Building Better Leaders

In celebration of International Women’s Day (8th March) Rachael & John are joined by Katherine Whitton the outgoing CMO of Specsavers to talk about inspirational women in leadership. 

This conversation is a little trip down memory lane for Rachael as she worked for Katherine back in 2008, when Katherine was Head of Global and UK Marketing Communications at British Airways. Rachael reflects on how Katherine was an inspirational leader who helped shape the course of Rachael’s own leadership journey years down the line. 
Some of the topics we discuss are:

Any leader should ask themselves: “Why should someone follow me?” If you are lucky enough to lead: What is it, I have that makes them want to follow me?

Wonderment - How do you build a compelling narrative around - possibilities and vision. You have the responsibility, if you lead others, to inspire them to come on the journey with you.

Empowering people to bring their best selves to work; let individuals be their best selves and let them do it their way. It’s true that this creates friction; it’s the leaders responsibility to make sure that friction creates something sensational.

Related Content:
#22 In our podcast series: Inspirational Female Leader Jan Iceton Chair of Smart Works talks to us about her incredible career in SAAS and Tech https://bit.ly/2JFkEpW

Rachael & John are joined by Burnout Specialist & fellow Coach Dr. Pam Wells. So many people suffer from “burnout” this debilitating and worrying state; we ask why so many driven and successful people seem especially susceptible to it? 

We ask is all about control? “Control is a myth, we don’t have control over anything, not even our next breath?” And “Who am I when I’m not at work?” 

What is burnout? Pam describes burnout as the feeling when you’re not coping, you’re trying harder and harder, yet feeling less successful. When people say: “I’Il just do this one last thing” - we need to ask could this be a warning sign? With boundaries so blurred we also look forward to what might be coming along, and how people can avoid it. 

We talk about the importance of sleep, the unconscious patterns of work that we drop into, and the culture of our teams. We discuss that idea that we might have to “Be comfortable with unknowing” that because unknowing is definitely not comfortable. 

By framing the situation in the Drama Triangle we consider how much time we might be spending rescuing our organisation, and how people can jump onto the Winners Triangle. Brene Brown gets a mention as we talk about - Switching from Victim to Vulnerability - “When I’m owning my fragility I’m stepping into my own power - is burnout a case of persecuting myself for being vulnerable? 

Clarity - Around knowing what I know, what I don’t know, what’s expected of me, what 3 things should I do today? 

Collaboration - we are all in it, you can achieve so much more, when you involve others 

Compassion - I like to think that people are doing the best they can. “Everybody is doing the best they can with what they know. If they know better, they’ll do better.” 

Pam is very happy to answer any questions, and can be contacted via us at: [email protected]

Other related content:

#7 What to do when you are taking work stress home?

In this weeks episode Rachael & John are joined by fellow Coach and future orientated Josie Mc Lean. They discuss just how we can all get involved in promoting the climate change initiative at an organisational level.
It’s no secret that leaders are turning their attention and expanding their horizons towards a more sustainable future. For some this a paradigm shift, for others it’s a natural progression that can no longer be ignored.
They discuss how coaches can be involved, spring-boarding off the Climate Coaching Alliance Org 24 hour world-wide event on 4th March 2021 which works on the Eco-Phase Cycle, which is based on Dr Peter Hawkins’ model from eco-curious to eco-active. To meet people where they are at - be it Curious, Informed, Aware, Engaged or Active.
To embark on a more sustainable leadership approach Josie recommends:

This is not an “add-on” we can no longer ignore human behaviour towards the planet. This is now part of the business environment we are in.

Embrace the uncertainty - stay with your vision and get comfortable in moving towards safer uncertainty

Keep asking: "Just how adaptable can we be?” Not to adapt once, but to adapt over and over.

What operates out of sight can be very detrimental to individual and team performance. In this podcast we talk about how improving our self-awareness can help bring behaviours like our unconscious biases to the surface.

In this weeks episode Rachael & John chat with Philip Grant.  His work has taken him from British Eventing and International Polo to Secondary, & Further Education. We loved listening to his stories including meeting royalty and leading a team of 50,000 in the Middle East for Sheikh Mohammed.

We ask when does your career really start? Philip shares his story of learning to ride a horse when he was 14, something that shaped his entire life and leadership journey. We learn about the people who influenced him, what his fundamental view of leadership is, and why it’s important to test everything to destruction.

Understanding who you are and knowing what frightens you can be invaluable helping you through your whole life. He talks about how he approaches communication, the processes he use in building relationships, and what kind of environment a leader should create in order to help their team to do what they do best.

This is authentic leadership at its very best, leaving you with colourful images, memorable stories and a motivating legacy of what is possible.

