Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend (Anni Townend)
Explorez tous les épisodes de Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend
| Date | Titre | Durée | |
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| 04 Feb 2025 | Igniting the Pursuit of Better – a conversation with Ed Corbett "The Brand Plan Man", Head of Consulting, AI evangelist, Lover of marketing and Mentor to emerging businesses | 00:27:03 | |
Today’s guest is Ed Corbett "The Brand Plan Man", Head of Consulting, AI evangelist, Lover of marketing and Mentor to emerging businesses. 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:
Ed’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders
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. | |||
| 04 Mar 2025 | The Leadership Coaching Journey – a conversation with Febronia Ruocco, Global Strategic Insights & Analytics Director, Mentor and Executive Leadership Coach in the Marketing Sectors | 00:31:26 | |
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 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:
Feb’s three Key Encouragements to Leaders:
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. | |||
| 01 Apr 2025 | Leading with Courage and Gratitude – a conversation with Gail Newsham Women’s Football Historian, biographer of The Dick, Kerr Ladies and author of Made in Whittingham Street | 00:35:57 | |
Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend is the podcast in which leaders weave together the threads of their life, sharing their leadership stories; the people, places and experiences that have shaped them, 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 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:
GAIL'S THREE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO LEADERS:
Connect with Gail: 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... | |||
| 11 Mar 2022 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Scott Sherwood, Vice President of Engineering | 00:34:36 | |
In this first episode in the second series of Leaders In Conversation, we are delighted to welcome back Scott Sherwood. 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.
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
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| 17 Oct 2022 | Anni In Conversation on Being Well Met | 00:05:01 | |
In this episode Anni discusses how on a recent walk she encountered a friend who had been very unwell and in fact, the walk as their first time out of the house. 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’. If you loved this episode of Leaders In Conversation please leave a review, share and subscribe. Thank you | |||
| 19 Apr 2022 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Bradley Pritchard - Founder of The Sporting Way and Ex-Professional Footballer | 00:33:58 | |
In episode 2 of our second series of Leaders in Conversation, we are delighted to be joined by Bradley Pritchard. 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.
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 | |||
| 24 May 2022 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Julia Yule, Co-Founder and Director of Bloom and Blossom | 00:38:36 | |
In episode 3, series 2 of Leaders In Conversation Anni was delighted to be joined by Julia Yule Co-Founder and Director of Bloom and Blossom, an award winning British business that provides natural routine led, solution focused skincare for the whole family. 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:
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 | |||
| 11 Oct 2022 | How to find your spark, tell your story and position your brand ‘you’. A conversation with Taryn Weeks, founder of Sparkz Marketing | 00:30:56 | |
How to find your spark, tell your story and position your brand ‘you’ 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. | |||
| 08 Nov 2022 | Deeds not Words. A conversation with Helen Pankhurst. Insights from a leading women's rights activist | 00:33:32 | |
Deeds not words from International leading women's rights activist Helen Pankhurst 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. If you loved this episode of Leaders In Conversation please leave a review, share and subscribe. Thank you | |||
| 22 Nov 2022 | Using our bodies for strategic decision making. A conversation with Nathan Blair, founder of The Somatic School | 00:37:55 | |
ABOUT THIS EPISODE – 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
If you loved this episode of Leaders In Conversation please leave a review, share and subscribe. Thank you | |||
| 25 Oct 2022 | Inspiring and supporting new mums to feel strong in their bodies and in themselves. A conversation with Karen Ellis, founder of Postnatal Rehabilitation | 00:31:57 | |
About this Episode 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..
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 | |||
| 31 Oct 2022 | Anni in Conversation on The Walk & Talk | 00:02:23 | |
In this episode join me, Anni Townend, as I share the power of a walk and talk conversation. 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. 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. | |||
| 14 Nov 2022 | Anni in Conversation on turning shoulds into coulds, and priorities into choices | 00:03:01 | |
In this episode join Anni in conversation as she discusses turning shoulds into coulds, and priorities into choices 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. | |||
| 30 Jan 2023 | Anni in Conversation on Checking In & Checking Out | 00:02:41 | |
In this episode join Anni in Conversation on how checking in and checking out with ourselves and each other is fundamental to building both self awareness and human-to-human connection. 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. | |||
| 10 Jan 2023 | Making workplace health contagious. A conversation with Anna Reddy, Founder of Leap Health | 00:30:01 | |
ABOUT THIS EPISODE In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Anna Reddy. We delve into:
ANNA's Three Tips for Leaders looking for workplace health solutions for productivity and performance:
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. | |||
| 17 Jan 2023 | Working remotely? How to integrate healthy habits into everyday working life. A conversation with Louise Barnes, Founder of Team HOi | 00:27:55 | |
ABOUT THIS EPISODE 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:
LOUISE’s THREE Top Tips for Leaders looking to regain control of their health and to feel healthy on the inside out.
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.
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. | |||
| 24 Jan 2023 | Being Playful Not Knowing – a conversation with Steve Chapman, creator of Can Scorpions Smoke | 00:29:25 | |
ABOUT THE SHOW 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
In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Steve Chapman. We delve into:
STEVE’s Three Tips for Leaders in becoming more playing not knowing are:
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. | |||
| 25 Jan 2023 | Anni in Conversation On Minding the Gap | 00:02:59 | |
In this conversation, I share the importance of Minding the Gap. 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. | |||
| 03 Feb 2023 | Anni in Conversation On Time & Energy | 00:02:38 | |
In this conversation, I share my thoughts about time and energy. 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. | |||
| 06 Feb 2023 | Becoming the leader of you – a conversation with Ayesha Murray, founder of Ayesha Murray Coaching and host of The Parent Equation podcast | 00:30:23 | |
Welcome and welcome back 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. 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. 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:
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:
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!
