Curious Leadership with Dominic Monkhouse

If you struggle with recruitment, either as a recruiter or a job hunter, then don’t miss this week’s episode with Sam Franklin. Sam is co-founder and CEO of Otta, the recruitment company helping job seekers find roles at the world’s most innovative companies. Formerly a consultant at McKinsey, and then Interim Head of People at Nested.com, Sam cut his teeth working on the pressing problems of this fast growing startup. At Nested, he formed the Business Operations team and led the Recruitment, HR and People Operations teams. It was in this latter role that he realised how soul-destroying the recruitment process was for many applicants. So he set up Otta with two other co-founders with the aim to be the number one platform for job seekers looking for jobs in tech firms in London. They went niche because, simply, that is what they’re passionate about. This is a fantastic story about how to solve recruitment from the candidates’ perspective and how to potentially drive good behaviour from employers so they get the best people applying for their jobs. Don’t miss this great conversation, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  On today’s podcast:The Otta story How Otta differs from other hiring platformsHiring diverse candidatesHow to write a cover letterTinder for jobsRating a company’s interview experience

If you’re struggling to get customers for your business, then Flavilla Fongang, the effervescent managing director and founder of 3 Colours Rule, an award-winning creative branding and neuromarketing agency, has written a book 99 Strategies To Get Customers. In today’s fantastic conversation, Flavilla talks about some of her favourite strategies from the book, so grab a pen and paper and take note of how to get the most out of your business. But Flavilla isn’t someone who has just one plate spinning at a time. She’s a serial entrepreneur. An international speaker. She's a brand ambassador for the BBC. She hosts the Tech Brains Talk podcast providing insights and advice to tech entrepreneurs and companies. She's also the founder of Tech London Advocates (TLA) for Black Women in Tech, where she puts black women on a pedestal. We discuss the thousand women that Flavilla now has in the UK in TLA, and how TLA is doing fantastic work to promote equality for women and black women in technology. This is a really illuminating conversation, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Tech brains talkBeing the only black woman at tech networking events99 strategies to get customers How to have a great brandHow to attract diverse candidates when recruitingNeuro-branding and neuro-marketingLinks:Podcast - Tech brains talkEpisode - How to become a lucky tech millionairePrepaid financial servicesTech London Advocates (TLA) for Black Women in Tech

It was an absolute pleasure to have, world-renowned business growth guru and author of best-selling books, The Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't, at the Summit at Foundry Farm. He joined Dominic Monkhouse for a discussion of the latest trends he has noticed in scaling businesses and leadership teams. Verne’s talk at the Summit feels very timely. It was recorded back when the sun was still shining in September and when a “second wave” was on the horizon. Since then, most of the UK has been back into some form of a lockdown or another. Verne’s knowledge feels just as on point as ever, so we are ecstatic to be bringing his conversation with business leaders at the Summit to The Melting Pot. For obvious reasons, Verne was not able to make it to the farm back then, but – lucky for us – he was happy to beam in from Boulder, Colorado via Zoom. His intervention is littered with informed business examples from top companies, and full of realistic optimism. He highlights the need for businesses to be brave enough to make the best of their circumstances - “to plan for the worst, but more importantly, to hope for the best”. For Verne, leadership is central to this. Leaders like those he works with, and like those that came to the Summit, need to use their own mindsets to inspire their teams. He quotes Greg Brenneman in saying “great leaders absorb fear and exude hope”.  In this episode Scaling Up expert, Verne Harnish, lays out his key hacks to lead through a crisis:Mindset “planning for the worst but hoping for the best”.CEO communication is key - your team needs to be up to date with what’s in your head.Sales when you’re sailing against the wind. Why you need to drive all communication through synchronous communication.The most powerful question a leader can learn: “that’s fantastic… how did you do it?”.Strategy tips for right now.Execution tips and why “if your job as a company is to make the lives of others easy, then your job as a leader is to make your employees lives and jobs easy”.Verne Harnish’s advice on positive leadership for post covid strength Positive, powerful communicationVerne urges leaders to help their teams to take an optimistic approach to planning in changing situations. Leaders should build empowered, open-minded teams, looking to “plan for the worst but hope for the best”. Leaders should be able to position teams to look for opportunities to innovate, grow into, and make the best of changing spaces. Central to this is also the idea that the CEO needs to be constantly in touch with the leadership team. Sounds simple, but is so often understated, says Verne. He discusses the weekly communications used by the likes of business giants, Facebook, and the strategies used by his own team to keep track of the thought processes of the leadership. Having a central communication like his weekly newsletter, Where’s Verne, is paramount for business leaders to keep the whole company on the same page. Building company culture through engagement, but also by allowing the CEO to process ideas outside of their own head.  Synchronous communication to never miss an opportunityFor Verne, staying in touch is a foundation that needs to carry over to your sales teams and customer communication. Communication has always been key. But, how often do you actually sit back and look at the amount of time your customers have of your attention? Verne argues that now is the perfect time to look at this process. He believes you should never allow a proposal to go out on an email, without a human there to help the prospect through. He has also found that companies land big contracts by never leaving customer queries to be answered by email. It’s more beneficial for you, and more efficient in the long run to immediately organise a call.Improve your praise and facilitate learning One of the biggest mistakes leaders can make is blindly thanking a successful team. This is a huge missed opportunity, according to Verne. Instead, take advantage of the fact that people learn better, and appreciate praise more, when it comes from their peers. So, next time your team has a great success, or your new sales guy lands the deal, use what Verne describes as “the most powerful question I’ve learned as a leader: ‘That’s fantastic… how did you do it?’” Have them explain in front of the team so they are listened to, and make sure you sit back and listen as well. Scaling up or forward to be well-positioned post-pandemic Leaders have to take advantage of all opportunities and make their own at this time. Verne says that now is the time to reach out to and make the most of your relationships. They need to make sure they are surrounded by the best customers and the best talent. Leaders need to actively assess their current positions to be able to make the most of their current situations.They should also be on the lookout for new opportunities; the strongest leaders will be thinking about where there might be “a new category you can pioneer coming out of this crisis?”, says Verne. You should be looking to emerge in the strongest way possible for Spring, by tightening up processes and getting prepared for growth. Even if you are not actively expanding as a business right now. Verne believes you should be taking steps to improve your overall standpoint,  constantly and inexpensively; “if your job as a company is to make the lives of others easy, your job as a leader is to make your employees lives and jobs easy”. You should always be searching for ways to improve even if that does not necessarily mean expanding or investing right now, you should still strive to scale forward. 

