In what ways do senior leaders need to think differently?

Leadership roles require different cognitive skills than many of the roles we do earlier on in our careers, but often we are expected to work this out for ourselves.

In this podcast, Richard and Ricky explore what this means. What is different about the way in which senior people need to think, and what does that mean for them and the way that they work?

This podcast is the third of four podcasts considering what is required of anyone who wants to take a senior role or highly demanding job in an organisation.

You can find out more about the four areas and how we use them here.

Do leaders have a natural strength or are they better at building resilience?

Leadership roles, big all-encompassing roles can be great fun, but doing them can have a big impact on your physical and mental health.

While it might look like the people who end up in these top jobs just have natural resilience. However, for many, resilience is actually part of their leadership discipline. 

In this podcast, Richard and Paul reflect on the habits and behaviours that they have seen in leaders who continually build their resilience to ensure they have the physical and mental health to deal with the demands of the role.

This podcast is the third of four podcasts considering what is required of anyone who wants to take a senior role or highly demanding job in an organisation.

You can find out more about the four areas and how we use them here.

How to achieve success in 2025 with a proven process.

Discover the secret to boosting your productivity at work!

Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to get more done in less time and feel more organized and efficient in your daily tasks. Whether you’re a working professional or a student, these tips will help you achieve your goals and meet your deadlines.

So let’s get started! These tips will help you improve your productivity at work! Whether you’re unstructured, find it hard to plan or dive in without thinking it through first, our Actions Model – FoooDo will help you to be more productive and effective more often.

FoooDo has six steps designed to help you get clarity, be more creative and critically evaluate which ideas are worth pursuing as you work to achieve your goals.

Be more successful with FoooDo, the ultimate #coachingmodel that will help you think, plan and execute your goals more robustly. Achieve what you want!

FoooDo is a central component of the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers.

Thinking Focus Toolkit

Why do leaders need to consider the impact of their job on their personal life?

While sometimes it is hard to admit, if you have a big job, such as a senior leadership role, it does impact almost every part of your life. To operate successfully in these demanding roles, you need to be able to find a balance between work and private lives that works for you and for the others in your life. Managing this balance, and some of the conflict that naturally arises out of it is something that is often only tackled when problems arise.

Richard and Ricky explore how leaders can develop a clear understanding of their priorities (work and home) and engage their families in the decisions about how to manage the demands of their role.

This podcast is the second of four podcasts considering what is required of anyone who wants to take a senior role or highly demanding job in an organisation.

You can find out more about the four areas and how we use them here

Why do we sometimes step up and other times shy away from opportunities?

Our mindset is vital in whether we are open or closed to opportunities.

In this video, we explore five ownership levels that describe our openness to new opportunities. The shoe salesman story illustrates how two people can see the same opportunity in two very different ways.

In what ways do senior leaders need to be aware of what’s happening around them?

Senior people need high levels of awareness to be able to do their jobs effectively, but what exactly does it mean to be more aware. In this podcast, Richard and Paul discuss how awareness of self, others, their organisation and the market place is different as people rise in organisations, and for those wishing to do so how they might start developing that awareness.

This podcast is the first of four podcasts considering what is required of anyone who wants to take a senior role or highly demanding job in an organisation.

Eisenhower Matrix – Why Urgent Doesn’t Make it Important

The Eisenhower Matrix helps you decide whether urgent means important. It helps you to prioritize your work and helps you focus on what’s important right now!

It will also help you to stop doing those tasks that add no value to you. In this video, we share why the Eisenhower matrix is such a powerful tool for making you more productive and effective. Learn how to use the tool and access a free downloadable template you can use as much as you like and share with your colleagues and friends.

Critical thinking is an essential part of the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers. Here’s a link to the free download https://bit.ly/urgentversusimportant

Thinking Focus Toolkit

Why is empathy a vital leadership skill?

Do you need to understand others to be able to lead them, or is a compelling idea or vision enough?

In this podcast, Richard and Paul explore the role of empathy in our lives, talking through what empathy is, and the advantages and disadvantages of empathy to leaders. Can people who master empathy can utilise this trait to become more effective leaders?

Are you focused on the right activities for your goals.

Use critical thinking tools to ensure you’re focusing on what matters.

Critical thinking follows creative thinking or task analysis; it helps you to prioritise where to spend your time.  They work by eliminating bias, which means you will make more objective decisions rather than relying on your gut or what you like to do.

Whether you are awash with ideas or overloaded with tasks, the ability to critically evaluate where best to spend your time and what will add the most value and make you most productive is an essential skill.

With the Ease versus Impact Critical Thinking Tool, you can ensure you are focused on the highest value activities all the time.

Critical thinking is essential to the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers. This is a free downloadable resource that wiill help you, but don’t keep it to yourself; feel free to use it and share it; you can access it here:

Thinking Focus Toolkit

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