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August 16, 2025 • 16 mins
Caroline Biesalski introduces the episode with guest James Robbins, who delves into essential leadership qualities, personal growth, and the sacrifices necessary for success. They explore a case study of transforming a manufacturing team, highlighting the journey to finding the sweet spot in leadership. James shares insights on the influence of personal mentors and the impact of coaching in his career. He provides a glimpse into his upcoming book and shares his closing thoughts. Caroline wraps up the episode with her closing remarks and presents a special offer to the listeners, encouraging them to apply these insights in their own leadership journeys.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And what becomes really clear is that none ofthe things on the list you need an MBA for, you
don't need a college degree for.
In fact, 75 to 80% of the list are things thatyour grandmother told you when you were a kid.
So much of being a great leader is being agreat human, a great human being that has some

(00:20):
ambition and wants to achieve some results butdoesn't want to hurt people in the process.
So much of leadership is also growing as aperson.
Welcome to Inspired Choice Today.
I'm your host, Caroline Biesalski, here tobring you authentic stories, surprising
lessons, and powerful takeaways to fuel yourjourney in business and life.

(00:44):
In each episode, I'll take you from oneinspiring guest to the next, blending their
experiences with my expertise to uncoverpractical strategies you can use right away.
Whether you're starting out or stepping up,stay tuned for insights and actionable tips
that make a difference, and stick around untilthe end for a special freebie just for our

(01:08):
listeners.
Hello and welcome, inspired podcast community.
This is your new episode.
My name is Caroline, and my today's guest isJames Robbins, and I'm so happy that he said
yes to our interview.
How are you doing today?
Fantastic, Caroline.

(01:29):
Pleasure to be here.
Wow.
The pleasure is mine, and I would like tointroduce you to the audience.
Of course, you are a leadership expert andbusiness strategist with over 20 years of
experience known for your best-selling book,Nine Minutes on Monday.
You empower leaders and organizations throughactionable strategies and personal growth

(01:53):
principles.
Welcome to the Inspired Choice Today podcast,James Robbins.
Thank you.
Yeah.
This is you.
And my first question is, what inspired you towrite Nine Minutes on Monday, and how has it
impacted leaders?
What inspired that book was it came out of alot of research trying to help leaders because

(02:17):
one of the things when somebody becomes aleader and all of us become leaders the same
way.
We were good at what we're doing.
We're good at our job.
Somebody trusted us, and then they said, hey.
You're gonna be a leader.
But what makes you a great leader is not thesame as what got you to the doorway of

(02:38):
leadership.
Because once you become a leader, now successisn't about how well you do your job.
Success is about how well you can move otherpeople.
And so when you add people, you add complexity.
And I found that in teaching leadership, peoplereally struggled with the nebulous nature of
leadership.

(02:58):
Right?
Like, how do I do this?
So "Nine Minutes on Monday" is really aframework that leaders can tap into.
Think of it like a blueprint that if leadersjust follow that, they see an increase in the
motivation, the happiness of their employees.
Wow.
What a great answer.
Thank you so much.
And when you were talking about how you becomea leader or about the trust and someone

(03:24):
believes in you, then I thought, isn't theleader sometimes empowering?
Are they empowering themselves, or can they askfor that position?
I think it's amazing if people ask for aposition of leadership.
Very few people do.
But I think it's great when people have somesort of initiative that they wanna lead because

(03:47):
leadership isn't easy.
Now it doesn't have to be complicated, but itisn't easy, and it does ask more of you.
And I like to say this is that when somebodybecomes a leader, like a true leader, in a lot
of ways, yes, you're gonna gain some things,but you're gonna lose some things.
You're going to lose some of your rights.
Like, you lose the right to come into theworkplace in a bad mood.

(04:10):
You know, when you're a leader, you can't dothat.
And it doesn't matter what happened in yourmorning.
When you get to the door of the office or yourcompany, you just gotta go, okay.
I can't show up like this.
When you're an employee, nobody cares if youshow up like that.
But when you're a leader, you cast a longershadow.
So you've really gotta find ways to bring yourbest to work each day.

(04:31):
So that's an exit that's just one small exampleof what I mean is that when you become a
leader, you lose certain rights.
Wow.
I love how you explained this, and I thoughtabout the expectations.
We have expectations about leaders, how theybehave, and also about employees.
So this is what I take away from your answer.

