The Leader's Kitbag

This week we are joined by Teresa Payne for what I believe is a real master class in leadership.

Teresa is a solicitor and the Managing Partner at regional law firm Parfitt Cresswell, where she has spent the past 15 years developing and growing the legal teams that serve clients across London, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent.

She didn’t take the traditional route to qualification as a solicitor and her legal journey didn’t start until she found herself dealing with her own divorce.

Her experience was the driver to qualification and has formed her commitment to providing access to great legal services and information for all. This is something we talk about in this episode and I found it truly fascinating to learn how this deep sense of purpose shapes everything she has done since.

On top of that, we spoke about delegation – and why we often find it so hard. We also explored service-based leadership, recruitment, making time to plan and so much more.

Teresa is also the author of two books, ‘The Good Divorce Guide’ and ‘The Later Living Guide’, which you can find via the prize draw using the link in the show notes. 

Before we get into this episode, head over to the Online Course page of my website - https://www.ben-morton.com/ - where you can sign up for my 10-4-10 Leadership Course. It's totally free, it's bite-sized, and it covers some of the most common leadership topics and challenges I get asked about. It also gets consistently great feedback. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://mailchi.mp/b3d5c50adb91/10_4_10  

Win Teresa’a Books: https://mailchi.mp/ben-morton.com/teresapaynebookcomp  

Guest Links:

Parfitt Cresswell: https://www.parfittcresswell.com/  

In these ‘Shorts’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from Episode 16 and my interview with Sarah Walker-Smith, CEO of Shakespeare Martineau. In this clip, she talks about not sticking to journalling rules, reflecting from pie charts and having a ‘To-Be’ list. 

FREE RESOURCES

Ben’s FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Ben’s website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership 

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/8bd42303-950b-4a09-95bd-5a6da9c4f3ef 

SHOW LINKS

Ben’s Website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership 

Find Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-walker-smith-4708a5b/  

This week we have another of our special medley episodes. Over the past month or so, I’ve been asking previous guests on the show about their top tips for successfully navigating Christmas Party Season.

What I loved about this episode is hearing how each of the leaders chose to answer it. Some focussed on the work, and some focussed on not being the last one at the Christmas party.

In addition to this, I also recorded a special snippet for you with Carola Becker, our consultant nutritionist, who first appeared on episode 29 of the show. 

Before we get into this episode, head over to the Online Course page of my website – www.ben-morton.com/online-courses - where you can sign up for my 10-4-10 Leadership Course. It's totally free, it's bite-sized, and it covers some of the most common leadership topics and challenges I get asked about. It also gets consistently great feedback. We’ve also popped that link in the show notes for you. 

In today’s episode we will find out from:

• David Sobo, Chief Operating Officer at Ultra Education 
• Shannon Minfie, CEO at Box of Crayons
• Ben Fletcher, CFO at The Very Group
• Richard Harwood, semi-retired spending more time on his Charity commitments
• Carola Becker, The Nutrition Coach

 One final thing before you go… 

If you have taken value from this free podcast, please share the link to the show with your friends and colleagues and connect with me via LinkedIn to let me know your thoughts. I’m on there as BenMortonLeadership. 

In these ‘Shorts’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from Episode 31 and my interview with Simon Blake, CEO of the social enterprise Mental Health First Aid England. In this clip, he talks about some of the cultural and systemic problems that are impacting the mental health of everybody, but especially those in minority groups.

FREE RESOURCES

Ben’s FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Ben’s website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership 

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE

https://www.ben-morton.com/episode31/  

SHOW LINKS

Connect with Simon: https://twitter.com/simonablake 

Find out more about Mental Health First Aid England: https://mhfaengland.org/

Mentioned in this episode:

Quick one before you go:

To support International Youth Day on 12th August, my team and I have created a new Emerging Leaders Programme for the under 25s.

This week we are joined by Pauline Rigby, who has been the Managing Partner at Forbes Solicitors since May 2022.

Pauline joined Forbes Solicitors over 20 years ago, straight from University beginning her career as a Paralegal. 

She qualified as a solicitor in 2005 specialising in corporate and company law and headed up the Corporate department for many years as well as taking an active and significant role in the commercial strategic direction of the firm as a commercial Partner.

Pauline was also Training Principal at the firm, responsible for recruiting  graduates and mentoring them throughout the training and their early years as lawyers.

In her role as Managing Partner, Pauline’s main responsibility is day-to-day management of the firm alongside the Executive Board; leading, coaching and assisting the Partnership, the Directors, and the wider team. 

We covered a lot of ground in this episode and spoke about staying fresh and keeping an external focus when you’ve worked in one organisation for a long time. We discussed leadership styles, letting go of jobs you used to do and what it’s like to step into the Managing Partner role with just a few week’s notice!

Before we get into the episode – can I ask you to do me a favour? Please take just a few minutes to rate and review the show wherever you listen. If you then send a screenshot of your review to me on [email protected], I’ll send you complimentary access to my online, Weekly Planning Protocol course. And do also check out my free, mini leadership course via the link in the show notes.

Get In Touch

Whether it’s a leadership question for Ben, some feedback on the show, or a guest suggestion, we’d love to hear from you. Whatever the reason for getting in touch, you can easily do it by clicking the link below that Ben will personally review.

You can also use this link if you’d like to come on the show for 5 minutes to talk about your favorite episode; we love having listeners on the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

10-4-10 Mini Course: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course  

Ben’s Website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership

Guest Links:

Forbes Solicitors: https://www.forbessolicitors.co.uk/  

In these ‘Shorts’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from Episode 23 and my interview with Professor Patricia Riddel, a Consultant Neuroscientist who specialises in how neuroscience can be applied to the business world, to support and extend our understanding of human behaviour. In this clip, Patricia shares what happens to the brain when we think about tasks and managing people – and the science of slowing down to speed up. 

