Simply, Practically Human with Mark LeBusque

Excessive Meetings, Engagement Surveys, Narcissism and the difficulty of practising true Human Leadership are all questions thrown at Mark in this weeks podcast.

As usual Mark gives his unfiltered and unplanned perspective on each of the topics as a way of provoking you to think a little outside the square on popular workplace topics.

Go on have a listen. 

Micromanagers, Trust, Change Resistance and Molding My Manager all get a run in this weeks episode.

Be provoked and perhaps pleasantly surprised by the 'Purposeful Provocateurs' take on these topics. 

Mark was flooded with questions after his last "Ask Mark Anything' Poddy so he's had another 'off the cuff' crack at answering questions about workplaces as 'families', first impressions and the importance of gut feel, how to be bold and keep your boss onside when you want to make a career move, dealing with 'idea stealers' and those who 'want to always be in the photo' and taking control of your life design (aka work-life balance). You may agree or disagree with Mark's perspectives here and you'd both be right!!

I love questions with very little notice, and in this weeks episode I share my 'truth' on questions relating to workplace bullying, teaching leadership, leading when there's a personality and values clash, changing a deeply ingrained shitty culture and the mandate to return to the office (good or bad).

Oh and there's even a cheeky question about age appropriateness to wear a 'man-bun'. Have a listen, get triggered or nod your head (or both) as I give it my best shot. 

Director of the Futures Practice Sarah Norman joins me and we go 'full freestyle' discussing sympathy and empathy, impostor syndrome, how a futurist thinks, slip-ups, stuff ups, connection as humans, creativity, variety and why measuring everything to an inch of its existence is not the answer. Go on have a listen - I know you'll learn something from this amazing human.

In this episode self-confessed 'rebel on the pathway of human centered leadership', Dr. Tanvi Gautam delves deeply into a choice of going deep or skimming the surface on collaboration, the importance of not being afraid to be stupid, how to upgrade your leadership, the difference between forced and genuine collaboration and why all humans must be aware of the 5 Essential Conversations in order to 'go deep'. Tanvi's energy and drive to disrupt really shines in this episode.

Tiff Cook is back and as usual we are going around the world on topics, especially around the stories we tell ourselves that allow us to practice victimhood and how to break the cycle on this.

There's always a 'no holds barred, everything's on the table' approach when we get together and you might just wee some of yourself when we share storied about our 'bad' selves.

Buckle yourself in for the ride. 

Jason Arnold is the founder of True Blue Swim Schools and an Aussie who has found himself living in Canada and running a successful business.

Roll back over 35 years I met Jason at College, and we reconnected some 5 years back and started a conversation about why humans choose to reconnect and at times choose not to. Indulge us as we chat about College days and the importance of connection as a leadership tool as well as a tool that is essential for humans to thrive at work, in their family, and in their community.

I met Prof. Thomas Will at Harvard Kennedy School of Govt. in Boston in 2014, and we have built a deep connection based around our diversity of backgrounds.

In this episode Tom shares the importance of having a ‘leadership can be taught’ mindset and we shoot the breeze on some important ways to teach leadership.

Harps and Me chatting about all sorts of human stuff including being wrong (and admitting it), the cult of thought, acting on lightbulb moments, and a bit of corporate mischief that's been happening with our national carrier recently.

Always exciting and very unexpected (including some explicit language that is not unexpected). Go on I dare you......

I muse about the desire to pursue perfectionism and the impacts it has on humans when they put pressure on themselves to be perfect or pressure on others to do the same. Oh and I share some real life stuff ups and how I've learned from them, and why perfectionism and procrastination go hand-in-hand.

Colin Newlyn - Decrapifying Work

Martin G Moore has over three decades of working in multiple industries and roles experiencing the theatre and patterns within organisations that have led him to a desire to help remove the bullish!t from leadership.

We chatted about the common leadership myths, avoidance and ignorance, respect before popularity, and that there's never 'too much empathy' that can be displayed.

If you are after a little bit of 'truth telling' and 'sense making' that could 'sting' a bit then make sure you listen to this episode and check out Martin's 'No Bullsh!t Leadership Podcast'.

