Influencing Without Authority: The Human Factor of Silo Leadership | David Fung

Influencing Without Authority: The Human Factor of Silo Leadership | David Fung

Your title gets compliance. It won't get commitment. Executive coach David Fung breaks down how to influence people who don't report to you. (GUEST APPEARANCE on the LEADERSHIP IN QUARTERS podcast with Josh Seldin) David spent 23 years in tech, most recently as a Senior Director at Salesforce, where half his week went to influencing leaders outside his reporting line. Decades of psychology on influence distill down to three pillars: credibility, connection, and relevance. In this episode: * Why the stick works temporarily but kills initiative * The three pillars of influence and how to build each one * How to influence across organizations when there's "nothing in it for them" * The exact script for holding a peer accountable when they drop a commitment * Why respect costs nothing but assuming the worst costs relationships David is an ICF-certified executive coach, founder of Coachful Coaching, and host of the Coachful Coaching Leadership Podcast. Learn more at coachfulcoaching.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction to Influence Without Authority 1:20 Carrot vs. Stick 5:11 The Three Pillars of Influence 6:49 Building Real Relationships 10:10 The Limits of Authority 14:57 Influencing Across Organizations 19:01 Accountability Without Authority 23:18 Closing Thoughts

How to Lead When You Don't Have Control (Lessons from 25 University Presidents) with Daniel Atlin

How do you lead when you don't have direct control? Daniel Atlin interviewed 25 university presidents across the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to answer that question. What he found applies to any leader in a complex, multi-stakeholder organization: the ones who thrive don't have better plans. They ask more questions, move slower, and bring people with them. The ones who revert to command-and-control get stuck. In this episode: * What sense-making means and why it beats strategic planning in uncertain environments * Inner vs. outer sense-making, and why you can't do one without the other * The three habits that separated presidents who navigated disruption from those who got stuck * Why your job is not your identity, and Daniel's own admission about figuring that out too late * The power of the pause, the balcony view, and two skills leaders risk losing in the age of AI Daniel Atlin is a strategic advisor and executive coach with 30 years in senior roles across Canada's post-secondary, cooperative, and government sectors. He hosts the Messy Podcast and teaches at the University of Guelph. Full show notes and transcript: https://coachfulcoaching.com/coachful-coaching-leadership-podcast/how-to-lead-without-control Work with David: coachfulcoaching.com

Why Your Team Doesn’t See You as Authentic (And What to Do About It) with Maya Rupert

What if the authenticity we keep demanding from leaders isn't actually a real, measurable thing? In this episode, I sit down with Maya Rupert [https://iop.harvard.edu/fellows/maya-rupert], who managed Julián Castro's 2020 presidential campaign, becoming only the third Black woman in U.S. history to run a presidential campaign, and later served as a senior advisor to Elizabeth Warren. Today she's Executive Vice President at Blue State and the author of The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic. Maya challenged something I hear constantly in the corporate world: that we can just "sense" when someone is or isn't authentic. She argues that judgment is mostly vibes, shaped by how many versions of "someone like them" we've seen before. Which means the narrower our reference points, the harder it is for women and people of color to ever be read as authentic, no matter how genuine they are. We get into how she defines real, self-reflective authenticity, what it was like running a campaign with no budget for message testing, why she asks every candidate to define winning beyond winning, and the one lesson from politics and movement work that business still hasn't learned about getting people to truly own their work. If you've ever been told to "just be yourself" and wondered whose self they meant, this one's for you. 🎧 Chapters 00:00 Welcome and Maya's introduction (plus a guest appearance from Crispin the cat) 01:45 Maya's path and why she wrote The Real Ones 04:01 How do you actually define authenticity? 05:54 The vibes-based test we use to judge leaders 09:49 What the 2020 campaign cycle revealed 11:48 Inside a presidential campaign: likability is "squishy" 14:46 The irony of measuring your own authenticity 18:21 When there's only one winner: redefining what winning means 20:25 The values Maya looks for in the leaders she backs 22:39 What business still needs to learn from movement work 26:38 What worries Maya most right now 30:43 The one thing she'd fix overnight 31:56 Bring joy to your hustle 35:17 Where to find Maya and The Real Ones 📕 Maya's book, The Real Ones, is out now wherever you get your books. Find Maya online: @MayaRupert on X, maya.rupert on Instagram and Bluesky

Your Brain Won't Let You Solve Your Own Problem | Dr. Marcia Reynolds, ICF Past President

Your brain is wired to protect you from your own breakthroughs. That's why you can't think your way out of the things that matter most. Dr. Marcia Reynolds [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marciareynolds/] calls coaches "external thought disruptors." She's one of the most credentialed voices in the field: 5th global president of the ICF, ranked top 5 coach in the world by Global Gurus, ICF Circle of Distinction honoree, and author of the international bestseller Coach the Person Not the Problem. In this conversation, Marcia and I dig into why self-awareness alone isn't enough, what AI genuinely cannot replicate in a coaching session, and how the identity you're quietly holding onto is usually what's keeping you stuck. Find Marcia at covisioning.com Chapters: 0:00 Welcome and introducing Dr. Marcia Reynolds 1:13 Where "coach the person, not the problem" actually came from 3:24 The self-awareness gap: why high performers don't know themselves 7:05 What AI can and cannot do in coaching 9:16 Co-regulation and the energetic connection between coach and client 14:42 How coaches override the protective brain to create real transformation 16:38 When people start questioning purpose: the midlife inflection point 18:38 David's story: leaving 23 years in corporate to build something meaningful 20:49 Why defining yourself by your job title is a trap 23:42 How to coach at the identity level, not just behaviors and goals 27:45 Marcia at 70: skydiving, purpose over profit, and a life well lived 30:53 The honest truth about building a coaching business 33:17 Coaching is just one modality. Purpose is the product. 37:49 Where to find Dr. Marcia Reynolds

Belonging Isn't a Feeling. It's Performance Science. With organizational scientist Andrea D. Carter.

What if belonging isn't a soft, feel-good idea but the actual infrastructure that decides whether your team performs? In this episode of the Coachful Coaching Leadership Podcast, I chat with Andrea Carter, organizational scientist, founder of Belonging First, and adjunct professor at Adler University. Fresh off presenting at Google HQ in London for the launch of the Global Workplace Happiness Report, Andrea breaks down what her research across 150,000 employees reveals about why people stay, perform, and actually feel happy at work. A few things we get into: - The finding that people are least happy at work when they're with their boss, and what that says about how we train managers - Why organizations keep investing the most in what matters the least - The five measurable indicators of belonging: comfort, connection, contribution, psychological safety, and well-being - The difference between engagement (who's busy) and contribution (who's creating real impact) - Why employees experience work as a relationship while organizations treat it as a transaction Andrea also shares a free diagnostic, the Belonging Breakdown, so you can see where belonging is breaking down on your own team. Learn more about Andrea's work: https://belongingfirst.com Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadcarter/If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who leads a team. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome and introductions 01:30 Andrea's detour to Google HQ in London 03:31 Happy workers perform measurably better 04:33 Why people are least happy with their boss 06:38 Why companies invest the most in what matters least 07:54 Belonging as performance science: the five indicators 10:00 Engagement vs contribution 12:00 Why psychological safety is only one fifth of belonging 14:00 The problem with most resilience training 15:49 What good infrastructure looks like 19:00 When AI does more harm than good in HR 23:24 Fitting in vs belonging: the 50-50 equation 26:45 What do we actually do about it 29:14 The Belonging Breakdown diagnostic 30:20 What drives Andrea's passion for this work 33:14 Bringing joy to your work today