This week I'm talking to Jeannette Linfoot. She is a highly experienced corporate CEO turned Entrepreneur with over 30 years of global expertise. She is a mentor and provides individuals and boards with strategic advice, backed by her 'Brave, Bold, Brilliant' ethos, to help them foster high-performance and drive tangible results. She’s also deeply committed to diversity and inclusion, and champions initiatives like Balance the Board and Everywoman in Travel. She is the host of the 'Brave, Bold, Brilliant' podcast, reaching audiences in 120+ countries and is an energising and inspirational leader. 

I wanted to talk to her about her recent brush with illness and what it taught her about her long term health and what really matters in her life. 

We discuss: 

• How her health scare had a disproportionate effect on her approach to her health
• The vital importance of a team and building relationships
• What being unwell revealed about herself, others and what matters in life
• Being imperfectly perfect versus trying to be perfect all the time

...and much more. 

You can find Jeannette on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot/

Her website is https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/

Her YouTube Channel is https://www.youtube.com/@braveboldbrilliant

Her podcast is called Brave, Bold, Brilliant https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant/id1524278970 

If you want to discuss having me speak at your upcoming event please contact my manager, Diana Stoney diana@behindthemic.co.uk  

To find out more about my work with leaders and helping organisations through change, visit https://www.thatpeoplething.com/

And I'm on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairepalmer/

In this episode, which continues a season of shows focused on our health and wellbeing as leaders, I am talking to Dr. Arina Cadariu. 

Arina is a physician, educator, and public health expert with more than 30 years of experience spanning academic medicine, high-acuity inpatient care, public health leadership, and translational systems work. She founded Health In Context as a space for scientific integrity, narrative precision, and biologically grounded education, outside the noise of clinical commodification, consumer trends, and flattening metrics.
 
 After defecting from communist Romania in her early twenties, she rebuilt a life and career through medical education in Germany, postgraduate training at Yale, and years of leadership in teaching hospitals and health institutions across the U.S. and Europe.
 
She holds a Master of Public Health in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale and an MD from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. 
 
She spent more than two decades teaching at Yale as an Assistant Clinical Professor, mentoring medical students and residents in clinical reasoning, decision-making under uncertainty, and whole-person care. 

However, as you’ll hear in this interview, she became increasingly disillusioned both by the conventional approach to healthcare and by the claims being made by many self-professed health experts online. 

In this conversation we talk about her journey for clues about why she feels as she does about our approach to health and our healthcare systems.

She shares the shocking insight that her most successful VIP patients - founders, execs, leaders - have the worst health

She talks about the importance of ‘agency’ and to what we should expect from the society we live in

She explains which clients do particularly well to break their habits around their health

We discuss the consequences of double or triple tasking

And how we can use health data badly…or well

Arina's website is https://health-in-context.org/

Her LinkedIn is here

If you want to discuss having me speak at your upcoming event please contact my manager, Diana Stoney diana@behindthemic.co.uk  

To find out more about my work with leaders and helping organisations through change, visit https://www.thatpeoplething.com/

And I'm on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairepalmer/

Hello and welcome to season 2 of The Human Revolutionaries Show!

I've missed you!

This season I've set up a whole bunch of interviews (well, conversations really) with people who inspire me with their thinking about the future of work and the issues facing us as we try to create spaces where people can do their best work.

It's not just Covid that is changing how we think about work. As today's guest points out, it's also George Floyd 's death and the higher profile of Black Lives Matter as a result, following on the heels of the Me Too movement , we've got very low unemployment rates and much higher awareness of issues around discrimination and privilege.

That's why I thought Fudia would be so interesting to talk to. Our internet was a bit dodgy at the start (it gets better!) but it's absolutely worth sticking with it because we talk about recruitment, intersectionality, unconscious bias, the role of the law in changing attitudes and behaviour and some very practical ways you can play a part in making the workplace more fair. I learnt a lot and I hope I asked the questions you're grappling with!

You can find out more about Fudia here - https://www.fudiasmartt.com and on LinkedIn

The book Fudia mentioned is Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication by Vanessa Van Edwards. 

You can connect with me on LinkedIn  and message me if you want to discuss any of the topics talked about on the show. 

Please share this show with colleagues and friends! If we want to revolutionise the workplace we need to get people talking about how things can be better!

Hi and welcome back to the show.

