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Business Leader Breakthroughs helps you unlock the potential in yourself, teams and businesses.

Hosted by Ryan Castle, along with Dr Mike Ashby, we share insights, experiences and stories on achieving breakthrough successes in business and life.

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Posts in Podcast

[EP 43] David Pich, CEO of IML ANZ, on Impactful Leadership, Workplace Culture and The 4 Day Week.

[EP 43] David Pich, CEO of IML ANZ, on Impactful Leadership, Workplace Culture and The 4 Day Week.

Violently agreeing on all topics covered, the Ryan and David share relatable stories and insights around the importance of growing middle management, how workplace culture can make or break an organisation, the much needed move to a 4 day working week and why everyone should be a feminist.

[EP 42] Heather Polglase, HR Director at Spark, on being agile, collaboration and the importance of people

[EP 42] Heather Polglase, HR Director at Spark, on being agile, collaboration and the importance of people

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of talking with Heather Polglase, who was a key driver in Spark's transition to Agile. She goes into detail about the challenges during that transformation along with her views on collaboration, the importance of teams and resilience.

[EP 41] How To Make Working From Home Work For You

[EP 41] How To Make Working From Home Work For You

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan discuss how to successfully work from home during these challenging times of COVID-19. They share the mechanics of working remotely and give tips on finding ways to get into a productive routine. They also talk about ways to maintain both physical and emotional health, stressing the importance of physical routines, communication, and accepting to be emotionally affected. They remind people of the Stockdale paradox which says that you have to confront the reality of the situation, while never giving up hope that things will get better.

[EP 40] How to Measure the Results of Leadership Training

[EP 40] How to Measure the Results of Leadership Training

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan address the question that most business leaders have when they are about to invest in leadership training – How do you measure the results of leadership development programmes? Since it is difficult to attribute a hard value to soft skills, or translate it directly into measures like profit, this can be a challenging question to answer.

Mike and Ryan briefly discuss several studies that indicate that traditional leadership development programmes generally don’t work and waste a lot of money. They then go on to answer the question on measuring ROI of leadership training, by referencing the Kirkpatrick Framework. This is a four dimensional training evaluation model that has evolved over multiple decades through application by learning and development professionals around the world.

[EP 39] Gihan Perera on Futurism, Artificial Intelligence, and Diversity

[EP 39] Gihan Perera on Futurism, Artificial Intelligence, and Diversity

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of talking with Gihan Perera, who is an author, conference speaker and consultant. As a futurist, Gihan researches trends that will impact the future of work and brings these insights to audiences in a relevant way.

Gihan talks about one of the biggest trends at the moment, artificial intelligence, and explains how it is already everywhere in our lives, how it helps us do our jobs better, and how it will continue to evolve.

[EP 38] The Regrets of the Dying

[EP 38] The Regrets of the Dying

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan get philosophical and talk about the top 5 regrets of the dying, from the book by Bronnie Ware. Bronnie Ware has had a long career in palliative care, during which she would talk with the people she took care of, and wrote down their insights in her book.

[EP 37] Transforming a Business from the Inside Out

[EP 37] Transforming a Business from the Inside Out

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan talk about how to transform a business. They use the “leadership diamond” framework as developed by McKinsey in their book “Leadership at Scale”, and discuss and relate it to their own insights and experience with transforming organisations.

[EP 36] Joanne Fair on Flipping the Traditional Freelancer Model with FutureWork Studios.

[EP 36] Joanne Fair on Flipping the Traditional Freelancer Model with FutureWork Studios.

In this podcast episode, Ryan interviews Joanne Fair, co-founder of FutureWorks Studio. Joanne talks about how and why FutureWorks was founded, how it works, and its benefits. She also discusses why New Zealand needs to adapt a more flexible way of working and why the current state of technology creates opportunity for this.

[EP 35] How to Stop THAT Person From Taking Your Meetings off Track

[EP 35] How to Stop THAT Person From Taking Your Meetings off Track

In this podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss how to effectively run a meeting, and how to deal with people and situations that get your meeting off track. They talk about why face to face meetings are so fundamental and beneficial, given they are run well. They go over 6 situations that can derail meetings and how a good meeting runner can resolve them and “rerail” the meeting.

[EP 34] Do Your Team Meetings Suck? Here’s How to Fix Them

[EP 34] Do Your Team Meetings Suck? Here’s How to Fix Them

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan talk about how team meetings can shape your company culture, and how they are instrumental in creating (or bringing down) energy. They talk about do’s and don’ts in team meetings and share some examples from our own meetings at the Breakthrough Co, providing a great starting point for creating an energising team meeting and culture.

[EP 33] Michelle Gibbings on The Power of Teams to Create a High Performance Culture

[EP 33] Michelle Gibbings on The Power of Teams to Create a High Performance Culture

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Gibbings. She is the founder of consultancy Change Meridian and a best selling author of 2 personal career development books with a third coming out in May. Michelle and Ryan talk about the future of work and how leaders, teams and team members can adjust themselves to a more technology-driven work environment. Michelle shares how she went from being in corporate to starting her own business, and how she helps leaders and organizations develop themselves to be fit for the future of work. She talks about the importance of understanding that every person is unique and ever evolving, and how taking individuality into account ties in with creating a positive team culture.

[EP 32] Take your Company Culture off the Walls and into the Halls

[EP 32] Take your Company Culture off the Walls and into the Halls

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan discuss culture in organisations. Creating a company culture is not simply writing some values on the walls and expecting your employees to live them. Mike and Ryan talk about how to define culture, what the most important components are, and why having a good culture is important for performance. Most importantly, they discuss how a good culture can be achieved, and how you can implement a system for improving culture.

[EP 31] Mindfulness at Work: It's Not Yoga

[EP 31] Mindfulness at Work: It's Not Yoga

Mindfulness at work is about being open and present in the moment and actively thinking about how to add the most value for your organization, rather than practices like meditation and yoga that are characteristic of personal mindfulness.

[EP 30] How to Outsource Work you Can’t or Won’t do

[EP 30] How to Outsource Work you Can’t or Won’t do

In this podcast episode, Ryan and Milena discuss outsourcing and freelancing. They share with you the lessons they have learned during the various times they have outsourced work at the Breakthrough. They talk about when you should think about outsourcing and how to decide on the right option for each situation, whether it be a virtual solution or a freelancer or agency. They give tips on finding the right person or agency to hire and how to make the relationship as mutually beneficial as possible, as well as tips on what to do when you run into challenges.

[EP 29] The 3 big questions every business owner should ask themselves

[EP 29] The 3 big questions every business owner should ask themselves

In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan share 3 big strategic questions that can help you bring your business to the next level. These questions will unlock your thinking and open possibilities you had never thought of before. Mike and Ryan discuss them in depth and give real examples of how asking these questions has helped their clients improve their businesses.

[EP 28] Kate Daly on the future of banking and building a high-performance culture

[EP 28] Kate Daly on the future of banking and building a high-performance culture

In this podcast episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Kate Daly, director of people at Bank of New Zealand (BNZ). She has held roles in human resources in many of the world’s largest brands and some of New Zealand’s household names, and is a board member at Auckland Rugby and The Blues.