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. | |||
| 13 Feb 2023 | Understanding the deep impact of spending time alone – a conversation with Wilma Allan, Growth and Development Mentor, founder of Being at The Cottage, creator of The Leadership Renaissance and author of The 9 Enduring Elements For Leaders In The Pursuit | 00:30:06 | |
ABOUT THE SHOW 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:
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 | |||
| 13 Mar 2023 | On collaborating with different creative minds to solve problems for brands – a conversation with Candace Gerlach, founder of The Conscious Marketing Group | 00:32:59 | |
Welcome and welcome back 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 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. 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:
Three Top Tips What are your three top tips for leaders looking to collaborate, to inspire and to be more curious in their leadership?
ABOUT CANDACE CONTACT CANDACE CONTACT ME | |||
| 27 Mar 2023 | On Why Every Moment is a Choice – a conversation with Erika Behl, leader and builder of courageous teams, key-note speaker and storyteller | 00:27:01 | |
Hello and Welcome to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast in which leaders share their personal leadership stories weaving together the threads of their life to encourage you to grow confidence and courage in your leadership. 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. About This Episode - Why every moment is a choice Welcome Erika! Three Top Tips
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. | |||
| 27 Feb 2023 | ‘Going For It’ – A conversation with Alicia Ioannou, a senior policy manager in the UK Civil Service, currently on career break | 00:26:54 | |
Welcome and welcome back 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. 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!
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 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 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 | |||
| 10 Apr 2023 | On Being Kind, and Being Direct – a conversation with Raj Kumar Interim CMO, Silicon Valley Bank | 00:37:00 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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. About This Episode 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 Three Top Tips - What are your three top tips for leaders looking to be kind, and to be direct in their leadership?
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. 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. | |||
| 24 Apr 2023 | Being You - a conversation with Henrietta Norton, founder of Wild Nutrition | 00:32:26 | |
Welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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 Together we delve into:
Three Key Encouragements
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. 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. | |||
| 14 May 2023 | Making Working Lives Better - a conversation with Nina Holdaway, Managing Director at Accenture Song | 00:31:58 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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. 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. | |||
| 23 Apr 2023 | Anni in Conversation, Team Working: On Checking In & Checking Out | 00:02:58 | |
Help transform your meetings from the transactional into the relational, through checking in with each other at the start of the meeting and at the end of a meeting - be the meeting in person or online. Indeed checking in when we are meeting online matters more, not less, to make sure that everyone feels they have a voice, and that they will be listened to. 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. | |||
| 05 Jun 2023 | On Leading with Velocity and Acting with Audacity - a conversation with Sophie Devonshire, Global Chief Executive Officer, The Marketing Society, Bestselling Author and Entrepreneur | 00:28:05 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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: 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 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. | |||
| 26 Jun 2023 | On Being Your Own Data Bank – a conversation with Rachel Eyre Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Morrisons | 00:28:51 | |
Welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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. 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:
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. | |||
| 17 Jul 2023 | On Being Significantly Insignificant - a conversation with Ellie Norman, Chief Communications Officer, Manchester United Football Club | 00:26:05 | |
Welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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.
In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Ellie Norman, Chief Communications Officer, Manchester United Football Club. Together we delve into:
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.
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 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. | |||
| 28 Jun 2023 | On Being Seen, Heard & Understood | 00:02:53 | |
Welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni in Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership.
My Three Key Encouragements to ensure your team feel Seen, Heard and Understood: 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. | |||
| 07 Aug 2023 | On coming home to our true nature – a conversation with Cassandra Ogier, Founder of The Reflective Horse | 00:30:07 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage in your leadership. 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. 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
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 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. | |||
| 27 Aug 2023 | Powering the Planet through Renewables and Bold Leadership – a conversation with Steen Broust Nielsen Senior Vice President Sales at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables | 00:29:00 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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 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. | |||
| 29 Aug 2023 | On Creating a Safe Environment and Asking for Impact Feedback | 00:02:44 | |
Welcome to Anni in Conversation. In this episode I delve into my thoughts and insights into the importance of leaders asking for feedback on their impact felt, and how to create a safe environment in which to have these conversations. | |||
| 18 Sep 2023 | On Hope and Optimism – a conversation with Beto Funari Board Member, Venture Capital Founder, Former Chief Executive | 00:38:02 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage in your leadership. 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:
Three Key Encouragements What are your three key encouragements for leaders looking to build hope and optimism?
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. | |||
| 09 Oct 2023 | Hone your personal style for success! - a conversation with Jane Mather, Make-up Artist and Personal Stylist | 00:30:29 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage in your leadership. In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Jane Mather, Make-up Artist and Personal Stylist 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.
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 | |||
| 05 Nov 2023 | The challenges and satisfactions of leading in the public sector - a conversation with Justin Russell, Former Chief Inspector of Probation | 00:40:11 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage your leadership. 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:
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. | |||
| 27 Nov 2023 | Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging - Small Practical Steps, Big Impactful Strides - a conversation with Martin Glover, HR Director for Morton Fraser | 00:35:38 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage in your leadership. 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:
Martin’s three key encouragements for people looking to develop their leadership, and to lead intentionally and deliberately for diversity, inclusion and belonging.
To find out about more about Martin, about the firm, find and follow him on: 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. | |||
| 11 Dec 2023 | Burnout, Thriving and Everything In Between – a conversation with Meera Craston, experienced senior leader, executive coach and co-founder of Next Brave Move | 00:28:10 | |
Welcome and welcome back 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. 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!
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.
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.
