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Leadership Luminaries

Leadership Luminaries

By PeopleSmart SAS

Corporate Leaders and Thought Leaders share their personal stories of challenge and success and bring their particular areas of wisdom and knowledge to bear on what’s relevant now.

PeopleSmart's 'Leadership Luminaries' podcast series is hosted by Michael Banks: leadership coach, writer, story teller, podcaster and Principal Consultant - please get it in touch for more info!
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"D&I is everyone’s business" with Pete Stone

Leadership LuminariesMar 14, 2024

00:00
33:45
"D&I is everyone’s business" with Pete Stone

"D&I is everyone’s business" with Pete Stone

This conversation with Pete Stone is the most comprehensive, provocative and stimulating exposition of this topic you’re likely to hear. Pete has the passion of a true expert and this half hour interview with Michael Banks of PeopleSmart SAS is jam packed with wise and progressive ideas! 

Pete’s passion is fuelled by his conviction that D&I has the potential to help humanity be more open and less judgmental. This includes being able to resolve conflicts more easily.

Along the way he touches on why diversity policies in corporations are built on ‘discrimination’ and too reliant on ‘countable diversity’, the role of women in business, innovation, and the need to define what is Inclusion before deciding policy.

He explains his 5 Pillars model which includes ensuring a balance between being unique and oneself and  being inclusive.

Pete Stone is crystal clear that D&I is not just the concern of HR but everyone in the organization. It is a business imperative that should be everyone’s business. When a CEO has this realization it can change everything!

Curious? Please enjoy and we’d love for you to respond back to us even if you disagree with some of the content.


Bio

Pete has French and British nationalities. He worked in education and training for 15 years, and in particular at Neoma.

Business School in Rouen. He continued his career in HR and Recruitment Consulting where he was Marketing & Operations Director for Hudson France, whose diversity policy he designed and implemented.

He then founded Just Different, a company specialised in Diversity & Inclusion. Pete is co-author of several books and guides on diversity and inclusion and is / has been a board member of four NGOs, ESTIMnumérique, Jolokia, Konstelacio and Pro Intercultura.

Mar 14, 202433:45
'The Power of Positive Psychology' with Pa Sinyan

'The Power of Positive Psychology' with Pa Sinyan

What a goldmine of information Pa Sinyan was able to convey in this conversation with Michael Banks.

Pa gives us an exciting look at how the Gallup organization

1. Fixes Broken Workplaces

2. Uses the Clifton Strengths Finder to help people discover what makes them unique (there is only a 1/30 million chance of finding another ‘you’)

3. Uses ‘soft metrics’ to get to reality.


Did you know that Gallup tracks ‘wellbeing’ and surprisingly shows that the world’s population has seen an alarming increase in anger and unhappiness over the past twenty years - a trend that was showing well before the advent of Covid? Pa tells the intriguing story of Tunisia and Egypt by way of demonstrating this downhill slide and goes into the reasons for why this has been happening.


By focusing on existing strengths Gallup provides data that indicate what can be done to solve these negative feelings and behaviors. It provides business leaders with the data backed business case for positive culture change and workforce engagement.


Pa describes the pillars of positive culture change. These include leadership endorsement, effective internal communication and accountability. He also talks about what does not work about culture change. For example, did you know that emails do NOT work in this context.

Pa ends this rich conversation with a final and wise message of positivity and hope for the future.


Bio

Pa Sinyan is Managing Partner with Gallup and leads Gallup’s

teams across EMEA. In his role, he supports leading companies to

drive organizational and cultural change. He has 13 years

experience working with leadership teams on organizational and

C-Suite challenges.


Pa leverages Gallup’s cutting-edge data insights in the science of leadership, behavioural economics, and decision-making to support leaders. As a trusted advisor, he partners with leaders to help the unearth organic growth – more engaged employees, customers and suppliers.


Pa has an MSc and a BSc in International Economics and Finance

from Universiteit van Tilburg in The Netherlands. Born and raised

in The Gambia, Pa has lived in Germany, The Netherlands and

Tunisia. Pa speaks English, German and Wolof.

Feb 20, 202438:29
'Humanizing Leadership' with Gerardo Segat

'Humanizing Leadership' with Gerardo Segat

Gerardo Segat’s mission is to “humanize leadership” and help leaders become their authentic selves. He creates safe spaces and then invites them to ‘drop their masks’.

Gerardo has worn many hats over his long career and qualifies now as a wise gentleman who, through his innovative thinking and deep experience provides us with rich ‘food for thought and reflection’.

During this interview we cover many progressive ideas and insights such as the one AI intelligence that ChatGPT itself concludes will never surpass humans - self-awareness. The four most common fears of a leader. These include ‘no meaning’ and ‘being alone’.

According to Gerardo there are typically two approaches to deal with problems - ‘the bullet train’ and the ‘regional train’. This leads to a conversation about stopping and reflecting which is a practice that’s in very short supply in the modern world.

If you want to find out more about these fascinating topics, and others such as the ‘Four Treasures of a Leader’, please do join us as we explore the creative world of Gerardo Segat.


Bio

Gerardo Segat is an international leadership coach whose purpose and legacy is to humanize leadership.

Following a wealth of experiences as entrepreneur, chairman and CEO, Gerardo has used his leadership background to create Preludes: a coaching program created to humanize leaders, organizations, and their stakeholders through creative and powerful original experiences (such as decision-making debates, client interaction models, and emotions-focused team meetings).

Gerardo is also the creator of Vebate, a format of decision-making debate, Leader in the Mirror, a format of interview, and Leaderness, a post-graduate training program.

For the past decade, he has been a member of YPO Young Presidents’ Organization (the world’s largest community of leaders and CEOs) of which he has been the founder and chair of three chapters in Italy, Switzerland, and globally.

Currently, Gerardo is working on Out As Humans, a performing arts show designed to humanize authentic leaders.

Out as Humans is an individual and group immersive performance that creates a space for leaders to be open, trusting, empathetic, and feel a sense of belonging.

Jan 16, 202433:38
'Transitions' with Sofia Liasi

'Transitions' with Sofia Liasi

🎙 Join us in the latest episode of 'Leadership Luminaries' as we dive deep into the art of embracing transitions with the incredible Sofia Liasi.


Discover how Sofia, a Whole Person Certified Coach, creates spaces for corporate leaders to be vulnerable, curious, and authentic in their journey through transitions. Her passion for leadership and understanding how individuals show up in the workplace is truly inspiring.


Sofia's global journey from Greece to The Netherlands and now Switzerland adds a unique perspective to our conversation. Don't miss out on the wisdom she shares from her diverse experiences in Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Healthcare, and Pharma.


Uncover the power of bringing your whole self to work and leading from a space of humanity. Tune in now for an insightful discussion on navigating transitions and embracing authenticity.


Bio

Sofia holds spaces where corporate leaders are encouraged to be vulnerable, and curious and bring their whole self to work so that they can lead from a space of humanity and authenticity.

As a Whole Person Certified Coach (WPCC), she gets her energy from supporting people often navigating transitions to uncover and bring forward their uniqueness. She considers her own personal growth practice work in progress that is characterised by ups and downs and her motto is ‘’there is no coincidence, coincidence enough’’.


Her passion for leadership and how people show up in the workplace led her to University of London for her MSc in Organisational Behaviour.


A curious human and a natural connector made in Greece, she loves traveling and experiencing different cultures. She has worked in Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Healthcare and Pharma in Greece, The Netherlands and now Switzerland where she calls Basel home.

Dec 19, 202336:39
'Resilience' with Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier

'Resilience' with Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier

Nowadays, more than ever, there is a need for people to be resilient. Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier is a highly regarded expert in leadership resilience and workplace mental health and well-being. In this conversation, M-H (as she’s called by her friends) shares actionable and practical advice that you can use to build your own resilience.


M-H warns us to be vigilant for the early signs of burnout and not try to tough it out! She advises us to make a Resilience plan that is both personal and achievable. Knowing how to be proactive with this plan is crucial to avoid the disasters that can result from leaving it too late!

For leaders looking to create the best environment for their people M-H advises they ask questions and listen. Her suggestions include,

  • Increasing the sense of community

  • Show civility and respect (yes that’s right!)

  • Identifying some small ‘fixes’ that will make life easier for employees

These are just some of the topics we covered in our conversation. 

M-H is a vibrant, passionate guest who is a pleasure to listen to. Her new book, The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health will be available in early 2024.


Bio

Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier is a psychologist with a systems mind – and has both a PhD and an MBA. She has over 20 years of experience as a practicing psychologist and as a senior leader in the corporate, insurance, governance and health care sectors. 

MH’s unique talent is bringing together workplace and psychology – translating concepts into “take- aways” that listeners can put into action the minute they finish the episode. 

Marie-Helene is a Member of the Global Clinical Practice Network of the World Health Organization, and past Director on the boards of the Canadian Psychological Association and the International Association of Applied Psychology. She has presented, authored and co-authored a number of industry and academic publications and has won numerous academic and industry awards.

In 2024, Dr. Pelletier will release her new book, The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health

Dec 11, 202331:58
'From Fear to Trust - How to lead with courage, creativity and fun' with Elena Marsh

'From Fear to Trust - How to lead with courage, creativity and fun' with Elena Marsh

Elena Marsh is one of the exciting ‘new’ pioneers in teaching that leadership development is essentially spiritual development. 


In this conversation with Michael Banks Elena begins by describing the 7 levels of Leadership and how when you enter the 4th level you are likely to enter what Dante calls “the dark forest”. This is where there is an opportunity for transformation according to the soul’s needs. An example of this could be a middle aged executive who realizes thay are no longer satisfied with their job and decides to pursue something they are truly passionate about.


Elena shares how the leadership journey is about going beyond the need to be ‘liked and right’ and the dangers of being inauthentically ‘nice’. The option at this point is safety or growth and having the courage to move through the fear of rejection into a genuinely independent state.


Elena finished our discussion with a message for all on the path of leadership growth: Be courageous and lead with integrity.


Bio

Elena Marsh is a co-founder of BeCoach Academy and an accredited International Coaching Federation professional coach (PCC) with twenty years of international experience in leadership development.


Her mission is to support, empower and inspire individuals, organizations and their leaders to live and work with meaning and purpose, revealing their full potential in alignment with their core values.


Her professional background is in HR, working as an HR Director in Central Asia and HR Support Manager in Eastern Europe in an international corporation with a focus on leadership development, talent management and implementation of an integrated performance management system in the region. 


