The Leadership Enigma

Giovanni Masala is a senior leader and DE&I lead for VMware based in Italy. His leadership approach and passion is all about kindness and this was pulled into sharp focus when he suffered a coma for 2 months following a road traffic accident on his motorbike.  He vividly remembers when he woke up from the coma that those he was expecting to see were not there but surprisingly others he had not exp...

This episode was created in collaboration with Heidrick & Struggles.  I chat to a panel of young leaders to discover what they want from their leadership and culture and what kinds of leaders they aspire to become in order to shape a World Better Led. The panel includes Sarah Sage, Floris Hondmann, Lea Evers and Jacob Vincent with huge thanks to TA Mitchell and Luisa Muse. This is an important epi...

Matt Abrahams is the host of the globally ranked Podcast 'Think Fast, Talk Smart' and lecturer at the world famous Stanford University Graduate School of Business in California.  Matt is passionate about helping people hone and develop their communication skills.  Think Fast, Talk Smart started many years ago where Matt began helping students at Stanford to be able to deal with questions from facu...

Adrian Simpson is the co-founder of Wavelength and in this episode we discuss the global research that has highlighted ‘Foresight’ as a critical skill for CEO’s and senior executives for a world in constant change. What does the term ‘Outside-In’ mean for future leaders and why is it important for individual and collective success? Adrian describes ‘Outside-In’ as the discipline of learning from p...

Chris Grant OBE has worked at the most senior levels across sectors including Chair of the Chip & Pin Programme for all the banks and retailers, he served on the Board of Sport England and currently as The Chair for British Basketball Federation . Chris received his OBE for services to Sport from the late Her Majesty in 2021 and has worked with great musicians, business leaders, athletes, and spor...

Anthony Stephen Malone is a former 5th Generation soldier with the British Army, author of 5 books and was taken hostage by the Taliban for 190 days.  Anthony Joined the Paras at age 17 and served in multiple locations across the world. He has dedicated his life to various intelligence and security agencies which in turn led to his period in captivity having been taken by the Taliban for 190 days....

Kate Waterfall-Hill is a leadership coach and consultant with a passion for people development. This episode explores the challenges for all those individual contributors and small consultancies that serve to provide products and services to the largest organisations on the planet. This is all about David meeting Goliath and how leaders try and have it all, whilst doing it all without losing it al...

Dr Jonathan Reichental is a Founder, Professor, author and former Chief Information Officer for the city of Palo Alto, Silicon Valley.  Jonathan has recently released his new book 'Data Governance for Dummies' which is an Amazon No1 best seller.  83% of CEO's want a data driven organisation yet only 32% are realising this result.  47% of data created has critical errors within it that impacts work...

Allen Morrison is a Professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University and Stewart Black is the Global Chief Leadership & Strategy Officer at Squire Patton Boggs an international law firm and also Adjunct Professor at INSEAD. They are the co-authors of Enterprise China which is the result of decades of experience and research as to the dominance and continuing impact...

Rupal Patel's high octane career in the CIA has taken her from the jungles of Columbia to the war zones of Afghanistan. As a young female of colour within the complex and political world of briefings for The President, 4 Star Generals,  Congress and International Government Agencies, Rupal quickly focused on leveraging her strengths as opposed to her weaknesses. Rupal is the daughter of Indian imm...

Chris Finney is the youngest solider to be awarded the George Cross for his actions whilst serving in Iraq. Today Chris is a family man and entrepreneur with an enduring point of view of his heroic actions, his leadership and his legacy. The George Cross was created in September 1940 by King George VI and is ranked alongside the Victoria Cross. Chris joined the army cadets aged 13 and the regular...

James Ryan is the President and CEO of Mercedes Benz Financial Services in Canada and this episode is part of our CEO series.   James started his life as a musician, studying Comparative Literature and then moving and working in Germany as an intern for Mercedes Benz in 1995. James has had multiple roles within the organisation leading to his current role as CEO and President responsible for a $5b...

