Leo & Randy On Great Groups

Today’s show is a discussion on Leo’s latest CEOWORLD column, Ten Attributes of a Great CEO Peer Group. They are:

  1. Having the right people in the room 
  2. Being truly committed to their fellow members 
  3. “Leveraging” their safe environment
  4. Being prepared to play 
  5. Being relentlessly patient with asking questions 
  6. Bringing important topics to the conversation 
  7. Understanding how to get the most from the group
  8. Being willing to challenge one another from a place of caring
  9. Accepting personal responsibility for your role
  10. Outstanding leadership

Leo will be keynoting in Oslo, Norway on August 28th at the 2019 Executive Growth Alliance Summit

Leo’s books – The Power of Peers and What Anyone Can Do

Leo’s speaking and workshops

Randy’s small business owner peer advisory group, The Peer Advantage

Subscribe to the YouTube channel

Connect with Leo on Linkedin | Twitter

Connect with Randy on Linkedin | Twitter

Leo & Randy On Achieving Goals

Today’s show is a discussion about how we can improve – as individuals and in our organizations – achieving our goals. We’re approaching the start of the second half of the year and many of us want to achieve some specific things before the end of 2019. Will we accomplish them? Or will we quit?

Some useful links mentioned in today’s episode:

William Ury’s TED Talk – Walk From No To Yes

Jennifer Vessel’s work – Executive Growth Alliance

Leo’s booksThe Power of Peers and What Anyone Can Do

Book: The Fifth Discipline: The Art And Practice Of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge

Leo’s speaking and workshops

Randy’s small business owner peer advisory group, The Peer Advantage

Subscribe to the YouTube channel

Connect with Leo on Linkedin | Twitter

Connect with Randy on Linkedin | Twitter

Leo & Randy On Podcasting

Today’s show was prompted by Leo’s participation in the C-Suite Network Thought Summit in San Francisco. He was on a panel about podcasting. Today we extend the conversation here on the WHAT ANYONE CAN DO PODCAST and discuss a few questions about podcasting.

How should you start your own podcast?

What makes a perfect podcast?

Leave us a comment below on how we can improve this podcast. You can also use the Contact page or hit us up on social media.

If you want to connect with somebody who is a professional podcast coach, then let us introduce you to Dave Jackson, owner of the School of Podcasting. His site has tons of free resources and he even has a live YouTube streaming show most every Saturday morning where he’ll answer your podcast questions – Ask The Podcast Coach.

Here are the panelists who appeared with Leo at the C-Suite Network Thought Summit.  Check out their profiles and their podcasts:

Audrey Strong, Josh Felber, Joyce Cordi, Chickie Fitzgerald

Useful links related to today’s show:

What Anyone Can Do Podcast on C-Suite Network

The book: Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth, and Success by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary

The book: What Anyone Can Do: How Surrounding Yourself with the Right People Will Drive Change, Opportunity, and Personal Growth by Leo Bottary

Subscribe to the YouTube channel

Connect with Leo on Linkedin | Twitter

Connect with Randy on Linkedin | Twitter

Rich Karlgaard On Late Bloomers

Our guest today is Rich Karlgaard, publisher and futurist for Forbes and author of a new book, Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement.

Are all high achievers early achievers?

Can mature individuals with life experience add value to a workplace?

Does personal and professional growth have an expiration date?

Helpful links from today’s show:

Buy the book: Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement by Rich Karlgaard

Connect with Rich via his website: RichKarlgaard.com

Vested Interest. Positive or Negative?

It’s funny how language can inspire aha moments.  I love Sekou Andrews‘ work for that reason, because for me, he offers much more than clever turns of phrase.  When you unpack his brand of poetry, there’s always such rich meaning to be extracted if you take the time to do so. He has since inspired me to look for that deeper meaning no matter who mouths the words.

So during a workshop I conducted for a Vistage Emerging Leaders Group in San Antonio today, one of the members shared that the group was incredibly effective because the members had grown to develop a “vested interest” in the outcome for each of their member’s actions.  I immediately asked, “What do you mean by that?”

To digress for a moment, I’d like you to consider my frame of reference for asking the question.  When I grew up learning this stuff during my early days with Vistage, part of the value proposition was that CEOs and business leaders could meet with peers who had no “vested interest” in the outcome – meaning they had no financial or professional skin in the game.  The point was that they could receive impartial advice from people who knew exactly what it was like to sit in their chair and who had nothing to gain one way or the other.

