My guest today on Leaders in Conversation is Sally-Anne Airey, leadership coach, founder of Skilful Leaders and author of Mindful Command - the way of the evolving leader, and podcast host of Fearless Forward.

In our conversation Sally-Anne offers valuable insights into:

• What good leadership looks, sounds, and feels like.
• How becoming a better leader is less about what you do, and more about how you are.
• Why she created the concept of Mindful Command and what it is - Balanced Awareness (seeing things as they are), Clear Purpose (being clear what matters) and Fearless Compassion (cultivating the courage to do the right thing).

Sally-Anne’s Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Pause
2. Look at the whole picture
3. Listen for what’s needed.
4. Be Present

About Sally-Anne:

SALLY-ANNE AIREY is a leadership coach who has devoted over 40 years to the art and skill of leadership. A Royal Navy officer for 23 years, she rose to the rank of Commander and was the first woman to continue in service as a mother. Later she worked for 8 years in Ukraine and Russia, where she discovered her coaching vocation on a consultancy project in Kyiv in 2007. She has been coaching leaders ever since. Inspired by the mountains surrounding her home in the French Alps, she developed the concept of Mindful Command – now the foundation for all her work with people who care about their impact on the world.

To connect, follow and find out more about Sally-Anne:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyanneairey/

Website: https://skilfulleaders.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallyanne_airey/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SkilfulLeaders

Podcast: https://skilfulleaders.com/podcasts-blog/

Resources/Books/Free download: (If applicable) Mindful Command - The way of the evolving leader

Thank you

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation and to find out more about Walking Partnerships do go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.collaborationequation.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

My guest today is Jenny Latham, Executive Coach and passionate advocate for staying human in a digital world.

In our conversation Jenny offers valuable insights into:

1. How our modern world is leaving us hyper connected but under bonded, creeping up so slowly that many of us haven’t realised what we’re missing;
2. Why the quality of connection matters more than the quantity; the importance of shared experiences and getting beyond small talk into more meaningful conversation;
3. How the Smartphone Free Childhood Movement is instrumental in protecting our children’s social health, and mental health more broadly;
4. The importance of identifying your own social needs and being intentional about wiring your world to meet them.

Jenny’s three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Reflect on your own social needs and be intentional in steering your life to meet them
2. Have the courage to get beyond small talk into more meaningful conversations and make time together count
3. If you have children, help them meet their social needs by setting healthy screen boundaries

About Jenny:

Jenny Latham works as an independent Executive Coach, helping senior leaders (particularly across Government), to navigate their careers with a specialism in ‘what next’?

She made the move to freelance coaching in July 2023 following 16 years at EY, firstly client facing as a Management Consultant and then as a People, Market and Operations Director, working with the Consulting Leadership team to run the business. She was also part of the EY Professional Coaches network, supporting senior talent to develop.

She discovered coaching in 2020 and was increasingly drawn to a career which has helping people at the forefront and with a focus on solving more human societal challenges.

She has a deep passion for all things social health & connection. One of the reasons she loves coaching is the opportunity to help people put their masks down, to have a meaningful conversation and to connect with who they are and what they want.

She’s an active volunteer in her local community with the Smartphone Free Childhood Movement. She wants to see a society where real human to human friendship, belonging and tribe can flourish and this means using technology very intentionally.

To get in touch with Jenny, to find out more about her, and about the Smart Phone Free Childhood movement:

LinkedIn: Jenny Latham

Websites: www.jennylatham.com and www.smartphonefreechildhood.org

Some of Jenny’s favourite books on connection:

1. Lost Connections: Johann Hari
2. The Art of Gathering: Priya Parker
3. Let’s Talk (How to have better conversations): Nihal Arthanayake
4. Together: Vivek Murthy
5. Talk To Your Boys: Joanna Schroeder, Christopher Pepper

Thank you

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.collaborationequation.com

And if you would like to join us on one of our Walking Partnerships days, please do get in touch with me.

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

My guest today is Patrick Andrews, lawyer and co-founder with Erica Neve of Yoak. He is author of The Incomplete Circle - Rethinking Business from the Inside Out, published in 2025.

In our conversation Patrick offers valuable insights into:

1. Participation - real change only happens when we move from observers to participants.
2. Wholeness - what it means to lead, organise and make decisions from a sense of interconnectedness rather than separation.
3. Flow - How individuals and organisations flourish when effort, skill and purpose align.

In our conversation we explore some of the following questions:

Participation: What does it mean to move from being an observer into becoming a participant? What happens when we choose to become a participant? What are some of the steps towards moving from being an observer to a participant in business and organisations?

Wholeness: In Patrick’s wonderful book - The Incomplete Circle he writes about the dance of wholeness, and how leadership is a practice not a position; and that leading involves deep listening, trusting and creating structures that are encouraging of interconnectedness rather than separation. What are some of the challenges to doing this, and how can we as leaders, and people in business develop this practice? What is the impact on decision making when we do this? What do we need to pay attention to that will help us?

Flow: We often talk about ‘going with the flow’ in our lives, and what it feels like to be in the flow when everything feels aligned. What can we learn from our bodies, and from nature about flow? What happens to individuals and organisations when effort, skill and purpose align? How can we get into the flow, and what is the impact on people, on business?

Patrick’s three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Listening to yourself including and especially to your body.
2. Listening to others - particularly critics and to the quieter, often unheard, voices.
3. Listening to the universe. Nature is our first and best teacher.

To connect, follow and find out more about Patrick:

LinkedIn: Patrick Andrews

Website: yoak.uk

Book: The Incomplete Circle. Available on Amazon or here.

Thank you:

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.collaborationequation.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

In our conversation Marisa offers valuable insights into:

1. Supporting change and transition for success
2. Helping people be their best
3. The link between engagement, development and performance
4. Equity and fairness in leading change and transition

Marisa’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. It sounds so simple but really get to know your people
2. Great people and talent come in different forms – there isn’t a single formula
3. Take time to think about how life can / will change for you and what you want from it and what you might need to do differently or learn. Don’t put things off! And never give up on what you want

To connect, follow and find out more about Marisa:

LinkedIn: Marisa Kismul

Thank you

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.collaborationequation.com.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter, and podcast and do follow me on LinkedIn.

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it.

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is Lulu Minns, Fifth Dimension (5D) Teacher and author of The Genius Wheel®.

In our conversation Lulu offers valuable insights into:

1. Understanding and aligning with your personal growth cycle
2. Leading from authenticity and claiming your unique genius
3. Integrating natural seasonal rhythms with personal and professional growth
4. Supporting women’s wellbeing and empowerment in leadership

Lulu’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders and Listeners:

1. Slow down and tune in.
2. Commitment to your creative power, exceptional intelligence or natural ability.
3. Look back.

About Lulu

I am a 5D teacher and thought leader who helps individuals and organisations understand and align with the deeper patterns that shape personal and collective growth. My body of work, The Genius Wheel®, developed over a decade, explores how consciousness evolves through natural 7-year cycles — a framework that offers clarity, perspective and direction through times of change and transformation.

Working from a 5D perspective means seeing beyond surface-level events to recognise the energetic and emotional layers influencing them. I support female entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders to interpret these shifts with awareness and purpose.

My approach blends practical action with multidimensional insight, providing a bridge between inner evolution and real-world impact. Through 6-weekly empowerment circles and bi-annual retreats, I help women navigate their unique 7-year journey — providing a roadmap to navigate life’s big transitions.

If you don’t already have a copy of The Genius Wheel, you can get one at thegeniuswheel.com and use the discount code FRIENDS25 for a discount.

To connect with Lulu follow and learn more about her and her amazing work:

LinkedIn: Lulu Minns

Website: thegeniuswheel.com

Instagram: @thegeniuswheel

YouTube: @thegeniuswheel

Podcast: She Rebel Radio

Substack: @luluminns

Thank you

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, do go to our website www.collaborationequation.com.

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is, Senior Civil Servant, Mark Burden.

In our conversation Mark offers valuable insights into:

• How presenteeism is not about visibility 
• The importance of seeking feedback
• Disability and the art of the possible
• And how everyone is integral to achieving the “thing”

Mark’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders and Listeners:

1. Be comfortable in not knowing the answer but having the knowledge to connect people
2. Mistakes are great - learn from them rather than fearing them. It is an opportunity to move from fear to opportunity
3. Tell the story, explain the why and if possible the who and the when! The what bit is then quite easy! 

Connect with Mark:

LinkedIn: Mark Burden

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend:

Go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is Asad Dhunna Founder and CEO of the Unmistakables.

In our conversation Asad offers valuable insights into:

1. Creativity
2. Bravery
3. Humour
4. Spirituality

Asad’s Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Work out what's going on for people.
2. Talk about what makes you nervous.
3. Sometimes you have to let go to let in.

To connect, follow and find out more about Asad:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asaddhunna/

Website: https://www.theunmistakables.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asaddhunna/

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend:

Go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.collaborationequation.com.

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

Today’s guest is Nicola Bettesworth, Defra Chief People Officer, Group Corporate Services, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.  

I had the joy of meeting Nicola when she was looking for a leadership partner to work with her and her leadership team. We very quickly built our relationship, and have enjoyed a true partnership for a number of years. I greatly admire Nicola, her vision and her passion and am looking forward to her sharing her leadership story today.

In our conversation Nicola shares and offers valuable insights into:

• Contribution and Community;
• How Everyone Matters, Everyone Counts;
• The importance of knowing who you are, and of choices;
• Making every single moment count.

To connect with Nicola:

Email her on: nicola.bettesworth@defra.gov.uk 

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend:

Go to my website: www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing, and to Louisa Penny of Penny Writing for the marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest are Kate Lowe Founder and Director and Alex Remington, Director of Partnerships at Both Barrels.

In our conversation Kate and Alex offer valuable insights into how their passions and purpose of Family, Relationships, Integrity and Never Giving Up are woven into the fabric of their lives and leadership.

Why clients choose Both Barrels:

1. Staying calm no matter what the situation;
2. Keeping the objective in mind when there are setbacks - and ability to pivot;
3. Building big trusting relationships

Kate and Alex's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Trust and guide your team
2. Surround yourself with good people
3. Never be afraid to admit you don’t know something or when you are wrong

About Kate and Alex:

KATE LOWE:

Kate Lowe is a trusted PR and communications strategist with over 15 years of experience advising senior executives on how to harness sport as a platform to shape personal and organisational narratives.

Kate specialises in integrating into businesses to build a deep understanding of their goals, refining complex messaging into clear, impactful communications. Steering clients through the fast-moving world of sport and guiding C-suite leaders in navigating complex media landscapes to protect and enhance brand value.

Her established relationships across global sports and sports business media enable close collaboration in crafting messaging that achieves alignment and influence.

Her deep understanding of the business and cultural dynamics of sport enables her to build collaborative stakeholder relationships and deliver strategic communications solutions that build reputations and unlock commercial and reputational growth.

ALEX REMINGTON:

Alex Remington is a strategic partnership leader with over 18 years of experience driving transformative collaborations that position sport as a catalyst for business growth and cultural relevance.

A Harvard Business School alumnus, he combines expertise across sport, entertainment, media, and business, applying data and insights to guide commercial decisions and deliver sustainable results.

At Manchester United, Alex pioneered “performance partnerships,” redefining sponsorships as performance-driven collaborations integrating elite technology from sponsor brands into sporting operations.

He specialises in designing integrated strategies that align sporting operations with business objectives, building partnerships that deliver measurable impact, unlock new revenue streams, and create lasting competitive advantage for rights holders and brands.

To connect, follow and find out more about Both Barrels, and Kate and Alex:

LinkedIn: Both Barrels

Website: bothbarrels.co.uk

Instagram: @bothbarrelspr

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.collaborationequation.com.

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast with Louisa Penny, from Penny Writing.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is Lisa Partridge, communication skills specialist, facilitator, founder of SIXCOMMS and host of the SIXCOMMS podcast. I had the joy of getting to know Lisa through following each other on LinkedIn, and through our shared passion for working in nature with leaders. Lisa invites people to ‘Come Curious, and Leave Connected’.

In our conversation Lisa offers valuable insights into:

• The 3Cs of human-centred effective communication: Connection, Curiosity and Compassion;
• The benefits of taking conversations outside in nature;
• How being in nature allows us to listen more deeply and be more present with ourselves and each other;
• How taking our conversations outside in nature can unlock insight and give us the clarity to see the path ahead.

Lisa’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Connection first, always.
2. Step outside to see inside.
3. Slow down to lead strong.

About Lisa:

Originally from the UK and based in Singapore since 2009, Lisa Partridge is a communication skills specialist, facilitator, and founder of SIXCOMMS. She has worked with leading organisations including Singapore Airlines, Marina Bay Sands, Maxwell Chambers, and ADB Bank. Guided by her 6Cs of Effective Communication: Connection, Curiosity, Compassion, Clarity, Customization, and Consistency, Lisa helps leaders and teams communicate with greater impact. She also hosts The SIXCOMMS Podcast, now with over 70 episodes, and leads 6Cs walking sessions in Singapore’s parks, where a community of professionals “Come Curious, Leave Connected.”

To connect, follow and find out more about Lisa:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lisasing/

Website: www.sixcomms.org

Instagram: @sixcommslisa

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@sixcommsconversations2025

Lisa's Podcast: sixcomms.buzzsprout.com

Free download: The 6Cs of a Thriving Communicator Guide

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com; to listen to Finding Your Collaborative Edge with Lucy Kidd and I, to do go our website www.Collaboration.Equation.

I had the joy of meeting Karen via an online supervision group organised by EY in collaboration with Henley Business School. Karen has written a book, Breaking the Coaching Code - how great coaches transcend the rules published in November 2025. 

In our conversation Karen offers valuable insights into:

• What it means to walk home to yourself. 
• The journey to and of self-acceptance. 
• And having a social conscience.

Karen’s key encouragements to Leaders:

1. Reconnect with your unique self rather than trying to be what you think a good leader is
2. Understand your strengths and be clear about your purpose 
3. Build your ability to have effective conversations with clarity, compassion, curiosity and courage

About  Karen:

Karen Foy has been coaching since 2003, her background before coaching was in the NHS working locally, regionally and nationally on policy related to patient experience. She caught the coaching bug on an Open University summer school whilst undertaking a module from the MBA on Creativity, Innovation and Change thinking about creativity innovation and change.

She heard about this thing called coaching and thought, that’s the thing she does when she’s supposed to be working and was blown away that she could do it as a career. She trained as a coach, built her business alongside her work, and then jumped in 2007 to become a full-time coach.

She already had a first degree in psychology and the next step for her was to undertake a master’s degree in Coaching Psychology which she gained in 2011. She is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation, a Certified Mentor for ICF Credentials and she has a Professional Certificate in Coaching Supervision from Henley Business School.

She has recently retired from her lecturing role at Henley Business School where she was the Programme Director for Accredited Coaching Programmes. Joining an academic institution was a crash course in acceptance as she is a Yorkshire woman from a ‘dyed in the wool’ working class background who left school at 14 with no qualifications.

She has come to a place where she is more able to welcome her gremlin of not being good enough as the gift it is to her coaching.

To connect with Karen:

Website: www.thecoachtribe.com

LinkedIn: @Karen Foy, MCC

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend:

Go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. 

To find out more about Collaboration Equation, do go to our website www.collaborationequation.com and follow us on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I had the joy of meeting Tim when he came to speak on the Marketing Leaders Programme some years ago.  I had previously heard about his amazing adventures with the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project in Cornwall, the UK, from a mutual friend.

I then had the pleasure of meeting again at Anthropy 25 which was hosted at the Eden Project, a gathering of leaders and organisations to inspire and learn through meaningful collaboration, human kindness and unbound leadership.

In our conversation Tim offers valuable insights into:

• Losing your fear of being disliked
• Daring to dream
• Enjoying provocation
• Knowing your weaknesses

Tim’s Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Dare to have your dreams and then deliver on them or give them up and do something else.
2. Defeat the look in people's eyes or the tone in people's voices, which says, this isn't for the likes of you.
3. Embrace those dancing lessons from God, these random meetings, and you'll be amazed at how your life changes.
4. Always hire people that are better than you and tell them how much better than you they are.

To find out more about Anthropy 2026 go to anthropy.uk, the Anthropy Charter is made up of Human Kindness, Meaningful Collaboration and Unbound Leadership.

To read about, and visit Heligan, heligan.com

To read about Eden Project edenproject.com and to learn about other Eden Projects including Eden Morecambe all reconnecting people with nature, and all that we can learn and with nature.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. To find out more about Collaboration Equation, co-founded by Lucy Kidd and I, go to www.collaborationequation.com I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I had the joy of meeting Rachel through The Marketing Society, and over the years of getting to know her through her love of the Walk and Talk, her excellent marketing and most recently through the Marketing Leaders Programme.

In our conversation Rachel offers valuable insights into:

• How to recognise and prevent organisational burnout;
• The business case for a positive mindset at work;
• The strategic power of content as a business driver when it serves brand objectives and real human needs;
• And finally building brand reputation through stakeholder engagement.

