"Tough on results tender on people is really the ultimate yin yan of humble leadership"

A great conversation with Urs as we delve into the realms of humble leadership and how we can consciously create this practice. We take a dive into the transformative potential of radical humility in leadership and how it can revolutionise the way you lead and connect with your team.

Urs's experiences as a peace-keeper gave him a unique perspective on leadership, which he generously shares with us. In environments where lives are at stake, the ability to build trust and foster relationships is paramount. Effective leadership is not just about making decisions but about understanding and connecting with people on a deeper level. This requires a balance of humility and confidence—a delicate dance that can lead to remarkable outcomes as you master the process intentionally.

As diverse teams become more frequent, understanding and bridging generational gaps can lead to a more harmonious and productive work environment. This also requires leaders to be humble, adaptable and open-minded, willing to learn from the unique perspectives each generation brings to the table.

Urs shares his insights, stories and experience to date from all angles : his peace-keeping missions, his experience as an ultra athlete, as a father and from working with leaders all over the globe.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- An important part of leading with radical humility is to ask bigger and more difficult questions and not judging when dealing with different value systems, for example.

- Non-humble leaders need to be shown what teams can achieve by a humble leader in a top-down control culture looking down, controlling their own team and demonstrating their ability.

- Leaders can be humble and confident, humble and decisive, or humble and ambitious; fundamental self-confidence is required to humbly invite feedback; and being ambitious is about asking hard questions.

- Leaders should show vulnerability and role model humility: demonstrating appropriate vulnerability is one of the quickest ways to build trust as people admire perfection but can’t relate to it.

- Shifting from ‘then’ leadership (top-down command control in the industrial age) to ‘now’ leadership (with humility) by developing deep self-awareness; training the feedback muscle; and realising the value of focus and the importance of failing successfully.

- The most important factor in teams are relationships, so treat others as you would like to be treated and lead like a compass – the true test of leadership is how things function in the absence of the leader.

- Lead with a shared purpose and with full transparency – share your imperfections, your decision-making and your thought processes, engaging in the ‘thinking person’s sport’.

- Focus should be on organisational leadership as opposed to individual leadership excellence – create a fearless culture, take responsibility for how your team members interact, provide psychological safety, and be direct.

- Leaders must ask for help and acknowledge and show gratitude for feedback: there is great value in learning together experientially – in different situations, teams have to rely on each other, regardless of rank.

- The network age is the fog of war with generational and technological changes, and the ‘fog of work’ presents us with a very complex environment: like the immune system, a team gets stronger when it is tested.

- A multi-generational workforce...

"it is about enabling a bigger version of ourself...People are only in their head, not in their heart and solar plexus."

Katja and I delve into the world of purpose, spirituality and business, looking at demystifying the subject and exploring how we can connect more effectively to our inner wisdom.

We explore the concept of “universal intelligence” and the importance of personal beliefs, connecting with unseen energies, and uncovering internal strengths. Katya shares her journey from the corporate world to spiritual work, stressing the significance of challenging assumptions and being open-minded.

In an age where the rush of everyday life often drowns out our inner voices, we discuss the positive impact of spirituality in corporate environments by fostering sensitivity, awareness, and intuition, while also encouraging individuals to explore their spiritual capacities and seek guidance for personal development. Letting go and letting things unfold creates a conducive environment, which is necessary both professionally and personally, but even the education system frames emotions and sensibilities as weaknesses.

katja shares her personal story and insights from her journey from the corporate world to spiritual work, and how important it is in today's busy and interconnected world to really connect to something bigger than us.

The main insights you will get from this episode are :

- Spiritual is defined variously as believing in a greater power to connect to if we choose or believing in the existence of something beyond the physical and material world; it is not linked to religious or esoteric beliefs.

- This ‘power’ will not harm us, but help us by adding to our thoughts, emotions and sensitivity; helping us to develop our sixth sense; giving us access to the invisible; and teaching us as we become part of our ‘spirit team’, which is not static, but changes over time.

- It makes us aware of our unused capabilities and our own immense potential and enables us to exchange with our physical dimension (e.g. in the form of plants, animals) but also with another dimension, as it all revolves around energy, which is everywhere and can change everything.

