change leadership Archives - Training Unleashed

Leading with Encouragement: A Path to a Positive Workplace Culture With John Robertson

John Robertson is the Founder and President of FORTLOG Services. John built his services with a focus on an encouragement-based approach, resolving root causes as opposed to treating crisis and transition in the workplace symptomatically, as is often the practice. In this episode of Training Unleashed, host Evan Hackle and guest John Robertson discuss how wellness is more than not being sick.

Quit playing whack-a-mole

A common practice in most workplaces is to treat a crisis when it arises. This is all done symptomatically. John’s approach centers on analyzing and confronting the root causes of problems. He underscores the significance of leaders’ roles in not just reacting to issues but comprehending why they arise in the first place. Instead of jumping up and whacking the “mole”, you need to stop talk about what the cause is.

Instead of playing the game, unplug the machine.

The Power of Encouragement

The conversation takes an authentic turn as the significance of genuine encouragement is explored. John emphasizes that effective encouragement requires leaders to be authentic and transparent in their interactions. He also highlights the challenge of time in a fast-paced work environment, where patience and encouragement may be undervalued.

Encouragement creates a culture where individuals can learn from mistakes and grow, without fear of punitive reactions.

About Our Guest

John’s been a trusted thinking partner with 30+years of assisting individuals and organizations in managing all forms of crisis/change. He leverages a values-anchored ethos as a leadership development specialist, helping organizations and individuals to define the new norm and thrive.

Mastering the art of change leadership with Nancy Murphy

Evan Hackel recently sat down with organizational change consultant Nancy Murphy to discuss a topic that is on everyone’s mind these days: How can effective leaders bring about change in their organizations during these remarkably challenging times?

Nancy, Founder and CEO of CSR Communications, is a trainer, speaker, advisor, and mentor with a passion for teaching leaders of established organizations how to make change stick.

According to Nancy, the key to making change stick is by shifting our approach from managing people to leading people.

“Let’s stop talking about managing change because that implies that change is something that is predictable, controllable, linear, and logical . . . that you’re in certain stages for predictable periods of time and that if you have the right checklists, everything is going to be easy. As I said earlier, organizations are made up of people and people are messy, emotional humans. And especially when it comes to change, there are emotional triggers that make it hard. So, we can’t manage people. We can manage things, but we can’t manage people. We need to lead people.

“And so, the first mistake organizations make is to approach change as a purely scientific process, as though it’s a predictable, linear, manageable thing. Implementation of change might have some of those checklists, but we really need the change leadership first.”

If you are leading your organization through a process of change, you will want to listen to the entire episode of Training Unleashed with Nancy Murphy.

A Special Offer

Nancy invites you to access the free publications and resources you will find on the CSR Communications resource page. In our view, they are terrific!

About Our Guests

Nancy Murphy is Chief Executive Officer of CSR Communications. She is an entrepreneur, former intrapreneur, trainer, speaker, advisor, and mentor helping mission-driven organizations and socially conscious businesses achieve their next big initiative to rapidly expand their impact.

“I founded CSR Communications to help organizations move beyond grand gestures and bold statements, to organizational change that sticks,” Nancy says. “I’ve spent my career saying what others are afraid to – and learning to say it in ways that others will listen. From challenging stereotypes of girls in my Catholic school more than 30 years ago, to my first job after college convincing nonprofits to engage youth volunteers, or my role as board chair of a global nonprofit transforming the way we do international development, I’ve experienced the challenges of leading big change within established organizations. I’ve learned lots of lessons, developed techniques that work — and I’m willing to share them with others. I’ve worked with global nonprofits, foundations, Fortune 100 companies, local governments, and federal agencies.”