The Evolving Leader

In this episode of the Evolving Leader, co-hosts Scott Allender and Jean Gomes talk to Kerry Cullen. Kerry is a business psychologist who has been coaching for more than 20 years. Working with both the public and private sector internationally, her focus is to create a coaching environment where people can come home to themselves. Kerry loves to explore and train in polyvagal theory and in 2022 she launched a polyvagal course for coaches.References from the episode:KerryCullen.comPolyvagal InstituteDeb Dana’s Rhythm of RegulationSomatic Resilience and Regulation, Stephen Terrell 0.00 Introduction4.48 Can we start with you sharing your journey and the challenges that you’ve faced?5.55 Can you give us a definition of resources?6.44 Can you give us a beginners guide to polyvagal theory?8.12 Is neuroception synonymous with interoception?12.47 We have this constant unconscious monitoring system that isn’t grounded in our perception, but when it’s activated it does quickly engage the brain into an interpretation. How does this play out in how we make sense of things?16.21 If you are someone who is stuck in a disconnected state, how does our nervous system see that as a way to protect us? 19.03 How does this help people who have experienced trauma?23.23 How does this thinking work in the leadership space?26.06 There’s a big narrative around psychological safety amongst leaders and teams. What are your thoughts around rupture and repair as the underlying mechanism of psychological safety?29.33 You quote Stephen Porges “If you want to improve the world, start by making people feel safe”. Do you think he’s meaning that the best way to improve the world around us is for us to find our own healing? Is that your North Star?31.52 Kerry guides Jean, Scott and our listeners through a system developed by Stephen Tyrell that offers regulation to the nervous system as a way of bringing a sense of safety and connection. 47.08 For people who are listening to this, how does this differ from mindfulness and meditation practices that they may have tried in the past? 48.58 What’s next for you?49.30 Is there a central resource that our listeners can go to if they’d like to explore this further? Social:Instagram           @evolvingleaderLinkedIn             The Evolving Leader PodcastTwitter               @Evolving_LeaderYouTube           @evolvingleader2271 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, co-hosts Scott Allender and Emma Sinclair welcome Rob Murray back to the podcast. Rob last came onto the Evolving Leader back in December 2021 (season 3, episode 12), he’s a researcher, change agent and thought leader in emotional intelligence and transformational leadership who strives for a deep level of authenticity whilst at the same time being supremely pragmatic in the realities of organisational life. Rob is co-founder and CEO of Transformed Leader, he is host of the Talk of Change podcast and in February 2023 Rob’s new book ‘Fighting For Heart’ was published. 0.00 Introduction3.55 What motivated you to write ‘Fighting For Heart’7.13 Why is this so important now?12.15 How are you defining emotional intelligence?26.37 You identify that there are six common resistances that keep leaders from investing in emotional growth. Can we start with ‘self-protection against social shame, pressure or judgements for being emotional’36.03 The next resistance is that ‘people hold a belief that leaders should not be distracted by emotions’38.33 Number three is ‘avoiding emotions feels easier, safer and more manageable’39.29 Fourth is ‘a lack of emotional modelling when growing up’43.41 Finishing up with five and six, we have ‘ignorance of any other way than performing and producing’ and ‘not justifying the time and money to prioritise emotional development’45.10 It can be difficult to know when we lose our emotional awareness. What can people listening (who don’t have the benefit of spending time with you) start to do? Social:Instagram           @evolvingleaderLinkedIn             The Evolving Leader PodcastTwitter               @Evolving_LeaderYouTube           @evolvingleader2271 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

Margaret Heffernan, a renowned entrepreneur and author, explores the concept of 'willful blindness'—our tendency to ignore uncomfortable truths. She shares insights on how leaders can confront this in their organizations, emphasizing the importance of open dialogue and fostering innovation. Margaret also discusses strategies for embracing uncertainty in decision-making and the significance of ongoing learning in today’s ever-changing landscape. Her reflections on personal growth and tackling self-doubt in writing add a relatable touch to the conversation.