- The spiritual world depends on personal parameters but is commonly known as ‘God force’, the ‘divine’, or ‘universal intelligence/consciousness’ - the key to accessing it to remain open, flexible and tolerant in the absence of scientific proof (today).

- Connecting to something bigger is a hot topic at the moment in terms of having purpose – it keeps us humble and makes us realise that we don’t know everything. We must listen to what is said/not said and tune into the different energies around us.

- The corporate and spiritual worlds are compatible, e.g. in terms of leading with purpose, sensitivity and empathy, as healing and mediumship help us improve on all levels, understand ourselves better, and realise how big we are (many environments, e.g. corporate, make/keep us small).

- Orientation and guidance are helpful in both private and professional lives, giving us increased sensitivity and awareness, raising our consciousness of our own value, helping us validate ourselves, granting us inner freedom and wellbeing to overcome challenges and leave our comfort zones.

- Talking about spirituality openly brought more positive reactions than expected. The law of attraction means that people who want or need it will come, and a grounded vision of mediumship and healing helps blend the spiritual life with ‘normal’ life.

- Own experience of the spiritual world guided Katja to the truth,...

"Tech is no longer niche, but fundamental to life in Industry 4.0..."

A great conversation with Anne-Marie Imafidon about the importance of women’s involvement in technology as well as the importance of breaking stereotypes and having diverse voices around the table for inclusive product development. Tech is no longer niche, but fundamental to life in Industry 4.0 and it is dangerous to have a small number and limited range of people making tech decisions that are also social, moral, political and ethical decisions.

Anne Marie and I discuss tech fluency, democratising tech access and how to foster these diverse voices, distributing power differently and understanding that technology allows us to have a multiplicity of experiences. Diverse voices lead to more inclusive product development, which is crucial for the success of any tech venture in today’s world. A call to action for us all to get curious, get involved and take control. Through her multiple tech ventures, authorship of the insightful book “She’s in Ctrl,” and tireless efforts in systemic change focusing on Science, tech, engineering, Arts and maths, we discuss how to make shaping a more inclusive future a reality from an individual, collective and societal perspective.

Anne-Marie shares her thoughts, insights, stories, humour and incredible vision for recognising women’s historical contributions and addressing male-dominated industry challenges whilst advocating for a lens of continuous learning amid the 4th industrial revolution to ensure more inclusive technology moving forward.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Passionate about future-looking tech ventures; breaking stereotypes around access to tech for women; engaging with tech and other people to improve society; and looking to effect systemic change.

- We are making progress in terms of talking about women in tech but currently they are not high-profile and the ‘herstory’ is hidden, which is both frustrating and perilous.

- Tech is no longer niche, but fundamental to life in Industry 4.0 - it is dangerous to have a small number and limited range of people making tech decisions that are also social, moral, political and ethical decisions.

- All decisions about tech carry risks, can be wrong or even harmful on both an individual and wider level; the biggest mitigation lever is to have as many different perspectives as possible.

- If multiple elements are missing from the tech, it becomes harmful when deployed - we must see the value in everyone; overlooking huge tranches of society can have serious consequences.

- We must value the impact of tech as opposed to simply its prowess, understand that it enables a multiplicity of experiences to be reflected and this is a serious responsibility; our default is to think that tech is neutral, but it isn’t.

- Divergent thinking is absent in our (convergent) education system and in organisations: no company is an island, e.g. what they do affects the supply chain, customers, and ultimately society at large.

- The exponential speed of tech alongside the glacial speed of societal change means that technological advancement will create more problems than it solves.

- Education must transform for learning to take precedence over knowledge – we need the right structures and support for teachers to stay in post and a culture of learning at all ages and not just in formal spaces.

- The Institute for the Future of Work looks at upskilling, the new knowledge that is being created, and promoting wellbeing...

"Don't be fooled by shiny technology... have a look at your business pain points and what problems you need to solve first"

Matt and I delve into the world of driving sustainable digital transformation with all its pitfalls and iterative loops. We unwrap the journey of digital transformation in organisations - which is inevitably fraught with challenges - from enacting organisational change to managing career risks and adapting to the rapid evolution of emerging technologies. Organisational stamina is however one of the biggest challenges we face - not giving up at the first success or failure, but organisations are like people – always looking for a quick fix.