For the last ten years, Elena has been working as a coach, consultant and facilitator with leaders from around the world alongside with successfully developing BeCoach Academy which provides ICF accredited coach training.


Originally from Kazakhstan, Elena journeyed through Siberia, Moscow and London to reach Munich where she lives today with her British husband and their Polish dog.


Special thanks to Tom Morley (https://morley.com/) for providing the fantastic intro and outro music that sets the perfect tone for our podcast! - his musical and creative talent truly enhances the listening experience!

Nov 14, 202336:57
'Using EI to optimize inclusion and diversity in a multicultural world' with Victoria Feldman

'Using EI to optimize inclusion and diversity in a multicultural world' with Victoria Feldman

When Victoria Feldman speaks about multiculturalism she speaks with the authority of someone who has lived and worked in five different continents. And by her own admission she is an “evangelist” for Emotional Intelligence (EI) and how it is a practice that can help resolve differences and build positive relations between different cultures and types of individuals.

In this podcast interview Victoria introduces the practice of ‘empathy mapping’ - an exercise that significantly increases team members' understanding of each other. It can also be used for improving communication between cross-functional teams.

At one point she hilariously mimics the way the Americans give feedback, sugaring the message, compared to the Israelis who tend to be very direct and blunt.

Victoria uses Dan Goleman’s material, self-awareness, social awareness and so on to give her students a framework within which to build their EI skills. She talks about making emotions work for us versus against us.

Victoria Feldman is clearly an inspiring and distinguished teacher and a highly sought-after speaker and leader in the field of leadership development and organizational transformation. Please listen in to see why.


Bio

Victoria Feldman is a distinguished multicultural speaker with a wealth of expertise in leadership development, employee development, and organisational transformation. Throughout her career, she has created top-notch talent and leadership development programs, leading to improved performance, engagement, and motivation in organisations. Her record of accomplishment includes working with leading technology and Fortune 500 firms, such as Meta, Paypal, Visa, and Amazon, as well as early-stage startups.


Currently, Victoria is serving as the Head of Learning and Development at Amazon, where she is entrusted with the task of establishing and overseeing a strategic framework for training, talent, and leadership development. She is responsible for designing and implementing cutting-edge programmes that cater to the development needs of employees across the organisation. Victoria's vast experience, skills, and accomplishments make her a highly sought-after speaker and leader in the field of leadership development and organisational transformation.

Oct 24, 202334:03
'Building teams with drums and singing' with Tom Morley

'Building teams with drums and singing' with Tom Morley

Tom Morley is called the 'Rockstar Activator'. He was himself a rock star when playing in Scritti Politti, the band he co-founded in the punk era.

Now he helps teams and groups of all sizes get in touch with their own inner rock star. He does this by using drums and singing as a vehicle to release their authentic and creative selves.

Tom is on a mission to create "a revolution of imagination, activity, and coming together". In this interview, he talks about his work with corporations right up to and including board level. He tells great, real life stories including how his drumming work with groups began when the lights went out at a gig Scritti were playing in Berlin back in the day.

Tom has a lot to say about modern business life. He has a wicked sense of humor and his stories are often downright hilarious!  

His work is about 'getting in the groove'. it's a bit like a 'flow' state but with an added ingredient - mischief! This groove's main ingredients are "discipline, surrender, and mischief".

Please enjoy being entertained and inspired by Tom Morley in this PeopleSmart SAS production of 'Leadership Luminaries'.


Bio

Following his time in the music business with the 80s band Scritti Politti Tom has developed a truly artistic way of living where every experience leads him to the humorous uncovering of some universal truths.

He turns his disasters and successes into stand-up comedy for conference audiences. 40 years onstage, first behind a drum kit then being the multi-talented frontman for whole troupes of performers earned him the name ‘The Rockstar Activator’.

Instant Teamwork is both Tom’s speciality and the name of his company. Team building, be it drumming or harmony singing is all very energizing on the day but how do you make that bonded feeling sustainable? Tom has devoted the last 20 years to answering that question and he turns up with a customized set of tools he is passionate about sharing.

Fascinated by the creative process Tom is passionate about sharing what he’s learned about art, rhythm, and harmony over the past 65 years. From playing kit drums with the Art School band Scritti Politti in his 20s, through songwriting in his 30s, to studying psychology and facilitation in his 40s, Tom eventually set up Instant Teamwork International in his 50s.

Sep 19, 202333:48
'It's your time' with Abigail Barnes

'It's your time' with Abigail Barnes

Hands up who has some degree of difficulty with time! Almost everyone. If that time management workshop and/or coaching hasn’t worked maybe there is something else going on?

I was genuinely riveted by the perspective that Abigail Barne shared in this conversation with me! 


Her understanding of time was profoundly altered when she suffered a near-death experience at a relatively young age.


In helping people with their time ‘issues’ she spans the spectrum from ‘on the money’ practical advice to a spiritual perspective on the nature of time. Abigail’s unique and inspiring approach to time management will help your business and increase your sense of well-being.


Abigail says “You can’t manage time but you can manage your tasks with the time you’ve got.” She shares her simple yet revelatory 8/8/8 model which is a brilliant way of auditing how you use your time. Abigail also tells us how to find an extra hour in every day.


I never thought I would be so fascinated by the topic of time management. But here is a rich and fresh perspective that will help your well being and be more productive.


Bio

Abigail Barnes is the founder and CEO of Success by Design Training, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, speaker, and corporate trainer on time management and productive wellbeing. She is a qualified coach and creator of the renowned 888 Formula. Success by Design Training is on a mission to teach 1 million entrepreneurs & professionals how to reclaim an hour a day by 2025 using The 888 Formula. 


Abigail has over 10 years’ experience in Financial Services Marketing (Investment Management, Asset Management and Hedge Funds). She holds a BA Hons Degree in Business & Marketing Management, a Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, DipM ACIM, and is a qualified coach.


Abigail lives in London close to the famous Wembley stadium.


Notes:

Website: www.successbydesigntraining.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/abigailrbarnes

Email: enquiries@successbydesigntraining.com

Buy Abigail's Book, Time Management for Entrepreneurs & Professionals: https://bit.ly/TMFEAPAMAZON

Download a free chapter: https://bit.ly/DOWNLOADFREECHAPTER

Sep 05, 202349:04
'Building learning communities through peer coaching' with Sonja Robinson

'Building learning communities through peer coaching' with Sonja Robinson

Sonja Robinson is passionate about the virtues and benefits of peer coaching. In this interview, it’s apparent why.

She takes us through the process of this kind of coaching and how to create a safe, confidential, and empowering space that builds trust and excitement and in which participants find solutions to real problems together.

In addition to exploring what in detail this powerful yet relatively short process has to offer we also discuss the effect of effective peer coaching.

Peer coaching leads to actions (solutions) and measurable results. And in terms of the future, it increases authentic dialog in the culture making it a real learning community.

Sonja finished our conversation with this Buddhist quote:

“Be still as a mountain and flow like a great river”.

Please listen and enjoy!



As a thought leader within talent management, Sonja coaches individuals and teams at the middle and senior level to enhance personal and professional purpose, learning, and growth, increase performance, and deliver impactful results for the organization.

With expertise in designing and managing customized leadership, peer coaching, and mentor training programs, Sonja has designed regional and global leadership development programs annually, covering development areas like time management, delegation, communication, coaching skills for leaders, conflict management, feedback, mediation, and behavioral change.

Sonja has managed and delivered multicultural project teams of up to 20 on global event projects with FIFA, collaborating with team members and senior-level stakeholders including CEOs, politicians, diplomats, and members of Royalty and government. Sonja has also taken part in Volunteer Leadership with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for over 12 years.

Sonja holds a master's in coaching and consulting for change from Oxford SAID University of Oxford. She is a certified CORE™ coach, and ICF-accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and CHART Certified Coach. Sonja is an active mentor with “Thrive with Mentoring”, ETH (university of Zurich), and HEC alumni.

And she lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Aug 01, 202350:35
Conflict for Good with Liane Davey

Conflict for Good with Liane Davey

Wow! What a treasure trove of helpful information about productive conflict. Liane Davey talks with clarity, authenticity, and grounded daily evidence of conflict in all the various forms it takes.


We ALL have to deal with conflict which is about incompatibility at all levels. Liane talks about “optimizing tension versus friction”.


Please join us as we discuss the conflicts caused by “the return to office”, as a leader how to give effective feedback, and the pros and cons of ‘remote’ conflict and ‘old fashioned managers’!


We finish with a fascinating perspective on what Liane calls the “Dragon breathing fire as they protect their treasure.’


Biography

Liane Davey is a New York Times Bestselling author of three books, including The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Your Organization Back on Track and You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done.


She is a contributor to the Harvard Business Review and is frequently called on by media outlets for her experience on leadership, team effectiveness, and productivity.


As the co-founder of 3COze Inc., she advises companies such as Amazon, TD Bank, Walmart, UNICEF, 3M, and SONY.


Liane has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.

Jul 11, 202351:41
The Future of Coaching with William Shorten

The Future of Coaching with William Shorten

This episode is a must for anyone who coaches or is interested in becoming a coach!

William Shorten speaks clearly and eloquently from the ‘front line’ as he shares his view of coaching past, present, and the possible future. A future that includes the increasing democratization of this art, the use of AI, and the proliferation of niche approaches.

We delve into the different methods Will uses including an in-depth exposition of 360 options.

Will and I discuss the question “What makes a great coach?” versus a good coach. And after Will summarizes his view of the future of coaching he makes some excellent recommendations for some books worth reading!


Biography

Before setting up his own business and becoming a consultant and business coach in 2019 William had 25 years of experience in a broad range of roles in a couple of manufacturing organisations. Functions have included operations, R&D, Commercial (both Sales and Purchasing), and lastly L&D and HR. He jokes although he still doesn’t know what he wants to do when he grows up by this stage L&D and coaching are probably about as close as he’s going to get.


William managed a number of teams in these different functions which provided insight into how to be effective as a leader and get the most out of his teams. In addition, he had the privilege to travel with his work to a wide and diverse range of countries as well as having the opportunity to work and live in France for 5 years. These experiences were hugely beneficial in allowing him to operate in a wide number of business settings and cultures.


Apart from his own business William works as an associate with several other consultancies including PeopleSmart SAS, Barefoot Coaching Ltd, Talogy, and DLA Ignite. He offers and provides a range of activities including coaching, and consulting, as well as designing, delivering, and facilitating training programs (both online and in-person).

