Jane Van Zyl is the CEO of Working Families, a UK based charity focused on helping working parents and carers. Their mission is to remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace. They do this in three ways, a free legal advice line to help people with their issues and concerns, working with employers to help create and sustain flexible working and thirdly by pushing for practical and positive change at a policy level.  Working Families has contributed to...

Rob Moore was riddled with debt before reinventing himself to become a multi millionaire property investor, world champion, author of 19 books including his latest, 'Money Matrix' and the host of Disruptors with over 1000 episodes serving over 3 million subscribers across platforms. This episode turns the tables on Rob from interviewer to interviewee as we peek behind the curtain of Rob Moore.  This is a deeply personal episode with Rob who has a very public face for millions as regards his...

Dominic George is from California but is now based in New York City and has a passion for helping black men working in middle manager positions. This episode is all about how to leverage the Messy Middle.  George's passion for education and continuous learning was sparked by his 5th grade teacher and he learned the value of relying on other people when he was competing as a professional athlete in the swimming pool. Middle managers in George's view are the group who have a direct tie to the...

Adam Howe is a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles based in their New York office and specialises in helping organisations to proactively kill complexity and promote simplicity. This episode is essential for leaders of any sized business.  Adam realised during the delivery of large scale transformation programmes that people were overwhelmed and overloaded and that the idea of taking things away and subtracting tasks would improve productivity.  Complexity is a huge issue and has never been...

Alice Breeden is Regional Managing Partner CEO & Board practice for Heidrick & Struggles based in London. This episode is based on the recent research completed by Heidrick focused on CEO and Board confidence.  Alice highlights that there is so much happening in the world over shorter time periods that no leader has all the answers and every leader must be ever ready for the challenges.  CEO and Board positions are a world that only few will occupy. Those who do, will need to operate...

Dr Graham Curtis is Director of learning and research at Roffey Park Institute and leads their Masters programme. Roffey Park was first established in the 1940's by the UK Government and a number of sponsoring companies focused on the rehabilitation of workers after the war. Today, Roffey Park is established on a multi acre site in Horsham helping to deliver educations and research to aid the health and well being of the workforce (they are validated by the University of Sussex). Roffey Park...

Nuala Walsh is a former senior executive for a FTSE 100 company, behavioural scientist, Ted X speaker, non executive director (including the Football Association and British & Irish Lions) various businesses and charities,  author  of 'Tune In' and has been recognised as one of the most influential women in finance.  Nuala has interviewed Presidents, top sports stars and executives so this episode focuses on her learning and experience as a senior leader with an insatiable curiosity to...

Dr Gary Crotaz is a former medical doctor, professional ballroom dancer turned coach, author and podcast host. This episode is a collaboration between The Unlock Moment and The Leadership Enigma. Gary realised after 8 years of medical training that he wanted a different career which in turn created opportunities for him in consulting and retail. Ballroom dancing had always been a parallel passion so Gary and his wife also travelled the world competing in professional tournaments with those...

Blaire Palmer is a global educator, keynote speaker, former journalist and producer at the BBC and now the author of multiple books including 'Punks in Suits' This episode explores our ability to fake it as opposed to bringing our true authentic self to the workplace through fear or lack of self confidence.  Is our youthful rebel or inner punk an asset that we cease to rely on in order to comply?  Blaire discovered coaching early on in her professional career as she became disillusioned with ...

Simon Lancaster is one of the world's top speechwriters. He first became a speechwriter in the late 1990s working for Tony Blair’s Cabinet. He has since written speeches for the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world including Unilever, HSBC and InterContinental Hotels Group. A leader's ability to communicate is critical to success and first impressions last! Simon's journey started as a musician with a dream of becoming a songwriter yet by the age of 24 he became a Minister's...

Louis Gump is a digital veteran. He was at the heart of the digital revolution in 2001 as part of the team at The Weather Channel and then moved to helping CNN develop their first ever mobile app based approach to expanding their audience across the world.  Louis is now also the author of 'The Inside Innovator' which is an Amazon Bestseller.  I ask Louis about the current issue of 'fake news' and the polarisation of society. He considers this to be one of the most important issues facing us...

Margot Faraci is a leader, author, writer and podcaster. She happened to be working in the UK from Australia so we asked her to come into the studio....which she did. Margot is a former lawyer and banker who at the age of 14 reflected that her style, in her own words, of 'mean girl' was not appropriate as it was based on deep insecurity. Margot was a blend of her parents and her first job as a leader was to truly know herself.  Margot also knew that she was a natural leader and it was...

