"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...