Authority Optional: Leadership Beyond the Rulebook

Max and Josh, in their second topic at the CFMA, discuss some valuable practices they've discovered and utilized over the years when dealing with situations that require some delicacy. Techniques range from prep to tone, and they cover a few questions from the audience to dive into specifics.

Max and Josh had the privilege of being invited to speak at a CFMA annual conference. In this episode they covered the topic of leading culture as a middle manager, how to deal with possible resistance to creating a great culture, and some methods on making your role easier by crafting an environment people like to work in.

Max and Josh explore this very common phrase in corporate America: Perception is reality. It can be used as a trope, a shield to hide behind for those that can't come up with something better to say. But with a slight twist and perspective and a few valuable added words, it's also a tremendous tool for development and communication.

Max and Josh sit down with an old friend of Max's; Daylin has lived a lot of lives and has found his home in psychology as a family therapist. The three discuss some therapeutic elements of leadership such as attachment styles, what happens when you’re a leader trying to make everyone like you, and how different kinds of questions suit different situations and the value of knowing when to use what.

Max and Josh talk about some of what they learned with Courtney through the series and focus on in what they learned about themselves, answering some prompts to explore some of the details. As an added bonus, Josh opens up about a book they read in their BDC days and the fellas offer it as a challenge to any team that thinks they're already bulletproof.

Max and Josh get to wrap up the Enneagram Series with the final triad, which just happens to the one they both land in. This triad includes the Quiet Specialist, The Loyal Sceptic, and The Enthusiastic Visionary. They dive into some specifics about their main motivation (both Loyal Skeptics), how they are very different versions of the same number, and of course cover the other triads as well.

How an employee enters an organization might be the single most pivotal experience you can have an influence over. Max and Josh discuss their findings on when and how to engage, the importance of timing, and how critically vital it is to a business or team on what to do in this crucial time period of an employee's tenure.

Max and Josh sit down with another teammate from their former team, this one mentioned a handful of times over the last year on the show. Scott has been many things in his lifetime including a regional manager, front man of a band, a wanderer, and will be much more before he's done as he talks about in this episode. They discuss "new rich" and steps we can all take to achieve it.

Max and Josh cover the 4th and final cornerstone of the Team Principles they adhered to in corporate. They share some stories of counterexamples that show what can happen when this principle is not in place as well as some anecdotes about how it impacts their lives still.

Max and Josh cover the third cornerstone of their former team principles: Recognize and Respect the Impact your Behavior has on Others. Wordier than some of the other principles, it's actually pretty straightforward as concepts go and invites us all to be self and socially aware.

In this season premiere of their second year recording Authority Optional, Max and Josh discuss their most heavily influential team principle, Leave it Better Than You Found it. They talk about how valuable it is when everybody buys in and, of course, tell some stories on how it works. If you've listened to our first season, thank you. If not, this season kicks off an attempt to get less high-level concept and more detailed, so it could be worth going back for some older episodes if you crave the background.

Max and Josh tackle the difficult subject of being an unemployed leader, what the market seems to bear these days, as well as how challenging it can be to get through the first few steps of applying to a new company- or even your current one if you’re being laid off. They share their experience with it and offer some suggestions for anybody in the position themselves.

Max and Josh discuss another one of the Team Principles utilized in their corporate life, one that Max admits contributing directly to their common language. Eliminating aggravation ranges from not dodging accountability to doing things outside the scope of your job role, and invites everyone to imagine a world where everyone else is trying to improve the lives of those around them.

Max and Josh field a question about taking an employee engagement survey, whether one should bother or, if bothering, the merits of answering truthfully. They cover the ins and outs of making the best decision for yourself by way of their own experiences with surveys in a BDC, and explore the options.

Max and Josh discuss a principle that was part of their team culture when they worked together in a BDC. Fighting for the moral high ground captures both being imperfect humans and trying to do the right thing. They provide the backstory as to where it came from, explore the benefits of utilizing it, and finally offer some implementation tips if you find you’d like to see this in your own culture.

Max and Josh continue the series on Enneagram with Courtney returning as a registered IE9 practitioner and guide. In this episode they cover the Heart/Feeling Triad. Numbers 2, 3, and 4: The Active Controller, The Considerate Helper, Competitive Achiever, and Intense Creative, respectively. The fellas identify some traits they've seen in others and dive in with some questions to tap into Courtney's knowledge. Enneagram is an extremely comprehensive and nuanced look into our core motivations, how it looks when we're healthy and unhealthy, and includes methods to be the best version of yourself.

