By Jude Jennison
The podcast currently has 33 episodes available.
Tony Langham is the Executive Chair and co-founder of Lansons, a reputation management and public relations firm based in London and New York. We discuss the importance of approaching reputation management as the way people perceive each other and companies. With an increased focus on ESG, Tony explains how companies need to change their behaviour to stay relevant. We also discuss anti-racism, balancing tension with comfort and much more!
I loved Tony’s explanation of balancing adrenaline and tension with comfort in order to create change, and engage employees (including yourself!) without leading to chaos and burnout. It’s a delicate balance that many organisations and leaders are grappling with today. It’s also good to hear a white male championing anti-racism and understanding the changes in behaviour that are required to do so. After 33 years of leading a business and a team, Tony really understands what makes people tick and goes the extra mile to make his organisation one of the UK’s Great Places to Work.
Where do you need to find more balance? What changes in your behaviour would make your team or organisation a great place to work?
www.judejennison.com
Tara Rule is the Senior Director of Commercial Strategy Go to Market and Operations at Adobe, responsible for looking at how Adobe make smart commercial decisions. Tara manages to juggle her full-time role as a director in a fast-paced global business with launching a leadership programme, being a working mum as well as a professional coach. She talks about the importance of curiosity in leadership, the power of having a positive mindset without sugar-coating reality and how we need to look after our teams. And much more!
Tara is so inspirational. Her energy appears to be boundless and she seems to have worked out how to focus on what is critical so she can achieve many things without burning herself out. I also liked the fact that the leadership programme she has implemented doesn’t require one person to do everything. It spreads the load by including many people and enables leaders to collaborate, think creatively and be empowered to shape things.
How do you empower your team to be a part of the solution, both the design and the implementation? How could you take more pressure off yourself by not having all the answers?
www.judejennison.com
Dr Mersha Aftab is the co-host director for MA Design Management courses at Birmingham City University. She specialises in design leadership within large organisations, exploring how designers design and lead strategically in business. We discuss how designers have a voice and a platform to give them the agency to lead even though they don't have the position in an organisation. We cover emotional intelligence, designing the future and the skills needed to act as a bridge between user experience, technology and business.
I like the idea that design management is the bridge between design and business, enabling business to create meaningful products for customers. I’m also struck by the reminder that professionals need to develop new skills in every part of the business. In this case, design thinking requires business to explore business viability, functionality through technology, and desirability from the user experience side. And it's the perfect combination of these three things that make a good product or a good service. And that at the heart of all of this is the emotional intelligence to explore things from different points of view and collaborate effectively together.
How do you ensure that business, technology and user experience or employee experience all come together in a seamless way in your business?
www.judejennison.com
Phill Elston is Operations Director of Brompton Bicycle and is responsible for leading the manufacturing organisation in the production of the famous Brompton bicycles. Phill joined the company because his values were aligned, and he felt able to express himself. He talks about the importance of being driven not being at the expense of having joy and fun and seeing a team as an organism. He has a special way of bringing his team together called ‘Rum and Coke’ that has transformed the relationships and results.
I enjoyed hearing about Phill’s leadership style and the way he encourages his team to be themselves. I particularly loved his phrase: “I like being myself because it takes less calories’! So true! The ongoing and constant disruptive change people are experienced often leads to fear and Phill’s approach to helping his team navigate those fears is refreshing. If we can encourage people to be themselves and show up fully, we can resolve tension and differences of opinion more quickly before they build out of proportion.
What are you currently concerned about? What would the authentic version of you think, say and do?
www.judejennison.com
Sarah Foster is the Managing Director of Comply Direct, an environmental consultancy and compliance business. She is also the author of Yabba Dabba Do It, a book on self-confidence. Sarah shares her three steps to self-confidence – Prepare, Do and Review. We also talk about the environment, of course, Sarah’s business is based on it but we also discuss relationships, emotional intelligence, boundaries and so much more!
I love how Sarah brings everything back to confidence because, at our heart, we’re all ethical and responsible and want to do great work. We often know what we want to say and do, but when things get tricky, we can so easily get pushed off course and modify our behaviour based on other people’s expectations. Ture collaboration is when we have the confidence to show up fully with what we think and feel and work through differences of opinion that may exist with others.
Where are you holding back? What differences of opinion need to be resolved? Trust in your self-confidence and show up fully today. You might even surprise yourself!
www.judejennison.com
Rich Horth is Operations Director for Adecco, a large recruitment agency with 80 offices throughout the UK. Rich talks about the great resignation, how that creates a candidate led market and what that means for employers. With the highest number of vacancies ever seen, Rich talks about the importance for organisations to look after their employees and keep people engaged. He shares some of the things they do at Adecco to make work more fun.
It's easy to think that people leave their job for more money but all the research shows that people leave because of their manager. Not every organisation can pay top salaries so I’m glad Rich offered some alternatives that show people that the organisation cares about them. Ultimately if we know the job market is candidate led and people are looking for more purpose and a greater sense of enjoyment in teir role, every manager needs to consider how they can create that for their team. We don’t need to keep people in jobs they don’t want to be in so sometimes people moving can be an opportunity to do things differently.
Who in your team is disengaged and what might you do differently to either re-engage them or reorganise the way you lead your team?
www.judejennison.com
Cathy Brown is the Chief Executive of i-SE, a social enterprise that provides business support services for social enterprises in the West Midlands. Cathy brings a wealth of experience from both the commercial sector as well as social enterprises and social movements. We discuss the importance of having a strong sense of purpose in an organisation and the importance of social value in business.
Talking to Cathy, I’m struck by how everything comes down to connection and communication. If we build good relationships and we communicate effectively, we can do great work in the world that has a positive impact on society. That sounds so easy yet we all know how tricky relationships and communication can be!
The purpose of my own business is to enable people to thrive at work through connection and communication. I wonder if we switched our perspective to enabling humans to thrive, we might deliver work that was more purposeful and ultimately lead the change we need to see in the world
What change do you want to see in the world and how does your work lead or support that change?
www.judejennison.com
Bella Lewis-Smith is the founder and MD of Salad, a design and digital agency based in Dorset in the UK. Bella talks about the process of selling her business to become a 100% employee-owned business and the challenges she faced along the way. She explains how selling the business into an employee-owned trust enabled her to be much more honest about what she wants personally.
Even though Bella is still the MD, I can’t imagine how hard it was to let go of making all the decisions when the company was founded by her in the first place. That speaks volumes about her willingness to be bold and courageous, to work through the difficult conversations and build a deeper level of connection and trust in the process. Whether you are considering an employee-owned business model or not, there is much take from her radical honesty and ability to bring people with her.
Where are you not being honest, either with yourself or with others?
What would you say if you spoke with the radical honesty that Bella mentions?
www.judejennison.com
Jane Huntington is the Head of Application Development for Guide Dogs. I’ve worked with Jane and her team and I have some understanding of the complexity and volume of technological change that they are leading. Jane talks about using an agile way of working to lead change, continually taking the next step forward, reviewing progress and adapting quickly where needed. And of course, she reminds us that accessibility is critical when using technology so we don’t leave people behind.
What Jane and the Guide Dogs team have done is enhance the way they communicate as a result of remote working. I love how they have a culture of learning something and building on what works and dropping what doesn’t. You can only innovate if you are willing to embrace trial and error. Jane is a reminder that we can use technology to deepen connections but it’s how we use it that matters. That of course is down to humans, to us as leaders.
Who do you want to create a deeper connection with and how might technology enable that to happen?
www.judejennison.com
The podcast currently has 33 episodes available.