Rachel’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Align Your Strategic Vision with Personal Purpose.
2. Build Excellence Through Audience-Led Thinking.
3. Embrace the Power of Integrated Leadership.

About Rachel

Rachel Letham is Head of Brand and Communications at The Marketing Society, where she leads strategic brand development and integrated communications for the global membership organisation. As a key member of the Leadership Team, she has established the function as a centre of excellence, implementing bold, audience-led strategies that drive measurable improvements in brand visibility and stakeholder engagement.

With over 13 years of experience in strategic communications and brand development, Rachel combines commercial expertise with creative vision to transform organisations through innovative content strategies. 

At The Marketing Society, she oversees the development of impactful communications and content, ensuring consistent messaging while pioneering new approaches to enhance brand reputation and member engagement.

Alongside her corporate role, Rachel is a certified positive mindset coach, working with global organisations including Google, Target, and Kargo. This unique combination allows her to bring fresh perspectives to brand challenges, helping both individuals and organisations align their strategic goals with purposeful vision-setting. Her approach was shaped by her own experience of near-burnout in the fresh produce industry, leading her to develop sustainable approaches to professional growth and team development.

As a leader, Rachel is known for building and inspiring high-performing teams, fostering cultures of innovation and strategic thinking. She maintains a strong focus on data-driven decision-making and measurable outcomes, while ensuring that brand and content strategies deliver genuine business impact. Her work demonstrates the power of combining strategic brand thinking with positive mindset techniques to drive organisational success.

Through both her role at The Marketing Society and her coaching practice, Rachel helps organisations and individuals unleash their full potential, creating meaningful change through the intersection of strategic communication, brand development, and personal growth.

Connect with Rachel:

LinkedIn: Rachel Letham

Website: www.rachelletham.com, www.marketingsociety.com

Instagram: @rachelletham

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend:

Go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media Management for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

My conversation today is with Anna Deacon, photographer, writer and wild swimmer. I had the joy of meeting Anna at the Creative Light Photography Festival in the Highlands of Scotland in October 2022.  I was inspired by her, and by her many, many books on Wild Swimming. 

In our conversation Anna offers valuable insights into:

• How and why the wild swimming project started.
• Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
• How to find your peace in the wild/outdoors.

Anna’s three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Don’t be afraid to change things up/take risks
2. Believe in your gut intuition
3. Don’t write yourself off before you have really tried something

About Anna

Anna has worked as a photographer since 2007, specialising in wild swimming, portraits, nature and travel. She has worked with large and small brands like MINI, Speedo, Kit Kat, Visit Scotland, Cape Cove, Selkie and more to create content. Her photography work has been published extensively in the national press including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Stylist and The Scotsman. She has also had her work featured in large scale photography exhibitions. 

Since 2019 Anna has had seven books published, working with co-author Vicky Allan on Taking The Plunge (2019), For The Love Of Trees (2020), The Art Of Wild Swimming series (Scotland, 2021, England & Wales, 2021, and Ireland, 2022, The Ripple Effect published in 2023 and  Swimming Wild Ireland in 2024, all published by Black and White Publishing/Bonnier.  

Also in 2021 The Wild Guide Balearic Islands book was published by Wild Things Publishing, this extensive travel guide was co-written by Anna and her sister Lizzie Graham. Anna is working on her ninth book which is due for publication in Autumn 2026.  

Anna hosts a popular Instagram page @wildswimmingstories which The Sunday Times magazine named as one of the Top 7 influencers to follow in the ‘Health and Fitness’ category in 2023.  

Previous to this Anna worked in the music and entertainment industry in London for over a decade, specialising in PR and events such as NME Awards, Isle of Wight Festival, Ibiza Rocks, MOBO Awards, British Comedy Awards and Teenage Cancer Trust concerts. She co-founded the PR agency Amazing Media in 2004 who were at the forefront of working with brands such as Nokia, T- Mobile, Diageo and O2 to create dynamic partnerships with the live music industry.  Anna also worked in talent handling and personal PR for The Who, Jamiroquai, Anastacia, Beverley Knight, Sia, Big Brother, and many others.

Connect with Anna:

LinkedIn: @Anna Deacon

Website: www.anna-deacon.com

Instagram: @wildswimmingstories

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I had the joy of connecting with Susie through a colleague. I enjoyed our conversation so much that I invited her to be a guest. 

Susie offers valuable insights into:

• Following your passion to find your purpose
• Living outside your comfort zone as a way to learn and grow
• Finding your balance to enable you to do your best work

Susie’s three key encouragements to leaders:

1. Take time to understand what matters to you - so you can enjoy doing what you do
2. Get comfortable being uncomfortable - it’s a source of growth
3. Be confident in finding your own rhythm - and then set your boundaries to stick to it

About Susie

After a successful career in marketing at Unilever and British Gas, and then fulfilling her ambition of sailing a yacht around the world, Susie started her next adventure when she founded the strategic marketing agency Blue Feathers.

Susie’s aim was to help marketers to be their best and drive their brands to succeed. She now leads a team of marketing experts who work with major brands including Tesco, Primark, Michelin, Simplyhealth and Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

Susie believes that people do their best work when life is balanced – and that belief is reflected in how she leads the Blue Feathers team: a highly skilled, fully remote group, motivated through shared purpose and a deliverables-based approach.

Susie remains passionate about sailing and loves spending time on the water. She is also now a keen beekeeper and gardener, and enjoys spending time hiking.

The best way for people to connect and follow Susie is:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susiepartridge/

Website: www.bluefeathers.co.uk and www.yachtadina.co.uk

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn Anni Townend, and Collaboration Equation.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I had the joy of being introduced to Jane through Dawn Harding, a previous podcast guest on Leaders in Conversation and recent guest on Finding Your Collaborative Edge.

In our conversation Jane offers valuable insights into:

• Transitioning in life from one thing to another: School to University, University to the first job, career building and then a massive career change followed by leaving full time work to pursue voluntary roles and enjoying time which is less structured.
• The ability to let go, to move on without regret and to forge ahead with new adventures: Understanding that you will also lose contact with some people as your lives take different paths.
• Understanding the impact on others of your deeds, words and attitude.
• The importance of being authentic, whilst evolving, developing and changing and rocking up as yourself everyday.

Jane’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders: 

1. Learn from everyone you meet - everyone has something to give.  Be prepared to know a little about a lot of things and trust the experts in each field to know a lot about a little.
2. Stay  positive.  A positive attitude helps to make those around you positive and if things are going a little bit wrong, it is easier to turn it round with a positive attitude. A smile is infectious.  A frown turns people off.
3. Focus on the difference you are really making.  It is the stories behind the numbers which are of paramount importance.   The balance sheet and Key Performance Indicators are never enough!

To connect with Jane, follow and find out more about her:

LinkedIn - for her volunteering / corporate side of life

Instagram - for her wildlife snaps and fun things.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Jane

Jane has had two different careers in her life, one in the hospitality industry and one in sport. She took learnings from the hospitality industry into her sport leadership role. Now she has moved into voluntary, charity roles and is travelling to many far-flung places where she is learning from different communities. She loves the outdoors, reading and encouraging total strangers to tell her their life stories.

In this episode, my guest is Claire Bowden-Hughes, CEO and Founder at En2End, a leading sports fan engagement agency, founded on trust, respect, and reciprocity in relationships and leadership. 

In our conversation Claire shares valuable insights into: 

• The Balancing Act of thriving as a mother and as an entrepreneur: The real life challenges and triumphs of juggling these 2 demanding but extremely rewarding roles. 
• Excelling in a male dominated industry: The journey of being a female entrepreneur in the sports events world.
• The art of making lasting connections and exceeding expectations: The importance of building and nurturing a professional network in the sports event industry, how to make lasting connections and how relationships have been pivotal is driving business success.

Claire’s three Key Encouragements for life, entrepreneurship and leadership: 

1. Define the direction and hold the vision, but invite others into the journey: You have to take space for others to be able to be part of your journey. You won't be able to get there on your own.
2. Stay curious and adaptable because nothing ever stays the same: The landscape is always shifting. Technologies are always evolving, behaviors are always changing.
3. Your attitude sets the tone: The way that you come across, and the energy that you bring is something that can really inspire others and create momentum. 

Connect with Claire and find out more about her, and her amazing work:

LinkedIn: Claire Bowden Hughes

Website: www.en2end.com 

Instagram: @en2endltd

About Claire Bowden-Hughes:

Early Life and Education: A sheep farmer’s daughter from Mid Wales, Claire Hughes has always been ambitious and adventurous. Her journey began at the University of Central Lancashire, where she pursued a BA in languages ( French, German and Spanish with Tourism), laying the foundation for her career.

World Traveller: After university, she embarked on a 9-month world tour, absorbing cultures across Singapore, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, and America. This global exposure honed her adaptability, cultural sensitivity, and language skills, particularly French, which would become invaluable in her career.

Luxury Retail in London: Claire’s first foray into the professional world was in London’s prestigious New Bond Street, where she leveraged her fluency in French to excel in sales and account management for a high-end luxury brand, Lalique. Here, she mastered the art of client relations and high-stakes negotiation.

Sports Event Management: Moving to Manchester, Claire joined a small sports events agency, diving into the world of sportsman’s lunches and dinners with notable sporting legends such as Lawrence Dallaglio, Sir Alex Ferguson, Gareth Edwards, Shane Warne, Frank Bruno and more! This role expanded her network significantly and introduced her to the intricacies of event management and sports marketing.

TSMGI and Liverpool FC: Her career took a significant turn when she joined TSMGI, an American agency, where she was integral in the Aon-Man Utd shirt deal delivery. Subsequently, at Liverpool FC as Head of Partner Experience, she managed VIP match days, sponsor relations & international event programmes, further honing her skills in stakeholder management and sports activation.

Entrepreneurial Leap: Leveraging her extensive experience and network, Claire founded her own sports events agency. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, she innovatively pivoted to virtual matchday experiences, gaining recognition from UEFA and other prominent sports organisations.

Personal Life: At 45, Claire embraced motherhood with her daughter Bryony, marking a new chapter of personal growth and joy. With husband Andy by her side, she balances her passion for her work with the joys of family life, continuing to innovate in the sports marketing world while cherishing every moment as a mother and wife.

Current Focus: Post-maternity leave, Claire is back, driving forward new projects with AXA, UEFA, Visa and other exciting ventures, showcasing her resilience and innovation in the face of any challenge.

Values and Vision: Throughout her dynamic career and personal life, Claire remains committed to excellence, innovation, and nurturing relationships. Her journey from a rural upbringing to global business success is a testament to her adaptability, vision, and relentless drive. 

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick through a mutual colleague, Thurstine Basset. Together they were writing a book entitled ‘Trauma, Abandonment and Privilege’ and invited me to contribute something of my own experience. I was delighted to be asked by Nick to review his most recent book, edited by him, and released in April 2025, The Un-Making Of Them - Clinical Reflections on the Boarding School Syndrome.

In our conversation Nick offers valuable insights into:

• Why understanding our emotions is so important in our lives and leadership;
• The existential dynamics of power and vulnerability, and their relevance and importance to leadership; 
• How dissociation disconnecting from ourselves and our environment - has become the engine of the modern world;
• The importance of learning about what transference is and group dynamics in leading, coaching, mentoring and facilitation.

Nick’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders - taken from three principles given to Nick by the NHS to help with managing osteoarthritis:

1.  Understand your feelings: who you are, so your emotions can guide you rather than your feelings govern you;
2. Exercise: practise new ways of being and behaviour;
3. ‘Lose weight’: notice and let go of those things that are no longer serving you in order to be lighter, and to lighten what you are carrying.

To Contact Nick:

Woundedleadersco.uk

Boardingschoolsurvivors.co.uk

Genderpsychology.com

About Nick

Nick Duffell has a degree in Sanskrit from Oxford and is a psychotherapist, psychohistorian and author. His first book, 'The Making of Them: the British Attitude to Children and the Boarding School System' received wide critical acclaim, including endorsements by the British Medical Journal and John Le Carré. Here he set out his pioneering research in group therapy with ‘boarding school survivors,' as he provocatively named adult ex-boarders. Nick co-founded the Centre for Gender Psychology and co-authored 'Sex, Love and the Danger of Intimacy.' 

A contributor to the University of Surrey Human Potential Group's 'Dictionary of Personal Development' and to many psychological journals, Nick is committed to the development of psychohistory as a tool for understanding current world problems. He is particularly interested in promoting a Depth-Psychology perspective of issues which affect our public life very deeply, such as identity and emotions, fear and vulnerability, but about which political commentators currently lack the means to properly address. 

His books include ‘Wounded Leaders: British Elitism and the Entitlement Illusion - a Psychohistory,’ 2014, and ‘The SIMPOL Solution: solving global problems could be easier than we think’ with John Bunzl. 

He contributed chapters to ‘The Political Self,’ (Karnac 2016) and to ‘Humanistic Psychology: Current Trends, Future Prospects’, (Routledge 2017). He has recently worked on an experimental project at UCL to use VR technology in the treatment of developmental trauma, and his latest book 'The Un-Making of Them: Clinical Reflections on Boarding School Syndrome' is published by Routledge in April 2025.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  

I had the joy of meeting Cal in person at the Women in Business Golf event that she hosted in September, 2024 and where my colleague Natalie Shering and I led an experiential workshop on leading with confidence.

I was inspired before the event and even more so during and after by Cal’s unswerving commitment and passion to enable women to connect and network with each other through playing golf. Cal has created a community of women, who enable, inspire and support each other personally and professionally - on and off the golf course. 

Cal is on a mission to change the face of women’s golf.

In our conversation Cal offers valuable insights into:

• How women can feel empowered if they play golf - on and off the golf course;
• The importance of social connection to Cal personally and within the community that she has created;
• How authenticity is integral to her personal life and to her business 

Cal's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders: 

1. We can always be learning and it’s essential to stay open-minded - to acknowledge and consider the value in other peoples opinions and suggestions - no one knows everything!
2. Make sure you’re a strong communicator. Don’t over complicate things, be direct and concise, but it’s essential to be kind in your delivery.
3. Create a vision that people are excited by and willing to follow.

How to connect with Cal:

LinkedIn: Caroline Shukla 

Website: www.skratchwomen.com

Instagram: @skratchwomen

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

I had the joy of being introduced to Gail through a previous podcast guest, Karen Dobres who told me what a wonderful guest Gail would be, and that she had written a book, a memoir about her life and leadership called Made in Whittingham Street

In our conversation Gail shares her story of leading with courage and gratitude, and offers insights into:

• The importance of not only finding your cause, your purpose, but of always being true to it, and to yourself.
• How staying true to your dreams, your hopes and aspirations really matters and that it is this which gives courage to and inspires others to follow their dreams and to stay true to them.
• Knowing what you believe in and having faith can give you the courage to keep going, and gratitude for what you have, and help reconcile challenges.

GAIL'S THREE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO LEADERS:

1. Be sincere and honest. Always be true to your cause.
2. Never give up on your dreams. Inspire others.
3. Have faith in what you believe in

Connect with Gail:

X: x.com/GailNewsham

Website: www.dickkerrladies.com

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

ABOUT GAIL:

I left school at fifteen and went to work in a shoe factory. I have no formal qualifications to speak of but I think I’ve done ok. I’m just an ordinary lass who has been fortunate to do some extraordinary things. I suppose I have a strong belief and a tenacity to get things done.

Saving and recording the history of women’s football and of the Dick, Kerr Ladies became her mission - highlighting the courage of the women to play and to challenge the injustice of the ban on women in football.

Passionate about saving the legacy of DKL, and keeping true to their story. In their Centenary year we achieved the First Blue Plaque in the World for women’s football 2017. Memorial to DKL at PNE 2017. First ever National Women’s Walking Football Tournament 2017. Plaque on Ashton Park in Preston in 2021, where DKL played their first match after the FA Ban of 1921.

Always been proactive in helping the game grow when nobody gave tuppence for us. I served 12 years on the Management Committee of North West Women’s Regional Football League from 1981-1993. Chief fundraiser for my own club, organising Fancy Dress Treasure Hunts and many other initiatives.  Founder and organiser of the Lancashire Trophy in 1986, an International Women’s Football Tournament with teams from Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Eire, Scotland and England, all taking part over the years.

Proud to have served in the Women’s Royal Army Corps. Took part in the Remembrance Day Parade in London in 2016, honouring family who took part in/lost in WW1, and my dad in WW2. Proud to wear his medals.

Proud of my Memoir, Made in Whittingham Street. I’ve been lucky in my life, I’ve met a lot of people who I never thought possible, and I count my blessings on a daily basis. The theme of the book I suppose is Courage, my Mum in particular, Injustice and Reconciliation, that in the end, everything works out. Well, it has for me and I am very grateful. 

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Today’s guest is Jason Webber Senior Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability Manager Football Association Wales (FAW). I had the joy of meeting Jason at the Diversity and Inclusion Global Forum in 2024 where Lucy Kidd and I were exhibiting our Collaboration Equation™.

Jason and I had a conversation about leadership, about football and collaboration which led me to inviting him to be a podcast guest on Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend.