We delve into how taking a systems thinking lens can be transformative, especially coupled with the revolutionary potential of generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in industries like construction, which have historically been skeptical of technological advancements due to past disappointments. Generative AI and LLMs, despite the challenges exemplified by Google’s struggles with bias, are lauded for their capacity to revolutionise data management and processing. They promise a future where complex data is not just managed but harnessed to drive decisions, optimize processes, and ultimately, catalyze growth. - leaving time for the more complex human elements to be top of mind. For technology implementation to be successful, it must be rooted in continuous progress, systemic analysis, and the dismantling of operational silos through collaboration and empathy.

Matt shares his insights from his career to date, and the model he developed of how to successfully implement digital transformation - work done right !

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Work Done Right is a collection of lessons learned from various industries with common themes of how best to achieve or not to achieve digital transformation.

- Society needs infrastructure but is not good at providing it on time and on budget; we must improve processes using technology to help project leaders get it right first time.

- The Work Done Right methodology is about process, culture and systems thinking – we must view projects holistically as interconnected wholes rather than in silos.

- Within the system, we must define the quality we want and the systems we need to achieve it but work quality requires a speak up culture, akin to speaking up about health and safety for the greater good.

- Human error can cause problems but there are rarely systems in place for errors to happen, i.e. people do not speak up about quality/process failures - tech and engineering are very knowledgeable but fail to take account of human factors that are part of the processes/system.

- Translatability of ways of working from one industry to another is very beneficial, e.g. energy companies approaching other industries that have a good track record for safety of operations in hazardous environments, e.g. aviation.

- Systems engineering and systems thinking can be used to ‘engineer out’ value risk. Any large organisation naturally builds up silos over time due to specialisation and bureaucracy but derisking is important as doing things differently entails risk.

- There are competing elements of culture and technology at play in the explore-exploit scenario - change is often initiated for the sake of it without recognising the good reasons why systems are put in place.

- ‘Splashy technology syndrome’ describes situations in which people desire digital...

""Organisations that fail to hire for and develop positive character among their leaders are missing an opportunity.."

A great conversation with Mary about the crucial relationship between character and leadership, and how it can enable transformation in organisations and organisational culture.

We dive into the 11 dimensions of character with corresponding behaviours and look at the importance for leaders to balance extremes and manage polarities to promote inclusive and collaborative spaces.

We discuss dismantling the assumption of static character and empowering leaders to embrace personal agency in their decision-making processes. Our conversation goes beyond the surface, tackling the subconscious influences on our behaviour, balancing polarities and looking at the various different levers for developing character, as well as challenging biases in different processes and systems.

What is the impact of taking Character into account ? A significant shift in the environment within organisations, calling for a re-evaluation of leadership selection to be more character-centric.

Mary shares her research and experience from running educational programmes with leaders all over the world on Character and its impact on leadership in today's workplace.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Character development can unleash excellence once unlocked, but linking the science of character to leadership is a relatively new concept. Leadership was on trial during the economic crisis in 2008 – the leadership failures that led to the global financial crisis were not a failure of competence but a failure of character.

- What is character? Is it possible to develop character? There is no evidence that character is ingrained and cannot change, but it should not be confused with personality, which is semi-stable (e.g. introvert/extrovert).

- Character is a set of specific behaviours that satisfy criteria, and each one of these behaviours can be developed as a habit. Most of us have underdeveloped character because we don’t know of the possibility to develop it.

- There are metrics, e.g. 11 dimensions of character with 62 associated behaviours, and Aristotle called character practical wisdom – the key facet is that any virtue operates as either an excess or a deficiency, e.g. a lot of courage requires a lot of temperance.

- We need to understand that strengths operate in a dysfunctional way in the face of the virtue vs. vice polarity; operating with a deficiency must be recognised and excess must countered, e.g. tenacity/grit has to be offset to avoid negative outcomes.

- The link between character and DE&I is that understanding character can create a more inclusive environment in which people can thrive. We judge ourselves on our intention and others on their behaviour, but character is about observable behaviour, and our intentions mask our lack of understanding of others’ behaviours.

