In this episode, we explore the power (and opportunity) of showing up, even when we don't want to. We'll lean upon the lesson of NFL coach Bill Parcells and his line, 'availability is the best ability' as it sets the tone for the power of showing up for opportunities, keeping our mouths shut as we assess before we speak and pushing conversations forward by saying the things that need to be said.

Maybe this is the scientific proof we needed that shows the correlation between good deeds and good performance at work. Last week, Green Bay Quarterback Jordan Love dominated social media two days before he dominated the Dallas Cowboys. But why? Because in the middle of a Wisconsin blizzard and just two days before the biggest game of his career, he was found pulling over to help a stranger push their car out of a snowdrift. We all love a random act of kindness and typically chalk it up to a good person, doing good things. In this case though, we couldn't help but wonder if this random act of kindness was a predictor of Jordan Love's on-field successful performance against the much higher seeded Dallas Cowboys. In this episode, we explore not only the background of Jordan Love and his path to unexpected stardom (on-field/off-field) but also the surprising science that just so happens to support the connection between good deeds and good performance.

Despite traditional perception, 'It's a Wonderful Life' is a dark movie.   It's the story of a man seeped in bitterness, resentment, and jealously. He's known to fly into fits of rage. Though a father, husband, and community leader, he thinks the world would be better had he never been born. Ultimately, he attempts suicide. Interestingly, the movie's star, Jimmy Stewart was also struggling in his real life. Already one of Hollywood's biggest stars before the war, he left for Germany just months after winning an Academy Award for The Philadelphia Story. He was 34. He returned three years later, looking 50 years old,  his body the victim of guilt, trauma and near starvation. In today's episode, we'll dive in to the many lessons of the classic film and why it's so important as we continue to battle an epidemic of mental health. 

Did you ever consider the striking parallels between Aaron Rodgers’ injury, the sudden crash of the in the New York Jets' 2023 season, and hero to the Greeks during the Trojan War, Achilles? Well, I did and in today’s episode, we’re exploring how vulnerabilities impact success. We’ll also discover crucial strategies for enduring triumph. From guarding against overconfidence to making strategic decisions, we’ll dive into the essence of resilience. Buckle up as we unravel the lessons of ancient Greek mythology and their application in sports, work, and life.

As you’re getting ready to listen, ask yourself:

• Who or what is your Achilles (your greatest strength)
• Who or what is your Achilles' heel (your biggest vulnerability)
• How would you adapt and emerge victorious if your vulnerability were exposed

Tune in for valuable insights on strength, strategy, and self-reflection.

Be sure to check out the blog on the topic as well. You can find it here: https://moreklaas.com/f/on-strength-strategy-aaron-rodgers-and-the-ancient-greeks

What is failure? By definition, it's 'omission of performance'. Over the last 4 and a half years, one of the formerly best golfers in the world experienced a lot of failure. But then a funny thing happened, life started bringing a lot of success to Rickie Fowler and it's here that we can start to see the lessons of how we perform when performance in one area is struggling but the demands of another bring out our best. In today's episode we'll explore the fall and rise of Rickie Fowler and how we can use his story to redefine failure.

It’s easy to get trapped in the woulda, coulda, shoulda's of life, especially when times don’t go as we would have hoped. A relationship scarred, a job lost, an opportunity missed. The list could go on and on and unfortunately, so does our head:
I shoulda done __ different
I coulda done __ different
I woulda done __ different
It’s not that self-critique isn't important, it is. The danger is confusing controlled reflection with dwelling in regret to the point of not being able to use the lessons of yesterday for the challenges of tomorrow.

In today's episode, we explore the danger of regret, the power of reflection, and how 'what we could have done different' is forward thinking.

Season (and series) finale of the fantastic Ted Lasso is out and we've got some thoughts. What is the theme of Ted Lasso? Are we boxing in the lessons of Lasso to just that of one-liners on leadership? If you ask me, the genius of Ted Lasso is due to the exploration of friendship and how when friendships are former, vulnerability is explore. Where vulnerability is acted, grace is received. Where grace is received, new leaders rise. In today's episode, we're going to explore the lasting lessons of Ted Lasso.

The moment you take on a leadership position, you are granted two unique powers: AUTHORITY and ACCESS. How you utilize each will define your leadership style. In today's episode, we're exploring the unique powers and burdens that all new leaders carry. What is Authority? Is it good or bad? What is access? Who and what makes it valuable as a leadership asset? 

This is season 3 and we couldn't be more excited about your continued support! Authority + Access

Despite traditional perception, 'It's a Wonderful Life' is a dark movie.   It's the story of a man seeped in bitterness, resentment, and jealously. He's known to fly into fits of rage. Though a father, husband, and community leader, he thinks the world would be better had he never been born. Ultimately, he attempts suicide. Interestingly, the movie's star, Jimmy Stewart was also struggling in his real life. Already one of Hollywood's biggest stars before the war, he left for Germany just months after winning an Academy Award for The Philadelphia Story. He was 34. He returned three years later, looking 50 years old,  his body the victim of guilt, trauma and near starvation. In today's episode, we'll dive in to the many lessons of the classic film and why it's so important as we continue to battle an epidemic of mental health. 

'Just Keep Swimming', perhaps one of the most popular lines in all of film from the last 20 years. As we work through another month of difficult economic conditions as well as witness another 46,000 people lose their jobs in the month of November alone, there's no better time than to revisit the lessons of a naive fish with short-term memory loss. On this episode of the Kick a$$ w/Klaas podcast, we're doing just that as well as take a trip down memory lane to some of the forks in the road from our own journey. 

If you find yourself at a moment of forced pause such as a lay-off or you simply sense that danger is on the horizon, it's going to be important to keep your momentum despite the current pulling you in all the directions other than where you want to go. You may get lost. You may encounter danger. You may get an unexpected side-kick that irritates the heck out of you but... also happens to be the positive force that keeps you sane in an otherwise insanely frustrating time. 

This is what we're hoping to learn from Dory and this episode: 'Just Keep Swimming: Lessons for life and layoffs from the words of a fish' 

Winter is coming and your job change is going to be much longer and colder than you expect. So, add another item to the list of things you should have started...yesterday: taking action on your job and career transition. While we hear & see success stories of folks making rapid fire job transitions, on average it takes approx. 5-6 months to land a new role. Consider that overnight,  some of the biggest brands in the world have laid-off thousands of talented people, making the available talent pool as saturated as ever, and it's all the more reason that you take the necessary steps to prepare for and move into a potential job and career change. Wait too long and you'll find that every aspect of your career transition will take longer than you expected.  In today's episode we're going lay out some of the data that supports the need for action, we're going to explore reasoning as to why we find ourselves unable to take action (fear, ignorance, knowledge), and we're also going to shed light on some of the many unexpected time hurdles one will face during their next career transition.  We hope this provides wisdom, which leads to wise action!  You can also follow along on the blog that supports this episode at the Klaas website: https://moreklaas.com/blog-1/f/why-you-should-start-your-job-search-now-even-if-you-have-a-job

For an athlete, each passing year is one step closer to their professional irrelevance. They say the worst thing you can give an athlete is a birthday card. In our corporate careers, we assume our paths are quite the opposite. In fact, we're told (directly or indirectly) that each year of experience is another notch on the belt, boasting time in chair as a natural rise in our level of expertise, compensation, and reputation. But if that's the case, why then do so many seemingly talented, but more importantly, TENURED people struggle to sustain success or feel professional contentment? Science tells us that athletes and artists aren't the only professions that should fear birthdays. In today’s episode, we’re exploring the psychological and management concepts: Fluid Intelligence, Crystalized Intelligence, and the Peter Principle. In understanding each, we can manage better the often unpredictable lifecycle of our careers, especially during those peak performance and earning years, when we are both the most valuable but frighteningly the most disposable.

What does President Lincoln, Impostor Syndrome, Talent Assessment, and Top Gun Maverick all have to do with one another? In today's episode we're exploring two psychological phenomenons, 'Impostor Syndrome' and the 'Dunning-Kruger Effect'. Each present unique barriers for personal and professional growth. We're kicking it off with a great line from our 16th President: 

'Every man is proud of what he does well, and no man is proud of that he does not well. With the former, his heart is in his work; and he will  do twice as much of it with less fatigue'

I think one of the  biggest hurdles that smart, talented, and humble people face is that they don't truly know what they do well. Whether through insecurities or  beat down by a hard world, they see only weaknesses that need fixing,  spreading themselves thinly as they try to cover it all.

The shame is that they never get to truly enjoy their talent, feel the  appreciation from others that good talent rewards, nor devote their  heart to work in a manner which doesn't wear down their body or mind. If only they knew their calling...or call sign. 

Be sure to read the accompanying blog:  https://moreklaas.com/blog-1/f/find-your-feeding-talent-maverick-lincoln-imposter-syndrome

And Check out the digital playbook: Onboard Yourself: A Humble Leader's Guide to Quick Start Trust, Buy-in, and Talent Assessment on Your New Team: https://withkoji.com/@SamGoeb

Can you respect someone, like your boss or your team member, who hasn't earned it? Should you? A core ingredient in all healthy relationships is showing a certain level of respect without the bottleneck of asking someone to earn it. That's because respect is, and should be, more than just the definition of admiration as we traditionally think of it. In this episode of the Kick-a$$ w/Klaas podcast, we're taking a deep dive into what it means to offer respect and how when doing so, we can start to move past the distraction of skepticism and negativity that often plagues professional relationships. 