In our conversation Jason offers valuable insights into:

• Creating a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment
• Diversity/Representation at all levels especially in senior leadership.
• Education & Awareness
• Taking meaningful action and sustainable progress.

Jason’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Lead by example, be authentic and be an ally.
2. Listen to people's lived experiences and proactively educate yourself.
3. Take action and make a difference to someone's life.

Contact and to connect with Jason:

LinkedIn - Webber T Jason 

Website - jasontwebber.myportfolio.com

Instagram - @jasontwebber 

X - WebberTJason 

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. 

About JASON

Jason is an expert and leader in Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Sustainability currently working at the Football Association of Wales (FAW) as a Senior Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Sustainability Manager.

He has been integral in advancing the FAW’s EDI and Sustainability Programmes towards being a global leader in sport and has extensive experience as an educator, public speaker and advisor to a wide range of stakeholders for more than a decade.

He is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience with others and is committed to making football and society a better place for everyone.

About this episode:

I had the joy of being in conversation with Febronia in a previous episode of Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend. Since then Feb has qualified as a coach and much more, and contacted me to say she would like to share more of her leadership story and journey. 

In our conversation Feb offers valuable insights into:

• Going back to Business School.
• Fantastic support from new peers and the marketing industry.
• The push towards and importance of accreditations from the Coaching Bodies.
• Building a business and launching exciting new services in 2025.

Feb’s three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Just do it. Try not to convince yourself of all the reasons why you shouldn't go. Instead, convince yourself of the reasons why you should, because you stand to gain so much more and learn so much more and meet so many new people. It's a fantastic experience.
2. Be patient with yourself.  Any career transition takes time. Give yourself time to enjoy the transition, the growth and the development. Be aware that the results are going to come in their own time at their own pace.
3. Surround yourself with people who want you to win. 

Connect with Febronia:

LinkedIn: Febronia Ruocco

About Febronia:

Febronia Ruocco is a multilingual, commercially impactful Global Strategic Insights & Analytics Director, with a proven track record of inspiring transformation & delivering winning insight; successful marketing strategy & commercial growth for iconic £1bn global brand portfolios in FMCG & OTC.

She is a certified Executive Leadership Coach (Henley Business School, end 2023) & accredited at Senior Practitioner Level EMCC and ACC ICF. In addition to her insight career, Febronia has coached over 150 hours, supporting senior global directors from the marketing/advertising/insight & MRX sectors.

Febronia is also a professional mentor, supporting WIRe; the Durham University Student Leadership Framework; Lancaster University & Henley Business School.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

How we met

I have had the joy of knowing Howard for many, many years as a friend, and as a colleague with whom I have worked alongside as well as supported in his leadership of teams, and companies. I have long admired him as a passionate, and committed leader who is on a mission to make a difference in how we live and lead our lives through driving the energy transition with purpose and hope.

About this episode

In our conversation Howard offers valuable insights into

• How trusting your purpose and having a vision in vital
• How he lives and leads through success and failure with commitment
• How stepping into the uncomfortable can lead to authentic connection

Howard’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders looking to lead with energy, purpose and hope

1. Be bold and stand up for what you believe 
2. Honesty and humility can be the strongest form of leadership
3. Help people understand the larger narrative and empower them to connect with their own purpose

Connect, follow and find out more about Howard:

LinkedIn: Howard Johns

Website: www.onezero.energy

Instagram: @howardsolar

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Leaders in Conversation is the podcast in which leaders share their life and leadership stories; the people, places and experiences that have shaped their values, beliefs, passion and purpose to encourage and inspire you to be even more confident and courageous in your leadership.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

I had the joy of meeting Ed over ten years ago when he was working at the pharmaceutical company MSD here in the UK. Ed had been to an event and heard my colleague, and mentor, Steve Radcliffe speaking about Future Engage Deliver, and being at your best. Ed invited Steve to MSD to do a session on being at your best, following which MSD asked for a proposal for a Leadership Development Programme. This FED programme was a huge success over many, many years and transformed peoples lives and leadership at MSD.

In this conversation Ed offers valuable insights into:

• How success is built on big relationships
• The importance of seeking out and really listening to feedback to grow
• Why being comfortable not knowing everything is key
• How we can inspire others to be the best they can be

Ed’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Acknowledge and accept that you are not and cannot be perfect
2. You can only really grow with and through the help of others
3. Relax into ‘you’ - Be comfortable in who you are and what you care about

To contact Ed:

LinkedIn: Ed Corbett

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

To find out more about Future-Engage-Deliver do get in touch with me, read the book ‘Leadership Plain and Simple’ by Steve Radcliffe. And to hear Steve sharing his personal leadership story do listen to my podcast episode with him.

A big thank you to SHMOGUS Media for the wonderful production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is Delia Lazaroiu, Senior Data Analyst and the title of our conversation is Kind leadership and diverse voices rising.

I had the joy of meeting Delia when she was working at the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Delia engaged with the leadership development work, and with myself and Emily Court. Since then we have kept in touch via LInkedIn, and as always Delia is immensely supportive and passionate about all she does. I am looking forward to hearing her story, and to getting to know her through this episode.

In our conversation Delia offers valuable insights into: 

• Making progress by aspiring to be the least knowledgeable person in that room
• Finding your tribe and thriving 
• Living in and leading with gratitude 
• Living a meaningful life as a leader and human by helping others and offering kindness 

Delia's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Lead by lifting each other up
2. Stay true to your values
3. Visit places not visited by all your peers

Contact Delia:

LinkedIn - Delia Lazaroiu  

Instagram - @delialazaroiu

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing, sound production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About This Episode

Today’s guest is David Dand, Managing Director of Coreus, the Brighton based Talent Acquisition agency. I had the pleasure of being introduced to David through a mutual friend, previous podcast guest, Dougal Fleming. If you haven’t already listened to that episode I highly recommend it. 

Dougal encouraged David and I to have a conversation, and that David has a wonderful story to share.

In our conversation, David offers valuable insights into:

• The five-step framework he uses when leading a candidate search to understand fit and motivation; 
• What you need to know about changing career and recruitment;
• Navigating career changes and your next big step;
• Hiring tips for leaders to ensure you have the right people in the right roles.

David’s three top tips for leaders looking to either make their next big move and, or ensuring that they make the right hire

1. Use the 5-step framework: 

• Consider salary and benefits
• Convenience
• Culture and brand reputation
• The day-to-day job
• Training and career progression 

2. Remember the stakes are high: 

• There are Soft & hard turnover costs, replacement & job hopping.

3.  Embrace individuality through knowing:

• What your key skills and strengths are
• What the conditions are for you to thrive 
• What Great looks and feels like, just because something is great doesn’t mean it is great for you!

To connect, follow and find out more about David and the The Five Step Framework go to:

LinkedIn: David Dand

Website: www.coreus.co.uk

Instagram: @coreus_talentacquisition 

About The 5 Step Career Change Framework 

A framework to help you understand career change and motivation, either for yourself or when you are hiring others to understand best fit.  

The five essentials are:

1. Salary & benefits 

• There is more to life than money. 
• And we have bills to pay. Responsibilities. Wants & needs. 
• Benefits: I work with an investment firm that offers a 20% pension contribution. 

2. Convenience

• Work-life balance
• Ability to manage work around your caring commitments, for example picking up children from school. 
• Work/life/harmony: Why, just because I am an accountant should I not have a weekend? 

3. Culture & Brand Reputation
I work with Accountancy / FS institutions. ‘Much the same.’ What is unique about this institution? What do I want?  

• Autonomy
• Challenge
• Sustainability

4. Day to day job

• Operational vs strategic 

5. Training and career progression

• Where is your career going, ideally
• What in an ideal world would you like to be true 

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About this Episode:

Today’s guest is Sue Cockell, Solo Traveller on a mission to help women in their mid-lives to enjoy the transformative power of travelling alone.

I had the joy of first meeting Sue when she was working at a pharmaceutical company where I was leading a leadership development programme. Sue was one of a small group of leaders with whom I worked over a period of time, supporting them in leading others.  As a group we got to know each other well, and during that time, some ten years ago, Sue lost her beloved husband. I remember Sue getting into solo travel, and helping me to feel confident about my youngest daughter travelling solo aged 18.

In our conversation Sue offers valuable insights into: 

• The transformative power of travel
• Solo travel for women in mid-life
• Embracing the power of “Yes!”

Sue’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders :

1. It’s not what happens to you in life, but how you respond that makes you who you are
2. You grow the most outside your comfort zone. Embrace those opportunities to stretch it, even if it scares you
3. Your life experiences are what makes you unique, relatable & interesting. Never be afraid to share them as you never know where it may lead.

The best way to connect, follow and find out more about Sue:

LinkedIn: Sue Cockell 

Website: www.suewherewhywhat.com

YouTube: @SueWhereWhyWhat 

Instagram: @suewherewhywhat

About Sue Cockell:

Sue Cockell is a Transformative Travel Coach, Solo Female Travel Expert, Blogger and YouTuber. She began her solo travel journey after tragically losing her husband back in 2014. Travel allowed her to breathe, grieve, heal and finally find herself again. She has now visited over 80 countries, across 6 continents and through her work she aims to inspire other women over 40 to embrace the power of travelling alone too. 

If you have a deep desire to explore the world but feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of planning and preparation involved. Sue has designed a new course specifically for you: Find Your Way: Your Ultimate Guide to Starting Your Travel Journey. If you would like to learn more, then contact her now at sue@suewherewhywhat.com.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing, sound production and marketing of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Leaders in Conversation is the podcast in which leaders share their life and leadership stories; the people, places and experiences that have shaped their values, beliefs, passion and purpose to encourage and inspire you to be even more confident and courageous in your own leadership.

If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

ABOUT THIS EPISODE 

I had the joy of being introduced to Andrew through his brother John Edwards. If you haven’t already listened to John and I in conversation, it is a great episode on Understanding Ourselves, and Understanding Others. 

John suggested that Andrew would make an excellent guest, and that he had produced, whilst at the BBC a podcast about their late Mum’s experience of living - and dying - with dementia, ‘Mum and Me: The Dementia Diary’ 

Andrew offers valuable insights into: 

• Leading by example through your leadership behaviour in an ‘on and off air’ frontline role.
• Looking down, up and out - remembering to consult your team, using the expertise around you, and never losing track of your real bosses - your audience, customers and the public.
• Swimming against the tide of expectation - your own and others’ expectations while looking after your own mental health.
• Differentiating the personal from the private, and the power of opening up in the right way to others and getting the balance right. 

Andrew's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Be true to yourself and your values 
2. Listen more than you talk
3. Inspire others through your leadership behaviours 

Connect, follow and find out more about Andrew:

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thebeardedbroadcaster

Andrew's website: www.theandrewedwards.com

X / Twitter: @RadioAndrewE

Instagram: @andrewedwardsleeds 

Email: beardedbroadcaster@icloud.com

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. 

About  Andrew Edwards

Andrew is a broadcaster, teacher, trainer and event host. He began broadcasting on hospital radio in his hometown, Hull, making his professional debut as a sports reporter on Viking Radio. He started his career in journalism at the Hull Daily Mail newspaper, before joining the BBC as a trainee in 1989. Andrew moved to BBC Radio Leeds in 1993 where he stayed, very happily, for the next thirty years. 

For many years he combined his on-air career with teaching radio journalism and spent seven years at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and Leeds Trinity University. He still mentors students and radio colleagues and is now doing freelance work at the University of Leeds.

Until 2022 he spent part of each week looking after his Mum, who died from dementia. He gives talks about, and hosts events linked to, dementia and hopes to write a book about his mother. He recorded a weekly audio diary called ‘Mum and Me: The Dementia Diary’, for which he was named a Dementia Hero at the Alzheimer’s Society’s awards 2021.

Today’s guest is Meg Farren, General Manager, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and much more! 

I had the joy of meeting Meg for the first time on the Marketing Leaders Programme, in early 2024. Meg opened the programme for us, and did a wonderful job of sharing her story and setting the context and the ambition of the programme.

Together Meg and I delve into the people, places and experiences that have made Meg the person and leader she is today. 

Meg’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Be Curious in Everything, make your first response a curious one, about yourself and about others - ask Why all the time
2. Lean into your Fear, build resilience through daring to ask - don’t hold yourself back
3. Have Fun, find and do what you love and gives you Joy

To connect, follow and find out more about Meg:

LinkedIn: Meghan Farren

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

Leaders in Conversation is the podcast in which I talk with leaders about their own life and leadership stories, to encourage you to reflect on your values, beliefs, passion and purpose, and inspire you to be even more confident and courageous in your leadership. 

A big thank you to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production and promotion of the podcast.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is Somya Agrawal, Leader, Collaborator and Motivator and the title of our conversation is Finding your Collaborative Edge™.

Leaders in Conversation is the podcast in which leaders share their life and leadership stories, and in our Collaboration Equation™ episodes their experience of collaborating and how they find their Collaborative Edge™ to encourage you to bring even more curiosity, care and courage to your leadership.  

If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In our conversation we talk about the application of Collaboration Equation™ and Somya shares her experience of collaboration and offers valuable insights into:

1. Bringing two teams together to get to know each other, to be able to have an open conversation, and how  this fast tracks success.

2. Connecting through being vulnerable in sharing her experience of hearing loss and how this has created meaningful connection  with others. 

3. Creating psychological safety that invites people to give and ask for help, getting what we need from each other and caring about each other.

4. Building trust through being human and authentic with colleagues.

5. Meeting people where they are at, and making time for everyone to have a voice, and for different thoughts and feelings to be heard.

6. Creating a culture of care and connection whether working online or in person.

To connect, follow and find out more about Somya:

LinkedIn: Somya Agrawal

Instagram: @somyaagr

To listen to more Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend visit my website www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design and marketing of the podcast and to Tom at Brown Bear Studios for the excellent production of this episode.

To contact Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd do email us on anni@annitownend.com and lucy@lucykidd.com, or via our dedicated email address connect@collaborationequation.com

To explore more about how to find your Collaborative Edge™,  visit our website www.collaborationequation.com, subscribe to our fortnightly Leadership Conversations and follow us on LinkedIn Collaboration Equation™.  

We look forward to connecting and collaborating with you, thank you for listening.

Today’s guest is Somya Agrawal, Leader, Collaborator and Motivator. I had the joy of meeting Somya in June 2024, when she joined us for a Walking Partnerships day in Surrey, in the UK.

Somya offers valuable insights into: 

• Being the conductor and not the trumpet player - The difficult transition between manager and leader, how the role changes and the importance of building a high-functioning team.
• The ripple effect - leading by example - The importance of watching and learning from leaders around you and how we are always being watched, even when we think nobody is watching! 
• Dare to enter the arena - How we foster a culture of openness, transparency, honesty and collaboration. Ask questions and challenge with kindness and curiosity. It is not what you say, but how you say that it matters.

We discuss the People, Places, and Experiences that have shaped Somya and made her the person and leader she is today: 

People - "My parents, sisters and my tribe" 

Places - "Around the world. My family’s travelling style and how it reinforced the importance of teamwork"

Experiences - "The loss of my father and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro"

Somya's key encouragements to Leaders: 

1. ENGAGE - establish a rapport with your team and build trust which will allow you to be your authentic self. With passion for your purpose, you will be able to identify the best people for the job.
2. ENABLE - use your energy to have an impact on those around you to bring people to the table who also understand your vision, as nothing is done without collaboration.
3. EMPOWER - by engaging with energy and by enabling with empathy, you will lead a team that feels empowered. 
4. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. So remember to enjoy it and take your team with you.

Connect with Somya:

LinkedIn - Somya Agrawal

About Somya Agrawal:

Somya’s most recent leadership post as a Senior Civil Servant was as a Deputy Director for Product and Delivery at UK Health Security Agency. She became a DD after a very busy and demanding period as Product Introduction Lead during the COVID-19 pandemic where she was responsible for the design, development and launch of the COVID-19 lateral flow devices. Over 2.5bn LFDs were deployed during that time, so as you can imagine, it was a very high-profile and complex mission with a lot of ambiguity, unknowns and political sensitivities in play. However, Somya loved every second of it, because of the self-development it gave her but also the HUGE national impact that this job had.

Prior to being a Senior Civil Servant, she worked at the Royal Marsden Hospital, a specialist Cancer Hospital in London, where she believes her passion for positive outcomes in healthcare really came from, as during her stint there in Research and Clinical trials, she saw many oncology drugs become licensed after seeing patients not only surviving but thriving when given the right care and treatment.

Somya is one of 3 girls in her family (the middle one) who have been very fortunate to have been raised by parents who provided their daughters as much as they could within their means which did not come without sacrifices and we are all incredibly grateful for our childhoods and it making us who we are today. Though not yet married, she has a 6 year old niece who she absolutely dotes on and calls one of her best friends.

Somya is incredibly passionate about positive outcomes in healthcare and states that her stakeholder engagement skills and energetic personality have now become her USP that have contributed to the successes she has had in her leadership journey so far.