Eli Goldratt wrote a book called The Goal, which Verne Harnish has described as one of the most important business books ever written. With such an accolade, we had to have Andy Watt, MD of Goldratt, on the show. Andy is a founding member of the Theory of Constraints International Certification Organisation (TOCICO) and a Chartered Fellow of CILT (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport). He’s also the owner and driving force behind Goldratt UK, and he has the singular aim of increasing the exposure of Theory of Constraints (TOC) in the UK.Over the last fifteen years, Andy and Goldratt UK have worked with hundreds of organisations implementing TOC including Bentley, McLaren, Honeywell, Masterfoods, Bombardier, Eurostar, Siemens and Johnson Matthey.Today, Andy talks about managing constraints, not just in a manufacturing or engineering business, but in any business that runs project work. The idea that constraints should be managed is applicable to so many businesses, regardless of their industry. The common thread is that people often know what the constraint is, and what the solution to the problem is, but somehow can’t fix it themselves. “Fundamentally, it's how you release work into the system, which is really important. So we release it at the rate at which the constraint can produce it. So shoving it in doesn't make it come out, which is a lesson that most people don't understand.”We also discuss how many CEOs and business leaders have a belief problem that they need to overcome and that the actual constraint might be a belief and not a real thing. This is a fascinating conversation, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Why a physicist wrote a business bookEli’s algorithm to release work into the systemThe constraint is often the most simple thingFlow dynamics/ flowing capacityKnowing what done/good looks likeOvercoming beliefs

Chris Budd, founder and former CEO of Ovation Finance, shares his journey into employee ownership trusts. He emphasizes the significance of culture, purpose, and happiness when transitioning a business. Discover the essential elements needed to prepare employees for this shift and how to align personal and company goals for better engagement. Budd also highlights the financial realities of employee-owned entities, tackling misconceptions about business valuations while reflecting on the fulfilling aspects of the entrepreneurial journey.

If you’re wondering how you can find time from everyday business operations to do innovation, today’s guest, Tendayi Viki, is the guy you want to listen to. He’s an award winning author and corporate innovation expert. He’s also been recognised by Thinkers50 as one of the world's foremost business strategic thinkers, and he’s the author of three books, the latest of which is Pirates In The Navy. Tendayi’s biggest bugbear is innovation theatre, those companies that look like they’re doing innovation, but aren’t, and so he shares his thoughts on how to innovate properly. What you don’t need, says Tendayi, is an entrepreneur in residence. Having a startup mindset doesn’t require you to actually employ a startup founder, nor do you need to install ping pong tables either. What you actually need, if you're going to innovate, if you're going to come up with another big idea that's going to drive the revenue of your business in the long term, is to figure out how to structure it, how to staff it and how to measure its success. So to find out how to innovate in your business, because let’s face it, any business that stands still gets left behind, download and listen to this latest episode. It’s a great conversation. On today’s podcast:Why businesses suck at innovationHow to become a pirateCorporate intrapreneursWhy you don’t want startup innovation theatre The metrics to measure innovationThe companies doing innovation wellHow to spot core business troublesLinks:The Corporate StartupThe Lean Product LifecyclePirates In The Navy

If you want a point of difference with your company, if you want to be more Apple than Blackberry, then don’t miss this week’s episode of The Melting Pot with the Godfather of Category Design, Christopher Lochhead. He self-describes as a dyslexic paperboy who got thrown out of school at 18 and with few other options he started a company. Now, Christopher is a #1 Apple Business Podcaster and #1 Amazon Marketing author. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups, is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO (Vantive, Scient, Mercury Interactive), and entrepreneur.“For me, entrepreneurship, like many entrepreneurs, is not necessarily a way up in the world, it's a way out of a life of struggle.”Today, Christopher hosts the award-winning dialogue podcast “Follow Your Different” and award-winning “Lochhead on Marketing” podcast and is co-author of two international bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.Christopher is a firm believer that categories make brands, rather than brands make categories. In this incredibly insightful (and slightly longer than normal) episode, he talks about what might have happened if Steve Jobs had followed a traditional marketing playbook and why Google Plus was a failure. Plus, he discusses the importance of dialogue and what happened when Dan Alexander, the guy who covers President Trump's business dealings, came on his podcast. On today’s podcast:Why he started the podcastCreating a category with Play BiggerHow the legends do marketingHow Steve Jobs created a new categoryCreating the sushi burritoInterviewing Dan AlexanderLinks:Podcast - Follow Your DifferentBook - Play BiggerBook - Niche Down

Do you know what your company’s nine touch points are? The things that are the most important to your clients? Could you say, off the top of your head, what is most important to your customers pre-sale, during the sales process and after sale?Do you even have touch points that are so remarkable that people continue to talk about you long after the engagement?Meet Hilary Corna, author, speaker and CEO of coaching consulting business, Corna Partners. Hilary is on a mission to humanise business. She works predominantly with SMB to help them design uniquely human custom experiences to enable them to grow. “I’m humanising their customer experience, from end to end point, really focused on this new world that we live in. It's an intersection of work, humanity and culture. And as the world is becoming more human, more aware, more conscious, more open minded, we're allowed to show more of our sides of our identity.”Hilary says that every business has nine touch points that are important to the customer, not to the company, to the customer. It’s your job as the leader of the company, to identify those nine touch points and make them wow your customers. This is a really insightful conversation with a truly effervescent person. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. On today’s podcast:Why she’s focused on humanising businessHumanisation of processDigi-human divideIntentional human customer experience designCustomer for life cycleYour nine customer touchpointsHumanise your agreementsCreate customer focused contentLinks:Book - One White Face (Hilary Corna)

In November 2013, Alex Lewis was rushed to hospital with just 30 minutes to live. He was 33 years old. Leading up to his hospital admittance, he’d been suffering with a cold and a sore throat. Within hours of being admitted to hospital he was on full life support and was given less than 3% chance of survival. What had brought this otherwise healthy man to his knees? Strep A, Toxic Shock Syndrome, Septicaemia and Necrotising Fasciitis. In order to survive, Alex needed a quadruple amputation, extensive skin grafts and facial reconstruction surgery. With his life turned upside down, it was time for Alex to start living.  “Everything that's gone on with losing my limbs and legs and arms, everything else, I think the biggest driving force is having the ability to help people like me, in a similar condition.”Alex is the ultimate motivational speaker because he hasn’t had an epiphany that he wants to share with the world, he’s had a near death experience. On top of that he’s had to overcome adversity in order to take on new challenges such as living day to day life, becoming an entrepreneur and hand cycling up mountains. In this extraordinary episode, Alex shares what it takes to go through something like this, what resilience really looks like and what we can learn from his experience. On today’s podcast:Alex Lewis TrustStrep A, Toxic Shock Syndrome, Septicaemia and Necrotising FasciitisRebuilding his lifeBecoming director of a number of startups Working with Imperial College LondonHand cyclesLinks:Alex Lewis TrustThe Extraordinary Case Of Alex LewisKoalaa - affordable prosthesis

If you have bucket loads of content that you regularly share with your audience across your social media platforms, but it’s not getting any traction, or if you don’t have content and you need some, then you need Beck Power. Beck is the queen of repurposing existing content to keep you front of mind for your audience. Today’s conversation isn’t about how to be globally strategic with an author, this is a tactical how-to conversation with somebody who enables others.So if you’re wondering how, in the age of content is king, you can possibly create enough content to feed the beast AND still run your business, then Beck has the answers you've been seeking. Beck is a leading content marketer and the founder of the Amp Content Academy, the HQ for making more relevant, consistent content and leveraging it into opportunities and clients.Her podcast “Amplify Content” and her content marketing agency help coaches, speakers and authors create and spread more powerful content across social media, grow their audiences and connect with their ideal clients.So if you’re wondering how to take your first steps to build your brand and your authority. How to turn yourself into a key person of influence in your industry. If you’re curious what the minimum viable product you need is. How you can get started with a podcast or at the very least, how you can get yourself on someone else’s podcast, and how to take that content and amplify it, then this is the conversation for you. On today’s podcast:How to start a podcastHow a content marketing agency can be authentically youHow to do email marketingFinding your target audienceSocial media marketing toolsCreating evergreen contentLinks:Podcast - Amplify Content