Podcast
No More Leadership BS
Hosted by No BS Productions · EN
Welcome to the No More Leadership BS Podcast
Where we expose the gap between what leaders think they SHOULD do and what actually works...no BS
Join us each week as we irritate some, inform others, and challenge all leaders to discover a better path to leadership excellence with unvarnished insights and dry-eyed suggestions.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Plaques, Pizza, and the Problem with "We Have a Program" with Jeff Conroy
1w ago00:26:46Tap to summarizeYour Recognition Program is Lying to YouYou've got the plaques. You've got the pizza parties. You've got the "Employee of the Month" wall. And somehow, your people still feel invisible. What gives?This episode of No More Leadership BS takes a sledgehammer to the feel-good fantasy of recognition programs and gets real about what actually makes people feel seen, valued, and motivated to show up and do their best work.The Trophy Problem Nobody Talks AboutHere's the thing about recognition: it's not one-size-fits-all, and handing everyone a coffee mug isn't going to cut it. Some people light up for public praise. Others feel seen when you depend on them. One person's wall full of trophies is another person's trash pile. If you don't know which camp your people are in, your recognition program is just organized noise. Know your people. Full stop.Check the Box, Lose the TrustRecognition programs created by HR budgets and quarterly planning cycles have a dirty secret: they often have nothing to do with genuine appreciation. When you outsource caring about your employees to a catalog of branded merchandise, you're not building culture. You're checking a box. Real recognition isn't a line item. It's a leadership practice. There's a difference between "we have a program" and "we actually give a damn."Motivation Isn't Your Job (Kind Of)Here's a spicy take worth sitting with: it's not a leader's job to motivate people. The word "motive" is internal. What leaders CAN do is create an environment where people choose to be motivated. That means fair pay, genuine appreciation, and treating your team like humans instead of human resources. You want "I get to go to work on Monday," not "I have to go to work on Monday." One of those builds a great company. The other one builds resentment.What Gets Recognized Gets RepeatedSpecificity is the secret weapon nobody's using. "Good job" is forgettable. "That report you put together moved the whole project forward and helped the team hit their goal. Thank you." That lands. That's what people remember. That's what they'll try to replicate. And do it immediately. A week-late touchdown celebration is just awkward.The Bottom LineRecognition isn't about trophies, pizza, or Starbucks cards. It's about leadership. People need to know their work matters, and the best organizations don't stumble into engaged employees. They have leaders who intentionally see their people, name the behaviors they want repeated, and actually care whether the people on their team are thriving. Recognition costs almost nothing. Ignoring people costs you everything.Tune In For:Why your recognition program might be doing more harm than goodThe kindergarten classroom strategy that works just as well on adultsWhat DISC assessments have to do with coffee cards (and why that matters)The rapid-fire debate: public vs. private, effort vs. results, immediate vs. laterThe one move leaders can make tomorrow to improve recognition instantlyStop checking boxes. Start seeing people. Your culture depends on it.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285The rest of the gang:Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248
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From Grind to Growth: Killing the Mindset That's Killing Your Leadership with Jeff Geier
2w ago00:22:43Tap to summarizeYour Greatest Strength Might Be Your Biggest ProblemYou worked hard to get where you are. You hustled, you grinded, you built something real. And somewhere along the way, the very mindset that made you successful quietly became the thing holding you back. Nobody warned you that would happen. Nobody put that in the leadership manual. (Spoiler: there was never a manual.)This episode of No More Leadership BS goes straight at one of the sneakiest traps in leadership: the moment your proven playbook stops working and you refuse to notice.The Mindset MythMost leaders think mindset means thinking positive. Wrong. Mindset is the entire filter through which you interpret reality, and if that filter is outdated, it doesn't matter how hard you push. You're filtering bad intel. A fish doesn't know it's wet. Most leaders don't know their mindset is working against them until the results start screaming what they've been too busy to hear.The "I'll Just Work Harder" TrapThe panel gets brutally honest about the beliefs they carried into leadership that eventually had to die. Working harder as the default answer. Being personally involved in every decision. Treating busyness as a badge of honor rather than a warning sign. These aren't character flaws. They're survival strategies that outlived their usefulness, and clinging to them past their