Carien offers valuable insights into:

• How as human beings we are all creative
• How through being creative it can be an endless source of life energy
• Knowing and being yourself - how being authentic and vulnerable gives others permission to be authentic and vulnerable
• Creativity and how it’s related to leadership 

Carien's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders:

1. Know yourself, and be yourself - We serve the world by showing ourselves who we are! 
2. Explore, experiment, play and be creative - Let go of the outcome and experience joy! Remember to play and take time to simply enjoy creative activities. 
3. We create all day - By choosing our words and by our reaction towards others. 

Connect, follow and find out more about Carien:

LinkedIn: Carien (Mooibroek) Borst 

Website: www.carienborst.nl 

Instagram: @carien_borst_art

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend:
 
Email me on anni@annitownend.com
Visit my website www.annitownend.com 
Follow me on LinkedIn

About Carien Borst:

Carien was born and raised in the Netherlands. She studied Art Therapy and Human Development. 

Carien worked for 15 years in mental healthcare, and for about 10 years in different leadership roles. She started as a team leader and the last years as a manager of the eleven sheltered living houses for people who suffered from all sorts of psychiatric diseases.

Around 7 years ago Carien started to realise she was missing creativity in her life. Due to a busy job, two young children and simply not prioritising what she needed. 

After a weekend spent in a monastery, filled with silence and creativity she decided to change things in her life. She woke up early every day to create in silence. Writing, creating an art journal, sitting still and taking time to think and feel. She chose to follow art courses and slowly new ideas developed. How could she bring this creativity into her leadership role?

She found the courage to bring three pillars together in her own business: creativity, leadership and reflection. Based on her experience as a leader in mental healthcare but also through her journey in opening up again for the power of creating and growing in being a painter and artist. 

Today’s guest is Guy Newey, Chief Executive Officer at Energy Systems Catapult, and the title of our conversation is ‘On Accelerating Net Zero Energy Innovation’.

I have had the privilege of partnering with Guy and working with a group of Future Leaders at Energy Systems Catapult - a company committed to accelerating NET ZERO in the UK through supporting innovators to commercialise, and helping design and deliver the future energy system.

Together Guy and I delve into the people, places and experiences that have made him the person and leader he is today. 

Guy offers valuable insights into :

• Communication and what he has learnt about communicating across the wider team.
• Resilience, how managing your own energy is key, along with helping to manage that of the team.
• Getting comfortable with not knowing everything, and how the more senior you become as a leader the less you know.

Guy's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders looking to innovate and commercialise for Net Zero 

1. There is a huge market out there - net zero is an incredible opportunity (as well as an essential mission)
2. It is not unusual to feel imposter syndrome - in fact it is super common
3. Learn fast - be prepared to pivot quickly if something you thought was going to work does not work.

To connect, follow and find out more about Guy:

LinkedIn: Guy Newey

Website: https://es.catapult.org.uk/

Twitter/X: @guynewey

To contact Anni Townend:

Email me on anni@annitownend.com or visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

About Guy Newey

Guy was appointed Chief Executive Officer at Energy Systems Catapult, the innovation business, in June 2022. Guy joined the Catapult in 2018 as Director of Strategy after being an energy and political adviser to two UK Government Secretaries of State; Greg Clark and Amber Rudd. In Government, he was involved in many key decisions, including closing the UK’s coal-fired power stations, greater independence for the electricity system operator, and as an architect of the Clean Growth Strategy.

Before joining Government, he was Head of Policy at the challenger energy supplier, OVO Energy and Head of Environment and Energy at the influential think tank, Policy Exchange. He was previously a journalist, including three years as a foreign correspondent in Hong Kong for the international newswire, AFP. He is a non-executive director with UK100, a charity campaigning for greater environmental action by local authorities. He lives in Enfield, with his wife and two children.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational personal leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life - the people, places and experiences that have shaped them and made them the leader that they are today. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Emma Harris, Finance Director, M&S Food, Property and Retail. Together we delve into: 

• How to bring alignment in corporate world
• The importance of amplifying your strengths
• Staying authentic in more challenging environments

Emma's three key encouragements to leaders:

1. Stay true to yourself and your values
2. Find an environment where you can thrive…doesn’t have to be easy, but you can bring value through your leadership
3. Amplify your strengths, that’s where you’ll get the highest ROI

About Emma Harris

Emma is a senior finance leader, balancing living in Yorkshire with her partner and 2 boys, and working her London-based finance director role. Spending over 20 years in retail, leading finance teams, Emma is passionate about driving shareholder value for the organisation through commercial curiosity, leading great teams and her own self development. 

To connect, follow and find out more about Emma:

LinkedIn: Emma Harris

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend:

www.annitownend.com/podcast

To contact me Anni Townend:

Email me on anni@annitownend.com
Visit my website www.annitownend.com
Subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational personal leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life - the people, places and experiences that have shaped them and made them the leader that they are today.

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do.

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Chris Harte, Chief Executive and Commercial Real Estate Partner at Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP - a leading Scottish law firm committed to providing straightforward advice, clarity on cost and to building strong trusting relationships with clients ensuring that their evolving needs are met with focus and care. Together we delve into:

• What it means to "Serve to Lead" and that leadership is not about you.
• The importance of Being Curious  and to remember firstly that "the issue is never the issue", and secondly ‘not knowing’ all of the answers is a feature not a bug!
• How focusing our energy - not dispersing it - is key to strategy and that limitations can be useful, and helpful rather than a hindrance.

Chris’s three key encouragements to leaders

1. Help others to succeed - be a leader - focus more on asking questions than providing answers;

2. Identify priorities - use limitations to help focus minds on conscious choices;

3. Retain a sense of perspective - keep a sense of humour close at hand and don't take yourself too seriously - a wee bit of humility goes a long way.

To contact Chris:

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/chris-harte

To find out more about Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP follow them on linkedin and do go to their website.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with my two guests, Susie Ballentyne an Independent Psychologist and Bob Judson, a fellow podcaster, facilitator, leadership coach, and keynote speaker.

We delve together into: 

1. The importance of continually developing your skills as a leader, both individually and as part of a team.
2. The value of both mentors and coaches to leaders.
3. The challenges of building, leading and inspiring teams in today’s complex and convoluted working environment.
4. The really key requirements of a good leader.

Susie and Bob’s Three key encouragements for leaders looking to grow and develop their leadership:

1. Always remember that others have been there before you.  Very few, if any, challenges are genuinely new and unique and people will always be prepared to help you be your best self if you seek the right support.
2. One of the key challenges for developing leaders is learning to let go of tasks that can be done by the team and freeing up time to focus on the larger issues.  The great thing is that by delegating well and empowering your team members you build trust and capability in them that they will really appreciate as they develop themselves.
3. Pay attention to your relationships and your personal brand as absolute priorities.  They are fundamental to your future success and deserve to be given very special treatment. 

Connect with Susie and Bob:

LinkedIn: Bob Judson and Susie Ballentyne

Website: Leading4Life

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Carolyn Youdell, Group eCommerce & Customer Engagement Director, Group Marketing Specsavers. 

I have known Carolyn for many years and am a huge fan, she is a regular speaker on the Marketing Leaders Programme, and herself a huge fan of developing marketing leadership.

Together we delve into:

• Embracing challenge 
• Becoming compelling
• Driving simplicity…  

Carolyn’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Be a Skilled Sailor - Change your mindset about problems – see them as unique and amazing opportunities to make you better than you were yesterday. 
2. Be Compelling - What will make people follow you?  Jeff Bezos famously said ‘Your brand is what people say about you when no one is listening’ - Do you know what that is for YOU? For your brand of leadership? 
3. Simplify - don’t buy into the complexity. My Chief Marketing Officer talks about focusing on the OUTCOME and the simpler you make this for your team the better. Do the work to make it simple, NOT complex.  

To contact Carolyn:

LinkedIn – Carolyn Youdell (she is the only one!)
Email: carolyn.youdell@specsavers.com

About Carolyn:

At work. I am a Marketer. I've spent over 20 years working agency and brand side. 
With and on world-famous brands.
Across all Marketing, Communications & Digital disciplines. 
As Group Marketing Director for Specsavers I am working collaboratively across regions and teams to drive the synergies and value that can be derived from centrally led activity. I am passionate about well-run teams, well-rounded teams. 

At Life: I am a Mum. Partner. Sister. Daughter. Friend. Dog lover. Pilates poser. 5Ker. Book reader. Stuff Hoarder. Traveller. Chef. Wine drinker. Shoe fancier.


To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com.

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

• Build Psychological Safety
• Practise Inclusive Dialogue
• Invite Diversity of Thought & Feeling and
• Drive Collaborative Edge

Psychological Safety
Together they share how they met some 18 years ago and realised very early on in their working relationship that starting with and building psychological safety underpins creating cultures of care and connection in which people enjoy connecting, contributing and collaborating.

Curiosity, Care and Courage
They discuss how they partner with senior leaders and their teams helping them to bring the mindset and behaviours of Curiosity, Care and Courage to develop people and drive performance and how these underpin each of the building blocks of their Collaboration  Equation™.

Meeting People where they are at, and moving from ‘me to we’
They specialise in meeting people where they are at, on having people well met, and supporting them in leading and driving Collaborative Edge through Inclusive Dialogue, Diversity of Thought and Feeling. And why for them inclusivity comes before diversity, the importance of Inclusive Dialogue, and how language can have a huge impact on how people think, feel and behave.

Open Conversations to get to Collaborative Edge
Their approach is one of helping leaders do their best thinking together, to think differently, to have open conversations in which people feel confident and safe, enjoy Inclusive Dialogue, and can bring Diversity of Thought and Feeling in order to get to Collaborative Edge. The conversations are always in service of enabling performance and driving results through people working together.

CONNECT WITH US
Collaboration Workshops, We are all Culture Creators:
How to Find Your Collaborative Edge workshops.

Fortnightly Coaching Conversations Series:
A series of questions to prompt conversations that will help you to lead with Curiosity, Care and Courage. Subscribe here.

WHO WE ARE
Lucy Kidd is a leadership team and culture coach, and describes how culture is the wrapping that feeds change and, or stifles it. Lucy’s passion is to help people find meaning and connection in their lives and work.

Anni Townend is a leadership partner to senior leaders and their teams. Anni’s passion is to help leaders create a culture in which people feel safe and able to have open conversations and do their best work. Anni is the author of Assertiveness and Diversity, published in 2007.

Natalie Shering is a leadership coach specialising in creative leadership and using nature in leadership. She is a collaborator with Collaboration Equation™.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Akin Thomas, CEO and Founder of AKD Solutions - an international learning and development consultancy - built upon an ethos of stimulating brilliance through providing the space for people to engage in transformative and disruptive, and impactful fun learning experiences.

Together we delve into:

1. How do we create a learning environment that stimulates brilliance and the right to be your very best person, the very best version of yourself.
2. How the quality of conversations that we have today has a direct correlation to who you will be in the next 5 - 10 years and beyond.
3.  The importance of disruption, and asking What happens if we do something differently, what is possible?
4. Being intentional about our impact, and conscious of how the decisions we make now have a massive impact beyond what we are conscious of now.

Akin’s encouragements to leaders looking to create a learning environment which stimulates brilliance:

• We each have a key role to play in expressing our humanity and raising our organisational and social consciousness.
• Believe in yourself, you are brilliant, practise looking in the mirror and saying ‘I am brilliant’ and share your gift that will bring warmth and light.

About Akin Thomas

I first met Akin at the Diversity and Inclusion Global Forum in May 2023. We, my colleagues and I, were blessed to have Akin and his team as our neighbours in the exhibitors hall. An experienced exhibitor used to sharing his wisdom and knowledge he readily shared with us. We spoke in passing about his being a guest on the podcast. Since then I have followed Akin on LinkedIn, and the prompt to ask him was a post in which he shared how he had been back to see his sister in Lagos and spent time researching his own history, including rediscovering his original name, Okukenu, which means ambition, independence, strength, reliability and determination.

AKD Solutions is all about brilliance, helping people to develop their unique potential and is fuelled by these beliefs:

1. Brilliance is in every person and organisation
2. In the uniqueness of every person and organisation
3. In the power of conversation to stimulate new thinking and change
4. In developing meaningful and genuine relationships
5. That everything should be fun

AKD Solutions has a special sports division dedicated to helping people and organisations develop their full potential in physical activity.

The AKD Team challenge a lot, laugh a lot, eat a lot - they have fun and are intentional in making a lasting impact in all that they do.

Contact:

LinkedIn: Akin Thomas

Website: AKD Solutions

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Karen Wilkinson, inspiring and award winning Marketing Director. We delve together into: 

1. The power of connecting with your Values & Purpose
2. How knowing your Strengths and not sweating your weaknesses is the best way to Focus and Fly
3. Why Courage & Belief and Stepping out of your comfort zone is all part of being Brave
4. Adventure Seeking - On seizing the day and going for it!

Karen’s three key encouragements to leaders looking to Be Brave, Fly and Focus

1.  Unlock the power of maximising your strengths - Acknowledge what support you need to be at your best - people who compliment you, your support team. And be mindful of overusing your strengths! 
2. Feel the fear and do it anyway - The immense power in self belief, power of possible, managed risks, seeking growth opportunities, believing in others.  Accept not everything will go to plan...that's ok! Adapt, pivot, change if you need to…. That’s all part of a Marketing Leaders toolkit.
3. Stay curious, embrace adventure.. And smile - The world, our teams, our customers (next gen!)technology is all changing. Stay curious, we’ll never ‘know it all’, seek adventure and find enjoyment in all you do . After all, we work, love, live to find fulfilment, growth and connect with our values .. whilst having fun along the way! 

About Karen

Karen is a passionate marketing leader - with over 25 years of experience working in consumer products and financial services & banking. Most recently Marketing Director for AkzoNobel, parent of Dulux for 9 years. Adding colour to lives and creating beautiful living spaces. 

Currently with Evergreen Garden Care as Marketing Director UK&I, where she continues to connect with her passions for colour, growth and being outdoors. 

She graduated from Dublin City University with BA in international marketing and languages, and has worked, lived and studied in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. 

Karen lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband and is a parent to two teens. Their 19yr old son is on a solo adventure in Japan, and 18yr old daughter is preparing for A levels. Together they teach Karen to have fun, be brave and practise what I preach (to them!).  

She loves being outdoors and being active… running, cycling, hiking, swimming, skiing, walking! And never says no to a challenge with friends. 

She is always seeking new learning, travel and adventures.. Ice skating, painting, and has climbed 2000m mountains, cycled through the Alps and Dolomites, enjoys kayaking and cold water swimming.

Connect with Karen

LinkedIn: Karen Wilkinson 

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Helen Stephenson, CEO of the Charity Commission for England and Wales

We delve together into: 

1. How as a leader the main tool in your leadership is yourself, which means you need to understand how you work - your strengths and weaknesses
2. Why getting the right team is crucial and making sure you recruit people who are different from you, and who have the right skills and personality to fit with the organisation and its needs.
3. Why leadership is All about relationships
4. And how there is no perfect leader, and the importance of knowing when good is good enough rather than aspiring to be everything all at once!

Helen’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

• Know when you need to dive into the detail on an issue (you can’t/shouldn’t be across everything) and signal to your team that’s what you’re doing
• Being a leader is seeking to be a better version of yourself
• It can be lonely, have some support networks

To connect, follow and find out more about Helen:

LinkedIn: Helen Stephenson

Website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission

To find out more about Future Engage Deliver, www.futureengagedeliver.com

Buy the book by Steve Radcliffe ‘Leadership Plain and Simple’

https://www.pearson.com/en-gb/subject-catalog/p/leadership-plain-and-simple/

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend do go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Helen Stephenson

I was first introduced to Helen Stephenson by Steve Radcliffe, who thought we would partner well together in some Executive Team Coaching for Helen’s team.  He was right! Helen and I have worked together with her leadership team over the past few years. We have introduced them to Future Engage Deliver, a leadership approach developed by Steve Radcliffe and wonderfully written about in his book Leadership Plain and Simple. And have gone on to share with my colleague Emily Court the Future Engage Deliver approach with the wider organisation of leaders, and their teams. It has been a privilege to work with Helen, and to be trusted by her to lead this programme - her commitment to developing people, and their leadership in particular has never wavered. On many occasions she has joined a development day, and been part of the welcoming and opening of the day sharing her leadership story, her values and beliefs, her passion and purpose. So I was thrilled when we agreed she would be a guest on my podcast, enabling listeners to learn from Helen, to be inspired and motivated in their leadership.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational personal leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life - the people, places and experiences that have shaped them and made them the leader that they are today. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Julian Roberts, Executive Business Coach, Podcast Host of Helping Organisations Thrive

We delve together into: 

1. Why the need for resilience in leadership in today’s workplace is greater than ever.
2. How to create a resilient mindset to lead your team and organisation.
3. And how to create resilient teams that are better equipped to navigate challenges and thrive in an ever-changing environment.

Julian’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Lead by example, through developing a resilient mindset and behaviours that inspire confidence in others, helping them to adapt to change; and as part of that foster a supportive work environment, one in which people are helped to navigate challenges and uncertainties effectively.  
2. Create daily habits that build resilience as a leader all embedded within your purpose.
3. Focus on the 3 P’s of Purpose, Psychological Safety and Processes - Reduce, Regulate and Repair

Contact Julian:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julesroberts/

Website: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julesroberts45/

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Julian Roberts

Julian Roberts, an Executive Business Coach with a background in commercial and sales, is passionate about people, resiliency, and business. He has held a number of senior strategic commercial positions for multinational corporations such as Heinz, Yoplait, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as for family-owned businesses.