WEBSITE To contact me Anni Townend, do email me on anni@annitownend.com
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. | |||
| 08 Jan 2024 | Feedback: Give it Kindly, Receive it with Grace – a conversation with Febronia Ruocco, Strategic Insights Professional, Executive Coach and Mentor | 00:36:01 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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:
Febronia’s three encouragement to leaders:
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. 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. | |||
| 29 Jan 2024 | Leadership, Love and Landscape – a conversation with Roger Mortlock, CEO, CPRE, the countryside charity | 00:30:56 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage in your 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. About This Episode In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Roger Mortlock, Chief Executive Officer, CPRE, the countryside charity.
LinkedIn: Roger Mortlock Website: www.cpre.org.uk 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.
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. | |||
| 12 Feb 2024 | Slaying the Monster of Poverty in Africa – a conversation with Moses Tai Founder and CEO of African Development Choices (ADC), Author of ‘There Is Shade’ and Speaker | 00:33:32 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence and courage your leadership. 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:
Moses’ Three Key Encouragements to Leaders
Connect with Moses Tai, and find out more about African Development Choices 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. | |||
| 26 Feb 2024 | It’s not much but neither is it nothing – a conversation with Tanya Shadrick author of The Cure for Sleep, memoir of a late waking life; founder of the Selkie Press and editor of the Wainwright Prize-listed Wild Woman Swimming | 00:40:08 | |
About This Episode 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.
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.
Contact Tanya via her website, for writing resources, and podcasts: www.thecureforsleep.com To contact Anni Townend 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. | |||
| 07 Mar 2024 | Understanding Ourselves and Understanding Others: A Leadership Perspective – a conversation with John Edwards, Director General, Regions Group at the Department for Education | 00:35:22 | |
About This Episode 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:
John’s three key encouragements for leaders looking to grow their leadership identity, build greater confidence and understanding in their leadership behaviours.
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 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. | |||
| 28 Mar 2024 | The Secrets Behind Building Resilience in Leadership – a conversation with Julian Roberts, Executive Business Coach, Podcast Host of Helping Organisations Thrive | 00:27:01 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage in your 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!
In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Julian Roberts, Executive Business Coach, Podcast Host of Helping Organisations Thrive
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julesroberts/ Website: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julesroberts45/
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.
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. | |||
| 08 Apr 2024 | On Knowing Yourself and Building Relationships – a conversation with Helen Stephenson, CEO of the Charity Commission for England and Wales | 00:26:29 | |
About This Episode 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:
Helen’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders
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. | |||
| 23 Apr 2024 | Be Brave, Focus & Fly – a conversation with Karen Wilkinson, award winning and inspiring Marketing Director | 00:24:18 | |
About This Episode In this episode I am delighted to be in conversation with Karen Wilkinson, inspiring and award winning Marketing Director. We delve together into:
Karen’s three key encouragements to leaders looking to Be Brave, Fly and Focus
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.
LinkedIn: Karen Wilkinson | |||
| 06 May 2024 | Stimulating Brilliance through the power of conversation - a conversation with Akin Thomas, CEO and Founder of AKD Solutions - an international learning and development consultancy | 00:25:58 | |
About This Episode 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.
Akin’s encouragements to leaders looking to create a learning environment which stimulates brilliance:
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:
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. LinkedIn: Akin Thomas Website: AKD Solutions | |||
| 17 May 2024 | Finding Your Collaborative Edge – Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd in conversation with Natalie Shering exploring their Collaboration Equation™ | 00:52:55 | |
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Psychological Safety
Fortnightly Coaching Conversations Series: WHO WE ARE 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™. | |||
| 03 Jun 2024 | Becoming Compelling Skilled Sailors – a conversation with Carolyn Youdell, Group eCommerce & Customer Engagement Director, Group Marketing Specsavers | 00:27:45 | |
About This Episode 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.
LinkedIn – Carolyn Youdell (she is the only one!)
At work. I am a Marketer. I've spent over 20 years working agency and brand side. 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. 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. | |||
| 17 Jun 2024 | Leading 4 Life – a conversation with Susie Ballentyne, Independent Psychologist and Bob Judson, Keynote Speaker, Podcaster, Leadership Facilitator and Coach | 00:37:08 | |
About This Episode 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:
Susie and Bob’s Three key encouragements for leaders looking to grow and develop their leadership:
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. | |||
| 01 Jul 2024 | Curiosity, Humility and Clarity: Empowering Others To Flourish – a conversation with Chris Harte, Chief Executive and Partner at Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP | 00:25:34 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage in your 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. 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! 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:
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. | |||
| 16 Jul 2024 | Be The Leadership Nudge – a conversation with Emma Harris Finance Director, M&S Food, Property and Retail | 00:31:41 | |
Welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend, the podcast that helps you to grow confidence, care and courage in your 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. 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:
Emma's three key encouragements to leaders:
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: To contact me Anni Townend: | |||
| 30 Jul 2024 | On Accelerating Net Zero Energy Innovation - a conversation with Guy Newey, Chief Executive Officer at Energy Systems Catapult | 00:23:47 | |
Hello, welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend. 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 :
Guy's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders looking to innovate and commercialise for Net Zero
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: 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. | |||
| 13 Aug 2024 | Leadership, Creativity and Reflection - a conversation with Carien Borst Artist and Leadership Coach | 00:35:58 | |
Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend is the podcast in which I talk to 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. Carien offers valuable insights into:
Carien's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders:
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: 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. | |||
| 15 Oct 2024 | Engage, Enable and Empower Through Your Leadership – a conversation with Somya Agrawal, Leader, Collaborator and Motivator | 00:32:08 | |
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:
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"
Connect with Somya: About Somya Agrawal: | |||
| 29 Oct 2024 | Finding your Collaborative Edge™ - a Collaboration Equation™ episode with Somya Agrawal, Leader, Collaborator and Motivator | 00:40:04 | |
Hello, and welcome to the second Collaboration Equation™ episode in Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd. 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 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. | |||
| 12 Nov 2024 | Curiosity, Resilience and Fun – a conversation with Meg Farren, General Manager, Chief Customer Officer and Chief Marketing Officer | 00:28:48 | |
Hello, welcome and welcome back to Leaders in Conversation with me, Anni Townend. 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
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 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. | |||
| 26 Nov 2024 | You Don’t Need to Be a Boss to Be a Leader – a conversation with Andrew Edwards, Event host, Trainer, Teacher, Broadcaster & Mentor | 00:37:34 | |
Today’s guest is Andrew Edwards, former BBC broadcaster, and now an Event Host, Trainer, Teacher and Mentor. The title of our conversation is ‘You Don’t Need to Be a Boss to Be a Leader’. 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:
Andrew's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders
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. 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. | |||
| 10 Dec 2024 | The Transformative Power of Travelling Alone - a conversation with Sue Cockell, Solo Traveller on a mission to help women in their mid-lives to enjoy the transformative power of travelling alone | 00:31:01 | |
Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend 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: 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:
Sue’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders :
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. 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. | |||
| 07 Jan 2025 | The 5-Step Framework to Understanding Recruitment and Leading Career Change – a conversation with David Dand, Managing Director of Coreus, Brighton-based Talent Acquisition agency | 00:32:45 | |
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 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:
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:
2. Remember the stakes are high:
3. Embrace individuality through knowing:
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
2. Convenience
3. Culture & Brand Reputation
4. Day to day job
5. Training and career progression
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. | |||
| 21 Jan 2025 | Kind Leadership and Diverse Voices Rising – a conversation with Delia Lazaroiu, Senior Data Analyst Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) UK, trustee for Equality Starts at Home | 00:31:22 | |
ABOUT THIS EPISODE Today’s guest is Delia Lazaroiu, Senior Data Analyst and the title of our conversation is Kind leadership and diverse voices rising. In our conversation Delia offers valuable insights into:
Delia's Three Key Encouragements to Leaders
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. | |||
| 04 Mar 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Marisa Guthrie, Business Coach and Mentor | 00:28:26 | |
Marisa Guthrie talks to Anni about trauma in business, the role of Equine Facilitated Learning in helping people through trauma, her love of wild terrain and how she finds inspiration in the work she does with millennials, their values and their contribution to the world. | |||
| 10 Mar 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Shannon Banks, Leadership Consultant | 00:31:23 | |
In an honest and open account Shannon Banks talks to Anni Townend about the experiences which have shaped and challenged her values and the power of Action Learning to bring about both corporate and social change. To find out more about Shannon’s work visit her website. http://www.be-leadership.com/ | |||
| 05 Mar 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Amanda Saurin, AS Apothecary | 00:33:53 | |
Anni talks to Amanda Saurin about her leadership journey, her love of nature, the extent to which she pays attention to her intuition when setting up new projects, the joy of collaboration and of working with teams of older women. She describes her love of nature and its power to heal, bring joy and foster resilience throughout life. | |||
| 06 Mar 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Ian Lock, Leadership Consultant | 00:22:22 | |
Ian talks about his own ethics and the ethics of those he wishes to work with and the impact they could make together in creating a fairer society which values individuals over profit and takes responsibility for being part of achieving that.
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| 03 Mar 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Natalie Shering, Leadership Consultant | 00:20:30 | |
How to recognise your superhuman brilliance Natalie begins by discussing how early childhood shaped who she is, her values and beliefs. In particular, she opens up about the experience of having been adopted as a baby with her identical twin sister - an opportunity for which she is forever grateful.
As something that drives everything she does, Natalie encourages leaders to consider the opportunities they have to support others and give back by helping each other to "shine". | |||
| 07 Apr 2020 | Anni Townend in conversation with Karen O'Donoghue of The Happy Tummy | 00:50:29 | |
Baker Girl and founder of The Happy Tummy Co, Karen is a woman with a mission to rid the world of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). | |||
| 09 Apr 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Russell Pocock, Leadership Consultant | 00:12:56 | |
Anni talks to leadership consultant Russell Pocock about trust, psychological safety, colliding perspectives and the positive outcomes that are a consequence of leaders who escape from their echo chambers, allow feedback on their leadership and foster a culture of trust. | |||
| 13 May 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Karen Dobres, Co-Director of Lewes FC | 00:41:32 | |
Anni talks to Karen Dobres, elected Co-Director of Lewes Football Club, the only football club in the world to pay women and men players the same. | |||
| 25 Jun 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Abigail Petit, Founder of Abigail's Drapery | 00:28:13 | |
Anni talks to Abi, Maker, Mender, Mentor and Mother about a rich career in textile engineering that took her from Bangladesh to Brussels to Brighton. They also discuss her passion for ethics and how Abi became a pioneer in bringing Fairtrade textiles to the British highstreet. | |||
| 23 Sep 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Jessika Hulbert, Funeral Celebrant | 00:29:06 | |