Max and Josh break down a process where they worked shorter weeks without taking pay cuts, and were even more productive than teams working standard or longer weeks. There's some high level concepts as well as pinpointed steps in this retelling with the idea that some of it could still be useful to others.

Max and Josh break down “Workplace Wellness.” They go into what it actually means as well as some steps frontline and middle managers can take to implement productive methods of increasing wellness. Specifically they dive into Holistic Wellness with some stories of their own to show ways they’ve excelled in creating excellent work environments.

Max and Josh launch a series on Enneagram with Courtney returning as a registered IE9 practitioner and guide, in this episode diving into the Action/Body Triad. Numbers 8, 9, and 1: The Active Controller, The Adaptive Peacemaker, and The Strict Perfectionist, respectively. If you've been a listener so far you know that the fellas are very on board with assessments that help people learn about themselves, Enneagram is an extremely comprehensive and nuanced look into our core motivations, how it looks when we're healthy and unhealthy, and includes methods to be the best version of yourself.

In the third and final part of their interview with Rob, they explore the value of going outside of the team whether it's for new ideas or fresh perspective, both for a single challenge and to improve the ongoing strength of the team. They discuss how leadership is a craft and should be treated accordingly, how much of it is talent acquisition, and wrap up with leveraging strengths to optimize a team and ourselves.

In part 2 Rob answers our story-based questions starting with the hat trick and tells some interesting stories about ideas, leadership, and values. They move on to bad bosses, misconnected teams, and who should (and shouldn’t) work remote.

Max and Josh sit down with a man who's been mentioned in several other episodes, Rob Cole helped Max define his leadership style very early on. In the first of this 3-part interview they discuss the value of seeking out side-hustles, war stories of Max in his earlier leadership days, and the value of making way for good ideas.

Max and Josh continue the conversation with Courtney. With the basics of Enneagram covered as well as some of its awesomeness, they move on to asking their more story-based questions so we all get some peaks into Courtney’s origins as an expert in the field of connected leadership.

Courtney returns! She talks to Max and Josh about the core basics of Enneagram, the core types, sub types, wings and more. The fellas have completed the basic free version and express how just the high-level overview of those seem dead-on accurate and how they’ve played into their lives. This will be a 2-parter and in round 2 Courtney fields our updated questions for leaders.

Max and Josh share some stories around their Core Principles. Ranging from origin stories to tales on how they’ve implemented them in life, they cover why these can be so important to know, how pivotal instances in life can shape them, even how they can translate to skills not commonly acknowledged in the zeitgeist.

Max and Josh finally get to talk to an old teammate from their days in corporate. Aidan was the first leader Max promoted towards the dream team and joins the fellas in some reminiscing about what made the team work and how it's impacting job environments since then.

Max and Josh discuss an amorphous concept on what’s holding you back, the psychological obstacle that stops you or slows you down from achieving your goals. Or, in other words, what’s the thing that constantly stands in your way that you may have built yourself. They talk about the need to be able to understand and analyze it to be able to get over it in order to be successful. They both get vulnerable about their own walls and attempt to give advice to each other based on their collective experiences.

Max and Josh start a new series in the ongoing effort to help you streamline your life as a leader. The series takes words and phrases that turn into buzzwords and explains them with the hope that it makes sense out of it and, as always, tries to provide something useful to you in the process. This one is Communication Models, what they are, some examples, and what might be handy to try in your own experience.

Max and Josh talk about an area on the continuum of knowledge that Max has coined, "The Sinister Window." We know what we know, and often we're also pretty sure of what we don't know. What's in between those two areas? Tune in and hear about it. Trigger warning: we use a pretty dark example to showcase how bad it can be, but we do bring things back around to work and leadership.

Max and Josh interview Nicholas Whitaker, an Executive well-being and performance coach, Conscious Leadership Activist, and the co-founder of Changing Work. We hypothesize on the current cause of destructive work environments being largely due to laziness and inherited broken systems, our collective efforts to create and maintain conscious leadership, and how as our generations progress we, as a species, seem to have a better handle on what we’re about and, therefore, what we should or shouldn’t be willing to tolerate. Nicholas provides an overview about his process of self-awareness, leadership training, the courage to stand out as a different kind of leader, and the importance of creating environments where people actually feel comfortable being authentic. You can join the effort at Changingwork.org or find Nicholas on Linked In where he posts prolifically.

Continuing their interview with Jeremiah, the three get into more effective ways of helping other humans be better, managing up when the circumstances call for senior management to be coached, how powerful music can be, and just how valuable it can be to truly get to know your people.

