Amy C. Edmondson is a Professor of Leadership & Management at Harvard Business School. Ranked #1 management thinker in the world by Thinkers50, Amy has written seven books, including Right Kind of Wrong and the fearless organization. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What is psychological safety and why does it matter for board members? (1:44) Can we overcome our fear of what others think of us, even if we’re aware of it? (4:02) Isn’t psychological safety just a grandiose term for inclusion? (5:12) As board members, what should we be looking at to assess our organisation’s psychological safety? (7:24) Are there predictable events that trigger drops in psychological safety? (10:16) How can organisations mitigate the impact of remote work on psychological safety? (13:10) How can boards increase the quality of their conversations through psychological safety? (14:14) Can you talk about “setting the stage” and specific tactics boards can use to have more candid conversations? (17:02) How do you sanction violations whilst maintaining psychological safety? (19:27) How would you advise board members to challenge execs in meetings? (24:46) How can boards decide if their CEO is a difficult genius to stick with or someone they should let go? (26:11) Where do we go wrong when thinking about failure? (28:51) When is it right to proceed via first principles versus A|B testing? (34:50) Could the boards at VW, Wells Fargo and Nokia have prevented their respective failures? (36:08) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(40:01)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Sara Weller CBE is Chair of the Money and Pension Service and former/NED at BT, Virgin Money and Lloyds Banking Group and UK Department for Work and Pensions amongst many others. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How have you built a plural career across the private and public sectors? (2:04) What are the similarities and differences between the public and private sector board roles? (4:08) When should people take on their first board position? (6:25) Can you take on a role too early? (9:35) How can board candidates make themselves stand out? (11:49) Are you always the voice of the customer in the boardroom, irrespective of product? (19:24) How do you balance your personal customer experiences with big data? (22:19) How do you express challenge as a NED? (24:44) Can you talk about your own experience of disability in the boardroom? (27:07) How much time should boards allocate to think about disability? (32:13) What three things can boards do now to help disabled board members and customers? (34:03) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(36:51) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Jenny Knott is NED at the British Business Bank, the UK Development Bank & SimplyHealth and Founder of FinTech Strategic Advisors Ltd. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What was your journey into the boardroom? (1:44) How did you transition from internal to independent boards? (3:50) When you were CEO, was your board your highest return on your time invested? (6:06) Do board members add more value in or outside meetings? (10:10) Who is board performance for? (12:38) Can boards really perform their monitoring function? (13:19) What do NEDs need to understand first when they come onto FS boards? (15:45) Where do they go wrong? (17:52) How can NEDs from different sectors get their heads around unfamiliar regulations? (20:06) Do start-up boards have a different relationship with regulation (versus larger firms)? (24:12) Where do they go wrong, engaging with the regulator? (26:44) What are your key value levers as a Remco member? (28:15) What would your dream incentive structure look like? (32:45) Should we include debt in compensation packages? (35:05) And ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(41:18) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Professor Renée Adams is a professor of finance at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: Do popular boardroom surveys provide an accurate picture of women’s underrepresentation? (0:56) Would the financial crash have happened if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters? (3:38)  Are crises inevitable? (5:02) Are there any differences between female and male directors? (6:59) Why is our current way of thinking about the causes of female under-representation wrong? (10:19) Does adding women to your board improve shareholder value? (16:02) Are quotas effective for improving female director representation? (18:04) What are the latest boardroom myths that need debunking? (19:44) How would you build your dream board? (21:39)  ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(22:26) Audience Q&A (23:54)  

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Edwina Dunn the co-founder of dunnhumby, the data analytics company behind Tesco's Clubcard and numerous loyalty programs worldwide. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What were the key value adds of the dunnhumby board? (0:50) How did you manage to land the transformative deal with Tesco? (3:14) How did it feel when you landed the deal? (6:54) How did you get comfortable making one big bet on one customer? (7:56) Why were Tesco happy to share their sensitive data with you and not others? (9:36) Did  your investor directors add any value? (12:42) What was the board’s role in your growth? (16:20) When and how did you break into new markets? (19:16) Did all the markets work out equally well? (20:16) How did you make sure you got the best deals in your strategic partnerships? (22:20) Did you get your pricing right? (23:41) If you’d had a board, do you think it would have been able to add more value to you on that journey? (28:37) What was the single biggest value add of your independent director? (31:27) How did you do your exit? (34:58) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(38:22)  