We often talk about how to have big, sometimes difficult, conversations with people. One of the biggest, most difficult, conversations in our lives is that of talking about death. Be that talking about our own death and what would we like to happen or talking with others, especially loved ones about their death. In this podcast, Anni talks with Jessika Hulbert about being a Celebrant and helping people to have these conversations sooner rather than later. She draws on her own experience of loss and of having conversations with people as they prepare for death, or as they reel from the shock of an untimely or sudden death. Her focus is on helping people to have the very best experience that is possible when we lose someone dear to us. Although known and sought out to officiate as a Funeral Celebrant Jessika is passionate about ceremony, about creating spaces and places in which people can celebrate important events in their lives from birth through to death and ‘everything in between’. Ceremonies are an occasion for bringing people together, and sometimes for rifts between divided families to be healed, and for friendships to be renewed between people. Deep listening to how people feel, to what they would like, and then helping them make that possible is core to Jessika’s support and care that gives people the courage to have difficult conversations. | |||
| 04 Nov 2020 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Jacynth Bassett, Founder of The Bias Cut | 00:44:42 | |
Tackling ageism in fashion with Jacynth Bassett, Founder of The Bias Cut A journey to age inclusivity and empowerment 'Ageism is Never in Style' Explaining how fashion has the ability to build confidence, collectively and individually, she tells Anni: “I think it's really important to recognise the power of clothes and the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the fashion industry, because it's about identity, self value and worth. If you're not represented, then naturally you're going to feel you're not as worthy. Listen and discover the full story Find out more about The Bias Cut and browse the range of age inclusive fashion on the website: thebiascut.com | |||
| 12 Jan 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Joao Perre Viana, Founder and Pioneer of Walking Mentorship | 00:27:07 | |
Walking towards a better life
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| 02 Feb 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Stacey Copeland, Boxer | 00:26:56 | |
Question it. Challenge it. Change it. Advice from a multi-champion sporting superstar. “It is a massive lie that we've been told forever that women are not as good and that we can't do things…...My purpose isn't just to be the best athlete that I can be. It's to use sport, one of the most powerful things on the planet, for bringing about positive change.” Stacey Copeland, Boxer. In this episode Anni talks to Stacey Copeland, former professional athlete, public speaker, presenter, campaigner and the first ever British woman to win the Commonwealth title. Listen to this remarkable episode where Stacey shares a life in sport, including her first experience of gender bias and inequality, and how she overcame adversity to carve a successful career as a female athlete. She also talks about being a role model for social justice and gender empowerment, including how she fought for and put pressure on the Commonwealth Boxing Council to create a Women's Commonwealth Title Belt, something that was regrettably only offered to male champions. Stacey talks passionately about the importance of realising your potential and supporting and helping young people to “have the fullest life they can” in sport and in society. She goes on to provide practical advice we can all take to remove gender stereotypes and barriers to success. Hear Stacey’s unique perspective on:
You can discover more about Stacey on her website, including her sporting achievements, current speaking and media engagements and to read her blog. The website also includes details of the Pave The Way charity which she founded in 2017 Discover more at Stacey-Copeland.co.uk | |||
| 10 Feb 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Gill Whitty-Collins, Author, Speaker, Consultant and Coach | 00:29:11 | |
The unconscious bias of the boardroom and why men win at work with Gill Whitty-Collins Anni talks to the inspirational Gilly Whitty-Collins, author of Why Men Win at Work to discuss deep-rooted, invisible discrimination and how we can change it. Gill reveals what led her to become a passionate champion for gender equality. She admits that for most of her life she wasn’t really as aware of, or affected, by gender bias. In fact, Gill’s first experience of gender inequality wasn’t until she reached Senior Vice President Level and was surrounded by men and the “unconscious bias” of the boardroom. It was then that she realised women are often held back at work, particularly in the senior roles dominated and dictated by male culture. She set about to understand the what and the why behind these dominant structures, and how she could make a difference. In this fascinating Leaders in Conversation episode, Gill discusses:
Gill talks further about her book Why Men Win at Work which she is keen to clarify is not a “cynical attack” of men’s success in the workplace, but an exploration of the topic. As a result, the book has attracted a lot of male readers also keen to further understand the impact of gender and success. The book looks at the unconscious and psychological reasons that both men and women continue to push the patriarchy and how together, we can change things. Gill has a simple call to action for you: “Read it and become a feminist. Become one of my feminists. I've got lots out there. Embrace the cause and embrace it, not as a charity, but as business. Embrace it as something that will be good for your life and good for your business. And embrace that diversity is better, equal is better. “ Discover more and connect with Gill Whitty-Collins | |||
| 17 Mar 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Hind Farag, Executive Coach and Strategy Consultant | 00:31:47 | |
The power of diversity of mentality with Hind Farag As a Muslim woman born in Egypt and raised in Sudan before having lived in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and now in Houston, Texas, Hind has been shaped by the different cultures and communities that she has encountered along the way. “I was around students from all over the world, different cultures, different races, different religions. And I had to prove myself every time as a human being, that definitely had a lot to do with who I became today,” she reveals. However, through her own leadership journey, Hind realises that the impression and the impact she makes on people is not because of or limited to her religion or appearance, which to an extent has set her apart in European and US settings. Instead, she recognises how she learned to show up and present herself as a confident and capable woman leader. The encouragement of her father and family has played a key part in that development and recognition of self-value. However, Hind also reveals how other role models and leaders have helped to shape her as a leadership consultant. She talks about how “meeting Anni in Scotland was a pivotal moment in my life and career” which led to Hind “making a much larger impact across many, many larger communities.” Listen to the full episode to discover Hind’s journey and learn:
Finally, Hind talks about her charity work. She co-founded the first non-profit organisation to support the refugee community in Houston. In collaboration with her son and a friend, she has also recently launched Gaps, a charity supporting underprivileged communities in Sudan and also Houston. The name Gaps came from the intention to find gaps in empowering the underprivileged, that were not being fulfilled by larger organisations or governments. Discover more and connect with Hind You can find out more on the website https://transformcnc.com or via Hind’s LinkedIn page. Gaps Charity is currently on Facebook www.facebook.com/gapscharity | |||