Regular guest and fellow podcaster Tiff Cook had me on recently for a chat about holidays, holding back information, and other human stuff that might get you thinking a little differently. Oh.... and as usual there's a bit of back and forth trying to trip each other up with some coaching moments. This is our latest co-share effort. 

Award-winning Author and Podcaster Mark C. Crowley is back and boy has he got some new human stuff to share that supports the importance of leading from the heart.

We chat about the detractors who constantly belittle the importance of compassion, care, empathy and vulnerability as important leadership skills, the impact of the last four years on leadership, why there's a place for hybrid working (and one size doesn't fit all), how the old system is looking to reclaim it's 'rightful place' and what leaders can do right now to combine leading from the heart with leading from the head. Oh, and the research is overwhelming - everything starts from the heart (if you're human of course). 

It's appropriate sometimes to bend the truth and tell a little white lie at the moment - isn't it?

Here's my take on a real-life situation that demonstrated that leadership and little white lies can co-exist when it meets certain criteria.

I share the criteria and the reality of what I recently experienced when swimming with whale sharks (and possibly other varieties) in Western Australia.

Author, Mentor and a 'Human Being That Shows Up Consciously' Robin Rice joins me to talk about all things unknown, uncertain and undiscovered.

I first met Robin 6 months ago and among many gems of wisdom she shared was this one 'certainty is death'. Today we dig a little deeper into leaving room for mystery, the power in saying 'I don't know', the soul is a chaos seeker and we even touch on AI Chat GPT and the need to open our minds to the good it can bring.

The podcast was a great example of the practice of not quite knowing what was coming next. Enjoy the uncertainty. 

Mark reflects on why 1:1 catch ups seem to be so bloody hard to schedule, maintain and prioritise, and he shares the approach that he used that was created by his team and set them up for success.

If you are creating a story about why 1:1 catch ups are challenging to sustain, then Mark calls bullshit on the usual excuses you use and the impact this has on team performance and engagement.

To access Mark's 1:1 editable meeting template click here: http://bit.ly/3XDftIK

Here's a great chat from late 2021, with communications expert and high conflict mediator Bill Stierle. Bill shares his wisdom about scary honesty, telling bad news early and making it safe to do so, language strategies, first impressions, the neurons in different parts of the brain, and why ice cream is good or not so good depending upon the stories we tell ourselves.

Mark is off on two weeks' holiday and shares his thoughts on why we don't let go and go on holidays when we all deserve to. From FOMO to fear of relevance, he explores how human hardwiring kicks in, and shares three simple tips to make sure you take that well deserved Life Design break. Oh and he also shares his out of office message that will be live from midday June 9th (which goes against the experts OOO guidelines). 

Tiff Cook, the host of Roll With The Punches Poddy, and regular SPH guest and I talk about lifting the cognitive load and having the courage to shine a light on and name and deal with some personal trauma. We explore how an identical form of trauma plays out differently for us both, as well as some ways to challenge your paradigms and make hard changes. Oh, and we're both talking from a lived experience not an expert in the field angle.

Ever been blindsided by the organisational 'unwritten rules'? Mark shares five common unwritten rules and some tips on how to be politically savvy and aware of them so you don't go from the 'penthouse to the shithouse' in one fell swoop. What are your organisations 'unwritten rules'? 

Fellow Opsimath (go google it) and bloody good human Craig Harper is back and he peels some layers off the 'Whiteboard Lessons' onion to unpack topics such as being the painter of your life canvas, embracing the certainty of uncertainty, showing the selfie of your mind and watching out for the quiet ones, not the chest beaters. Lots of gold here from one of the world's great thinkers about thinking. 

Why have humans built an aptitude to tiptoe around some workplace truth? Survival and fitting in come to mind. In this episode, Mark shares a real example where he was given an inconvenient truth that helped him to see what he was starting to see. Three words that changed something for the better. He gives you 3-4 tips on what to watch out for and how to bring up inconvenient truths in a very human way.

Mark explores why and how we humans make quick judgments and shares some recent examples of where he was judged as a bracelet-wearing, incense-burning hippie surfer dude who might also be pretty handy with a camera.  

Mark explores why we tend to go into rescue mode for others, when it would be better to let them sit in their catastrophe and feel it. He shares some real examples and some tips to stop rescuing others so they can learn and grow.

Mark C. Crowleys powerful podcast with me three years ago is getting a re-run as I think now more than ever we need to embrace heart based leadership and Mark has both lived it and now teaches it to humans across the world. Listen how Mark took a traumatic life experience and used it to shape up the human he became when leading others. This is one inspiring story from a human being that knows heart based leadership is not all 'warm and fuzzy, kumbuyah stuff'. How are you approaching leadership? 

Distracted Much? With between 12,500-60,000 thoughts per day what chance do we humans have of being present with another human when it matters most? In this short episode, Mark shares five simple and practical tools and tips that will help you to stay in the moment, build trust and a deeper connection with another human, and make sure that this human feels important and not usurped by the 'shiny things' you are being distracted by such as technology, what's for dinner tonight or a need to be needed by your boss so you feel important. 

Each month I catch up with my wellness coach, therapist, and holistic healer Loren Miller and I decided to hit record on the session and share it with you on the SPH Podcast. From a question I've been asking myself which is "Is this it?" came a deeper conversation about loneliness, how abandonment shows itself in many forms for me, and why I use sweet stuff to escape from more significant issues. Loren is an incredible human who has been helping me over the past 16 months do the 'work of Mark'.

Have you ever experienced a situation where you wanted to find your voice but something inside told you to 'stay quiet'? This week Mark shares some real examples of what happens when we choose to speak up or shut up and some simple and practical ideas that will give you the courage to find your voice and be helpful to you and others in the process.

From Medical School Dropout, Successful Career Executive to an award-winning Principal and Licensed Real Estate Agent, Jeanette Laffan shares some amazing life lessons about the courage to shift careers. Being told that she was making a backward step going into a 'mum job' that involved going out to "get the milk" was the catalyst for Jeanette to build self-belief and get mentally on top of her game to achieve incredible self growth. This is well worth a listen for any human considering their next move.

I’m all about flipping stuff to bring more human into the workplace and share some ways to flip ‘doing and being’ and ‘enjoyment and achievement’ to create deeper connection and reduce harmful assumptions. Give it a go humans! 

Roll With The Punches' amazing host is back and we're talking about the seasons, her rediscovered natural talent for sketching, Easter egg consumption and most importantly the 3 T's of change. Transactional, transitional and transformational. They're all important and we challenge ourselves and you to dig a bit deeper into what drives each one. 

Mark was reflecting on an Easter camping trip from 8 years back where he learned some valuable lessons from the playfulness, sense of adventure, freedom, lack of judgment, and sense of fun that young kids have in them and why it helped him to not worry about whether he was 'good enough' playing the guitar in front of grown-up kids (adults). These lessons apply as much in the workplace as they do in life. 

Friend, occasional mentor and owner of Possibility Arena, Alex Bakowski, joins me on this poddy. Only, she didn't know she was on a podcast until after we'd started recording!

Roll With The Punches Poddy Host Tiff Cook and I are back chatting and I'm pushing her buttons again about all things human including why your choice of words can define you, how I'm seeing Tiff's evolution right before me and of course, I check in on her progress on outsourcing as part of her Immunity to Change challenge. 

Coach and Host of the 'On This Walk' Podcast Luke Iorio epitomizes a human that walks the talk. He shares how significant life experiences coupled with researching various cultural modalities have impacted his desire the redefine success, overcome the need to fit in, redefine what identity means, embrace vulnerability and simply walk with being in the moment of 'right now'. This is a deep dive into self, masculine vulnerability, and recognizing the importance of indigenous teachings that everything is life. 

I sent out my fortnightly 'Mark's Musings' newsletter on the topic of vulnerability this week and it has had quite the response on how humans are starting to 'game' vulnerability. I share today why faking it, forcing it, measuring and comparing it are damaging the power of the 'V' word. Oh......and perhaps the most vulnerable thing we can do is often missed so I shine a light on it here. Are you a vulnerability faker and think you're getting away with it? Think again. 

Last weekend I attended an incredibly challenging self-development program and had some revelations about what I was hiding from. I share my insights and experience and how it has reduced my cognitive load by bringing the shame out into the light and not trying to hide it away. Oh and it was about substituting two words from "Am I really good enough?" to something else. We've all got to stop hiding.