While professionals from every industry discover this site, you have a lot in common with them if:
- You’ve had a lot of formal education in the past, perhaps including at the graduate level.
- You read lot of books, seek out resources online to support your work, and listen to podcasts.
- You career has progressed to the point where more of your work is about leading and developing others.
And, these struggles may be coming up for you now, too:
- Your work feels a lot different today, even though you’re in the same organization or industry.
- You’re getting a lot less training, coaching, and direction than at other points in your career.
- It’s hard to keep up with all the daily requests for your input into key activities.
- You’re being asked to run more meetings and lead teams, without an established framework.
- Even though you have greater responsibility, you find yourself needing to influence without authority even more.
If those challenges are true for you too, read on.
What’s Different About Coaching for Leaders
College degrees, certifications, and training programs provide an essential foundation for our professional expertise. Yet, the knowledge from our disciplines isn’t sufficient when we get asked to lead more as our careers progress. As past guest Marshall Goldsmith says:
What got you here, won’t get you there.
Experienced professionals seek out books, courses, and podcasts that will support them in this next stage of their career. That’s where Coaching for Leaders comes in.
75% of Coaching for Leaders listeners are managers, executives, or business owners. 57% of listeners have purchased 3 or more books in the past 90 days. Over half of listeners have an earned graduate degree.
The kinds of people who listen to Coaching for Leaders take responsibility to improve themselves, have a desire to better the careers of others, and show up in the world with a kind and humble heart, ready to make it better.
That’s why I seek out the top experts to feature on the podcast and zero in on what’s most actionable from their work for the rest us. My job is to surface these insights so you can immediately apply what’s of most value for you.
Because of the trust our listeners have put in me, I’ve been able to independently produce Coaching for Leaders since 2011 without support from advertisers or third-party sponsors. It means that I can invest my time diving in-depth with experts and, unlike a lot of podcast hosts and networks, dedicate my work to leadership development, not sponsorships.
My aim is that each time you listen to an episode, you discover at least one, key idea you can put into practice immediately.
But my larger goal for you is way bigger…
I want for you, like many of our longtime listeners, to develop a practice of consistent growth. Whether you discover relevant, practical insights inside Coaching for Leaders Plus, get connected with other leaders inside Coaching for Leaders Pro, or create intentional movement by working with me in the Academy, I’m inviting you to develop the practice that almost every leader needs today:
Innovation through constant learning.
Expert Voices, Everyday Leaders
Coaching for Leaders has been downloaded over 30 million times as is the #1 search result for management and the #2 search result for leadership on Apple Podcasts.
I’ve interviewed top experts, researchers, and New York Times bestselling authors such as:
- General James Mattis on how he led in some of the most difficult places on the planet
- John Maxwell on how to motivate leaders and the power of consistency
- Patrick Lencioni on three principles to leverage when hiring new employees
- Ambassador Susan Rice on how to address inappropriate behavior in context with the larger relationship
- Daniel Goleman on how to enhance your self-awareness with emotional intelligence
- Guy Raz on what we can all learn from the world’s most successful entrepreneurs
- Adam Grant on how to find success as a non-conformist
- Michael Hyatt on how to sell your vision to other stakeholders
- Susan Cain on the power of introverts and how they can have a big influence as leaders
But that’s not all…
I also feature the voices of everyday leaders who, like you, are discovering wisdom from the experts and then taking action to get results. These leaders have demonstrated innovation through continual growth:
- Amy McPherson on creating intentional margin as a business owner
- Leonardo Baumworcel on leading his hospital to new heights, as measured by their Net Promoter Score
- Jason Brooks on embracing vulnerability in order to succeed as a new principal
- John Piñeiro on laying the foundation for his team to drive sales growth
- Elena Kornoff on how to not only respond, but thrive, when COVID-19 threatened her business
- Michal Holliday on how personal leadership has driven his success as a senior military officer
- Joseph Getuno on the power of consistency when leading a financial team
- Bar Schwartz on how she turned a daily, 5-minute habit into a published book
Plus many more.
My Story
In 2005, I accepted a position with Dale Carnegie, the worldwide leader in professional training and development. While I was grateful to land the open position they had in sales, my real desire was to eventually teach Carnegie courses.
By the end of my first year, I achieved instructor certification, but failed miserably in my sales job. I didn’t even get halfway to the annual goal set for new associates. So, I did what every self-respecting professional would do after a year of hard work with lousy results:
I tried to quit.
Thankfully, my boss refused my resignation. Instead, we adjusted my responsibilities and he encouraged me to lean in more on my strengths. He helped me leverage what I was already good at: writing, coaching, customer service, and instruction.
A few months later, our top salesperson left and the office’s #1 account suddenly needed someone with those strengths to grow the relationship further. My boss was convinced I was right for the role, but I had doubts. It took me three days to say yes.
It turned out to be one of the best, professional opportunities I’ve ever had.
Not only did I serve the client well, but later led the expansion of our local work into a national account. As I got clarity on personal leadership, I discovered why I had failed as a sales “hunter” and instead leveraged my strengths as a sales “farmer.”
15 years and multiple international business awards later, I’d sold millions of dollars in training programs and found myself leading a national team of salespeople and instructors. Plus, I got to instruct thousands of hours of the best courses on the planet. Our work progressed to become one of the most successful and sustainable accounts for Dale Carnegie, worldwide.
Carnegie helped me discover the importance of personal leadership and investing in relationships with other professionals — so that we could all move forward together.
On the nights I wasn’t teaching for Carnegie, I went back to school and earned my doctorate in organizational leadership from Pepperdine University. It helped lay the knowledge foundation that supports me today — and also reminded me that a lot of formal leadership development tends to focus mostly on theory.
As we planned to have a family, I suspected my next career move would be into academia with an eye to bring a lot of practical experience into classes. Thinking I’d eventually make that shift, I decided to invest my professional interests in some new projects. I was fascinated by the emerging medium of podcasts, but couldn’t find the show I was seeking. Coaching for Leaders was born as a small, side project.
This little side project grew beyond my wildest expectations. After 15 years at Carnegie, I left my senior vice president role and now devote all of my professional work to helping leaders create movement through insightful conversations.
Today, I’m the founder of the Coaching for Leaders Academy, an exclusive, intensive leadership development cohort. I work personally with an intimate group of managers, executives, and business owners to develop their leadership excellence — and empower each other through global relationship building.
My wife Bonni is a university dean and brilliant voice in faculty development. She joins me regularly on the show to respond to questions from our listeners, leveraging her years of experience as an executive leader and business professor. We have two children and live in Orange County, California.
I serve on the board of the Global Center for Women and Justice and support my friend Sandie Morgan as co-host of the Ending Human Trafficking podcast.
Like most people, I’ve never had it all figured out. I’ve been passed up for promotions, failed at launching my first business, and still fight through an occasional fear of speaking to people.
Join With Us
Now it’s your turn. Join our global listening community every Monday to discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations. Listen FREE on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or your favorite podcast app.
Next, activate your free membership to access the entire library of episodes since 2011, searchable by topic. Plus, get FREE access to multiple audio courses for leaders, my weekly leadership guide, key highlights from books featured on the show, full access to my personal library, and much more.
If you’re seeking more, Coaching for Leaders Plus is a useful starting point beyond the Free membership. Or, you may wish to connect with other leaders inside Coaching for Leaders Pro or create intentional movement by applying to the Coaching for Leaders Academy.
Regardless of how you engage, I’m inviting you to create movement by getting started. That’s because…
Leaders aren’t born, they’re made.