In 2017, he launched his coaching practice, working with individuals and teams from various industries, including food, FMCG, retail, media, engineering, financial services, legal, construction, and medical.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with John Edwards, Director General, Regions Group, at the Department for Education, UK. 

John and I were invited to be in conversation by and for the annual Transform Applied Leadership Summit, held virtually this year on 8th March 2024. The title of our conversation Understanding Ourselves and Understanding Others - a leadership perspective is the title of the summit.

(For listeners who don’t know about Transform Applied Leadership I share their details at the end of the podcast, along with ways in which you can connect with John.)

John and I delve together into: 

1. How becoming a leader is all about finding your own leadership 
2. The alignment between who we are, how we lead and why we lead, and what it means to be an authentic leader
3. The importance of being aware of individual and collective leadership behaviour and the impact that it has on others 
4. 360 degree leadership and measuring our leadership achievements through the successes of others

John’s three key encouragements for leaders looking to grow their leadership identity, build greater confidence and understanding in their leadership behaviours.

1. We never need to create our leadership approach, or copy it from others - we just need to find it, observe it and look after it
2. We don’t need to worry about making time for DOING leadership, only for THINKING ABOUT leadership - it’s not an extra job, it’s how we do the job we have
3. Listen to others but trust your instincts - there is no right answer

How to connect with John Edwards on LinkedIn

The Transform Applied Leadership Summit happens annually and is designed to stimulate new ways of thinking and behaving in our leadership. Delegates come from education and reflect upon their own leadership, have conversations with other leaders, and to hear speakers from different backgrounds.

To find out more about the Summit, and Leadership Applied the leadership study and research; the leadership experts and about the Future Engage Deliver approach to leadership developed by Steve Radcliffe do go to the website:

https://www.transformapplied.co.uk/leadership-applied

Contact Anni Townend  
anni@annitownend.com
www.annitownend.com

About John Edwards

Having started out as a secondary school maths teacher, I’ve had the privilege to work in schools, local government and now central government - but still, when asked what I do, the word ‘teacher’ is the first word that comes to mind.  11 years in three schools was followed by 14 years working in three different local authorities, responsible for the full range of education and skills functions in largely urban settings.  I now head up the Department for Education’s Regions Group, covering improvement, intervention and capacity-building for schools, children’s social care and SEND through 9 regional teams.

I am proud to have grown up and lived all my life in the north - for more than 20 years in Sheffield where my wife and I both work and where my kids have grown up.  We have one rule in our house: there’s always time for a hug.  When neither working nor hugging, I love watching cricket, riding my bike and walking on the beach or in the hills.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Tanya Shadrick - author of The Cure for Sleep: her memoir of a late waking life, a story of breaking free, and making a more creative life; Tanya is founder of the Selkie Press; editor of the Wainwright Prize-listed Wild Woman Swimming.  She is a community builder of writers and storytellers through Substack where she writes, and invites you to share your stories.

We delve together into: 

What it takes - and costs - to build an authentic life of one’s own, while continuing to honour our roles within families, workplaces, and communities.

And explore four key themes:

1. The voices around us - and the beliefs that we form about ourselves and our abilities because of what is praised or punished.
2. Our Size and Shape - and how related to beliefs about ourselves, and our abilities, we (perhaps) make ourselves smaller
3. Work - and how writing about work is central to Tanya’s storytelling
4. The importance of service, of finding the best in ourselves, and each other, for the good of others, and to deliver use and meaning to others

Three key encouragements

1. Look how far you’ve come… We can forget how hard we once found things that are now a core part of our senior roles - public speaking, say, or preparing a visual presentation for stakeholders or investors. Write 500 words from the you of now to the twenty-something you once were, starting out. Be in dialogue. Remember the vivid details. It releases a kind of energy that helps us be better mentors and encouragers to our graduate staff and our career returners. 
2. A list of what you love…  spend an hour making a list of 100 things you love about your work life. It will seem impossible to get anywhere near that number. Your first few items might seem so simple, so insufficient - just a list of obvious things: the salary, the pension, the status, the holiday allowance. But as you persist, the process starts to yield surprising results - by the time you get to around sixty, or eighty, most people find themselves remembering their deepest values, their fiercest ambitions and so on.
3. How do you talk about your job to those you don’t work with?  This is a very different exercise from crafting ‘an elevator pitch’ and its purpose is deeper, broader. Having a simple, authentic way to speak with quiet pride about what you do is one of the most useful ways to connect with other people - it extends to them the possibility of sharing what matters to them too: whether that’s their paid work, their passion, or an unpaid voluntary role.

Contact Tanya via her website, for writing resources, and podcasts:

www.thecureforsleep.com
https://tanyashadrick.substack.com/

To contact Anni Townend
anni@annitownend.com
www.annitownend.com

About Tanya Shadrick

I first heard of Tanya through a friend that I met some years ago via Instagram. Knowing my love of life writing, and of memoir, she asked me if I had read, and did I know Tanya Shadrick.  I didn’t. However the title of her book excited me, I wanted to know more about her, and about her writing. I read the book over a matter of days, snatching moments in my day to read, and was inspired by her openness and generosity of spirit. More recently she has shared via Substack and Instagram her experience of being with her mother at the end of her life, and her death. Tanya writes beautifully, poetically and is an inspiration to us to wake up, to make time to find and be creative, and to share our stories. 

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life - the people, places and experiences that have shaped them and made them the leader that they are today. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Moses Tai Founder and CEO African Development Choices (ADC), Author of ‘There Is Shade’ and Speaker.

We delve together into the working culture of African Development Choices, in particular how they encourage community and reflect who they are in what they do: 

• Seeking and giving input, raising awareness of choice
• Showing and taking initiative as part of sustainable change
• Commitment to the organisation and its purpose through building belief and hope, and working together

Moses’ Three Key Encouragements to Leaders 

1. Develop a strong vision 
2. Recruit and retain talented people 
3. Build well structured teams

Connect with Moses Tai, and find out more about African Development Choices

www.linkedin.com/in/mosestai

https://mybook.to/TISHADE

https://africandevelopmentchoices.org/

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Moses

My mission with the podcast is to be in conversation with people who have a passion and purpose (no matter how small or large), and, who want to make a difference through their leadership, and to give them a way of sharing their story to inspire, confidence, care and courage in you the  listener - far and wide. So when Taryn Weeks of Sparks Marketing suggested that Moses would be a great guest I contacted him, and bought a copy of his book ‘There Is Shade’. Moses is an inspiring leader, a passionate voice for sustainable change. 

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational personal leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life - the people, places and experiences that have shaped them and made them the leader that they are today.

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Roger Mortlock, Chief Executive Officer, CPRE, the countryside charity. 

Together we delve into what it means to lead:

• A heritage organisation, being open
• In a federated structure, being humble
• A campaigning organisation, being brave

ROGER’S THREE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO LEADERS

1. Do it your way - learn from the leaders who help you grow as a person as well as a leader
2. Find and honour that which gives you joy at work, what you love - give yourself space to flourish as well as face into the challenge
3. Keep making the time and space to imagine the future

To contact Roger

LinkedIn: Roger Mortlock

Website:  www.cpre.org.uk


About Roger Mortlock

I first met Roger some twenty years ago and have had the privilege of partnering with him, and the teams he has led and been part of over the years.  

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life - the people, places and experiences that have shaped them and made them the leader that they are today. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Febronia Ruocco, Strategic Insights Professional, Executive Coach and Mentor

We delve and explore together leadership values and skills, and the importance of these in Febronia’s life, leadership, insights and mentoring work. In particular the values of:

1. Integrity
2. Collaboration
3. Honesty
4. Empathy

Febronia’s three encouragement to leaders:

1. Bear in mind that people have gone through very difficult times: the pandemic, the economic crisis. 
2. Be kind with your feedback, with your encouragement, with your guidance, be supportive, have empathy for your teams, and try to instil in them a sense of safety so that they can come and they can share their views and perceptions freely. 
3. And also, if you have time, please do some mentoring. There are lots of young people out there at universities and schools, at the beginning of their jobs, who really could do with a guiding hand.

How to contact Febronia

LinkedIn: Febronia Ruocco

About Febronia

I first met Febronia through LinkedIn - she not only liked my podcast, but also commented, and messaged me personally. Febronia has her own podcast weekly roundup of the best listens, and it is a huge honour to have been chosen by her more than once! She is a Strategic Insights Professional and Executive Coach. And she is also a Leadership and Career Mentor for Undergraduates at Durham and Lancaster University. After several exchanges via LinkedIn we arranged a call and discovered that we shared similar passions, and had some shared experiences. I am delighted that she agreed to be my guest, and to share her leadership story.


To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website:
www.annitownend.com/podcast

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already, please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Meera Craston, a highly experienced senior leader and executive coach; and co-founder of Next Brave Move. Meera is committed to supporting individuals, teams and organisations to thrive, demonstrate their impact and bring about positive change.

Together we delve into:

1. How understanding and embracing your heritage can enable you to more fully connect with your passion and purpose; 
2. How tuning into your strengths and into what comes naturally to you can open up new possibilities for exploring your leadership;
3. The beauty of the ‘reset’, and how discovering and using your ‘reset function’ can help you in re-evaluating and ‘course correcting’ your leadership as you go along.
4. The importance of having a support network who act as ‘thinking partners’ to help you stay ‘on course’. 

Meera’s three key encouragements for leaders:

1.  At times when you feel stuck, there’s something very valuable about taking stock and weighing up whether you are holding onto an old narrative that was once very valuable but over time has become less relevant and is no longer serving you well 

2.  Be true to yourself and recognise that careers do not need to be linear and that it’s never too late to change direction and build new dreams

3.  Creating space and being brave and exploratory can often lead to the most amazing opportunities.

A huge thanks to Meera for sharing so much of herself, her  thoughts, insights and experiences.

To find out more about Meera and Next Brave Move, find, follow and contact her at: 

LinkedIn

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/meeracraston/

WEBSITE

• www.nextbravemove.com 

EMAIL

• meera@nextbravemove.com 

To contact me Anni Townend, do email me on anni@annitownend.com

ABOUT MEERA

Meera is a deeply purpose-driven senior leader and executive coach, and co-founder of Next Brave Move. She is committed to supporting individuals, teams and organisations to thrive, demonstrate their impact and bring about positive change. 

Having worked as an evaluation, impact and policy design specialist for two decades, she is a strong advocate of evidence-based (and pragmatic) decision making, who understands the challenges of leadership, consultancy and making sense of complexity.

Her recent experience includes leading the UK Evaluation Society as its inaugural Executive Director, and prior to this, co-leading Ipsos UK's Policy and Evaluation Unit. This involved strategic, operational & commercial responsibilities, and leading the people, talent development, and cultural aspects of the Unit.

Looking forwards, her evolving portfolio of work brings together her leadership, consulting, and evaluation experience, and her longstanding interest in re-imagining the dynamics of work-life, effectively navigating transitions, and exploring the intricate evolution of mission and identity.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their personal inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Martin Glover, HR Director for Morton Fraser - Martin is an advocate for fairness, equity and leadership development…..

Together we delve into:

1. 1. What he really cares about, his values and beliefs, his passion and purpose - who, what and where have shaped him -  and how he lives these through his leadership : 
   2. Why as leaders of organisations we should be prioritising Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging;
   3. Why targets in Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging aren't helping us get to where we need to be in organisations
   4. And ask - Does improving diversity mean that inclusion and belonging will follow?
   
   

Martin’s three key encouragements for people looking to develop their leadership, and to lead intentionally and deliberately for diversity, inclusion and belonging.

1. Think about the experience you are trying to create in your organisation - what do you want people to think and feel about your business 
2. Hire for the why (the Vision) this ensures people are aligned to what your organisation is trying to achieve 
3. Develop your own curiosity for difference in people and think about the value broadened outlooks like this can add to what you are trying to achieve

To find out about more about Martin, about the firm, find and follow him on: 

www.morton-fraser.com

LinkedIn: Martin Glover

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, anni@annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Martin

I first met Martin when he worked for a different organisation, and was thrilled when he contacted me at his next company to talk about leadership, and then when he moved to Morton-Fraser I moved with him! I think of myself very much as a Leadership Partner, and Martin is a true partner, a fantastic builder of relationships, he is passionate about inclusivity and diversity, and about community.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Justin Russell, Former Chief Inspector of Probation, a role that he finished in the Autumn of 2023 on the challenges and satisfactions of leading in the public sector.

Together we delve into:

• His experience of Senior leadership in the Civil Service – the challenges and satisfactions of sharing the vision setting space with politicians and other parts of government
• Operational versus Policy leadership in the Public Sector - why most top civil service jobs go to policy specialists and why intellectual leadership is prioritised over emotional leadership in Whitehall.
• Justin’s personal career challenge - as someone who loves policy detail and evidence - of getting the balance right between being ‘Hands off and hands on’, of being on the balcony versus being on the dance floor. 
• The challenge of engaging colleagues in an era of hybrid working – and how does remote working make leadership more or less easy / more or less satisfying? 

Justin’s three key encouragements for leaders, whatever the sector they are working and leading in:

1. Pay attention to your impact! Don’t underestimate the shadow you cast  - or the difference it can make…………
2. Say yes when people ask for help with career advice or mentoring – and don’t be afraid to ask the people you admire for their help too. What goes around always comes around.
3. Always keep yourself anchored by asking yourself first what is the right - fair and just -  thing to do when faced with a leadership or policy challenge – but don’t beat yourself up too much if that can’t be fully delivered. Leaders have to be pragmatists as well as idealists.

About Justin

Justin is the former Chief Inspector of Probation, a role that he finished in the Autumn of 2023. I had the privilege of partnering with him and his leadership team over a short period of time during 2023. Together we introduced the Future-Engage-Deliver approach to leadership, created by Steve Radcliffe to help the team get clear on their shared future, build bigger relationships with each other, and to deliver more now and later through others. 

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation’s mission is to deliver ‘High quality probation and youth justice services that change people’s lives for the better’, their focus is on how the probation does things and on how probation makes a real life difference in the lives of the people they work with – something that has been a passion for Justin throughout his career.

Contact Justin via LInkedIn, on Justin Russell, where he posts regularly.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Jane Mather, Make-up Artist and Personal Stylist

We delve together into: 

1How truly understanding our ‘uniqueness’, and our ‘values’, can help us shape our personal style and achieve our goals

2How translating our ‘values’ and defining our non-verbal communication skills helps us hone our personal style for success

3 The importance of showing compassion to and being empowering of others.

Three Key Encouragements

1. 1. The first step in honing your personal style is to identify your ‘core values’ - really knowing what’s important to you.
2. The second step is understanding your impact and personal presence - addressing any concerns about your personal style to help you achieve your goals.  
3. The third step is taking a ‘leap of faith’ in and for yourself and in others!  You never know what opportunity might present itself or what you might discover!

Learn more about Jane through her website:  www.janemather.co.uk, where you can also subscribe to her newsletter.

Or follow Jane on Instagram: @janemather_makeupstyle

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational personal leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already - please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Beto Funari. Together we delve into: 

1. Acting as a humanist leader: Why human leadership matters to people feeling valued, enabled and motivated to contribute and create a better future, to learn and develop their potential; and how to do this through leading with empathy, actively listening, fostering diversity and inclusion 
2. Balancing Profit and Purpose: How balancing purpose and profit is at the heart of building a compassionate and prosperous business whilst financial success is essential it should not come at the expense of human well-being or ethical principles. 
3. Adopting a Customer-Centric Approach: How adopting a Customer-Centric Approach helps in understanding and meeting customer’s needs, through building trust and loyalty and through delivering high-quality products or services. 

Three Key Encouragements

What are your three key encouragements for leaders looking to build hope and optimism?

1. Cultivate Empathy and Deep Listening in your own leadership, be a role model to others and encourage them to cultivate empathy and deep listening, and open communication;
2. Prioritise People through continuous learning and development;
3. Balance Profit, Purpose, People and (Ethical) Principles, commercial success is essential however never at the expense of People and ethical Principles, have a Purpose that is bigger than Profit and includes People this will ensure sustainable success

To contact Beto, do so through LinkedIn, Roberto Funari.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Steen Broust Nielsen Senior Vice President Sales at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables

We delve together into: 

1 Trust – as a foundation for cohesive and high performing teams

2 (Com)passion – caring is at the core of authentic leadership

3 Meaning – fuels us all and gives us purpose

4 Humility and resilience – knowing it is never about you - and that’s ok

Three key encouragements 

What are your three encouragements that you would give to leaders?

1. Be real – leaders are people too

2. Be bold – if it matters to you it matters to others

3. Be consistent – trust is earned with our teams as well as with our peers

To find out more about Steen and to get in touch with him do connect with him on LinkedIn, where he posts regularly .

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team at The Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Cassandra Ogier.

