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What do effective leaders do when they’re at their personal best? Our guest today has done all the research, and he outlines five exemplary leadership practices that leaders display when they’re at their personal best: Model the way Inspire a shared vision Challenge the process Enable others to act Encourage the heart In this episode, Jim Kouzes sheds light on the five exemplary leadership practices and how leaders can use them to overcome the most difficult challenges.

The goal of transformative influence is always to make other people better. However, there is a void in trust in the marketplace today - people no longer trust each other. Employees don’t trust management, employees don't trust the board, and investors don't trust the employees and the board. As a result, transformation is almost impossible. As a leader, if you want to build trust, you need to understand that it’s not about you. It’s about the influence you have on other people. It’s all about trying to make other people better. If you can make them better, you’ll be surprised to see that they will actually perform for you. In this episode, Walt Rakowich shares his experience on transformative influence and the steps you can take to transform your team and make your organization better.

The CEO Test is a list of 7 questions written by Adam Bryant to help you reflect and evaluate yourself in how well you are performing in your current leadership role. Let’s face it, being a top leader is a tough job. There are lots of pressures, challenges, and responsibilities that you carry alone. From time to time, we need to reevaluate ourselves whether we are staying competent and effective in our current roles. Adam Bryant shares the many different challenges that top CEOs face and how you can face these challenges and navigate through them. He's interviewed over 600 CEOs, and you'll be surprised to know that these challenges are hardly unique to top executives. If you're discouraged and disengaged, I want to help you to be hopeful. I'd like to encourage you to learn from the wisdom and experience from these top executives and how you can learn from them and apply them in your current leadership role.

You may be running a company right now and you're calling yourself an entrepreneur. That's great, but do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? What's the difference between the two you may ask? Depending on how you think, you might be running a business that simply earns the least possible margins on a transactional basis, or a business that knows how to leverage the true worth or value that its products and services bring to the market. Read on and I'll explain more. Let's start with defining what an entrepreneur is. An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business. An entrepreneurial mindset is a set of skills that enable people to identify and make the most of opportunities, overcome and learn from setbacks, and succeed in a variety of settings. In short, "entrepreneur" is a title that easily gets thrown around by anyone. Being entrepreneurial is an attitude. It's the behavior that separates out the ones who are truly successful, and it's being entrepreneurial. I don't care what your title is right now, but you need to start to be entrepreneurial. You need to develop this entrepreneurial mindset in order to build a highly profitable, fast-growth company. And Kent Billingsley, helps you do that.

According to a study by KPMG, 53% of executives do not realize sustainable value from business transformation. I assume the reason for this is that they focus so much on changing the business and the operational model that they forget the one thing they can change - self. If you want to see a breakthrough happen in your business, then you must change within and not force it on others. Transformational leadership is all about changing yourself and inspiring others to change. Customers are becoming smarter and wiser, and their behaviors and expectations are the most influential source of insights. As leaders, you must change and become more empathetic and understanding of their needs. According to Nick Jankel, it's not just about your clever product. Change is about empathy, connection, trust, and customer-focus. You must develop a culture that is adaptive and quick to respond to the changing customer and their needs. If you cannot solve a pain that people cannot solve for themselves, you do not have a business.

We have all heard the maxim, “The customer is always right.” Top companies like Amazon lays the foundation of their success on customer-centricity and customer-focus. We believe that a happy customer is the heart of any organization. But how do you make them feel valued? Most of the time, it relies on your people leadership – your employee experience. According to a report by Gallup, a global analytics firm, engaged workers have significantly higher productivity, profitability, and customer rating than disengaged workers. There is no doubt that leadership is important in creating wonderful customer experience. In this episode, Jonathan Raymond shares how you can lead your people and develop that people-centric culture in your organization.

With most of our audience working in the customer experience industry, I asked Cheryl China some of her best tips and advice for leaving behind an unforgettable legacy in CX and how to be happier and more successful in the workplace. Some leaders have been working in the customer experience industry for years and have not left a positive legacy to their team members and employees. They leave behind negative thoughts and memories and retire miserable and unhappy. I understand that work can be toxic, and we can get lost in the moment, but it is important that we detach ourselves and reevaluate our career paths sometimes. Where are we headed and what are we working for? These career advice not just apply to the overall leadership, but also to employees as well. Some of these things might sound cliché, but you’ll be surprised to know that not many people actually do them: Be willing to move sideways in your career. Don't hesitate to take risks. Don't let perfection hold you back. Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions. Learn from your mistakes but don't wallow in them. Always represent and protect your brand and your reputation. Engage, network, and build relationship. Know that what you say and do matters. Be kind to others.

There is no doubt that a successful organization runs on inspired and positive people. As a leader, it is your job to make sure your team members are inspired and that you are a positive influence to them. Team members that are positive can serve customers better and create a more wonderful customer experience. In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Glenn Parker shows us how you can have that positive influence on others. Positive influence leaders see the good in someone else. They help them become better and position them for success. According to Glenn, there are four types of positive influence leaders: Supportive positive influence leader Teacher positive influence leader Motivating positive influence leader Role Model positive influence leader You might be a mix of either one of them, but the most transformational one will encapsulate all of them and inspire positive change.

