Leadership Detectives

In this episode, we’re joined by Jay Trestain, Global Offerings & Big Deal Leader at IBM iX. She’s been with IBM for 15 years, however, this episode takes a look at how leaders can lead when they themselves are going through personal adversity. Jay’s story is both humbling and an incredible story of success in the face of huge adversity as we get into how she’s battled the loss of her mother a...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 5 of The Leadership Detectives. In this episode, we highlight the importance of inspirational communication. We look back on various speeches that have inspired us over the years, and analyse why they seem to connect on such a deep level. We also discuss why communication is crucial for a leader to inspire those around them - whether it is on stage, in the realms of bu...

Welcome to Episode 4 of The Leadership Detectives. In this episode, we share a wonderful interview with an incredible guest, Clyde Fernandez. Clyde is the Regional Vice President at Salesforce and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Clyde talks openly about his own brand of leadership - one based on humanity and creating a safe space for true creativity to flourish. He guides us through some of his...

Welcome to Episode 3 of The Leadership Detectives. In this episode, we discuss the importance of creating a compelling vision. It frequently acts as an effective platform for moving forward in multiple areas of life. There needs to be a direction for everyone to be able to easily identify with, and the key question is this: would you set off for a journey without knowing what direction you're...

Inviting conflict. Almost seems like the opposite of what makes sense when you think of leadership, but today we’re joined by Jana Bruechmann who brings a fresh new take on conflict in the workplace. Jana takes us through how her work as a Systemic Leadership Coach on ‘Future work’ or the new way of working takes her away from traditional leadership methods. We talk about how the word conflict its...

Welcome to Season 2 of The Leadership Detectives. We’re launching this season by answering the key question; What is a leader? We discuss what a leader really is. From the behaviours that leaders exhibit, the differences between competencies and attributes that make a leader and share our opinions on an age-old question ‘are leaders born or created?’ Touching on some points that you won’t want to...

Our first live webinar! This episode on the topic of how not to be a bad leader. We've all either been victim or witness to bad leadership. Either way, it has negative impacts on individuals or the team as a whole and ultimately limits happiness, contribution and well-being. Neil and I discuss examples of those we have seen and highlight the behaviours and traits you should really avoid as a...

Episode 37 - Mentoring and Coaching Two extremely valuable processes / techniques for your employees and for you! In the spirit of Leadership Detectives, we talk about it here for current leaders to add value for their own employees but also for you as a key asset in your company to potentially mentor and coach any other employees who may benefit. Please do also consider whether you might benefit...

Episode 36 - Managing Upwards We all have bosses and/or key stakeholders. Do they only manage us or should we also be managing them? If you can make it work well, there are benefits for them, you, your business and the company as a whole. Listen in as Neil and I discuss some examples, with tips and techniques on how to get the best from this vital aspect.

Episode 35 - Meetings Bloody Meetings! The majority of people tell us they spend way too much time in meetings and/or attend too many meetings. Very few have told us the opposite. So there is definitely room for leaders to help change this and only call meetings when really needed, for the amount of time really needed with the attendees really needed. Neil and I hope the tips we cover in this epis...

Episode 33 - An Interview with Adrian Thornton, RYA Yatchmaster Instructor & Examiner In this episode we take a look at leadership within a leisure pursuit and industry away from our more usual corporate and commercial worlds. A slightly different angle from Adrian, on the leadership skills required to be the skipper of a yacht, on and off the water. Some good examples that share his insight a...

Episode 34 - Great Leaders Avoid A Blame Culture Have you ever experienced working in a blame culture? I would be really surprised if you could honestly say "no, never".  Sadly, it can be the natural human response when things go wrong. Great leaders spot this behaviour and work hard to prevent this infectious 'disease' from taking hold.  Neil and I discuss how to spot it and h...

Episode 32 - An Interview with Ourania Odermatt Neil and I were really privileged to have a discussion with Ourania Odermatt, MD of Avaya Switzerland & Austria who we both individually had the pleasure of working with at IBM Technology Support Services. A fantastic story of how she built her career from Executive Assistant in European Headquarters to a senior Executive position. What are the s...

Episode 31 - An Interview with James Hunnybourne A really fun, open and insightful interview with an old (time not age!) friend of Neil's (@neil) and mine. Genuine, honest and warm, yet extremely successful. Who says those dimensions cannot co-exist!? Thanks @James!

Episode 30 - Neil and Albert Interview Each Other A chance for you to hear a bit about our own personal experiences, preferences and memories over a joint 50 years++ of leadership.

We were privileged to have some fantastic guests join us on the Leadership Detectives in 2020. This episode is a brief review from some of those interviews and the golden nuggets they shared with us during the interview discussions. Neil and I would like to wish you all the very best for the New Year. With the role(s) you will be performing and with the lives you will be leading. Good luck, be suc...

Enjoy this brief 20 mins episode entitled "12 Tips of Christmas" to help you get 2021 underway and get the new year rolling. Have a fantastic Christmas with hopefully a break from your work. Stay safe, healthy and be happy!

As we approach the end of the year, it's a great opportunity for you to show your human side and offer a word and/or gesture of thanks to your employees.  This episode contains just a few tips and ideas from the Leadership Detectives on how perhaps you could do that, in addition to the good things you may already be doing. Regardless of your religious beliefs, please accept our wishes for a g...

Triggered by the Priti Patel situation, an ex-colleague of ours; Carol Chidley, reached out to us on social media and suggested that bullying may be a good topic for a Leadership Detectives discussion.  So Neil invited Carol to come and join us for the episode to discuss bullying in the workplace, how it manifests itself, where is the line between tough leadership and bullying, and most importantl...

A great interview with Carmina Lees; Managing Director, Financial Services, Accenture. She talks career and leadership - all she has achieved to date, what's made her successful, her views on leadership, women in Technology, women in Leadership and how to balance that with being a Mum of two young children.

Part two in our two-part of Managing Careers. In this episode we discuss the what, how and when of actions and techniques to help manage the careers of your employees. Sure, they own their careers - but we as Leaders have a responsibility to support and coach them to maximise the returns for them, us and the company overall.

The first in a two-part piece on Managing Careers. This episode is specifically about Leaders managing their own careers. Some tips on what to do, how to do, when to do and clarity about who owns your career.  Enjoy and good luck managing your career and climbing that ladder!

Have you ever found yourself in a rut or a dip in motivation? It's especially difficult when you're the leader because your attitude, your drive, often gets reflected back to the team, good or bad. Neil and I found ourselves in a similar situation and having worked our way back out of it, thought it might be useful to share strategies and techniques that could help you and your employees...

Having entered Lockdown 2.0 we thought we would share the learnings from our previous guests, companies we are currently working with and our own experiences of working from home and more importantly Leading Remotely. Available on most podcast sites. Listen 'live' or download to listen later; maybe on your daily exercise outings. Please Subscribe to get notified of future episodes and ac...

Who doesn't have a view on Donald Trump and/or Boris Johnson? Who is the better leader ? In episode 20 of the Leadership Detectives we thought we would chose 5 key areas of leadership out of 15+ we have discussed over our first 20 weeks, and then award each one of them a rating. Do you agree with our assessments? Would you rate each/both of them differently? Please join us and tell us and oth...