Leading with Agility – Details, episodes & analysis

Text us to share your thoughts

What's it like being a senior Black leader in an organisation but not realising you hold privilege in that position? This was Collin's experience and the basis of our conversation, a fascinating exploration of what it means to be a POC in a senior leadership role today. 

Collin reveals the impact of a post BLM era and how expectations on leadership for change has affected him, a revealing conversation which you definitely don't want to miss.

Some of our key talking points:

• Not appreciating that you hold a position of privilege irrespective of your colour or background. That you are being seen as a role model without you knowing.
• What's the implication of being a role model? How does it affect your leadership stance? It's important to focus on what's achievable in your sphere of control. Otherwise it can be overwhelming!
• Are there risks to publishing diversity data? Could it affect people's perceptions of why they've been hired. Transparency is always important and changing the system requires courage.
• Getting external support with DEI efforts needs to be treated with care but much needed expertise to hold space for all viewpoints within an organisation is equally important. 

Guest bio

Collin spent the last 11 years at ustwo, an award-winning a digital product studio. He has been a member of their Executive leadership team for the last 9. He has recently left ustwo to start his independent consulting practice. His focus is on helping teams and organisations radically improve their capability to create and delivery digital products. During almost 30 years of industry experience, working in London, New York, Tokyo, Bangalore and San Francisco, he’s helped organisations like Three, Sky, JPMorgan, HSBC, and Nissan, as well as start ups, to create cultures where people can thrive in their work. He advises and trains senior leadership teams to support their adoption and use of modern ways of working. He even wrote a book about it called Make Learn Change.

To connect with Collin and learn more about his work visit his website and connect with him on LinkedIn

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

This week we don't have a guest, but we do have a topic that TK's been thinking about for a while. The unpredictable and unconventional journeys our careers take, and more importantly how this affects the nature of work within organisations.

So many CEOs and business leaders in the world today have taken non-linear paths to reach where they've got to in their careers

- How the future of work is changing, hiring for skills will be a future priority for organisations, at the expense of specific role definitions.
- The importance of taking ownership of your career direction, positioning yourself for success.
- Tensions between generations in the workforce and the impact of AI on hiring decisions.
- How models like Ikigai can help you figure out what you'd like from your career going forward.
- How taking risks with your career direction is a very personal personal choice, Arif reflects on his own story.

And you can learn more about Ikigai here, and Gartner's Human Deal framework here.

Download the episode now to learn more!

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

In this week's episode we're joined by Toby Sinclair, an accomplished Employee Experience Consultant to discuss how a change in HR attitudes  is long overdue.

Given attrition, retention and employee engagement are hot topics across all industries what more can HR do to improve the overall Employee Experience to reduce the overall noise factor? According to Toby the answer lies in taking an iterative, test and learn approach to dig deep and really shift the dial. 

Join us as we discuss his experiences, how his approaches have led to success and to hear his top tips on what you can do to improve the Employee Experience in your organisation.

To learn more about Toby and his work visit his website at https://www.tobysinclair.com/ or find him on LinkedIn by searching 'Toby Sinclair'

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

We kick off our 2nd Season of our podcast with this wonderful discussion with Magdalene Usikaro, CEO of the Music Relief Foundation.

With a focus on young people, her charity does amazing work to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds through the power of music. 

Join us as we talk to Magdalene about how she inspires young people, what leadership means as a CEO of a charity and much more.

Visit https://music-relief.org/ to find out more about her charity.

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

A huge thank you to ALL our listeners to our podcast, we couldn't have made it this far without you

We wanted to draw Season 1 to a close with a reflective episode talking about what we've learnt and enjoyed this year.

We have exciting plans for Season 2 (coming soon!), please tune in to learn more. We promise you won't be disappointed :)

Listen to our special episode now!

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

Since handing over the reigns to Andy Jassy, increasing reports indicate that the one prized leadership culture within Amazon is starting to shift.

Employees and former execs report that once unbroken rules are now becoming frayed around the edges, while others report that leadership principles have been weaponised against them.

In this episode we discuss whether the culture so heavily associated with Bezos is slowly unravelling at Amazon and if it's such a bad thing after all?

Take a look at out Amazon's leadership principles here, while you can read more about employees thoughts on the Andy Jassy era here

Enjoy the episode!

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

As the summer holidays beckon, demands on employers increase. Whether its parents requiring greater flexibility or singletons wanting to spend more time outdoors with friends or at festivals. Regardless of needs, employees of all stripes will want the support of their organisation.

In this week's episode we discuss how employers should approach these demands. And taking inspiration from one such leader, James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson retail chain we explore the various options open to leaders.

So join us (and Arif's croaky, unwell voice), as we explore these issues in this week's episode

And if you want to learn more about James' inspirational leadership, then watch his interview with Channel 4 News' Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

Earlier this year in an interview with Adam Grant, Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky revealed his regret at describing his company as a family during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this episode we go deeper into why Brian believes this is problematic. We'll look at how true it is. We'll also explore risks with this approach and what can be negative consequences for employees if this becomes overemphasised. 

Finally we'll discuss alternative approaches that may prove more effective and a bonus discussion on the benefits of group coaching to improve team relationships.

Enjoy the episode! 

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

This week more than 3,000 staff could get right to bargain collectively for rights and pay for the first time at Amazon's Coventry Warehouse here in the UK. With union busting efforts costing Amazon $14million dollars, how do these efforts help improve employee wellbeing, engagement and productivity?

Agile Leadership demands leaders are far more reflective and collaborative overall, so how should leaders deal with efforts from employees to unionise? And are there other ways leaders can make changes to their organisation to reduce the power gap between employees and leadership.

And as always, if you've listened to the episode, here are some of the resources we reference:

[1] The Guardian: Amazon workers begin historic voting to join a union
[2] The Hill: Amazon spent a record $14million on union busting consultants
[3] Time: The Case For Business Leaders to Work Collaboratively with Unions
[4] UK Govt: Union membership data 1995-2023

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates

Text us to share your thoughts

By the time this episode is released, the UK will most likely be waking up to a new Prime Minister and Government (well, that's what the polls suggest!). And if your'e living in Europe, France is also in the midst of a Presidential vote too

So with politicians seeking votes, what happens when they also seek power? We've all heard the famous comic book line "with great power comes great responsibility" but can power also trap leaders into not being performant?

We'll be exploring the different ways this happens, and how leaders can leverage their power in productive ways too

Tune in and enjoy the episode!

And as always, if you've listened to the episode, here are some of the resources we reference:

[1] Wikipedia: Swiss Federal Council
[2] Lunenburg: Power and Leadership: An Influence Process
[3] Northouse: Leadership: Theory and Practice (Page 11)
[4] Harvard Bus School: Power to Influence to Lead Change

Visit our website www.humble.associates
Or check out our LinkedIn page to learn more about Humble Associates