 

Outside of work he enjoys cycling and wine, a legacy strengthened by his time living in France, as well as reading (especially books on history and sports). In addition, he is a contributor to LinkedIn Livestreams, including the ‘Digital Download’ and ‘The Big Live Breakfast Burrito’ where he recites poetry from time to time.

Jun 06, 202356:32
Aligning the Personal with the professional with Fabienne Lindholm

Aligning the Personal with the professional with Fabienne Lindholm

It was fun conversing with Fabienne Lindholm as we discussed the importance of optimizing each employee's passion by helping them operate out of their true purpose in life. When someone has sourced their true purpose they can more easily align this purpose with the company’s vision and purpose and optimize their energy.

A first step on this journey is what Fabienne calls ‘regrouping’ which is a time for reflection and deep exploration to identify one's true passion. This usually takes time even if it means a quantum leap in self-awareness and the subsequent freedom that comes with this.

Among other topics we discuss the roles of courage and curiosity in this journey. And how curiosity can be the catalyst for building trust. 

Fabienne believes in ‘learning by doing’ and learning from experience not just theory. In her work with women over the years she has found that low confidence and self-esteem stems from a lack of knowledge. She helps female execs make up for this lack of knowledge and tap into their authenticity or ‘true self’.

This was a fascinating conversation interspersed with one or two real stories that illustrate the power of discovering one's true purpose even if you are ‘getting on’ in life!


Bio

Fabienne is a global learning & development executive with years of experience coaching and motivating individuals and teams. A speaker, facilitator, and soon-to-be author, she currently holds two positions, one as the global education director for BABOR BEAUTY GROUP and one as a women’s self-confidence advocate. With her company Fabienne Lindholm Revs Up your life! She ignites and fuels passion for positive change and transformation and fosters leadership in women. 

Fabienne has traveled to 60 countries and lectured on four continents; she is bold, optimistic, compassionate, and funny. A marathon runner, she has learned discipline, resilience, and determination while training and finishing five marathons. 

Fabienne has 30+ years in executive management in the beauty and wellness industry. She managed spa teams and operations for luxury hotels such as the Waldorf Astoria and multiple-location spas in Chicago, USA. In the last ten years, she has been in the L&D and the training of adults, primarily women. She is fluent in French and English and lives in the Netherlands.

Apr 25, 202347:26
'How Do Leaders Trust Virtually?' with Suzie Lewis

'How Do Leaders Trust Virtually?' with Suzie Lewis

After decades of working successfully with organizational leaders to transform both themselves and their companies, Suzie Lewis (Managing Director at Transform for Value | Podcast host "Let's talk Transformation" | Executive coach | Keynote speaker) sits down with our host, Michael Banks, to share her wisdom around how leaders can create the right conditions to generate real trust both virtually and in person.

Suzie is eloquent, clear, and fluent as she moves us seamlessly from key concepts to practical and behavioral advice. In particular, she discusses certain elements that lead to a trusting environment. 

  1. The progression from Me —> We —> Us is not a project but a mindset, and requires us to develop not only critical systems lenses but also developmental practices.

  2. Understanding self-leadership and our inner system before looking at how we interact and impact the external system.

  3. Psychological safety. This is not about being nice… it is not about the absence of threat or challenge, but about the presence of connection. Emotional awareness is particularly important in the digital environment.

  4. Culture is so important and multilayered: personal identity / national culture / organizational culture and national culture

  5. Inclusion: in a digital environment we need to be even more intentionally inclusive than we are normally.

Suzie explains how to develop trust through daily ‘developmental practices’, describes being ‘intentionally inclusive’ in behavioral terms, and ‘being human’ as this is where trust will be built.

If you would like to hear more of the detail behind these ideas please listen in as Suze and Michael dive in!


Biography

Founder and Managing Director of Transform for Value, Suzie is a global business leader and executive coach with extensive experience in driving international transformation projects, and in preparing business leaders and employees for change.

Diversity and inclusion is an integral part of everything Suzie does, and indeed the basis of her quest: to help organizations and leaders understand the human side of business and create more inclusive leadership and more collaborative cultures.

During 20 years in the aeronautical industry, she has led both flagship projects and teams large and small encompassing leadership, coaching and culture change; digital transformation and innovation; strategy, governance and deployment; HR, recruitment and assessment; diversity and inclusion; talent management; lean and Agile methodologies; change management and operational deployment.

Suzie lives in Toulouse, France


Apr 03, 202349:30
'EXP advice from the trenches' with Charlotte Boujassy

'EXP advice from the trenches' with Charlotte Boujassy

It was our pleasure recently to welcome Charlotte Boujassy, Head of Global Talent Development at Morphosys, to our PeopleSmart’s ‘Leadership Luminaries’ podcast series with host Michael Banks.

Charlotte speaks with clarity and authority from ‘the trenches’ about the nuts and bolts of connecting strategy with operations. She laments that In the HR and L&D world, this connection is often not made which in turn harms the employee experience.

Highlights of this interview include the importance of providing employees with enjoyable development experiences in which they can have fun! They might learn some new content but primarily they should feel good about the company’s offerings.

In Charlotte’s opinion, the oft-used word Agility is really about getting things done fast! And in her role, she shares in fascinating detail how she is able to build positive relationships with internal stakeholders such as Procurement, Corporate Communications, and Accounts Payable to catalyze speedy results.

L&D and HR have an impact on the employee experience from onboarding to off boarding and Charlotte is particularly keen on realizing the often neglected benefits of offboarding. People can leave and come back and this generous approach generates goodwill in the wider business community.


Biography

Charlotte Boujassy – Associate Director Global Talent Development at MorphoSys


Charlotte Boujassy is a passionate people development professional who has 10+ years of experience in aeronautical, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical industries in France and Germany. She has run numerous training and leadership programmes, including a successful European Top Talent Programme she designed and rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic for Daiichi Sankyo (a Japanese cardiovascular and oncology pharmaceutical company).

She is currently in charge of Global Talent Development for Morphosys, a biotech specialized in hemato-oncology.

She is a continuous learner, who is part, of several Learning & Development professionals’ networks. She likes reading and listening to podcasts about history, psychology, and of course, people development.

Charlotte graduated in Political Sciences at the University of Strasbourg and completed a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management at the University of Paris II Assas. She is also a certified Crucial Conversations trainer and a certified coach in Design Thinking applied to People Development.

Charlotte speaks English, French, German, and Spanish fluently. Born in France, she has been living in Munich for almost 10 years with her two daughters.

Mar 14, 202350:05
Life without a Tie with Ray Martin

Life without a Tie with Ray Martin

Ray Martin, aka The Daily Explorer, is an entrepreneur and award-winning business leader. As a coach, mentor, facilitator, speaker, writer, and mindfulness teacher, he is a torchbearer for greater human consciousness. He courageously explores both his external and internal world daily in pursuit of greater insight and wisdom about life, for himself and others. He created the Calling All Angels Foundation and runs marathons to raise money for causes he believes in, which have included an orphanage in Nepal and an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Whatever he does, his mission is to bring more joy and happiness into the world.

Ray has just published his book, Life Without A Tie, which is, according to Steve Chamberlain, Author, On Purpose,"Uplifting, challenging, courageously honest and enlightening. An invitation to re-think your life."

Different from ‘normal guests’. Ray Martin escaped the corporate treadmill and went on a six month sabbatical that ended up as a 14 year journey of self-discovery. The lessons he learned I believe are relevant to anyone looking to optimize their career and life. This is especially for all those people who experienced a watershed of reflection and re-orientation during the pandemic that contributed in return to the Great Resignation and the proliferation of digital nomads. Suggestion: this book is ideal for anyone in the early phases of their life who can benefit from Ray’s stories and insights to design a new life based on a meaningful purpose and true values.

Dec 20, 202256:14
All things EXP with Stefanie Brockstädt

All things EXP with Stefanie Brockstädt

Stefanie Brockstädt leads teams composed of members from all over the world. In this conversation she homes in on the universal and essential elements that comprise a compelling employee experience. She feels passionately that management needs to be open to a variety of approaches rather than one size fits all.

What conditions will allow each individual to be happy, motivated and give their best to the enterprise? Some prefer working at home or from a ‘nomad’ location while others favor in office collaboration.The younger generations especially are now looking for flexibility, autonomy and trust. Stefanie thinks leaders should focus on enablement and encouraging employees to think for themselves. Leaders need to be emotionaly intelligent enough to boldly make the right decisions around the employee experience rather than being a slave to ‘policies’.

The conversation finishes with Stefanie offering some examples of actions taken in her own company that enhance the employee experience. Actions like everyone taking a day out to help out in the community. This contribution is also a bonding exercise that contributes to a positive employee experience.


Bio

Two things I was always passionate about is being creative and engaging with different people. Before I could find this passion in my professional life, I took advantage of my third passion - travel and exploring different cultures. My career in tourism started in Berlin and then in Greece, and I was able to complete this experience by also working from Portugal and Ireland. Ireland helped me to find my place. Learning more about business, I found my niche and passion in learning & development. This was over 13 years ago.

I now work as head of L&D at Berlin Brands Group and have worked as a trainer, Instructional Designer, Project and program Mgr for L&D up to my current role. Combining my true passion of developing people and seeing them grow with the element of employee experience is amazing. I was always curious and enjoyed bringing this curiosity to teaching others. It moves me, knowing that I bring new aspects to how people think and look at things. I want to enable people to think outside the box and be bold. I am never standing still, no matter if it is in my professional or private life. There is always something new to learn or to do.

When I’m not working?I am a huge Borussia Dortmund fan. One of my idols is Jürgen Klopp, even though he is no longer the manager there. He stands for passion, honesty and empathy and someone who is true to his emotions. I also love to go hiking as it allows me to travel and to decelerate.

Nov 08, 202240:44
Culture shifts that are needed in businesses in light of the Great Resignation with Nicholas Hamilton-Archer

Culture shifts that are needed in businesses in light of the Great Resignation with Nicholas Hamilton-Archer

Is the Great Resignation a positive after all? What do companies have to do to accommodate the needs of the younger workforce in order to create a rich and attractive employee experience? What kind of leadership is needed to bring about the necessary culture shifts in business? These questions and more are discussed with Nicholas Hamilton-Archer, Executive Director of Executive Education at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

The ‘time out’ of the last two or three years has precipitated a societal shift in which people are looking for greater freedom and self-expression. They want to bring their whole selves to work and not be bound by the old conventions of business and how it should be structured. It is in this context that the Great Resignation has been happening. The challenge now is for leaders to serve the best interests of their people to create an employee environment that attracts and retains the best talent. Please listen to Nick Hamilton-Archer insights as he points us towards these new shifts.

Bio

Nicholas Hamilton-Archer serves as the Executive Director of Executive Education within the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Nicholas is tasked with driving innovation and growth within the unit’s non-degree open enrollment and custom programs and delivering programming for partner schools and faculty within the University. Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, Nicholas served as the Executive Director for Executive Programs at the University of Colorado.

Nicholas has lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates and has extensive experience within the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Asia-Pacific, and South Africa where he managed strategic initiatives and partnerships. He has worked collaboratively with multiple government agencies, non-profits, and private businesses.

Nicholas graduated from George Mason University in 2008 with a BA in Government and International Politics and an MPA (Public Administration) respectively. He also holds an MS in International Business from the University of Colorado Denver. Nick enjoys working with early-stage companies, and his hobbies include basketball and travel.

Oct 03, 202247:08
Becoming a Changemaker with Alex Budak

Becoming a Changemaker with Alex Budak

Alex Budak is a force of nature who spends his life teaching people how to become a Changemaker that makes the world a better place. His egalitarian view of leadership means leading through and with others. A Changemaker is “someone who leads positive change from where they are.”

As a Changemaker, getting into action is key. As Joan Baez once said: “Action is the antidote to despair”, Alex tells us how we can do that with the help of his tools and models. Please join us and listen to how Professor Budak gets his students to do an exercise that involves them leaving the classroom and with a mission to get rejected and experience failure!

It's an exciting world. Influencing without authority and questioning the status quo effectively by building your social capital. His new book, (published today!) helps you identify your “Influence Superpowers”, how to be successful using Alex’s ‘Theory of Change’ tool and his ‘Changemaker Canvas’ tool and how to find courage through community.

Bio

Alex Budak is a social entrepreneur, faculty member at Berkeley Haas, and the author of Becoming a Changemaker published on September 13th, 2022.

At UC Berkeley, Alex created and teaches the transformative course, “Becoming a Changemaker.” He also serves as Executive Director of the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program and as a Lecturer and Faculty Director for Berkeley Executive Education programs.

As a social entrepreneur, he co-founded StartSomeGood.com, ran Sweden’s most prominent social innovation incubator, Reach for Change and helped Change.org scale globally.

Alex teaches, speaks, consults, and advises with the mission of helping people from all walks of life become changemakers. He has given talks on leadership, entrepreneurship, and changemaking around the world from Cambodia to Ukraine to the Arctic Circle, and at the White House, UN Agencies, and leading companies.

A graduate of UCLA and Georgetown University, Alex loves travel adventures (39 countries and counting), rooting for the underdog, and spending time with his two favorite changemakers: his wife, Rebecca, and their toddler son. More at alexbudak.com

Sep 13, 202245:46
Green Shoes and Memorable Marketing with Emiel Brok

Green Shoes and Memorable Marketing with Emiel Brok

It is not ‘business as usual’ at SUSE, the open source software company. Head of Training services Emiel Brok, spends a lot of his time marketing the training by being ‘memorable’. He believes it's important to get peoples’ attention and stand out from the crowd. The ‘playful learning’ is part of what makes SUSE such a great place to work. Emiel is given free rein to express his creativity in service of the company’s stated desire that “everyone should feel welcome at SUSE”.

Listen in as Emiel discusses the role of social media in his promotion of SUSE’s training services. How his ‘Friday Ketchup’ podcast series is about fun and sharing knowledge and information. It comes with music and colorful shirts. #geeko on tour is about photos and videos of Emiel with his green company mascot - a stuffed chameleon. He is also known for mixing business suits with bright green shows on stage at conferences. SUSE even has its own in-house band that posts brilliant covers of well known songs in the form of parodies on YouTube.

Emiel Brok is an inspiring example of someone who boldly goes beyond the norms of what is expected of the role of Head of Training. Please join us and find out how he does this.


Biography

Emiel Brok is Head of Training Services responsible for the EMEA and APJ-regions (Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Pacific, and Japan) at SUSE, Projects Lead & Board Member Steering Committee at SUSE GoGreen Employee Network. Board Member at Dutch Workers Counsel. Co-founder, board member and 'Master of Ceremony' at ICT Netwerk Nijmegen. Emiel is an open source expert who is passionate about sharing knowledge. He believes that by making software available to anyone, we can grow faster and make the world a better place.

An advocate for Diversity and Inclusion within his company and outside, Emiel received a D&I award personally from the SUSE’s CEO, Melissa di Donato. He has an amazing, self-produced, Youtube Channel called Friday Ketchup where he discusses open source topics combined with some fun with guests every week. Emiel is a true believer in mentorship and knowledge sharing - beyond just code.

Aug 02, 202249:15
The FUNdamentals of business and life with Sarah Burbedge

The FUNdamentals of business and life with Sarah Burbedge

Over the last few years it has been easy to forget that work and life can be joyous and fun. Given the relentless barrage of negative news and gloomy prognostications about the future, surely it's time to remember the importance of laughter and play?

Sarah Burbedge, Head of Change at the BBC, discusses the role of the ‘disrupter’ in meetings and business conversations. How far can we push it and be mischievous to positive effect? Is it possible to have fun at work? Sarah finds insight and inspiration in this respect from her young children.

At a time of universal staff shortages when corporate leaders are trying to find ways to make their workplaces attractive to talented people, one of the great attractors is a community that enjoys itself and can share laughter and fun along the way. Sarah Burbedge describes the various ways she tries to instill this approach in all her work activities. Please join in!

Bio

Sarah Burbedge is Head of Change at the BBC. She was a BBC TV and radio reporter and newsreader, who became a live events producer and then Head of Change, Sarah’s career has followed a Bridget Jones to W1A trajectory.  Currently part of the team focused on Future of Work for the BBC, she is Co-Founder of A Life More Extraordinary, a Trustee for mental health charity Soulscape and a Champion for 2-3 days.com.  Sarah is passionate about people, content and change, she is a creative leader with a ‘can do’ attitude and a track record for getting stuff done whilst having plenty of fun along the way! In her other equally rewarding and exhausting role as Mummy, Head of Fun and Exec Assistant to Oliver (7) and Gracie (5) and Ginny the spaniel (1), Sarah is busy questing for the ultimate cocktail of sense of humor, wellbeing and work-life balance/collision!

Jul 05, 202248:49
EI and Psychological Safety with Deiric McCann

EI and Psychological Safety with Deiric McCann

Dieric McCann is one of the world's leading experts on the topic of Emotional Intelligence and its role in creating Psychological Safety. In sharing his wisdom around the absolute imperative of this pairing in practice in our scary 'new' world Deiric brings practical yet profound advice and insight to this critical topic. At a time of mass attrition and resignation the companies that can create a genuinely safe environment that allows for free expression and authenticity without fear of any cost to the self will win the day. With his Irish humor and vivid metaphors Deiric brings to life the important role of EI in choosing the impact you have on others and the choice you have to make a positive impact and making it safe for others to be fully engaged.

Bio

Deiric is Head of International for Genos International, a world-leading provider of Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness assessments and education offerings, with responsibility for the management of 1,500+ Genos strategic partners worldwide. In addition, Deiric is a Genos Emotional Intelligence Master Trainer, and an accredited and experienced teacher of the Search Inside Yourself Mindful Leadership Program developed by Google. Deiric is also a two-time TED speaker and author of Leadership Charisma and several other books emphasising the critical role of engaging people to achieve business success. His particular expertise is in helping clients implement EI and Mindfulness-based solutions that deliver measurable ROI – something he speaks about regularly around the world.

Jun 14, 202248:02
Being Human in the Digital Age with Dr Thomas Juli

Being Human in the Digital Age with Dr Thomas Juli

Can we still be human in the digital age? Dr Thomas Juli says we can.

According to Dr Thomas Juli, 'traditional business has reached a dead end' and, from his latest book 'The Spirit of Human Business', he describes how we can move to a transformed business model that focuses on 'generating value for and by people'.

Dr Thomas dares us to move away from looking at ‘human resources’ (things) to viewing people as adaptive and flexible organisms. We are not machines and cannot be programmed. There is a path from ‘me’ to ‘we’ that includes trusting ourselves first so we can trust others to self-organize and be autonomous beyond the structures and processes that can straitjacket human beings.

One vital element in this transformational process is to ask what Dr Juli calls ‘wicked questions’. He calls for projects that incubate and accelerate solutions to the most difficult problems. Starting small we should ask the question “How do I want to live?” versus “What will the future look like?”

The metamorphosis from larvae into a butterfly can be painful and one must be willing to “surrender to complete transformation”.

Please join our host, Michael Banks, and our guest, Dr Thomas Juli, and enjoy this provocative and in depth conversation on the exciting possibilities of a more evolved way to do business.


Biography

Dr. Juli is a Human Business Architect , co-creator and coach for Agile projects and business transformation with more than 25 years of experience in various industries and companies. He is the founder, business leader and trustee of Motivate2B, a collective for leaders, teams and entire organizations with the common goal of making business and their companies more human and sustainable. His motivation and ultimate goal is to help Human business become the new global normal by 2030.

In 2020 he joined Allianz as an executive to help its transformation into an Agile

organization and onwards into a Human Business. He is a regular speaker at conferences worldwide such as the NASA Project Management Challenge, FQ Lounge at the World Economic Forum, Global Congress of the Project Management Institute, and the

Corporate Social Responsibility Forum Germany. He is the author of three books, The Spirit of

Human Business being his latest.

Thomas holds a doctorate with distinction in International Studies from the University of Miami, USA, and an M.A. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis, USA, where he was a student of Nobel laureate Douglass C. North.

In his free time, he loves all kinds of outdoor activities such as running, hiking and free climbing,

skiing and snowboarding. He holds a 2 nd  Dan (black belt) in Taekwondo, is practicing Vinyasa Yoga and dancing Tango Argentino.

May 17, 202201:02:53
Design Leadership - from the creative studios to the corporate world with Juliana Proserpio

Design Leadership - from the creative studios to the corporate world with Juliana Proserpio

Design Thinking has been helping companies overcome obstacles, improve customer service and get a competitive advantage by focusing on creativity and collaboration. As we navigate through rapid and big changes, the emerging role of the Design Leader is a necessity in bringing together unique perspectives from across the globe to create a powerful collective brain that leads to optimal solutions.

