There's been a lot of talk recently about quiet quitting and burnout.

Tony Walmsley talks about something he's made me think a lot about... the cost of adapting.

For starters we work in a world that is stressful for our biology.

When we then have to change our natural personality to fit a culture or our colleagues it stresses us. These adaptations come at a cost. When we make too many, for too long, we burnout.

Friction comes at the cost of efficiency. Sometimes the business pays the cost in lower profit. And sometimes the employees pay the cost personally.

As a Manager or an Employee it's something to think about... how much adaptation tax are you paying?

What is the key task of a leader?

Ask 100 people and you’ll get 100 answers. When you abstract at the most universal truth of leadership. The key is to connect people to the reality of their situation.

We are a world of 8 billion people.

Each with our own interpretation of the world. What it means. And what is good or bad.

A Leader creates a frame that fences the boundaries of the group.

The team then operate within this frame of reality. This defines shared objectives, values and standards. It becomes the culture that creates the performance.

What do you think is the key task of a Leader?

Today’s podcast episode with Clark Ray and Tony Walmsley discussed how Managers can set and control the operating frame.

What's the opposite of fragile?

Most people would say something robust. But Nassim Nicholas Taleb says that's a mistake. He argues that the opposite is something antifragile.

Something which gains from disorder.

In an increasingly volatile world, he says we shouldn't try to protect the fragile. But instead to be more resilient through anti-fragility. Industries like restaurants become better as the fragile get weeded out.

The system as a whole becomes stronger.

How can we use this principle in our work and life?

In this episode Eduardo Dos Santos Silva, Neil Hamilton and I discussed the implications.

Is a referee a leader or manager?

Often today we use the term referee or leader interchangeably. This dilutes the difference those roles have. Which poses the question... is a sports referee a leader or a manager?

Establishing the differences, allows us to define the responsibilies of each.

In today's podcast, Clark Ray, Tony Walmsley and I discussed Managers, Leaders and Followers.

What are the rights, responsibilities and duties of each?

What happens when team members fall short or disengage?

Is it the responsibility of team members to follow? Or for leaders to inspire followers to want to follow?

Share your thoughts below and as part of The Building Better Leaders Research Project

Links:

Clark Ray’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/10thman/

Clark’s Website: https://www.clarkray.com

Tony Walmsley’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-walmsley/

Tony’s Website: https://theleadersadvisory.com

Rob McPhillips’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmcphillips/

Building Better Leaders Research: https://robmcphillips.com/building-better-leaders-project/

Chapters:

00:00 Ben White's Gamesmanship: A Controversial Tactic

00:39 Referee's Role: Leadership or Management?

01:25 Defining Leadership: A Philosophical Debate

02:33 Ethics in Sports: Comparing Football and Rugby

03:28 Historical Leaders: Churchill, Blair, and More

04:23 The Complexity of Leadership and Followership

05:31 The Referee's Ethical Dilemma

08:52 Leadership in Crisis: Trust and Authority

14:42 The Role of Vision in Leadership

20:13 Permission vs. Commitment in Leadership

31:42 The Essence of Leadership

33:25 The Problem with Modern Leadership

34:02 Historical Examples of Leadership Failures

35:50 Character and Integrity in Leadership

37:12 Leadership in Family and Society

39:39 Challenges of Leading in Today's World

44:22 The Role of Vision in Leadership

54:06 The Importance of Moral Leadership

55:45 The Need for Collective Vision

58:58 Final Thoughts on Leadership and Followership

Who do you serve?

How do you serve them? Why? And what are the boundaries of that service?

The answers to these questions go a long way to clarifying our work.

They help define the contexts of our relationships in coming together. They ensure we fulfil our purpose. And they help us frame the decisions we make.

This starts with understanding who we are and how us and our colleagues work.

Today's episode was a discussion into self awareness informed by Tony Walmsley's work on his SCORE Profiling Tool.

Links:

Clark Ray’s Linkedin Profile

Clark’s Website

Tony Walmsley’s Linkedin Profile

Tony’s Website

Rob McPhillips’s Linkedin Profile

Rob’s Website

Clark, Tony and I discussed our ideas of leadership. We talked about how our own sense of identity and our psychology impacts our thinking and behaviour as a leader using examples from history and personal experiences.

Links:

Clark Ray’s Linkedin Profile:

/ 10thman

Clark’s Website: https://www.clarkray.com

Tony Walmsley’s Linkedin Profile:

/ tony-walmsley

Tony’s Website: https://theleadersadvisory.com

Rob McPhillips’s Linkedin Profile:

/ robmcphillips

Rob’s Website:

Want to really know someone?

Get into a fight with them. Especially one that hits all their hot buttons. You’ll soon see the worst of them.

Conflict does funny things to people.

It is one of the few times we drop our carefully crafted social masks. It’s one of the reasons couples think their partner has changed. Because they just didn’t get to see this side when everything was smooth sailing.

Work is the other place where conflict can often happen.

It happens because we care. We see our future as being tied up with the future path we choose. And so we get threatened.

How we deal with conflict is the key determinant of how effective we will be.

All too often, we avoid conflict. Or we become over-aggressive. In today’s episode Clark Ray, Tony Walmsley and I talked about conflict at work.