Leading Through Uncertainty

Send us Fan Mail Russell Harvey is The Resilience Coach,  and he shares his expertise in human behaviour and organisational development. He emphasises that resilience is about thriving and learning from adversity, not just coping. Russell recounts personal challenges, including his wife's mental health struggles and his own job redundancies, to illustrate resilience's complexities. He co...

Send us Fan Mail Stuart McSkimming is an IT consultant in the charity sector. He talks about IT implementation in a sector that needs to spend funds wisely, balancing investment with effective implementation so that the ROI is gained quickly.  Stuart stresses the importance of understanding what you are trying to achieve with IT to avoid spending money on things that don’t make a difference or add...

Send us Fan Mail Neil Jurd is an author and founder of Leader Connect,  a leadership training business focusing on leadership in high-pressure situations. Neil draws on his deployment in Iraq sharing profound insights on leading soldiers under fire and how that relates to businesses today.  He explains his foundations for leadership - preparation, clear purpose, and team inclusion. He also discuss...

Send us Fan Mail Graham Wilson is the founder of Success Factory, a leadership and management development business leading people to experience an extraordinary life. Graham talks about organisations being "over-managed and under-led", and the need to have people who are skilful and knowledgeable enough to make decisions quickly.  Graham draws on examples from his military and corporate...

Send us Fan Mail Edward Grigg is the former Managing Director of In Corporate Wear and Chairman of the Professional Clothing Industry Association Worldwide (PCI AW). Ed shares his journey from a part-time job in garment collection to leading a significant corporate clothing company.  He discusses the industry's evolution, particularly with automation and technology, and the challenges of navi...

Send us Fan Mail Jane Ferre is a talent management expert and former HR professional at British Airways. She discusses her journey in HR and her work mentoring HR directors. She shares her experiences with redundancy, emphasising the importance of clear communication and managing emotions at times of change and uncertainty.  Jane identifies retention and attraction as the two main challenges in ta...

Send us Fan Mail Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher is the Chief Executive of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Vanessa shares insights into IOSH's mission to promote global occupational safety and health standards, emphasizing the importance of proportionate risk management.  But don’t let the topic of health and safety put you off. Prepare to be engaged and inspired as you lis...

Send us Fan Mail Donna O'Toole is the Founder of August Recognition, a business dedicated to helping other businesses to win awards as part of their marketing strategy. Donna and her team advise on the strategic timing of award entries, leveraging past successes, and aligning award participation with business goals.  Donna also talks about her own challenges as a business leader, including na...

Send us Fan Mail Eman Al-Hillawi is the CEO of Entec Si, a business change management cuonsultancy. Eman discusses the challenges her business faced during the pandemic, including the financial strain and the emotional impact of redundancies.  She reflects on the importance of relationships and the need to balance business growth with nurturing the team. The conversation also covers the shift to h...

Send us Fan Mail Chad Foster is a keynote speaker who became blind at the age of 21 due to an eye condition, retinitis pigmentosa. Chad had a dream as he was growing up to be in the medical field but had to change this due to his eyesight and ended up going to Harvard Business School and became the first executive to graduate from their leadership programme.  I feel grateful for having had the cha...

Send us Fan Mail Fabrice Desmarescaux   is a Partner at McKinsey and works with CEO’s and their teams to increase in their performance and effectiveness. He also creates the next generation of leaders working with team members who are not yet on the executive committee. He talks about the benefits of retreats for his clients and how slowing down and being in nature can have a positive impact. Fabr...

Send us Fan Mail Daniel Astarita is the Managing Director of Kesslers, a business that he bought when it went into administration. He’s also MD of a London-based mannequin business, having bought the assets from another business that had also gone into liquidation. He explains how he took a risk to run the business in a different way. Instead of chasing revenue and profit in isolation, he realised...

Send us Fan Mail Wendy Dean is the CEO of Strategi Solutions, a business consultancy offering services around people, creative and marketing. She talks about the anxiety that comes when thrust into the uncertainty of major change and how she looks for opportunities and generates new ideas to turn uncertainty into certainty. Wendy reminds us that excitement and fear are physiologically the same and...