- The culture of an organisation will reflect the character of the individuals in the organisation: intention and behaviours don’t match up, which is borne out by research on self-awareness. Character supercharges the DE&I agenda and helps us get to our real natures.

- We have personal agency over our character and must form the right habits to develop it. Character brings laser focus to core beliefs and scripts that we are unaware of and that are difficult to overcome, e.g. vulnerability, trust, worthiness.

- There are various levers that create an intention...

"As we navigate the post-COVID landscape, the need for intentionally empathetic leadership has never been clearer.."

Neal and I delve into the profound impact of empathy on cultivating thriving workplace cultures and how we can scale this skill, particularly at more senior levels of the organisation.

Empathy is often referred to as a 'soft skill' but is actually one of the hardest to enact and is more than a soft skill—it’s a strategic advantage. Executives and leaders who embrace empathetic practices are witnessing tangible benefits in business metrics, marketing, and branding.

We discuss debunking common myths about leadership and collaboration in organisations and conclude that it’s time to challenge the status quo and embrace the paradigm shift. Engaging in courageous conversations, addressing conflicts with sensitivity, and creating a shared vision through empathetic confrontation can be powerful and strategic tools for organisational transformation.

Neal shares his experience, insights and research from his book 'the E suite' and from his operational daily life as CEO of Cybercore Technologies.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- The shift in work-life balance during Covid saw people and empathetic leadership come first as opposed to empathy being considered a soft skill and not representative of ‘strong’ leadership.

- Executive leaders must seek to apply empathy and openness by understanding context and emotional states and making decisions based on this – it is not about ‘niceness’ and should be reframed as relationship building.

- The concept of business(-focused) empathy is about understanding the people you work with and using it as a tool to help with decision-making, e.g. how to deal with a diseased tree branch that impacts the tree as a whole.

- Strategically impactful decisions for a business involve the deliberate and intentional use of empathy as a leadership skill and lever - empathetic confrontation is linked to collective vision and organisational transformation.

- The most impactful transformations come from a place of safety and understanding the context so that transformation is not combative but involves all parties to solve a common problem.

- Create unity, not homogeneity by creating a level of trust - intense conversations in a trusted and safe environment can be very productive and senior leaders can create the conditions for empathetic discussion by saying transparently what is going on, inviting people to talk to them and creating psychological safety.

- Empathy is not always the solution but personal agency can be leveraged using effective communication, for example, by meeting with people for a disclosed reason; not letting emotional states come into play; monitoring reactions; looking for underlying issues and finding constructive solutions.

- Post-Covid, there is more openness to empathy generally but still many generational differences in terms of what makes a workplace successful, although it is clear that people-first policies affect the bottom line.

- Talent managers have an opportunity to inform leaders of the impact of empathy using bare metrics (e.g. the cost of firing/hiring v. retraining) or demonstrating the proven ROI of empathy.

- Leaders must hold themselves and others accountable and practice empathy until they are conversant in it – if they lend their voice to the conversation, people are more disposed to talking.

- Transformation instigates fear, which thrives in quiet and...

"There can be kindness in telling the truth, and therefore providing a place from which to move forward.."

A great conversation with Paru about being authentic, and defining our own meaning of success. Learning to trust one’s intuition is a skill that many overlook, and we discuss the very essence of authentic leadership, the art of self reflection and how to empower others as you stand boldly in who you are.

Paru shares the trials and triumphs of tuning into that inner voice. It’s about looking back to move forward, reflecting on past experiences to navigate & create the future. This isn’t just about what works in business—it’s about what makes us human in our careers.

Are you ready to lead with authenticity? Are you prepared to break the mould and champion honesty in your professional life?

Paru generously shares her stories, her life experiences, her insights and her wisdom from working with C suite leaders across the globe.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Mission: seeing across multiple functions and profiles and speaking authentic truth in the corporate world - leaders must remain authentic and truth is important for stability.

- There can be kindness in telling the truth, thereby providing a place from which to move forward; many of us have a tendency to bury our heads in the sand instead.

- The ability to spot patterns and predict next moves led to an advisory role, offering help to avoid falling back into old patterns in order to overcome fear and learn how to manage hypervigilance.

- (Self-)reflection helps to prevent repetition of mistakes and sharing vulnerabilities builds trust - in short, being authentic saves time!

