312. Less Control, More Conscious Influence: The Leadership Shift We Need Now with Mick Spiers

Feeling busy yet strangely stuck? We pull together a month of conversations to reveal a clearer path: lead with conscious influence, not control. Across three standout themes—self-leadership, emotional fitness, and meeting design—we show how small, intentional choices create outsized cultural ripple effects. We start by reframing where leadership lives: not in titles or dashboards, but in behavior and micro moments. Tracy Clark ’s lens on self-awareness challenges us to look for where we unintentionally bottleneck our teams by over controlling or rushing to certainty. The move is from hero to catalyst—asking better questions, creating space for others to step up, and letting curiosity replace the need to be right. You’ll hear practical reflection prompts and a simple weekly action to step back once and watch ownership grow. Next, we add emotional depth with Melinda McCormack . People do not leave their lives at the door, and disengagement rarely happens overnight. We practice the intentional pause: notice, name, and ask why this emotion, why now, then choose a values-aligned response. Treat emotions as data that point to met or unmet needs—belonging, respect, significance. This is how leaders create psychological safety, regulate under pressure, and earn trust that compounds over time. Finally, Rebecca Hinds equips us to reclaim our calendars. Meetings aren’t bad; they’re badly designed. We challenge visibility bias, clarify purpose, and treat meetings like a product with users, outcomes, and constraints. You’ll learn how to run a calendar reset, redesign who’s in the room, set tighter timeboxes, and use small structural tweaks—like 3:05 starts—to protect energy. One better meeting can reset a team’s focus and signal what your culture truly values. We close with an integrated challenge: lead one moment with self-awareness, handle one situation with empathy and emotional regulation, and redesign one meeting to be more intentional. Ready to trade busyness for impact?

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312. Less Control, More Conscious Influence: The Leadership Shift We Need Now with Mick Spiers is an episode from The Leadership Project by Mick Spiers.

This episode is 15:25 long.

This episode was published on Mar 3, 2026.

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