Philip’s Leadership Essentials (1:09:00):

1. Take a long hard look in the mirror and get to know yourself. Spend time evaluating your values, understand your own unconscious biases. They’ll be useful keeping you in check and on balance

2. Share how you respond to things, be transparent and don’t be frightened about sharing your cognitive processes. Modelling those processes can be so helpful for others

3. Don’t believe your own hype - the greatest challenge is to be the same person in and out of “the leadership chair” Authentic Leadership at its core.

In this weeks episode Rachael & John chat with Kevin Urrutia. Based in New York, he is a true entrepreneur, always looking to learn and grow. 
Kevin shares his story, from how he started as a Developer in Silicon Valley to now building five different businesses from scratch at just 31 years of age. Today Kevin’s main focus is on his latest creation Voy Media which is #1 for Facebook ads, helping brands scale at record speed with paid social.
John & Rachael talk to Kevin about where his entrepreneurial spirits comes from, how he continues to nurture it and his tips for budding entrepreneurs. As a leader of a successful SME today, with his team based all over the world we talk about how he makes this work to the benefit of clients, business and team members. And how he’s tackling the issue communication in a team made up of both extroverts and introverts while working remotely. 
For those of you curious about what is possible, entrepreneurship and building a business based on passion and people this conversation with Kevin has a thought provoking message for you.

Kevin’s Leadership Essentials (42:14):

Committing to weekly meetings, especially needed when your work is over different time zones

Pre-meeting notes keep us on track and people know what we all want to talk about. Using Asana to keep records for us works really well

Ensuring our team is aligned and that people agree and know what we all want for the company.

Links from the show:

https://maidsailors.com/
https://montemlife.com/
https://chestertravels.com/
https://voymedia.com/

We are joined by Céline Williams Executive & Team Coach, founder of Revisionary based in Toronto, Canada. We chat about Team Coaching, and remote working with some great tips for working in a hybrid future. What are leaders concentrating on in these challenging times? Who are the members in your 1st team? 

Céline's Leadership Essentials: (1:32) 
1. Being more committed to my own growth than to my comfort; this is where we really see change2. Critical thinking should be uncomfortable; if you’re constantly hearing what you want to hear, then that - is confirmation bias. What your hearing should not be reinforcing what you already think3. Introspection is vital for leaders - they must understand their own patterns of behaviour. Importantly do not get stuck in introspection.

Uncertain futures make communicating our organisations visions a tricky affair. How do we make our teams feel safe right now?

In today’s episode we are joined by Leadership Coach & Developer Matt Lock, whose career spans education, sport and business in the UK and New Zealand. We talk to Matt about an article he wrote in the Learning Scientist Magazine on Towards Safer Uncertainty. It’s a topic that has never been more relevant than in the world we find ourselves in today (as the UK enters a third national lockdown).

Matt explains that we tend to confuse safety with certainty. Believing that to be safe we need to be certain. Yet by realising we can be safe and uncertain, we can move into the domain of growth, exploration and learning. A fascinating territory for leaders to thrive in, and one that leads to more useful and appropriate ways forward. Matt argues that moving towards safer uncertainty is essential for next tier leaders - the leaders our businesses, organisations, and planet needs now.

Discussion Points:

Why the default position of 'It depends’ is a powerful place to start conversations.

To live a meaningful life we must Grow Up. Wake Up. Clean Up. Both as individuals and as organisations.

That when, as individuals and cultures, we recognise vulnerability as courage, we will make greater progress.

Accepting that things are always going to change, and that doing so leads to creativity and possibility.

How leaders can move Towards Safer Uncertainty using a framework for practice:

Learn about Matt’s three Leadership Essentials and why they are so important to leadership success.

Links from the show: 

In the final "Building Better Leaders" podcast of the year, Rachael and John and joined by Jan Iceton who shares her leadership journey and experiences. 
Now Chair of Smart Works Greater Manchester, Jan has had a varied leadership career in positions in everything from FTSE50 global corporations to tech start-ups, working for corporate boards and for investors, and running her own consultancy business. 
She talks about building teams that need to move quickly from A>B. With strong sales performance her Transformational Leadership style is suited to qualifying leads and delivering complexed, large value business outsourced process (BOP) contracts on-time.
Jan’s Leadership Essentials:

Smart Works (Great Manchester) a national charity with 8 centres around the UK. They provide a unique service to unemployed, disadvantaged women by personally styling them in a high quality interview outfit followed by 121 coaching to prepare them to succeed at their upcoming interview, during lockdown all services were successfully and quickly adapted to be fully online. In the year ending March 2020, Smart Works Greater Manchester supported 420 women and 85% went on the "get the clothes, get the confidence, get the job".  
Please show your support by joining their campaign to #givethegiftofchristmas and donate a small amount using the link below to help an unemployed woman gain the confidence and the skills she needs to succeed. 
virginmoneygiving.com/fund/SWGMgiftofconfidence