Send us Fan Mail Graham Todd, Co-founder of Spaghetti Agency, a digital marketing company talks about his transformative journey from struggling with alcohol to adopting a healthier lifestyle. He explains the moment he realised how excessive his drinking habits were and how that realisation led him to quit alcohol. Todd explains the positive changes he experienced after focusing on his fitness, in...

Send us Fan Mail Show Notes Leading Through Uncertainty podcast celebrates its 100th episode and this time I’m talking about my journey with uncertainty and why we need different skills. I share stories of how I came to talk about uncertainty, how I have led through uncertainty, some of the challenges I’ve faced and how I’ve overcome them.  I also share stories of the horses, how working with them...

Send us Fan Mail Julie Chakraverty is the founder of Runway, a platform that facilitates employee feedback in organisations. Julie explains how Runway allows employees to voice concerns either anonymously or openly, ensuring a safe space for dialogue. She explains that the platform is predominantly used by companies undergoing change, with common themes around organisational and process change. Ju...

Send us Fan Mail Suzi Archer is the Staff Director at Huler.io, a fast-growing HRtech company. Suzi’s creative approach to HR policies and procedures has resulted in a more human interaction with employees at Huler. By ripping apart the employee handbook, she's created a culture where people can be themselves both inside and outside of work.  Suzi shows that by prioritizing employee well-bein...

Send us Fan Mail Anne Shaw is the Executive Director for Transport For West Midlands. She talks about the challenge of managing a variety of stakeholder groups, from users to transport providers, the government, as well as her own team. She explains that change can be positive or negative for people by how well we engage and include them in the process and decisions. Anne recognises the need to ba...

Send us Fan Mail Ann Hiatt is a Leadership Strategy Consultant working with scale-up companies to create rapid growth. Ann talks about personal and professional change and the skills needed to navigate the uncertainty of change. She advocates a need for an “insatiable curiosity” and draws on her experience of working with Jeff Bezos at Amazon to demonstrate how companies can grow through a recessi...

Send us Fan Mail Gillian Bailey is the Operations Director for Maintel, a technology organisation. We talk about the backdrop of the pandemic, as well as economic and political uncertainty and how all of these impact employees as well as business. Gillian explains how Maintel is handling hybrid working and the challenge of balancing the needs of a business with the needs of employees. We discuss t...

Send us Fan Mail Tony Langham is the Executive Chair and co-founder of Lansons , a reputation management and public relations firm based in London and New York. We discuss the importance of approaching reputation management as the way people perceive each other and companies. With an increased focus on ESG, Tony explains how companies need to change their behaviour to stay relevant. We also discus...

Send us Fan Mail Tara Rule is the Senior Director of Commercial Strategy Go to Market and Operations at Adobe , responsible for looking at how Adobe make smart commercial decisions. Tara manages to juggle her full-time role as a director in a fast-paced global business with launching a leadership programme, being a working mum as well as a professional coach. She talks about the importance of curi...

Send us Fan Mail Dr Mersha Aftab is the co-host director for MA Design Management courses at Birmingham City University. She specialises in design leadership within large organisations, exploring how designers design and lead strategically in business. We discuss how designers have a voice and a platform to give them the agency to lead even though they don't have the position in an organisati...

Send us Fan Mail Phill Elston is Operations Director of Brompton Bicycle and is responsible for leading the manufacturing organisation in the production of the famous Brompton bicycles. Phill joined the company because his values were aligned, and he felt able to express himself. He talks about the importance of being driven not being at the expense of having joy and fun and seeing a team as an or...

Send us Fan Mail Sarah Foster is the Managing Director of Comply Direct , an environmental consultancy and compliance business. She is also the author of Yabba Dabba Do It, a book on self-confidence. Sarah shares her three steps to self-confidence – Prepare, Do and Review. We also talk about the environment, of course, Sarah’s business is based on it but we also discuss relationships, emotional in...