Thought Leader Profile: Nathan Magnuson

Ten years ago, I featured leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader, Nathan Magnuson, for the first time on my blog. Since then, Magnuson has provided his leadership insights multiple times for my blog and in 2020, I named his book, Stand Out!, as the best new leadership and business book for that year.

I’m a big fan of Magnuson’s work and have enjoyed following his ever-growing career during the past decade.

Today, Magnuson shares more about his latest endeavors and provides some timely leadership guidance:

Nathan Magnuson

Question: Tell us about the evolution from Nathan Magnuson Everyday Leadership to Leadership-in-a-Box®.

Magnuson: It's been a great ride! I started the Everyday Leadership blog 11 years ago. I had just wrapped up a consulting project helping the FBI build a brand new leadership development program from scratch. I guess you could say my leadership engine was all revved up. I wanted to find a way to share what I was learning about leadership with everyone else. That's where the site (and subsequent books) started.

Leadership-in-a-Box® actually represented a completely new career move for me. Even though I had done some independent consulting and speaking projects, after 11 years I felt like working for a single employer at a time was limiting the impact I could have with all the leaders who need leadership support. I decided it was time to officially leave my corporate roles to start a new training company Leadership-in-a-Box®.

Question: What is your hope for your recently launched Leadership-in-a-Box®?

Magnuson: It's kind of crazy, but Leadership-in-a-Box® is actually almost three years old by now! I like to say that we're the "ridiculously practical" leadership training company. For us, this means 60-minute workshops (vs. half-day or full-day) with an emphasis on same-day skill application. We like to say that anyone who goes through a Leadership-in-a-Box® workshop in the morning can start using their new skills that afternoon! Not only that, but all our programs are also available for license. That means instead of having our team onsite to facilitate, we share the programs so anyone in our client organizations can facilitate. This keeps costs down and lets many more people participate.

Question: Early on in your business you wrote your books Ignite Your Leadership Expertise and then Stand Out! Any plans to write another book?

Magnuson: You heard it here first: the next book will be titled, Winning the Heart: Engaging & Retaining Talent in the New Era. Release is TBD (we're hoping for 2024), but we'll be sure to let everyone know. We want this to be the #1 book leaders use for corporate book clubs because it's so practical and relevant to discuss with their teams.

Question: Thinking about your presentations to the thousands of leaders over the years, at conferences, corporate leadership events, board meetings and webinars, what has been the most challenging leadership concept to teach and why?

Magnuson: The most incognito leadership challenge is setting clear expectations. It's so important that it's one of the 7 drivers of engagement. (I call it the "clarity driver.") It's challenging because when it's present, no one realizes it. But when it's absent, leaders misdiagnose the problem and usually the wrong people get blamed, which just creates more issues. It sounds basic, but it actually takes a high amount of discipline to communicate "who will do what by when" on a consistent basis. But results and relationships are ALWAYS better when leaders do this.

Question: How did the COVID years impact your business?

Magnuson: Actually, COVID was a major factor in deciding to launch Leadership-in-a-Box®! I always knew it was something I wanted to do someday, but for many people (me included), COVID provided the opportunity to contemplate what was important in life. I ended up hitting fast forward and going for it!

Question: Why are you so passionate about leadership?

Magnuson: I believe one of the greatest gifts in all of life is the gift of being well led. The difference between how happy people are when they are led well compared to how miserable people are when they are led poorly is very wide. I believe this is a cause that is big enough to give my life to.

Question: What trends do you see influencing business leaders in the near future?

Magnuson: Right now, it's engagement and retention. Individual employees and job seekers have more options than ever. There are more jobs available (and being created) than people available. That means employers have to compete for talent (including the talent they already have) and individuals get to pick where they want to work. Many organizations made very poor leadership decisions during COVID and now are paying the price with a workforce that has very little patience and loyalty left for them.

We address this dynamic in our program "Engaging & Retaining Teams" where we share the 7 drivers of engagement. One client even reported that not one single employee left in 4 months after using this program! And it's actually created an interesting value proposition for us because we can demonstrate that retaining just one or two key employees will actually more than pay for an entire year of Leadership-in-a-Box® for their organization.

Question: Is there any last encouragement you'd like to share?

Magnuson: Yes! Many people tell me I have a cool job (and I do!). But I like to remind them that you don't have to be an executive or work in HR or be a coach or consultant to work in leadership development. It's part of all of our jobs no matter who we are! The person with the most leadership influence is the person’s direct supervisor. So, if you manage people, or aspire to, or even have influence with others, you already work in leadership development! It's a privilege and also a high responsibility. Let's all commit to keep growing, serving, and leading well!

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