Dating app, Bumble, has joined companies like LinkedIn and Hootsuite shutting down for a few days to give employees a proper break from work.

On today's show Natasha and Blaire talk about -

* whether it's a good idea that other companies should follow
* pandemic burnout
* how to assess productivity versus busy-work
* whether burnout is inevitable when a company is growing fast
* whether our expectations of founders should be different to our expectations of workers
* what causes burnout
* and some more sustainable ideas for getting productivity without breaking people!

Here's more on the story

Please follow us on LinkedIn -

Here's Blaire's profile

Here's Natasha's profile

Please remember to share this show with colleagues, friends and random strangers! 

And please give us a star rating, leave a review and subscribe! 

See you next time!

Hello and welcome back!

Please do subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with your colleagues. That means more people know about it and can get involved in the conversation!

This week we are talking about presenteeism. Maybe we were optimistic to think that the pandemic would mark an end to old style presenteeism and that hybrid working would mark the start of a focus on productivity and outputs instead.

It seems that isn't the case.

We talk about research that presenteeism is alive and well, even people feeling obliged to go in to the office during lockdowns so that their face gets seen. And we discuss WHO research that quantifies the health impact of long hours globally. It's huge by the way.

Here's more on the stories we discuss -

Presenteeism
Long Hours
Munitions workers in WW1

We also discuss a 21 day challenge we are doing with Deepak Chopra - we will let you know in future episodes how we get on!

Stay in touch by connecting with us on LinkedIn -

Blaire on LinkedIn
Natasha on LinkedIn

Hi and welcome back to the show!

This week we talk about a breaking news story relating to cool, punky beer company BrewDog.

A letter from ex-BrewDog staff alleges a culture of fear, a cult of personality and a toxic attitude towards junior staff at the company. The founders have said they are sorry and that they would listen, learn and act but not everyone believes the apology or that there is a genuine commitment to address the allegations.

We discuss the risks of presenting yourself as having a special culture as part of your brand identity, the issues that have been raised and what impact this might have on the business and what we would do if we were invited to help the company as they take action.

Here's more on the story.

We would love to hear from you if you have personal experience of the business or if you are part of the comapny and think we might be able to help. And if you've worked in places that sound like this, what did you do to turn things around?

Our LinkedIn contact details are:

Blaire on LinkedIn
Natasha on LinkedIn

On a lighter note we also talk about the acceptable use (or otherwise) of the words 'Staycation', 'Holibobs' and 'FamFam' which are getting a lot of usage as we approach summer and how companies might adapt to the trend for shorter more frequent vacations versus the traditional 2 or 3 week 'big holiday' we've been used to in the past. 

Please remember to subscribe, leave and review and share the show with anyone you think would enjoy it. And please do get in touch if you want to talk about any of the issues we've raised in this episode.  

Hello and welcome back to the show!

This week we've got two meaty topics - new research from the USA which suggests 1 in 4 people want to leave their job post-pandemic, and research which confirms that women are taking the brunt of the 'household management' during this time to the detriment of their mental health.

We start by talking about mental load, particularly as single parents, and our own experiences during the pandemic. We cover what specifically is difficult and what might be needed to get parents who have been carrying significantly more than normal during this period back to full mental good health.

And then, in Work in the News, we talk about why people may be thinking of quitting their jobs, their industry and maybe even their whole lifestyle, what we in HR can do to re-think some of the fundamentals of 'career', advancement and professional development and even the idea of an amnesty where give ourselves and others in the organisation permission to admit they aren't fully on board so we can get to the heart of what the issue is...and try and find solutions.

We'd love to know your thoughts on these topics especially if you have particular experience or disagree with our assessment!

Please follow us on LinkedIn.

Blaire on LinkedIn

Natasha on LinkedIn

And don't forget to subscribe, share and comment! This helps us grow our audience so others can get involved in these conversations. 

Here's more about the 'mental load for household management' story

Here's more on the story that 1 in 4 want to quit their job

Welcome back to the show!

This week we dive in to the thorny issue of PTSD at work and the role of NDAs and disclaimers inspired by a story about a former Facebook moderator who has been giving evidence about her experiences.

We talk about recruiting and selection for people in such roles, the imbalance of power between the employer and the employee, when NDAs and other contractual caveats are cause for concern, and importantly, what HR's role is (alongside legal and comms) when it comes to creating a fair and safe environment even for staff who do mentally dangerous roles.

We would love to hear your views. We post on LinkedIn about these stories and would love you to add your expertise to the debate. Links below.

Please also keep sharing this show and remember to subscribe and leave a review so that stangers can find us and get involved in the conversation.  We would love to hear about HR teams who use the show to inspire conversations within their team about the issues raised!

Links to the Accounting Web awards and the HRZone Culture Pioneers awards also below.

More about this story here.

Blaire on LinkedIn

Natasha on LinkedIn

Here's a link to the Accounting Web awards - we'd love to hear from accounting practices who are Investing in People!

Here is more about the HRZone Culture Pioneers awards 

Hi and welcome back to the show!

This week we are talking salary transparency.

More and more companies are opening up about how much their employees are paid and some are getting the staff themselves involved in setting salaries. 10Pines is an example of a business where a flat, self-managing structure has led to total openness about payrises and hiring decisions. Everyone gets involved.

But what are the downsides? Would your business be ready from a cultural perspective to deal with this level of openness? And what would you need to put in place first to make it work...if you'd even want to!

We would love to know your thoughts about CEO salaries, self-management and financial transparency especially if you've been working on any of these! Best way to connect is LinkedIn!

 Blaire on LinkedIn

Natasha on LinkedIn

And here is more about the story!

Please remember to subscribe, give us a reivew and a star rating and share the show with your colleagues so more people can get involved in the conversation. We want to revolutionise HR and we need your help!

Hello and welcome back to the show!

This week we are talking about the rise of a new kind of corporate consultants who are claiming to help with the spiritual well-being and spiritual awareness of employees.

So is work, as one Guardian columnist rages "supposed to bring us money and stolen office supplies" and stay well away from enlightenment? Or, as one of these Spiritual Consultants suggests, is it important to find your inner 'monk' - your internal self, your purpose in life, your values, your intuition at work as well as outside?

We talk about the dangers of introduing spiritual ideas to people who may have their own spirituality or religion, and the risks of imposing any one practice on your workforce.

We explore what benefits these consultants might bring to companies and how to tell the charlitains from the real deals.

We would love to know whether you've worked with spiritual consultants or whether your company has embraced spiritual practices in any way...or have your drawn the line at this?

Herte's how to connect with us -

Blaire on LinkedIn

Natasha on LinkedIn 

Here's more about the story

And The Guardian's take on this!

Welcome to the show!

On this week's episode we're talking about the new Stay-At-Home-Mum (or Dad) job title on LinkedIn.

Overall we think it's a Good Thing but with some caveats. We also get on to whether there is something fundamentally exclusive from a D&I perspective about CVs and what some alternatives might be.

We talk about how attitudes towards career breaks need to change and how to think differently about transferable skills. The conversation goes beyond taking a break to have kids.

Blaire would love to hear from any companies who don't request a CV at all - what do you do instead?

And we'd love to hear from D&I experts about whether there could be something fundamentally anti-diversity about CVs.

We also talk about Income Protection Insurance and whether or not a policy should cover mental health if you've had mental health issues in the past. Natasha shares her personal experience and would love to connect with anyone who is also working in this area, trying to reduce the stigma around talking about mental health or influence insurance companies when it comes to what they will cover.

The best way to get in touch with us is on LinkedIn -

Blaire on LinkedIn

Natasha on LinkedIn

And here's more about the Stay-At-Home-Mum job title thing!

Welcome back to The Human Revolutionaries Show!

Yup, it's Goldman Sachs again. We don't meant to keep talking about them but if they want us to stop they will have to stay out of the news for a few weeks!

This time we are talking about allegations that 100 hours a week is quite normal for junior staff at the company and that snack boxes were sent home (paid for out of the pockets of senior management, not by the company, by the way) to thank them for their sacrifice.

Is it a resourcing problem? Is it because they go the extra mile for their clients? Is it because of Covid? Or is it a lack of appreciation for how people's contribution can be measured beyond pure hours worked?

In this week's show we look at this story from a number of angles. If you've worked an 'extreme' job before we'd love to know your experience and why you found yourself working upward of 70 hours a week. Can it be justified?

In our regular check in we also talk about how having the kids at holiday club this week is helping us think more clearly! It turns out a bit of unstructured time staring in to space and enjoying the quiet leads to some good ideas and some breakthroughs! Who knew?!

Here's more about the story.

