The Leadership Enigma

Jack Sullivan is a Director of West Ham United, son of David Sullivan (owner of West Ham), former Managing Director of West Ham Ladies and current entrepreneur including co-owner of  Supply Life. Jack has always lived in a family of high achievement. His father is a well known business entrepreneur and owner of one of the most iconic London Premier League football clubs. At the age of 17 Jack was made the managing Director of West Ham Ladies and the focus of a TV documentary series. Jack has had to live his life in the spotlight and mitigate what people know about him from the news or social media, including being labelled as one of the youngest billionaires in the UK. Jack outlines the weight of expectation on him from a young age to embrace a hard working ethic, to try his best and respect people. Jack has always been curious and hungry to learn and experience as much as possible as early on in his life. By 16 he had experienced most of the various departments of West Ham United. The Women's Team was semi pro and Jack saw the opportunity to learn more if he focused his attention on the momentum in Women's football. At 17 Jack faced a wave of criticism when he was appointed the Managing Director of West Ham Ladies yet he persevered and quietly learned his trade, In only his second year as MD he had a TV documentary team following his every move! Jack leveraged the experience of those around him by listening, watching and mirroring those people already working at West Ham. Jack managed to help the Ladies Team become a truly professional and internationally representative team that played in the FA Cup Final. Now as a Director of the main club, involved with the Men's first team, the stakes are even higher. This episode is a wonderfully honest insight into life of a young entrepreneur in the spotlight of the beautiful game. www.supplylife.com   Watch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all need a coach, even the best in the world! Nick Goldberg is the Founder and proud CEO of Ezra Coaching and Sinead Keenan is a psychologist, behavioural scientist and the Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Ezra Labs. One of the questions Nick and Sinead are working on is how they can democratise coaching for all, not just the elite and successful?  Nick suffered imposter syndrome when he found himself as a CEO in his late 20's which is when he first had use of a coach, a coach he still has today. Coaching can be transformative for us both in relation to how we feel as we regulate our beliefs and emotions and how we become more aware of our behaviours and impact to those around us. The pandemic was a catalyst for coaching to move wholly online and suddenly access, cost and methodologies were all challenged to the point that coaching moved from exclusive to  accessible. Leaders now want to be able to consider both adaptive and technical challenges that they face.  The reality is, the more senior you become the mote unlikely you will have all the answers of even ability to solve it all. Coaching can help as it is personalised and focused to your own working ecosystem, nuances and internal belief systems.  The key component is the personal accountability that a coach can create. Research has revealed that people learn best when they feel successful which underpins the coaching methodology at Ezra. In this episode Sinead also asks me some questions which allowed me to reflect on some recent feedback received from a client and the positive impact it had on my own performance. We also explore the issue of 'chemistry' and recent analysis suggests that this does not make much difference on the impact of coaching. More important is the ability to build trust, challenge, mutual respect and a working alliance. A good coach will also challenge some of the 'old school' thinking such as leadership is about strength and problem solving as opposed to vulnerability and psychological safety. 75% of a senior leaders conversations revolve around the personal and human element of their business as opposed to the technical challenges. The rise of the Human Centred Leader continues and coaching can unlock your superpowers. www.helloezra.comhttps://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigmaWatch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stuart Pearce MBE (aka Psycho) is a former England football player, captain, manager, coach and current pundit for Talk Sport. For many Stuart is fondly remembered for his role at clubs such as Manchester City, West Ham United, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest under the leadership of the iconic Brian Clough. Stuart was also an integral part of the England Team during the 1990 World Cup and 1996 European Championships. This episode is a fascinating journey of reflection into events such as missing the penalty in the 1990 World Cup, Stuart's experience of the incredible level of humility from the German players after the semi final and of the difficult decision to leave West Ham United as the manager.Stuart is someone who has reflected deeply on his experiences, both triumph and challenge as we explore his own personal lessons and how this can apply to leaders in any sector and at any level. This episode provides insight behind the human being who has at times had to carry the weight of the nation on his shoulders yet still remain grounded and humble from his early beginnings and setbacks by leveraging an incredibly resilient work ethic.Also, see what Stuart and the England Team initially thought of the Three Lions anthem. Understand who Stuart thinks is a real leader and why. We even explore the prospect of a non football player successfully leading and managing a Premiership Club and discuss how Stuart was forced to consider leadership as he took the FA Cup to Afghanistan for a troop visit. Don't miss this episode. Watch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard Newman is a global keynote speaker, best-selling author and CEO of Body Talk. Everyone's voice is needed in the world, so this week we ask, how do you have an impact when you communicate and importantly how do you overcome the anxiety of public speaking.  