expiration date is a leadership problem, not a work ethic problem.The Bottleneck in the MirrorIf your team won't take ownership, if decisions pile up on your desk, if you're doing the work instead of leading the people doing the work, there's a pattern worth examining. The panel makes it plain: when you refuse to trust your people, you become the ceiling on your organization's growth. True delegation isn't a soft skill. It's a leadership discipline, and it takes years to get right. The shift from "what I did" to "what we did" isn't just a word change. It's a complete identity recalibration.The GAP TestHere's a practical tool from this episode worth keeping: compare the leader you intended to be with the leader you currently are. Compare the life you wanted with the life you're actually living. Compare the organization you envisioned with the one you're running. The size of that gap tells you exactly how much your current mindset is costing you.The Bottom LineMindset problems are invisible from the inside. That's what makes them dangerous. You can't read the label from inside the jar. The panel's collective prescription: know thyself, let go of ego, stop confusing motion with progress, and get someone in your corner who can see what you can't. The shift from "it's about me" to "it's about we" isn't just good leadership advice. It's how you stop being your own worst obstacle.Tune in for:Why leaders resist uncertainty far more than they resist changeHow to use the GAP Test to diagnose a mindset problem before it derails youThe real reason your team won't take ownership (hint: look in the mirror)Why "who will I be if I stop doing all of this?" is the most dangerous question a leader can sit withWhat true delegation actually looks like, and why it takes decades, not daysReady to stop being the bottleneck? You know where to find us: askus@leadershipbs.coHave questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248The rest of the gang:Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711
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Serve, Adapt, Lead: Why Great Leaders Never Just Eat Last with Myra Hall
3w ago00:24:26Tap to summarizeThe Leadership Myth That's Making Good Leaders Look Like CowardsSimon Sinek told us to eat last. Organizations made it policy. And somewhere between the book launch and the boardroom, a lot of leaders turned a beautiful principle into a very comfortable excuse. This episode of No More Leadership BS takes a hard look at servant leadership -- what it actually means, what it definitely doesn't mean, and why confusing the two might be burning your team (and you) to the ground.Servant Leadership Wasn't Designed to Make You InvisibleThe origin story matters here. Servant leadership traces back to a Sherpa whose quiet, consistent presence was so foundational to his expedition that when he disappeared, the whole operation fell apart. The lesson wasn't "be humble and step back." The lesson was that the leader was the infrastructure nobody noticed until it was gone. Leading from behind means being the invisible scaffolding of your team's success -- not clocking out early and calling it humility.But When the Building Is on Fire, Nobody Wants a Servant LeaderThere's a difference between nourishing your team in steady conditions and navigating a crisis. In emergencies, people don't scan the room looking for the most humble person. They look for whoever is already moving. Gene Kranz didn't ask the Apollo 13 crew to vote on next steps -- he made the call and involved everyone in executing it. Jocko Willink didn't servant-lead on the battlefield; he prepared his team so thoroughly that when contact was made, everyone knew their role. Preparation is servant leadership. Reaction is frontline leadership. You need both.The Real Question: When Do You Know Which Mode to Be In?This is where it gets honest: there's no universal answer, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. What the panel agrees on is this -- the leaders who get it right aren't operating purely on instinct. They're operating with intention. They know their team, they know the stakes, and they've done the hard work of reflection after every success and failure. Wisdom isn't downloaded. It's earned through mess, iteration, and the courage to ask "what did I do wrong?" after every stumble.Checking Out Is Not the Same as Trusting Your TeamThere is a critical, career-defining line between genuine delegation and just... disappearing. Real servant leadership is not "I need it done by Friday, see you then." It's active presence without micromanagement. It's genuine curiosity about your people. It's the difference between a team that runs like a Rolex and a team that quietly falls apart because they've been "trusted" into abandonment. The team that performs at that level doesn't happen because the leader stepped back. It happens because the leader was fully in it -- right up until the moment the team no longer needed them.The Bottom LineLeading from behind is wisdom. Always leading from behind is avoidance. The leaders who get it right know the difference between nourishing their team and abandoning it -- and they've made enough mistakes to tell the two apart. Great leadership isn't front or back. It's knowing which one the moment is calling for. That's a skill. And it's learnable.Tune In For:Why servant leadership's origin story is actually about being indispensable, not invisibleThe "nine seconds" emergency framework NASA uses -- and what it means for your Monday morningWhy the incoming leadership gap makes all of this more urgent than everThe one-person-dancing-at-a-concert story that perfectly explains what leading from the front actually looks likeHow to tell if your "delegation" has quietly become disengagementReady to stop guessing and start leading with intention? Send your questions to askus@leadershipbs.co -- or hit the show notes for direct contact with the panel. Our collective pile of hard-earned mistakes is available to you as a shortcut.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711The rest of the gang:The rest of the gang:Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248
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You Were Never a Leader. You Were Just in Charge. with Jeff Geier
May 2000:26:09Tap to summarize You Were Never a Leader. You Were Just in Charge. Seventy-two percent of CEOs spend most of their time putting out fires. Fifty-two percent admit their own company culture is toxic. And 81% still think mental health struggles signal weakness. So here's the question the No More Leadership BS panel is asking out loud: Is this a leadership crisis, or a motivation crisis? Spoiler: it's the second one, and the cure has been hiding in plain sight for 2,000 years. The Wrong Person Is in the SeatThe Peter Principle says everyone gets promoted to their level of incompetence. But the panel argues it goes deeper than that. The real problem is organizations handing the keys to the best performer, not the best potential leader. The best bookkeeper on the team is not automatically the best bookkeeper manager. Without mentoring, coaching, or structured development, new leaders simply lead the way they were led. And if that pedigree is top-down, toxic, or oppressive, the cycle just keeps spinning.Being a Leader vs. Doing LeadershipThere is a difference between someone who performs the tasks of leadership and someone who IS a leader. The panel unpacks this distinction: you can follow every protocol, check every box, and still not be the person your team gravitates toward. Natural-born leaders? The panel doesn't buy it. Charisma, maybe. But leadership itself is built, not inherited. The real differentiator is identity. Do you see yourself as someone who serves, or someone who got promoted?The Servant Leadership Argument (The Only One That Matters)The panel lands firmly on servant leadership as the only real leadership model. Everything else is just being in charge. A story about a shop leader at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre drives the point home: rough around the edges, coffee dark, standards high, and 100% committed to making his crew feel ownership, earn credit, and do the work together. He didn't lead for the title. He led because the people doing the work mattered more than anything on the org chart.What Do We Call the Other Thing?If servant leadership is just leadership, what do we call the power-seeking, title-chasing, corner-office-craving behavior showing up in organizations everywhere? The panel offers a few options. "In charge." "Short-timer." And one they've been waiting all episode to drop: AIC. You'll have to press play to get the full definition. It is exactly what you think it is.The Bottom Line: The leadership crisis isn't a talent shortage. It's a motivation surplus pointed in the wrong direction. Too many people landed in leadership because they were great at something else, with no training, no mentoring, and no one asking whether they actually wanted to serve. The fix isn't complicated: invest in your people before you promote them, and make sure the leaders you're building understand the job was never about the title. It was always about the team.Tune In For:The three CEO stats that will make you deeply uncomfortable (as they should)Why "you're great, now go lead people" is one of the most dangerous sentences in businessThe case for servant leadership as the only real leadership model on the marketA story about a shop foreman who outled most C-suite executives without even tryingThree rapid-fire questions that will tell you exactly where your own leadership mindset sits right now You're not ready to lead until you stop caring about the title. Start there.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248The rest of the gang:Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711
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Planning Is Not Strategy: Debunking Leadership's Most Expensive Myth with Jeff Conroy