Have you ever wondered why geese fly in a V-formation? Scientists gives us two explanations, and we can actually learn a lot important collaborative leadership lessons from them! First, it's about energy conservation. Each geese fly just a little bit above the bird in front of him in order to reduce wind resistance. They each take turns being in front and fall back whenever they get tired. This allows them to fly longer distances without stopping to rest. The second is that it allows them to keep track of everyone. The V-formation allows each bird to communicate and coordinate with each other, which is also the reason why fighter jets also fly in this formation. These are the secrets in why geese are able to successfully migrate from one place to another, and if you apply them in your organization, you can be surprised how positively it can impact your customer experience strategy. In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Dr. Edward Marshall expounds on this more and shares other important leadership skills for you to apply in your strategy and organization.

They may not be in the frontlines talking directly with the customers, but a leader's influence to the team impacts the way an agent performs and how they deliver the customer experience, which is why leadership is important. According to Dr. David Arrington, "Everything a leader does impacts the organization. It all trickles down. If you have solid leadership at the top and set those priorities that the customer is important from that perspective, people from that organization will follow that line."

Playing at work have been traditionally unacceptable in the workplace. As adults, we think playing is childish and working meant being serious all the time. However, based on what we see from top performing companies in the world today, play has been an important aspect in their success. Play has led to innovation of products like Gmail, Google Meet, and many others. So, if you are a call center executive or have a call center business, should you allow or encourage playing at work? Does play make a positive impact in your customer experience strategy?   Listen as Jeff Harry helps you rediscover your play. Playing is not merely having fun at work and wasting time and reducing productivity. Playing encourages fun and allows your employees to feel positive, thereby leading to enhanced creativity and a more positive customer experience.

Character Development in CX is one of the foundations for being able to deliver the best possible experience for the customer. People never forget the way they are treated by others, and each person wants to be treated with respect, dignity, and truth. Every single customer wants and deserves to be treated with integrity. And integrity only comes from someone with a healthy spiritual character.   So, what is character? How do you develop character in your agents and from within your call center? In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Jim Loehr shares how to do that. Listen as he expounds on how to lead with character.

In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Dennis Geelen shares his insights on the importance of customer-centric innovation and why you should apply it in your call center or business today. According to research, 75% of businesses don't make it past year 15. Dennis Geelen believes that the cause for this is that companies are too inward-focused and are too stubborn. In order for a call center or business to survive and thrive, they must become outward focused or customer-centric, and they must deal with their stubbornness by being innovative. Listen to this episode as Dennis Geelen shares more about customer-centric innovation.

In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Nir Bashan shares his knowledge and insight in how to be more creative in your contact center and help fill the creativity gap in your customer experience strategy. Leaders and executives today struggle to find new and innovative ideas to meet the customer's needs because they focus too much on the analytical side and forget to be creative - this is the creativity gap that we are trying to solve. According to Nir, being creative is one of the most important aspects if you want your agents to perform better and be more empathetic to the customer. Listen as Nir shares more of his insights in how to have the creator mindset!

Coaching for leaders and managers is essential to drive peak performance for your call center and business. According to Bill Eckstrom, the most effective leader behaves more like a coach. So, how exactly do you behave that way and what do great leaders do to increase sales, enhance performance, and sustain growth? In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Bill Eckstrom lays out the strategies and tactics for you to apply coaching for leaders and managers. Learn how you can become more comfortable with discomfort and its importance in your call center and team's growth.

A good strategic plan is never enough unless you are able to drive results from them. Any call center or business can develop a good strategic plan, but not everyone can drive results and execute on them. So, how do you exactly develop a good strategic plan that drives results? How do you take action and get those gears in place and get your strategic plan from strategy to execution to results? In this episode of the Fast Leader Show, Sean T. Ryan of WhiteWater International Consulting, shares his actionable advice on how exactly you can do that!

The goal of a creative leader should always be to drive innovation for business. However, innovation for business is something very difficult to do on a consistent basis. Where do you get the inspiration? How do you exercise your creativity muscles that enable you to drive consistent innovation for business? In this episode of the Fast Leader Podcast, Cliff Goldmacher shows you a way to stay creative using principles in music and songwriting! Cliff shares the similarities between songwriting and innovation and how it applies for your business.

What is Organizational Health? What does it do and how does it positively impact an organization? In companies today, the focus has mostly been on being smart and being more intelligent. Everything is about technology and streamlining processes and tasks. However, according to Greg Ablett, that is not the only factor that contributes to a company's overall performance. Organizational health is important because it allows the company to operate without politics and confusion. It allows the company to perform better and helps team members become smarter therefore outperforming the competition. Listen to this episode as Greg Ablett shares more about organizational health and its practical benefits and importance.

Tom Connally was struggling with his work and he realized that he needed to change and bring his performance with his values. In order to do that, Tom started writing and journaling and doing small, incremental changes that eventually led to where he is now and made him a better person.

When Dr. Quinn was in the 6th grade, there was a popular boy in school who was good at basketball and almost every cute cheerleader loved him. Due to certain circumstances, he had to leave the school, and Dr. Quinn, wanting to be loved by the cheerleaders as well, saw it as an opportunity to replace him and become the best basketball player he could be. After working really hard, Dr. Quinn didn’t see any results, as even though he became the best basketball player, the cheerleaders still didn’t love him or notice him. But something else happened for the first time in his life. He realized he could set a goal and pursue it and turn into somebody new. And from his role as a point guard, he learned that it’s about making everyone else better. Although he never achieved his goal of becoming loved by the cheerleaders, Dr. Quinn learned something even more profound in his life.