Performance Leaders Podcast

David Kearney is co-founder and managing partner of Wotton Kearney, Australia's leading insurance law firm. Starting with two lawyers in 2002, WK has grown to 94 partners and 850 staff across 11 offices through strategic recruitment, clear values, and ambitious vision. His leadership emphasizes culture-first growth and collaborative excellence. In this podcast, David discusses Wotton Kearney's tra...

In this episode Paul Eagland , former Managing Partner at BDO in the UK shares his leadership journey, from his early career in accounting to leading a major professional services firm. The conversation covers leadership, decision-making, high-performance cultures, and the role of purpose in firms.

Our guest on the Performance Leaders podcast is Dr Robert Millard. Rob is a director of the Cambridge Strategy Group, an international advisory firm that helps professional firms build competitive advantage through strategy, mergers and sustainability.   With nearly three decades of experience in strategy and management for law and professional firms, Rob's clients range from elite global firms to...

Our guest on the Performance Leader podcast is Carole O'Neil, ManagingPartner at Cundall, a global multi-disciplinary engineering practice delivering sustainable design projects in the built environment from 26 offices in locations across the UK and Ireland, EMENA and Asia Pacific.   Carole embarked on a career in Human Resources quite by chance, having completed a law degree at Oxford University...

Our guest on the Performance Leader's podcast is Lewis Iwu, co-founder and CEO of Purpose Union, a social purpose strategy firm united by the belief that the world is better off when companies and organisations think, act and communicate with a defined social purpose. Lewis advises organisations on how to devise and execute winning arguments and campaigns on social and environmental issues. Over t...

Our guest on the Performance Leader podcast is Neville Eisenberg. Neville grew up in South Africa, where he qualified as a lawyer. After gaining his Masters in Law from the LSE, je joined the London Corporate Finance Department at Berwin Leighton in 1989. He was made partner in 1995, joined the board in 1996 and was elected managing partner in 1999. Neville oversaw Berwin Leighton's successful mer...

Our guest on the Performance Leader's podcast is Dr. Heidi K. Gardner, author of the best selling book Smart Collaboration, and the newly released Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work. Dr. Gardner is a distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School and previously a professor at Harvard Business School. Named by Thinkers50 as Next Generation Business Gur...

My guest on S3 Ep 3 of the Performance Leaders podcast is David Patient from Travers Smith. David trained at Travers Smith and became a partner in 1999, specialising in UK and international M&A. He established the firm's Paris office in the same year.  In this episode David reflects on his time as Managing Partner, building a talented leadership team, the firm's strategic goals and change agenda,...

My guest on S3 Ep 2 of the Performance Leaders podcast is Leadership Expert, William Johnson. In this conversation, William draws on 30 years' experience developing leaders in the world's leading consulting and professional services firms. He distills the three key leadership tasks for every equity partner: exemplifying the brand embodying the culture ensuring the legacy. The discussion takes plac...

Welcome to series 3 of the Performance Leader podcast series. In this episode, Ray D'Cruz and guest Patrick St John discuss Patrick's recent white paper on Measuring and Rewarding Partner Collaboration in professional services firms. Patrick, a former law firm leader, lays out a simple model for recognising and rewarding the best collaborators. He also reflects on this experience as a Remuneration...

Host, Ray D'Cruz, is joined by Partner Remuneration expert, Michael Roch, to discuss the role and evolution of the partner remuneration committee (Rem Com) in professional services firms. This podcast is a valuable resource for senior leaders of the firm and Rem Com members, especially new members wanting to understand more about their roles and responsibilities. The podcast covers: When a Rem Com...

Our guest is former Herbert Smith Freehills Global CEO, Mark Rigotti. Mark shares his insights on the nuances of managing dispersed and hybrid teams, as well as his reflections on leading one of the world's leading professional firms. This special episode of the Performance Leaders podcast was recorded live at the 2021 Managing Partners Conference in Sydney, Australia.

My guest for our special International Women's Day episode of the Performance Leader's Podcast is Michelle Dixon. Michelle is the former CEO of the Australian law firm, Maddocks. In this episode we discuss: the opportunities and challenges of leading a law firm if her leadership style was influenced by her gender the scrutiny that comes from being a woman in leadership how she counsels other firms...

My guest on S2 Ep 4 of the Performance Leaders podcast is Firm Diversity Partner, Dawn Rosemond. In a reflective and candid conversation, Dawn shares her experience as the first African-American female to make equity partner at Barnes & Thornburg, and how it informs the strategic initiatives and programs she champions as Firm Diversity Partner. I hope you enjoy listening to our podcast with Dawn a...

In this extended podcast, Gerry Riskin reflects on 40 years leading and advising leaders of professional firms. He discusses how to lead with courage, manage partner performance, support dispersed teams and how to use after action reviews. He also reflects on his own journey, from his desire at an early age to be a lawyer, his passion for business management and the profound influence of David Mai...

Our first guest for season two of the Performance Leaders' Podcast is Strategic Talent Management & Culture Expert, Adam Hall, from Willis Towers Watson. ‍In this episode, Ray D'Cruz and Adam discuss Willis Towers Watson's research on the factors that make a high performance employee experience (EX) including: ‍The theory and ROI of Employee Experience How to create a positive Employee Experience...

In this podcast, Ray D'Cruz and Michael Roch discuss 5 key insights uncovered by the  2020 Equity Partner Contribution & Compensation Survey .   The survey examines current practices in relation to partner contribution and compensation management in professional firms. Over 160 respondents were comprised mainly from those who manage the contribution and compensation process in firms: managing part...

In episode 6 host, Ray D'Cruz, interviews Performance Leader's Partnerships Advisor, Michael Roch, about the challenges and strategies to manage partner compensation in professional services firms. Listen to this podcast to learn about: - Why partner compensation is such a challenging issue - The must have KPIs in a partner compensation model - The Intellectual Capital Model - The Performance to R...

Performance Leader was delighted to collaborate with Joel Barolsky of Barolsky Advisors to present at the 2019 Managing Partner forum in Australia. Our topic was the Profoundly Human Law Firm of 2030 and our presentation sparked a lively discussion.  Given the interest in the topic, we wanted to  share our thoughts with our clients and contacts in professional services. So, following the conferenc...

Host, Ray D'Cruz , interviews  Murray Paterson from the Potential Project about mindfulness, and how it can improve performance, from productivity to engagement to well-being.   Murray led the introduction of a mindfulness program for partners of a large law firm, with stunning engagement. Listen to this podcast to learn more about what results mindfulness can generate for your firm.

Our guest in episode 3 is futurist speaker, strategy and innovation consultant and expert in disruption, Eleanor Winton. Eleanor is founder of  Foresightfully , a consulting firm whose mission is to help leaders to integrate 'foresightful' thinking into their ambitions and plans for their business. That means considering the fast moving external and global environment and the impact of disruption...

In episode 2, host Ray D'Cruz is joined by former lawyer turned ultramarathon runner for social purpose, Samantha Gash. Samantha has run some of the most gruelling ultramarathons on earth including the 2000 kilometre Freedom Trail across Africa and Run India, a 3253 kilometre race completed in 76 days to raise money for children's education in India. Samantha shines a light on the true meaning of...

Welcome to the Performance Leader podcast. In this series, we talk to leading thinkers in the professional services sector about how to create high performance firms, or Performance Leaders, as we call them. In Episode 1, I'm joined by Founder of the VeraSage Institute , Ron Baker. For 20 years, Ron has been the foremost advocate for value-based pricing in the professions. Ron is also the co-host...