Leading 4 Life "Stories"

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest this week is Chief Constable Jo Shiner, the ninth Chief Constable of Sussex Police and the first female officer to hold the role.  Jo is a career police officer having served for over 30 years initially in Norfolk and Kent before moving to Sussex as the Deputy Chief Constable in late 2018.  She was subsequently selected to...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message Having returned to the RAF after my exchange tour with the German Air Force, this personal stories episode reflects on some of the aspects of my first command tour as a Flight Commander on Number 54 (Fighter) Squadron at RAF Coltishall.   Returning to the Jaguar in this more senior role was an absolute delight and I relished the ch...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message In this thematic episode I tackle a set of topics that crop up a lot when I do leadership development training with groups and individuals.   Using some examples of what I have learnt along my own journey, I provide a range of thoughts, tips and techniques that should help leaders to develop their team members better and, in the pr...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message This week is a little different to normal as I combine a thematic issue with a guest interview and discuss the whole topic of Artificial Intelligence with Steve Brown. Steve is a leading expert on generative AI, autonomous AI assistants, digital transformation, the future of work, and how advances in AI will shape the future of edu...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message This week's guest is Jonathan Bowman-Perks, a fellow podcast host and coach with a long and extremely successful track record in both.  Jonathan is a former Army officer who had a long and distinguished career before moving to the private sector.  Since he made that jump, his career has gone from strength to strength, with tim...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message With this first episode of Season 2 of the podcast, I return to the personal stories and give an account of my time on an exchange posting flying the RF4E Phantom with the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.   It was a fascinating time not least because of the political changes that occurred during my 2 1/4 years with the Germans.  In...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message Given that I strongly suspect you will have better things to do than listen to me on New Year's Eve when this podcast becomes available, I have made it a reasonably short episode and  focused on providing a review of 2023 and this first season of Leading 4 Life "Stories". The episode provides a short summary of the e...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message As this episode goes live on Christmas Eve 2023, I thought I would keep it very short and to the point. I have had a good deal of time to personally reflect over the past couple of weeks and that thinking time has allowed me to focus on some things that are hugely important at this time of year.  Speaking for myself, I know that I...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message This week's guest is General Sir Richard Barrons, the former Commander of Joint Forces Command (one of the 6 UK Chiefs of Staff) and now the Co-Chairman of Universal Defence & Security Solutions, alongside a portfolio of other private sector roles. Richard commanded at every level in the British Army and saw a huge amount...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message This might just be the most important episode of this podcast I have released to date because it tackles the vitally important topic of "work / life balance".  In my experience this is something that is very regularly talked about, especially by very busy people but also much too often either ignored or given too little p...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message At the conclusion of a short first operational flying tour at RAF Brüggen in Germany, this episode discusses my move to RAF Laarbruch, another Germany base, and my transition to the reconnaissance role.   As a now "experienced" Jaguar pilot, this was a pivotal point in my career since reconnaissance was a role that would...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest this week is Komeil Alibai, founder and CEO of MYKA Holdings, a private equity and venture capital business focusing on clients from a variety of industries. Komeil has a fascinating personal and business background and shares some terrific insights during the interview.  He and I first met during our coaching qualificatio...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest this week is Howard Wheeldon, who is best known as a political / defence commentator and analyst in recent years, but who had a fascinating and long career prior to moving into that realm.  It was a really interesting and wide ranging discussion, which highlights Howards extremely impressive breadth and depth of business e...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest this week is Baroness Dido Harding, who is probably best known for her role as the Executive Chair of NHS Test & Trace during the Covid-19 pandemic, and for her role as the CEO of Talk Talk when they went through a significant cyber attack. However, there is much more to Dido than those two roles.  She has a fascinatin...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message I am conscious that in last week's episode I covered a lot of ground and didn't always provide a lot of detail.  As such, in this episode I blend some personal flying stories with the theme of "Attention to Detail". I talk through the challenge of mastering the detail required to safely and effectively operate a...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message With this episode I continue the personal story of my flying career and discuss the completion of my training on the Jaguar Operational Conversion Unit and the move to the RAF front-line on 17(F) and then 14 Squadron at RAF Brüggen in Germany. As you will hear, this was a really pivotal time in my flying career and I absolutely lov...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest this week is Lord Mark Sedwill, former Cabinet Secretary, Head of the UK Civil Service and National Security Advisor. Mark had an amazing public sector career in the UK Diplomatic and Civil Service and is now on his next chapter with a portfolio of big private sector roles.  His huge experience made him a great subject for...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest for this episode is Rear Admiral James Morse RN(Retd), the President and CEO of the Rabdan Academy in the United Arab Emirates. James and I know each other well from our military days having been at the Royal College of Defence Studies together back in 2007.  He subsequently commanded the UK's Joint Service Command an...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest for this episode is Jenna Littler, former Senior Vice President at Burberry and now an independent consultant and advisor to the fashion, beauty and luxury goods industries. Jenna has had already had an amazingly diverse and highly successful career and, by the  time she left Burberry, she was one of the most senior women...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest for this episode is Philipp Nattermann, a Senior Partner and CFO at McKinsey & Company. Having originally been born in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Philipp started his working life as an academic in the USA, Philipp joined McKinsey in 1999 and has been there ever since.  He speaks very candidly on a...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message With this episode I return to thematic issues and focus on personal resilience and self care. I chose to cover this theme now partly because of the recent World Suicide Prevention Day, but also because I recently delivered a workshop on this topic to a client and it landed really well, so I thought it would also be useful to those...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of aircraft accidents and fatalities. In this episode I continue my personal story as I finish officer training and move into the Royal Air Force's flying training system.   I'm extremely conscious that I could easily have filled an episode or more with each segment of the...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message My guest for this episode is Phil Crossman, a friend of mine for nearly 20 years and the former Managing Director of Honda UK.  Phil spent his entire career in the motor trade, and has huge experience with a number of manufacturers, culminating with some 17 years at Honda.  He has a vast amount of leadership experience and the inte...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message This episode I am delighted to be able to introduce and interview Susie Ballentyne, my co-founder and partner within Leading 4 Life. Susie and I have known each other since 2011, when we worked together in the UK Ministry of Defence.  She is a social psychologist / behavioural scientist, and has a long background in working with th...

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message This episode I was very privileged to be able to host General David Petraeus US Army (Retired) as my very first guest on the podcast.   It is the first of what will be many interviews in the future and, in every case, I will seek to get the best leadership thoughts, tips and advice from those that are generous enough to give me the...