May 1300:25:13Tap to summarizeYour Strategic Plan Is a Lie (And You Paid Good Money for It)Every year, organizations spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours producing a beautiful strategic plan. It gets spiral-bound, presented with great fanfare, and placed ceremoniously on a shelf, where it collects dust until the next retreat rolls around. The panel at No More Leadership BS is calling it what it is: organizational theater.This episode takes a sledgehammer to one of leadership's most beloved myths: "If we have a strategic plan, we must be strategic." Spoiler alert, having a plan and being strategic are two very different things, and confusing the two is costing organizations time, money, and momentum.Why Strategic Plans Fail Before the Ink DriesMike Tyson said it best: "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." The panel unpacks why even the most meticulously crafted strategic plans collapse the moment they meet reality. The pace of change in today's business environment is accelerating faster than most five-year plans can account for. What looked like a clear path forward six months ago may already be obsolete. The solution is not better planning; it is building in flexibility, reviewing regularly, and treating the plan as a living document rather than a finished product.The Real Red Flags: Is Your Strategic Plan Already Dead?Three words are a dead giveaway that your strategic plan is flatlining: "I'm working on it." That phrase, the panel argues, is not a progress update. It is a stall tactic dressed in optimism. Other red flags include returning to the status quo the moment the retreat is over, having 20 priorities instead of three to five, and setting vague or unmeasurable goals. If nothing has changed since your last meeting, the plan is not guiding anyone; it is just wallpaper.What Leaders Need to Stop DoingThe panel gets direct about the habits that doom strategic plans from the start. Stop dreaming without grounding goals in reality. Stop creating plans without the people who will actually implement them. Boards that dictate strategy from the crystal palace without involving staff are setting up everyone for failure and resentment. And above all, stop treating the planning session as the finish line. Strategy without execution is not visionary. It is just expensive optimism.A Better Framework: The Balanced ScorecardRather than a sweeping multi-year document destined for a binder, the panel introduces the balanced scorecard as a practical alternative. Three to five priorities, each with a measurable goal, a budget, a deadline, and a responsible department. That is it. Two pages, printed monthly, posted where the team can see it. When everyone knows their role and can track real progress, strategy stops being a fantasy and starts being a function. The panel puts it plainly: if a priority has no budget and no deadline, it is not a priority.The Bottom LineA strategic plan that sits on a shelf is not a strategy. It is a symptom of leadership that confuses the act of planning with the discipline of execution. The organizations that win are the ones that stay nimble, review often, involve their people, and hold themselves accountable to real results, not beautiful documents.Tune In For:Why five-year strategic plans are already outdated before they are finishedThe specific red flags that signal your plan is already dyingHow the balanced scorecard replaces bloated planning with real accountabilityWhat every employee actually needs to know about organizational strategyWhy "strategy without execution" is just expensive optimismYou already paid for the retreat. Now listen to this episode and actually do something with it.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285The rest of the gang:Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248
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Suffering in Silence: The Leadership Mental Health Crisis Nobody Wants to Admit with Jeff Geier
May 600:26:36Tap to summarize You'd fire an employee who refused to acknowledge a problem. So why do we celebrate leaders who do the exact same thing? A 2024 Business Solver State of the Workforce study surveyed more than 3,000 CEOs, HR professionals, and employees, and the results are equal parts fascinating and deeply uncomfortable. Fifty-two percent of CEOs believe their company culture is toxic. Fifty-five percent report mental health struggles of their own. And a staggering 81% believe that someone dealing with mental health issues is weak or a burden to the company. Do the math. That means virtually every CEO surveyed thinks struggling leaders are weak, while also quietly struggling themselves. That's not irony. That's a crisis wearing a power suit. The No More Leadership BS crew digs into the data, calls out the contradiction, and gets real about what it actually takes to lead without losing yourself in the process. The Fishbowl Problem: You're the Water When more than half of CEOs think their own culture is toxic, the obvious question is: who built it? Culture doesn't trickle up. It cascades down from the top, through every decision, every interaction, every tone set in a Monday morning meeting. If a leader recognizes the culture is broken and does nothing, the problem isn't the culture. It's the mirror. The panel breaks down why self-awareness is the non-negotiable first step, and why blaming the front line for a culture problem is like blaming the floor for the leaky ceiling. Stress Isn't the Enemy. Isolation Is. Leadership is stressful. That's not a bug, it's a feature. The panel pushes back on the idea that stress