Inspiring Leadership with Jonathan Bowman-Perks MBE

This week's guest is Ben Bengougam. Ben is a highly experienced human resources professional who is currently serving as the Senior Vice President, Human Resources for EMEA at Hilton. He is based in the UK and is responsible for leading the Human Resources function for Hilton across the EMEA region, which includes over 60,000 team members in 70 countries and territories.Ben has a BSc in engineering science and a Master's Degree in HR Development, and he is a fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD. Throughout his career, Ben has held a number of high-profile positions in human resources, including Group HR Director at the Dixons Group and HR Director at the Middle Eastern franchise operator MH Alshaya.Ben has a proven track record of developing and executing successful people strategies, and Hilton has gained consistent recognition as a Great Place to Work under his leadership. Ben is fluent in French and English and is also conversational in Arabic, Spanish, and Italian. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roland Ladley and I were at six form school together, The Army's Welbeck college, and then met again later, a number of times, including two years at the British Army Staff College, where he was one of the many bright minds that I served alongside. After a successful army career Roland left aged 44 and went into teaching where he quickly became a deputy head. Now he runs a compassionate leadership consultancy, as well as writing some cracking books called the Sam Green series where Sam, the heroine find herself in some amazing scrapes and highlights the problems for people on the autism spectrum with ADHD and how she finds ways of overcoming that while fighting criminals and evil dark organisations.From the comfort of his caravan that he travels around Europe in, we discuss what compassionate leadership means, and share some of his views, experiences and life stories, which are fascinating to hear.On Amazon his review says:Roland Ladley’s detailed, but flowing narrative has been compared favourably to Le Carré and Deighton; Sam Green, his ‘flawed but resolute’ protagonist, to a female Jack Reacher – ‘only more edgy and much more prone to tears.’ His second spy thriller in the Sam Green series, Fuelling the Fire, won a publishing contract with Kindle Scout and went on to become a best-seller in its genre. His other six books in the series, Unsuspecting Hero, The Innocence of Trust, For Good Men to Do Nothing, On The Back Foot To Hell, Blood Red Earth and The Belmonte Paradox, have been equally well reviewed in both the UK and the US.If espionage is your bag – and you’re after realistic, up-to-date conspiracy thrillers with a strong female lead – then the Sam Green series is waiting for you. Or, if you’re after a softer, female-led action adventure try of Black Bulls and White Horses, Roland Ladley’s first non-Sam Green novel, written during the first covid_19 lockdown. Here teacher Emily Copeland follows her mother’s past to the lawless Camargue region of France. Love … and death followTo bring realism to his writing Roland Ladley draws upon twenty-five years military service, including complex tours of Bosnia, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. Subsequent work as a teacher enables him to communicate lucidly to a wide audience, and two grown-up daughters ensure he can laugh at himself and find comic moments in his writing when the tension is at its greatest.Now a full time writer based in Bristol, UK, he lives an itinerant lifestyle with his wife in their motorhome, posting a travel/writing blog and marketing his six Sam Green novels. With the books’ cinematic style, it’s not surprising that the first, Unsuspecting Hero, has been turned into a mini-series screenplay and is being considered by a well-known British director.Find him via his blog: the.wanderlings. And follow him on Twitter, Instagram or via Facebook @rolandtheauthor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So how intelligently are you using your emotions? Graeme and I have a very deep and very personal conversation about the importance of our emotional and social intelligence, and how each of us in our own way have been emotionally constipated. This is probably one of the most deep and open vulnerable conversations the two of us have had in this exciting series.How good are you at atonement, forgiveness, making amends and being at one with somebody? Do you hold resentment, anger or passive aggression? Are you someone who uses a lot of judgement and criticism seeing yourself as one up and grandiose or one down and suffering from shame? We both realise that we both been so damn serious for much of our life and want more joy and happiness. The Hoffman Institute seven day programme was a major topic of conversation. The importance of psychological safety so that you can allow the people who work with you to be appropriately vulnerable was discussed as was the importance of acceptance and understanding for diversity, equality and inclusion. We talked about the regrets of the dying and how perfectionism and high performance has driven both of us. Which self soothing techniques do you use: are you a workaholic are you focused on sex and frequent relationships? Is it alcohol, drugs, success, or something else that is addictive for you? We talked