Fit For the Future

About Fit For the Future

We have never faced us much uncertainty as we do now, and have never needed strong leadership as we do today. Navigate this fast-changing world with ideas and insights for leading through crisis, recovery, and growth, and being fit for the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Gihan Perera

Category

business · society & culture · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Aug 2007

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

398 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026

   One Conversation Away

   As a leader, you might think you know what drives the people in your team. But don’t assume! If you don’t ask, you might get it wrong, and gap makes it harder to keep them engaged, energised, and ready to embrace change. https://swiy.co/go-one-conversation-away (https://swiy.co/go-one-conversation-away) As a leader, do you truly understand the motivation behind each of your people and the reason they’re at work? I was speaking a couple of weeks ago at a conference in Thailand. This was for an Australian franchise group in the food and beverage industry that took all their franchisees to Phuket for their annual conference. While I was there, I was thinking about the different motivation between the people who were there – the franchisees, the business owners – and the staff they employ. The sort of person who buys a franchise is buying a business, and for many of them, this is their retirement plan – instead of relying on super, property, or shares. They might also be planning to make this a multi-generational business, passing it on to their children. But, for many of their staff members, who are often young people, this might be their first job out of school. It might be a part-time job, they work casual shifts, for an hourly wage, in between studying for something else. These motivation are almost at two extremes! The franchise owner is building a business for retirement and legacy, while her staff are earning money while planning a career elsewhere. Even if you’re not running a franchise business, this applies to you as well. Your motivation is probably different from the motivation of each of your team members. It might be unrelated to their age, demographic, or even stage of life. Everybody is motivated by different things. If you understand that, you can give each person work that’s meaningful for them – which aligns with their personal passion and helps them achieve their goals outside work. When you do that, you’ll have a much stronger team, who are more willing to take on new challenges, manage uncertainty, and embrace change. On the other hand, if you don’t understand their motivation, it’s much more difficult to keep them willing, engaged, energised, and empowered. And that creates a challenge when you need them on board as you navigate change together. Fortunately, the solution is simple: Just ask them! Ask each person in turn what motivates them – for example: - What do you do in your work that feels meaningful to you? - Who do you most want to help through your work? - Is there a cause, problem, or idea outside work you really care about? How could we bring that into one of your projects here? - Is there a skill you’d like to develop to make your work more meaningful? - Is there a project you’d like to take full ownership of, start to finish? - How would you like your work here to be remembered? - What can I do to help you? How can we keep having these conversations regularly? If you’d like to know more, join my free, public, online presentation, “Keep The Change”, this week – and invite others in your team and your network as well. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-one-conversation-away (https://swiy.co/go-one-conversation-away) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   What’s Really Going On?

   Your team members often know about problems, opportunities, and customer issues long before you do, and you won’t find out if you don’t make the effort to listen. But listening is only half the story – the way you do it sends a strong message about how much you value their opinions. https://swiy.co/go-whats-really-going-on (https://swiy.co/go-whats-really-going-on) As a leader, what are you doing to understand what’s truly going on in your workplace – and especially to listen to your team members? They often know things you should know, and you would know if you listened to them. I was in beautiful Phuket in Thailand last week, speaking at a conference for a large franchise retail group in Australia. I was talking about leading people through change, because like many organisations, they’re facing a lot of change now, and want their franchise partners to know how to lead their people through change. After my presentation, a participant told me a story about one of the franchisees – an amazing story about how this leader listens to her people. Every Friday, they open the store to customer 15 minutes late. That 15 minutes is for her and her staff, and she askes, “What sort of things have come up in the last week?” Sometimes they’re positive things worthy of praise, and sometimes her team members tell her problems she doesn’t know about. By airing them in this short meeting, she – and other team members – learn about them, and can figure out as a group how to address them. This is an excellent idea – for two reasons. First, the obvious benefit is she’s listening to her team members, who are closer to operations and customer than she is. Every leader and manager should take a leaf out of her book, because you team members know things you don’t know – and you wouldn’t know if you didn’t listen. But I think the second reason is more important – it’s the signal and message she’s sending to her team. She’s explicitly willing to give up 15 minutes of valuable revenue-earning time to listen. In effect, she’s saying: “I care so much about your opinion I’m willing to sacrifice some of my revenue and profit to listen to you.” It’s a simple thing, and some team members won’t even realise. But they would realise if she asked them to come in early or stay late – on their own time. What are YOU doing for your team to demonstrate you care about their opinion? And then, do you actually listen to them? For more, join my free public online presentation “Keep The Change” soon, where I talk about building an adaptable team. Register here, and invite others in your team and your network as well. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-whats-really-going-on (https://swiy.co/go-whats-really-going-on) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Safety In Uncertainty

   Host [Host Name] explores how leaders foster psychological safety for teams to thrive amidst uncertainty, drawing insights from Google's Project Aristotle research.

Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100

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Quality

77

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

30

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