Max and Josh interview a true visionary in the field of turning work environments into places that don't suck. Jeremiah has written and co-written a few books, worked for some extremely high value entities, and delivers a ton of excellent information in our two part episode where we cover everything from abstract thinking and leveraging seemingly disparate skill sets to actually treating people like what they are, a company's greatest asset.

Max and Josh talk about the way feeling or pattern can creep up on you and how it can impact relationships. This is particularly relevant in leadership as it is their belief that working towards optimal relationships on a team is part of the job. After some stories and examples they provide some tips and suggestions on reversing unproductive neuro-associations.

Max and Josh interview an expert on building cohesive cultures people ACTUALLY want to work in. Courtney Feider (say it like "fighter") utilizes over 25 years of experience in corporate business focused in the areas of leadership development, organizational strategy, behavioral development, and business communications/marketing. She talks about addressing the common bifurcation of work from who we are as humans, challenges of middle managers leading well but not collaborating well and some tools to improve that, the undeniable value of assessments and some options, and overall acknowledging the pure fact that we’re working with humans and some opportunities to improve our environments based on that knowledge.

Max and Josh wrap up the series on engagement with the biggest and best part: development. Starting with their intent, being super explicit about what excellence means which can mean gaining clarity from your own leadership, leveraging what they’re good at often discovered by assessments, and having the tough conversations when necessary are all part of strong development.

Max and Josh define this concept for the purposes of what is meant by it when they're talking and asking about it, how it impacts a quality team, and how to go about implementing it.

Max and Josh continue with the series on Engagement, now moving on to providing your team with autonomy. Hire the right people to do the job, then get out of their way. In addition to providing some steps that can aid this journey they discuss the importance of failure and how powerful it can be for someone to learn it's allowed.

Max and Josh interview Joel about an interesting transition in his life where he could have gone to a dark place but instead turned it into enlightenment, a fulfilling career, and strong leadership. They pick his brain on getting connected to his people, remote team building, and how he maintains psychological safety.

Max and Josh launch a series on Engagement, a critical component of creating an environment people actually want to work in.  The series starts with Inquiry, Max and Josh talk about some of the best questions they’ve found to ask in order to get engagement started. Additionally they provide examples for how those questions tend to pan out and how to leverage what you learn about the person so you can help them grow. 

This is the sequel to last week's topic, Max and Josh reveal the last 3 steps to finding a way into crafting that culture you're after despite being in a business or work environment that may not be receptive to it.

First a big thank you to you guys for sending us questions, today's was regarding how to create a culture that makes sense to you in an environment where doing things different might not be welcomed. Max and Josh get into 2 of the 5 steps they've taken in just such and environment, completing the last 3 steps in next week's show.

Terminating somebody's employment can be tough to handle, Max and Josh might even argue that it should be. They discuss the methods they've found that makes it as close to smooth as possible, share some sticky ones, and even go into philosophies that can help with this often complicated part of being a leader.

How do you decide what to focus on first, or most? Max and Josh share some of their best practices and even go beyond the corporate experience to provide some tips and tricks on helping you decide what your priorities truly are and how to arrange them in ways that make sense to YOU.

Max and Josh interview a local creator, Cary Judd. Cary is a musician, a photographer, a filmmaker, and more. The three explore what makes a great team regardless of industry, what it means to have teammates that will be honest, and what Cary learned in the making of his documentary, 828, which can be found on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

Max asks Josh if he has any obsessions that turned out good for leadership. Josh's answer is spot on, exactly what somebody interviewing a prospective leader would want to hear. Max's answer is a little cloudier...

Max and Josh talk about what to do, what they have done anyway, when times were very difficult in a leadership position. Max reflects on one of his harder instances, the valuable resource that pulled him through it, and both discuss some ways of finding resources if you're looking. And of course, we're happy to be that resource if you want to call in or write us a question! [email protected]

Max and Josh field an audience question that inquires about their thoughts and opinions on sales goals, how to handle them, experiences on coaching to certain behaviors, etc. They discuss having seen the worst versions, add some thoughts on how to deal with that, as well as provide some coaching tips regardless of what level of leadership you're in.

In the second part of our interview with Mac we explore his opinions on decentralized leadership and working remote. We wrap up on some parting wisdom Mac has for leaders looking to craft their own culture.

Our inaugural interview with Mac Christian, who has his own podcast: The National Land Podcast, was fun and informative. In part 1 of our chat with Mac we cover how he creates his culture, how he knows it's working, and some serious counterexamples of culture where he learned what NOT to do.

Max and Josh get their first non-caller question from a new leader who just leap-frogged her old boss. They get much more into detail about how to handle the boundary-pushing that happens sometimes when one of the team gets promoted to run it.