Join our host, Michael Banks and Juliana Proserpio, co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of ECHOS (a global innovation lab, as they delve into the emerging role of Design Thinking in creating a desired vision of the future that includes all stakeholders.

It is a tool to navigate change and requires 1) Empathy, 2) Creativity and 2) Imagination. A successful Design Leader knows how to facilitate the process of “changing existing conditions into preferred ones”.

Design Leaders recognise the importance of diversity and know how to manage healthy and necessary conflict by creating psychological safety. A diverse team spanning the globe and using technology to work together online is able to realize the ‘desired’ future far more effectively than having the team working in person in a more localised and homogenised stakeholder group..

Juliana describes the ‘Four Degrees of Naturality’ and why humanity is now faced with the challenge of the fourth degree in which machines create the future. Design thinking is transitioning into ‘generative design’ where humans provide the input and machines produce the output.

By 2030 design will be more and more about “layers upon layers of abstraction” and in this context the role of Design Leaders will become increasingly central to the future of organisations and society as a whole as Human Centered Design evolves into Life Centered Design.

If you are business leader and you think design thinking will be important in your organisation's future, you should listen to this episode to understand how the role of a Design Leader will serve both your company and your customers, so that no matter what kind of problems come your way next, you'll be prepared to solve them.

Biography

Juliana Proserpio is the co-founder and Chief Design Officer of ECHOS, a global innovation lab and over the last 11 years, Juliana has worked to develop an innovation ecosystem in APAC & Latin America to foster the power of design for desirable futures.

Today we will be hearing from Juliana about the emerging world of design leadership and how it is rapidly becoming vital to the future success of companies and, indeed, society as a whole

Juliana was responsible for creating the first Google News Initiative Design Accelerator in 2019 in the Asia Pacific, and later designed and implemented the GNI Startup Labs in Brazil, and in India. She also led innovation projects with Worksafe in Australia (helping them design their future vision for 2048) and is currently leading a Design Accelerator for the House and Property Department (NSW Government).

As an educator, the ECHOS School of Design thinking has already helped to shape 40.000 + innovators, and is currently in the vanguard of design education with a global program on design leadership, bringing the best designers and innovators into the same room.

As a thought leader, Juliana is a columnist at the MIT Sloan Management Review, as well as a columnist for Epoca Negocios (business magazine in Brazil). As a speaker, Juliana has participated in events such as the Global Innovation Summit in San Jose - California, TEDxMaua in São Paulo, and the Sydney Design Festival.

Juliana is also a content producer in her field of design and innovation, writing e-books such as "The Power of Design", "The role of innovation during a pandemic", The Design Thinking toolkit, and pioneering a podcast called Desired.

May 03, 202248:01
Escape from Kyiv - from Resilience to Humility with Jeremy Peter Williams

Escape from Kyiv - from Resilience to Humility with Jeremy Peter Williams

At the root of all genuine success lie certain universal human values and qualities. In the very personal story of how he successfully led his family out of war torn Kyiv Jeremy Williams learned some profound lessons about how he could become a better person and leader of people by applying some of those qualities to his business and life in general.

Jeremy’s story illustrates the importance of trust, compassion and empathy in a crisis. In difficult times leaders need to show a high degree of Emotional Intelligence to communicate honestly and transparently while ensuring the information they convey, and their style of delivery, creates a positive impression.

Just as in Jeremy’s situation in Ukraine when organisations and businesses hit periods of crisis it is heartening and important to recognize that the vast majority of people are capable of extraordinary generosity, humility and resilience. A strong community built on a network of authentic relationships can survive when there is a vision and hope lives on in peoples’ hearts and minds.


Biography

Jeremy has always been fascinated by the question ‘why’ and his curious mind has taken him on a journey from his early days as an enthusiastic sailing instructor in the 1990s, through over ten years of successful sales roles in the UK selling boats, Italian motorcycles and real-estate, to a move to France where he now lives with his family and runs his own coaching and consultancy business, Culturescale.

Jeremy has spent the last few years working closely with successful start-ups and scale-ups to boost team engagement and client retention through harnessing the power of emotional intelligence and he is particularly passionate about the delicate balance between humans and technology that many companies are striving to achieve.

In his spare time he loves to play electric guitar in his band, escapes off sailing whenever possible and is also passionate about blockchain technology and crypto-currencies.

Apr 12, 202246:30
Wellbeing & Vitality with Catherine Llewellyn

Wellbeing & Vitality with Catherine Llewellyn

We spend a lot of time working, in fact the average full-time employee works around 37 hours every week. We dedicate most of our awake time and energy to work. So why do only 27% of people feel their employer really cares about their overall wellbeing? What are employees doing wrong and how can we fix it?

Michael Banks' conversation with Catherine Llewellyn, Master Humanistic Psychologist, Organizational Transformation Strategist and Type ‘A’ Wrangler, provides an expanded view of organizational wellbeing and vitality. Going beyond the more formulaic and programmatic approach to this important, and highly relevant topic, she suggests that well-being is more of a ‘state’ than a set of ‘one size fits all’ best practices.

Catherine explains how she applies to organizations the diagnostic model she co-designed with Professor Paul Tosey of Surrey University. It’s called the Seven Levels and is based upon the Hindu and Buddhist system of seven chakras or energy centers. In this way she can ‘prescribe’ a ‘well being and vitality journey’ that is tailored to each unique organization.

In a time of almost universal fear and stress around viruses and wars a state of wellbeing for all is more desirable than ever. Please join us and be inspired and encouraged by listening to Catherine Llewellyn’s experience and wisdom about how leaders can raise the level of wellness in their organizations by starting with themselves!


Bio

Catherine is: a Self-Mastery Catalyst | Master Humanistic Psychologist | Type 'A' Wrangler | Writer | Podcaster | Free Thinker | Intuitive Healer | Conscious Dancer | Executive Mentor | Organizational Transformation Strategist | Cat lover. As a Master Humanistic Psychologist, Catherine helps successful entrepreneurs, execs and business owners launch themselves to the Next Level - for their businesses and for themselves personally.

Her lifelong passion for human evolution and transformation began at age six, encouraged by her bohemian upbringing and a variety of catalytic encounters with radical thought leaders. For over five decades Catherine has investigated and incorporated the humanistic philosophical approach, along with the arts of physical embodiment, energy healing and strategic creativity.  She has a profound lived familiarity with what it is to be a free-thinker, and a non-conformist.

For many years Catherine worked on large-scale corporate leadership and transformation programs, aligning fiscal success with values driven leadership and culture. Her clients were top business leaders whose transformations benefited thousands of people. Nowadays Catherine works directly and privately with clients, hosts a weekly podcast Truth & Transcendence, organizes local conscious gatherings for free thinkers, and periodically releases insightful and thought-provoking eBooks published on Amazon.

Mar 15, 202246:16
Staying Authentic in Leadership with Dr Margarita Mayo

Staying Authentic in Leadership with Dr Margarita Mayo

What exactly is authentic leadership? Does it just mean being yourself?

Think back to the leaders who have most inspired you. What were the qualities that made them so inspiring? It’s quite likely that authenticity is high up on that list.

More so than ever, and just when it is urgently needed, Authenticity in leadership is in short supply...Dr Margarita Mayo, a leading authority on this topic, is Professor of Leadership at the IE Business School in Madrid and award winning author of the book ‘Yours Truly - Staying Authentic in Leadership and Life’. In this highly engaging interview she answers all our burning questions - Where does authenticity begin? Why are people inauthentic? And how can we best develop it.

Margarita explains how you can maintain your authenticity while being your “protean self” in multiple roles. As she says “We have many different faces but only one heart.”

A recent survey of 28 countries found that only 27% of employees trust their CEO. In the midst of this current crisis of trust “Authenticity is the antidote to the crisis of credibility”.

During this fascinating and inspiring conversation Professor Mayo lauds the Japanese concept of ‘Ikigai’ (finding one’s purpose) and how this fuels the authentic self. She talks about “not being yourself but becoming yourself”. On this journey we need to shed the barriers to authenticity - the pressure to be perfect, fear of embarrassment and the ego. A majority of the populace are seduced by narcissistic leaders but humble people make better leaders.

The interview closes with the inspiring story of the successful young Japanese fashion designer, Hiroko Samejima, who moved to Ethiopia from Tokyo to pursue her authentic dreams.


Biography

Dr. Margarita Mayo is Professor of Leadership at IE Business School since 2000. She is a sought-after speaker and executive development coach throughout the world. An award-winning author of Yours Truly: Staying Authentic in Leadership & Life, Professor Mayo has been recognised by Thinkers50 as one of the global top thought leaders. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship at Harvard University. Margarita holds a PhD in Management from State University of New York, and a Master’s in Psychology from Clark University. More about her work can be found on the website: www.margaritamayo.com

Feb 22, 202250:35
Empowering HR with Deborah Wilkes

Empowering HR with Deborah Wilkes

Of course HR should have a seat at the top table. Right? But what does HR need to do to get there?

Lately, HR has become a very hot topic. And for very good reasons as we shift towards a more people centric approach in this new world.

Some research shows that executive leadership wants and needs an HR business partner who adds value to the organisation and the bottom line.

The question is: How can HR deliver that?

Join our host, Michael Banks, and our guest, an HR expert, Deborah Wilkes FCIPD, as she pulls back the curtain on how HR can secure an equal place at the table.

This is a 'must listen' for anyone who wants to see HR stand up to business leaders and be seen as a business leader in their own right.

Deborah Wilkes FCIPD eloquently and authoritatively shares the reasons HR historically has never been on the same page as business leaders and how practitioners can leverage the increased credibility and visibility they have gained over the past two years to challenge business leaders by speaking ‘the language of business’, being more assertive, being ‘Politically Intelligent’ and having the courage to push back and be part of the strategy conversation from the beginning versus being invited to the party down the line as mere implementers.

Deborah says ‘HR Maturity’ is required so that the CHRO can sit down with the CEO and have a ‘balanced conversation’. And at the end of this interview she shortlists the main obstacles in the way of HR ‘rising up’ to build a shared agenda with the business, and the major solutions to these obstacles.

This brief overview does not fully do justice to this rich and informative conversation.

If you are interested in knowing more about 'HR MATURITY' please join us to find out more.


Biography:

Deborah Wilkes, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and is an expert on all matters HR. She has worked with leaders and managers for 25 years running development workshops and as a coach.  Clients have included global, national and local organisations, private and public sector.  Deborah has worked with many HR leaders and teams, and in HR strategy and OD.  Prior to that, she worked her way up in HR and set up and led UK and European HR functions in global organisations.

