In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan address the question that most business leaders have when they are about to invest in leadership training – How do you measure the results of leadership development programmes? Since it is difficult to attribute a hard value to soft skills, or translate it directly into measures like profit, this can be a challenging question to answer. Mike and Ryan briefly discuss several studies that indicate that traditional leadership development programmes generally don’t work and waste a lot of money. They then go on to answer the question on measuring ROI of leadership training, by referencing the Kirkpatrick Framework. This is a four dimensional training evaluation model that has evolved over multiple decades through application by learning and development professionals around the world.

Business Leader Breakthroughs

EP 40 - How to Measure the Results of Leadership Training

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of talking with Gihan Perera, who is an author, conference speaker and consultant. As a futurist, Gihan researches trends that will impact the future of work and brings these insights to audiences in a relevant way. Gihan talks about one of the biggest trends at the moment, artificial intelligence, and explains how it is already everywhere in our lives, how it helps us do our jobs better, and how it will continue to evolve. He also discusses digital disruption and the challenges around it, skills leaders of today need to have, and innovation. He shares his insights on creating a high performance culture characterised by diversity and inclusion, as well as the importance of learning from the younger generations like Gen Z. Lastly, he talks about his book “The Future of Leadership” and some of the insights that can be learned from it.

EP 39 - Gihan Perera on Futurism, Artificial Intelligence, and Diversity

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan get philosophical and talk about the top 5 regrets of the dying, from the book by Bronnie Ware. Bronnie Ware has had a long career in palliative care, during which she would talk with the people she took care of, and wrote down their insights in her book. The Breakthrough Company has applied the lessons learned from this book for a long time, finding that business success is unsustainable and meaningless if your personal and family life is neglected. In this episode, Mike and Ryan go over the 5 main regrets of the dying, what can be learned from them, and how to apply these to improve both your business and personal life.

EP 38 - The Regrets of the Dying

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan talk about how to transform a business. They use the “leadership diamond” framework as developed by McKinsey in their book “Leadership at Scale”, and discuss and relate it to their own insights and experience with transforming organisations.

EP 37 - Transforming a Business from the Inside Out

In this podcast episode, Ryan interviews Joanne Fair, co-founder of FutureWorks Studio. FutureWorks provides an alternative solution to the traditional 9-5, by pioneering an integrated platform that allows talent to work on projects in different departments of the organisation they work in, as well as allowing the organisation to bring in external talent from other organisations on a freelancer basis. Joanne talks about how and why FutureWorks was founded, how it works, and its benefits. She also discusses why New Zealand needs to adapt a more flexible way of working and why the current state of technology creates opportunity for this.

EP 36 - Joanne Fair on Flipping the Traditional Freelancer Model with FutureWork Studios.

In this podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss how to effectively run a meeting, and how to deal with people and situations that get your meeting off track. They talk about why face to face meetings are so fundamental and beneficial, given they are run well. They go over 6 situations that can derail meetings and how a good meeting runner can resolve them and “rerail” the meeting.

EP 35 - How to Stop THAT Person From Taking Your Meetings off Track

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan talk about how team meetings can shape your company culture, and how they are instrumental in creating (or bringing down) energy. They talk about do’s and don’ts in team meetings and share some examples from our own meetings at the Breakthrough Co, providing a great starting point for creating an energising team meeting and culture.

EP 34 - Do Your Team Meetings Suck? Here’s How to Fix Them

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Gibbings. She is the founder of consultancy Change Meridian and a best selling author of 2 personal career development books with a third coming out in May. Michelle and Ryan talk about the future of work and how leaders, teams and team members can adjust themselves to a more technology-driven work environment. Michelle shares how she went from being in corporate to starting her own business, and how she helps leaders and organizations develop themselves to be fit for the future of work. She talks about the importance of understanding that every person is unique and ever evolving, and how taking individuality into account ties in with creating a positive team culture. She also shares her insights on the consequences of Agile working and the disappearance of the middle manager, as well as the need for pushing boundaries and speaking up.

EP 33 - Michelle Gibbings on The Power of Teams to Create a High Performance Culture

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan discuss culture in organisations. Creating a company culture is not simply writing some values on the walls and expecting your employees to live them. Mike and Ryan talk about how to define culture, what the most important components are, and why having a good culture is important for performance. Most importantly, they discuss how a good culture can be achieved, and how you can implement a system for improving culture.

EP 32 - Take your Company Culture off the Walls and into the Halls

In this weeks podcast, Mike and Ryan talk about mindfulness at work. Mindfulness at work is about being open and present in the moment and actively thinking about how to add the most value for your organization, rather than practices like meditation and yoga that are characteristic of personal mindfulness. Mike and Ryan explain what mindfulness at work entails and why it is so important, and share some of their own mindfulness practices as well as tips on how to get started on being more mindful at work.

EP 31 - Mindfulness at Work: It's Not Yoga

In this podcast episode, Ryan and Milena discuss outsourcing and freelancing. They share with you the lessons they have learned during the various times they have outsourced work at the Breakthrough. They talk about when you should think about outsourcing and how to decide on the right option for each situation, whether it be a virtual solution or a freelancer or agency. They give tips on finding the right person or agency to hire and how to make the relationship as mutually beneficial as possible, as well as tips on what to do when you run into challenges.

EP 30 - How to Outsource Work you Can’t or Won’t do

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan share 3 big strategic questions that can help you bring your business to the next level. These questions will unlock your thinking and open possibilities you had never thought of before. Mike and Ryan discuss them in depth and give real examples of how asking these questions has helped their clients improve their businesses.

EP 29 - The 3 big questions every business owner should ask themselves

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Kate Daly, director of people at BNZ. She talks about what culture means to her and what they are doing at BNZ to improve it, giving examples of various great initiatives the bank is currently undertaking. She also talks about the future of banking in an age of digitalisation, bringing with it both opportunities and challenges.

EP 28 - Kate Daly on the future of banking and building a high-performance culture

Being good at product isn’t enough, you need to be great at marketing too for your business to be successful. In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan discuss the power of having clear principles. They talk about how crucial it is to have clearly defined values, and the importance of keeping these principles alive and exercised by every member of the team. They share the principles we have at the Breakthrough Co around our marketing, and give examples on how having these principles and coming back to them every meeting have impacted the company.

EP 27 - How to be as Good at Marketing as you are at Product

In our new podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Ghisi, the general manager of global people programs at Xero. Xero is one of New Zealand’s most successful tech companies and has had phenomenal growth over the last few years. Ryan talks specifically about flexible working, an important part of Xero’s work environment.

EP 26 - A Look Inside Xero's Flexible Working with Ryan Ghisi

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs where we help unlock the potential in you, your teams and your business. Hosted by Ryan Castle, along with Dr Mike Ashby, we share insights, experiences and stories on achieving breakthrough successes in business and life. In addition to a podcast, The Breakthrough is also a coaching and advisory business that provides programmes for business leaders, owners and managers to develop your skills and capabilities to boost your business and enjoy a better life.

hubhopper

Business Leader Breakthroughs

hubhopper