about our parents or grandparents and breaking the generational chain of unhealthy behavioural patterns. Finally, we talk about acceptance, compassion, not being a victim and having forgiveness for yourself and others. To "live, give and forgive" are phases of our lives as we grow up. Also, to remember that "everything in life is possible if you're prepared to pay the price and live with the consequences". Are you? For many of the highly achieving highly performing leaders that we both know there is a certain amount of emotional dysfunction from childhood and more emotional intelligence development will be essential.Good Luck Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Rutherford-Jones is Chief Executive of Morden College, a charity that provides homes, care and support for c.300 older people in London. Prior to this he was a soldier for 35 years, commanding at every level up to and including an operational Brigade, and finishing his career in two consecutive senior appointments: Commandant of The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Military Secretary to the Army. He has given a lot of his time to the welfare of serving soldiers, and more recently to retired soldiers, having been Colonel of The Light Dragoons, The Queen’s Own Yeomanry, and of the Corps of Army Music; a Trustee of Blind Veterans UK, and an advisor to Combat Stress. General RJ has also been a School Governor, sat as Trustee on four other Boards, and run a series of leadership seminars in the finance sector.David’s wife, Sarah, has been a phenomenal support to David; a Trustee of the Charity, SSAFA and in various appointments engaged with the Royal British Legion and the Army Benevolent Fund. Today she is Sponsorship Director for The HPower Group.As CEO of Morden College, David led the community of staff and residents through the coronavirus pandemic years: 2020 and 2021, during which the Charity sadly lost one, but only one, of its 300 or so older beneficiaries. He puts this comparative success down to the Herculean efforts of his staff, and the enduring patience of the Charity’s beneficiaries. RJ also believes his operational experience as a soldier gave him the planning framework and skill to plan the Charity’s response to the crisis, and the courage and tenacity to lead the community of staff and beneficiaries at Morden College through what was an exceptionally challenging and unique crisis. In his own words “the toughest leadership challenge of my life”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sairah Ashman is Global CEO at Wolff Olins, the creative consultancy famously described by a McKinsey Partner as the perfect blend of maths and magic. She leads business direction and performance in partnership with her leadership team and local offices. Wolff Olins has 3 global hubs operating across multiple geographies and is part of the Omnicom group.Over a 20-year career, Sairah has built a reputation for creating high performing teams, outstanding results for clients and delivering business transformation. Most often working across differing market situations, cultures and regions.She is an alumna of Harvard Business School and Goldsmiths University of London, an active supporter of The House of St Barnabas (working to break the cycle of homelessness) and a regular TEDx host and speaker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mustafa Bartın is a ‘first-generation Online Grocery Veteran’ having spent more than 25 years in Retail and IT industries. He graduated from the Middle East Technical University, Department of Industrial Engineering. He started his professional life in Migros. He was the project manager of MİGROS Sanal Market (MİGROS online), the very first online grocery operation in Europe by October 1997. He left Migros in 2000 to move to the other side of the table, as a sales Professional in Hewlett-Packard. Between 2000 and 2009 he worked for Hewlett-Packard holding various different roles in Sales/Business Development/Consulting. He served as Country Manager of HP Consulting Business Unit before leaving HP. ‘Having never lost the passion for Retail’, He rejoined Migros family in 2009 as the Chief Digital Officer of the company, ( responsible for IT, CRM and Migros Online ). Small note: Official title was never CDO. He was officially named as CIO by then. But years after, CDO position became very popular in enterprise World and he and his CEO recognised the fact that the role was literally a CDO role. He can be classified as a ‘professional convert from technology to business’ triggered by his appointment to Chief ‘Alternative Sales Channels’ Officer role in charge of MİGROS Online, Migros International and MİGROS Wholesale Operations. This role enabled his transition to business for his future assignments. From mid - 2018 till mid 2020, Bartın worked as Chief ‘Large Format & Online Retail’ Officer ( another CXO role which nobody have heard anywhere else ) to realize company’s Online-Offline Integration ( O2O ) mission. He has been Chief Retail Operations Officer since July 2020 in charge of 2700 stores and Online operations, which is one of the rare ‘reverse organisational takeovers’ in the industry.He is married and has two children, having lost all of his hobbies after being a very late father at his 40’s. He avoids using Instagram and the other social media tools ( other than LinkedIn ) even