In this month’s episode of the podcast, we are joined by serial entrepreneur Lorri Haines. Lorri and his fiancé Fearne McCann (Public figure and star of ITVBe’s My Family and Me) are co-founders of mental health and wellbeing app Shoorah. In this conversation we continue our theme of mental wellness and how mental health, and personal wellbeing can either improve or reduce the productivity of teams in the workplace. We explore new ways that leaders can prevent, and support employees improved wellbeing using new technology, and dare we say it – artificial intelligence! Which is a core componen ..read more

Melissa Sookia, founder of Live, discusses menopause, its impact on women in leadership roles, and the need for affordable treatment. Menopause symptoms vary and can affect productivity at work. Perimenopause starts with subtle changes like irregular periods and mood swings. Awareness is key in supporting women experiencing symptoms. Menopause can last for a 15-year period, with some women sailing through, while others may have severe symptoms. Lack of awareness often leads to confusion and emotional distress for women experiencing symptoms. We ask Melissa what can women do for themselves ..read more

In this podcast Rach & John talk to Former Counter Terrorism Covert Operations Leader and HUMINT specialist turned Entrepreneur and Solo Ocean Rower – Mike Bates.  Born and raised in Doncaster, Mike carved out a career that most boys would dream of. Spending years undercover as a human intelligence specialist, covert counter-terrorism operations leader and commando in the Royal Marines. Mike was the real-life James Bond. But all those years spent undercover, Mike didn't know who he really was. Until he undertook the biggest challenge of his life - becoming the fastest British person ..read more

Everyone keeps talking about where they want to work, how they'd prefer to work, yet employers often have a different view; the media have dubbed it "The Great Return," so for those of you with Zoom fatigue, or perhaps people who are reluctant to be in the workplace John & Rachael thought it was worth talking about. With more questions and answers they look at the dilemma from both employer and employees points of view: How much do we trust our people to do the work? Is productivity now a problem? Should we keep our offices anymore? What about people's health and their ability to be soc ..read more

In the second podcast on 2023 we chat with David Harper, Career Coach. David is an ex CIO for a major UK insurance company with extensive experience of leading people in a £4bn business. In 2015 David was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, initiating his own career move into coaching. David’s true purpose is helping people achieve. We talk to him about how he enjoys helping younger people start their careers, the sort of questions he asks them, and how the value of truly listening to people is in very short supply. We discuss the sort of questions that employers should be asking themselves when ..read more

In the first episode of 2023 John & Rachael are joined by Business Coach and entrepreneurJonathan Mills. Jonathan started this career as a footballer for Cambridge Untied but at age 18 fell into a franchise business model that would pave the way for him to own and lead not one but four businesses. Jonathan shares his habits on effective time management, task privatisation and journalling to increase self awareness. He shares his thoughts on the importance of trust in leadership and how any leaders first job is to set clear expectations and hold their team members to account. This is a f ..read more

In this weeks episode John & Rachael are joined by Executive Coach, Sue Baker. Sue has been working as a coach working with leaders at board level in large corporations since the 1990's. Sue talks about how coaching has changed over the last couple of decades and how organisation and leaders requirements of coaching are changing as the challenges they face are change. Most importantly we talk about what is next in coaching. What new trends we are seeing in coaching? And what are some of the issues that senior leaders come to coaching looking to work on? This is a fantastic conversation f ..read more

In this weeks episode Rachael & John are joined by Lee Warren to understand how using the Alexander Technique can help us communicate and perform better when under stress? The way that you think affects the way you perform, and vice-versa; the way you perform affects the way you think Remembering that stress is very uncreative, Lee take a little step back and asks us to think about focussing on our awareness. He asks: Do you sometimes make the mistake of focussing on yourself when presenting, when you should be focussing on what the audience are expecting from the presentation? Instead ..read more

In this weeks podcast Rachael & John cover four different leadership styles.  How do you like to be led? Is it always the same for every aspect of your role? When you're leading you team do you always use the same approach? They differentiate between Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating leadership styles explaining when and where you can effectively use each and how you might adapt your approach ..read more

On the podcast this week, in Leadership 101 a bitesized approach to: what leadership is and what it isn't how leadership differs from management where best to use a directive or non-directive style In the Coaching approach we ask which leader(s) have influenced you, what kind of leader are you? and what other leadership possibilities might be open to you?  Our bite-sized sessions are brought to you using content from our Inter-Active Building Better Leaders Webinar programme ..read more