In 2016 Deborah began researching what makes great HR and the company Enable-HR was born.  She brings together depth of experience in developing great leaders and managers, and relates this to the particular challenges faced in HR.  Their unique framework of 7 HR Enablers facilitates development and also evaluation - self, team and 360.  Deborah’s book ‘Empowering HR’ was published in March 2021.

Feb 01, 202247:19
‘Meaningful’ data leads to positive culture change with Pa Sinyan

‘Meaningful’ data leads to positive culture change with Pa Sinyan

Did you know that the world’s population has seen an alarming increase in anger and unhappiness over the past twenty years?

This week’s podcast guest, Pa Sinyan, gives us an exciting look at Gallup Organisation work in tracking ‘wellbeing’ and 1) how they fix broken workplaces, 2) how they use the Clifton Strengths Finder to help people discover what makes them unique and 3) how they use ‘soft metrics’ to get to reality.

Join our host, Michael Banks, in this conversation to learn how Gallup focus on existing strengths to solve negative feeling and behaviours and how business leaders can cultivate a positive culture change and workforce engagement.


Biography:

Pa Sinyan is Managing Partner with Gallup and leads Gallup’s teams across EMEA. In his role, he supports leading companies to drive organisational and cultural change. He has 13 years experience working with leadership teams on organisational and C-Suite challenges. Pa leverages Gallup’s cutting-edge data insights in the science of leadership, behavioural economics, and decision-making to support leaders. As a trusted advisor, he partners with leaders to help them unearth organic growth – more engaged employees, customers and suppliers. Pa has an MSc and a BSc in International Economics and Finance from Universiteit van Tilburg in The Netherlands. Born and raised in The Gambia, Pa has lived in Germany, The Netherlands and Tunisia. Pa speaks English, German and Wolof.

Jan 11, 202258:12
'Choosing your Best Future' with Sonal Bahl

'Choosing your Best Future' with Sonal Bahl

Sonal Bahl is a wise and powerful thinker and speaker. She talks about the connection between Purpose and Impact, the Joy of Contribution, and how we are either Contracting or Expanding.

In this interview Sonal invites you to ask a few profound questions to help you guide your career and job choices:

“Will I give another year of my life to these people?” This question puts you back in the driver’s seat so YOU make the choice about your future and can free yourself from being in reactive auto-pilot mode. It reminds you that you have a choice.

When you are considering your next career step ask yourself “Does this position I’m being offered help me get one step closer to where I want to be?” Is it a SPRINGBOARD to my future success?

“If you love what you do you will do it for free!”

If you say “I can’t wait until the weekend” you may be in trouble.

“Do you Love Mondays?” If yes, you are in good shape!


Biography

Sonal is an experienced HR Director and Founder of SuperCharge, a career strategy and coaching firm with clients In North & South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. She speaks English, Spanish, French, Hindi and basic Dutch.

In a career spanning nearly two decades in senior HR positions, Sonal has lived and worked in Chile, Belgium, France, India and Uruguay. Screening over 250,000 resumes and conducting over 5000 interviews in 3 continents - she has helped recruit, build and evolve highly talented teams for large companies like GE & PwC, midsize family owned firms and startups.

Sonal holds an MBA from INSEAD and also serves on the Belgium Steering Committee member of INSEAD Women in Business. Sonal is recognised as a “Sheroes Champion”, one of just 150 selected globally for this role. Sheroes is a women only platform to inspire future leaders, with over 15 million women as members.

Nov 30, 202149:42
Spiritual Leadership with Dra. Lynne Sedgmore

Spiritual Leadership with Dra. Lynne Sedgmore

Can business and spirituality actually coexist?

Join our host Michael Banks and guest Dr Lynne Sedgmore, a bold and courageous disrupter, as they delve into the intrigue and complexities of integrating spirituality into business and leadership.

In her new book ‘Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel: A Post Patriarchal Paradigm’ she explores how the ‘sacred feminine’ can inform business leadership.

As a former CEO, advisor to the UK government, and board director of over twenty five organisations, Lynne Sedgmore has lived the challenges of integrating spirituality into business and leadership. She tells the story of trying to introduce love as a value into a business school twenty years ago and how that concluded. Lynne also discusses the value of exploring one’s ‘shadow’, and the ‘intersectionality’ of pressures were under, in order to grow as a leader.

Spirituality and business are two words you rarely see in the same sentence. On the surface, the two seem at odds with each other. However, this is not some New Age, airy-fairy concept but a journey into the future of leadership described by someone who has had a long career of success and getting things done in the real world.

Are you curious as to how you can incorporate spirituality into your business practice?

Listen this episode with Dr Lynne Sedgmore where she shares how spirituality can be a powerful management concept for leadership that the planet urgently needs.


Biography 

Lynne is an executive coach, a non-executive board member, leadership advisor and author of ‘Goddess Luminary Leadership Wheel: A Post Patriarchal Paradigm’. She was awarded the CBE in 2004, was named one of Debrett's 500 most influential educators in the UK in 2015. Her organisations have won numerous national and international awards, including the International Spirit at Work Award. Lynne held 3 Chief Executive roles within Further Education in the UK over 17 years. She is an experienced board member - having held 25 non-executive posts. She was a member of the UK Prime Minister’s national review of public sector leadership and advisor to the 11 UK Leadership Academies. Lynne has chaired and sat on numerous national, academic and Ministerial public sector committees and advisory groups.

Lynne’s previous leadership roles include Chief Executive of the157 National Policy Think-tank, Chief Executive of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), Principal of Guildford College and Head of Croydon Business School. CEL developed over 40,000 leaders.

She is also a published poet, an ordained interfaith Minister and Priestess.

Nov 09, 202144:22
Honesty, transparency, participation and 'green funerals'... - with Rupert Callender

Honesty, transparency, participation and 'green funerals'... - with Rupert Callender

In this truly fascinating interview Rupert Callender, founder of the Green Funeral Company, shares how he has applied the lessons and spirit of raves and punk to funerals. As a pioneer in the field, and breaking from tradition, Rupert began a new approach to funerals twenty years ago when he was inspired by the natural death movement which came on the heels of the earlier natural birth movement.

Ru calls himself an undertaker (versus a funeral director) in that he undertakes to accompany and empower families to hold the most meaningful and personal of ceremonies and rituals.

Towards the end Rupert makes the connection between the qualities and skills required of an undertaker and modern business leadership. Active listening, empathy, service to others vs self, “letting go of control”, trust and authenticity. “People are hungry for authenticity” says Rupert. And as he says, “Around death bullshit goes.”

Rupert Callender set up The Green Funeral Company in 1999 in response to his own experiences around bereavement and ran it with his partner Claire up until the beginning  of this year, 2021, when she left the business to take a break from death.

They both brought their experiences within the rave and punk subcultures to their work, as well as some more unusual influences like the crop circle scene. They pioneered a strip backed and immersive way of working which threw away the formality and faux Victoriana of the modern traditional funeral. Their watchwords are honesty, transparency and participation, and this they bring to every funeral they do.

Ru edited Writing on Death, and co-wrote the fifth edition of The Natural Death Handbook available directly from the Natural Death Centre, deliberately avoiding Amazon. They both did a TED X talk entitled Death, Grief, Ritual and Radical funerals, and are partners in an art memorialisation project with former KLF members Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty to build a 23 ft high pyramid in Toxteth with each brick containing cremated human remains. They have been described as “The best undertakers of all time by a country mile.” by The Good Funeral Guide.

Oct 25, 202148:50
Being vulnerable and why it’s important - with Andy Lopata

Being vulnerable and why it’s important - with Andy Lopata

In this second interview with Andy Lopata, author of ‘Connected Leadership’ and ‘Just Ask’,  we home in on why being vulnerable is so important in the context of contemporary leadership and the massive disruption we’re all experiencing.

As a leader it is important to let other people help you. This is the emerging model of leadership that is required for these trying times - inclusive, authentic, open and transparent.

What does this mean in real behavioral terms? Andy shares stories that illustrate the role of courage in asking for help and how not to be offended when you are turned down. Leaders should not try to ‘gut it out’ on their own but realize it’s a sign of strength and resilience to reach out to others. Don’t assume people will be reluctant to help you. In fact 97% of the population will be flattered if you ask them for assistance and more than happy to contribute.

In short, this conversation is about being your best with the help of others.

Sep 27, 202149:45
The case for diverse boards - with Monique Choudhuri

The case for diverse boards - with Monique Choudhuri

In this super stimulating interview packed with nuggets of wisdom from the 'front line' Monique Choudhuri explains clearly and passionately the benefits of a board level focus on Diversity and Inclusion.

Monique is a Non-Executive Director for Brentford FC where she is board champion for EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) and has spearheaded their quest to become the most inclusive club in English football.

She tells the story of how a professional sports business, Brentford FC, a Premier League football club based in London, has employed cutting edge leadership practices to create a massive and frankly unlikely success story. This success has been based on the use of data.

As Monique says: "Everyone has bias and to stay humble you have to challenge your bias. We use data to challenge our own assumptions to make better decisions. This takes the bias out of decision making."

We discuss Brentford's success factors including "humility and togetherness on and off the field", "inclusivity" and "doing something they never thought we could do". Also that the "culture is set by the board" (not the CEO and his/her team). In addition, Monique explains the role of "discretionary gold dust" and "pre-mortems" at the club.

All this has application to businesses across the board.

Please explore and enjoy!

Monique Choudhuri MA, ChartMCIPD, has extensive experience in driving up business and board performance through strategic people development and robust governance and combines a 26-year track record as a strategic leadership consultant with a portfolio of board positions. Currently Monique is a Non-Exec Director for Brentford FC, where she is the board champion for EDI and has spearheaded their quest to become the most inclusive club in English Football, and is a board director for Women in Football and Advance-TRS, a niche recruitment consultancy specialising in the provision of highly skilled technical professionals for the built environment. In this time, she has advised public organisations, blue-chip corporates, and education to achieve board and operational excellence through advising on senior executive performance management process and metrics, investment in people, implementing core business policies and helping to mitigate risk. She possesses strong commercial acumen as a business owner and consultant that is utilised to drive strategic culture change at all levels of seniority. She champions diversity and changes attitudes towards inclusion, to both unlock opportunities for people as well as value for businesses.

Sep 07, 202152:49
Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching - with Aubyn Howard

Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching - with Aubyn Howard

Please enjoy this dialog between two master coaches with a combined 70 years of experience between them!