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes, Scott Allender and Emma Sinclair talk to Alex Zekoff. Alex is CEO and Co-founder of Thoughtful, an organisation with a mission to accelerate the world’s adoption of automation and AI so humans can solve our most complex existential problems. He believes that automation gives human workers the freedom to pursue the creative strategic work that builds companies as well as their careers. Thoughtful’s Robotic Process Automation aims to help businesses save up to 90% of their workforce’s time, increasing operational efficiency and lowering expenses.  0.00 Introduction3.31 Can you tell us about your background and why you co-created Thoughtful?6.51 Can you give us clarity on what you are selling?9.19 Can you tell us more about what all of this means and where it’s heading in the context of the future of organisations and job security?13.09 If we fast forward five years, it’s going to fundamentally change the nature of work. Have you got a sense of what the world is going to look like when that happens?16.52 You talked about health care claims and how you see that in terms of automation. Given the breadth of what you work on, I wondered if you see certain industries that are way behind the curve. What’s your view on leaders and laggers in this space?18.47 You recently wrote that to avoid a sinking ship, leaders need to approach management by cutting through the noise and focussing on first principles which are defined as a basic proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. What are these first principles?20.36 We see this in action all of the time. How do you help people to get there? What’s your process?22.38 How do you help people to break through the assumptions that are holding them back?24.52 You’ve described how smart people can lie to themselves because they use their intelligence to make convincing arguments that undermine their long-term interests. You mention using a blue and a red team to disrupt that thinking. Can you talk to us about that process?27.04 If in five years we’ve brought our lagging industries forward in terms of automation and we’ve got more valuable stuff, but we’ve still got humans with a finite amount of potential skill, what will humans be doing in that space?29.35 It feels like there are broader ethical concerns here (that we must confront) if we continue automating everything.34.38 In Forbes you made some predictions about this year, and one of them was ‘Goodbye Wokeism, being woke is out in ‘23’. What’s your definition of wokeism and why is it out? 39.13 In terms of a growth mindset approach, can we still pursue wanting to make sure that we’re evolving in our language and how we treat groups and individuals while also potentially directing our attention to larger scale issues such as staying on the planet?42.27 You've said that companies building software to track productivity and KPIs precisely win over companies that aren’t measuring performance at that granular level. Can you talk to us about how you are seeing this playing out in the relationship between people and organisations?45.28 We’ve touched on the notion that AI introduces a load of peril, so what are the moral implications for leaders today as we embark on this journey? What do they need to do to prevent future disasters where AI might collapse a company, destroy a marketplace or worse?Send a message to The Evolving Leader team

In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender talk to future of work writer and speaker, business leader, best-selling author and podcaster Ollie Henderson. Ollie believes that work life balance is a myth, and instead sees career and personal life as two opposing forces. He argues that the secret is to design an integrated approach that allows them to work in harmony. ‘Work/Life Flywheel. Harness the Work Revolution and Reimagine Your Career Without Fear’ 0.00 Introduction3.54 It’s your birthday. Which musical artist (living or dead) would you invite to your party?5.26 Tell us about your career to date?8.56 You’ve experienced burnout and trying to understand what you’re feeling in that situation is difficult for a lot of people. What kind of consequences did that have on your life?12.28 How long do you think were burnt out before you acknowledged it?13.21 So you decided to leave your job and take up writing and at the same time a pandemic hit. 19.29 People are often afraid to make changes and you say that 75% of people are wanting to make big changes to their work lives. Why is that happening?22.24 I’m interested in the data you collected. In the UK and many other countries there is currently a large focus on getting older people back in the workforce.28.13 We’ve had lots of guests talking to us about various aspects of innovation. Is there anything that you’ve learnt about how we can get people to bring more of their creative and innovative self into our working environments?32.21 Coming back to your three-year burnout, what have you adopted as practices to pay closer attention to what you are feeling and experiencing inside so you don’t find yourself going through another three year burnout before you acknowledge it?40.17 [Ollie asks Scott and Jean] How much are people talking about the relationship between their work and personal life? Is this significant or are we reverting to how life was before the pandemic?46.43 Where can people find the book and where can they find you? Social:Instagram           @evolvingleaderLinkedIn             The Evolving Leader PodcastTwitter               @Evolving_LeaderYouTube           @evolvingleader2271 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, Scott moves over to the guest seat and talks to Jean and Emma about his new book ‘The Enneagram of Emotional Intelligence, A Journey to Personal and Professional Success’. In addition to being co-host of this podcast, Scott is a certified Emotional Intelligence coach and Enneagram teacher, and in his new book Scott brings together these two systems to evolve our understanding of what Emotional Intelligence really is and how to cultivate the awareness we all need for success and wellbeing. ‘The Enneagram of Emotional Intelligence, A Journey to Personal and Professional Success’. 0.00 Introduction3.56 Can you tell our listeners about your background and what led you to attaining these certifications in psychometrics and personality systems?6.17 Can you give us a brief overview of what the Enneagram is?9.45 Why is this book so important for you and why now?17.17 There are lots of definitions and interpretations of Emotional Intelligence. How do you define it?20.36 You mention the concepts of the true self and the denied self. What are some of the signs that your true self is being denied, and how does denying our true self actually hurt us or hold us back from future success?26.26 Can you take us through these five different components of emotional intelligence and how they unlock some of the insights that sit behind the Enneagram?30.28 In the book you identify nine types of fear, and write that acknowledging our fear is essential for developing awareness. Can you unpack that for us?33.23 There is a counter-voice in the world around all psychometrics calling them out as akin to horoscopes etc. arguing that you can see yourself in any description of personality types. What’s your take on this?36.54 The Enneagram reveals the nine personality specific defence mechanisms that will interfere with a person developing or sustaining an openness to the world. Can you tell us about those defence mechanisms and how they are attached to each of the types?43.11 Every day we see examples of people avoiding change or suppressing the things that they need to do to respond to it. Have you found quick ways of helping people to accept that and start on the journey of being more open to change?46.59 In your book you talk about ‘setting off on a never ending path of self discovery’. So what’s next for Scott Allender? Social: Instagram           @evolvingleader LinkedIn             The Evolving Leader Podcast Twitter               @Evolving_LeaderYouTube           @evolvingleader2271 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