Together we delve into: 

1. The power of presence

2. Embodied leadership

3. Deep listening/communicating from self-regulation

4. Trusting the unfolding of life

Cassy’s Three key encouragements, guiding principles for leaders to help them come home to their true nature….

1. Be guided by your passion. What you love.

2. Trust in yourself as a part of the whole experience of life.

3. Life is happening for you, not to you

To find out more about Cassy and to get in touch with her do follow her on Instagram @thereflectivehorse and go to her website, www.thereflectivehorse.com

A big thank you to my support team at The Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Cassandra Ogier

Cassandra is the Founder & Director of The Reflective Horse®, providing embodied leadership experiences through partnering with horses. She is the pioneer of equine-guided programming with free-roaming horses. She created The Reflective Horse® in 2011 in the US, and has expanded her practice through The Reflective Horse® Mastery Program, teaching Practitioners, and widening the potential for free beings - horses and humans - coming together to experience a shift in perspective through somatic practices and Insight-Based mentorship.

She is passionate about creating and collaborating on inspiring programming to support clients in reconnecting with their innate wisdom, and liberation from the conditioned mind.

Originally from East Sussex, Cassandra moved to California with her family in 2007 where she actualized her dharma. She is the Mother of three incredible sons, of whom she is most proud and honoured to be sharing this life. She currently teaches in North and Central America and in Europe.

To learn more about Cassandra visit her website, thereflectivehorse.com/about

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Ellie Norman, Chief Communications Officer, Manchester United Football Club. 

Together we delve into: 

• How to manage your energies to be at your best, and to help others be their best through having people feel seen and validated;
• How connecting with people and building relationships is key to business success, whatever the business you are in;
• Why building a culture of belonging is so important, and what you can do to build one through hope and possibility.

Ellie’s Three Guiding Principles to have people feel seen and validated

1) Bring the light. So be able to bring the light and to shine that light on every individual you meet.  Think about ‘How do you leave every person feeling good about themselves? ‘

2) Challenge the status quo. So to ask ‘what if?’. 

3) Recognise just how fortunate we are, so find that zest that fun and that energy, and to be able to bring that.

About Ellie Norman

I first met Ellie on the Marketing Leaders Programme, when she came to speak to the group of marketing leaders.  I was inspired by her passion and commitment to people, by her energy and enthusiasm to connect with people, and to put them at ease helping them to be their very best through learning. I love her passion for having everyone feel validated no matter where they are, or who they are or where they have come from.

Recognised as customer-obsessed and target-driven, with demonstrable critical thinking skills and an ability to disrupt the status quo to achieve category beating growth. A broad, curious, perceptive thinker who combines creative and problem-solving skills to find new opportunities. Inspires teams to work with excellence, curiosity, and a ‘can do’ attitude to deliver the business growth. Leads by example, able to embrace change and find a path through ambiguity, maintaining a sense of calm confidence, optimism, whilst balancing focus on long-term strategy.

To find out more about Ellie and to get in touch with her do follow her on LinkedIn, where she posts regularly.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team to the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

• My own aspiration to ensure others feel seen, heard and understood
• Values and beliefs within leadership
• Understanding felt experiences from others of your own leadership

My Three Key Encouragements to ensure your team feel Seen, Heard and Understood: 

1. Meet people where they are at
2. Listen to learn and understand
3. Be curious and ask questions, especially when you have a different point of view

To contact me, Anni Townend, do email me on anni@annitownend.com or visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter or follow me on LinkedIn to discover more leadership insights. 

I look forward to connecting with you. 

Thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Rachel Eyre, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Morrisons. We delve together into: 

- How influencing starts with self-awareness, you are your own data bank - use it;

- How leading with pride, courage, and conviction and not being a ‘paranoid overachiever’ matter in leadership;

- The importance of building your career around your strengths, whilst plugging the gaps;

- The importance of being nice, and remembering we are all human beings.

Rachel’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders and Marketing Leaders:

1. Feel the fear and do it anyway
2. Believe in yourself, back yourself,  use your own data - you are your own data bank, draw on it, and replenish it
3. Be a decent person, how you make people feel matters

About Rachel Eyre

I first met Rachel on the Marketing Leaders Programme and immediately warmed to her, was inspired and committed to her success. I have followed her leadership journey ever since and was thrilled in March 2023 to see Rachel listed as one of the top ten most powerful women in the supermarket industry! Her being included in and on this list was not a surprise, and look forward to seeing where her leadership takes her!

To find out more about Rachel and to get in touch with her do follow her on LinkedIn, where she posts regularly.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

Together Sophie and I delve into: 

1) Pacesetting and the principles for positivity, and how velocity can speed up success.

2) How leadership is an iterative process - and how to be the editor of your leadership, constantly creating, testing and revising.

3) Why marketing matters - now - more than ever

Sophie’s Three Key Encouragements:
1) Manage your pace
2) Only Connect
3) Act with Audacity

About Sophie
In addition to being the Global Chief Executive of The Marketing Society since 2020, Sophie is the author of ‘Superfast: Lead at Speed’  shortlisted for Business Book of The Year and co-author with Ben Renshaw of LoveWork: The Seven Steps to Thrive at Work. This is a book about growing your relationship with your work, and how to have a more positive relationship with it. Sophie is an acclaimed keynote speaker and a successful entrepreneur. 

You can read Superfast in hardback, paperback and audio through this link -  https://tinyurl.com/ya5xeq9b

You can order LoveWork: The Seven Steps to Thrive at Work which explores how to discover or recover a better relationship with work through this link - https://amzn.to/3qOQpjx

To find out more about Sophie  and to get in touch, follow her on LinkedIn or visit The Marketing Society website www.marketingsociety.com to find out more about this wonderful community of marketers that Sophie’s leads together with her amazing team.

A big thank you to my support team at The Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend, do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it.

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Nina Holdaway, Managing Director at Accenture Song.   

Together we delve into: 

1. The energy flywheel, and how managing your energy is key to feeling inspiring and inspiring others

2. Playing to strengths as part of being your best and helping others to be their best

3. Being your authentic self and understanding human leadership and why this is more important than ever

4.  How life and leadership are about the journey, not the destination, and making this journey and adventure

Key Encouragements

What are your three or four key encouragements for leaders looking to Making Working Lives Better through their leadership.

1. Look after yourself as a leader so you can bring your best every day 

2. Provide clarity and direction - paint a picture of an exciting future ahead

3. Create belonging: be there for people - physically & in spirit … positive role modelling goes a long way

4. Be flexible, what & how 

Thank you, Nina

To find out more about Nina and to get in touch with her do follow her on LinkedIn where Nina posts regularly. 

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team, the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with the marketing of the podcast, and to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

About This Episode
In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Henrietta Norton, Founder of Wild Nutrition 

Together we delve into: 

1. Purpose - why purpose, instead of passion, is essential in sustainable leadership.
2. Authenticity - and how this is really the greatest force we have. And how this is very much a personal journey that weaves the thread between personal and professional growth. 
3. Balancing being and doing - why carving out the space to be is the fuel that drives the being and how historically many work cultures have focused on the doing at the cost of being
4. How Sustainable Leadership is really holistic leadership and is about supporting ourselves in all aspects of our being - body, mind, emotion and soul wellbeing.

Three Key Encouragements
What are your three key encouragements for leaders looking to be more than do, and to lead sustainably with purpose.

1. Value and diarise time to ‘be’ - this gives you the opportunity….
2. Be clear about the contribution you want to make - personally and for your business, to the world
3. Growth, growth, growth - never stop growing as a leader and encouraging growth in your team. It’s infectious, creative and empowering for everyone. 

To find out more about Henrietta Norton, and Wild Nutrition, to get in touch with them do go to their website wildnutrition.com and follow on Instagram.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team Taryn Weeks of Sparkz Marketing and the Conscious Marketing Group for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening/

About Henrietta

Henrietta is Co-Founder and Formulator of leading Food-Grown Supplement Brand Wild Nutrition.Wild Nutrition is an expert voice in Women's health, offering Award-Winning formulations for women at every stage of their health journey, from puberty to menopause, energy to stress and sleep. Henrietta is also the published author of Take Control of Your Endometriosis and Your Pregnancy Nutrition Guide. 

To find out more go to www.wildnutrition.com or find them on instagram at @wildnutritionltd. 

I truly believe that we could make our meetings more effective through making time to give people space to think, and to speak, and to be listened to and to know that we are listening to each other - through looking at each other, and giving each other 'focused attention'. 

Making time for people to arrive in the meeting, to take a moment to think 'How am I' and then to share a few words helps everyone to 'meet each other where they are at' ahead of getting into the content of the meeting.  Through doing this check in people feel welcomed, they know that they matter and their contribution matters both in their listening to others, but also in their speaking with others.

Checking out is of equal importance, thanking people for their participation, and encouraging everyone to say one thing about their experience of the meeting reminds us why meetings matter, and how important acknowledging our human to human connection is.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Raj Kumar Interim CMO, SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) UK.

We delve together into: 

- What being kind and being direct really means

- How Raj’s leadership has been shaped through being an explorer

- Why Diversity, Equality and Inclusion matter, and Raj’s personal experience of navigating these

- What Marketing is, and why leadership and marketing go hand in hand.

Three Top Tips - What are your three top tips for leaders looking to be kind, and to be direct in their leadership?

1. Make choices, don’t prioritise 
2. Never judge yourself by the performance review 
3. Seek out opportunities to learn and show up

To find out more about Raj and to get in touch with him do follow him on LinkedIn, Raj Kumar, where he posts regularly and re-shares posts to spark your interest and curiosity.

To listen to other Leaders in Conversation with me Anni Townend go to my website, www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to my support team from the Conscious Marketing Group, for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design, and for the excellent editing and sound production.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  

I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

About Raj

I first met Raj on the Marketing Leaders Programme some years ago and admired his commitment from the outset to his own learning and development and that of others. The programme is a one year programme, made up of residential modules and coaching groups in between. Raj contributed wholeheartedly to everyone so much so that we regularly ask him to return as a speaker to delegates, inspiring them with his passion and purpose, his insightful questioning of and straightforward approach to marketing leadership.

Raj is an award-winning marketing executive who has grown and transformed major global brands across sectors and geographies. His focus is on building an inclusive, open and curiosity driven culture that does not accept the status quo. Raj has delivered best in class results by combining the art of the creative together with a data driven commercial mindset.

He was included as one of Campaigns Power 100 marketers, Top 100 most effective marketers by Marketing Week and voted Financial Services Forum marketer of the year 2020. He is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and is an active mentor for aspiring marketers from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Raj is a dad, husband, son as well as a brilliant colleague and friend to many. 

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live and weave these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Erika Behl, leader and builder of courageous teams, key-note speaker and storyteller

We delve together into: 

- Why every moment is a choice
- How leadership burnout really does exist and what what we can do to navigate the leaders sometimes treacherous journey
- How leaders can become more courageous so that their team can be more courageous 

Welcome Erika!

Erika I would like to start by asking you about you, about who you are – your values and beliefs, passion and purpose - who are the people, places and experiences that have shaped you and made you who you are today?

Tell me more about why every moment is a choice, and what this means especially when sometimes we don’t feel like we have a choice.

What makes leaders' journeys so treacherous with the dangers of real burnout and how can we navigate this?

How have you become more courageous, what and who has helped you and how do you help teams to be more courageous?

Three Top Tips

What are your three top tips for leaders looking to build courageous teams, and to make every moment a conscious choice?

1. As a leader, articulating your core values is a must.  Put in the work, do the self reflection, get feedback.  Whatever it takes to clearly discern what gives you conviction to live with your choices—not everyone will like your choices, but they will accept your leadership if you are authentic 
2. Any vision, strategy, or plan has to include the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) for whomever you’re counting on to execute it or transform as a result… this can also be a ‘heightened version’ of themselves 
3. You need a moment—a space—in order to make a decision that’s conscious and aligned with your values.  Learning not to react and to create that space for a response is one of the most powerful things you can choose as a leader

ABOUT ERIKA

Erika is a powerful and courageous leader who I had the privilege of meeting on a leadership program some years ago. She stood out as a leader with huge potential to go far, and I remember sharing this with her over dinner one evening. Since then I have had the privilege of working with Erika, and following her leadership journey which as she says of others has not always been easy, and at times treacherous. Not only does she embody great courage in her leadership but also curiosity.  She is keen to learn and develop new ways of being and staying humble. She is passionate about sharing her learning of Customer Success journeys in the healthcare space engaging patients in their own health journeys whilst providing measurable outcomes for healthcare providers. She loves paddle boarding, is growing to love and believe in public speaking and storytelling, has two wonderful children and lives in Singapore.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational personal leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. 

Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Candace Gerlach, founder of The Conscious Marketing Group

We delve together into: 

• How collaborating with people who think differently and getting to know them is key to business – and brand -success.
  
  
• Why inspiring people along their journey through creating a set of guiding principles and then letting them find their own way matters more than ever.
  
  
• How being curious makes us better marketers – and better humans.

Three Top Tips

What are your three top tips for leaders looking to collaborate, to inspire and to be more curious in their leadership?  

1. Don’t be too hard on yourself – remember you are human – learn to let go of things rather than dwell upon them.
   
   
2. Be curious and interested in what other people have to offer – encourage diversity of thought to get to a more rounded point of view.
   
   
3. Be passionate! Be open and honest. Energy is infectious. Galvanise people behind a vision and common purpose – be they customers, colleagues, shareholders, or the wider community.

ABOUT CANDACE
Candace is the founder of The Conscious Marketing Group (TCMG). Her mission and that of TCMG is to bring big brand thinking into the lives of small to medium sized business that are doing amazing things, and to problem solve collectively for brands that have so much to offer – for their customer, for people, and for the greater good.

CONTACT CANDACE
To find out more about Candace and The Conscious Marketing Group connect with her on LinkedIn, and go to her website www.theconsciousmarketinggroup.co.uk

CONTACT ME
To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. 
 
I look forward to connecting with you, thank you for listening.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into and weave together what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey. If you are not already, please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

About This Episode

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Alicia Ioannou, a policy senior manager in the Home Office who is currently enjoying new adventures on a career break in Switzerland!

Together we delve into:

1) What it means to be confident and to go for it!

2) How to deal with stressful situations 

3) The importance of being an explorer of new opportunities and skills

Alicia’s Three Top Tips

• Remember to communicate, communicate, communicate – it is better to over communicate than under communicate
• Be inspired by others, by their stories and be inspiring in and for yourself with your own story
• Always give opportunities to the people in your team to explore, learn and grow

ABOUT ALICIA

Alicia has been a senior manager in the UK Civil Service for 19 years where she has designed and implemented policies for the UK Government on migration including aspects of the post Brexit immigration system; tackling illegal migration and managing the UK’s Presidency of the G7 on Interior Security matters. Recently Alicia “went for it”, and moved to Switzerland on a career break where she is thinking through what is next for her career. Alicia is also enjoying rediscovering some of her early passions – piano, tennis and hiking in the mountains.

To find out more about me go to my website www.annitownend.com

To listen to more leaders sharing their inspirational personal leadership stories, https://www.annitownend.com/leaders-in-conversation-podcast

To contact me Anni Townend, do email me on anni@annitownend.com

Welcome to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend. The podcast that helps you to grow your confidence and courage as a leader.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life, offering valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey.

In each episode leaders share their personal life and leadership stories to encourage you to delve in what you really care about – your values and beliefs, your purpose and passions and how to live these through your leadership every day, in all that you do. 

If you are not already subscribed to the podcast please do subscribe, review and share it! To listen to more episodes go to my website www.annitownend.com

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this episode Wilma and I delve into and weave together:

• How making change always starts on the inside of ourselves
• What it means to discover and lead from who we are, not from who we think we should be 
• The value of being present and avoiding the zip wire of time 
• Understanding the deep impact of spending time alone 
• Why now, more than ever, there is a need for a leadership renaissance 

Wilma’s three top tips for leaders looking to lead differently 

1. Make time to spend time alone and notice how this shifts your thinking and feeling

2 Find your ways of nourishing and replenishing yourself, and your purpose not only for your leadership but for those around you

3 Look within, change starts on the inside of ourselves.

ABOUT WILMA

Wilma is a Growth and Development mentor to leaders and emerging leaders in the pursuit of something extraordinary, including People who are part of leading climate change solutions.  She has a very special cottage in the heart of the Black Mountains in Monmouthshire where she invites clients to spend time alone.  Here she uses the space and silence at the to allow the extraordinary to emerge.

ABOUT BEING AT THE COTTAGE

Being at The Cottage offers a range of experiences with scope.  When leaders are in the pursuit of something extraordinary, it will have a positive impact for others.  It is something that will steer other people and the planet, as well as themselves, towards a better future.

Clients can come and stay from 24 hours up to 7 nights at the cottage, which is tech free, and they are fully catered for with delicious food.

Spending time alone at the cottage will give clients a profound experience of what it is to be present and in time.

It’s important that the experience of being at the cottage is supported afterwards, so work continues together long after the client has left.

To find out more about Wilma and Being at The Cottage do visit her website www.beingatthecottage.com/experiences and follow her on LinkedIn where she regularly posts or email hello@beingatthecottage.com

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life. 