(04:52):
Thank you so much.
My next question for you is, can you share aspecific instance where your strategy
significantly transformed a team's performance?
Yeah.
For sure.
I'll give you one that, I think is reallysignificant, and it had to do with a
manufacturing company.

(05:13):
They were not doing well.
They were projecting a $3 million loss.
And what was going on inside the manufacturingplant was a leadership problem.
So one of the things that we did as a companyis we really just helped them do three things
differently.
Number one, we got them.

(05:34):
We got the leaders to start caring about theemployees.
It sounds so simple, but when people get busyor they get stressed and leaders can get, you
know, in bad moods and after a while, peopledon't feel cared about.
So we got the leaders to begin caring abouttheir staff.
Take a genuine interest in them.
Have conversations with them.
Ask them what they're doing on the weekend.

(05:55):
On Monday, ask them, hey.
What did you did you go on that hike?
It's just these little moments to care abouttheir staff.
Secondly, we helped them create more safety,psychological safety with their team.
One of the things that happened with thiscompany was they make a food product.
Well, one of the senior executives made amistake with the recipe, and he didn't tell the

(06:20):
rest of the team.
So he knew he made the mistake, but he justthought, I'm just not gonna say anything.
So they were putting out an inferior product.
So the reason he didn't say anything wasbecause he was scared of the judgment of the
team.
So we had to get the team to begin trustingeach other so that you could admit a mistake
and people weren't gonna kill you for it.

(06:41):
They were more going to, okay.
Let's fix this.
How do we fix it?
And the third one was we got the employeesexcited again about the product and what it is
they did.
We got them reconnected to a sense of purpose.
Because when you do that, people tap into adeeper sense of motivation, that intrinsic
motivation.
And once they did that, I mean, it was amazing.

(07:05):
Within 90 days, their sales, they were hitting68% of their sales.
Ninety days later, they were hitting 98% oftheir sales.
And instead of a $3 million loss, they ended upwith a $1.2 million profit.
So that's a $4.2 million turnaround all becauseleaders just did some simple things.

(07:28):
Wow.
I love what you shared.
It has to do with showing interest as well inthe employees even if it's just for five
minutes or so, and then also to, to memorizewhat what they tell you, in the last
conversation when you talked about the hike.
Yeah.
I love that.
And, also, of course, the success you shared bydoing certain changes.

(07:53):
My next question for you is how do youintegrate personal growth principles into your
leadership development programs?
So when I'm doing a workshop on leadership, Iwill ask the audience, how many of you have had
a great leader in your life at some point?
Somebody who inspired you to increase yourperformance.

(08:15):
You know, almost everyone will raise theirhand.
Then I'll say, well, who was that, and why areyou thinking of their name right now?
Like, why is their name in your mind?
Give me the reasons.
What did they do?
And so everyone begins to write all of thesethings.
Then we have the whole room share.
I put them up on a board, and then it's allthese lists of things.

(08:38):
And then I say to everyone, what do you noticeabout this list?
And what becomes really clear is that none ofthe things on the list you need an MBA for.
You don't need a college degree for.
In fact, 75 to 80% of the list are things thatyour grandmother told you when you were a kid.
So much of being a great leader is being agreat human, a great human being that has some

(09:02):
ambition and wants to achieve some results butdoesn't want to hurt people in the process.
So, so much of leadership is also growing as aperson.
So for any of you who are leaders and you'relistening, take, for example, like everyone is
going to be either more of a driver, likeyou're driving results, or you're a builder.

(09:26):
You're building relationships and you'rebuilding the team.
Everyone's gonna go on one of those sides ofthat spectrum.
Now the best place is, of course, in themiddle, but that's not natural for most people.
So whichever one you are, let's say you leanmore on the people side.
Okay.
Well, I am guessing that you're probably gonnastruggle with driving results, holding people

(09:50):
accountable.
You don't like to have tough conversations.
You don't want people to feel bad, and youdon't want to have that positive conflict.
Well, that's what's going on inside of you.
So you have to find a way to grow personallyand not be scared.
Well, if you're over here and you're justdriving results and you're not thinking about
people, well, you probably need to find a wayto become more empathetic and understand

(10:16):
people.
And so both regardless of which side you're on,you gotta grow.
You gotta grow personally.
I gotta become more courageous.
I gotta be more empathetic.
And as you do that, you begin to come closerand closer towards the middle, and that's where
you're gonna be in a real sweet spot as aleader.
Oh, absolutely.