This week on the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender talk to human rights barrister Dr Susie Alegre. Susie is a legal pioneer in digital human rights, in particular the impact of artificial intelligence on the human rights of freedom of thought and opinion. Without a moment’s pause, many of us will share our most intimate thoughts with the largest tech companies and in doing so make it possible for them to categorise us and potentially jump to troubling conclusions about who we are. In her new book Susie argues that only by recasting our human rights for the digital age can we safeguard our futures.‘Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate our Minds” (Susie Alegre, 2022) 0.00 Introduction3.18 Can you tell us about your career and what’s led you to your current focus?5.20 You argue that the online environment undermines our independence of opinion and in your book you illustrate this by starting with a brief history of legal freedoms to both holding beliefs and their expressions. 9.44 I’d like to focus on this manipulation. It’s hard to keep up with what’s happening in terms of the speed and number of platforms that are spreading ideas. How do we balance the fact that this is happening with the rights to form our own thoughts?14.18 This whole area must be incredibly challenging. Can you give us a sense of what you face in trying to move legislation around like this?18.10 How do you feel about your own experience of being manipulated on-line?19.47 Can we turn to AI and how technology is now thinking that it can infer what our inner thoughts and feelings are? 24.01 What are thoughts on big tech company’s approach to ethics?26.06 How do you think organisations in the tech space are going to give the application of human rights more teeth?30.05 What are your thoughts on how the Chinese and Russian governments are wielding influence over their populations?33.55 If we take the GDPR digital services act as an example, we can see that it’s a tricky balancing act to introduce legislation to achieve those goals and engage the public and commercial sectors. Can we do a better job in capturing the public’s imagination in these things?37.34 What are the implications for leaders and organisations as they increasingly become dependent on digital and social technologies to prosper?40.10 What reaction have you had across the political spectrum to your ideas?42.14 You talk about how nobody wants to be manipulated and nobody thinks that are being manipulated. How do people get more honest and take more inventory in the ways that perhaps they are being manipulated?45.41 So thinking about the freedom to think for younger people, what advice might you give them?47.34 What are the next set of challenges for you? What are you working on at the moment?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

This week on the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender talk to John Mullins. John is Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, has written four books and has had more than 50 articles appear in publications that include Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal to name but a few. John’s latest book ‘Break the Rules! The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs that Can Help Anyone Change the World’ was published in January 2023.0.00 Introduction2.48 Can we start by getting to know you a little?3.54 Tell us about your entrepreneurial ventures.7.46 How does your body of work apply to everyone (not just entrepreneurs in start ups)?11.30 What advice would you give to a young entrepreneur to help them avoid early failure?13.41 If you could go back to your 25 year old self where you were a young entrepreneur, what would you say?15.15 Entrepreneurs can often be very defensive about their product and their idea. What have you learnt about the ability to hear differing perspectives?17.01 Moving to your latest book, can you give us the pitch and why you wrote it?21.40 So let’s talk through those mindsets. Let’s start with ‘Yes you can’ and how does this change conventional thinking?23.43 Next you have Problem First not Product First logic. What have you learnt about those who succeed in this respect think and act differently?28.40 The next of the six mindsets is Think Narrowly not Broadly. That’s pretty counter intuitive, so tell us more about that.30.55 The fourth mindset is ‘ask for the cash, ride the float’. Tell us about that.35.03 Have you had any experience with your clients adopting that principle in an otherwise conservative environment?36.53 The fifth mindset is Beg, borrow but don’t steal. Tell us about why this is important.42.26 And finally there is Instead of Asking for Permission, Beg for Forgiveness. What convention is this breaking?45.05 How have you seen that principle handled well in a corporate environment?48.26 You conclude the book by saying that not every entrepreneur displays these mindsets, but Lynda Weinman (the founder of Lynda.com) seems exceptional as she seems to display many (if not all). Can you tell us a little about her story? Social:Instagram           @evolvingleaderLinkedIn             The Evolving Leader PodcastTwitter               @Evolving_LeaderYouTube           @evolvingleader2271 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

