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.
12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
You Were Never a Leader. You Were Just in Charge. with Jeff Geier
1w ago00:26:09Tap 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
2w ago00:25:13Tap 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
3w ago00:26:36Tap 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
4w ago00:22:29Tap 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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From Knowledge to Wisdom: The Gap That's Costing Leaders Their Credibility with Geoff McLachlan
Apr 100:20:37Tap to summarizeYou've Got All the Answers. So Why Are You Still Getting It Wrong?In an age where every fact, framework, and leadership hack is one Google search away, we've never had more knowledge — and yet truly wise leadership feels increasingly rare. So what gives?In this episode of No More Leadership BS, the panel tackles one of the most overlooked distinctions in leadership development: the difference between knowing things and actually being wise enough to use them well. Spoiler alert — your PhD, your MBA, and your meticulously curated bookshelf aren't going to save you.Dots, Knots, and the Gap In Between Think of knowledge as collecting dots — every book you read, every training you sit through, every observation you file away. Wisdom? That's what happens when you connect those dots through real, lived, sometimes-painful application. And here's the kicker: until you've actually put your knowledge on the line and let it get banged around in the real world, you're not wise — you're just well-informed. There's a big difference.Confidence Doesn't Come From Knowing — It Comes From Doing The panel makes a compelling case that knowledge alone doesn't build confidence — applying knowledge does. You can read every leadership book ever written, but if you've never had to navigate a messy team, make a call with incomplete information, or own a decision that didn't go your way, you're still operating on theory. Real confidence is earned in the field, not the classroom.The Danger of Parking in Stupid What happens when someone has knowledge but refuses to learn from the experience of applying it badly? They park in stupid. The group digs into the frustrating (and all-too-common) phenomenon of leaders — young and seasoned alike — who cling to what they read instead of what reality is showing them. Experience without reflection is just repetition. Wisdom requires the willingness to update the playbook.So How Do We Actually Develop Wisdom? For leaders who want to help their emerging talent bridge the gap, this episode gets practical. Coach, mentor, ask good questions, and resist the urge to be the answer to everything. The best thing you can do for a developing leader is help them find their own wisdom — not hand them yours. And if you're the emerging leader realizing you've been running on theory? Get a coach. Find someone with battle-tested wisdom in your field. The gray hairs exist for a reason.The Bottom Line Knowledge is the what. Wisdom is the how, when, and whether. In a world drowning in information, the leaders who stand apart aren't the ones who know the most — they're the ones who've lived through enough, learned from it, and know how to apply it when the stakes are high. And no, six weeks of student teaching doesn't count.Tune In For:Why AI is flooding the world with knowledge while wisdom remains stubbornly hard-earnedThe "connecting the dots" framework for understanding what separates knowledge from wisdomWhy some of the smartest people in the room are the least wise — and what to do about itHow to help emerging leaders gain real-world wisdom without setting them up to failPractical advice for leaders who realize they've been operating above their wisdom levelYou can be the most informed person in the room and still make the dumbest call. Tune in and find out why — and what to do instead.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: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 208-215-6285Myra 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 Bottleneck Is You: Why Leaders Derail Their Own Change Initiatives with Myra Hall
Mar 2500:21:54Tap to summarizeStop Managing Change. Start Leading Transformation.Let's get uncomfortable. There are three things you can count on in life — death, taxes, and change. But here's what nobody says out loud: leaders are often the single biggest reason change fails. Not the economy, not the market, not the team. You.When you announce a massive shift without involving the why or the how, you're committing professional identity theft — stripping your people of their agency and expertise, then having the audacity to call them resistant when they don't applaud. Your people are not software. You cannot update their operating system with a 30-minute presentation and expect them to reboot as enthusiastic change champions.And if you're running fake "input sessions" — asking for opinions you've already decided to ignore — the team figures it out faster than you think. We're talking two to three weeks before authentic feedback dries up entirely. They stop talking to you and start talking to each other, catastrophizing and quietly polishing their resumes. One host learned