Curious Leadership with Dominic Monkhouse

Today’s guest knows all about scaling up. Not only is John Ratliff CEO of Scaling Up Coaches, he’s also a seasoned entrepreneur himself. Having started Appletree Answers, a telephone answering service from his apartment in 1995, John grew the company to 24 US-based locations and more than 600 employees, taking nearly 10 years to get to $1million in revenue, and then six years to get to $30 million, before a fantastic exit well over market value, selling the company to a strategic buyer in 2012. This experience gave John a unique perspective into the importance of culture, employee engagement, and the guidance and tools entrepreneurs need to have a successful exit. Today John spends the majority of his time defending entrepreneurs against private equity buyers - he says if you’re considering selling your company, you’d be mad not to get representation. In this episode, John shares some fantastic tips for owners thinking of selling, the time he turned a potentially $400,000 loss into $7 million of value, and how he really understood employee happiness by changing one NPS question. This episode is a little longer than normal, but it’s jam-packed full of useful insights and guidance. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Business selling advice for foundersWhy you shouldn’t start from scratchBuilding and selling Appletree AnswersJohn’s M&A playbookThe importance of happy employeesLinks:LinkedIn – John RatliffWebsite – stscapital.com, align5.com

Is your organisation a disruptor? Or is it being disrupted? Don’t miss Eleanor Winton, a consultant and expert in disruption, innovation and foresight, and founder of Foresightfully, a disruption consultancy, on this week’s The Melting Pot.Eleanor has extensive experience of working with senior teams, helping stimulate creative thought and action - she was an investigator of conduct in the Scottish Government and she was part of KPMG’s financial crime forensic function. At Foresightfully, she works with organisations to understand what the future might hold for them and helps them develop strategies in response.Because the thing about disruption is that it’s hard to spot - just look at Blockbuster, how did they not spot Netflix coming?In today’s episode, Eleanor shares some fantastic stories about clients she's worked with, ways to look at different challenges, what you can do to think about the future - i.e. where's the value? How are customers thinking about value? Because that's where companies get disrupted - the way they think about value is not always how customers see it.At the end, as well as some cracking book recommendations, she also imparts a great tip for something to do tomorrow. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we did.On today’s podcast:Disruption happens to all industriesHow to see around cornersThere is no good or bad solutionHave a vision, strategy and tacticsInnovate to create actual value for customersLinks:Book - The Disruption Game Plan: New rules for connected thinking on innovation and riskTwitter – @EleanorwintonLinkedIn – Eleanor WintonWebsite – foresightfully.com , disruptiongameplan.com

Is making sure your company is a great place to work at the core of your recruitment strategy? Are you a fixture on the Sunday Times Best Companies list of great places to work in the UK? Simon La Fosse, founder of La Fosse Associates, having had a bad experience in a previous company, where the directors there deemed his contribution not to be worthy of many stock options, decided to start his recruitment company with the goal of building a search firm centred around care and respect, coming up with a unique way to reward long service and loyalty in his team.Today La Fosse Associates grows 30% per annum - the industry average is 1-2%. He achieves this because of his firmly held belief that treating people well is not just the right thing to do, it’s a better way to do business. Simon talks about his journey to date, his plans for the future and a potential float of the business. We discuss what happened last year with recruitment and from their perspective, even in the tech sector, where they are a specialist, they lost half of their revenue. He also shares why he stepped away from being the CEO and why he doesn’t believe he’s really a leader. This is a fantastic conversation with some great book recommendations, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.On today’s podcast:The atypical recruitment firmThe top 40 Best Companies to Work for in the UK Stock ownership for employeesThe issue of WFH for maintaining company cultureThe idea of a management shadowStepping back as CEOLinks:Twitter – @simonlafosseLinkedIn – Simon La FosseWebsite – La Fosse Associatesfutureproof

