Paul McCarthy: Why Fired Leaders are the Future of Leadership

When a leader is fired from an organization, what are your initial thoughts? While this could be seen as a failure by the leader, what if, in some cases, it actually represents an organization that does not tolerate new ways of thinking? In this episode, I speak to Paul McCarthy, author of the upcoming book Fired Leadership, about why we may need to reframe why top talent gets fired.

 

Bio:

Fascinated by people and why we do the things we do, Paul is a non-traditional thinker who thinks big, questions deeply, and strives to create the conditions for leaders of all levels to have honest, courageous and forward moving conversations that build strong and healthy organizations.

 

Paul’s background in anthropology, sociology and social policy creates a natural curiosity about culture, social structure, and how this informs and shapes corporate systems. This exploration formed his desire to help people and organizations be the best they can be. Paul is a straight talker who reframes perceptions and provokes change conversations so that leaders can make a difference and deliver results.

 

Paul is focused on defining the true intention and purpose of an organization in order to align around a preferred future. While he sees value in challenging the status-quo, he is a trusted client collaborator, and a key influencer of how leaders are shaping the future workplace. He has operated as a leader within big firms based in the UK and Canada and brings a global perspective to his work. His real-world experience, guidance and expertise informs and supports leaders and leadership

teams in navigating through existing and future opportunities and challenges.

 

Paul is involved in several game changing quests to better understand what leaders and organizations of tomorrow will need to set themselves apart. Currently, he is exploring the topic of why leaders are fired. This will be the focus of his upcoming book, speaker series and leadership development program, which will be underpinned by a counter intuitive theory that future leaders and organizations will set themselves apart by the current attributes that they are fired for in today’s organizations.

 

Simply put, Paul’s mission over the last 25 years has been to rid the world of toxic leaders, one leader at a time.

 

An avid traveler, Paul has explored over 30 countries, is a veteran snowboarder of Canada’s best powder, and divides his time between western and central Canada. Paul passionately provides mentorship to the next generation of young entrepreneurs and future leaders through collaboration with non-profit organizations or simply over a cup of Earl Grey

 

You can find Paul on Linked in at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmccarthy73

Otherwise on Twitter at twitter.com/firedleadership

 

Resources:

Amanda Lang, The Beauty of Discomfort

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-beauty-of-discomfort-amanda-lang?variant=32207599960098

 

An article discussing the research of Amy Edmundson and Anita Woolley, discussing why organizations need a "fertile soil" in order to make leadership development effective so that they can grow.

https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it

 

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Follow host Rebecca Scott on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/rscottcbap