Category Archives: Leadership

Posted on

519: The Practice and Shipping Creative Work with Seth Godin (an Encore Presentation of Episode 344)

by

If I had to make the difficult choice of selecting just 20 books to access for the remainder of my life, I could do a lot worse than the 20 written so far by today’s special guest.

Seth Godin is special to me for a lot of reasons; not the least of which is he is almost singlehandedly responsible for helping rekindle my love of reading.

seth godin
Seth Godin image credit Darius Bashar and Archangel

In fact, you could go so far as to say that, without Seth Godin, there’s a real good chance the last seven-plus years of my life would have been spent doing something else.

But thanks to his book Purple Cow, I’m here instead. And the beauty of that is, so are you.

Seth’s latest book, released last week, is called The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, and I am thrilled to dive into it in this episode with Seth and with you.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to join our conversation now. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

Join in on our chat below

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS

Continue Reading »
Posted on

518: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully with Elaine Lin Hering

by

If there’s a topic not talked about all that much, it’s the topic of silence. The kind that says why speak up if you know that it won’t be received well and often makes things worse?

Today’s guest, Elaine Lin Hering, explores how we’ve learned to be silent, how we’ve benefited from silence, how we’ve silenced other people—and how we might choose another way.

She teaches ways to recognize and unlearn unconscious patterns so we can make more intentional choices about how we want to show up. Only by unlearning silence can we more fully unleash talent, speak our minds, and be more complete versions of ourselves…and help other people do the same.

Elaine’s new book releases next week on March 19 and you can pre-order it right now. It’s called Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Elaine and her work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

Join in on our chat below

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Continue Reading »
Posted on

517: The Vision-Driven Leader with Michael Hyatt (an Encore Presentation of Episode 312)

by

As I say in today’s podcast, I buy this author’s books before I even know what they’re about.

There are only a few of these kinds of authors on my list, but Michael Hyatt is one of them.

michael hyatt

His latest effort is a book called The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Question to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business.

It is, in my estimation, a book that EVERY leader needs to read, especially now, what with all that is going on in our world today (I’m looking at you COVID-19).

As Michael writes in the book, “…a mission defines what a business is, a vision describes where it’s going. Mission is here; vision is still out there. Mission is now; vision is next.”

The Vision Driven Leader takes you step-by-step from why to what and then how.

Your business will never be the same.

Click the play button below to join our conversation now, or keep scrolling for a summary.

Join in on our chat below

Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | RSS

Continue Reading »

Posted on

515: The Top 5 Traits of a Servant Leader

by

Inside my online community, ReadtoLead+ members get access to a wide range of personal and professional development resources, including articles I publish not available anywhere else.

One of those articles I published just yesterday and I’ve decided to share it here in audio form to help give you a sense of the kind of content you’ll find inside, should you desire to join us as a member.

By the way, you can try it free for two weeks. Just go here.

If you decide to stay after your trial is up, it’s just $9 a month.

The topic of today’s podcast episode is leadership. But not just any kind of leadership. I’m talking specifically about Servant Leadership.

What is Servant Leadership exactly?

I posed that question to ChatGPT. Here is its response:

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy where the primary goal of the leader is to serve others, prioritizing the growth and well-being of their team members and the communities to which they belong. It flips the traditional leadership model on its head, emphasizing the importance of humility, empathy, and the collective over the individual. Through traits like active listening, empathy, healing, awareness, and persuasion, servant leaders foster an environment of trust, collaboration, and mutual respect, driving organizational success from a foundation of shared values and goals.

Did you catch the Servant Leader traits ChatGPT referenced? Those traits are, in fact, the five I believe to be most important for Servant Leaders.

For the full rundown of my philosophy on each of these, just click the play button below.

Click the play button below to listen to the episode

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Comment and Share

Please consider rating the podcast with 5 stars and leaving a one- or two-sentence review in iTunes or on Stitcher. This helps tremendously in bringing the podcast to the attention of others.

We encourage you to join the Read to Lead Nation on Facebook. It’s a community of like-minded leaders and leader-to-be, as well as fans of the Read to Lead Podcast.

You can tell your friends on Twitter about your love of reading and our new podcast by simply clicking this link and sharing the tweet you’ll find at the other end.

And, by all means, if you know someone you think would benefit, please spread the word by using the share buttons on this page.

Finally, thanks for listening and remember, “Leaders read and readers lead.”

Posted on

514: How to Fix the Always-On Culture of Business with Malissa Clark

by

For the second week in a row, I’m delighted to welcome a guest whose book made my list of the 9 books I’m most looking forward to this year.

malissa clark

That guest is the University of Georgia’s Malissa Clark. She’s written a new book, released just last week, called Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It.

Malissa says that many workers believe that, in order to compete with other top talent, they must embrace a culture that rewards long hours and a constant connection to work.

In fact, businesses and society endorse busyness, overwork, and extreme commitment as the most valued traits in workers. Sometimes that endorsement is explicit. More often it’s an implicit contract, a buildup of organizational and cultural norms and the adoption of new technologies that make it easy to tether people to work.

Either way, this workaholic behavior is unhealthy and counterproductive for workers and for organizations. And, according to Malissa, it’s time to fight back.

She shows you how to escape the trap of putting work at the center of everything and thus losing your well-being—or your company’s performance—in the process.

Her book is deeply researched and written for everyone from leaders to individual contributors. You might say Never Not Working is the essential guide to identifying workaholism in yourself and others and starting on the road to recovery.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Malissa and her work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

Join in on our chat below

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Continue Reading »