If you’re struggling with resilience, if you or your business is going through change, then don’t miss public speaker, executive coach, business advisor, and founder of Vision Executive Coaching, Gerry Valentine, on this week’s The Melting Pot. Gerry has written a great book called The Thriving Mindset, a book that is part autobiography and part tool set design and delivery. Gerry grew up as a gay man in Brooklyn in the 1970s, and the adversity of his upbringing gave him the resilience he needed to succeed in the corporate world. And succeed he did. Today we talk about how the chances of him being where he is today were about 6% - a sad statistic that is as true in 2021 as it was in 1970. Gerry is a very humble man with a thriving mindset - a term he uses to teach others how to cope with uncertainty and change. Gerry also talks about why we get fearful, and how we can learn to not run away from the problem, how to take fear, look it in the eye and work out what could be on the other side of this disruption, and how to have the mindset to push through. This is a really interesting conversation with some of the most diverse book suggestions of recent guests. A truly fantastic conversation with Gerry, we really enjoyed it. We’re sure you will too.On today’s podcast:Turning adversity into advantageDisruption is a normal part of lifeThe importance of educationThe Thriving MindsetCuriosity gets you through disruptionOur response to fearLinks:The Thriving Mindset | BookTwitter – @gerryvalLinkedIn – Gerry ValentineWebsite – https://gerryvalentine.com/

Are you the founder or the leader of a fast paced organisation and you’re wondering why your once high performing team are now sort of bumbling along, barely scraping by - simply not being great anymore?Then you need Dave McKeown, founder and CEO of Outfield Leadership. Dave’s written a fantastic book - The Self Evolved Leader, and so in this episode we discuss that and the all too common issue of Learned Helplessness. Learned Helplessness is a situation where the founder, leader or CEO, gets the team over the line by being heroic and doing all the work themselves, or they’re the one everyone defers to because they have the technical, business or sales knowledge. They do everything themselves, they don’t bring their team up with them. So, if you want to be a better leader, you have to become a self evolved leader and learn to get out of your way. Because if you don’t, you’re going to stop your organisation or team developing. To learn some practical ways to become a more self evolved leader, don’t miss this latest episode of The Melting Pot. We really enjoyed this conversation with Dave, we’re sure you will too. On today’s podcast:The importance of strategic planningGetting in your own wayHow Steve Jobs instilled innovation at AppleHaving difficult conversations and effective meetingsBeing a self-evolved leaderLinks:Free guide: Six Secrets of Effective Strategic Planning. Discover how to set and achieve your strategic goals with ease, which can be downloaded from www.outfieldleadership.comBook - The self evolved leaderTwitter – @davemckeownLinkedIn – Dave McKeownWebsite – Outfield Leadership

If you’re pondering what to do when you exit your current business, or you’re thinking of a retirement project, let serial entrepreneur and self taught technologist, Rod Banner, inspire you in your next steps.Having spent years helping businesses become world dominating brands through sharp advertising, today his focus is on the architecture of business. As CEO of 3LA, he leads a collective of brains that help technology firms become more agile and relevant. Rod founded 3LA having sold his hugely successful advertising agency, Banner - the biggest and most respected B2B agency in Europe, to WPP. He's also the founder at JoyTech.org, a project that explores how to stop tech companies marketing us into madness but, instead, bring more joy to the world.But that’s not what Rod discusses in this latest episode of The Melting Pot. Today, Rod ruminates on what he would have done differently if he’d had his time again. How he’d be more deliberate about creating a plural life. Because that’s what he’s living. For example, during lockdown he became involved in a project reimagining high fashion and technology, trying to link high fashion to consumers through tech, and what that might look like - because tech is truly where Rod’s heart lies. This is an incredibly fascinating, wide ranging conversation, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Technology and marketingThe beauty of a plural lifeThe importance of customer loyaltyReimagining high fashion and technologyCustomer lifetime valueOur content consumption preferencesLinks:JoyTech.org - Interviewing Noreena HertzTwitter – @RodBannerLinkedIn – Rod BannerWebsite – 3LA.com

