Co-Founders Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd in conversation with Natalie Shering for a special episode of Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend podcast. Here they explore why Curiosity, Care and Courage are the mindset and behaviours that underpin their Collaboration Equation™ to:

• Build Psychological Safety

• Practise Inclusive Dialogue

• Invite Diversity of Thought & Feeling and

• Drive Collaborative Edge

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Akin Thomas, CEO and Founder of AKD Solutions - an international learning and development consultancy - built upon an ethos of stimulating brilliance through providing the space for people to engage in transformative and disruptive, and impactful fun learning experiences. Together we delve into:

• How do we create a learning environment that stimulates brilliance and the right to be your very best person, the very best version of yourself.

• How the quality of conversations that we have today has a direct correlation to who you will be in the next 5 - 10 years and beyond.

• The importance of disruption, and asking What happens if we do something differently, what is possible?

• Being intentional about our impact, and conscious of how the decisions we make now have a massive impact beyond what we are conscious of now.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Karen Wilkinson, inspiring and award winning Marketing Director, we delve together into:

• The power of connecting with your Values & Purpose

• How knowing your Strengths and not sweating your weaknesses is the best way to Focus and Fly

• Why Courage & Belief and Stepping out of your comfort zone is all part of being Brave

• Adventure Seeking - On seizing the day and going for it!

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Helen Stephenson, CEO of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. We delve together into:

• How as a leader the main tool in your leadership is yourself, which means you need to understand how you work - your strengths and weaknesses

• Why getting the right team is crucial and making sure you recruit people who are different from you, and who have the right skills and personality to fit with the organisation and its needs.

• Why leadership is All about relationships

• And how there is no perfect leader, and the importance of knowing when good is good enough rather than aspiring to be everything all at once!

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Julian Roberts, Executive Business Coach, Podcast Host of Helping Organisations Thrive. Together We delve together into:

• Why the need for resilience in leadership in today’s workplace is greater than ever.

• How to create a resilient mindset to lead your team and organisation.

• And how to create resilient teams that are better equipped to navigate challenges and thrive in an ever-changing environment.

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