Connecting to Admired Leadership

How The Best Leaders Inspire and Motivate Others

Episode Summary

A conversation with John Cook, Executive Coach and Partner at CRA | Admired Leadership, exploring how the best leaders inspire and motivate others, with particular focus on the power of third-party compliments.

Episode Notes

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Key Highlights

• Leadership Behaviors: - Universal and immediately actionable - Can be explained in under 5 minutes - Work across personal and professional contexts
• Third-Party Compliments: - Sharing positive feedback about someone to another person - Acts like a "time-release vitamin" - impact happens when it naturally comes back to the person - More powerful than direct praise because there's no "but" attached - Works in both professional and personal contexts
• Implementation Tips: - Start in low-risk situations - Practice across all areas of life (work, family, community) - Share genuine, authentic observations - Focus on both who people are and what they do
• Common Pitfalls to Avoid: - The "crap sandwich" feedback technique (praise-criticism-praise) - Using behaviors as techniques rather than developing them as authentic routines - Trying new behaviors first in high-risk situations - Over-using or forcing the behavior insincerely

Notable Quotes

• "Leadership is what you do. It's how you approach a room and the behaviors and routines that you bring into that room."
• "Who we are for our kids the research suggests at times is more important than what we do for them."
• "Try it on... especially if you're a skeptic, see what happens."

Featured Speaker

John Cook is an Admired Leadership Coach and Partner. He primarily works with senior executives across organizations from small companies to the largest financial services firms in the world.