If you feel like you need a coach to get you into peak performance, look no further than Eric Partaker. Eric was named CEO of the Year in 2019 by Business Excellence Awards; he's been awarded top 30 entrepreneurs in the UK by Startups magazine, and the Telegraph said he was one of Britain's most disruptive entrepreneurs. He was formerly with McKinsey. He was part of the early team at Skype. He was the CEO of Chilango, which sadly, like many other hospitality businesses, got wiped out by COVID. And now he works as a Peak Performance coach for other entrepreneurs and founders. In today’s episode, Eric teaches us that anybody can be extraordinary. Eric says we need to learn from children and their ability to adopt another identity when they role play. We just have to create our own identity, and then we can step into it. Eric also explains why we need to stop thinking about stress as something that's bad - he believes stress can be, if used correctly, something that can empower us to be amazing. And lastly, it only takes a small movement or an awareness, to unlock the door to amazing change. We thought this was a fantastic conversation. We’re sure you'll agree.On today’s podcast:The 3 things you need to scale to reach your fullest potentialThree alarmsIdentity drives behaviourProgress, not perfectionCoaching in relationshipsLinks:Book - The 3 Alarms: Transform your Health, Wealth and Relationships ForeverLinkedIn –  Eric Partaker - CEO Coach & Mentor Website – https://www.ericpartaker.com/Are you looking to scale your business faster? Learn  more at our 6th July Business Growth Workshop  You can also get weekly insights straight to your inbox by joining our Newsletter.

Nicolaj Siggelkow is a lifelong academic, currently the David M. Knott Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is a Co-Director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management and the former Department Chair of Wharton’s Management Department. Nicolaj loves the intersection of teaching and research and getting to focus on the things he's excited about. And so he's written a fantastic book called Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage.In today’s episode, Nicolaj discusses how organisations can sell one off interactions they have with customers, he uses healthcare as his example, for a set amount of money. How do they persuade customers of the lifetime value of that asset so that they part with their cash up front for something they may not need for a long time?We talk about pricing, subscription, technology and how these things are coming together to change the way organisations compete, in a connected strategy. How can we take a transactional relationship with a customer and turn it into a lifetime revenue generating relationship?This is an absolutely fantastic conversation with Nicolaj, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Interdependencies of strategic choicesIdentifying customer pain pointsConnected strategyThe subscription modelDifferentiating yourself through added valueLinks:Book - Connected StrategyTwitter – @NicSiggelkowLinkedIn – Nicolaj SiggelkowWebsite – https://connected-strategy.com/

Are you ready to change? If so, don’t miss Greatness U founder, Gina Mollicone, on this week’s episode of The Melting Pot. Gina, based in Whistler in British Columbia, Canada is a best selling author and an agent of change. She's written Think Or Sync and The Secret Of Successful Failing.She is a product of what she preaches: having had to pivot hard in March 2020, when Covid hit and her business went to zero, overnight. Today, Gina helps clients get what they want. Because, says Gina, anything is possible. “There are only two conditions required to change anything. That is a bonafide desire to change and that desire must be burning inside the person, you've really gotta want it. And the second thing is you gotta be willing to give it what it takes.”Her business, Greatness U, trains coaches, like Dom, to be better coaches. From talking about change and her model for change and the things people need to do to see change, to how to build rapport, and why if you’re struggling, impact change can help you break out of the box. Download and listen now.You can’t spend time with Gina and not find yourself learning new things. We found this conversation illuminating, we hope you do too. On today’s podcast:Becoming the change personThe leadership gameSuccessful failingFlexibility of behavioursRepresentational systemsInductive changeLinks:Twitter – @GinaMolliconeLinkedIn – Gina Mollicone-LongWebsite – Gina ML, Greatness U