| 10 Mar 2021 | Leaders in Conversation Short: How my Relationship with my Mother Helped me Show up as a Leader | 00:04:36 | |
Why developing my relationship with my mother has had the biggest impact on my leadership A few years ago, I went through some major personal drama, or catastrophe: loosing a family member; going through divorce; changing jobs and moving from one continent to the other. It was everything that could ever change in somebody’s life - all changed in my life in just a couple of months. That was when my mom joined, around the same time. And it did. Talking about how I showed up as a leader, a lot of what I was holding back was due to what I thought based on my relationship with my Mom - that I was not supposed to show up. Because, opposed to my father for example, who really empowered me - he pretty much explicitly and implicitly through what he did, would always make me feel like there was no limit. There was no limit because I was a female. Because I come from a third-world country. Because of anything, there was no limit. He would not expect me limiting myself in any way. He would throw me in the middle of things and watch me from the distance. And my Mom was nothing below excellence can be expected. But she tends to be less firm about the fact there is no limit. In my head, I was thinking that my mom was limiting me or thinking that because I was a girl, I had much less to offer. And I had to be here with her for these past five years, for her to understand that is what she made me feel, and for me to understand that is not what she thought. And also for me to understand that it was never about what my Mom said, that much of it was about my perception of it and how I followed up on that. What I decided to hold back on and what I decided to bring out. Connect with Hind Farag | |||
| 31 Mar 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Steve Radcliffe, Leadership Expert and Author | 00:33:04 | |
In this fascinating episode, Anni talks to the highly respected Leadership Expert, Author and TED Speaker, Steve Radcliffe about what it means to be a trusted partner to leaders. With over 20 years experience in helping senior leaders be their best, Steve is most known for his leadership development programme, Future – Engage – Deliver (FED), which was founded and is now practiced by colleagues of Steve Radcliffe Associates. Steve is also author of the top leadership book in the UK, Leadership Plain and Simple. Steve talks to Anni about a deep-rooted willingness to help other people, which he says “manifested itself in different ways, in different times” throughout his life. He reveals how a chance dinner party with a friend led him on his own leadership journey, walking away from the corporate world and to eventually define his purpose: “to be a trusted partner to people trying to make a bigger difference in the world”. Throughout the episode, Steve touches on:
Wherever you are in your own leadership journey, Steve offers a three-pronged approach to developing your potential:
On the last point, he explains: “If you want to make that bigger difference, you have to have a support team. And there are two reasons. One is that you will fall off the bike at times and others can help you get back on the bike by listening to you, by creating a safe space, giving you that encouragement and that bit of acknowledgment. “The second way that can be very powerful is at the heart of bringing other people with us to make a bigger difference in our impact on others. And this is something I've realised we cannot work out for ourselves.” More information To find out more and connect with Steve visit www.steveradcliffe.com Discover Leadership Plain and Simple on amazon.co.uk | |||
| 07 Apr 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive at City of Edinburgh Council | 00:34:29 | |
Ahead of the Scottish Parliaments elections on 06 May, Anni talks to Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive of The City of Edinburgh Council. This episode is packed with discussions as Andrew talks openly about everything from leading through a pandemic to the importance of family, community and working as a team. He also reveals his career inspirations and how an ex-miner from Ayrshire helped him to become the proud senior leader he is today, working in his dream job. Despite his prominent position in the council, Andrew was not always in the public sector. Following school, he worked as a professional athlete, representing Scotland and the UK in the 400m races. However, he knew athletics was a career with a limited time span and stepped into his first public service role as Manager at Grangemouth Stadium, Falkirk “In lots of ways it was opportunistic, but I realised early on that I enjoy the community part of being a public servant. And I've been there ever since,” he confirms. With a passion for contributing in the community, Andrew has gone on to nurture a 35 year (and counting) career as a public servant. He has worked in positions across England, Wales and now in the City of Edinburgh Council where he was named Chief Executive in 2015. Listen to this Leaders in Conversation Podcast to discover:
Andrew also talks about leading through a pandemic and how it allowed him to deliver on his core value of helping the community. He honours those whose lives have been lost and pays tribute to the civil servants like teachers, janitors and bin collectors who have kept the UK going “without demand for extra overtime or extra anything, because they knew that we're doing good things for the community”. Finally, Andrew reveals his vision and ambitions for Edinburgh and Scotland and why “community wellness” is at the heart of The City of Edinburgh Council’s business plan. He talks about what the roadmap looks like, from collaboration with local partners to setting carbon targets and more. | |||
| 28 Apr 2021 | Anni Townend in conversation with Annabel Venner, Marketing Consultant | 00:26:00 | |
The power of vulnerability and open conversations with Annabel Venner The latest guest on the Leaders in conversation podcast is Annabel Venner, an expert Marketing Consultant and Chair of The Marketing Society Fellow. Having carved a successful 25+ year career in marketing, Annabel has worked for well known brands including Coca Cola and Hiscox before more recently moving into consultancy. Anni and Annabel became acquainted through the Marketing Leaders Programme, a joint venture between The Marketing Society and Accenture Interactive, of which Annabel is a regular speaker. In this incredibly open conversation, Annabel talks about both her personal and professional experiences, including highs and lows, love and loss, and all that’s shaped her in between. Looking back to her early experiences, she explains how growing up on a farm in Kent with her parents and two sisters gave her the opportunity from a young age to experience risk taking, for example learning to drive a tractor or operating farm machinery. An openness to risk is something that has motivated her professionally since. That’s why when offered the opportunity to work in Asia for three months, both Annabel and her husband agreed she should absolutely do it - challenging the archetypal gender roles in the family. For both partners, the period was a success. Annabel further evolved her marketing skill set and presented her children with a positive woman role model, while her husband cared for and nurtured them. Annabel reveals how observing her own father as someone who helped those around him in the family and the community, sparked her passion for wanting to support others. As well as being a Marketing Consultant, she is a committed mentor and advocate of the marketing profession, seeking to help those early in their marketing career through various initiatives. The power of vulnerability Annabel opens up about bereavement, having tragically lost her husband to cancer in summer 2020 and more recently her mother too. She reflects on the importance of community and how those near to her provided an invaluable support network through such difficult times. She also shares how bereavement helped her to gain power through vulnerability, connecting to her emotions and self. Through loss, Annabel began to reevaluate the things that matter and she has learned to tune in to what she enjoys, which is why she has stepped more into the mentoring and charity work. And of course, caring for an allotment with her two teenage boys. Listen to the full episode to discover:
