Mike Zani is the CEO of The Predictive Index, a company that allows recruiters to evaluate the cognitive abilities, personality traits, and behavioral tendencies of a potential employee to determine best fit. An avid sailor, Mike began his career in marketing and sales with Vanguard Sailboats and was a coach for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. In this week’s episode, Mike shares his thoughts on the last 18 months, and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants leadership style for constructive feedback. Listen in for Mike’s analogy regarding the front and back of a t-shirt!
Key Takeaways
[4:25] If you want a winning team, your leadership needs to be self-aware.
[5:45] Every person wants to be managed differently. As leaders, it’s important to adapt to these different management styles.
[7:45] With such a fast-paced world, leaders need to take a step back and slow down to build a winning team.
[9:55] Mike has a background in geology and sailing, he shares what he’s learned in these two disciplines and how he leverages this to become a better leader.
[12:15] Within 20 minutes, Mike could tell when a sailing team had a good or bad culture.
[16:25] Mike shares a few of his shortcomings and how he’s had to adapt to this new normal in the last 18 months.
[17:15] Mike describes the “front of the T-shirt and back of the T-shirt” analogy.
[18:45] Under pressure, people go back to their native code.
[20:25] Burnout is real. A lot of leaders have been keeping a positive face, but it’s hard to keep up after 18 months.
[23:25] Leaders are the key drivers of culture, passion is one of the key pieces to driving that change.
[26:00] You can’t explain or minimalize a problem away. The best way to tackle it is head-on.
[28:45] Don’t wait around for the perfect strategy.
[30:00] Mike offers advice on how best to give constructive feedback.
[33:45] Mike shares a lesson he’s learned that’s made him a better leader.
[34:55] Let go of your fear of failure and narrow your focus on what you can control.
[36:35] Leadership is a lonely place, but it doesn’t have to be. You need to reach out to a peer group to source different perspectives.
[38:40] Listener challenge: Work on the front of your T-shirt and the back of your T-shirt.
Quotable Quotes
“The culture and the mission need to be relevant to the type of people that you’re trying to recruit. If you want to attract world-class people, you have to relate to a culture and a mission that’s meaningful and real.” Click To Tweet “The onus is on a great leader to modify themselves.” Click To Tweet “Do you want to win today or do you want to win long-term?” Click To Tweet “Under stress, a lot of your ‘back of the T-shirt’ stuff rears its ugly head.” Click To Tweet “The lack of passion leads to tragic disengagement.” Click To TweetResources Mentioned
- Sponsored by: Darley.com.
- Connect with Mike: Predictiveindex.com, and Mike on LinkedIn
- “21 Most Compelling Qualities of a Great Leader”
- “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became the CEO of The Predictive Index”
These are the books mentioned in our conversation with Mike.
Leave a Reply