Jim sits down with Kris Rudeegraap of Sendoso, a sending platform that delivers gifts with personalized care. What goes into making gifts feel special? What solutions are there for leaders who want to show their care but aren't "good at gifts"? And what has it looked like for Kris to build a company with a culture of fun that has risen to incredible success in only a few years? Connect further: Jim Brown’s LinkedIn – http://bit.ly/2Fqs9LU Guest Kris Rudeegraap's L...

Hiring and firing are… expensive, among other adjectives. Pat Lencioni’s book, The Ideal Team Player, provides a simple but incredibly helpful framework that can help leaders find the right people to join their teams, and also works as a great tool for reflection and growth. In this episode, Jim and Margot discuss the model and share stories and tips for how you can use this tool not only to find the ideal team players, but to become the ideal leadership team. What you’ll learn:The “Idea...

In Part 2, Margot and Jim cover steps 4-6 of the weekly tactical meeting. Imagine having a fruitful meeting as a leadership team every week that NEVER goes more than 90 minutes. That’s really the whole point of this, and it’s structured to make sure that’s exactly what happens! What you’ll learn:Review the first 3 stages of tactical meetings [00:01:14]Introduction to Stage 4: Discussion [00:02:42]What to do with big topics that arise [00:02:56]What to do with decisions that are mad...

It's not surprising that leadership teams abandon weekly meetings—it's so rare to see teams running these meetings effectively! In this episode, Margot and Jim present the framework which leans on the Thematic Goal and gives leadership teams the ability to run productive, energized weekly meetings together in just 90 minutes. We'll take two episodes to cover this topic, so make sure you listen in for both! What you’ll learn:What is a weekly tactical meeting? [00:00:57]What’s a thematic g...

How do you catch issues before they blow up, keep from building silos between different departments, and even lower the amount of emails you receive in a day? The daily standup meeting. Jim and Margot continue their series on meetings and explain how to not let these meetings go ANY longer than 10 minutes—because if it does, you're not doing it right! What you’ll learn:Are daily meetings really worth it? [00:47]How to do daily standup meetings well [04:29]Challenges encountered with dail...

There are topics that come up for every leadership team that take longer than 10 minutes to get through. But even the biggest questions and decisions to be made can be tackled well in just 90 minutes, with the right approach. Strategic meetings are the first of the three foundational meeting types that will enable your leadership team to actually spend less time in meetings and get more done. What you’ll learn:The three meeting types [00:58]What should a strategic meeting look like? [02:...

The paradigm shift in society and our workforce in the past twenty years means that using the old model of leaders presenting themselves as impenetrable, perfect, and having all the answers no longer works. Margot and Jim get very candid as they talk about the ways they are seeing vulnerability impact leadership teams and how leaders can enter into it more. What you’ll learn:A common misconception about vulnerability [00:01:02]Where to begin with embracing vulnerability at the leadership...

Correcting the imbalance on leadership teams is challenging, but possible. In the closing episode of our series on the dynamics of people-focus and analysis-focus, Jim and Margot share practical steps for how people-focus leaders can communicate their data to analysis-focus leaders, an exercise leadership teams can do to create better understanding of and value for each other's differences, and share some relevant examples.What you’ll learn:People-focus leaders in the C-suite don’t get the re...

What is the data that people focus leaders see instantly and most leadership teams are sorely blind to? How do leadership teams get that perspective and information into their meetings so better decisions can be made? In Part 2, Jim and Margot share some stories of how real leaders and teams are succeeding with improving the disturbing imbalance of information in most leadership meetings. What you’ll learn: The MBTI is a tool we use with teams to identify and talk about the differen...

People are wired to have either more of an analysis focus or a people focus. In this first part of our 3-part series on these two different wirings that leaders have, Jim and Margot introduce the terminology and explain some of the differences, similarities, and common misconceptions leaders have about each other and themselves. Consider your own wiring and the composition of your own leadership team.The Problem of ImbalanceLeaders everywhere are facing a problem. They develop and are rewarde...

Conflict already exists every time team members gather for a meeting. The goal is to get all the conflicting opinions and perspectives out on the table and to make a decision that everyone is comfortable committing to. Conflict norms are an incredibly effective way of making sure that happens, and in this episode Jim and Margot will share 5 specific conflict norms to consider implementing on your team. Example 1: Real-Time Permission § A team member interrupts discussion in re...

Getting all the information on the table so decisions can be made accurately and effectively is the purpose of team meetings. But lots of senior leadership teams experience about a third of the team members doing 80% of the talking, and valuable information gets left out—sometimes intentionally as a power play, and sometimes unintentionally. In this episode we’ll address how valuable information and perspective gets kept out of the discussion and what you can do to get it back in. What W...

Just about every leader feels like they have too many meetings. But one of the biggest ways leaders can make their time more effective is by cutting out the side conversations, the “meetings outside the meeting” and making sure all the conversations that need to happen take place WITHIN team meetings and with the whole team’s engagement.What you’ll learn in this episode:Why team members prefer side conversations instead of bringing things up in the meeting.How to have accountability conversat...