Together we delve into what they really care about, their values and beliefs, their passion and purpose and how they live these through their leadership every day, in all that they do. 

They offer valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey.


ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Ayesha Murray, founder of Ayesha Murray Coaching and a podcast host herself of the brilliant The Parent Equation.

We delve together into: 

• How it is vital to become the leader of you when you decide to run your own business
• Why it is so important to help women in leadership manage Imposter Syndrome
• The challenges and conflicts for working parents between wanting a career and being present for their family

Ayesha’s Three Top Tips for Leaders looking to become the leader of themselves when making a decision to set up their own business, or indeed anyone looking to pursue their passion and purpose:

1. Stay in your lane, use comparison for good
2. Be Authentic, aligned to your values
3. Be Curious and ask, What If?

Thanks to my support team Taryn Weeks of Sparkz Marketing for helping me with all the marketing of the podcast, to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the excellent editing and sound production.

And thank you to you the listener. If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it – it really does help. Thank you!

ABOUT AYESHA

After many years in a successful corporate marketing role Ayesha realised her ambition to become a coach, focusing on working parents and helping them to manage the challenges and conflicts of pursuing a career and parenting. In 2020 she started her podcast The Parent Equation initially in order to stay connected to the working parents community during the pandemic and lockdowns.

Ayesha lives in London with her husband and their two daughters, their Labrador dog and their cat. She loves being in nature, going for walks, watching box sets, good food, red wine and music.

If you are wanting to go further with becoming the leader of yourself, struggle with Imposter Syndrome and with being present both for your career and your family do get in touch with Ayesha on www.ayeshamurray.com, and listen to her brilliant podcast The Parent Equation, and follow her on LinkedIn where she frequently writes about her own experience of working and parenting.

To contact me Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com visit my website www.annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.  I look forward to connecting with you.

For many years, I've been quoting Tony Schwartz, author of The Way We're Working, Isn't Working, that energy, not time, is our most precious resource. And I've been encouraging leaders and their teams to manage their energies, all four of them; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. And I continue to think that this is super important. 

Increasingly, however, I'm beginning to realise that for me, it is both time and energy that are our most precious resources, and that they are inextricably and closely intertwined. It takes time to manage your energies to truly look after your well being. For leaders, making this time is key, in order for us to show up at our generous best, and indeed, to have the impact we want to have on those around us. 

So I am now not only encouraging leaders to manage their energies, by noticing how they are in their bodies, their mindset, their emotions, and finally connecting with their values and beliefs, but also to make time for this in their busy calendars, to find micro moments in their every day. The author Joseph Baldacci and his great book of the same title, encourages leaders to step back to take these micro moments to stop, pause, breathe and to notice, often described as switching off in many ways. I think of it as switching on to ourselves to being self aware, and then making time to take care of ourselves. 

Increasingly, I'm aware of how important it is to check in, not only with ourselves but each other at the start of a meeting. For myself, at the start of the day checking in with, how am I feeling? How am I showing up today? And noticing what I need to bring, maybe what I need to do in order to bring the best of me. 

The same applies to checking in with each other. We often ask how are how are you? And the answer is ‘I'm fine’, ‘I'm okay’. There's more. By encouraging people at the start of a meeting to say a sentence or two about how they're checking in to themselves and sharing with each other. It means that everybody has a voice. Everybody is seen. Everybody is heard and understood. 

Managing that at the start of a meeting is as important as managing that, at the end of the meeting. Checking out, making time, again, to go around to hear from everybody. What have they enjoyed? What have they learned? Maybe how are they feeling at the end of the meeting? This is especially important be meetings in person, sitting around a table, or on the screen. 

Making time for each other to check in and check out can transform our meetings, from meetings feeling like they're very transactional to feeling that there is the real human to human connection, and that there's more than what we do to who we are being and how we are being with each other. 

Many, many years ago, I had the privilege of meeting and hearing Marguerite Patten, the British Home Economist, Chef, food writer and broadcaster, share her life and leadership story. At the end, one of the audience asked her, “What would be your top tip to people?” and she replied, “Mind the Gap”. She was at this time in a wheelchair and had spoken about the challenges that she experienced on a daily basis of not being able to get about having been someone who thought nothing of jumping on and off a train to London from her local station. In response to the question, she went on to share with us that it was on one of these occasions, jumping on a train, when she had not got the full measure of the gap between the platform and the train. And she had fallen down into the gap causing herself much damage. She spoke of being grateful that there had been help on hand and commented on the kindness of strangers, shown towards her in particular, of a young person who had leaped to her rescue. And so she concluded, my top tip to you all is to mind the gap, to pay attention to be present in the moment to yourself and to what is around you, especially when it is already familiar to you. 

Her message resonated with me to mind the gap between and in the many areas of my life, in particular, the gaps that are thresholds, the spaces between one thing and the next, and the gaps, which can be good, providing we notice and are present to them as we move and transition. For example, from one meeting to the next, from one conversation to the next. Making time to be present, to notice the thresholds and to make space of ourselves is all part of minding the gap. 

Welcome to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend. The podcast that helps you to grow your confidence and courage as a leader.

I created this series of candid conversations for leaders to share their inspirational leadership stories, weaving together the threads of their life, offering valuable insights and rich experience to help and inspire you on your own unique leadership journey.

In each episode leaders share their personal life and leadership stories to encourage you to delve in what you really care about – your values and beliefs, your purpose and passions and how to live these through your leadership every day, in all that you do. If you are not already subscribed to the podcast please do subscribe, review and share it! Thank you

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Steve Chapman. We delve into:

• How being playful with not knowing is at the heart of how he lives and everything he does;
• Spontaneity and allowing ourselves to be spontaneous, to experiment and let go;
• Freedom and how we can liberate ourselves the tightening grips that hold us back;
• Stuckness and what we can do to become unstuck.

STEVE’s Three Tips for Leaders in becoming more playing not knowing are:

1. Let Go
2. Notice More
3. Use Everything!

With credit to his friend and colleague Rob Poynton

ABOUT STEVE

Steve Chapman, (also known as @stevexoh), is an artist, writer and speaker interested in creativity and the human condition. He works as a consultant and coach with individuals and organisations who are interested in finding creative and counter-intuitive ways to help free themselves from ever-tightening loops of common-sense where creativity, novelty and change are rather difficult.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Louise Barnes, Louise is Founder of Team-HOi, dedicated to helping people identify how to regain control over their own health. We delve into:

• How precious Time is and how investing in ourselves is within our control when we plan our time. 
• The importance of human connection and community in which people help each other.
• How focusing on and being conscious of what we believe in needs doing will bring joy and how giving back is a great reminder of what is important.
• How making health habits easy, attractive and rewarding through new patterns of thinking and acting can make all the difference to company culture

LOUISE’s THREE Top Tips for Leaders looking to regain control of their health and to feel healthy on the inside out.

1.  Find what makes you happy. What’s your thing? If you had a full day to yourself, without any demands on your time. How would you spend it? Weave this into your life.
2. Slow down to speed up. Identify what you need to stop doing. Many of us are doing two things at once.  Choose what you want to focus on and plan how to do that
3. Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable - constantly stretch your limits. Have the courage to step out of your comfort zone.  Chrissie Wellington the English triathlete said "many of us don't know where our limits are" 

ABOUT LOUISE

Louise is Founder of Team-HOi. She radiates warmth and understanding. With a joy for living which is contagious.  She enjoys connecting with people and uses her extensive experience from working in a busy corporate role to balance the ongoing pressures of working and home life..As a mother of four young children and lots of travel with her work, she has tried many approaches to staying active, fuelling her body and managing a positive mindset.

ABOUT TEAM-HOi

Team HOi partners with companies who have moved to flexible and remote working to help prevent the physical and mental health issues that come with a lack of regular movement. They don't offer a portal or information resource, they schedule integrated live regular movement sessions, life coaching and mentoring with a focus on connecting remote people to each other and their organisation.

HOME START the charity that Louise mentions, can be contacted on. https://www.home-start.org.uk/ 

For help in identifying how to regain control over your health, to reduce stress and to develop long term health habits then do get in touch with Louise at Team HOi, www.teamhoi.co.uk 

To contact me, Anni Townend do email me on anni@annitownend.com, visit my website annitownend.com, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn. I look forward to hearing from you, thank you for listening. 

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Anna Reddy.  We delve into:

• How following your heart in times of uncertainty can really help you find your passion and your purpose; 
• How managing your energy to win personally and professionally is key to performance and productivity; 
• The impact on women of demands made of them in the workplace and the challenges that they have to overcome.

ANNA's Three Tips for Leaders looking for workplace health solutions for productivity and performance:

1.  Be the orchestra for healthy wellbeing change 
2. Show the Real You, be vulnerable
3. Attract and retain talent, through the things that matter to people right now

ABOUT ANNA 

Anna is the founder of Leap Health, providing bespoke, innovative and simple solutions which optimise physical and mental health, accelerating personal and professional performance and happiness in organisations.  She has a wealth of experience and knowledge of delivering health solutions in many situations including 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry; she is passionate about fitness and is a qualified nutritionist. She is the mum to three energetic children, and loves being outside with them.

 Find out more about Anna and her wonderful work via the Leap Health website, www.leaphealth.co.uk and listen to her own podcast.

 To listen to more episodes of Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend, go to my website www.annitownend.com

 To find out more about Future-Engage-Deliver (FED mentioned by Anna and I) developed by Steve Radcliffe, and wonderfully described in his book Leadership Plain and Simple, to go www.futurengagedeliver.com  To listen to Steve Radcliffe in conversation with me go to https://www.annitownend.com/leaders-in-conversation-podcast/steve-radcliffe

 To find out more about Anna and my colleague Helen Bessell whom we also mention, go to www.thegamechangercollective.com and follow her on LinkedIn.

In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Nathan Blair. Nathan is the founder of The Somatic School; dedicated to training people in body-oriented coaching - helping leaders to become more conscious of their own embodied experience in relating to self and others in new ways, including using our bodies for strategic decision making and in leading for the whole.

We delve into 'Why the body?' the embodied experience and the 'felt sense' as part of awakening the senses to being fully present to Sensing and Responding our way forward. We talk about the importance of Resourcing & Regulating, in particular the resourcing dimension of Play, and regulating our nervous system and the power of relationships in helping each other co-regulate, and having a nervous system conscious workplace. We dive into how treating an organisation as a living entity, and leading from a place of being in service are crucial to leadership, now more than ever.

ABOUT NATHAN BLAIR -

Nathan founded The Somatic School in 2018 offering a highly experiential online Body-oriented Coaching Programme, accredited by the International Coaching Federation. For many years Nathan worked in the corporate world leaving to set up his own coaching practice, working as a coach with individual clients, a facilitator of groups and is a qualified Coaching Supervisor.

Click to find out more about Nathan and The Somatic School

Nathan kindly also shared several books and resources here:

• The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD by Lidia Zykowska
• Intelligence in the Flesh by Guy Claxton
• Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu (translated by Stephen Mitchel)
• Play & Creativity in Psychotherapy by Marks-Tarlow, Solomon and Siegel 

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Most recently I have, thanks to  Raj Kumar a speaker on the Marketing Leaders Programme, started to think about making choices rather than setting priorities. When we think about Priorities we tend to think of a numbered list, and rather like the Shoulds the list tends to be added to and to grow longer with things jockeying for top position or dropping to the bottom of the list and eventually off it.  When we think instead about Choices there is an immediate sense of possibility, of choosing to do something because it is important, it matters to us, to our business and to the future direction.

Find out more about the Marketing Leaders Programme  or find out more about Raj do follow him on LinkedIn and to find out more about me Anni Townend, head to my website annitownend.com.

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In this episode I am in conversation with Helen Pankhurst an international leading women’s rights activist, an experienced advocate and passionate collaborative campaigner for social justice. 

We delve into how Deeds not Words matter, why we must choose to challenge, to connect and dialogue with each other – locally and globally.  We talk about what it means to live and lead a portfolio life, and how fun and purpose go hand in hand, and how shoulder to shoulder we can make a difference together.     

ABOUT HELEN

Helen is a senior adviser to CARE International UK working in the UK and in Ethiopia, and a convenor for the charity GM4Women2028 and of the Centenary Action Group (CAG).

She is a part-time professor at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the first chancellor at the University of Suffolk. She has an honorary PhD from Edge Hill University and from the University of Manchester.

She is the author of ‘Deeds not Words – the story of women’s rights then and now’ published in 2018.

She is the proud mother of a son and daughter, and together with her daughter they promoted, advised on and had a cameo role in the 2015 film Suffragette.

In 2019 Helen was awarded a CBE for her services to gender equality.

To connect with Helen follow her on Twitter, or via the Universities or the charities with which she is connected.

CARE puts women and girls at the centre of overcoming poverty and social injustice, because without equal rights and opportunities we will never overcome poverty in the world.  CARE is a charity registered in England and Wales, founded in 1945 and working in 45 countries around the world, saving lives in emergencies and finding long-term solutions to poverty for millions of people. 

Helen established the Centenary Action Group (CAG) in 2018, to mark the century of some women getting the right to vote by campaigning for greater representation of women, in all their diversity, addressing the barriers that prevent women from taking part in politics, through collaboration, joint action and campaigning.

Helen also leads the charity GM4Women2028, a coalition of change makers committed to making Greater Manchester a better place for women and girls, in all their diversity to live, work and prosper.

She is a mother of two children and the great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst who herself was an alumni of Manchester School of Art.  Emmeline and Sylvia were both leaders in the British suffragette movement. 

If you would like to find out more about the work of CARE International, to join GM4Women2028 and to take action with the Centenary Action Group do visit their websites.

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Some thirty years ago I moved to a small semi-detached cottage on the South Downs Way, and over the past 10 years have incorporated the walk and talk, side by side conversation into my work as a leadership partner and executive coach to senior teams and senior leaders, whether that is in person or virtually.

In person people meet me on the South Downs Way and we walk and talk, side by side; virtually we are both on our phones walking and talking - whether in person or virtually we pause, we stop, we listen, we notice as part of the coaching conversation paying attention to everything that is around us, looking up and looking down, feeling the ground beneath our feet, the air on our skin as part of becoming more conscious and clear on the way forward.

If you would like to find out more about the Coaching Walk and Talk as part of team working and, or for yourself please get in touch with me Anni Townend.

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In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Karen Ellis. Karen is founder of an amazing membership organisation for new mums to build a body they feel strong and confident in after they have had a baby and to be able to go on awesome adventures with their children.

We delve into who and what inspired Karen to create the membership package for new mums to feel strong and confident in mind and body through movement and babywearing exercises. Karen shares how a shift in mindset from thinking of exercise as being about going to the gym to exercise being all about movement can help us lead a more active life everyday and in all that we do. 

She talks about why it is so important to her that the membership is truly affordable and accessible for all mums.  Karen's passion is to help new mums nurture their bodies through movement, to learn and to relearn to trust their bodies. This powerful message of body positive parenting is one that I believe will resonate with all listeners - learning to trust our bodies, to listen and to know ourselves is at the heart of body positive leadership.

Karen's Three Top Tips for Leaders to integrate movement into their every day, to go on awesome adventures, to say yes to awesome experiences feeling strong in their bodies whether they have children or not..

1. Connect and listen to and do what you body is telling you to do - if you need to breathe more then pause for breath, if you need to move - move your body; learn to trust your body
2. Notice the language you are using when you talk about yourself and others, focus on language which is body strengthening and mind expanding rather than on looks and image; think about body positivity - some of us have smaller bodies some of us have larger bodies, we can all have awesome adventures
3. Add as much movement as you can that fits easily into your lifestyle and that you find fun. That could be working out whilst you carry your baby, scootering the school run, using the stairs instead of the elevator, joining in with your children at the park, skating, having a walking desk. But whatever it is, make sure you enjoy it and it integrates easily into your life then you are more likely to keep it

About Karen Ellis 

Karen founded her postnatal rehabilitation membership organisation in 2020. She had worked for many years as a midwife before taking a break and feeling pulled towards supporting new mums on their journey to feel super strong in their bodies. She has two children and lives on the coast, not far from the sea, in North East Yorkshire.

To find out more about Karen and her awesome membership organisation visit Karen Post Rehab or contact her on: 07769357334 / hello@karenpostrehab.co.uk

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Anni talks about how important being well met is when meeting people, not just for the first time, but every time particularly when facilitating a team or a group. 

Anni said that “One of the ways in which I do this is to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to speak, to be heard, to be fully listened to” 

What is there to say about my name?

One of the simple but effective ways Anni shares is to invite people to talk about who they are, through their name. Whilst it might seem there isn’t much to say about a name, you will find that there is so much to share. 

Anni shares her own ‘name’ story and an interview she conducted for a case study where that person had shared their name but was told it was ‘too difficult’ so gave him a new name. He described how he felt his whole identity had been taken from him and wasn’t able to be himself. 

Anni said ‘The importance of giving people an opportunity to describe and to share something about who they are through their name cannot be underestimated. It gives people an opportunity to say something about themselves, how their name is pronounced where their name came from, and indeed, on some occasions, what it mean’. 

