Big Careers, Small Children

At Big Careers, Small Children we are driving change for ambitious working parents. This #MondayMotivation bonus snippet from a previous episode shares a practical action you can implement this week to help you combine a big career with small children successfully. Advice today from Author and Researcher Alex Pang who shares practical suggestions on how you could begin implementing a 4 day working...

Applications to the Leaders Plus Fellowship close on 29 October. Download Application Pack. “I can honestly say I’ve been more successful on 4 days a week than 5 days a week.” It's a pleasure to welcome back Dominic Holmes to the podcast. Dominic is a Partner at the law firm Mischon De Reya and has successfully resized his client facing role from 5 days a week to 4 days. He shares: How he successf...

At Big Careers, Small Children we are driving change for ambitious working parents. This #MondayMotivation bonus snippet from a previous episode shares a practical action you can implement this week to help you combine a big career with small children successfully. Advice today from Dr Jennifer Petriglieri (Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at  INSEAD ) who shares how to work wi...

“You will have transferable skills - it’s just a question of identifying what they are.” Today we welcome back Independent Non-Executive Director Helen Gillett to the podcast. Helen shares: What a Non-Executive Director role involves How to get a Non-Executive Director position What being on a board actually means How you can successfully work your network How you can combine a Non-Executive...

At Big Careers, Small Children we are driving change for ambitious working parents. This #MondayMotivation bonus snippet from a previous episode shares a practical action you can implement this week to help you combine a big career with small children successfully. Advice today from Vanessa Bohns (Professor of Organisational Behavior, Cornell University) who shares how you can get to 'yes' in...

“With job sharing the company gets two people - two ideas, two heads, two brains.” Ours guests today Lydia Leipert and Rebecca Zöller job share a senior role at a Bavarian broadcaster and have even been nicknamed “Lydecca” by their colleagues. As they put it themselves - " between us we have 4 children, are 2 women and share 1 job". Lydia and Rebecca share the story of how they found each oth...

At Big Careers, Small Children we are driving change for ambitious working parents. This #MondayMotivation bonus snippet from a previous episode shares a practical action you can implement this week to help you progress your career in a way that works for your family. Advice from Anita Kerwin-Nye (Executive Director - YHA England & Wales) who shares the top three things she tells her own Mente...

“Some of those lightbulb moments have actually come from engaging with people that come from totally different backgrounds, or totally different industries or have totally different perspectives.” Today we welcome global finance leader Drake Peabody to Big Careers, Small Children. Drake is an alumnus of the Leaders Plus Fellowship and Director of Group FP&A at IHS Towers, one of the...

Ever find yourself drowning in a sea of endless responsibilities? Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and in need of some practical solutions? Perhaps you need to address the microstress in your life. Microstresses are the small moments of stress that have insidiously infiltrated both our work and personal lives with invisible but devastating effects. These seemingly harmless everyday occurrences...

Over the summer host Verena Hefti MBE is taking a short break from podcast recording and instead, we'll be sharing some of her personal favourite episodes. This week we are revisiting the 2020 episode recorded with Dr Jennifer Petriglieri, an expert on how dual career couples can thrive in relationships both at home and at work. Jennifer shares the concrete steps you can take today to strengthen t...

Over the summer host Verena Hefti MBE is taking a short break from podcast recording and instead, we'll be sharing some of her personal favourite episodes. This week we revisit the episode with author and business leader  Fiona McDonnell . Fiona's debut book Two Mirrors and a Cheetah offers inspiration and practical advice on finding career fulfilment. Including how you can challenge assumpti...

Over the summer host Verena Hefti MBE is taking a short break from podcast recording and instead, we'll be sharing some of her personal favourite episodes. This week we revisit the 2019 episode with former National Childbirth Trust (NCT) CEO, Nick Wilkie. Nick talks candidly about stepping away from his Chief Executive position at the NCT to be a full-time parent, allowing his partner to return a...