Dan Strode is the author of The Culture Advantage and Group Director of Culture & Strategy for Santander based in Madrid.  Dan explains that the best performing companies are doing things culturally in a certain way and that this became the genesis of his book. The pace of change has never been so fast and yet will never be as slow as it is today.  By 2027, 75% of the S&P companies will not be her...

Nick Jankel is an author, keynote speaker, serial entrepreneur, futurist and leadership theorist. A transformational team is one that can deliver predictable efficiencies in the old world, plus adapt grow, learn, be purposeful, shape a vision and deliver something new in the new world. Teams are living systems and therefore complex systems whereby the context is more important than the content. Ni...

Onyi Anyado is a UK born global leadership speaker with a passion for people. Born in Hackney with an early memory of his dad leaving the family when he was young, his mother and sister became his primary support network with a strong and proud Nigerian background. Onyi attended university and in his second year of study, he made a series of decisions that changed and shaped his life. Onyi decided...

Nick Jankel is an author, keynote speaker, serial entrepreneur, futurist and leadership theorist. Nick explains there is no ‘new normal’, and we must be prepared for the ‘never normal’ of operating in a constantly changing and complex environment both personally and professionally. Nick explains that complex is not the same as complicated. A complicated system is basically a machine with lots of b...

Steve Krupp is an academic, author, entrepreneur and Partner at Heidrick & Struggles based in the US offices. Steve has a PhD in organisational behaviour and has always been fascinated with what distinguishes the best performers. Much of Steve’s research has shown that Agility is the single biggest differentiator for high performers in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous) world.  Many...

Terence is the Director of Organisational Effectiveness in technology for META (Facebook). Terence is a great example of a ‘squiggly career’. He was born in Sierra Leone after his mother had an 11-month pregnancy and describes himself as just a small boy from Freetown who left for the US at the age of 9 and realised he had a great opportunity. That opportunity allowed him to attend Albert Einstein...

Lesego Holzapfel is the founder of Bokomoso Impact Investments who dedicates her life to empowering communities and promoting diversity and inclusion emanating from a deep place of gratitude. Ezanne Gouws grew up in wine industry in South Africa and is a trained wine maker and serial entrepreneur. Lesego and Ezanne met only a year ago on a course they attended virtually and immediately realised th...

John Spencer is the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies and a 25-year veteran of the US military having served two combat tours. He is also the author of ‘Connected Soldiers.’  John joined the US military at age of 17 as a Private, working his way through to the senior ranks which allowed him to explore the ‘burden of command.’ When the bullets were flying, instinct and training kicked in. However, it’...

Alice Dyson is the COO of One Media IP a business listed on the London Stock Exchange operating within the music industry. Alice also sits on the Board of BPI , responsible for amongst other things, The Brits.  On a personal note, Alice has had two near death experiences and in her spare time plays hockey for Great Britain.  Alice explains she is from a family of musicians. Her father a classical...

Chris Samsa is a positive psychologist and one of the founding directors of The Neuro Leadership Institute and has personally worked with Carol Dweck in the arena of Growth Mindset and Psychological Safety.  A Positive Psychologist focuses on your strengths and what is ‘right’ with you as opposed to just developmental areas. Chris advises that all of us must find out we are naturally good at and d...

Carol Kauffman is Harvard Faculty, author, global speaker, leadership advisor and coach, who Marshall Goldsmith has described as the world’s Number 1 Leadership Coach.  This episode is an amazing insight into the life and work of Carol as we explore who Carol is and what drives her day to day in her work with some of the most senior and influential leaders in the world.  Carol is committed to brin...

Clarke Murphy is a CEO and Board Advisor and author of ‘Sustainable Leadership’. He hosts The Redefiners podcast. Leaders are faced with global growth, changing demographics of the workforce, constant change, digital transformation, automation, globalisation and more, and therefore lead in the transformation as opposed to the replacement business.  Clarke explains that sustainability is the broad...

Traci Fenton is the CEO of WorldBlu with a personal purpose and passion to help 1 billion people live, lead and work in freedom rather than fear. We have never lived in a time with so much fear and Traci has dedicated the last 25 years of her professional life in service of helping leaders and organisations in over 100 countries.  WorldBlu has certified organisations across the world for 17 years...