For many, the fear of public speaking is many places above the fear of death! 'If you are asked to deliver the eulogy, you might prefer to be in the box.'Richard always found communicating a challenge as a deep introvert coupled with  his neurodiversity (autism) which Richard harnessed not as a disability but as a different ability. Richard read over 200 books to try and increase his understanding of body language and communication skills which led him to travel to the foothills of the Himalayas to teach English is a small Tibetan Monastery. He realised that no one spoke a word of English so all communication was initially through non verbal communication. Richard spent 6 months at the Monastery and came back to the UK profoundly moved on how much you can impact someone through the various modes of communication. Fast forward, Richard and his team have now delivered to communications training to over 120,000 people all over the world.  (Check out this episode on YouTube to see the pictures). Richard provides some great tips to mitigate the fear instinct including tips on mindset (internal validation) based on your top three core values, breathing techniques (elastic recoil)  and imagining the audience as the ocean and you are the surfer. Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videoswww.liftyourimpact.comwww.ukbodytalk.comWatch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mitchell Feldman is the CMO of the brand new start up XRAI Glass who are focused on 'Subtitling the World' and have been shortlisted for several high profile awards.  Mitchell is a serial entrepreneur and remembers fondly his late mother typing on her old computer keyboard using the modem coupler which inspired Mitchell to explore the power of computing and tech from an early age. Mitchell left school at 16 years old and 'fell into technology' starting his own business in 1999 and exiting in 2010 only to start another company in 2012. In 2014 he won the first ever Microsoft Cloud Partner of the Year, then he merged companies which led to him winning 'Tech Entrepreneur of the Year' in 2018 which finally led to him selling his company to Hewlett Packard. Mitchell describes how he suffered a period of depression after the sale of his business and questioned what he really wanted out of life. The sudden success left him with a feeling of emptiness.It's at this point that Mitchell met up with what he describes as his 'frenemy' Dan Scarfe who had also recently exited a business and now they were both faced with the question of 'what next?' Mitchell knew that the academic and technical rigour of the work was always a struggle for him but he also knew how to use his ADHD as a superpower which was gave him success in sales and marketing to leverage the best of his capabilities. Mitchell hires people who are better than himself in the knowledge that he can focus on his strengths and leave the other areas to those better equipped. XRAI Glass effectively subtitles life to help those with hearing impairment. It is a combination of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence with Augmented Reality capabilities. XRAI Glass was born out of a very personal experience for Dan Scarfe when he realised that his 96 year old grandfather could not hear the conversation properly around the family dinner table and therefore felt isolated. This was the catalyst for the idea that became XRAI Glass. The possibilities for XRAI Glass to become a Force for Good were endless. They knew they had something special when they observed people crying when they tried the product and experienced its life changing effects. The XRAI team soon discovered that the technology they were building would assist people with a range of disorders including APD (Auditory Processing Disorder), Dyslexia, ADHD, ADD and more. The current version of the glasses uses extended reality, meaning that it provides digital overlays on the analogue world and it also now harnesses the power of Chat GPT.  The journey is just beginning. Please watch this episode on our YouTube channel where Mitchell will actually demonstrate the amazing features of the glasses for a World Better Led. They have also made the decision to donate the software free for life to those most in need.  It's no longer B2B or B2C, it's H2H - Human to Human! WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosLearn more about XRAI: https://xrai.glass/Watch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Steven MacGregor is an engineer with a PhD in Design Thinking, an Honorary Professor, author and external consultant for McKinsey & Company. Steven has helped improve the workplace health and sustainable leadership of tens of thousands of professionals worldwide at organisations. Steven and I share an experience from Stanford University d.school and the power of Radical Collaboration and multi disciplinary teams to solve the messiest problems currently facing the world.  