The vested interest the member was referring to today was quite different. It was vested interest of a higher order.  It had nothing to do with personal gain.  It had to do with the emotional connection they’ve developed for one another when it comes to wins and losses.  While members may join a group without having a vested interest in their fellow members’ outcomes, one could argue that, over time, acquiring this brand of vested interest makes the group that much better.  If you think about it, this is exactly what every peer group should be shooting for.

Sekou says, “Tapping into the collective intelligence makes our whole greater than the sum of our smarts.”  I learn something new every time I work with a new group.  That’s why I love doing it so much!  A big thanks to Sekou Andrews and to everyone who challenges us to think about the world a little differently.

 

 

 

 

Leo & Randy On Perspective

Today on the What Anyone Can Do podcast Leo and Randy discuss three components of perspective, formed as questions:

  1. What’s going on?
  2. What does it mean?
  3. How do we act on it?

Perspective is influenced by the people who surround us. Unique vantage points can be leveraged for mutual benefits, like the various camera angles used for instant replay of a sporting event.

*Stanley Cup Update – Bruins and the Blues tied at 2-2!  Game 5 tonight (Thursday) in Boston!

Mentioned in today’s show:

Ladder of Inference by Chris Argyris and Peter Senge

The Power Of Peers: How The Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth And Success by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary

What Anyone Can Do podcast on C-Suite Network

Jennifer Vessels On The Big Picture

Meet Jennifer Vessels, CEO of Next Step.  Her latest initiative, called Executive Growth Alliance (EGA), works to assemble and facilitate groups of peers who are part of a common ecosystem (transportation, health, etc.).  Jennifer’s proactive, systems thinking approach to future-readiness is among the topics of our conversation today!

For information about the Executive Growth Alliance Summit in Oslo (late August, 2019), you can contact Jennifer directly at jvessels@nextstepgrowth.com and 1 650 218 0902 or 47 90230982.

For additional  info: check out Leadership: Who You Surround Yourself With Matters at CEOWORLD

On Following Up

Today, we conclude our discussion on the 3 major elements required to have the most effective peer advantage:

  1. Showing Up
  2. Stepping Up
  3. Following Up

Following up is often what’s lacking in learning and development, the subject of Leo’s new column published in CEOWorld Magazine. Leo and Randy discuss the importance of trust and accountability in following up.

Some useful links for information mentioned in today’s discussion:

The Yin & Yang of Mastermind Groups

In recent weeks, I’ve updated the original presentation of the five factors common to high performing groups (The Power of Peers, 2016) from a list to a reinforcing loop.  Also, after leading workshops for more than 100 mastermind groups over the past few years, it’s become clear that if an individual member wants to drive higher group performance, then that member needs to Show Up, Step Up, and Follow-Up.  I invite you review these two articles.

There’s a third dimension at play here as well, and that’s the yin and yang relationship of factors 2 and 3 – an environment that’s safe/confidential and one that fosters valuable interaction.  One provides emotional safety, while the other supports intellectual dialogue that offers valuable outcomes critical to delivering member value.  You simply can’t have one without the other.  And without one you have neither.  These forces are not opposite so much as interdependent.  Hence the reference to the Daoist concept of Yin & Yang.

The safer people feel in their group meeting and the more they are willing to leverage that safe environment, the more likely the larger, deeper, and more important topics (challenges and opportunities, personal and professional) will come to the forefront.  You can’t have valuable interaction if you don’t have anything valuable to interact about.  Deep conversations, on the other hand, inspire trust and increase emotional safety.

If generally speaking, you believe your group meeting to be a safe and confidential setting, then challenge yourself to leverage that environment more fully.  It’s not unlike being at a spa that has a magnificent pool, full of restorative power.  The thing is, only total immersion will provide the maximum benefit.  Looking at the pool from your lounge chair or sticking your toes in the water isn’t going to cut it.  It won’t work in your group either.  By being one who willingly shares and empathetically listens, you’ll encourage others to do the same through the sheer power of your example. You’ll see the trust grow and the dialogue improve.  Just watch.

The rich dialogue that can take place in a mastermind group is what pushes us to be better, both emotionally and intellectually.  Participating in these conversations by bringing your whole self, is an act of both generosity and courage.  It’s the Dao (or the way) of high performing mastermind groups.

Enjoy!

On Stepping Up

Today, we continue our discussion on the 3 major elements required to have the most effective peer advantage:

  1. Showing Up
  2. Stepping Up
  3. Following Up

Stepping up is exactly what Leo’s Boston Bruins did versus the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, sweeping the Canes 4-0 in a best of 7 series (yes, there’s a reason today’s graphic is sporting Bruins’ black and gold). Leo and Randy discuss the importance of trust and preparation in stepping up.

Some useful links for information mentioned in today’s discussion: