S7 Ep20: ‘Certainty: How Great Bosses Change Minds’ with Mike Mears

🎙️ In this compelling episode of The Evolving Leader, we sit down with Mike Mears, former CIA leadership head and author of "Certainty: How Great Bosses Can Change Minds and Drive Innovation." Mike shares powerful insights from his extraordinary career – from his days as a combat platoon leader and nuclear missile commander to his transformative work at GE and the CIA. Discover how his relentless curiosity led him to question conventional leadership practices, the pivotal moments that reshaped his approach, and the lessons he's learned about inspiring teams in a world driven by uncertainty.

How can leaders inspire and motivate in a world driven by uncertainty? Join us as we explore the habits, mindsets, and actionable insights that can transform how you lead and connect with your team.

Certainty. How Great Bosses Can Change Minds and Drive Innovation:
https://www.certaintyleadershipbook.com/

Mike Mears’s Website:
https://www.mikemears.biz

Mike Mears’s Leadership Newsletter:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...

00:00 Introduction
04:21 Were you a spy?
07:24 You start your book with an somewhat surprising encounter with your boss at the CIA that leads you on a long journey of discovery leadership and change. Can tell us about that and what it unfurled in your mind?
09:43 What was the biggest shift in terms of your leadership?
11:17 You point to a number of ways in which our brain is still optimised for an environment that longer exists – what’s happening in our brains when we meet jj modern challenges?
15:09 In the book you highlight a disconnect between managers and their people around the real motivations at work.
19:05 How do you break the cycle of people acknowledging the need for a deeper touch of 1:1 relationships but feeling that they don’t have the time for it?
23:18 How does a leader manage that level of connection at scale?
33:16 I love your suggestions on feedback and how to avoid the social harm we inflect using the sandwich method and other techniques. Could we explore what you’ve learnt about this and how it hampers progress if we don’t get it right?
39:26 Can we go back to the mental prompts and the full inclusion approach?
43:18 What are your top foundational ideas that will help people to cope with the current upending of many of the certainties that we’ve had for years or even decades?
49:57 If you were building a business right now, what are some of the principles you’d use to build a culture that embodies what you’ve outlined in the book? How it would it differ from the mainstream organisation in your mind?
55:43 If you could only pass on one lesson about being a great leader, what it be?


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