This week on the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender talk to Richard Medcalf. Richard is the founder and CEO of Xquadrant, a consultancy that he set up in 2017 with a mission to help top leaders reinvent their success formula and multiply the impact that they have on their purpose, people and their profit. Richard also runs Rivendell, an international peer community of entrepreneurs and CEOs. His book ‘Making TIME for Strategy’ was published in November 2022.BONUS RESOURCES0.00 Introduction4.27 Can you start by telling us how you’ve come to be who you are?6.42 Who is your book aimed at and what is the problem you’re solving for?8.40 In your book you talk about how you see rising demand, constant overload and seemingly no hope except possibly more of the same. Can you give us a sense of what you are seeing in this regard and how have those demands have changed over recent years?12.20 You talk about the power of strategic time as being the number one predictor of success as a leader, but the reality of immediate demands means that for many leaders this is out of their grasp. How do can they rethink this?16.38 Could you walk us through your solutions and specifically the TIME acronym that you use and how that works?21.28 In your experience working with leaders, how challenging is it for them to be honest about the time wasters vs the things that really add value? 23.26 So, the tactical move doesn’t operate in isolation for the leader. Does it solve the problem or do they need to be thinking wider than this?25.23 Can you give us an example of a particularly challenging type of conversation that leaders need to have that they may be avoiding or finding difficult to have?28.08 From your perspective what are the specific mindset blocks that are of particular importance when making this work?32.50 When you talk to leaders about having to shift their mindset, the block is often a feeling of helplessness or powerlessness. How do you help people cope with what’s going on inside them to deal with that shift in their thinking?34.58 Turning to the final part of the acronym, what’s the environmental challenge? 36.20 You point out that incremental progress is no way to beat infinity. Can you talk about the bold moves necessary to make real impact?43.03 We’ve been talking about this from an individual perspective, but how does a team facing these challenges incorporate these?  47.20 Richard, I want you to inspire us. What can I do when I get some time to myself to start my journey along some of these ideas, and I’d like us to think about someone at the start of their career as well as the more mature leaders? 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

This week on the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender talk to Adam Bulley. Adam is a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre and School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. In his research, Adam uses the tools of cognitive science to study the mind and human behaviour, with a focus on the evolution, development, and psychological mechanisms of imagination, foresight, decision-making, and emotion.  Adam Bulley’s first book ‘The Invention of Tomorrow’ which he co-wrote with Thomas Suddendorf and Jon Redshaw was published in 2022.During the conversation, Adam also references the following books:The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age (Bina Venkataraman, Riverhead 2020)The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time (Richard Fisher, Wildfire 2023) 0.00 Introduction2.58 Can you start by telling us about yourself and what led you into your research and career?4.21 Let’s dive into your book ‘The Invention of Tomorrow. Can you give us your pitch for the book, who is this book for and what will your audience gain from reading it?6.02 We take our ability to think about the future for granted, but how and why do you think this remarkable capability evolved? 8.56 What would have happened to our species had we not evolved this human foresight capability? 10.33 What role does memory play in foresight?13.27 So let’s skip back to how foresight and innovation are intwined with one another. Can you bring to light some of the research and how you’ve come to understand how that relationship works?15.32 What have you learned about how this ability impacts our morality?17.27 As children we have amazing imaginations from an early age but our ability to envisage our responsibility takes longer to develop. So how do things like metacognition (our ability to imagine what that looks like from somebody else’s perspective) sit alongside foresight?  19.35 What have you learnt about our capacity to harness this and improve it? Is this a muscle that can be improved? 22.35 You mention short termism and our ability to ignore our foresight. What has your research uncovered about the profound mistakes that we can make when choosing to ignore foresight?27.02 One of our former guests, futurologist Monika Bieleskyte believes that the role of the futurologist should be to try and create positive optimistic scenarios that we can get behind. How do you feel that our capacity for foresight works with that?30.23 How much of our brain’s foresight is routed in our own subjective biased view of reality?34.01 What have you learnt about foresight and wellbeing and what can we take forward from that?36.33 How can we get more effective and efficient at testing our assumptions about the future and our ideas?40.16 What are you working on at the moment? What’s next for you?Social:Instagram           @evolvingleaderLinkedIn             The Evolving Leader PodcastTwitter               @Evolving_LeaderThe Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and .Send a message to The Evolving Leader team