The Leadership Enigma

Louis Gump is a digital veteran. He was at the heart of the digital revolution in 2001 as part of the team at The Weather Channel and then moved to helping CNN develop their first ever mobile app based approach to expanding their audience across the world.  Louis is now also the author of 'The Inside Innovator' which is an Amazon Bestseller.  I ask Louis about the current issue of 'fake news' and...

Margot Faraci is a leader, author, writer and podcaster. She happened to be working in the UK from Australia so we asked her to come into the studio....which she did. Margot is a former lawyer and banker who at the age of 14 reflected that her style, in her own words, of 'mean girl' was not appropriate as it was based on deep insecurity. Margot was a blend of her parents and her first job as a lea...

Allyson Stewart-Allen is a CEO, advisor, broadcaster and author. I see Allyson each week on TV as she is a regular on Sky News and has been on several seasons of 'The Apprentice , You've Been Fired.' It was time to invite Alyson into the studio for a visual tour of brands. If you don't proactively work on your personal brand, someone else will do it for you and you may not like the results. Brands...

Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the author of 10 books and over 150 scientific papers. He is the Chief Innovation Officer for Manpower Group and and international authority in people analysts, talent management, leadership development and the Human AI Interface.  This is the first episode of the New Year and we tackle questions such as 'Why are so many incompetent men made leaders?' and 'Why we shou...

Errol Gardner is the Global Vice Chair (Consulting) for Ernst & Young. He is a member of the Executive Team and leads the consulting practice  globally of over 125,000 people.  EY has over 400,000 employees in 154 countries and in 2022 they received over 2 million job applications. Errol's job incudes defining the strategy for consulting and making sure they are clear on their market proposition f...

L Vaughan Spencer is a leadership and motivational guru with a unique mantra of 'Don't be Needy, Be Succeedy." L-Vo to his friends has the unenviable background of having attended the University of the Isle of White studying table tennis with intermediate French. He is wise, vocal and motivates people by shouting at them! We was delighted to help me understand that I am not a failure.......just a...

Tim Creswick is the CEO of Vorboss. After his studio episode on The Leadership Enigma Podcast, he decided to invite me to his 'Better Connection' event held at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool Street, London.  In front of a live audience Tim became the interviewer as we chatted about the podcast, the learning and insight from almost 180 episodes and also about the origins of the show born from th...

Dustin Seale and Ed Manfre are both partners at Heidrick & Struggles and the authors of 'Lead Through Anything.' Dustin has focused his career on helping leaders get better results through culture and leadership regardless of the challenges they may be facing. Ed shares the same passion and explains how his career was 'accidental' after starting professional life in a family owned boutique and how...

Jenifer Rosenberg OBE has enjoyed a life of incredible opportunity and hard fought success. She was the founder of the UK's largest privately owned clothing manufacturer after a career at Marks & Spencer during the roaring 60's. She voted Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year and today is the Chair of the Board of The Heart Cells Foundation.  This episode focuses on three key stages of Jenifer's life....

Dr Mark Goulston was a professor of psychiatry at UCLA for over 25 years. He is the author of multiple books including 'Just Listen' which has been translated into 28 languages and has become the world's leading book on listening. He is currently one of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 coaches and recently discovered that he is suffering from a terminal illness. This episode is deeply personal, powerful a...

Iain Sinnott is Head of International Carrier Sales for Enreach . Iain was an audience member during our recent live event with Tim Creswick (CEO of Vorboss) at The Everyman Theatre in central London. He was the winner of the raffle to randomly pick a guest and uncover that each and every one of us has a leadership propose and story to share with the world.  Iain was born and grew up in a small vi...

Adam Kingl is a global educator, keynote speaker and author of 'Sparking Success -  Why every leader needs to develop a creative mindset.' Adam highlights that as technology evolves exponentially, management and leadership has been fairly stagnant for decades.  People require their leaders to be a force for good in the world and all leaders are work in progress.  About 5 years ago Adam saw 2 indep...

Atif Sheikh and Darren Ashby are co-founders of Business Four Zero (a Heidrick & Struggles company) and authors of ' Every Team Actually Doing Business Better ' We explore the sweet spot between Culture, Purpose and Strategy and how these are more than just buzz words but essential components for any business to align their people around something important  as a force for good in a chaotic world....