Annabel also offers three pieces of advice for other leaders:
Discover more and connect with Annabel To find out more about Annabel’s work Consulting, Mentoring and Speaking visit www.annabelvenner.com or get in touch with via email: annabelvenner@gmail.com. | |||
| 05 May 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Thurstine Basset, Author on Boarding School Survival | 00:43:48 | |
The trauma, abandonment and privilege of boarding school with Thurstine Basset “We have had to overcome that sense that if you complain, you're just a privileged whinger, and that nobody wants to hear from privileged whingers,” Thurstine Basset For the latest episode of the Leaders in Conversation Podcast with Anni Townend, Anni talks to Thurstine Basset, a boarding school survivor, author and mental health champion. Thurstine has co-authored a number of books on mental health including most recently Trauma, Abandonment and Privilege: A guide to therapeutic work with boarding school survivors with Nick Duffell. Born into an army family, Thurstine was sent to prep school from just eight years old, but despite always knowing he had a less than happy experience there, it wasn’t until some 20 years later that he really began to explore the personal impact. Persuaded by his psychotherapist wife, he attended a workshop for boarding school survivors, which started a long journey of realisation, discovery and wanting to help others. Boarding school syndrome has become an increasingly prevalent topic for psychotherapy and therapists. “Although the schools themselves have become less brutal and more child friendly, actually referrals for therapy have gone up,” explains Thurstine. “The separation and the breaking of attachment is still there, and children are still feeling it and still having to survive it. And later on in adult life they're coming for help.” For those who have been through the boarding school system and may be struggling currently, Thurstine recommends opening the dialogue with friends and family. “I think the boarding school survivor, naturally wants to stay back from it, but when I went towards it, I found great relief and in a way, a new life opened up for me,” he explains. Listen to the full episode to discover;
Discover more Trauma Abandonment and Privilege is available on Amazon. | |||
| 01 Jun 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Sophie Harvey Sherwood, 7 year old Runner | 00:31:27 | |
‘Never give up, keep going and always have fun’ advice from a 7 year old runner For the 20th Leaders in Conversation Podcast episode, Anni talks to the amazing Sophie Harvey Sherwood, a seven year old girl from Glasgow who is running to celebrate inspirational women. On the week of International Women’s Day (08 March 2021), Sophie joined her dad Scott Sherwood on his Just Running It challenge, a 365 mega challenge in which Scott aims to run 10km every single day for a year in aid of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity. As part of a school project on inspiring women, Sophie decided to dedicate each of her daily runs to a woman role model, starting with Courtney Dauwalter, America ultramarathon runner. Courtney has broken many records, often beating her male competitors to the finish line, in races of 100 miles and more. “Because I realised how far she ran, I was like, why don't I give it a go? See if I could run that much one day,” explains Sophie. Starting with a gentle 1km for her first run, Sophie has already increased her distance to over 3km and has a target of reaching 10km by the end of the year. Her efforts have attracted the admiration of the running community, including her idol Courtney who messaged Sophie with her well wishes on Instagram. The pair agree that feedback was “really motivating”. A lesson in determination, perseverance and teamwork Setting out on any endurance challenge, particularly one that lasts a whole year, is not without hurdles. However, Sophie and Scott have a unique mantra “to keep going”. They discuss with Anni the importance of perseverance and not giving up, supporting each other along the way. The challenge has naturally given them some special bonding time, which Scott says has created a real sense of team. He also reveals how running alongside Sophie as a new and much younger runner, has reignited his passion for running and showed him new perspectives. “I think I think it's given me a newfound sense of adventure in a world that I've lived for my whole life,” he explains. More Inspirational Women Anni talks about the inspiring women leaders she has met and they delve into the women carefully chosen by Sophie for her school project. The list includes designer Coco Chanel, English paleontologist Mary Anning, wartime nurse Mary Seacole, women’s right activist Emmeline Pankhurst and scientist Marie Curie, who Sophie says “would be working on the vaccine if she was still alive”. And of course, she talks about her supportive Mom who has taken up a Just Washing It challenge, which Sophie beams is “really fun”. Running for a better future The duo share a passion for the environment. Something that Scott, as VP of Engineering at Wood Mackenzie, a leading research and consultancy business for the global energy, chemicals, metals and mining industries, has no doubt passed down to his daughter. They’ve recently been nominated to be the ‘running Mayor for Glasgow’, part of an initiative that aims to encourage people to use active travel for short commutes or errands. They have also been spurred to take part in a run and litter picking challenge. She may be running for charity, for the environment and in the name of inspirational women, but Sophie thinks the biggest benefit is “getting to see the nature and the fresh air when it comes out”. As a hardy Scott, that even includes running in the rain. Discover more, donate and connect with Sophie and 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 | |||
| 16 Jun 2021 | Leaders in Conversation with Dawn Whittaker, Chief Fire Officer | 00:36:30 | |