The topic is psychosynthesis coaching which differs greatly from what can be the overly formulaic coaching techniques available from many contemporary coaching certification courses.

Aubyn Howard explains how psychosynthesis coaching covers both outer behavioral changes and the inner psychological world that includes the spiritual aspect of leadership development. Opening the heart and being open hearted is at the core of this holistic approach to coaching.

Aubyn makes the case that this kind of integrated, 'whole person' approach is more important than ever in this new world of increased polarization, isolation and the inner crisis of meaning and identity especially prevalent among young people, our future leaders. This is why we need a Psychology of Being for this Time of Crisis!

Aubyn holds an MA in Psychosynthesis Psychology with the London Institute of Psychosynthesis and an MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies with the HPRG? at Surrey University. He draws upon more than 30 years’ experience as an organisational consultant, facilitator, educator and coach, supporting transformational change and leadership development with leaders of all sizes of organisation, across many different sectors and national cultures. Aubyn is an APECS Accredited Executive Coach and a Psychosynthesis Coaching Supervisor. He is the Author of Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching: a Psychology of Being for a Time of Crisis (2020). Aubyn lives with his wife Diana in France

Aug 16, 202154:52
Creativity can liberate Business! - with Annemie Ress

Creativity can liberate Business! - with Annemie Ress

In this stimulating, fun and eclectic interview Annemie Ress shares with host Michael Banks how creativity can unlock peoples’ innovative potential to produce accelerated business growth. Annemie’s philosophy is “CONNECT and then see what happens!”

We cover the early days at Skype when Annemie was working with the original founders and they were pioneers in the field, her podcast for Afrikaans speakers around the world, how her company, ‘Purple Beach’, is willing to just TRY something (like a TV Box set and an on demand radio station) and then listen and learn from the responses coming back.

Annemie talks about how she uses a NASA astronaut to teach creative leadership, Yoga nidra sessions for organizations coming out of lockdown, and an innovative approach to attracting young talent to very traditional companies.

Finally we discuss how ‘People Innovation’ done well leads to product and service innovation, and how the corporates can partner with startups to accelerate their growth in the networked companies of the future.

Annemie Ress has wide-ranging experience in designing and implementing significant organisational change and transformation in multi-national businesses. She draws extensively from her experience as Global HR Director at Skype, Global Head of People Innovation at eBay, and Senior HR Director at eBay & PayPal Europe.

Annemie is known for approaching organisational, leadership and strategic challenges from a very different and unique perspective and results-driven perspective. She has extensive executive leadership and board-level experience in a wide range of technology businesses at all stages of maturity.

Annemie currently co-leads the development of a diversified €350m energy innovation and technology investment portfolio for a large German multinational including sourcing, evaluating and managing investment opportunities in the UK, Israel, Germany and the United States.  She has a vast direct network of personal relationships in the technology sector covering C-suite executives, hardware and software experts and thought leaders.

Jul 26, 202147:29
Connected Leadership - with Andy Lopata

Connected Leadership - with Andy Lopata

According to Forbes.com Andy Lopata is ‘a true master of networking’. Andy calls it ‘building strong professional relationships’ and in this interview shares the many reasons that this is such a vital business skill. He talks about ‘how to work a room’ as being all about ‘not being attached to the outcome’ and taking the long term approach versus trying to ‘win’ in the short term.

For Andy, empathy and authenticity are crucial factors in successful networking. Way more so now in the world of virtual gatherings. Leadership can be a lonely experience, especially in light of social distancing, and it is even more important now to build a strong support network. Other topics we discuss include ‘cognitive diversity’ in networking, how to protect your reputation, and the answer to the question “How social should we be in our professional lives?”

Andy Lopata is an acclaimed professional relationships strategist, with global clients including Paypal, GlaxoSmithKline and Brother.

He has written four books on networking and often been quoted in the media, including The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and Inc. In fact, the FT called Andy ‘one of Europe’s leading business networking strategists’ and both Forbes.com and The Independent called him ‘a true master of networking’.

Andy holds the PSAE award – that’s the UK’s top award designed to recognise excellence in professional speaking. He is a Board Member and Director of the Fellow’s Community of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA) UK and Ireland and a member of the Global Speakers Federation (GSF). He’s also a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI), and a Master of the Institute of Sales Management.

Jun 14, 202157:58
Transformational and Inclusive Coaching - with Robert Stephenson

Transformational and Inclusive Coaching - with Robert Stephenson

Robert Stephenson works at the 'leading edge' in his field. He is passionate, thoughtful, eloquent and insightful in sharing his lived experience of practicing transformational and existential coaching. Robert explains how this approach focuses on the person, not just the performance, and answers the question, "What is the difference between life coaching and executive coaching?" We also discuss how he is exploring diversity and inclusion in the world of coaching and what he is doing to encourage a compassionate focus on that through his leadership of the Animas Center for Coaching in London.

Robert Stephenson is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Trainer, Mentor, Speaker and the Centre Director of
Animas, one of the largest coaching schools in the UK and Europe. In his role as Centre Director Robert’s his work is centred around supporting the 3,000 and growing alumni that make up the Animas community. Robert’s true love in coaching is using the multi-sensory and multi-dimensional process of narrative coaching to allow new stories to emerge within a client’s world. When he’s not developing new and exciting training courses, he is imparting his insights around coaching, diversity, and inclusion, leadership and beyond as host of the Animas podcast Coaching Uncaged.

May 24, 202152:06
Learning Collides with Culture at CERN - with Pascale Goy

Learning Collides with Culture at CERN - with Pascale Goy

Pascale Goy takes us into the world of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider! She talks about the challenges of enrolling and engaging highly technical and academic populations into the ‘soft skill’ learning journeys that are not typically their main focus and priority. We hear how Pascale successfully built a learning community that involves everyone and not just L&D. This is about shifting the culture to a more human centric, relational one while still dealing with the science based reality that has always been the emphasis at CERN. Central to her success has been the powerful strategy of engaging as partners with the scientists and engineers to create ‘conversational events’ versus formal training programs and curricula. By listening to their stories and gathering data Pascale and her colleagues were able to ‘meet them where they were’ and build programs around their worlds. Fascinating stuff!

Pascale Goy is an accomplished professional with 35+ years wide-ranging leadership and human resources management experience in international organizations. Before working at CERN, Pascale fulfilled several executive roles in other international organizations, such as the International Trade Centre (UN System) and the World Trade Organization. She is a certified executive coach and  regularly delivers keynote speeches in international HR conferences.

Despite her 25 years of substantial experience in international organizations, starting at CERN was a major wake-up call. Indeed, with a long history of great discoveries (such as the World Wide Web), CERN was daunting in many ways and propelled her into a professional venture as complex and thrilling as searching for the mysteries of the universe. Being responsible for shaping multi-year development programmes to support the HR vision and develop the professional potential of all, she was bold enough to advocate the concept of a life-long learning culture at CERN.  She leveraged the existing leadership culture to fast track her belief in learning communities through creative approaches. With energy and curiosity Pascale, to use her own words “collided my L&D vision with the reality of this Organization!”

May 03, 202144:48
Leaders who create and regenerate - with Dr. Jim Garisson

Leaders who create and regenerate - with Dr. Jim Garisson

In this inspiring episode Dr Jim Garrison draws upon his many years and stories of working with some of the world's most historic and influential leaders (such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall, Muhammed Yunus and Mother Theresa) to share his views on the kind of leadership required to successfully deal with 'hyper-complexity' through 'regenerative leadership'. Leaders now need to employ 'ruthless realism', to facilitate the 'collective' in a 'synergistic and multi-disciplinary way', 'interact with diversity', and cultivate 'imagination'. Jim was there in person with the Politburo and the Government when the Soviet Union collapsed through a 'lack of creative leadership' and learned that it is vital now and in the future to 'shapeshift organizationally'. So much insight here into a new model of leadership, a model that serves humanity while generating profit not depletes it.

Dr Jim Garrison is the founder and president of Ubiquity University and the convener of Humanity Rising. He came to this having served as president of Wisdom University which he led from 2005 – 2012, after which he led its transition into Ubiquity University, established in 2012.
Jim has spent his entire professional life in executive leadership, including as co-founder and president of the Gorbachev Foundation/USA (1992 – 1995) and State of the World Forum (1995 – 2004) with Mikhail Gorbachev serving as convening chairman. Jim received his B.A in History from the University of Santa Clara, an MA in History of Religion from Harvard University, and a PhD in Philosophical Theology from Cambridge
University. He has written numerous books, including The Plutonium Culture, America as Empire, The Darkness of God: Theology after Hiroshima, Citizen Diplomacy, and Civilization and the Transformation of Power. He lectures regularly on comparative philosophy and religion, world history and politics, and the implications of global warming.

Apr 12, 202151:37
What it takes to lead into the future - with Vikas Shah

What it takes to lead into the future - with Vikas Shah

Vikas Shah MBE is a serial entrepreneur, investor and business leader who has had to make some tough decisions over the past year and has some powerful leadership advice that we can all benefit from. In this inspirational interview Vikas talks about how he started his first business at the age of 14 through to his new book ThoughtEconomics, which is based on a fascinating series of interviews he has conducted with some of the world’s leading and most influential thinkers. The main theme and context for this interview is ‘Leading into the Future’ and adaptable leadership. What are the different kinds of leadership that these times call for? Vikas addresses questions like “What is and will be different about the leadership requirements of today tomorrow?” “What role does culture play in unifying leadership and organizations?” and “How can you adapt your leadership to lead through a crisis?

Vikas Sha MBE is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor. He is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship (The Lisbon MBA with MIT Sloan) and an honorary professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School. He is Chair of the international NGO In Place of War and a trustee of Mustard Tree. Shah is an advisor to the British Council, a member of the UK government's Industrial Development Advisory Board (IDAB), a board advisor to a range of businesses, and was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to business and the economy.

Mar 22, 202151:30
Regenerative Business - with Marcello Palazzi
Mar 01, 202144:54
A Coaching Culture for the Remote Workplace - with Ozlem Sarioglu

A Coaching Culture for the Remote Workplace - with Ozlem Sarioglu

Ozlem shares her wealth of knowledge and experience around how to create a 'coaching culture' in today's largely virtual environment, and how to overcome the challenges of embedding coaching in any organization. Listen to her cutting edge wisdom beyond the more traditional model of coaching.

