What if your well-intentioned leadership style is holding your team back? Kevin sits down with Sabina Nawaz to discuss the illusion of "bad bosses," the myth of singular authenticity, and the impact of pressure on leadership behaviors. Sabina introduces the idea that it’s pressure, not power, that corrupts and outlines the three primary pressure pitfalls leaders fall into: controlling, abdicating, and automating. They talk about why delegation often fails and how unexamined internal “hungers” sabotage our best efforts and intentions, as ell as how leaders can learn to shift their identity to better serve their teams.

Listen For

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:37 Join the Community Live on Facebook/LinkedIn
01:28 About Flexible Leadership (Book Promo)
02:22 Meet Sabina Nawaz
03:04 Sabina’s Career Journey and Background
03:56 Becoming a “Bad Boss” After Parental Leave
05:49 Are There Really Bad Bosses?
06:48 Pressure vs. Power What Really Corrupts?
07:41 Myth of Singular Authenticity
09:08 Identity and the Limits of Authenticity
10:41 Promotion and the Danger of Strengths
11:44 The Power Gap in Leadership
13:01 Understanding the Impact of Your Authority
15:36 Pressure Pitfalls Overview
16:27 Pitfall 1 Unmet Hungers
17:43 The Trap of Needing Approval
18:40 Sole Provider Syndrome
20:22 Pitfall 2 Abdicating Responsibility
21:51 The Delegation Mistake Most Leaders Make
23:32 Abdication vs. True Delegation
24:01 Sabina’s Self-Diagnostic Questions
25:28 Avoiding the “Yeah, But” Trap
26:27 Communication Fault Lines Just Shut Up
27:56 The Power of Listening in Leadership
29:01 Every Action Has a Reaction
30:10 Sabina’s Personal Interests and Books She’s Reading
32:10 Where to Connect with Sabina and Get the Book
32:52 Final Leadership Challenge and Episode Wrap-Up

Sabina's Story: Sabina Nawaz is the author of You’re the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need). She is an elite executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions around the world. Sabina routinely gives speeches each year and teaches faculty at Northeastern and Drexel Universities. During her fourteen-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She has written for and been featured in Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.

This Episode is brought to you by...

Flexible Leadership is every leader’s guide to greater success in a world of increasing complexity and chaos.

Book Recommendations

You're the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need) by Sabina Nawaz
Autumn: A Novel (Seasonal Quartet) by Ali Smith
Martyr!: A Novel by Kaveh Akbar
The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman

Like this?

Join Our Community

If you want to view our live podcast episodes, hear about new releases, or chat with others who enjoy this podcast join one of our communities below.

Join the Facebook Group
Join the LinkedIn Group