Allyson Stewart-Allen is a CEO, advisor, broadcaster and author. I see Allyson each week on TV as she is a regular on Sky News and has been on several seasons of 'The Apprentice , You've Been Fired.' It was time to invite Alyson into the studio for a visual tour of brands. If you don't proactively work on your personal brand, someone else will do it for you and you may not like the results. Brands can take years to build and seconds to destroy and all leaders need to consider their own brand,...

Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the author of 10 books and over 150 scientific papers. He is the Chief Innovation Officer for Manpower Group and and international authority in people analysts, talent management, leadership development and the Human AI Interface.  This is the first episode of the New Year and we tackle questions such as 'Why are so many incompetent men made leaders?' and 'Why we should be more sexist!' as Tomas is a data driven feminist.  However, the primary focus of this...

Errol Gardner is the Global Vice Chair (Consulting) for Ernst & Young. He is a member of the Executive Team and leads the consulting practice  globally of over 125,000 people.  EY has over 400,000 employees in 154 countries and in 2022 they received over 2 million job applications. Errol's job incudes defining the strategy for consulting and making sure they are clear on their market proposition for clients and ensuring his people are thriving. I ask Errol about the responsibility of...

L Vaughan Spencer is a leadership and motivational guru with a unique mantra of 'Don't be Needy, Be Succeedy." L-Vo to his friends has the unenviable background of having attended the University of the Isle of White studying table tennis with intermediate French. He is wise, vocal and motivates people by shouting at them! We was delighted to help me understand that I am not a failure.......just a non achiever.  The Sunday Time describes L-Vo as Borat meets The Office.  What could possibly go...

Tim Creswick is the CEO of Vorboss. After his studio episode on The Leadership Enigma Podcast, he decided to invite me to his 'Better Connection' event held at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool Street, London.  In front of a live audience Tim became the interviewer as we chatted about the podcast, the learning and insight from almost 180 episodes and also about the origins of the show born from the pandemic lockdown.  This episode also provides some powerful insights from Tim as to what is...

Jenifer Rosenberg OBE has enjoyed a life of incredible opportunity and hard fought success. She was the founder of the UK's largest privately owned clothing manufacturer after a career at Marks & Spencer during the roaring 60's. She voted Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year and today is the Chair of the Board of The Heart Cells Foundation.  This episode focuses on three key stages of Jenifer's life. By her own admission she was never an academic but excited to leave school and seek...

Dr Mark Goulston was a professor of psychiatry at UCLA for over 25 years. He is the author of multiple books including 'Just Listen' which has been translated into 28 languages and has become the world's leading book on listening. He is currently one of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 coaches and recently discovered that he is suffering from a terminal illness. This episode is deeply personal, powerful and inspiring.  Mark contemplates his own mortality in this episode as he reflects, hopes and...

Dustin Seale and Ed Manfre are both partners at Heidrick & Struggles and the authors of 'Lead Through Anything.' Dustin has focused his career on helping leaders get better results through culture and leadership regardless of the challenges they may be facing. Ed shares the same passion and explains how his career was 'accidental' after starting professional life in a family owned boutique and how some very specific events catapulted him towards wanting to understand the dynamics of...

Iain Sinnott is Head of International Carrier Sales for Enreach. Iain was an audience member during our recent live event with Tim Creswick (CEO of Vorboss) at The Everyman Theatre in central London. He was the winner of the raffle to randomly pick a guest and uncover that each and every one of us has a leadership propose and story to share with the world.  Iain was born and grew up in a small village in Scotland and has always been passionate about investing in others. He remembers fondly...

Adam Kingl is a global educator, keynote speaker and author of 'Sparking Success -  Why every leader needs to develop a creative mindset.' Adam highlights that as technology evolves exponentially, management and leadership has been fairly stagnant for decades.  People require their leaders to be a force for good in the world and all leaders are work in progress.  About 5 years ago Adam saw 2 independent pieces of research. One (from BCG) which stated that CEO's of top 200 global companies...

Atif Sheikh and Darren Ashby are co-founders of Business Four Zero (a Heidrick & Struggles company) and authors of 'Every Team Actually Doing Business Better' We explore the sweet spot between Culture, Purpose and Strategy and how these are more than just buzz words but essential components for any business to align their people around something important  as a force for good in a chaotic world. Atif Sheikh is a family man, raised as the son of an entrepreneur who started with corner...

Selva Ramasamy KC (King's Counsel) is a senior barrister, joint head of QEB Hollis Whiteman Chambers and an elected Master of the Bench for Inner Temple.    As a King's Counsel, Selva is one of the most senior barristers responsible for conducting some of the most serious and complex cases in the country.  Selva was actually the first non white member of his Chambers in its history and now they are one of the most diverse groups of barristers in the country.  Selva explains growing up in a...