Here's Natasha on LinkedIn
Here's Blaire on LinkedIn

Please, please, please remember to subscribe, leave a review and star rating AND share this show with anyone you think might be interested. We would love more people to join the conversation!

Welcome back to Season 3 of the Human Revolutionaries show!

In this show I explore the future of work, leadership, organisational change and wellbeing, sharing my own ideas based on 25 years of experience as a coach, confidante to leaders, consultant and keynote speaker. 

I'm also talking to experts in their field to challenge my own views and some of the myths that feed unhealthy and unhelpful strategies and assumptions in business. 

This season I really wanted to focus on health, in the broadest sense starting with the basics of phsycal health. 

My guest is Lee Brooks, a personal trainer and online coach with over 20 years of experience helping people transform not just how they look, but how they live and how they feel. He specialises in working with women who’ve tried everything — or think they have — and are completely worn out by the cycle of yo-yo dieting.

Through his coaching programme, Body Solutions, and his signature approach, The Body Reset Method, Lee helps women reclaim their energy, confidence, strength, and long-term health — and finally lose weight in a way that actually lasts.

There are no extreme diets. No obsessive routines. Just real, sustainable change that fits real life. His approach is smart, straight-talking, and genuinely life-changing — because it’s built for real people who are ready for more. 

He's my trainer and I have found the impact on my life is transformational. In this episode we talk about - 

How he got started...because he didn't like his body 

How we rationalise our current situation…even if it’s making us unhappy 

The difference between body fat loss and weight loss

Protein and tracking macros

What’s wrong with dieting and what reverse dieting is

Why Lee encourages people to lift weights

Sleep and recovery

And becoming the future version of you. 

You can contact Lee on instagram @leebrooksofficial and @callmebrooksy to find out more about his programme. 

For me, LinkedIn is the best option https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairepalmer/ or drop me a line on blaire@thatpeoplething.com to discuss booking me for your next event or helping you with upgrading the quality of leadership in your organisation, particularly during times of change. 

Our website is www.thatpeoplething.com

And my agent is Diana Stoney diana@behindthemic.co.uk

Welcome to The Human Revolutionaries Show!

This week the royals are giving us more food for thought with the announcement that Prince Harry is taking a role with US Coaching and Mental Health company, BetterUp.

We are talking about whether hiring a big name person for your business is just good PR or something more, whether everyone should have access to a coach and what we hope Prince Harry will be able to do to enlighten the powers that be in government about mental health at work.

In our 'check-in' we also touch on mental health as we discuss the emotional rollercoaster we've been on over the last year and what kinds of emotion we might start seeing - the good and the more difficult - when offices start opening up and we find ourserlves in each other's company again.

Here's more about the story on the BBC site

Here's our LinkedIn profiles -

Blaire
Natasha

And please subscribe, leave a star rating and a review to make sure you NEVER miss an episode and help other people find us and join in the conversation!

Oprah Winfrey's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made plenty of headlines. But it was the reaction of morning VT host, Piers Morgan, which took things to a whole other level.

Morgan walked off his show when he was criticised for doubting Markle's claims that she had had suicidal thoughts.

In this week's show Blaire and Natasha talk about what a leader's responsibility is for the mental health of their people. What should they do if someone on their team tells them they are feeling suicidal, anxious or depressed? And how can leaders better understand their reactions to these conversations.

In their check-in Blaire and Natasha also discuss the murder of Sarah Everard, the conversation that has followed about women's experiences of feeling unsafe in every day situations and share their own stories, some of which listeners may find disturbing.

Please join the conversation by connecting with Blaire and Natasha on LinkedIn.

You can follow Blaire on LinkedIn.
You can follow Natasha on LinkedIn.

You can read more about the story here.

And remember to leave a review and star rating for the show to help people find it and join the discussion. 

Hello and welcome back to The Human Revolutionaries Show.

With weeks left before companies start their new normal - whether that is pure WFH, all back to the office or something in between, The British Prime Minister has come out saying we're all desperate to 'get back to work' (as if this has been a prolonged holiday by the way!).

Meanwhile David Solomon of Goldman Sachs says Work From Home won't work for them.

So, are we deluding ourselves and will work return to something much like it looked pre-pandemic within a few months or is a new way of working here to stay?

We are sure you've been having these conversations in your organisation so where you have landed? Have you got a sense of what is going to work best, what people want and what the office is good for? Or will you be trying different approached and learning as you go?

Is all this talk of WFH and hybrid working an 'aberration' as Soloman described it?

We would love to know what questions you've been asking yourself about the future of the workplace. Please connect with us on LinkedIn.

And please remember to give the show a star rating and leave a revieew so more people can find us and join in the conversation.

Here's more about these stories -

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/27/coronavirus-boris-johnson-workers-will-return-to-offices-in-a-few-short-months

https://www.itpro.co.uk/business-strategy/flexible-working/358745/citrix-disputes-pms-rebuff-of-remote-working

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-24/goldman-ceo-warns-remote-work-is-aberration-not-the-new-normal 

Hello and welcome back to the show!

In this week's episode we are talking about the CEO of Octopus Energy and his claim that he doesn't need HR in the business.

When you heard this what was your reaction? Did you bristle at the idea that your contribution may not be necessary? Or did you think he may have a valid point?

Well, today we are talking about our reactions and whether there is a case to at least ASK ourselves whether HR is contributing the business in the best way possible.

There is a reason this show is called The Human Revolutionaries Show.  HR can do more than manage the human resources in a compny. They can revolutionise how people contribute to the success of the business. And maybe that revolutionary thinking should start with HR itself?

We also talk about about home schooling and home education in this one - hope you've been coping OK!

What do you think about this story and the principles behond it? We'd love to know your view. Come and connect with us on LinkedIn and be part of the conversation.

You can follow Blaire on LinkedIn.
You can follow Natasha on LinkedIn.

You can find out more about the story here -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56130187

https://www.hrgrapevine.com/content/article/2021-02-24-ceo-of-billion-pound-firm-says-he-theres-no-hr-department 

A senior leader says something which offends your employees and it gets out to the press.

How does this happen and what would you do if it happened in your organisation?

That's what happened at KPMG this month. UK Chair and senior partner, Bill Michael, told employees to stop moaning and described unconscious bias as...um...well, not a nice word.

What are the lessons we can learn from this story and what conversations could you be having - maybe conversations you'd prefer to ignore - in your organisation?

In the first episode of The Human Revolutionaries podcast, Natasha Wallace and Blaire Palmer - both authors, speakers and coaches who've worked with companies large and small in HR and leadership development for nearly 40 years combined - imagine if they were in the room with the leaders at KPMG and discuss what they would say and where they would start in fixing the problem.

Each week Blaire and Natasha 'check in' - sharing what's on their mind this week before moving on to the 'Work in the News' story for the episode.

Please remember to leave a review and star rating on iTunes as it helps other people fiind us and join the conversation!

You can read more about the story here

You can follow Blaire on LinkedIn.
You can follow Natasha on LinkedIn.

Read Blaire's AccountingWeb column about the KPMG story here. LINK

Show website

Hi and welcome to the last show of Season 2 of The Human Revolutionaries Show!

I'm taking a break over the summer and lining up some amazing new interviews for Season 3.
But we're going out with a bang.

Hima Vaghani is a thought leader and expert in leadership and DEI. She has had an international career spanning almost 30 years predominantly focused on advising organisations around the world on how they can create the conditions for their people to thrive and perform to the best of their abilities.

Hima runs her own consultancy firm providing leadership and DEI consulting services and has a recently co-founded The Careers Company which helps individuals and organisations engage in careers conversations. Her specialist topic is inclusive leadership and cultures and how we need to go beyond the tactical initiatives around DEI to really tap in to the business benefits of diversity.

Sometimes we lose sight of why we are trying to encourage diversity in organisations. We make it about the numbers...but in this conversation, Hima and I talk about how to get diversity that supports innovation and business success.

We cover -
* The diversity lens on the Great Resignation
* The various life stages of women (and men) and whether companies are adapting to more than just the child-bearing years
* Choosing between the professional career you WANT versus the career you feel OBLIGED to pursue.
* Unconscious bias training
* Hima's decision to 'go it alone' with her own business after corporate life
* Her inheritance lessons!

You can connect with Hima on LinkedIn

And you can connect with me of course!

If you haven't yet listened to the other shows in this series of the podcast, please feel free to go back through the archive! There are some amazing discussions and some really practical ideas for you to take away. 

If you'd like to recommend a guest for Season 3, please drop me a line blaire@thatpeoplething.com 

And do tell your colleagues and friends about the show too!

Hello and welcome back!

This week's podcast guest is Laura Overton. Laura and I have both been judges for the HR Zone Culture Pioneers programme for a few years now and got to know each other a bit better earlier in the year when we both worked on the awards show which was broadcast live rather than happening in person due to the pandemic. 

I really wanted to get her on the show because she always brings fresh ideas whenever we talk. Being judges means we get to see how we view the same story differently. Our scores are often very different! But the conversation that follows is always thought provoking and the final result represents a breath of opinions. 

Laura Overton is an author, facilitator and award winning learning analyst dedicated to uncovering and sharing effective practices in learning innovation that lead to business value. She is known for leading a 15-year global research programme to uncover and share learning strategies that lead to business success. 

In the last decade, Laura was the first woman to be awarded the Learning and Performance Institute’s prestigious Colin Corder Award for services to training and was the recipient of the inaugural elearning age Special Achievement award at the Learning Technology awards. 

More recently Laura established #Learningchangemakers and is a co-founder of Emerging Stronger - a global initiative to support the changing world of workplace learning.

On the show we discuss - 

• How HR professionals think about their value
• Measuring the impact of our work
• How to have a more curious mindset
• Why HR needs to test ideas and approaches on ourselves before expecting others to jump on board
• Wellbeing and mindfulness for HR people

You can connect with Laura on LinkedIn.

Here's the link to the Thinking Habits ebook https://www.go1.com/en-au/resource/5-new-thinking-habits-for-a-smarter-stronger-ld 

Emerging Stronger for more resources https://emergentmasterclass.com/resources/ 

Learning Changemakers newsletter https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/learningchangemakers-6768177569251520512/

My piece on pay rises and the cost of living

And of course you can also connect with me on LinkedIn! Please tell everyone you know about the show! 

Hi and welcome back to the show.

On this week's episode I'm talking to Kirsty Duck, HR expert at Face2Face HR.

When I asked her what she wanted to talk about she said "Appraisals" which was a surprise since hardly anyone wants to talk about appraisals...which, of course, is the problem.

How did we develop the annual performance management process and are there better ways? Well, that's what we are talking about in the show.

Kirsty has over 20 years experience in HR and has spent much of her working life in small businesses as well as 5 years in one of the biggest companies in the world, GE. However she  realised she was not cut out for the large corporate world as she is not a big fan of too many rules and regulations with convoluted chains of command.  She understands small businesses and the numerous transitions they go through as they grow. She loves the fact that impact of decisions and communication are immediate, and that decisions are (mostly) approached with a balance of pragmatism and love.  Kirsty’s goal is to help create working environments where people want to come to work and business owners are proud of what they have created.

We cover -
- The history and rationale for appraisals
- How to break away from annual performance reviews and what to put in instead
- How to have good conversations
- Pay and bonus decisions

Kirsty mentioned a couple of resources.

The Velvet Hammer – From The Joy in Business by Joy Baldridge. 

DisruptiveHR - https://disruptivehr.com/product/leader-box-a-disruptive-hr-toolkit/

You can connect with Kirsty on LinkedIn 

And you can connect with me on LinkedIn too. 

And please do recommend this show to EVERYONE you know! if they find one bit of advice useful it could make a massive difference to how they feel and how they perform at work. 

Hi and welcome back!

Working with the FA over the last year has been an eye-opening experience. 

I'm no football expert (by any means) but luckily they aren't expecting me to be. Instead, together, we are working to create an environment where everyone in the Education directorate can do their best work. 

That's how I met Butch Fazal, Coach Inclusion and Diversity manager for the Football Association. 

He has made a huge impact on the profile of inclusion and diversity within the FA, making it everyone's business rather than something marginal. I noticed very quickly how often diversity and inclusion was part of every conversation and how the idea of a game free from discrimination was the ambition of all. 

And that's why I wanted to talk to him, to see how we can put inclusion at the heart of our work rather than a topic or project which sits slightly apart from the main focus of the work. 

Butch's key remit is to address the significant under representation of Black, Asian and ethnic minority coaches including females within the professional men and boy’s game. Supporting players coming out of a professional playing career who are transitioning into coaching, alongside emerging high potential coaching talent with the aim of developing a pipeline of ethnically diverse and female coaches who will challenge for and secure full time role within the professional game.

