the extraordinary success that results from positive leadership practices in organizations. Examples of tools and techniques which lead to improvement in the performance of both employees and their organizations are discussed.

What's Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve. The key is reframing, a crucial, underutilized skill that Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg thinks that you can master. Thomas offers a simple, three-step method - Frame, Reframe, Move Forward - that anyone can use to start solving the right problems.

What is the one skill standing between us and success? The ability to ask for the things we need to succeed. Wayne Baker shares a set of strategies—used at companies like Google, GM, and IDEO—that individuals, teams, and leaders can use to make asking for help a personal and organizational habit.   

Buster Benson shares a new framework that frees you from the trap of unproductive conflict so you can foster healthier, more productive relationships. He argues that when properly channeled, conflict can be the most valuable tool we have at our disposal for deepening relationships, solving problems, and coming up with new ideas.

It is challenging to have productive conversations that turn feedback into real learning. Sheila Heen will explain why getting feedback is so crucial yet so challenging, and will offer a powerful framework to help us take on life's blizzard of off-hand comments, annual evaluations, and unsolicited advice with curiosity and grace.

Are you leveraging equity & inclusion to drive collaboration in your organization? Dr. Tina Opie, an award winning researcher, consultant, and professor joins us to discuss how leaders can assess their own inclusion and equity practices, while developing a strategy for their businesses. She provides tangible and practical advice on how create a more equitable workplace that results in a more creative, innovative, and productive organization.

Gerry O'Brion's Power of BECAUSE framework has helped tens of thousands of CEOs, business owners and sales teams stand out from the sea of sameness and grow their sales. The genesis of Gerry's work, and ultimately his Framework of Influence, started when he worked for large-company marketing divisions and discovered that even the top executives didn't know why customers picked one competitor over another. In cluttered, noisy, competitive situations this was a big surprise, and answering this question became his mission.

Are you delivering your message in a way that builds your leadership credibility and influences others? With techniques used by professional performers and storytellers, Michelle Anne Johnson believes you can leverage speaking engagements so that you're building your personal brand - and getting more done through and with other people.

Do you know how to manage the tensions in your business to create a competitive advantage? Leaders are ineffective when they can't navigate conflicting points of view. Tim Arnold helps you understand the chronic issues that hold back leadership and teamwork, so you can thrive!

Digital disruption and rapid change surround us. Most organizations are facing the need to transform in order to survive and thrive. Jam Harris talks about what digital transformation is, and questions if its something we should care about or of it is just a passing fad.