My guest this week is Menaca Pothalingam.

Menaca's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menaca/

SMILE Leadership Academy: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smileleadershipacademy/

Menaca's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Resilience-Learned-Healing-Wounds-Finding/dp/1912547376/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=menaca+pothalingam&qid=1624908528&sr=8-1

Menaca, the Founder of the 'SMILE Leadership Academy', Host of the 'Meet Menaca' show and author of ‘Resilience Learned’, and I can see why she wrote it... Menaca’s story is of fighting for a better life and trying to bash through the obstacles that have got in her way… but, when the obstacles are ones like war, divorce and depression, you soon realise (in Meneca’s words) that maybe you’re not “invincible” after all.

It’s a pleasure to welcome Menaca to The ‘Leadership Untitled’ Podcast.

My guest this week is Charles Jennings.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/charlesjennings

Twitter: twitter.com/charlesjennings

Tulser: tulser.com

Charles is best known as co-founder of the 70:20:10 Institute; working with organisations to implement cultures that recognise and nuture learning on the job; flipping the traditional training room from being one of knowledge dumping, to a more reflective space.

Impact on performance is crucial to Charles; emphasised through the roles that the institute has recommended to support this way of working – very different to the traditional L&D department.

Charles has also walked-the-walk; spending 7 years as the Chief Learning Officer at Thomson Reuters… so it will be great to understand his experience of theory Vs reality, as I welcome Charles to the show.

This my guest is Penny Ferguson, Founder and CEO of The Living Leader:

The Living Leader website: https://www.thelivingleader.com

Penny started her true leadership journey at the age of 50 when she became utterly disillusioned with all management training that she had been involved in.  She couldn’t understand why so many attended programmes and forgot the impact and supposedly learned behaviours within six weeks.  She believed there had to be a different way, especially as she realised that most training was more about management and not leadership.

Based on her life experiences, she created her own programme and, on her journey learnt more and more about leadership and how utterly critical is to every part of life – as a boss, a colleague, a friend and, as the most vital leadership role, as a parent.

She has become a leading expert on personal leadership and now well over 65,000 people have attended her 3-day programme with escalating numbers now joining her 10-week virtual programme. She changes lives!

My guest this week is Chris Williams.

Chris has been the Leadership Development Manager at Huddersfield University for 2 ½ years now; having been a key cog in the Leadership Development team at Sky for over 6 years before that.

I actually attended his programme at Sky, as a first-time leader myself… and I’m glad I did. I think it’s safe to say that Chris isn’t a ‘Trainer’s Guide’ kinda guy, nor is he into pointless dancing energisers that fill time and make most people feel incredibly uncomfortable… why do L&D still do that?!

What Chris is, however, is a leadership expert with a strong sense of responsibility to and for the Leaders under his watch; maximising the impact of his time with them and following that up with targeted coaching conversations that never ‘feel’ targeted, and rarely feels like coaching.

So, let’s hear more about him, his influences and his thoughts, as I welcome Chris to the show.

My guest this week is Lisa Haggar.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-haggar-540a68117/

HR Couch: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9056688/

Lisa titles herself as “The HR Coach”; tasked with “Putting the Human back into HR”; and is one of the most energetic voices on LinkedIn in trying to achieve it. Earlier this year, Lisa founded “The HR Couch”; “a pioneering new way of learning, sharing, collaborating and changing the way we work in HR and as leaders, to become more people-centric.”

But where has the ‘Human’ gone? Was it ever there? Whose responsibility are ‘the people’ anyway? They’re just a few of the topics I’m looking forward to exploring, as I welcome Lisa to the show.

My guest this week is Tim Roberts.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/timrobertsenthuse

Website: www.enthusecoaching.com

Tim, coming from a Learning & Development background, has become ‘Mr Emotional Intelligence’, through his motivational speaking tours, Leadership coaching and facilitation programmes – cultivating an online following with his #italwaysstartswithtyou movement.

He believes that emotional intelligence is the key piece in the work and leadership puzzle, and one that so easily missed or ignored in the pursuit of profits and results.

He joins me today to explore this, and more; so time to welcome Tim to the podcast.

My guest this week is Bernadette Ude-Wetherell.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bernadette-ude-wetherell-mcipd-9b3a5511

Instagram: www.instagram.com/budewetherell

Bernadette is a seasoned L&D professional, having just ‘celebrated’ 20 years in the industry. Her roles have seen her work at companies such as Sodexo and AO, heading up Learning & Development, Organisational Development, Performance, Talent, and Leadership Development in her time; but, it all started off working in nightclubs, which is where she first learned the art of Leadership.

Bernadette was recommended to me as someone I simply had to speak to, so let’s cut to the chase and welcome Bernadette to the show.

My guest this week is Ed Monk, The CEO of the Learning and Performance Institute.

Website: www.thelpi.org

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/edmonk

With the LPI, Ed is influencing the world of L&D to focus on adding real value to the organisations they are part of, through a performance mindset and an agile approach; fighting against the old norm of training for the sake of training. Not only do they recognise and support their L&D community individually with their membership offering, but they also contribute greatly to the industry as a whole through their showcase events ‘Learning Live’ and ‘The Learning Awards’.

So, let’s crack on and speak to Ed.

My guest this week is Major Charlotte Hayes.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cahayesceng

Charlotte is an Army Major, serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) division.

In March 2021, Charlotte posted a photo of herself on LinkedIn, in full uniform stating “I am a Leader. I am an Army Officer. I am a Chartered Engineer.” Referring to the need to stop using gender pro-nouns which delineate between the capabilities of men and women. Around 1.5 million views, over 30,000 reactions and 1,500 comments later; I think it’s safe to say that Charlotte’s message clearly resonated and evoked a positive response.

It’s that example of strong, authentic and vulnerable leadership that prompted me to ask Charlotte if she would be a guest on my podcast, to talk me through the experiences that had led to that post; but also her experiences of leadership in the Army, as well as what we could all learn from them.

So, less talk from me, as I welcome Charlotte to the show.