Engaging People, Powering Companies - The Leadership Podcast

Nazia Sarkar Nazia is the founder of Kadou Learning and mastermind behind the MentorYou (MU) app. She enjoys developing people and teams. She believes in empowering people with the skills and tools to make them successful in their personal and professional lives. She is an experienced Learning & Development professional, with a background in education, hospitality and retail sales sectors.

What does bullying feel like? Has anyone ever belittled you, humiliated you, or made you feel uncomfortable or intimidated? Bullying still goes on and we need to go out of our way to ensure we stamp it out. Bullies need to be confronted but often their behaviours go unchecked. They either intentionally choose to behave as they do, or they are leaders struggling to cope and need help. 

Following Brexit and the U.S. elections, we see more nations divided and it's easy to question what the 'other' side must be thinking, when the only rational approach is our way. But how often do we go out of our way to understand that opposing view - when did you last say 'help me understand why you believe what you do'? Instead we surround ourselves by like-minded people, creating echo-chambers...

As the U.S. election results were announced, the world collectively erupted into joy and euphoria giving hope to so many. Hope is an important aspect to life yet where do we get it from? Are external examples the only source of hope or can we develop it? This is what Amrit explores in this week's podcast.

L. David Marquet, Author Student of leadership and organizational design, former nuclear submarine Commander, and named one of the Top 100 Leadership Speakers by Inc. Magazine. David is the Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller: Turn the Ship Around!, and The Turn the Ship Around Workbook. David’s recently released book, Leadership is Language, is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller.  David imagines a...

Times of extreme stress or change can impact upon our perspective, resulting in us often seeing threats that may or may not be present. We cannot always trust our senses  as the amygdala goes into overdrive causing us to emotionally react. Taking time to think allows us to challenge our beliefs and assumptions about what we thought might have happened versus what actually happened.  It can reduce...

We are all driven by personal values. They dictate how we think and how we behave, but when asked, it's often challenging to articulate our values. We know they exist, and how influential they are, but trying to help others understand them, or more importantly, taking time to better understand them for ourselves can be a struggle. Whilst we don't often think about analysing our music collections,...

Stress is a very personal emotion. Leaders, managers and employees are likely to experience stress at some point in their careers, but with the world going through huge change, the chances are high that many people will be experiencing stress now. What is stress and how do leaders and managers help their teams, whilst trying to help themselves? Professor Daryl O'Connor shares his insights about st...

We all have dreams that can compel us to react - to make them a reality. The emotions that accompany them can be so vivid, that it's hard to deny them. Across organisations and as individuals, how we can utilise the power of our beliefs, to re-frame the current situation, allowing us to create organisations that thrive? Amrit shares his thoughts on how beliefs can help provide clarity, and can be...

Dr Thomas Rhys Evans is an Associate Professor in Occupational Psychology. Tom is a ambassador for Open Science , with expertise in preregistration, examining research quality, and questionable/transparent research practices .  Tom is also passionate about the social and affective components of work , with particular focus on humour, emotional intelligence , and other such affect-related individua...

Almost every large organisation will have a Diversity and Inclusion agenda, to help improve diverse thoughts and creativity, but what good is all this work, when outside of work, in our social lives, we are exposed to division? Social media has allowed us to entrench our views by finding like-minded people, instead of seeking to expand our views through discussion and dialogue.  The Social Dilemma...

Whilst we are all familiar with the work of mindset and the impact it can have, being familiar isn't always enough to know how to apply it, and what we can do with it. What other research is available that might help organisations understand the steps they can take to be more mindful of mindset when communicating with employees? Ali Brown shares her insights on the latest findings in mindset, as w...

Paul Zak Paul is the founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and Professor of Economics, Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He has degrees in mathematics and economics from San Diego State University, a Ph. D. in economics from University of Pennsylvania, and post-doctoral training in neuroimaging from Harvard. Paul’s two decades of research have taken h...

Did you know that we all have a natural 24 hour rhythm that dictates when we should sleep, when we should eat and when we are at our most alert? This changes with age and therefore has natural implications to work, where we are fixed to rigid working times.  This concept of chronobiology has brought many insights organisations can learn from to improve engagement and productivity at work and Dr Ka...

We have a strange relationship with food. We assign labels such as 'good' foods and 'bad' foods, and can feel guilt-ridden but what are the simple steps we could take to improve our diet and nutrition, to help improve our performance? Colette is an expert in her field and she shares simple tips of steps we can all take to improve our nutrition.

When Amrit founded The Engagement Coach, he was determined to focus on Trust, Wisdom and Authenticity to help organisations create great cultures. Whether it was from his own experience in corporate life, or whilst distilling the results of survey results to boardrooms, he noticed how these three areas would always have a role in shaping the culture of that particular organisation. Trust, Wisdom a...

How important are ethics in the current climate? With a greater expectation of more authentic places of work, we don't often explore the link between ethics, values and leadership. One could argue that there is a greater need for ethical leadership, in a time of huge uncertainty. But when we think of ethics, we usually think of short cuts to make huge sums of money. How else doe ethics impact work...

We all want to be seen and acknowledged but often we go through life not having a voice and not being visible. Mark Edwards shares how through his passion of photography, he was able to allow people to see themselves in a different light, and appreciate a deeper connection with themselves and others. 

We were all amazed at the innovation shown at BrewDog when they suddenly switched from making craft beer to making hand sanitiser. The speed at which they innovated and adapted tells you that this must be a culture where mistakes are welcomed, experimentation is encouraged and the organisation is driven by passion. Amrit explores this and more with the HR Director of BrewDog.

We assume leaders running organisations are fully aware of their own personal values, and by being aware, would act when these values are being violated, in the way in which people are being treated around them. If this is the case, why are scandals such as the bullying that occurred with former British Olympic gymnasts, and the way people were treated in clothing manufacturing in Leicester allowe...

David has spent many years leading organisations from his time in operational management to his roles as COO at Barclays and AXA then COO & UK CEO at Friends Life. In his current role, David is the CEO for Bupa Global and UK, and the Chairman at HomeServe UK. David shares his views on authentic leadership and how it's important for leaders of organisations to stand up for what they believe. David...

We all have critical moments in our past, which helped shaped our belief in ourselves. Whilst we might look back in nostalgia, we rarely use these past events as ways of supercharging how we feel now. With so many leaders going out of their way to connect with colleagues and employees, we probably have huge levels of empathic leadership. Whilst this sounds like a great thing, there is a risk that...

We continue our discussion with our guest from last week, Scott Jarvis. Scott is Head of Talent Development at ISG, a global construction services company based in London.  He has worked in HR and Talent for over 20 years in a career that has seen him working in several different industries and for household names such as Barclays, AstraZeneca, Sky and Harrods.  With a an academic background in or...

Our guest this week talking about talent development is Scott Jarvis. Scott is Head of Talent Development at ISG, a global construction services company based in London.  He has worked in HR and Talent for over 20 years in a career that has seen him working in several different industries and for household names such as Barclays, AstraZeneca, Sky and Harrods.  With a an academic background in orga...

Join Amrit as he explores the impact furloughing employees may have had on their engagement levels. Whilst the option to furlough will have been a difficult decision, those employees furlough were not chosen because they were disengaged or under-performing, but due to workloads. What happened to those furloughed who were highly committed and dedicated to the cause? How will they come back feeling?...