Spend enough time on water and eventually, you'll experience sinking! It's a frightening event and if you consider your company culture like a boat carrying your people, then it's all the more reason to ensure that you don't have a sinking vessel on your hands that's putting you, your people, and the growth of your business at risk.  In today's episode, we explore what culture is as it pertains to talent attraction and talent retention. We’ll identify 3 signs that you have a sinking culture on your hands as well as provide actionable items to combat a water crisis. And because no podcast is complete without a bit of storytime, we'll take a trip down memory lane to our family's first boat and the creative ways that ol' vessel fended off the rising waters.  Because we mention it in the show, I'd be remiss not to include a link to our new e-book, 'Onboard Yourself, a Humble Leader's Guide to Quick Start Trust, Buy-in, and Talent Assessment on Your New Team'. You can find that here: https://withkoji.com/@SamGoeb Keep on boating! 

Effort will be rewarded, but that doesn't always mean the reward is what we had intended or equal to the effort which we put in. To help understand this more, we'll dig-in to the complicated equation of effort vs. reward and how our environments, and definitions can complicate the two. We'll also explore how (although fictional) a fighter like Rocky Balboa attacked his goals with clarity on what was going to be required of him in the pursuit of goals and his non-traditional reward.  Questions for you to consider:  What are your goals?  Do you know the effort required? How do you define the reward? How does your environment impact the health of your effort?

Humble leadership is all the rage but the danger anytime a new model, theory, or methodology gains traction or attention, is that it can quickly become more catchphrase or idea, than actual mode of delivery. When that happens, we can miss out on what type of impact something like humble leadership can provide, or worse, we can fail to recognize it when we see it. In the latest episode of the Kick-A$$ with Klaas podcast, we take a walk back in time through some leadership history to gain context of where we’re at today. From there, we investigate the true definition of humble leadership and how we can take early steps along its path.

For many, our Fathers  are our first (super) heroes. Yet, somewhere between the end of  childhood and the temptation of independence, there comes a point where  the fantasy ends. We depend less upon others and more on ourselves. In  doing so, our egos make tragic heroes of us all: virtuous, noble, but  ultimately handcuffed by flaws which lead to our downfall. During this  rise and fall, there are 4 different types of mentors we'll encounter,  each with something to teach us.  -Professional Mentors -Indirect Mentors -Bad Mentors -Personal Mentors Listen to the Kick Ass with Klaas podcast as we explore how mentors can keep our egos in check, while restoring our faith in the idealism of our heroes

Episode 14 of the Kick a$$ w/Klaas podcast and we're taking a bath! Not in the literal sense but the cleansing of the mind is attributed to a different type of immersive experience: Forest Bathing. Long touted by Japanese culture as a way to combat the negative health effects of overwork, Shinrin-Yoku, as Forest Bathing is known in Japan, is thankfully making its way to our shores and the timing could never be better. 

For the first time in modern history, the life expectancy of our children is less than ours. Striking when you consider that we live in the most prosperous and medically advanced nation's on earth. The cause is of greater concern as deaths by lifestyle continue to rise, such as diabetes and obesity. We are also victim to what has been described as 'deaths of despair', which include suicide and accidents (EX: drug over doses). In fact, the rate at which Americans are dying of lifestyle and despair, are rising at a greater rate than that of Cancer! 

What's the prescription for these ills? Numerous studies support nature's place in our healing. Not just of the mind, but that of the soul. 

Join us as we walk in the woods and explore the hidden benefits of nature for our personal and professional growth. 

Episode 13 of the Kick a$$ w/Klaas podcast and we're getting mindful. Just like the popular HiiT workouts, which maximize cardiovascular conditioning through micro but intense physical exertion sessions, an abbreviated but focused mindfulness effort can spark creative vision in the workplace. Studies have found that the practice of meditation prior to business meetings, broadens organic idea development. While the corporate wellness market has been on a steady rise over the last 15 years, much if it has been focused on the body (weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.). Positively, we're now seeing the space evolve to a focus on the wellness of the mind, not only because it completes the picture of a person's health but it can also boost transformative business innovation. 

In this episode, we dive into what meditation is and what it isn't, how you can get started, and where it can take your creative growth personally and professionally. 

Let's get mindful!