In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with John Edwards, Director General, Regions Group, at the Department for Education, UK.

John and I were invited to be in conversation by and for the annual Transform Applied Leadership Summit, held virtually this year on 8th March 2024. The title of our conversation Understanding Ourselves and Understanding Others - a leadership perspective is the title of the summit.

(For listeners who don’t know about Transform Applied Leadership I share their details at the end of the podcast, along with ways in which you can connect with John.)

John and I delve together into:

• How becoming a leader is all about finding your own leadership

• The alignment between who we are, how we lead and why we lead, and what it means to be an authentic leader

• The importance of being aware of individual and collective leadership behaviour and the impact that it has on others

• 360 degree leadership and measuring our leadership achievements through the successes of others

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Tanya Shadrick - author of The Cure for Sleep: her memoir of a late waking life, a story of breaking free, and making a more creative life; Tanya is founder of the Selkie Press; editor of the Wainwright Prize-listed Wild Woman Swimming. She is a community builder of writers and storytellers through Substack where she writes, and invites you to share your stories. Together we delve together into:

What it takes - and costs - to build an authentic life of one’s own, while continuing to honour our roles within families, workplaces, and communities.

And explore four key themes:

• The voices around us - and the beliefs that we form about ourselves and our abilities because of what is praised or punished.

• Our Size and Shape - and how related to beliefs about ourselves, and our abilities, we (perhaps) make ourselves smaller

• Work - and how writing about work is central to Tanya’s storytelling

• The importance of service, of finding the best in ourselves, and each other, for the good of others, and to deliver use and meaning to others

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Moses Tai Founder and CEO African Development Choices (ADC), Author of ‘There Is Shade’ and Speaker.

We delve together into the working culture of African Development Choices, in particular how they encourage community and reflect who they are in what they do:

• Seeking and giving input, raising awareness of choice

• Showing and taking initiative as part of sustainable change

• Commitment to the organisation and its purpose through building belief and hope, and working together

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Roger Mortlock, Chief Executive Officer, CPRE, the countryside charity.

Together we delve into what it means to lead:

• A heritage organisation, being open

• In a federated structure, being humble

• A campaigning organisation, being brave

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Febronia Ruocco, Strategic Insights Professional, Executive Coach and Mentor.

We delve and explore together leadership values and skills, and the importance of these in Febronia’s life, leadership, insights and mentoring work. In particular the values of:

• Integrity

• Collaboration

• Honesty

• Empathy

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Meera Craston, a highly experienced senior leader and executive coach; and co-founder of Next Brave Move. Meera is committed to supporting individuals, teams and organisations to thrive, demonstrate their impact and bring about positive change.

Together we delve into:

• How understanding and embracing your heritage can enable you to more fully connect with your passion and purpose;

• How tuning into your strengths and into what comes naturally to you can open up new possibilities for exploring your leadership;

• The beauty of the ‘reset’, and how discovering and using your ‘reset function’ can help you in re-evaluating and ‘course correcting’ your leadership as you go along.

• The importance of having a support network who act as ‘thinking partners’ to help you stay ‘on course’.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Martin Glover, HR Director for Morton Fraser - Martin is an advocate for fairness, equity and leadership development. Together we delve into:

• What he really cares about, his values and beliefs, his passion and purpose - who, what and where have shaped him - and how he lives these through his leadership :

• Why as leaders of organisations we should be prioritising Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging;

• Why targets in Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging aren't helping us get to where we need to be in organisations

• And ask - Does improving diversity mean that inclusion and belonging will follow?

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Justin Russell, Former Chief Inspector of Probation, a role that he finished in the Autumn of 2023 on the challenges and satisfactions of leading in the public sector. Together we delve into:

• His experience of Senior leadership in the Civil Service – the challenges and satisfactions of sharing the vision setting space with politicians and other parts of government

• Operational versus Policy leadership in the Public Sector - why most top civil service jobs go to policy specialists and why intellectual leadership is prioritised over emotional leadership in Whitehall.

• Justin’s personal career challenge - as someone who loves policy detail and evidence - of getting the balance right between being ‘Hands off and hands on’, of being on the balcony versus being on the dance floor.

• The challenge of engaging colleagues in an era of hybrid working – and how does remote working make leadership more or less easy / more or less satisfying?

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Jane Mather, Make-up Artist and Personal Stylist. We delve together into:

• How truly understanding our ‘uniqueness’, and our ‘values’, can help us shape our personal style and achieve our goals

• How translating our ‘values’ and defining our non-verbal communication skills helps us hone our personal style for success

• The importance of showing compassion to and being empowering of others.