itself is the problem, pointing out that humans are remarkably resilient and that most leaders have already survived harder things than they give themselves credit for. The real damage happens when leaders try to carry it all alone. Complaints travel up the org chart, not down. At the top, there's nowhere for the pressure to go. The antidote isn't toughness. It's community: peer groups, coaches, mentors, and trusted teams that actually have your back. The Superman Complex Is Costing You Eighty-one percent of CEOs view mental health struggles as weakness. And since 55% of them admit to those same struggles, the math reveals something ugly: most leaders are silently judging themselves by a standard they'd never apply to anyone else. The panel names this directly. Asking for help is not a white flag. It is, in fact, one of the most strategically sound things a leader can do. The leaders who figure this out earlier build stronger teams, healthier cultures, and more sustainable results. The ones who don't tend to become cautionary tales. The Bottom Line Leadership doesn't have to be a solo act performed in quiet suffering. The data says the problem is widespread. The panel says the solution is closer than most leaders think. Find your people. Talk to them. Let them help you get better at this. You don't have to fix yourself in secret. You just have to start. Tune In For: The jaw-dropping stat that proves most CEOs are judging themselves by a standard they know is wrongWhy toxic culture is almost never a front-line problem, and where it actually startsThe surprising argument for why stress itself isn't the enemy of great leadershipWhat a strong leadership team actually does to reduce executive burnoutPractical, zero-excuses first steps for any leader ready to stop white-knuckling it aloneLeadership is hard. Carrying it alone is harder. This episode won't let you pretend otherwise. Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248The rest of the gang:Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711
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Tenure Isn't a Trophy: Calling Out the Longevity Trap with Jeff Conroy
Apr 2900:22:29Tap to summarizeYou're Not a Legacy. You Might Just Be Furniture.There's a myth floating around leadership circles that says the longer you stay in a seat, the more valuable you become. The panel at No More Leadership BS is here to respectfully, and not so respectfully, disagree. This episode takes a hard look at what happens when leaders stop growing but keep showing up, and what it costs the people around them when they do.When the Title Becomes the IdentityOne of the most uncomfortable truths this episode surfaces: for a lot of leaders, the role stops being something they do and starts being something they are. The panel explores how this identity fusion quietly poisons team culture. When a leader's ego is housed inside a job title, any challenge to how things are done becomes a personal attack. The result? A team that feels like it exists to feed someone's sense of self rather than build something meaningful. It's a toxic environment, and the sneaky part is how slowly it creeps in.The Vacuum Always Gets FilledNature abhors a vacuum, and so does an organization. When a leader checks out while technically still showing up, someone else steps up. Not always out of ambition, but out of necessity. The panel breaks down how informal leadership emerges when formal leadership goes quiet, and why that dynamic, while sometimes heroic in the short term, creates long-term tension and confusion. If you're not leading your people, someone else is. Full stop.The Support Deficit Nobody Talks AboutCEO tenure in the US is hovering around six to eight years, and it's trending down. Why? The panel points to something that rarely makes it into leadership development conversations: the people at the top are the ones most starved of growth support. Training budgets flow to teams. Development programs are built for middle management. The person in the big chair is somehow expected to figure it out alone, until the organization outgrows them and something has to give.Four Questions Worth Sitting WithBefore wrapping, the panel offers a gut-check for any leader wondering if they're sliding into stagnation territory. When did you last change your mind? What are you doing differently this year than last? Is anyone on your team able to challenge you openly? Are you still actively learning, or just coasting on past experience? If those questions are hard to answer, that's your answer.The Bottom LineLongevity is not the problem. Stagnation is. The longer you lead, the more intentional you have to be about growing alongside the organization you serve. Because if you're not growing, your leadership is not standing still. It's slipping. The panel says it plainly: even the oldest oak tree puts out new leaves every year. If you're not, it might be time to step aside and let something else grow.Tune in for:Why leaders who "stay too long" often don't see it happening to themselvesThe identity trap that turns good leaders into organizational anchorsHow informal leadership fills the void when formal leadership goes missingThe four self-assessment questions that reveal whether you're leading or just occupying spaceWhat "staying curious" actually looks like when you're the one at the topThis is the episode for every leader who has quietly wondered if they're still the right person for the room, and every team member who already knows the answer.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285The rest of the gang:The rest of the gang:Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248