He manages a number of positive action programmes and initiatives for the FA in their aim of delivering world class coach development and a game server objective of a game free of discrimination. ‘The real joy I get from coaching is supporting and developing the future generation of coaches who will make a positive difference within the game and in turn become agents and catalysts for change’

Butch spent 12 years as chair of the National Asian in Football Forum in which he pushed provoked and prompted football stakeholders across the game to consider the embarrassingly low number of South Asians within the game, winner of the unsung hero award at the Asian Football Awards in 2013 is testament his longevity and his passion for equality within the game at all levels.

His 45 years of experience within the game as player and coach has enabled him to carve a creditable reputation within the industry and to this day he is as passionate about football as he was when he first kicked a ball. 

 I hope you'll enjoy this conversation and get some get advice about how to get Diversity and Inclusion in to the middle ground rather than on the edges of your HR strategy. 

One of the first things this week's guest, Ginny Baillie, says is how hard it is for leaders to do nothing.

It's comforting to be busy, to attend every meeting, to be the expert, to be the decision-maker, the one with the strong opinion...but is that really what we need of leaders?

Ginny Baillie was one of Europe's first Master Certified Coaches and a veteran in the leadership development field. And she knows one thing - the way people talk to each other and the way they meet are rocket fuel for organisations.

The emphasis on task completion and bottom line growth as the primary focus are a deep distraction away from what would be possible and are not keeping up with the times. She says "We need more from these connections".

In our discussion she declares a meetings emergency, saying we have to draw a line and ask everybody how to make it better. No one is saying I'm happy with the number of meetings I have and they are all really useful. If she was in HR that would be her mission.

You can find out more about Ginny's Drum session on her website and connect with her on LinkedIn. I highly recommend talking to her about the state of emergency your meetings are in and see what she advises.

And you can connect with me of course on LinkedIn. 

Do remember to tell people about the show, play it to your team and get a conversation going! and please leave a review and star rating as it helps people find us and see if it's any good!

With the Great Resignation post-pandemic, many people are embarking on new roles. 

I've coached a lot of leaders in the weeks before they start a new job, helping them think about what they stand for in their new role, how to 'land' on day one, and how to work out where to start actually doing the job. 

Well, that's exactly what this week's guest has been thinking about and in the show she shares just what questions she's been trying to ask herself before she walks in to the office on day one. 

Kirsty Lynagh is the newly appointed Chief People Officer at Seccl Technology, a company helping to rebuild the infrastructure of investments and advice whilst promoting financial inclusion.

Kirsty’s human centric, yet first principles, approach has been shaped over twenty years during which she has adopted non traditional methods to deliver people strategies that enable inclusive, engaged and performing workplaces.  Kirsty’s had a diverse career across four industries in the UK and Australia and has sought out opportunities where she can make a difference to the people and organisations she works with, and a close eye on their impact in broader society.   

She’s been recognised as a pioneer of forward thinking, human centric people practices that really deliver results and has won multiple awards for workplace, people engagement and leadership.

In this interview we talk about - 

• What she thought about during a 6 month sabbatical
• How she's preparing to embark on a brand new role in her new company
• How she will protect her time and manage her diary
• How she's deciding on her philosophy and vision for the people strategy at Seccl
• Being extrovert at work and introvert at home
• Our privileged 'knowledge work' echo chamber
• The gender pay gap

You can connect with Kirsty on LinkedIn.

And here's my LinkedIn profile.

Please do share the show with anyone you think would find it useful! And please also leave a review and star rating which helps people find this podcast! Thank you. 

I love wide ranging conversations about the future of work and these are always the sorts of conversations I have with today's guest on the show. I normally wish I was recording as I feel so many people would enjoy being part of our chats...and this time I did!

Phil Quinnan is an independent consultant specialising in workforce strategy, planning and organisation design. Having spend 10 years working in the Middle East he recently decided to permanently relocate to his home in Italy. That's him in front of his pool in the episode art!

His experiences come from having worked across multiple industry sectors and several countries. And that's why he's the perfect person to take an overview of our industry, how work is changing and how we, in HR and the People profession need to take an active role in shaping the future.

We talk about values, the kind of socially responsible, purpose driven vision he sees for business and how HR professionals need to stick their head above the parapet in order to bring about his optimistic view of the future.

You can connect with Phil on LinkedIn and pick up on any of the topics with him directly.

And you can also connect with me. I love hearing what my peers are doing and diving deep in to this whole topic so feel free to drop me a PM.