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Nick Jenkins is Founder and former CEO of Moonpig, former Dragon on Dragon’s Den, Chair of Virtualstock, NED at Green Energy Options and Trustee at Operation Fistula. Nick has recently founded the South Wilts Ski Club, an infinity ski slope in Wiltshire. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: What were your key sources of support and challenge in the early days at Moonpig? (2:26) How did you pick your first investor-directors? (4:40) What distinctive value did each of your investor-directors bring? (5:42) How did you keep going when your investors told you it wasn’t going to work? (7:06) How did you unlock the value of your board? (8:14) What was the biggest disagreement you had with the board? (9:05) Can you talk through your transition from Founder to Exec Chair? (10:01) How did you strike the balance between autonomy and oversight for your successor? (11:34) How do you add value as a NED today? (13:10) What advice do you have for those trying to scale a successful culture? (13:51) As a board member, how do you make sure organisations make the best use of data? (17:09) Why did you choose repeat rate as your north star metric at Moonpig? (19:32) Should all businesses have north star metrics? (20:09) How do you assess business plans as a board member? (22:18) How important is it to hit business plan targets? (24:53) Would your CEOs say your boards are the highest return on their time invested? (26:13) How do you help your businesses spot opportunities as a board member? (28:47) How do you help them identify their growth levers? (33:52) ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(39:57)

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Dame Alison Carnwath is Audit Committee Chair at EG Group and Asda, NED at PACCAR and Coller Capital, Chair of Livingbridge Strategic Advisory Board and Senior Advisor at Evercore. She was formerly Chair at Land Securities. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: What was your journey into the boardroom? (2:22) How did you transition to new sectors as a NED? (4:08) How do you determine what the critical issues are as a board member? (9:23) Do you ask for information about why employees leave the company? (12:04) What do you see as the best board structure? (13:34) What are your guiding principles for thinking about executive compensation? (17:12) How have you learnt to deal with non-unanimous agreement in the boardroom? (21:52) How did you navigate the financial crisis as chair of Land Securities? (26:01) What was the dynamic between you, the CEO and the rest of the board in that situation? (31:37) As Chair, what were your sources of support and challenge? (32:52) ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(34:59) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Joy Harcup is an executive coach and board reviewer at Praesta Partners and author of The Art & Psychology of Board Relationships. Dame Una O’Brien is on the boards of Lloyd's Register Museum and Ashmolean Museum. A former Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health, she is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Government. Tune in to hear their thoughts on: Can you explain the 7 archetypal negative dynamics you’ve identified? (2:53) Can you talk through how some of the specific archetypes have played out for you in the boardroom? (8:46) Can we use the above example to look at the psychology of see-sawing? (12:21) What do the terms “projection”, “transference” and “pairing” mean in a boardroom context? (16:55) What would you say to those who dismiss these ideas as psychobabble? (19:21) Can you give a boardroom example where you have resolved someone’s projection? (21:34) How have you experienced the doomsday scenario in the boardroom? (24:45) Can you talk through the “stand-off” dynamic in boardrooms? (33:50) ⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(36:50) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Lynda Gratton is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, best-selling author of The Shift and The Hundred Year Life, Advisor at Pictet Group and Skills Builder, and Founder of HSM Advisory. Tune in to hear her thoughts on: How can board members help execs redesign work to create a competitive advantage? (2:49) Can every organisation have purpose and meaning? (4:38) Can you talk through your idea of different “modes” of work? (5:47) Do you have any data on the optimum mix of remote versus in-person work? (9:28) Given the lack of data, should board members encourage execs to experiment? (13:22) How can boards balance individual and structural factors when designing work? (15:46) How do you ensure fairness across teams when structuring work? (20:41) How do you use personas when thinking about internal talent? (22:50)  What patterns do you see in organisations redesigning work effectively? (25:12) Where do you see them going wrong? (27:21) Why isn’t there a clearer link between poor CEO behaviour and share price? (28:03) Are those who redesign work to be more employee-focused at risk of losing out to those who don’t? (32:34) What key levers can board members focus on to help execs learn and develop? (34:47) How should board members think about investing in managers? (37:40)⚡ The Lightning Round ⚡(39:32) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Lord Mervyn Davies is Chair of LetterOne, the LTA, Glyndebourne Opera and a variety of high growth companies and SID at Teneo. Formerly, he was a Labour peer and Minister of State and CEO of Standard Chartered plc. As Standard Chartered CEO, was the board a help or hindrance? (1:42) What are the key lessons you’ve learnt from mentors? (3:03) What were the biggest strategic challenges you faced, and how did the board help? (4:53) As a CEO, did you get better at getting value from your boards? (8:50) How should CEOs prepare for board meetings? (10:18) What would your biggest boardroom critics say you got wrong? (11:27) What happened at LetterOne after Russia invaded Ukraine? (15:18) How do you manage stress, with such a full portfolio? (19:28) How did you decide to stay rather than leave at LetterOne, and how did you persevere? (21:02) What did you learn about communication through the crisis? (24:34) What did you learn through the crisis at Garden Bridge Trust? (28:44) What did it teach you about media relations? (31:52)⚡The Lightning Round⚡(33:39) Audience Q&A (37:23) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom