The Evolving Leader

In this special 100th episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Emma Sinclair talk to one of our usual co-hosts on the podcast, Jean Gomes. As many listeners will know, Jean is a leadership expert, trusted advisor to CEOs and senior leaders, and New York Times bestselling author. During this conversation, Jean talks about his new book ‘Leading in a Non-Linear World, Building Wellbeing, Strategic, and Innovation Mindsets for the Future’. Leading in a Non-Linear World 0.00 Introduction2.48 Why did you write ‘Leading In A Non-Linear World’? 6.16 Why is this important now?8.54 We often hear that we should simplify things, but you’re saying that we should meet complexity with complexity. Can you tell us more about that?11.10 Can you give us some examples of the kinds of mindsets that you’re talking about building?14.48 When writing about mindset, you refer to the interplay between feeling, thinking and seeing grounded in own self-awareness. This feels like something that is accessible to everyone. How did that idea start to form for you?22.18 When we talk about self-awareness or mindset, nobody thinks that they’re not self-aware.  Is it easier for some people to be more connected to what’s going on in their body and mind, and for those people who find it harder, how can they start to build these skills? 29.34 Can you tell us about your sixteen months of experimentation? What did you actually do during that time?35.20 Understanding and knowing how to manage our internal physical resources is something that is often bypassed by leaders. How could you encourage them to make a shift in how they approach their wellbeing?  40.11 Now that we’ve done a deep dive into the body, could you delve deeper into the emotional centre?46.14 You refer to negative uncomfortable emotions, and how some people may externalise that rather than getting curious about why they might be feeling this way. How could they get practically curious while in the middle of a very uncomfortable feeling?52.36 So the idea of feelings and emotions as a means of accessing mindset may be route that a lot of people may not have thought about before. How have you taken that and built it into this interconnection between thinking and seeing as well? How do they all interact together in your definition?57.04 What mindsets can we build for our future?  Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube               Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes are joined by neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow. Hannah is best known for demystifying the human brain on regular radio, TV and festival platforms as well as through her three books, the most recent being “Joined-Up Thinking, The Science of Collective Intelligence” (Hodder & Stoughton, August 2022). In 2014, Hannah was recognised as a 'Top 100 UK scientist' by the Science Council and one of Cambridge University's most ‘inspirational and successful women in science’. In 2019 Hannah was named by Nature as one of Cambridge University's 'Rising Stars in Life Sciences'.  Joined-Up Thinking, The Science of Collective Intelligence 0.00 Introduction3.29 Tell us about your background and what led you into neuroscience and your passion for public engagement?9.01 Tell us about collective intelligence.12.07 Can we explore the research that you share in your book around collective intelligence and particularly how amongst neurodiverse groups this leads to more creative thought?19.09 You talk about the genetic predisposition, was there any research around epigenetic’s role in this predisposition?36.02 You talk about synchronisation of brainwaves amongst groups helping with collective intelligence and the importance of their emotional state in this regard. Can you tell us a little more about that?41.56 You talk about listening in fostering collective intelligence and you suggest a game that families can play to get better at it. Can you tell us about that?45.17 You’ve also written about sitting in silence at the start of a meeting. 46.30 There is a lot of pressure and uncertainty facing teams, and you talk about the need to cultivate curiosity rather than fear in that environment. What advice do you have to help us achieve that?49.13 What have you come to understand about interoception in the context of social intelligence?53.29 How do you envisage our collective intelligence developing over time with advances in technology?58.32 What’s next for you in the coming year? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube              Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to poet Pelé Cox. Formerly the poet in residence at Tate Modern, the Royal Academy, Keats-Shelley House and British School at Rome, Pelé now takes her art into companies such as PwC, Nielsen and a variety of hedge funds tutoring leaders and employees in creative innovation. ‘Lift Me Up I Am Dying’ (Pele Cox, 2021) https://youtu.be/NFQjKWiOYn8‘Chelsea Barracks Frieze’ https://pelecox.com/ 0.00 Introduction0.54 POEM: Spectacle (Pele Cox)3.53 Can you give us the edited highlights of your journey as an artist?4.50 Was there a moment when you thought ‘I want to be a poet’?5.39 Who are some of your favourite poets?7.05 What is your creative process?12.09 POEM: Afterwards (Pele Cox)13.59 It’s not obvious to most people that poetry can be used in so many different ways. How did you get to that? 15.59 What happens when you take your experience in to the hedge fund audience? 18.23 When you are working with a leader, what does that process look like?21.42 Help us understand how we can best appreciate this art form?31.58 POEM: Snake (D.H.Lawrence)39.10 Can you talk to us about your relationship with your emotions and how that’s changed as you have developed?43.39 Can the utterance of a poet have any more relevance than the extraordinary impact of social media?46.31 POEM: Death and the politicians (Ian Crichton-Smith)47.30 Can we turn to some of your more recent work particularly some of the things that you’ve done during lockdown including the film ‘Life Me Up I am Dying’ with Damian Lewis?52.45 Can we talk about Frieze as well?56.23 POEM: Swelling (Pele Cox)57.14 How might someone get in touch with you? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube               Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production. Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to the no B S coach Paul Glover. Paul is a former attorney who went on to serve time having been found guilty of white collar crimes. He describes himself as a “recovering” trial lawyer, an unabashed Starbucks addict, and the author of Workquake™, a book dedicated to those in the work environment seeking to not only survive, but also to thrive in the Knowledge Economy. 0.00 Introduction3.36 Can you tell us about the concept of having a fool in your life?6.26 What’s the contract that you’re striking when you invite someone in who might not be open to feedback that you might be getting?10.44 Tell us more about your story. As you were coming out of prison, how did the role of the fool change you?19.08 What did you find hardest to accept in yourself when receiving feedback from your wife and your friends when they were allowed to see you? 30.26 When coaching, how do people feel about you and feel about themselves in your presence?34.00 You talk about daily windows of opportunity. What are they and how do you find them? 38.02 In 2012, you wrote ‘Work Quake. How organisations can successfully make the seismic shift to the knowledge economy’. I’m curious to hear what you’ve been observing in the last 10 years since you published that book.41.11 Based on the coaching conversations that you have had over the last 2 years, what do you think is going to happen as a result of Covid and the lessons that leaders have gained from that experience?46.07 You talked earlier about your daily gratitude practice. What are you feeling most grateful for today? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube              Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to author, entrepreneur and former scientist Rob Ashton. Rob’s work encompasses cognitive and social neuroscience, cognitive and social psychology and behavioural and neuroeconomics, giving him a unique perspective on why so much of our written communication simply doesn’t work.  0.00 Introduction4.32 Given your background as a scientist, how did you become fascinated in how we communicate?9.51 Why is it that so much of our written communication doesn’t work?18.26 What are some of the things that we can do to overcome those limitations?24.36 If somebody wants or needs to communicate (perhaps with a large group) quickly, how can they reduce the chance that their message may be misinterpreted by individuals who receive the message?30.34 What’s the easiest way of getting people to open their minds to what they are about to read?36.45 if we switch to the reader or recipient of emails and texts, what can we do to avoid misunderstanding the written word?42.30 When you think about writing, how do you get into a more empathetic headspace?48.02 When we write something and then read it back we may sometimes find flaws in how our writing could be interpreted. From a neurological perspective, how do those different processes work? 53.50 Do younger generations read and write differently?56.20 How can our listeners get in touch with you? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube               Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to psychological safety expert Stephan Wiedner. Stephan’s work focusses on developing sustainable high performance leaders, teams and organisations. He is cofounder of Noomii.com, Skillsetter.com and most recently Zarango.com with a published mission to ‘unleash the collective potential of people with the power of psychological safety’.Here's a link to the free Psychological Safety Assessment mentioned by Stephan during this episode:   https://zarango.com/freepsi/0.00 Introduction04.08 Can you give us a working definition of Psychological Safety?05.08 In our experience, when leaders first encounter that, some may feel that making people feel ok isn’t always ok because there can be consequences. What’s your take on that?06.34 So in your experience, what happens when leaders make the mistake of being incredibly nice but don’t hold teams to account to deliver?07.16 Why psychological safety for you? What got you into this topic?09.03 What is your assessment process?10.30 So happens in those situations typically?12.18 What does psychological safety deliver in terms of performance?14.37 Amy Edmondson talks about creating the conditions so we’re able to have those conversations without the fear, so the desire outweighs the risk. Can we talk about the feeling of vulnerability that’s necessary in order to be able to do that?17.51 How do you raise an honest level of awareness in the leader who is well intentioned but may be just not getting it right?18.52 Can you tell us what the origins of ‘deliberate practice’ are and how it’s been applied in different fields?21.59 Let’s talk about conflict. How do leaders with high safety and accountability teams tend to mitigate conflict or even encourage healthy conflict when appropriate?24.24 How do you start to get leaders to recognise their part in perpetuating a culture where these things can’t really be aired?27.55 What kind of things do you see when psychological safety starts to take root in an organisation?29.38 What is the importance of safety combined with accountability in terms of unleashing exponential creativity?33.33 How do you see psychological safety playing out across different generations?38.07 Where do you think this field is going and what’s next in your work?43.10 In your analysis, do you see any trends in terms of things that are changing in people’s reactions to different types of situations? Are some situations becoming more or less problematic, how are we evolving?46.08 What deliberate practices are you engaging with at the moment?48.15 How can our audience get in touch with you?Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube               Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to social entrepreneur Anna Anderson. Anna is the founder and CEO of Kindred, an independent members club in West London, and Cellar at Kindred, a public café, counter and bar; dedicated to bringing the ethos, spirit and values found in the members club to the wider community. 0.00 Introduction4.12 Can you give us your perspective on the power of business to achieve social change?6.35 You have a background as a social worker, working in child protection, domestic violence, children in gangs and more. How did this inform your concept of community and the role that business can and should play in the world?10.57 Tell us a little about Kindred and how does it work?14.00 You started two years pre pandemic. How did Covid impact the business model?16.05 A lot of people might have walked away. Where does your passion come from?18.55 Staying with the challenge of balancing the economics and the purpose. Tell me what you’ve learnt about the shared values that you have to create between your team, your audience, the community. What are the shared values that hold this together for you?23.13 Regardless of Covid, what value is most likely to be compromised when trying to pursue your commercial viability and sustainability? 25.37 How do you make people aware of your community?28.23 Do you have a vision for scaling beyond West London?30.51 What lessons have you been learning about yourself as a leader?34.19 How do you see how you create, capture and deliver value in your business model tying in to the problem you’re solving?39.17 What’s a word you might have for a listener who is nowhere near West London but is really compelled by what you’re saying and is acknowledging to themselves the idea of loneliness while they have no suitable space near them. What might they do?45.36 Your point about how somebody can be in a great relationship and have great colleagues but can still feel lonely. You gave some diagnostic questions, but is there anything else that would help people to come to terms with what they’re feeling?49.54 Is there anything else that we should be talking about or any messages that you would like to give to our audience? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube               Evolving LeaderThe Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to human behaviour expert Ciela Hartanov. Ciela is a former Head of Innovation and Strategy at Google and is founder of Hum Collective where she consults with leaders who are overwhelmed by the pace of change and need help creating the time, tools, and innovation models to create a new paradigm of work.  0.00 Introduction4.05 A little more about Ciela’s background and work.5.46 How do you build a mindset to face uncertainty?9.07 How do you help individuals become cognisant of the kind of mindset that they’re currently holding?17.19 Can you give us an example of the sort of thing that you’ve done to move people who might have a more sceptical mind into a position of acceptance?21.46 What’s the starting point where you can try to bring more sense making when maybe you can’t find the component parts to start engaging with that story?24.44 How have you grown and developed through the work that you’ve done?26.42 This speaks to the need to embrace vulnerability in an uncertain situation where you as a leader are expected to be certain. Have you thought about that and what it means? 29.35 Talk to us about the importance of sensitivity as a leader.34.27 Can you tell us a little about the book?38.36 What can our listeners do to reclaim their sensitivity? What are some of the practices that you’ve found most helpful for yourself?41.14 Leaders are expected to know the answer and to know the truth.45.32 Which organisations are you seeing that are moving along down this path and adopting some of the things that you’re talking about? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYoutube              Evolving Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

Join co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender as they close season 4 of the Evolving Leader podcast by sharing some of our favourite moments from the 20 incredible episodes as well as previously unheard bonus material from the Evolving Leader vulnerability interviews.The Evolving Leader podcast will return in September for the start of season 5, but in the meantime sit back and listen to conversations with Caroline Williams, Oliver Burkeman, Steve Fleming, Amy Herman, Susan Neiman, Ranjay Gulati, Dan Toma, Rob Cross, Annie Murphy Paul, Simon Roberts, Tony O’Driscoll, Azeem Ahzar, Rita McGrath and Todd Kashdan.  0.00   Introduction1.01   Caroline Williams3.52   Oliver Burkeman9.12   Vulnerability interview: What’s the biggest lie you’ve told at work?11.14   Vulnerability interview: What personal development topic do you most avoid confronting?13.09   Steve Fleming15.36   Amy Herman18.15   Susan Neiman21.45   Vulnerability interview: Where do you feel most vulnerable in your work?26.34   Ranjay GulatiSocial: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to Professor Henry Shue, Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Relations at Merton College, Oxford and author of the book Basic Rights (Princeton 1980; 2nd edition, 1996; 40th anniversary edition with new chapter on climate change, 2020). Today, Henry’s focus is the moral responsibility that we have in slowing and reversing climate change, arguing that ‘we are the pivotal generation, the time is now’. 0.00 Introduction2.38 Can you take us on a quick tour of your life’s work and ideas?5.28 Which thought leaders and ideas have most informed your thinking?10.32 Why are we the pivotal generation?14.13 How can we be sure that we don’t underestimate the intelligence, foresight and determination of those who want to prevent the policy changes that need so desperately?19.29 Can you give us an insight into the kind of questions that you are putting to leaders of organisations who might be impacting the problem?25.03 The moral imperative is that we should be taking responsibility for the solution to this, so why aren’t governments forcing organisations to divert profits into developing new cleaner technologies?27.14 How could we educate more people to accept the realities before them and put more pressure on companies who exacerbate climate change?32.17 You’ve talked about the relationship that we have time and how it effects our sense of urgency. Can you talk to us a little about that?37.17 How do you think (particularly) younger generations who are feeling angry about poor leadership are feeling about it?41.23 Are there any tangible/practical pieces of advice that you can give to our listeners who are thinking that they want to do their part?47.28 How are we deceiving ourselves around climate change?54.36 What’s your next area of focus? Recommended listening from the Evolving Leader archive:Always Day One with Alex KantrowitzPart OnePart Two Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_Leader The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.Send a message to The Evolving Leader team