Darryl starts his talk by inviting the audience to discuss what motivates them. An unusual but thought-provoking take on work-life - Why are we here?- What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you care about, and what are you scared about? Darryl often asks this question to business leaders and is enjoying the ways these answers have changed post covid.Phycology in threesDaryll coined his Lion, Monkey, Dog theory after a lifelong fascination with phycology, NLP and the basis of communications we use in every setting: "I think phycology fascinating, its the most fascinating thing in the world ..every communication is received by a person, its the most important thing in the world."Daryll is fascinated by the way psychology and as a large society is obsessed with grouping experience into threes; Freud's Id, Ego and super-ego down to the chip paradox- He believes this trilogy is down to the way people expense the world in 3 fundamentally different ways; our outside world, our uninternalised knee-jerk reaction and the internalised thought-based experience. This idea links into his Monkey, Lion, Dog Theory:Learned helplessnessWhen an elephant is trained, says Daryll, it starts off heavily chained to something, but as it gets used to its confinement, the efforts of chaining it are reduced, until "you can tether an elephant with a piece of string or a cord because it never tests it." This is key in Daryll's idea of changing your approach and looking at communications from different perspectives; he adds that "If your unconscious mind asks for something and you say no, enough times, it stops asking." And these things that you've been saying no to will resurface. Darryl knows that we put ourselves into containing scenarios and let the rest bubble away, but that doesn't make the background less important.Because understanding someone's motives and mindset is fundamental to how we communicate with them, whether for sales, or as a leader, or for any other reason. We can approach either side of these communications using Monkey Lion Dog to understand the other person's reactions and also help position ourselves in the most productive approach. The beauty of using Monkey, Lion, Dog to understand human experiences is that it's very versatile and can be applied in many ways.Monkey"Monkey motivations are continental" in neuroscience, it would use the primal part of the brain. It asks "Who am I" type questions and wonders; what impact am I having on this situation? Can I change it? In Daryll's theory Monkey process are interested in legacy and autonomy and the ways in which you can be yourself. This is perhaps a noticeable jump to his opening question around what people actually want from their work life. But of course, we can approach this in different ways.LionLion "processes are all the rational things" how we judge them and value decisions. It asks, is it good or bad quality, its judgemental and used in value and figures, says Daryll. Understandably marketers and business leaders are often incredibly good at these types of thought processes; used to approaching decisions in terms of whether or not it's professional, ROI etc. But perhaps, as Daryll comments, this can be detrimental as they can gain a tenancy to become over-reliant on these approaches.Dog"Our Dog interestingly is around our feelings. Feelings of connection of being on red-alert or comfortable of comradery and trust… ". This agenda may have been neglected "normally" in workplace culture but, Daryll's team has done some recent research and found a shift in what people have been valuing since covid. They found that people are looking to pay more attention to dog values in that "themes around having a chat, seeing people, those types of human connection are over-indexing about 20 to 1 since before the pandemic."What does this mean in terms of what we need from work?Well from a Monkey point of view, Daryll feels "we need contextual stimulation, to be queued from our environment we need to be able to be creative and adjust to things" from a lion point of view, we need "to feel some degree of control, we to be able to make choices". We also need human connection, and with that in mind, Daryll believes we should use any post-pandemic changes to consider our values. He asserts that there's a real cost to lockdown that we need to remember when we look forward; our lack of touch and connection needs to be considered in terms of its impact on future abilities and availabilities for teamwork etc.Considering different perspectivesOften businesses are very good at Lion motivations. For example, in marketing material, we are saturated by bold, rational lion messages. But Daryll consistently finds that the other two, when used in advertising, are more effective. This may, in part be because they are more unusual but also because they appeal to peoples deeper needs; which Daryll points out is often more powerful. Using Monkey or Dog appeals can capture "the systems that really drive us as human beings". He refers to his work as a therapist in that "you can't cure a spider phobia by convincing them that spiders aren't scary; that's not where the problem exists, you've got to do something else". It's looking from different and often more powerful perspectives that can give the best communicators an advantage.Recommended ReadingDrive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates UsCan We Start Again?: The Patterns of NLP Applied to Business Interactions This Episode Is Also Available On Our Youtube Page