The Unified Team

Before teams can perform people have to be capable of performing. Burning out staff through stress or overload of work means the team will crash. Each individual is also facing personal challenges. Now they might not be strictly work related, they impact their ability to focus and contribute. I gathered an expert on mindfulness and neuroscience, another on health and fitness and someone who'd burn...

Leave your emotions at the door! Your personal life is your problem. Be Professional. Just get on with it. Theses are statements that we've probably all heard In the old factories they made sense. We could press buttons as we stifled sobs and anxieties. Today though, they don't work. When we separate who we are from what we do, we have a soulless, passionless job. In today's Unified Team Podcast e...

Imagine your job rested on how your team performed in the next 45 minutes... how would you get your message across in 5 minutes? As we come to the end of the football season and games that decide who wins titles and promotions. And who loses and gets relegated. This is the situation football managers are facing. The very same lessons apply in every business across the globe. In every situation we...

Is AI to be our Saviour or Enslaver? Every great story is a battle of good vs evil. The question of what role AI plays out in our future is yet to be answered. What is critical is who gets to teach AI. Will it exaggerate the flaws within our own systems or will it bring more humanity? I gathered together a group of people brighter than me to think this through. Giannis Chatzidis Chief Data Scienti...

Bartholomew Sharpe stole something that made him a fortune. In 1680, he and his men sailed out to central America where they stole a Spanish ship. They discovered an atlas of Spanish sailing charts. They used it to find and raid Spanish ships. On his return to England he was arrested for piracy and brought before the King. The Spanish Ambassador insisted he be hung for his crimes. However, Sharpe...

What's the most adaptive species on the planet? Some say rats or cockroaches. Despite being low in the food chain, they adapt to their surroundings. Many stronger and more powerful species have been wiped out long before them. Some that argue that humans are the most adaptive. Our intelligence and co-operation has enabled us to live in every climate. We can also change the environment to suit us....

Do you want a first class or economy class life? When we travel we have a choice. We can be herded like cattle in economy. Or we can pay a lot more to be treated better. In life we also have the choice. We can have a vibrant and full experience. Or we can be sluggish and have a dull experience. But this time we pay with our effort and discipline. The key question is how do you source your energy?...

How much do you spend on a computer? You can buy a Chromebook new for £179. But most of us spend a lot more. Why? Because we've experienced the frustration of rebooting and waiting after crashing. We pay more for more a better processor and higher RAM. Because it means we can do more. And we have to deal with less frustration. How about your capacity? Are you crashing because there isn't enough RA...

Which makes more impact... changing technology or people? Of course the best answer is to make both change in harmony. When companies make a big change in how they work, there's two key factors: 1. Making the technological/organisational/process change. 2. Getting people to adopt and adapt to the change. Project Management developed in the first half of the 20th Century. Often though projects ran...

What would you do if you were cut off from the profession you trained for years to do? In a new continent. In a new culture. Without a network. With the one thing you've dedicated your life to be good at, cut off from you. This is Akanksha Adivarekar story. It's a story about the power of positivity and humility. Of making the best of your situation and asking how you can do better. Akanksha is a...

Becoming a leader is a journey of managing fear. Am I enough? Will I be accepted as an authority? Who am I to lead this group? These fears are at the core of the challenge of leading. In these three mini clips three successful leaders: Clark Ray Thomas Courts Tony Walmsley talk about the challenge of becoming comfortable leading and the skills needed to lead well.

Let's talk about Gen Z... They're lazy! They're entitled! They want everything yesterday! Or are they the force that is going to change organisations? Is the problem that we've built structures where people are expected to sell their souls for a job? Are we demanding too much and giving too little to employees? Is it time the work-life balance was rethought? Is it time to bring your whole self emo...

When you want to make a change what do you do? You can force people with a stick. You can entice them with a carrot. Or you can talk it through and agree how to work together. Today Paula Anastasiade goes into organisations and works to make changes happen. Without bribery or force. But through dialogue and listening Change happened through force and fear. Later she trained as a Social Scientist....

Careers are made and broken on getting things done... or not. You can devise the most brilliant strategy in the boardroom, but if you can't get people to execute it... you fail. When your success relies on hundreds or thousands of employees, how do you get people on board? How do you ensure projects get people adopting changes to processes or technology? Sophisticated leaders employ specialist Cha...

If you want to sharpen a knife what do you do? You use a sharpening steel. In the right hands the knife becomes sharper. And then it cuts through with more ease. The world of work is changing. What worked once isn't anymore. We need to cut to the heart of the matter. They say steel sharpens steel. Enter Waldemar Zimmer the steel to sharpen the next generation of leaders. Waldemar saw poor leadersh...

They say when life gives you lemons you should make lemonade. My guest on today's episode is the living embodiment of that motto. He has been challenged in every way and still found a way to succeed. Today he's helping others to lead more successfully. Muhammad Mehmood  crossed continents to take up a job in the UK National Health Service. When he got here, a technical hitch meant he couldn't...

What do you get if you combine data science, coaching and a team? A happy team coached by Giannis Chatzidis. Giannis is a Data Scientist. Team Leader. And a Coach. He found purpose and joy in merging tech and coaching to help people reach their full potential. He shares his journey and process in our conversation.

What if everything you did at work was being reported and analysed... in public! Every decision was pulled apart in the media. Every failure was booed by tens of thousands of people. There was a running critique on social media. When feedback is this immediate there is no hiding. Two Football Managers shared how they manage pressure, ego's and extreme competition. Clark Ray was sharing his parelle...

In one moment, everything in your life can change! Three months ago Clark lived that moment. A careless SUV driver smashed into his motorbike. Breaking 5 ribs, his sternum, right shoulder, collarbone and two vertebrae. An event like this changes everything. But Clark is not your average guy. He already operated from the 10th Man. The principle that everything should be challenged. Even so, he's ha...

You're in charge of a team... How do you spend your time? Are you a Leader or a Manager? What's your key responsibilities? How do you create a culture that performs? These were some of the topics we discussed. The panel was... Matthew Ward Muhammad Mehmood Johan Meyer and me, Rob McPhillips.

When we're stuck in our careers, how do we get unstuck? How do we get recognition and value for our efforts? How do we avoid being misunderstood in our communications? This was what Johan Meyer and I discussed in this podcast episode.

If life is a river, Sandy De Jesus is diving right in! He's an experiencer of life. A Seeker of truth. And a Creator of the future. From class clown to entertaining, engaging and educating on social media. Sandy is about the same age as my eldest daughter. He told me about his journey and how he sees life. We talked a lot about the generation differences and how Gen Z'ers see life. Organisations a...

Imagine we could take x-rays and see people’s emotions You could see the layers of hurt and pain. You could see the fears and insecurities. You could see a tiny seed of potential. You could soothe the pain and reassure the fears. Then you could take that seed and bring it into a safe incubator. You’d water it. And nurture it until it sprouts. The seed would grow. And that is Sarah Gruneisen's supe...

When everything changes what stays constant? We live in a world where the world is rapidly changing. Technology becomes obselete. We are continually changing. Lisa Cunningham Delauney has been exploring change for decades. An early proponent of Change Management professionally. She has also experienced change personally. Living in nine countries and speaking six languages. While many of us grumble...

How do you lead a remote or hybrid team? The world has changed after Covid and the genie isn't going back in the box. We have to get used to a world where we work with people we don't regularly see. We have to become more flexible and face new challenges. Curious about what leading a tech team in a modern world I spoke to Paul Chen about the work he's doing. He shared his insights and experience w...