Selva Ramasamy KC (King's Counsel) is a senior barrister, joint head of QEB Hollis Whiteman Chambers and an elected Master of the Bench for Inner Temple.    As a King's Counsel, Selva is one of the most senior barristers responsible for conducting some of the most serious and complex cases in the country.  Selva was actually the first non white member of his Chambers in its history and now they ar...

Rupert Jones CBE (Commander of the Order of British Empire) is UK Defence's former Standing Joint Force Commander having served and led in many high stakes environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Bosnia and Northern Ireland. He was the youngest Major General at the time and was decorated twice for overseas operations. Among other roles, he now works as an advisor to start-ups. Rupert was al...

Rachele Focardi is a leading expert on the multi generational workforce, author and  LinkedIn Top Voice. One of the main questions in this episode is whether 'purpose' remains the great divide or the great connector post pandemic? A quick guide to the Generations: The Silent Generation: Born before 1946 Baby Boomers 1946 - 1964 Gen X: 1965 - 1980 Millennials: 1981 - 1995 Gen Z: 1996 - 2010 A leade...

Chris Caldwell is the CEO of United Renewables, having previously been an investment banker and corporate lawyer. Chris vividly remembers an incident which forced him to reconsider a life that required huge family sacrifices and so he left finance, stepped off the hamster wheel and decided to create a new company as an entrepreneur seeking finance for his idea to make a difference in the world in...

Stuart Cash is the CEO and co-founder of Y TREE. This episode explores the meaning, value, purpose and myths surrounding money. Stuart grew up in London and studied law at Cambridge University spending a short period as a lawyer to then moved into investment banking as this fuelled his insatiable curiosity to know why businesses did things in certain ways.   During his early years with financial s...

Diana Markaki is the founder of The Boardroom , the first private members club for women executives who aspire to become board members. Diana is originally from Greece (Athens) and began her professional life as a corporate lawyer working in New York and London. After a number of years she decided to transition into business and secured her first board appointment at the age of 34. Diana actually...

Mohammed Qahtani is a World Champion in public speaking having won the Toastmaster's event competing against 30,000 people from 100 countries.   Mohammed was born and raised in Saudi Arabia and didn't speak until he was 5 years old. He used to stutter when talking and reading and he remembers a teacher smacking him across the face and asking him if he was stupid due to his inability to read out lo...

Nick Jonsson is the founder of the Executive Global Network (EGN) in South East Asia and author of 'Executive Loneliness.' Three CEO's during conversations for this podcast have used the phrase 'It's time to take the mask off', the issue of extreme vulnerability is very real. Nick began his career in advertising and has always had challenging and demanding jobs. His own personal struggles led him...

Tim Creswick is the founder and CEO of Vorboss , a telecommunications company which he set up 17 years ago and now employs over 400 people. He is also the newly appointed Chair of the Board of Directors at the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals. This is a courageous, vulnerable and inspiring episode of success,  challenge , divorce, therapy, mental health and never stopping in the pursu...

Carol Day is the Business Operations Manager for Stuart Pearce (former England Captain) and also spent over 14 years with the Football Association working with the England Men's Teams throughout a number of European and World Cup Competitions including Team GB during the London Olympics.  Mitchell Feldman is the co-founder and CMO of the award winning technology company Xrai Glass who are continui...

This week LaunchPod Studios pulled together a highlights episode featuring Stuart Pearce , former England Captain, World Cup hero, manager, coach and pundit. Jack Sullivan,  Director of West Ham United who have just won the Europa Conference League Trophy, Caroline Pill , Partner at Heidrick & Struggles and Mitchell Feldman who is a co-founder of Xrai Glass.   Enjoy this episode as an array of inc...

Welcome to an opportunity for you and I to chat and reflect on over 150 episodes from leaders all over the world.  In this short episode i take a moment to remember when and why I started The Leadership Enigma. Who knew after over 150 episodes we would be globally ranked, with one award, added to the MBA reading lists of prestigious business schools and recording all episodes from LaunchPod Studio...