- Just as we must encourage introspection and think about who we are, the same also applies for clients - exercises can be for both professional and personal purposes, but the universal truth is that there are no shortcuts.

- Putting in the work brings epiphanies and results, which we can use as a mirror to reflect back, embracing tough lessons to grow and learn.

- Moving from hypervigilance to trusting (one’s own) intuition is where genius happens; we must relinquish that which we hold on to and hold up the mirror to ourselves instead of other people.

- Collating the data we derive from this will show us what happens when we follow our intuition and are ourselves – in the formula of ‘if you do x, I feel y, so I do z’, we can make choices.

- Legacy means the impact we have on the world by sharing personal lessons learned, learning to trust our judgement in others, and offering stories for people to take ingredients from to maybe apply to their own lives.

- How do we know when we have reached 100% (of ourselves)? It is a gradual process, and each challenge helps us dig deeper and find that bit more – we can’t really ever know if we are at 100%, as it is a constant journey.

- It is helpful to be direct with others, to give instructions and information and be who we are - we cannot rely on others to do things for us and need our own backup plan.

- We must find our authentic version of ourself by spending time alone, regularly checking in with who we are today; as we evolve, we are impacted by extraneous factors but once we find it, we must hang on to it!

Find out more about Paru and her upcoming book here :

https://www.paruradia.com/paru

"Role modelling is the most powerful way to influence people and cultures ..."

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, resilience has become a buzzword, but how do we move beyond buzzwords to action?

Julian and I do a deep dive into the heart of organisational resilience, unpacking strategies that can help your teams to do more than just survive, we focus on building resilience through fostering well-being, growth, learning, and vulnerability. We discuss the transformative effect of creating a workplace where challenges are shared openly, and optimism is balanced with a healthy dose of realism.

We also touch on the critical role vulnerability plays in team dynamics and how it ties back to character and attitude. We discuss the essence of authentic leadership and the importance of role modelling in catalysing and strengthening collective resilience.

How can we create these conditions in a hybrid workplace ?

How can we intentionally cultivate workplaces where people and teams can thrive ?

Julian shares his research, experience, stories and insights from his ongoing work with leaders and teams.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

• Thriving is the flipside of surviving – like a plant that thrives with the right food, soil, environment, water and sunlight, in an organisation this means people feel they can learn, grow, excel and make mistakes.
• It is an ambitious concept for organisations as constant high performance is unrealistic and can lead to a culture of toxic resilience, i.e. constant optimism, overachievement and ultimately burnout.
• The middle ground between thriving and surviving means being open about challenges; being real (with people); being optimistic, i.e. rooted in the now but with an eye on the future; and being realistic.
• Organisations should provide check-in times for teams and a comfortable environment in which to share – resilience must be operationalised and it can be developed and grown like a muscle (through discipline and practice).
• Given the diverse profiles in a team, it is important to scale the mindset and create collective resilience - having a mission lifts the team, gives energy from positive purpose, and offers a path forward with innovative solutions.
• There are processes to ‘reduce, regulate and repair’: scenario planning, iceberg drills, collaboration, mitigation ideas, debriefing through difficulties and successes, reflecting on lessons learned.
• Clear roles and responsibilities are required for collective understanding, as are discipline (i.e. a commitment with structure yet flexibility), consistency and messaging – the processes must serve the people, not the other way round.
• Authentic leadership improves team resilience through self-awareness, balanced processing, internal moral perspective, and openness and transparency – very important for interaction.
• Psychological safety is paramount and the responsibility of the leader, with self-awareness the most significant of all as it has the biggest impact on creating a resilient team.
• Hope and optimism are very good things to have in organisational constructs – leaders with hope retain staff, raise profits and have thriving teams with optimistic intentions for the future of both the organisation and the people.
• Role modelling is the most powerful way to influence people and cultures in terms of bringing in pessimists as it offers inspiration but not toxic positivity and grounds people in reality.
• Leaders must create conditions for people to thrive in a hybrid environment through connection and communication, e.g. virtual townhall meetings, in-person get-togethers (with social elements, not always work-based), and open-door policies (also via Zoom).

Find out more about Julian and his work here :