Ozlem presents present and future coaching practices that facilitate and empower coachees at scale, are economical, incorporate digitization and AI, and suit the needs and interests of the emerging younger workforce of today and tomorrow.

Ozlem Sarioglu, PCC is a professional coach working with leaders, teams and organizations and is also  the co-founder of Sparkus Digital Coaching Platform, one of the 400 start-ups invited to the World  Economic Forum. As the managing partner responsible for coaching in Sparkus, she has vast experience  in how to adopt coaching services to the digitalization agenda of the corporate HR and L&D teams. She  is also the author of the book “World Voices” which focuses on de-polarization of teams, organisations and larger systems. In 2019, Ozlem was recognized by the International Coach Federation (ICF) with the “ICF Young Leader Award” as one of the six people to carry the coaching profession into the future.


Feb 08, 202151:14
Leading & Learning through COVID | A view from AstraZeneca’s Global Head of Learning - with Brian Murphy

Leading & Learning through COVID | A view from AstraZeneca’s Global Head of Learning - with Brian Murphy

In this enlightening and inspiring interview AstraZeneca’s Head of Global Learning and Development, Brian Murphy, shares the progressive practices that have helped his company through 2020. 

He talks about how being a ‘full human at work’ and being ‘comfortable with being uncomfortable’ engenders trust, connection and productive relationships. Regarding Learning Agility, Brian describes the ‘virtual hackathons’ and the company's successful, in house science based experiment designed to build good habits. He calls AstraZeneca a ‘live learning laboratory’. And then he discusses the importance of leading with empathy and vulnerability and ‘getting out of the way’. The emerging leader at AstraZeneca is encouraged to be curious, transparent, open and brave. All this and more as Brian Murphy lifts the curtain on what has enabled AstraZeneca to be one of the success stories of 2020.

Brian is the Global Head of Learning & Enterprise Capabilities at AstraZeneca. He is based in Cambridge in the UK where he is tasked with leading a multi-year change programme to transform how learning happens at the company. Apart from building a new Enterprise Learning team, he is also focused on developing learning agility, a culture of life-long learning, and future skills and capabilities to support the business strategy. This work is critical for the company to deliver on its mission to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines.

Previously Brian was the Head of Learning and Leadership Development for CitiBank in Europe, Middle East and Africa where he led global efforts to develop a culture of workplace learning across Citi’s 200,000 employees in over 100 countries.

Brian believes passionately that the L&D profession is at a historical crossroads. It can choose a traditional approach which is increasingly irrelevant to the ‘real work’, or it can become a key enabler for business performance, innovation and culture change.

Jan 18, 202148:28
When the Void meets the Infinite | Leading change today - with Ram Ramanathan

When the Void meets the Infinite | Leading change today - with Ram Ramanathan

Ram Ramanathan shares his journey of going from a highly successful, autocratic corporate CEO who ruled by fear to an empathic listener who coaches people to become authentic leaders of change. Referencing ancient Vedic and Buddhist teachings, quantum physics, and ‘giants’ such as Jung, Bohm and Rogers, he describes the profile of the kind of leader who can successfully lead change today and in the future. Ram’s wisdom has profound application to our current world where coaching and mentoring can play such a major role in helping people, especially the young, become self-actualized.

Ram S Ramanathan, is an accredited master coach with ICF, EMCC and BCC, and in 2012 co-founded Coacharya, a global alliance of like minded, highly qualified coaches engaged in leadership development, with the objective of helping people discover their better self. Ram has had long CEO & serial entrepreneur stints over 4 decades.  Ram has deep interest in cross cultural spirituality. His passion is to integrate Eastern wisdom with Western sciences to coach corporate leaders in their transformational leadership journey of ‘Mindless Barefoot Leadership’. Ram and his wife are Singapore citizens with permanent residence in Bangalore, India with their rescue dog, spending part year with their grandchildren in the USA.

Dec 14, 202054:02
YOUth Can Change the World - with Leah Black

YOUth Can Change the World - with Leah Black

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders As true global citizens they hold the world in their hands. Yet they feel a great pressure on their shoulders. Leaders of today have a responsibility to ensure young people can navigate our ever changing fast-paced world. A world that the older generations have built, but seem to have forgotten to hand down the navigational guidebook and instructions to the younger generations. This brings many issues as well as wide ranging opportunities to the future of leadership. So, what challenges are young people facing and what can they bring to the world of tomorrow? What can current leaders do to bridge the needs gap for our aspiring future leaders and help them to tackle these challenges? What can you do to make a positive difference in the lives of youth to help create better leaders for tomorrow?

Leah Black, is a professionally-qualified youth and community practitioner and coach, who is dedicated to inspiring and empowering the next generations through mentoring, coaching, informal education and training. She has over 15 years’ experience working with communities and 11-25+ year olds in the UK, Ecuador, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and virtually across the globe. Leah has worked in the charitable, mental health and education sectors and has gained a lot of experience working with young people from all kinds of backgrounds in a variety of roles and locations. She is the founder of ‘The Youth Mentor Coach’ (
theyouthmentorcoach.com) and currently leads a number of youth programs.

Leah strongly believes that core life and social skills should be integrated into global mainstream education to help young people in their personal and professional development. She aspires for excellent coaching and mentoring to be available to all, without borders and barriers. Leah strives to prepare future generations to be the best they can be for themselves, others and the world; enabling young people to feel that they belong, can lead and be heard, succeed, thrive and “be the change they wish to see in the world” - Gandhi.

Nov 23, 202045:11
Can the Bullying Leader be Redeemed? - with Animah Kosai

Can the Bullying Leader be Redeemed? - with Animah Kosai

Bullying comes in many forms and most of the time goes unreported. We've all experienced bullying in our working lives at some point or another. This conversation begins with some truly stunning statistics about the endemic nature of bullying in organizations. We then discuss the effects of this bullying and the toll it takes on individuals, businesses and organizational cultures before moving on to explore what can be done about the bully leader. Can they be redeemed or indeed redeem themselves and how? Animah Kosai tells her own journey from being a bully boss to 'seeing the light' and changing her ways.

Animah Kosai is Founder & Director, Speak Up At Work Limited, and Co-founder, Speak Up Academy

Animah speaks, writes and advises on workplace harassment, corporate wrongdoing and toxic work cultures. She is Malaysian, based in London and practiced law for 9 years in Malaysia, before joining the oil and gas industry as corporate counsel for 14 years.

Animah has given talks and trainings in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore and London, as well as media interviews, on topics ranging from corruption and #MeToo, to global corporate scandals.

Animah co-founded the Speak Up Academy, a community of thought leaders and experts in the compliance world to explore solutions on speaking up and whistleblowing on critical issues as well as building safe and open organisational cultures. A certified coach, she co-facilitates weekly circles on the Speak Up Academy covering workplace harassment, speaking up and leadership.


Nov 02, 202052:20
What is a 'Personal Brand' and why is it so important? - with Sonal Bahl

What is a 'Personal Brand' and why is it so important? - with Sonal Bahl

In a year in which so many peoples’ jobs and career trajectories have been adversely affected Sonal Bahl explains how to distinguish yourself in an increasingly crowded job marketplace and how to supercharge your career! Her career boosting strategies give people the competitive edge to land their dream job, get promoted and lead a richer, happier & more purposeful life.

In this lively conversation Sonal shares her practical advice and tips for how to build your reputation using social media, especially LinkedIn. She says that personal branding is "the art of effectively differentiating yourself". She explains how to do this and why it leads to people being attracted to you rather than you trying to impress to get a new job or a pay raise.

Sonal is an experienced HR Director and Founder of SuperCharge, a career strategy and coaching firm with clients In North & South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. She speaks English, Spanish, French, Hindi and basic Dutch.

In a career spanning nearly two decades in senior HR positions, Sonal has lived and worked in Chile, Belgium, France, India and Uruguay. Screening over 250,000 resumes and conducting over 5000 interviews in 3 continents - she has helped recruit, build and evolve highly talented teams for large companies like GE & PwC, midsize family owned firms and startups.

Sonal holds an MBA from INSEAD and also serves on the Belgium Steering Committee member of INSEAD Women in Business. Sonal is recognised as a “Sheroes Champion”, one of just 150 selected globally for this role. Sheroes is a women only platform to inspire future leaders, with over 15 million women as members.

Oct 12, 202050:41
Emotional intelligence: game changing for business, life changing for people - with Dr Ben Palmer

Emotional intelligence: game changing for business, life changing for people - with Dr Ben Palmer

Our guest in this interview is Dr Ben Palmer, founder and CEO of GENOS International and one of the world's leading experts on EI. Ben answers the question “What IS emotional intelligence and why the tag line “Game Changing for Business, Life Changing for People”? Ben addresses other questions like, "What are organisations using emotional intelligence for and what outcomes are they getting from it?", "What are the specific skills of it and which is your favourite and why?" and "How do you develop emotional intelligence?", In a rich and wide ranging conversation Ben and I explore the six competencies of the GENOS Model of EI - self-awareness, awareness of others/empathy, authenticity, emotional reasoning, self-management, positive influence what part they each play in business and life in general.


Ben has a PhD in psychology from Swinburne University where he developed the first Australian model and measure of emotional intelligence. Together with Swinburne University’s commercialization arm, Ben founded Genos International to bring his model and measure of emotional intelligence to the market. Today Genos is a national Australian export success story. Genos has operations in Australia, North America and Europe, and distribution partners servicing clients in India, China, South Africa, South East Asia, the UAE and New Zealand. Companies from Walmart in the United States, to Accor Hotels based in Paris, to Qantas in Australia, have used the Genos model and measure of emotional intelligence to improve leadership, resilience, customer service, sales and teamwork.

Sep 21, 202049:11
How do you develop and lead a high-performing team in a virtual world? - with Sabine Weishaupt

How do you develop and lead a high-performing team in a virtual world? - with Sabine Weishaupt

How do you create a close knit high performance team and a micro culture that supports it in these very challenging times? Sabine Weishaupt has been leading a global virtual team for the past five years and has broad and deep experience of what it takes to do this successfully.

In this interview Sabine shares her best practices for how to lead virtual teams in the extremely different business environment of 2020 and beyond. Sabine Weishaupt heads up Deutsche Telekom’s global team of internal leadership development, learning and transformation consultants. With her team  - a diverse and international group spread over 10 countries  - she develops large scale development programs as well as short learning interventions with an experimental and progressive approach whilst pushing the digitization strategy of the company. The team’s mission is all about accelerating a human centered digital transformation.

Aug 31, 202046:48