In this episode Anni talks to Dawn Whittaker, Chief Fire Officer and CEO of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, as well as NFCC lead for Drowning Prevention and Water Safety. Anni and Dawn talk about how early experiences ignited Dawn’s passion for safety and why as a leader she is committed to nurturing both physical and psychological safety. Background and career influences Growing up on a farm in Wales, Dawn learned to be pragmatic and safety-conscious at an early age. Along with her sister, she was a keen member of the Brownies, Guides and Rangers - always actively involved in team and community projects. She believes this to be a trait inherited from parents and grandparents. However, her real interest in fire safety was sparked on an Outward Bound course, whilst working for a company. Dawn was frustrated at the organiser’s failure to conduct any health safety briefings about fire exits and so after checking local procedures, she undertook a fire safety drill. “I think they all thought I'd lost the plot,” she reflects. In terms of her interest in water safety, it was a near drowning experience aged just 16 that had a lasting impact. Dawn is now the national lead for water safety and drowning prevention for the National Fire Chiefs Council in the UK, heading up the Be Water Aware campaign. The aim is to promote safe use of recreational water spaces. Dawn wasn’t always within the Fire Service however. In her early career she worked in the retail sector with The John Lewis Partnership, before moving into a managerial performance role at a County Council. Both roles led her to develop a passion for quality customer service and communication - something she has carried into her role at the Fire Service for over 17 years. Fighting fires during a pandemic Dawn discusses the impact of the pandemic and praises her team who have worked tirelessly. In addition to provision of standard services, the Fire Service has been collaborating with partners like the Coastguard and supporting the local Ambulance Service with much-needed drivers through the pandemic However, she admits the pandemic has been tough on the service. Not least because it meant finding new ways to engage with the public. But also because many of her staff members have had to manage their duties alongside the emotional, financial and physical burden of Covid-19. “People might think firefighters, and our staff are all heroes and superheroes, and superhuman, but, do you know what, we're just people,” says Dawn. Inspirational leaders and inclusivity Dawn reveals the many leaders who have inspired her journey, including colleagues from John Lewis and existing and retired Fire Service leaders like David Archer and Bruce Hoad, both of whom she praises for their commitment to driving inclusivity and equality in the service. Driving diversity is something close to Dawn's heart. She talks about being a role model and "holding a mirror up". Listen to the episode to discover:
Discover more and connect with Dawn For more information on East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service visit esfrs.org You can connect with Dawn Whittaker directly on LinkedIn. | |||
| 27 Jul 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Marshah Dixon-Terry, Career Coach | 00:27:36 | |
'See change as an opportunity, not a burden' For episode 22, Anni talks to the inspirational Marshah Dixon-Terry, a leading Career Coach and Organisational Development Consultant. Over the past 20 years, Marshah has helped senior leaders through transformational change in a range of settings and is passionate about helping people to reach their potential. Talking to Anni, she shares what has shaped her own journey, her values, beliefs and approach to coaching. And she reveals some strategies for successful leadership and culture change. Marshah reflects on how her childhood has greatly influenced who she is today. Growing up in north London with her St Lucian parents who immigrated to the UK in the 50s, she learned the importance of connection, growth, academic and social education, respect for others and grasping opportunities. She also shares recent experiences with her two sons, including some challenging home schooling. Marshah talks about a sense of pride in her family, past and heritage, which she says “propels me forward”. That recognition of individual worth extends to her work with clients. A thread that runs through everything she does is to “treat people as people, regardless of one’s background, education or opportunities”. Anni and Marshah also discuss the wider societal and workplace changes taking place, including diversity, inclusion and topics related to Covid-19 like remote and flexible working. They discuss how organisations can navigate these changes to shape their future vision. Finally, Marshah reveals three things leaders should consider in order to driving lasting and positive change. Listen to the full episode to hear Marshah’s experience and perspectives on:
Find out more and connect with Marshah To find out more and connect with Marshah visit her LinkedIn profile or email marshah@mdtcareercoaching.com | |||
| 08 Sep 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Fi MacMillan, Founder of Wild Leadership | 00:29:51 | |
For the Leaders in Conversation Podcast episode 23, Anni talks to Fi Macmillan, adventurer, coach, supervisor, entrepreneur and founder of Wild Leadership. 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 also reveals the most common challenges that senior leaders come to her with. And she shares three tips we can all use to raise our outdoor intelligence. To find out more about Wild Leadership, including details of Fi’s coaching, supervision and leadership programmes visit wildleadership.co.uk | |||
| 29 Sep 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Giancarlo Caldesi, Chef and Diabetes Campaigner | 00:27:58 | |
Anni Townend talks to celebrated Chef, best-selling author and low-carb campaigner, Giancarlo Caldesi, who is on a mission to help people combat type two diabetes to live a happier, healthier life. 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
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 | |||
| 13 Oct 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Elif Köse, Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur | 00:30:21 | |
'We are our biggest source of inspiration' 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:
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 | |||
| 04 Nov 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Tor Lawrence, CEO Sussex Wildlife Trust | 00:41:16 | |
To coincide with the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference, for episode 26 of the Leaders in Conversation Podcast, Anni welcomes passionate nature campaigner Tor Lawrence. 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 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 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 “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:
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 | |||
| 17 Nov 2021 | Anni Townend in Conversation with Dougal Fleming, Sustainable Business Leader | 00:47:44 | |
For episode 27 of the Leaders in Conversation podcast, Anni talks to sustainable business leader, adventurer and proud family man Dougal Fleming. 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 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 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
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 | |||
| 18 Feb 2025 | Leading with Energy, Purpose and Hope - a conversation with Howard Johns, CEO of Onezero, Passionate Solar Energy Entrepreneur, Founder, Author and TedX Speaker | 00:28:34 | |
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. 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
Howard’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders looking to lead with energy, purpose and hope
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. | |||
| 18 Mar 2025 | Helping Make Football A Better Place For Everyone – a conversation with Jason Webber | 00:30:32 | |
Leaders in Conversation is the podcast in which leaders share their leadership story, weaving together the threads of their life; 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 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:
Jason’s Three Key Encouragements to Leaders
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. | |||