What would make a successful and profitable leader, who had a self-described “dictator” style of leadership, embrace love as a business strategy? What compelled this transformation and what lessons can we learn to drive organizational transformation that fuels growth and long-term success?

In this episode of my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast, I welcome president and CEO of Softway, Mohammad Anwar, so we can talk about his Wall Street Journal bestseller “Love as a Business Strategy – Resilience, Belonging & Success”.

Through our conversation, Mohammad shares how attending a sporting event made him realize the key to driving organizational success is love, and helped him create a 6-step framework that he used at his company – and is now helping other companies deploy – to transform their toxic workplace cultures into ones where employees succeed and thrive.

As Mohammad points, it’s critical that we learn the difference between “building a team of all-stars and an all-star team.”

Check out this episode to learn why love is a business strategy and how it can help your organization succeed in achieving its goals.

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Join me for this year-end retrospective episode featuring some of the most powerful insights shared by my guests on the Leadership Biz Cafe podcast in 2024.

From Robin Sharma's revelations about humility and success, to Marshall Goldsmith's transformative exercise on unlocking our potential, this episode provides valuable guidance and insights that will help you prepare for the challenges ahead:

• Robin Sharma on the surprising connection between humility and lasting success
• Shaara Roman on culture communication and talent retention
• Bob Sutton on the ripple effects of leadership actions
• Scott Mautz on fostering genuine risk-taking
• Shelmina Abji on strategic prioritization for leaders
• Marshall Goldsmith on breaking through self-imposed limitations

So listen to this episode to get inspiration and actionable insights to help you elevate your leadership effectiveness in 2025.

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Are you striving for the elusive “work-life balance” and finding it’s not quite working?

In this episode of Leadership Biz Cafe, I welcome back my friend, and fellow leadership expert (and Canadian) Dan Pontefract to discuss his book, “Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture a Team That Flourishes“, where he argues work-life balance is a misleading and at times harmful concept.

As Dan puts it, work and life aren’t opposing forces, but distinct entities that interact and influence one another.

Over the course of our conversation, Dan and I discuss:

• Why the concept of work-life balance is flawed.
• The four work-life personas of his “Work-Life Bloom” model.
• The importance of trust, belonging, and feeling valued at work to employees thriving at work.
• Why agency is crucial to empowering employees.

Tune in to learn more about Dan’s Work-Life Bloom model with its four different personas that shape our work and life selves, and why we need to let go of trying to find that work-life balance.

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Have you ever thought about your leadership values?

Understanding what your values are – of what matters to you and how you want your employees to view your leadership is critical to not only helping your employees understand your motivations, but to creating clarity during times of uncertainty and change.

That’s why for this Leadership Espresso Shot I want to share a three step process to help you identify what your leadership values are, how to put those leadership values into action, and how to communicate your leadership values to your team and solicit feedback.

Tune in to discover how defining your leadership values can empower you to lead with clarity and purpose.

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In this episode, I spoke with GiANT co-founder Jeremie Kubicek about his book “The Communication Code” and the communication framework he developed with his business partner Steve Cochram to help people become more effective communicators.

The “Communication Code” framework involves applying five key “code words” – care, celebrate, clarify, collaborate, and critique – that can help transform how we interact with others by helping us shift the focus from what we’re trying to say, to what those we lead need to hear from us.

What’s important for us to understand is that effective communication is about more than just transmitting information – it’s about understanding and meeting the expectations the other person has in that moment. As Jeremie pointed out during our conversation, we tend to make assumptions about what other people want, when we should be taking the time to understand their true expectations.

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One of the questions I get asked a lot by leaders after one of my keynotes is – how do drive growth and success when you have to work under a controlling boss? How do you get them on board with your initiatives when they only seem to like their ideas or those from their ‘inner circle’?

So for this instalment of my Leadership Espresso Shot series, I share 3 measures I’ve shared with leaders who are grappling with how to move initiatives they want to get done while working for a controlling boss.

If you’re in such a situation, hopefully listening to this episode will help you understand how you can continue to succeed and grow, in spite of whatever obstacles and issues your controlling boss puts in your way.

