Most senior leaders got to where they are by being the expert. But Helen Tupper has research showing that the moment you start thinking of yourself as an expert is the exact moment you stop growing.

If you've been coasting on competence, or are quietly terrified of being a beginner again, this episode is for you.

Topic Highlights

– How expertise quietly kills curiosity, and what to do before it happens to you

– Why the career ladder is a limiting model for both individuals and organizations

– The “mistake moments” team practice that makes vulnerability a daily habit

– The “What? So what? Now what?” reflection loop that turns any meeting into a learning engine

Guest Bio

Helen Tupper is the CEO of Amazing If, an award-winning company with a mission to make squiggly careers better for everyone. She is the co-author of The Squiggly Career and Learn Like a Lobster.

Episode Links:

Amazing If

Learn Like a Lobster

The Squiggly Career

Values Institute

Lead Like a Learner: Helen Tupper on “Squiggly Careers” and the Power of Vulnerability

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Ask almost any leader if they're self-aware and most will say yes. But research shows only 15% actually are. That gap – between who we think we are and how others experience us – is where most leadership development needs to start.

Unfortunately, it almost never does.

Margaret Andrews, who has spent two decades teaching this at Harvard, is here to help close the gap.

Topic Highlights

– Why the best boss you ever had probably wasn't (always) the smartest person in the room

– Six questions that reveal more about your leadership than any 360 assessment will

– The difference between changing your personality (you can't) and changing your behavior (you absolutely can)

– Why “if you want to change how people think, you have to change how they feel” is the most underused insight in leadership development

Guest Bio

Margaret Andrews is a Harvard executive education professor, founder of The MYLO Center, and author of Manage Yourself to Lead Others.

Episode Links:

Manage Yourself to Lead Others

The MYLO Center

Managing yourself first: Margaret Andrews on self-awareness and leadership

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“You're not a good fit.”

“The company's going in a different direction.”

Every manager thinks these phrases are legally safe. But according to attorney James Bryton, they're basically an engraved invitation to a lawsuit. And a lot could be avoided if leaders took a different approach to letting people go.

This is part two of our two-part series about letting people go with empathy and dignity.

Topic Highlights:

– The “middle lane” of firing and why it's where most separations actually belong

– Why “not a good fit” is one of the most legally dangerous things you can say in a termination meeting

– The thoughtful approach to choreography for letting someone go

– Why how a termination ends matters more than almost everything that preceded it

Guest Bio:

Dr. Dennis Davis is a clinical psychologist and national training director at Ogletree Deakins. James Bryton is Of Counsel at Littler Mendelson, the world's largest employment law firm, and a former civil rights litigator.

Episode Links:

How to fire people properly - Part 1: When waiting too long goes wrong

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