The Noggin Podcast - people in good places do good sh*t Ben Houghton, Michael Wood

Today we are digging into collusion, the ways in which we inadvertently participate in and support a leaders reactive behaviours to avoid an issue that might need addressing.

Think of it as the deal that you and me make, often unspoken, where we agree not to discuss something.

Using the Leadership Circle as a lens to explore this, Michael and Darren share their experiences of this challenging workplace dynamic and how to overcome it.

Starting his career in the military and then going on to study politics at university, transitioning into sales, then an MBA before becoming a business owner and to now an Executive Coach, Darren has devoted himself to many different careers. In this episode Ben asks the questions to prompt Darren to share his key touch points and life lessons from his colourful career journey.

In todays episode Ben, Darren and Michael continue to build on previous conversations about the Leadership Circle Profile with an exploration of the two games of life. An underpinning philosophy that says, in all of life, we can play two games:
1. Playing not to lose: Avoiding situations where we might lose, fail, be emotionally hurt or rejected or lose status or a sense of belonging.
2. Playing to win: Consciously choosing to go as far as I can with all that I have and learning from whatever happens. To be comfortable being uncomfortable.
One of them leads to growth while the other leads to stagnation.

Special guest Caroline Flin shares her journey through matrescence and how she goes about supporting and helping other women through the challenges of this pivotal time.

Continuing on from our our previous episode on the 4 Promises of Leadership, today we dive deeper into the Leadership Circle Profile. Together with Ben and Darren, we’ll be sharing some of our own insights and reflections from the profile experience to give you a sense of what this tool is about and how it can support leaders to focus on the competencies that improve leadership effectiveness and drive business results.

Joined by our new associate Darren Hilton, and together with Ben, in this episode we'll be exploring the 4 universal promises of leadership set out by Bob Anderson and Bill Adams. You'll hear us discuss how leaders – and organisations – succeed or fail depending on whether or not leaders clarify their roles and goals, understand the impact implicit expectations have on their perceived effectiveness, and keep their promises.