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Human First, Leader Always: Grief, Guts, and Getting It Right with Geoff McLachlan
Apr 2200:28:40Tap to summarizeThree Days to Grieve Your Mom? Leadership's Bereavement Problem Is Bigger Than You ThinkIntroduction: There's a policy sitting in your employee handbook right now that is quietly telling your people exactly how much their humanity is worth. Spoiler: it's not much. This week, No More Leadership BS sits down with a speaker, author, and emotional intelligence expert whose mother died while she was in a meeting reviewing Q3 targets, and who was told she had three days to process it. What happened next rewired how she thinks about leadership, people, and what it actually costs a business to treat humans like productivity units.The Day Everything Changed Our guest knows the exact date, the exact time, and the exact slide deck she was staring at when her world fell apart. A text from her twin sister. Missed calls stacking up. A wellness check that confirmed the worst. And then, the next morning: three days. That's what the organization offered her. Three days for a mother. She didn't take them up on it. She quit. And she hasn't looked back. Her story isn't just about grief; it's about a culture so broken that no single leader could fix it from the inside, and the moment she stopped trying.Good Grief: The Framework Nobody Taught You Rather than collapse under the weight of sudden loss, our guest built a framework in real time to process what she was feeling. She called it GOOD Grief, and it's deceptively simple. Give it a name. Offer yourself grace. Open yourself to support. Decide how you will move forward. What makes this powerful isn't the acronym; it's the honesty behind it. Anger, shock, and trauma don't follow a three-day timeline. Leaders who understand that will build teams that actually stick around.Human First Is Not Soft. It's Smart. When asked how leading with humanity actually improves business outcomes, the answer was immediate and unambiguous: happy employees outperform. Every time. Remove the relationship from sales, from management, from culture, and you remove the engine. People buy from people they like. Customers stay loyal to brands that make them feel something. When your people feel safe, seen, and supported, they don't just show up, they show out. This isn't feel-good philosophy. It's a revenue strategy that most companies are too rigid to execute.The AI Question Nobody Wants to Answer Honestly The conversation took a sharp turn into artificial intelligence, and it didn't go the way you might expect. The take: AI isn't the threat to jobs that most people fear. The threat is leaders who are so dazzled by doing less with less that they forget humans are still the ones buying the product, running the quality check, and building the trust. Pulling humans out of the equation doesn't create efficiency. It creates exposure. And a few companies are about to find that out the hard way.One More Thing Worth Saying A panel member shared a 30-year-old story that stopped the room. A young CEO, brand new in the role, father dying of lung cancer. Father passed on a Saturday. Federal regulators showed up at the bank on Monday. He took one day off. The funeral. He wore it like a badge of honor. He now calls it being a dummy. The point isn't shame; it's evolution. When leaders tell the truth about what it cost them to perform invulnerability, other leaders start to reconsider whether the armor is actually protecting anyone.The Bottom Line: Grief does not respect your Q3 timeline. Trauma doesn't wait for a convenient quarter. And organizations that treat bereavement as an inconvenience are quietly building an exit ramp for their best people. The leaders worth following know that human first is not a liability. It is the entire point.Tune in for:The "GOOD Grief" framework you can use personally and share with your teamA firsthand account of what it feels like to get three days to grieve your mother, and what it takes to walk awayWhy pulling humans out of business in the name of AI efficiency may be the most expensive mistake companies make this decadeThe support deficit syndrome that affects even the most compassionate leadersAn honest reckoning with what it really means to wear stoicism like a badgeNo one gets out of life alive. The question is whether your organization is built for the humans who are still in it. Reach out at askus@leadershipbs.co.