this the hard way early in a banking career. Solicited input. Had zero intention of using it. The silence came almost immediately — and it stung enough to change everything.The fix isn't complicated, but it does require ego surrender. Bring people in before the boardroom finalizes anything. Give them the big picture and their place in it. Be transparent early — yelling a warning when there's still time to move is kind; waiting until the last second is not. And build the kind of trust before the crisis that makes hard conversations survivable when it arrives.The bottom line: change happens on the org chart. Transformation happens in the break room. Stop announcing and start involving. Stop performing and start actually listening. Your people aren't the obstacle — they are the transformation.Got a big change coming and not sure where to start? Reach out at askus@leadershipbs.co — one conversation, no pitch.Tune in for:Why involving your team isn't optional — it's the whole strategyHow fake input sessions destroy trust in under a monthThe difference between change and transformation — and why it changes everythingWhat one leader learned in three weeks that took years to unlearnChange is coming whether you're ready or not. The only question is whether you'll lead your people through it — or bulldoze them 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 - 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: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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Structurally Stuck: When Great Leaders Become Their Own Worst Obstacle with Jeff Geier
Mar 1800:18:29Tap to summarizeIt's Not Burnout. It's a Broken System.You've been calling it burnout. You've been Googling productivity hacks, booking spa weekends, and blaming your calendar. But what if the real problem isn't exhaustion — it's a structural flaw you've accidentally built into your own leadership? This week on No More Leadership BS, the crew takes on a concept that hits a little too close to home for most leaders: Support Deficit Syndrome.Here's the uncomfortable truth the hosts put on the table: when 70% of your week is spent reacting to things instead of leading through them, that's not a motivation problem. It's not a time management problem. It's a system problem — and you built it.The Bottleneck in the MirrorHigh-capacity leaders have a particular gift for looking competent and successful while simultaneously being the single biggest obstacle in their own organization. The P&L looks great. The team looks busy. But every decision, every escalation, every fire drill lands directly on one desk: yours. That's not leadership — that's a bottleneck with a title. The hosts unpack how this pattern creeps up slowly, often disguised as dedication, until leaders find themselves patching holes all day instead of building anything.The Identity Trap (a.k.a. Believing Your Own Press)There's a reason high-performing leaders fall into this trap: early success rewards the "I'll handle it" mindset. Then the adulation kicks in. People tell you you're incredible, indispensable, irreplaceable — and for a moment, you believe it. The hosts get refreshingly real about this one, noting that the best leaders aren't the ones with all the answers; they're the ones smart enough to surround themselves with people who fill the gaps. Your team isn't your support staff. They're your roots. And if you've forgotten that, the structure will eventually crack.SDS: Support Deficit Syndrome — Naming the Real ProblemThe hosts formally introduce the term Support Deficit Syndrome to describe what most leaders mislabel as burnout. SDS is what happens when a leader lacks the systems, structures, and people support needed to sustain growth. You can't read the bottle from inside the jar. You can't fill every gap with willpower. And the warning signs? A short fuse. End-of-day fire fatigue. The creeping sensation that you're perpetually adding to the list without ever completing it. Sound familiar?The Bottom LineGrowth without redesign always concentrates the weight at the top. If you're a leader who looks stable on paper but feels structurally buried, you're not failing — you're misaligned. The fix isn't a vacation or a motivational poster. It's honest structural assessment, the right support around you, and yes — probably a coach who can see what you can't from inside the jar. Many hands make light work, but only if they're the right hands.Tune in for:Why what you've been calling burnout might actually be a solvable structural problemThe subtle identity trap that turns great leaders into decision bottlenecksThe warning signs of Support Deficit Syndrome you should stop ignoringPractical ways to start shifting from reactive to proactive, including tools that actually workWhy coaching isn't a sign of weakness, it's the most structurally sound move you can makeIf you suspect Support Deficit Syndrome is running your calendar, reach out at ask@leadershipbs.co. No pitch. Just a real conversation from people who've been exactly where you are.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: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 509-869-4506Myra 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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