(10:37):
And I love that expression, the sweet spot.
This is, by the way, the name of my secondpodcast, The Sweet Spot.
It is in German language.
And I love what you said, also the exercisethinking about who was the best coach you ever
had.
And this is what I ask every guest I have.

(10:57):
So I would like to know from you, do you havecoaches and mentors for yourself, and who is
the best coach you ever had?
I have so many great coaches and mentors in mylife, but I'm gonna go back to one that came
into my life at a significant time as ateenager who was a hockey coach who picked me
for this team that, you know, maybe I shouldn'thave even made that team, but I did.

(11:23):
I made the last spot.
This was a hockey team, and he believed in me.
There was just this sense of he had faith in memore than I had in myself.
And that then translated into me reallystepping in.
And, you know, I became one of the leaders onthat team that year from a performance

(11:47):
perspective, from last to near the top.
And that was because someone believed in meenough that I could take those chances and take
risks.
So, you know, there's a huge thank you forasking me that question.
I haven't thought of him for a while.
But when leaders believe in people, it's sopowerful because that's what's inspiring.

(12:10):
It helps people feel a sense of what'spossible, like they can have a sense of
possibility.
So that's important.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for sharing.
And what I got from this is that even if youdon't believe in yourself yet, you can borrow
other people's belief in you.
And I love that so much.

(12:30):
And that you were open to that because this isalso a requirement to be coachable at all.
Right?
Yes.
And please tell us, where can we find you whenpeople want to reach out to you after listening
to this episode?
For sure.
Thank you for asking.
You can always find me on LinkedIn, JamesRobbins, or go to my website, JamesRobbins.com,

(12:57):
and you can find lots of free help there togrow as a leader.
But if you are listening to this, come on overto LinkedIn.
Make sure you say hi.
I love LinkedIn, and we are connected already.
Of course, you have one follower more.
At least, it is me.
And my last question for you is, do you setgoals for yourself or intentions?

(13:20):
And what is one of your next projects?
I do set goals and intentions for myself.
That's been quite the journey.
Sometimes I have been really clear, other timesmore vague.
But my biggest project in the future is a newbook that's coming out on August 5, and it is
titled The Call to Climb.

(13:42):
And it's about getting your life in alignmentwith your inner life and what your inner life
wants and, and how you navigate that with allthe forces outside of us that tell us to play
life small, keep it safe, don't upset people.
But somewhere deep inside, your soul cravesmore.

(14:03):
The soul craves a dangerous path at times, atleast dangerous to the ego.
And so the book is all about that.
It's a fable.
I'm really excited.
Again, it comes out on August 5, so we'reworking hard on that.
Oh, thank you so much for sharing.
This is so important, this topic aboutalignment and inner world, outer world, and how
to I would not use the word resist, but the thecircumstances because we we get to choose which

(14:31):
circumstances we want to see in the world.
Right?
Exactly.
Yes.
Thank you so much for our interview.
Now it's time for your final thought to theaudience, please.
Well, first of all, thank you for having me onyour show and taking this time.
For those of you who are listening, it doesn'tmatter what role that you might be playing.

(14:54):
If you are someone who works at a company, thenI and if you're not a manager, I would really
encourage you to think about becoming one.
And if you doubt your ability to do so, I'mjust gonna push back on that and say,
absolutely, you can.
You can have influence.
Yes.
There are tools that you will learn as amanager that will be helpful.

(15:17):
But at the end of the day, can you care aboutpeople?
Can you be a good person, and can you have someambition?
If you can have those things, I think you canbe a great leader.
And for those of you who are already leaders,just remember, first of all, thank you for
doing that.
Remember that how we lead makes a huge impacton how people go home at night.

(15:39):
And so we really do.
We really wanna bring our best of us to workand to our people, because I don't know about
you.
I don't wanna make anyone's life miserable.
So we have the power to have a huge impact onthe lives of others.
Wow.
Thank you so much.
I'm inspired now.

(15:59):
Wow.
And I see you in the next.
Thank you for listening to Inspired ChoiceToday.
I'm thrilled to have you on this journey ofgrowth and transformation.
Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe to stayconnected and never miss an episode.
And here's something special.
Grab your free 20-minute breakthrough sessionwith me.

(16:22):
It's designed to help you kick start or levelup your business.
Just check out the show notes for more.
Until next time, keep making those inspiredchoices.
See you in the next episode.
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