Herding Tigers
How do great leaders unleash their team to do its best and most creative work? Join Todd Henry (author of Herding Tigers and The Accidental Creative) and guests as they discuss what the talented, creative people on your team need from you, and how you can help them to be prolific, brilliant, and healthy.
10
Optimizing: You're Probably Playing Different Games at the Same Table
<p>In this surprise revival of the Herding Tigers Podcast, we kick off a new direction with an exploration of what it means to "optimize" as leaders. We discuss the invisible drivers that cause organizational tension, challenging the idea that conflict always comes from personality clashes or miscommunication. Instead, we unpack the reality that everyone—ourselves included—is optimizing for something different, whether it’s stability, recognition, autonomy, craft, efficiency, or meaning.</p><p>We share real-world examples from recent events and provide a practical framework for understanding and talking about these optimization goals with our teams. The episode highlights why ac...
5 Conversations To Have With Your Team
<p>There are five process-related conversations that can help your team maintain better focus, dispel fear, and manage expectations. In this episode, I share the five conversations and how to implement them effectively.</p><p>First a few ground-rules. Do not steamroll your team with these and if you're a team member, don't barge into your manager's office demanding to have these conversations. This is about relationship and relationship is about empathy, trust and commitment. If we're going to have these conversations, we must be committed to the results, even if they're not what we wish for. We have to...
Self-Care For Leaders
<p>On this episode, we do a quick habit check-up to ensure that you're protecting your viability as a leader. The old saying says "As goes the leader, so goes the team." To be effective, you need to model not only work ethic and character, but also what it looks like to be a healthy creative pro. We discuss five key areas where you should have practices to help you maintain health as a leader.</p>
Exorcise The Ghost (Rules)
<p>There are ghosts haunting the halls of your organization. They are invisible assumptions, false and limiting narratives, and other types of "rules" that limit the kinds of ideas your team members will introduce, who will collaborate with whom, and how your team functions.</p><p>In this episode, we discuss the nature of ghost rules and how to exorcise them for good.</p>
Shift From Maker To Manager
<p>The hardest transition to make when you step into a leadership role is the one from maker to manager. When you are early in your career, you are primarily evaluated on your ability to do the work - to control it, shape it, and make it great. However, once you transition into leadership your job is no longer to do the work, it's to LEAD the work. This is a fundamentally different responsibility, and one that many managers get wrong.</p><p>In this episode of the Herding Tigers podcast, I discuss some tensions that every leader of creative...
Why Your Perpetual Optimism Might Be Killing Your Team
<p>There is a big difference between telling the actual truth and telling people what you wish was the truth. Some leaders think that to inspire their team they must always have a positive vision, so they translate that belief to “I must ensure that team members feel like everything is going great.”</p><p>However, this is not driven by a desire to do what’s in the best interest of the team, but by the neediness of the leader. They don’t want to deal with the discomfort of wading through the murky grey waters of uncertainty. It’s much easier...
Leaders, Your Team Needs You To Be Precise
<p>In many ways, leadership is about risk mitigation. You want to channel resources and team effort in the direction most likely to generate the results you want, while at the same time minimizing the potential downside of getting it wrong. This is especially challenging when doing creative work, because the downside of getting it wrong can be significant. If you make the wrong decisions early in a project, the net result can be days or weeks of wasted work, maybe making it impossible to course correct.</p><p>Because of the risk involved, many leaders unknowingly become less than...
Are You Committing This Leadership "Sin"?
<p>One of the more concerning dynamics of the “everything is on the record all the time” world is that changing your mind – especially in a highly public way – has become SIN NUMBER ONE. If a politician or business leader evolves in their understanding of a topic, we call them a flip flopper. If someone alters their once-fierce perspective in light of newfound information, we call them a hypocrite or a traitor. However, one of the most crucial roles of the leader is to be a learner, and it is impossible to learn without being shaped and changed in some way. To...
The Two Types Of Relationships Every Leader Needs
<p>The Herding Tigers podcast is back! We'll be featuring leadership conversations, interviews, and tips for helping your team do its best work each day.</p><p>Leadership is only lonely if you're doing it wrong. On this episode, discover the two types of relationships that every creative leader needs.</p><p>Join my weekly in-person meetups at CreativeLeaderRoundtable.com. </p>
How To Handle Conflict
<p>If you have talented, driven, creative people on your team, conflict is inevitable. Conflict isn't bad, it's just a by-product of the creative process. However, how you handle conflict will determine the health or dysfunction of the team. On this episode, we share three core principles from Herding Tigers about dealing with conflict in a healthy way.</p>