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A troublesome and persistent issue facing organizations today is their inability to develop and promote women to leadership positions where they can play a key role in the decision-making process.

But as my guest in this episode of my Leadership Biz Cafe podcast points out, this doesn’t mean there aren’t things women can do to make the case in their organization to promote them into leadership roles.

Shelmina Abji is a former IBM vice-president, philanthropist, angel investor, and active gender and racial equality advocate.

I invited Shelmina to join me on my show not only to share her inspiring story of growing up in a rural village in Tanzania to being one of the first visible minority women to hold the position of vice-president at IBM, but to talk about her book, “Show Your Worth: 8 Intentional Strategies For Women To Emerge As Leaders At Work."

Just as she does in her book, Shelmina shares a powerful, empowering, and honest message for how women – and in particular visible minority women – can address the current obstacles – both within the organizations and themselves – that impede their ability to, as Shelmina puts it, “create higher levels of value at your maximum capacity.”

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Have you ever had a workday where you were so busy that the time flew by, but you didn’t really accomplish anything? The sad reality is that you’re not alone.

One study found that 42% of employees spend half of their workday on busywork.

Another study by Visier found 43% of employees spend more than 10 hours a week on “productivity theatre” work – essentially, tasks that make them appear to be busy, but which aren’t critical to the organization’s long term objectives.

So what can leaders do to put a stop to busywork and help employees focus on work that really matters?

A good place to start is to get clear about what tasks are critical to your ability to achieve your goals today and in the weeks ahead, and which tasks are as useful as watching paint dry.

So for this edition of my “Leadership Espresso Shot” podcast series, I share a simple, but powerful strategy that will help you to not only identify and banish busywork, but develop a laser-like focus on those tasks that will drive value creation and growth for the organization.

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I’ve had the distinct pleasure of speaking to so many incredible and world-renowned experts on my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast, and I’m elated to now include Dr. Marshall Goldsmith to that list.

Marshall has been recognized as the #1 executive coach in the world, two-time Thinkers50 #1 leadership thinker in the world, not to mention being a New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold over 3 million copies and been translated into 32 languages.

All of which is to say that you’re in for a real treat with this episode as Marshall brings so much wisdom, insight, and thought-provoking ideas over the course of our conversation about his books, “The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment” and “Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts”.

In fact, I’d encourage you to be ready to take notes as Marshall not only offers so many revealing ideas on how to reframe how we approach work and our lives, but he even gives a coaching session during our conversation directed to both you the listener and myself to help us do and be better.

Without question, this episode will be one of the highlights of my podcast as it’s filled with inspiration, laughs, and moments that challenge us to recognize how we can become that better version of who we can be.

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As team lifespans continue to shorten as a result of both layoffs and employee leaving for opportunities elsewhere, leaders are having to deal with another growing issue in today’s evolving workplaces: specifically, how do you ensure team harmony when everything – including the make-up of your teams – is in flux?

In this Leadership Espresso Shot, I share three important strategies that leaders can use to foster team harmony through promoting collaboration, trust, and a sense of shared purpose within your team, no matter how often members of your team change.

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In the face of rising levels of workplace anxiety and burnout, there’s a natural tendency to consider building resilience as being the key to keeping such mental health issues at bay.

But my guest for this episode of my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast argues that resilience is not enough and what’s needed instead is building our mental strength.

Scott Mautz is a former Procter & Gamble senior executive, faculty member at Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business for Executive Education, and the author of four books, including his latest “The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors”.

(He’s also a very good friend of mine who I enjoy spending time talking about leadership and the challenges leaders face leading today’s organizations.)

As Scott points out during our discussion, mental strength is about your ability to regulate your emotions, thoughts and behaviours so you can successfully overcome whatever challenges you face, and help your team achieve its goals.

So how can we build our mental strength? In his book “The Mentally Strong Leader”, Scott describes six habits that are key to building your mental strength and he shares several strategies for each on how you can do this.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Scott was kind enough to offer listeners a free 60 page ebook that will help them begin the process of developing these habits of a mentally strong leader.

This is without question one of my favourite interviews of the year about one of my favourite books I read this year. So give this episode a listen and do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of Scott’s latest book.

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