**Special Guest**Diandra Ford-Wing Diandra Ford-Wing is a writer, speaker, and former technology Sales Director whose work centers on the transformative power of humanity in leadership. With a career leading Sales and Customer Success, she has built a reputation for combining data-driven strategy with deep emotional intelligence—proving that compassion and performance are not opposites, but allies. Her writing and thought leadership explore grief, resilience, identity, and the unspoken emotional weight professionals carry into their work. After experiencing profound personal loss while navigating a high-pressure corporate environment, Diandra began advocating for workplaces to become grief-literate: able to acknowledge, support, and empower employees through life’s hardest moments. Diandra challenges organizations and learning institutions to evolve beyond outdated bereavement norms and to reimagine what true support looks like in modern workplaces. Diandra speaks to HR leaders, executive teams, college and universities, and creative communities about storytelling, leadership, emotional well-being, and building cultures where people can show up fully human. She brings warmth, clarity, and a steady, grounding presence to every stage, leaving audiences with both practical tools and a renewed sense of what it means to lead with heart.Dive into Diandra’s debut novel, Red Bird, an amazing story of finding peace through the pain of loss.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506The rest of the gang:Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248
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The Communication Illusion: What Leaders Say vs. What Teams Actually Hear with Jeff Conroy
Apr 1500:19:13Tap to summarizeYou Said It. They Didn't Hear It. Now What?You gave the speech. You sent the email. You said it clearly, or so you thought. So why does your team still look confused, disengaged, or quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles? Here's the uncomfortable truth: clarity isn't what you say. It's what they experience. And the gap between those two things? That's where leadership goes to die.The Illusion of Communication As the saying goes, "The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred." Leaders routinely mistake talking for communicating, and that's a costly error. Research suggests that anywhere from 60 to 90% of all communication is nonverbal, which means the way you sit, dress, respond, and carry yourself in the hallway is saying far more than your carefully worded memo ever could. Your team isn't just listening to you. They're watching you.Who Gets to Decide If You're Clear? Spoiler: it's not you. Clarity is defined as the quality of being easy to understand and free from ambiguity, and the key word here is quality as perceived by the audience. That means your team determines whether you're being clear, not you. You don't get to declare yourself a good communicator any more than you get to declare yourself a good leader. Both titles are earned by the people around you, not handed out by you. If you haven't asked your people whether they understood, then you simply don't know.The Generational Gap in the Room For the first time in history, five generations are sharing the same workplace, and they do not communicate the same way. What lands with a Gen X employee (email, a handshake, a face-to-face debrief) can completely miss a Gen Z employee, who needs it distilled in five seconds or less and interactive. And Gen Alpha is already on the way. Clarity isn't just about being specific; it's about meeting people where they are. If your message isn't landing, the medium might be the problem just as much as the message.Closing the Gap: Real Talk on Rebuilding Trust When your words and your team's lived experience don't match, the results are ugly and predictable: distrust, disengagement, low morale, high turnover, and a whole lot of whispered conversations at the water cooler. So what do you do? Tools like 360 surveys can surface valuable insight, but if trust is already gone, anonymous surveys won't give you the real picture. The more courageous move? Go one-on-one. Acknowledge the gap. Be specific about what you want to change. Ask your key people flat out what would make them leave, and mean it. Vulnerability, not surveys, is often the first step to rebuilding credibility.The Bottom Line: Leadership isn't what you intend to communicate. It's what your people experience. If there's a gap between those two things, and there usually is, that gap belongs to you. Not your team. You're the one who has to close it, and you can't close it alone. It starts with getting honest feedback, showing up differently, and understanding that trust is built one deed at a time, not one memo at a time.Tune In For:Why being "clear" is not yours to claim and who actually gets to decideThe nonverbal signals you're sending whether you know it or notWhat actually happens to your team when your words and actions don't matchHow to start rebuilding trust when your credibility is already on the lineWhy different generations need radically different communication approaches and what's coming nextClosing: Stop defending your communication. Start examining what your people are actually experiencing. Because in leadership, as in life, deeds will always speak louder than words, and your team is already paying very close attention.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285The rest of the gang:Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248
