In this episode of the EG Property Podcast, EG editor Samantha McClary speaks to experts from JLL, Savills, Oxford Properties, Octopus Real Estate and Taylor Wessing to talk about what good needs to look like in the industry if it is really to deliver a working environment for everyone.

Listen in as they talk about the need to challenge and be challenged, the overwhelming importance of collaboration to bring about real change and why empowering people to call out and to be called out yourself is vital as we move towards a more equal and inclusive sector.

The podcast has been recorded as part of EG Future Leaders programme, which seeks to uncover the fresh talent in the industry and support them on their journey of showcasing the career opportunities available for all in the sector.

Find out more about the programme and its previous iterations at https://www.egi.co.uk/futureleaders/

Returning to work and making it rain

In the latest EG Property Podcast, focused on talent, EG editor Samantha McClary talks with Lisa Unwin and Deb Khan, two women who have made a career of promoting and empowering other women.

This discussion wide-ranging discussion looks at why women are more likely to leave their professions, why that is happening more now, what that lack of talent means for an industry and how we make sure it comes back.

It also investigates the value of older, more experienced people in your business, taking a career break when you are still reasonably new to your career and why more women need to talk about their business acumen and they add real value (aka income) to business.

This episode is the second in a new series focused on talent in the real estate sector. If you have a story of your own journey back into the workforce to share or a burning topic you’d like to hear discussed, e-mail [email protected]

In this episode of the EG Property Podcast EG editor Samantha McClary is talking with industry consultant Jane Hollinshead about talent in a Covid world, about the power of the pivot and about how the industry needs to get better at enabling more movement within the sector instead of out of it.

They also talk about how the Covid environment runs the risk of undoing all of the good work the sector has done on D&I and Jane shares her tip on how to make the jump from safety to fulfilment.

The episode is the first in a new series focused on talent in the real estate sector. If you have a story of your own pivoting journey to share or a burning topic you'd like to hear discussed, email Sam at [email protected]

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees is intent on fixing the inequality problem in his city.  He sees being mayor as an expression of a deeper commitment to building a fairer and more inclusive world. A commitment that is a product of the circumstances of his birth.

“My mum had me in 1972, unmarried,” says Rees in this interview with EG editor Samantha McClary. “I use this description. It’s a bit brutal, but she was an unmarried white woman, not much money, with a brown baby on the way.”

Rees spent some of his early years living in a refuge and watched as his mother, a “sub-working-class woman with a brown baby” was disrespected by those around her.

“That burned into me,” says Rees. “Since then I’ve always had a sense of concern for people I thought were being left behind or being mistreated. That has been a sense of burden I have carried and wanted to do something about.”

And while Rees knows there is still much to be done in Bristol to fix its inequalities, he has not let that burden of responsibility sit too heavily on him while in office. He has sought to find ways to ease that burden, including creating the Bristol Equality Charter and the Stepping Up programme. He is also lending his support to EG’s Future Leaders project.

Listen in to find out more about why a focus on diversity and inclusion is vital for our cities to thrive.

Back in early 2019 EG gathered its first cohort of Future Female Leaders, a collection of 12 women from across the built environment who would undergo an intense public speaking course and then stand up in front of hundreds of property professions and tell their stories, with no notes and no slidedeck.

But the experience wasn’t just about becoming a powerful public speaker. It was about learning to use your voice, it was about finding out more about yourself, about your value and about exactly what it was that you were passionate about. It was about creating future leaders. A group of 12 that knew exactly what they wanted and how to get it.

In this episode of the EG Property Podcast, EG editor Samantha McClary, asks two of the original FFLs - Knight Frank's Kathryn Cripps and Savills IM's Emily Hamilton - about their recent career moves and what advice they would give to anyone thinking about taking a new big step in an uncertain world.

This podcast was recorded over Teams so while the quality of advice shared is top notch, the sound quality is not quite studio quality.

Results from EG's first survey looking into the race and racism in real estate are shocking but sadly not surprising. The industry is overwhelmingly white. But it is also, according to the survey, overwhelming failing to take action. 

In this podcast EG editor Samantha McClary and reporter Lucy Alderson speak with Bola Abisogun, founder of DiverseCity Surveyors, Ghislaine Halpenny,  director of strategy and external affairs at the British Property Federation and Chris Ireland, UK chief executive, about what the result mean and, most importantly, how they have to spur the industry and all of us into making a change.

Click here to read the survey in full

In this episode of EG’s REWIRE podcast host, EG editor Samantha McClary speaks with the final trio of Future Female Leaders – Lucy Whitfield from Cluttons, Nicola Wood from Grosvenor and Katie Jacobson from DLA Piper - about creating a future vision of real estate as a sector in which people can be proud to work and a sector in which all voices are not just heard, but listened to.

They talk about the importance of being seen and being able to communicate powerfully from a far and about whether the way we present ourselves physically – through body language and what we wear – is shifting as a result of the change in communication that Covid-19 has brought about.

This conversation – if you listen carefully – also features a vocal cat. Which is either one of the highlights of recording a podcast over Teams, or one of its shortcomings. So apologies,  for that and any other audio issues there may be with this recording, which might not be quite up to the standard you have come to expect from an EG audio production.

The quality of the conversation, however, is always, top notch.

In this episode of EG’s REWIRE podcast, your host, EG editor Samantha McClary, sits down, virtually of course with three more of the businesses that are supporting the second cohort of women through the Future Female Leaders programme.

• Sian Tunney, head of the leisure division at Savills,

In this episode they talk about how development of people is particularly important during a crisis, why leadership has never been more vital skill and how they as established leaders are learning new skills during lockdown .

They also look at how virtual working is enabling the junior members of teams to showcase their skills more and how this will, hopefully, leader to a deeper pool of future leaders in the real estate environment.

This podcast was recorded over Teams so the sound quality may not be as high as you’ve come to expect from an EG production, the quality of the content, however, will be.

In this episode of EG’s REWIRE podcast host Samantha McClary talks to leaders from three of the companies supporting women throughout the Future Female Leaders programme.

William Beardmore-Gray, global head of occupier services and commercial agency at Knight Frank,  Michael Neal, chief investment officer Europe and Asia Pacific at Nuveen Real Estate and Jo Weston, operations director at Willmott Dixon Interiors, talk about the importance of visible and inspirational leaders at every level, the importance of investing in future talent whatever the economic environment and how businesses should and are leading their teams through the coronavirus pandemic.

So listen in from some lessons from the top about leadership, communication and workforce development.

This podcast was recorded over Teams and at times the audio quality is not quite crystal clear. But, as always, while we can’t promise you that the sound quality will be as high as you’ve come to expect, we can promise that the content quality will be.

In this episode of the REWIRE podcast EG editor Sam McClary talks to our second trio of Future Female Leaders from series two the EG Future Leaders project about how the challenges of lockdown are providing inspiration around how to be a real and true future leader, what we are learning from being stuck inside with family and how each are managing to undertake the Future Female Leaders training in a virtual world.

Listen in for key takeaways from 

• Sarah Bissessar, senior estimator at Willmott Dixon Interiors

This podcast was recorded via teams so while the audio quality may not be up to the of a pre-Covid EG podcast production, content quality most definitely will be.