“Approachable is not about being your best friend or even that nice. The question [about a leader] is ‘Is this person someone you feel safe coming to?’”
– Phillip B. Wilson
In this episode of The Pivotal Leader, Gina Trimarco interviewed Phillip B. Wilson, Founder and Chief Evangelist of Approachable Leadership, a leadership consulting firm.
For over two decades as a labor expert, Phil has helped thousands of companies survive – and triumph over – life-or-death employee relations disasters. Over and over, he’s been an eyewitness to leadership train wrecks. Over years of watching what doesn’t work (including a lot of traditional leadership advice) he’s stumbled upon what he calls “the One Ring of leadership,” approachability. Yeah, he’s also a self-proclaimed nerd.
Like all business owners, Phil is a leader too. He is an Entrepreneur’s Organization board member and owner of an Inc. 5000 consulting business. Before that, he was a labor lawyer and HR Director of a riverboat casino (really!) – he has struggled through the same leadership challenges each of us face every day.
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Podcast Topics Include:
- Going from broken to positive leadership
- The employment relationship – a different kind of “marriage”
- Leveraging leadership to turn things around
- The “one ring” of leadership philosophy
- Understanding leadership styles
- Focusing on connection and approachability
- The 3 most important questions a leader should ask
- “Power Distance” – a leadership failure
- The “Stop, Listen & Confirm” approach
- Strategies for leadership training consultants
More About Phillip Wilson & Approachable Leadership
Phil is a national expert and author of multiple books on leadership and creating positive workplaces where employees are enthusiastic to cooperate, innovate, and go above-and-beyond every day. He’s a highly sought-after speaker known for his unique blend of humor, hard research, and poignant stories that illustrate the power of approachability in work and life.
Phil has been called on multiple occasions to testify before Congress as an expert on union financial reporting and labor law reform (he didn’t have to take the 5th once!) Wilson graduated magna cum laude from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and went on to earn his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
When he isn’t talking about leadership in the business media like Fox Business News, Fast Company, Bloomberg News, HR Magazine and The New York Times, you can find him hiking in the Ozark mountains, nerding out over a game of chess, or coaching his daughter’s middle school debate team (which is also pretty nerdy).
Learn More About Gina Trimarco
Learn More About Pivot10 Results
The Pivotal Leader is a production of Pivot10 Results, a strategy and training company that helps businesses shift from people problems to performance results.