though he is a digital-native person and he is proud of this.He tries to divide his time between his family, business and his mountain-house near Istanbul. His magic Word in his everyday-life dictionary is ‘CANDOR’ at all cost and at all frontiers. He always advices himself and his mentees ‘to listen other people just to understand’ and to go into a ‘silent’ mode whenever possible, even in very ‘noisy’ environments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, what is your collective, cognitive and culture intelligence quotient like? This week, Graham Brown and Jonathan Bowman-Perks have a fascinating journey through your questions, and share their experiences on books like: Reclaiming Conversations, Finding and Keeping Love and Non Violent Communications, to name a few. Jonathan shares what he has given up to become higher performing and more present. Graham shares 'meeting hacks' and how decisions should be made at the lowest possible levels. You will learn about the 'Richer Way' and 'Maverick' and how innovation comes from failure. You will learn about inclusivity vs toxicity, and the value of story telling and life stories. Enjoy tips galore on collaboration and improving culture. Come in - the water is lovely and warm....... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duncan O’Rourke holds a degree from César Ritz Colleges in Switzerland and a MBA from Reims Management School. With more than 30 years’ experience within the industry, he held several executive positions in Europe, the US and the Middle East. From 2004, he served as General Manager for Kempinski in various destinations before being promoted to the position of Regional Director overseeing the Operations of the properties in the Middle East. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Kempinski Hotels and became part of the Management Board at the same time.Duncan joined Accor in 2016 as COO Europe for the Luxury and Premium segment before taking over his most recent role as COO Central Europe. In his capacity, he has been responsible for more than 470 hotels and 13 brands within Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Duncan became a member of the Group’s Executive Committee upon his appointment to CEO Northern Europe in October 2020.Duncan believes “Inspiring Leadership” is something you cannot train or learn, it is something you grow into. It is a person having a mission, a guiding principle, and a very specific way to approach things. It is about building a team, to look at the big picture and embark everyone on your journey. An inspiring leader enables the experts in their team to grow and to blossom and to exceed their own expectations. A firm believer in values, Duncan also believes that inspiring leadership also means staying true to what you believe in and celebrating diverse opinions.Duncan embraces the challenges of success. “When you are promoted, when you step up, it is normal to be afraid and I have always kept this fear throughout my career. It is a fundamental part of respecting the challenge ahead of you.”Duncan’s best advice was built from a conversation with his VP many years ago. “I was asked about my plans for the Grand Opening of the hotel. When asked how the launch was looking I said “pretty good” – the response from my VP has stayed with me always: “pretty good is not good enough”. That has served me well – you want to deliver as best as you can and that drives me.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saema Somalya is EVP for Legal and Risk, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Remitly Global, Inc., where she leads the Legal, Compliance Risk and Privacy teams. Prior to joining Remitly, she was senior vice president, deputy general counsel (corporate) and assistant secretary at Fifth Third Bancorp and Fifth Third Bank, N.A. and senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Warren Resources, Inc.Previously, she served as senior legal director and corporate counsel to PepsiCo, Inc. Ms. Somelya began her career as an associate in Davis Polk’s Capital Markets group. Ms. Somalya is also active in industry, community and civil rights forums and serves as the Board Chairman for Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights advocacy organization. She earned a B.A. in international relations and affairs from Yale University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She is British born, American raised and lives in the Seattle area with her husband and daughter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grant Says:In 2015, I started The Speaker Lab to give other speakers the resources that I wished I had when I started speaking. We help aspiring speakers get consistently booked and paid to speak through our SPEAK Framework™, or the “business” side of speaking."Since starting The Speaker Lab, I’ve seen over and over how regular people in every industry imaginable have changed their lives and careers through getting booked and paid to speak — even during a pandemic and a recession! Our mission at The Speaker Lab is to give speakers clarity, confidence and a clear path to make an impact. Our courses and coaching have helped thousands of speakers just like you start and grow their businesses, and we’d love to see how we can come alongside you and help you in your speaking journey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.