Steven outlines the role of 'Participation over Power' and for leaders to welcome ideas and even dissent as they ponder and iterate on how to be a force for good in the world. Steven's research found that the term 'wellbeing' was still being considered by some clients as difficult to adopt, measure and translate into the workplace as they felt it was about compromising performance. The pandemic questioned everything that we all took for granted and forced reflection  to our working practices, time management, experience of life, health and wellbeing as we all tried to identify our own patterns. Steven is now a proponent of mindfulness each and every day which simply means taking the time to stop and reflect on what is going on, aware of what gives us energy, what triggers us and creating space in our days to think.  The problems for so many leaders is the constant killing of the spaces in our day in the pursuit of busyness. This episode is packed full of great advice for all who lead and aspire to lead, such as; Stop starting, start finishingStop telling people what to do, give them a problem to solve. Bring your head and your heart to work - the authentic human centred leader. Good manners are the lubricating oil of any organisation (Drucker) If you are most senior person in the room, people look at you six times more - all leaders needs to understand the power of role modelling.Energy is contagious. Perfection is the enemy of the good.The Daily Reset is available on Amazon. Watch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sue Conder is an occupational psychologist, business change expert and former partner at Deloitte with over 30 years of experience in people leadership and large organisational change solutions. Sue became fascinated with psychology in her early years when working in a library. Big change programmes need to focus on the people dimension of change and the leaders role to bring vision and clarity to others. Sue tells me that leaders are in the business of generating new habits, at scale. The importance of embracing different is something that Sue focuses on due to the need for us all to embrace diversity of thought and resist simply gravitating towards the familiar and comfortable. Sue's research, 'The Chemistry of Difference' was created off the back of her series of female leadership programmes as she wanted to explore the issue of difference more closely. Just as chemicals react differently when they come into contact with different elements, so do people react and behave differently when exposed to other people and personality types. Sue created The Chemistry of Difference Model to help leaders navigate this complexity. It comprises 10 components and in this episode Sue talks me through a number of them.  Decision Making InfluenceFollowership Fellowship Elevating Relationships EngagementNegotiationCommunication and Expertise https://conder.co/business/the-chemistry-of-difference/sue@conder.coWatch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oliver Percovich is the founder of Skateistan which won the Oscar in 2020 for best documentary and a BAFTA. Oliver's story is an amazing example of how one person can create a movement for real change. Oliver is an Australian who decided to go to Kabul with his girlfriend in 2007 with nothing more than a bag of clothes and 3 skateboard decks.  In 2009, Oliver founded Skateistan, which initially operated out of a small skatepark in Kabul. The organisation quickly gained popularity and expanded to include a school that provides free education to children in grades 1 through 9. Skateistan is now providing skateboarding and educational programming to over 4,000 young people each week.Kabul in 2007-09 had a lot of International presence  but nobody really understood what was going on at ground level. Oliver's curiosity and human centred approach meant that he quickly became trusted by the local communities. As soon as he started skateboarding in the streets he became something of a local attraction, especially with the children who were seeing this for the very first time.  Oliver was fascinated how the girls especially, wanted to get involved when local tradition prohibited them from attempting many hobbies. He started using an empty fountain to allow the girls and boys to try skateboarding, (half the population is under 15 years old). He gave the girls preferential treatment to let them try skateboarding yet he only had between 3-7 boards at any one time. The girls quickly became better than the boys in a society that normally promotes the boys first. Oliver also realised that the skateboarding was uniting children from different ethnic and socio economic groups in the area. At this point, little did Oliver realise that he had started a movement.  The challenge for him now was how to scale. Oliver had no resources yet he decided to link the skateboarding to education and schooling whereby he would pay some of the girls $1 each to help teach other girls and also get them off the streets begging and back to school. He was now changing lives! Now he was thinking bigger. After the age of 12 girls and boys needed to be separated in public and so Oliver realised that he needed to try and find an indoor facility to make sure that girls and boys could continue skateboarding in a private facility.  