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In this episode I am in conversation with Taryn Weeks. Taryn is the Founder of Sparkz Marketing, helping people and businesses find their spark through building their brand and telling their story.

We delve into her years of experience and Taryn shares how important having the right people on your support team, people who champion you and cheer you on is; how believing in yourself and that you can do it matters; and to treat yourself like a client, write your own business plan!

ABOUT TARYN WEEKS

Taryn is an experienced marketer, with a passion for storytelling and for helping people tell their own and to find their brand story. After many years working in the corporate world she took the big step and set up Sparkz Marketing supporting businesses who need an injection of strategic thinking into their marketing or who need an extra pair of hands to move their marketing forward.

She is the mother of two teenage boys who are her inspiration, and who were her ‘spark plug’ during a difficult and dark time. She lives with them and her partner who is a big supporter of her dreams, helping her to realise them and support others in realising theirs.

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The experiences that shape you 

Julia starts the episode discussing her greatest leading influence was her parents. She highlights that they were massively encouraging and pushed in a way that kept them accountable.

The journey to success

Julia discusses her years in PR, fashion and magazine which although incredibly glamour was hard work but incredibly important to work your way up. 

She said that “you need to do, and you need to see and you need to experience. So, I've always applied that in whatever I do. And I'm very determined”. 

Positivity in the workplace 

Julia goes on to discuss the importance of leading with confidence but also vulnerability. She says that “To be able to lead a business takes a team, right, it takes people. And so, to give people that ability, and that chance to shine and feel confident in something that they're doing particularly at that time’.  

They both discuss that trust is vital as well enjoying what you do and one of the top things that distinguishes great leaders from good leaders is the ability to being a positive mindset. 

She said that “if we take business, having positivity in the workplace is imperative as a leader, but also, as an individual” and that we should celebrate the wins however big or small.

The To Be List

Anni shares her to-be list tip… “we can get bogged down in to do lists, things we must do. I'm a great encourager of having a To Be list. So alongside, particularly for those people who love to have a list, to have the To Do list, but also to have the To Be list, who am I being,  how am I going to show up today-  wholehearted, determined, bringing a positive mindset ..”. 

Building a flourishing partnership 

They  both go onto discuss the Bloom and Blossom, the fantastic small, independent British brand that Julia and Christina,  her sister in law/ business partner created in 2010. She said that “We wanted to build a brand, we wanted to build something that took us out of, or within the realms of body care, but slightly out of just quite the small maternity sector, albeit a beautiful sector that we still cater for certainly.”. 

Both having the same clear vision, the same principles of how they want to get there has been keen to their journey of success. 

She believes it’s also important to listen, both with Christina but also her team. Creating a safe environment of diversity of thought. 

The importance of routine

Anni goes onto share her love of the Bloom and Blossom brand products and its focus on creating routines for sleep, skincare and more.

Julia shares that we should “sit, listen and encourage as much as you can. Have the courage yourself and encourage it all out of others as well”. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• Vulnerability as a leader 
•  Positivity in the workplace
• The To Be List 
• Build a flourishing partnership with a friend 
• Building a beauty and self care brand 
• The importance of self-care for success

To find out more about Bloom and Blossom and Julia and to buy their wonderful skincare products for your wellness do go to www.bloomandblossom.com 

 If you would like to be a guest on Leaders in Conversation, please contact Anni on anni@annitownend.com 

Bradley has had an exciting career in football and has gone onto to become the founder of The Sporting Way. A social enterprise which educates and inspires young people to fulfil their potential.

From Zimbabwe to the UK 

Bradley shares his experience of being born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe for the first 10 years of his life before moving to the UK.

Bradley shares that “… It took me a long time to, to adapt, I think I always felt like an outsider. And I still feel like an outsider at times. But I've learned to embrace that, that feeling of being an outsider, rather than trying to conform with the environment trying to appreciate my differences and turn them into strengths”. 

A sense of belonging 

Bradley shares that “It’s one thing to say…just be happy being different. But it doesn’t get rid of vulnerability, that insecurity, of not having a sense of belonging”. 

He shares that it’s important to find someone we can relate with and someone that you can talk with. He believes that once you’re able to do that and accept that we can’t change our differences we can learn to love them. 

“I think that’s when the real strength comes in, because you are then able to see it as a positive.”. 

Breaking down barriers

His mom encouraged him to complete his A-levels before he did anything within professional sport where he went onto have great success. At 25 he shares that he was working as a performance analyst as an intern for Charlton Athletic Football Club and the manager at the time, Chris Powell, offered him a trial as a player.

He shared that “I always talk about the number of young players who stopped playing completely by the time they're 21. So, for me to be able to jump in at 25. I was at that point where I was emotionally mature. So, I was able to cope with the adversity that comes with being a professional footballer.

The Sporting Way and The Dripping Pan

Bradley goes onto discuss The Sporting Way and his return to football at 'The Dripping Pan'. Bradley said that “I have always said that if I'm going to play non-league or play part time football, I want it to be about two things, convenience and enjoyment. Because, football at this point in my life really is just about continuing a love. But it has to fit within the work that I'm doing”.

Before he knew it, he returned to football at the club and also set up a community garden in a corner of the ground which is run alongside volunteers and Michael Kennard who runs ‘Compost Club’ in Lewes. 

He hopes to soon grow the community garden team and bring in people with no interest in football, but who want to grow food, particularly those across a variety of demographics to help increase a sense of belonging.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• The layers of identity and breaking down barriers 
• Emotional readiness in a 'survival of the fittest' culture 
• The Sporting Way and The Dripping Pan
• Learning from your mistakes 
• Building a diverse community 

Discover more

To find out more about Bradley and about The Sporting Way and how they might be able to support work in your community school or college, or how you could partner and support their work visit The Sporting Way or contact Bradley via email on bradley@sportingway.co.uk

Back in 2021, Anni had the pleasure of being in conversation with Scott and his then 7-year-old daughter Sophie Harvey Sherwood who shared her experience running to celebrate inspirational women.

Scott participated in the Just Running It challenge, a 365 mega challenge in which he aimed to run 10km every single day for a year in aid of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and was joined by Sophie too.

The parallels between running and leadership 

He talks with Anni about his inspirational experience with the Just Running It challenge, not only completing the challenge but running nearly 4200 kilometers and continuing to maintain running daily into 2022.

Throughout his career in software engineering, Scott has found many parallels between running and leadership.

Scott discusses how 'personal bests' in running are a great analogy for agile software development. Running is the ultimate agile approach to a problem where some days you get personal bests and other days take much longer.

Some weeks in projects can be amazing and moving forward and other weeks things will struggle. Scott suggests that we must accept the ‘ups and downs’ as innovation is much more uncertain. 

Dreaming Big

Scott shares his motto that “Great leaders are not born or made they are chosen by the people they inspire”.

He shares with Anni that his motto inspires everything he does in life even if its to encourage even one person to believe they can be more than what they thought. Whether that is the confidence to get running or as his role as a software engineering leader. 

He believes that many in the workplace constrain themselves by not dreaming big enough. His experience with the running challenge has shown others that you can achieve anything with sustained effort, self-belief and the support of others. 

Creating a resilient workplace culture

They discuss the importance of staying healthy, in order to run but also stay healthy in order to lead and create a healthy workplace culture in which people can be their best even though they may have days, bad days and good days. 

He said that “The thing that really appeals to me about running, particularly Ultra running is the way athletes talk about it. They very rarely see that as a physical challenge it is all a mental challenge. And I think in the corporate world, the vast majority of help navigating and leading is really mental strength and finding you have been resilient both for yourself and for your people” 

Think bigger than you ever thought possible 

Scott is passionate that we should all dream bigger and ‘higher than we ever thought possible’ and that even if we don’t get there to not beat ourselves up- just work hard and be consistent- whether it’s a running challenge or a workplace one.

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• Scott shares his personal leadership story and participation in the Just Running it challenge
• The parallels between running and leadership 
•  Importance of a healthy culture and encouraging others 
•  Leading through ups and downs 
•  Dreaming big to achieve your goals 

Discover more, donate and connect with Scott

You can follow their progress and discover more on justrunningit.com which has links to the pair’s YouTube channel  and their fundraising page.

You can also follow Scott on Instagram and Twitter @scottcsherwood

Dougal talks passionately to Anni about sustainable business and manufacture practices and how his family and community values, alongside a love of the natural world, have shaped his leadership. He also talks openly about the evolution of his professional identity, and why he is keen to empower other business leaders.

Background and philopsophy
 
Over the past six years, Dougal has been the public face of Alistair Fleming Design, an award-winning bespoke kitchen design consultancy based in Lewes, East Sussex. Working alongside company Director, his father Alistair.

Dougal is passionate about sustainable design and fostering sustainable business growth practices aligned to the circular economy. Having been trained by the MD Hub in Business Leadership, he is now presenting and facilitating Business Model workgroups to introduce circular principles and profitable, environmentally-conscious additional revenue streams.

The circular economy, he explains, is a way for business leaders to “unleash [themselves] from the commonly accepted linear economic model” towards a more eco-conscious way of working, and way of producing. This is achieved through a three-pronged approach that considers: 1. Design out waste & pollution. 2. keep products and materials in use. 3 Regenerate natural systems.

Nature connection

Dougal’s desire to be in sync with, and of benefit to, the natural world comes from both his family’s deep-rooted connection to nature and his personal experiences. As an avid adventurer and traveler, Dougal has rock climbed, kayaked, sailed, skied and cycled his way around Europe and South America as an outdoor instructor. 

When he’s not with client’s in the Alistair Fleming studio, he offers rewilding adventure tours in the Sussex Downs. His tours give people a chance to “re-wild their instincts” and tune in to the “conversations” of the natural world. He is also a proud partner and father to his young family, and is a coach at a men's football team in Lewes.

Commenting on how he divides his time, he tells Anni it “takes a lot of energy”. This zest for life is something he has inherited from his mother in particular, he reveals.

Finally, Dougal shares some tips for leaders and business, including “peer to peer listening” because “sometimes being an MD, or being a leader can be a lonely place.”

Listen to the full episode to discover 

• Family dynamics and the impact of family heritage and family values
• How personal identity can shift and evolve
• The importance of partnerships and collaboration in the community
• The circular economy and butterfly diagram as a means to achieving more sustainable production and business practices 
• Adding cyclical loops into your business model to generate more revenue
• Why businesses and governments need more leaders who speak the language of nature 
• The power of taking business conversations outside
• Nature connection as a force for good and how rewilding can reawaken the senses 
• Using outdoor sport (football) as a way to break down barriers and build friendships and healthy competition

Find out more and connect with Dougal

 Discover more at alistairflemingdesign.co.uk or connect with Alistair and Dougal on instagram @alistairflemingdesign. You can find Dougal’s rewilding tours under @rewild_adventure

For almost 25 years, Tor has developed a successful career in wildlife, conservation, the environment and community engagement and is now Chief Executive Officer of Sussex Wildlife Trust.

She talks to Anni about her evolving love for the great outdoors, nature connection as a dynamic experience, her hopes for COP26 and she reveals some of her leadership principles.

Nature connection as a dynamic experience
Despite Growing up in Lewes, a rural East Sussex town nestled in the South Downs National Park, Tor expresses how she did not have an early affinity with nature. 

Her love of nature  developed over time, nourishing and supporting her personal wellbeing through periods of difficulty until it became part of her DNA. “I'm someone who's learnt how a deficit of nature can shape someone,” she comments. She is now passionate about helping others to enjoy nature and connect to the environment, especially those who have not grown up with nature as a key part of their lives. 

Tor explains: “When we talk about trying to make a better world for the future, we cannot build that on nostalgia. We have to build that on a vision and collaboration for a better world. We cannot assume that everyone has had abundance of nature in their life.”

Collaborative leadership principles
For colleagues at Sussex Wildlife Trust, Tor is enabling that sense of collaborative vision-setting by ensuring everybody feels seen and heard through an inclusive culture. 

She shares some of her leadership tactics, including open team meetings where every single employee is encouraged to speak for two minutes without judgement.  “We've got to be enabling the leaders of the future people to feel able to speak up without backlash or without blame,” she confirms.

COP56 and accountability
Anni and Tor discuss how the environment is a “non-negotiable” part of leadership, which is critical to every business. And why businesses need to be more accountable. Tor goes on to share one of her key hopes for COP26 is that senior leaders there will stand up and take ownership of the current climate challenges. Ultimately, she believes it is about giving people confidence.

“We can't have a situation where people feel incredibly deflated afterwards,” she comments. “[We need] people to feel they come out with some real prizes, that we've got people being authentic and making real, really good decisions for the future.” 

Listen to the full episode to hear about:

• How trauma can create disconnection to nature and the environment
• The impact of organisational trauma and organisational impulse
• What nature connection looks like for different people 
• ‘Catapulting’ yourself to a better place through nature connection
• Being brave - why it is crucial to speak up for ourselves in order to speak up for nature
• Encouraging others 
• Self-awareness in senior leadership 
• Creating boundaries and structure for people to flourish

Find out more 

For information on Sussex Wildlife Trust visit sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk or connect with the team: facebook.com/SussexWildlifeTrust  | Twitter @SussexWildlife | Instagram @SussexWildlifeTrust

For info on COP26 visit ukcop26.org

Originally from Turkey, Elif came to the UK in 2009 on what was initially a year-long trip to learn the English language. However, as she explains “the opportunities come when you start on a journey”. And so she grabbed an opportunity to start a business in clothing alterations. 

Now, twelve years later, Elif has worked with many designers and retailers and launched a successful fashion line under her own name, Elif Köse Fashion House. She talks to Annni about the mission for her brand, which is ‘for every woman to feel empowered and beautiful, knowing they have the confidence to do and achieve anything’.

Elif shares the inspiration behind this statement. She was motivated by her own freedom of choice upon relocating to the UK, something she lacked growing up due to cultural differences and the impact of her beloved, albeit controlling father. 

“I didn't have a choice myself and I knew how much it impacted my feelings as a woman,” she reveals.

Elif wants to empower other women through personal choice and personal style and has extended her fashion brand to other areas of personal development, including 1:1 coaching and a podcast. She also recently delivered a Confidence Leads to Success interview series, spotlighting successful women, which she is turning into an e-book.

Throughout the episode, Elif talks to Anni about building her own confidence, overcoming fears like public speaking and she shares some of the common traits of successful women.

Listen to the podcast to discover:

• The power of choice and finding your voice 
• Drastically improving confidence through fashion and personal style
• Finding sources of inspiration from outside and within
• Acknowledging and learning from your mistakes 
• Delivering a message with confidence
• The impact of shaping your mission and striving for it 
• Why women must stop seeking external acknowledgement and realise their worth
• The importance of networking and local community building for business growth

Discover more and connect with Elif 

To find out more about Elif and to browse her latest styles and collections, visit her online boutique  elifkose.co.uk

You can also find details of Elif’s coaching programmes, Confidence Podcast, the Confidence Leads to Success interview series and more on her dedicated Linktree account linktr.ee/elifkoseofficial 

Connect with Elif on the usual channels including Facebook @elifkoseuk, Instagram @elifkoseofficial and @elifkosefashionhouse

Born in Montepulciano in rural Tuscany in the early 50s, Giancarlo came from humble roots, growing up in a farming community.  He reflects on this “formative” period and how it has impacted his life, recalling that from a young age he was subject to violence, heartache and extreme challenges.

He has been on a long journey since then, with a varied career path that has taken him from the Italian Army to London where he has launched renowned kitchens for many brands, including his own Caldesi establishments.

Now, together with wife and business partner Katie, Giancarlo is a successful and influential entrepreneur. They manage two popular Italian restaurants, have written a number of cooking and lifestyle books including the Amazon best-seller The Diabetes Weight-loss Cookbook. They also run a cookery school, regularly appear on TV and have two children together.

In this fascinating conversation, Giancarlo opens up to Anni about his transformational journey and why a proud pasta loving Italian became a low-carb crusader.

Listen to the full episode to discover 

• The impact of early years and cultural heritage
• Learning to respond to and adapt to your current environment  
• Embracing your talents as a gift and evolving them
• The importance of respect and integrity in leadership
• Listening to and paying attention to your instincts
• The role of self-love, self-value and self-motivation

Discover more and connect with the Caldesi’s

To find out more about Giancarlo and his wife Katie, visit the website www.caldesi.com where you will find details of their restaurants, cookery school and books. 

You can also find out more about their campaign work at lowcarbtogether.com

As a leadership coach, Fi specialises in helping her clients to connect through nature and what she defines as “outdoor intelligence”.  She talks to Anni about what this means and what inspired her own love of the outdoors.

Fi recalls fondly how nature grounded her through difficult times as a child and why she reconnected to the outdoors later in life. Motivated by a break-up, her then young children, an energetic dog and a new zest for adventure.

 This nature reconnection has transformed her approach to leadership and her work with clients. Sharing her experience of finding space in the outdoors to work on self development, she reveals: “When we step over the threshold outside, something really different happens in our bodies at an unconscious level: we tune in, relax, our minds work better. If you step out by yourself, you will move much more deeply into connection with the natural world because you're alone.”

Listen to the podcast to discover: