In leadership and life we are often taught to evaluate, strategise and plan. These can indeed be important for us as leaders. Life and leadership though does not always go to plan and the unexpected can happen. Colin interviews Alex Menhams about ‘Improv’ as he is a Trainer, Speaker and Improviser who runs the ‘Here & Now People’ Improvisation Community. So Alex has the perspective of ‘Improv’ to help us not fear the unexpected moments but in fact to engage in them in the moment.

What is the power of being people centred in our organisations? If we really support and develop our people can it also help us to raise standards in our organisation?Joining me today, we have Colette Firth - Executive Head; Ross Colley, Head of school at Winyates, Alice Braxton, teacher at St Johns and Connor Knowling, Head of school one day a week, an assistant head and a class teacher to have real life conversation about Creating a People Centred Culture. We will look at what they are doing well and areas they still want to work on and from that unpick what helps us to invest in people and create a people centred culture.

We often find ourselves in moments of transition. Moments of moving from one thing to another, whether that is a new job, a new moment in life, a new approach at work or a new way of doing something. The moment when we process this transition is the threshold. Thresholds can feel scary, but Trevor in his new book ‘The Gift Of Thresholds: Flourishing Through Challenging Transitions’ helps us see the beauty and opportunity that thresholds can offer us.

Creating a high performing team is what every leader dreams of to accomplish their vision for their organisation. Key to this is both growing and nurturing talent and getting the best from everyone so that the team is greater than the sum of its parts.

So, today in our podcast Colin Tapscott will explore with Ashley Bowdler, Managing Director at FORCE Business Development, how do you grow and manage talent in individuals. They also discuss when you bring that talent together, how you ensure the dynamics bring the best out of individuals and the team.

We will also explore how you cultivate a continuous learning culture that is the seedbed for growing staff and empowering the team.

Our topic today is ‘Mastering the minimum’. As a leader, we are encouraged to ‘paint the picture of the future, go there and people will follow’ as Seth Godin put it. We are the artists of the culture we want to create. In reality, we know that painting the picture we want established is not always followed. People have their own ideas and standards that are different to ours. Therefore, as a leader, establishing the parameters, ensuring the minimum standards are met are key to maintaining the culture.

Nobody likes to get it wrong and so sometimes we like to reduce the risk to make no chance of failure. But this can then lead to risk reduction ruling us and stifling innovation. Colin speaks to Adam Golding, who is General Manager at Electroglass, & soon to be Chairman of the Charity Sizewell Hall, to explore how we can get the balance to ensure successful change and innovation.

We explore ‘risk reduction’, thinking ahead of what could go wrong and reducing the risk of it happening, and ‘risk management’, working out how you will deal with it if it arises. We distil the important components to help you rule the risk, rather than the risk rule you in both leading change and in your personal life. 

Adam Golding started out in Engineering & Manufacturing making specialist equipment for the live entertainment industry working up from the shop floor to Managing Director, whilst involved with the growing and merging of various companies before the whole Group was purchased by an American company & he became Operations Director. Covid saw an opportunity to change industries during the downturn and he was invited to help grow a Printing Company before then being Head Hunted to his current role in the Glass container industry.

Join us in the Leadership Lounge to discover more about ‘Ruling Risk’.

Any leader knows that successfully leading your team is key to success and taking people with you. Leading a team well does not happen by accident. It must be purposeful and responsive. This month’s guest is Dawn Jarvis, Managing Director of Stellar Leadership Group, author of Leading Corporate Clans, and she explains key components for leading your team well. Using the core components of the Stellar Model, Dawn helps us see what can transform your leadership of your team.

Beyond the purpose and values that drive the organisation, what else helps you ensure you have a culture that helps the organisation and the people thrive? Colin Tapscott and Anna Hennell James interview Nick Osborne who is the CEO of Maritime Academy Trust to explore how you create a strong culture. Psychological safety is a key part of that and Nick explains practical steps he takes to create that, how he develops leadership throughout the organisation and what authentic steps help create alignment from all parties. Tune in this month to help you develop your organisational culture.

Even an experienced leader can find it hard to have a challenging conversation with someone. We like to get on with people and so having a difficult conversation with a colleague or your line manager about something that isn’t working or talking to a colleague about a performance issue, can feel like a binary pass/fail moment and therefore unsettling.

But what if there was a different way of having this conversation that was more about collaboration than confrontation? Could this boost our confidence?

In this podcast Colin Tapscott and Anna Hennell James explore how this issue starts with our own internal storyline and how we can change this so we feel more confident going into the conversation with our purpose for the conversation much clearer.

They will explore with you four ‘R’s: Realise the Reason; Recognise the issues; Reaction awareness; Raise with 4P’s that will help you grow in confidence for this conversation.