Oliver took advantage of a chance meeting with the incoming President of the Olympic Committee who decided to come and see the sessions at the fountain for himself. He was blown away and decided to give Oliver land for the indoor facility which he had funded by the Canadian Government, again based on an chance meeting. Momentum was now with Oliver, the Norwegian, Danish and German governments now came into the project and  in October 2009 Oliver built the largest indoor sports facility in Afghanistan for children which also included 4 classrooms for the children. Success and social impact led to more success as the facility was seeing 500 kids in a week and Oliver insured that at least 50% of them were girls.  Oliver is an amazing example of resourcefulness over resources and the power of how one person can lead dramatic and sustainable change. Today, Oliver has 12 projects around the world 3 skate schools in Afghanistan. He also has a knowledge sharing network that has inspired a lot of other social skateboarding projects to pop up around the world. He is now connected to over 850 projects in over 100 countries. All resources are available free to these projects as they are not seen as competitors but as an extension to their purpose. Skateistan has received many awards including an Oscar for Best Documentary and a BAFTA. https://skateistan.orgYou can also find Oliver and Skateistan on InstWatch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Katie Best is an author, academic, leadership coach and consultant working with leaders on their messiest problems.  Her passion for leadership stems from the role leaders have in creating a world better led for humanity as a whole. Leaders need to find the balance between the here and now with the need to have great foresight and vision. We all have the ability to lead, regardless of role and experience, we all role model and we are all work in progress. This episode focuses on how leaders can solve their own messy leadership problems. Katie's research for her new book over two decades has identified the most common set of problems for leaders. They are;1. Problems with ......personal effectiveness (achieving what you set out to achieve)2. Problems with ......making good decisions (use of data, evidence, managing bias) 3. Problems with.....influence (gravitas, personal power) 4. Problems with.....culture and values (fit, alignment, role modelling) 5. Problems with......performance (measure, improve, what does good look like)6. Problems with......engagement (motivation, buy in, purpose) 7. Problems with......team performance (working together, managing conflict)8. Problems with......leading strategy (debunking strategy, messaging, execution) 9. Problems with......leading change (making it stick, commitment)10. Problems with.....Katie is in the process of crowd sourcing No.10 with YOU!www.katiebest.com/tenthproblemKatie has also created a framework for problems solving these issues (The 5E Model) ESTABLISH: Identifying the problem initially and using the evidence to support and corroborate. Stopping yourself rushing to solving the wrong problem. EXPLORE: Going deeper into the problem and getting to the root causes through rigorous researchENVISION: Finding the solution that is going to work and challenging your own assumptions. EXECUTE: The action plan. Who and what do you need to support you? ELEVATE: Using your knowledge and research, turn your analysis and thinking to become strong on this area of challenge and pay it forward to others.www.katiebest.com/sign-upWatch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Giovanni Masala is a senior leader and DE&I lead for VMware based in Italy. His leadership approach and passion is all about kindness and this was pulled into sharp focus when he suffered a coma for 2 months following a road traffic accident on his motorbike.  He vividly remembers when he woke up from the coma that those he was expecting to see were not there but surprisingly others he had not expected were waiting for him with great concern and love. He had a long period of recovery and during that time realised that the accident was a gift of reflection, self awareness coupled with an understanding of what and who was important in life. Giovanni is living his commitment to kindness as he realises that leaders lead people not companies.  Giovanni dedicates time and energy to his people (leadership is the promise of a lived experience for others) which we know from previous episodes is something that is non-negotiable for younger generations in organisations. Giovanni is reverse mentored by a Millennial and he finds the feedback refreshing and powerful in allowing him to realise that the younger generations are the future and it is his responsibility to create the environment for them to thrive. His passion continues in his role as  a coach for an amazing charity focused on those struggling in a ghetto in Italy.  He teamed up with a former police officer to create a social football environment for kids in the ghetto to use the power of sport to foster inclusivity and hope.  They don't just play football, they talk, they brainstorm, they eat together as the power of connection and kindness offers these kids real opportunity for a different way of life. Giovanni believes that people are the mirror for ourselves and senior leaders need the courage and authenticity to allow themselves to become more self aware. Watch & Subscribe: 👀 https://www.youtube.com/@theleadersenigma/videosListen & Subscribe: 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/5NSnRyHzPmyY5OWhGzKU5Pwww.leadersenigma.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.