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Support Deficit Syndrome: Why You're the Bottleneck (And Don't Know It) with Jeff Geier
Apr 800:25:06Tap to summarizeYou're Not the Problem. Your Structure Is.Let's get something straight: the fact that everything keeps landing on your desk isn't proof that you're indispensable. It's proof that your business has quietly, methodically trained itself to need you for everything — and that's on you, leader.This week, the leadership collective tackles one of the most misdiagnosed conditions in organizational life: Support Deficit Syndrome. It's not burnout (well, not yet). It's the slow, structural creep that happens when a growing business outpaces the systems and support around its leader — and the leader, being the high-capacity, problem-solving machine they are, just... keeps absorbing it. Because they can. Until they can't.The Bottleneck You Don't Know You AreHere's the painful irony: the very strengths that built the business become the bottleneck that stalls it. Five signals that you've crossed the line from "helpful leader" to "organizational choke point":You're the default decision point — not because you demanded it, but because you trained the business to find you.You're re-explaining the same things on repeat — not a communication failure, a structure failure.Your calendar is full, but progress feels slow — busyness and momentum are not the same thing.You're exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix — that's not a rest deficit, that's a support deficit.You can't step away — vacation just means working from a beach with worse Wi-Fi.Helpful vs. Dependency-Creating: A Thin, Dangerous LineFrom the very moment you step into a leadership role, being "helpful" can start building dependency. The panel gets real about this — including a painfully honest reflection on what it feels like to carry a team, mistake it for leading one, and then watch resentment creep in. The moment you start thinking they don't appreciate me, they won't listen, I'm working myself to the bone — that's not a people problem. That's a structural one wearing a people costume.The fix isn't working harder. It's asking a different question: Why is this still coming to me?Culture by Default vs. Culture by DesignIf you're not intentionally designing how decisions flow, who owns what, and how support scales — congratulations, you have a culture. It's just not the one you wanted. The leadership collective breaks down what it actually looks like to let go with intention: set spending thresholds, hire slow, fire fast, build the structure so the business doesn't need you — it needs the system you built.One standout framework from the conversation: Who, not How. Stop asking how you can do more. Start asking who can own this so you don't have to.The Bottom LineSupport Deficit Syndrome is Stage One burnout — and like any Stage One diagnosis, the window to act is now, not after the wheels come off. The structure of your business isn't going to fix itself. Default culture is still culture. And being the smartest, hardest-working person in the room doesn't exempt you from the math: if support doesn't scale with complexity, everything flows back to you. Every time.You're not broken. The structure is. And that's actually good news — because structures can be fixed.Tune In For:The 5 unmistakable signs you've become your own organization's bottleneckWhy "burnout" is the wrong diagnosis — and what the real problem actually isThe honest, slightly uncomfortable truth about what "being helpful" really createsWhy most leaders don't see the bottleneck in themselves — until it's too lateThe one question that changes everything: Why is this still coming to me?Reach out. Seriously. If you mentally checked even one of those five boxes, don't wait for it to get worse on its own — it won't. Drop us a line at askus@leadershipbs.co. The structure can be fixed. Let's fix it.Have questions, suggestions or just a great story to tell about some Leadership BS you have experienced? Let us know by emailing us Today's Featured Coach - Jeffrey Geier - Motivational Speaker, Trainer, and Coach - Helping You Win in Work & Life Owner/Founder of Phoenix Coaching LLC Reach Jeffrey at Jeff@PhoenixCoachingLLC.com or 509-553-9248The rest of the gang:Jeff Conroy - Organizational and Non-profit Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach - Executive Leader | Difference Maker for nonprofits in strategic planning, operations, and fundraising and development. Owner/Founder of Conroy Leadership Consulting, LLC. Reach Jeff at jeff@ConroyleadershipConsulting.com or 208-215-6285Geoff McLachlan - Motivational Speaker, Trainer and Coach, Bringing Fun Back Into the Workplace, Owner/Founder of Professionals At Play Reach Geoff directly at geoff@professionalsatplay.com or 509-869-4506Myra Hall - Individual and Team Coaching, Midlife Mentoring- Helping you get excited about life again as you overcome the things that keep you from living and loving a life that counts. - Owner/Founder Waypoint Coaching Group Reach Myra at Myra@WaypointCoachingGrp.com or 765-623-9711
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