FREE RESOURCES

Ben’s FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Ben’s website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership 

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE

https://www.ben-morton.com/episode23/ 

SHOW LINKS

Connect with Professor Patricia Riddel: https://www.patriciariddell.com/ 

This week we are joined by Richard Harwood. Richard enjoyed a successful career in Financial Services before moving into semi-retirement and spending more time on his Charity commitments. During his career Richard ran several financial services businesses, including two at the same time over several years, starting two from scratch before selling them on and managing teams both offshore and in the UK.

Alongside his career, Richard has been a prolific charity fundraiser and is now responsible for running Holidays for Heroes Jersey, which in 2022 brought over 400 wounded veterans and their families to Jersey for a well-earned break. That season has just concluded with the visit of seven WWII veterans.

As a podcast host, I shouldn’t really talk about my favourite episodes, but this one is up there for sure. Mainly because Richard strikes me as one of life’s truly decent human beings. He was incredibly humble, and at the same time shared so much wisdom that we can all use to be better leaders and managers.

The highlights for me were hearing about how he changed the communication style, his opening words in every performance review and how he felt a little lazy towards the end of his career when his team no longer needed him.

Before we get into this episode, head over to the Online Course page of my website - www.ben-morton.com - where you can sign up for my 10-4-10 Leadership Course. It's totally free, it's bite-sized, and it covers some of the most common leadership topics and challenges I get asked about. It also gets consistently great feedback. 

Now, without any further delay, let's get into this week's episode, and please enjoy the wisdom, generously shared, by Richard Harwood.

Get In Touch

Whether it’s a leadership question for Ben, some feedback on the show, or a guest suggestion, we’d love to hear from you. Whatever the reason for getting in touch, you can easily do it by clicking the link below that Ben will personally review.

You can also use this link if you’d like to come on the show for 5 minutes to talk about your favorite episode; we love having listeners on the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Guest Links:

Holidays for Heroes Jersey: www.holsforheroesjersey.com 

In these ‘Shorts’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from Episode 11 and my interview with Graham Brown, the Managing Director for Lush Handmade Cosmetics in North America. In this clip, Graham talks about the some key principles and frameworks that he follows, which includes being a lifelong learner and having a weekly design system.

FREE RESOURCES

Ben’s FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Ben’s website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership 

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE

https://anchor.fm/ben-morton60/episodes/Episode-011---Graham-Brown--MD--Lush-Handmade-Cosmetics--North-America-eic3qb 

SHOW LINKS

Connect with Graham Brown: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/grahamwilsonbrown 

This week’s episode is somewhat unique in that I’m not joined by not by one, not by two... but  three guests making this our first ever four-way conversation which has tested my skills as a host and those of Fina, my fabulous editor.

Creative agency Free The Birds has three equal managing partners – Nick Vaus, Paul Domenet and Sara Jones.

They believe that acting alone as a CEO can be quite dangerous because there is no one to sense-check your decisions. Instead, they run the agency in partnership with each member contributing their unique expertise and strengths.

Nick’s skills as a creative director leading major retail projects for Waitrose, Sara’s business acumen having worked with P&G and Coty, and Paul’s communications experience with Diageo and Toyota have enabled them to build a different type of agency that is challenging the status quo in more ways than one.

We kept the theme of this episode super-focussed and really unpicked how they lead and manage their agency with this unique structure. We looked at how they make decisions on a practical level, what they think the secret to their success has been and some of the most surprising benefits it has brought them.

Before we get into this episode, head over to the Online Course page of my website www.ben-morton.com where you can sign up for my 10-4-10 Leadership Course. It's totally free, it's bite-sized, and it covers some of the most common leadership topics and challenges I get asked about. It also gets consistently great feedback.

Get In Touch

Whether it’s a leadership question for Ben, some feedback on the show, or a guest suggestion, we’d love to hear from you. Whatever the reason for getting in touch, you can easily do it by clicking the link below that Ben will personally review.

You can also use this link if you’d like to come on the show for 5 minutes to talk about your favorite episode; we love having listeners on the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The FREE 10-4-10 Leadership Programme: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Guest Links:

Free The Birds: https://freethebirds.com/people/  

Book | Entangled Life: https://amzn.to/3SRWB4E  

This week we are joined by Ben Fletcher, who has been the Chief Financial Officer at The Very Group since January 2020 and leads the 150-strong finance team. He was previously the UK and European President at Clarks Shoes, Managing Director of Boots Opticians, and spent at Walgreens Boots Alliance and Procter & Gamble.   

Ben is a trustee of the National Literacy Trust and chairs the St John's Foundation in Bath. For nearly ten years, he was a non-executive director and Audit Committee Chair of the British Retail Consortium. 

He has a massive amount of experience to share on the topic of how to work with and for Boards of Directors most effectively. So, if you aspire to an executive position, or are required to present to them, this is the episode for you. 

Get In Touch

Whether it’s a leadership question for Ben, some feedback on the show, or a guest suggestion, we’d love to hear from you. Whatever the reason for getting in touch, you can easily do it by clicking the link below that Ben will personally review.

You can also use this link if you’d like to come on the show for 5 minutes to talk about your favorite episode; we love having listeners on the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

10-4-10 Mini Course: https://bit.ly/FREEleadershipmini-course 

Ben’s Website: https://bit.ly/BenMortonLeadership

The Very Group: https://www.theverygroup.com/

Ben’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-fletcher-2a95252/ 

Book | Team of Rivals: https://amzn.to/3C8A1OT