Over the summer host, Verena Hefti MBE is taking a short break from podcast recording and instead, we'll be sharing some of her personal favourite episodes. This week we invite you to revisit the episode with Leaders Plus Fellow Lucy Walker who talks through how she became a Non-Executive Director and how you can become one too. Connect with Lucy on  LinkedIn here . Useful Resources Mentioned...

Over the summer host, Verena Hefti MBE is taking a short break from interviewing to spend time with her family. We'll be revisiting some of the most popular episodes of the Big Careers, Small Children podcast for you to enjoy. This week we invite you to re-visit the 2020 episode with Anna Whitehouse (also known as Mother Pukka) who talks about setting up her flex appeal campaign and why she has pi...

“One of the most important things is to have people who will mention you in a room when you’re not there.” Our guest today is Ashley Quinto Powell, a serial entrepreneur and the author of Executive Motherhood: The Art of Having It All Without Doing It All . Ashley founded the Virtual Assistant Agency, myVA Rocks and has spoken about motherhood for TEDx and many others. So what are the practical st...

“No person grows like the parent who is just about to start primary school.” Will your child start a new school this year? As exciting as the school transition is for you and your child the school journey can bring an extra set of challenges for working parents. This week Leaders Plus Fellows Rajani Rao and Temi Olusola share their personal experience of having a child begin their school journey a...

"I fundamentally believe we cannot have equality at work until we have equality at home." This week we welcome change maker Polly Mackenzie to the podcast. Driving change has been central to Polly's career which has spanned several high-profile roles. Polly was previously Director of Policy to then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. After leaving Government, Polly established the operations of the&...

“We all experience different types of meaning in our lives and we all have different sources of meaning in our lives.” If you feel you lack purpose, should you try to find the meaning of life? How can you increase the meaning you find in both life and work? Why are so many jobs unfulfilling and what practically can you do about it? Philosopher Christian Uhle joins Verena Hefti MBE for a frank disc...

“Compassionate leadership starts with the self.” As a leader how can you balance compassion for your colleagues with effectiveness in getting the job done? This week Verena is joined by the Assistant HR Director for NHS Ayrshire and Arryn, Ann Crumley, who has over 30 years of experience working in the NHS. They discuss: Why compassionate leadership starts with putting yourself first What has chan...

Is it possible to move a full time job down to 3 or 4 days without exhausting yourself in the process? In this episode, Leaders Plus Senior Leader Mentor Helen Gillett shares her experience of successfully resizing jobs and finding purposeful work.   Following an award-winning career as a leader in the utilities and wellbeing sector, Helen has now entered a phase of portfolio non-executive and adv...

Can silence be a powerful tool in the workplace? Join us as we explore this intriguing concept with this week's guest, John Higgins, an academic researcher and expert on speaking truth to power and workplace activism. In this episode, John shares with Verena how embracing silence can help us build connections, understand others' stories, and foster a more inclusive environment. They also...

What stops employers from offering true flexibility at work and how can we drive change in this area? Our guests today are Helen Stenhouse and Alison Hilton from the HR company People Puzzles .  Together with host Verena Hefti MBE they discuss: How organisations could offer the same flexibility as freelance life  Why trust is at the centre of flexible working Why organisations need to focus on out...

“You should always be thinking that you need to be fairly compensated for the value you are bringing.” This week we welcome Tobi Asare, Founder of the online platform for working mothers My Bump Pay . As the first woman in her office location to go through the maternity leave process, Tobi found herself on a steep learning curve and became interested in how mums go on to build successful careers a...

“If the [careers after babies] report did one thing it proved that 85% of us can’t make full time working in the office work alongside having young children.” This week our guest is Jessica Heagren, ex Financial Services Director, mother of four and the CEO and Founder of That Works For Me , a platform connecting skilled professionals with flexible work. Jessica is also the author of the groundbre...

There’s no doubt that the NHS is a unique and highly pressurised work environment. To celebrate the launch of applications opening for our award-winning NHS Fellowship Programme we have handpicked some of the most thought provoking discussions from previous podcast episodes. Each clip features an inspiring NHS Leader who has combined or is currently combining a big career with raising small childr...