Surely this is an absurd idea: that tenderness can be - is ,in fact - powerful?  In this episode Stephen Barden dives into the even more absurd idea that tenderness in the workplace is an extraordinary powerful tool for building strong and thriving organizations. 

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Host Stephen Barden asks: 

How do we make sure that we don’t shrink ourselves when we outsource to others – to technology or to other people? 

How do we keep a reasonable balance between making sure we maintain our own power of learning from experience – on the one hand- and being agile and quick off the mark on the other?

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Despite the fact that flexible and hybrid working has been widely welcomed, there is disturbing evidence that it is leaving many people exhausted and overwhelmed. Equally worrying is that it may be  leading to poor management practices and a fragmenting of organizational culture - far more rapidly than we suspected. In this episode, Stephen Barden examines the data so far and advocates that leaders need to completely re-think the way they run their companies and institutions.

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Stephen Barden's central theme in this series on power is that  those who believe they have a balanced, manageable relationship with their world are the most effective and healthy members of our society. 

In this episode he asks the question: why do more and more people feel that they are unheard and that they have little impact in their world? That they have little power in their worlds? 

Stephen argues that  those who feel ineffectual in their own environment will ultimately "move worlds". Historically that meant emigrating or finding sanctuary in sects or communities of like mind. Now, however, we have a new escape route: one that is, literally, close at hand. And, that he argues leaves a dangerous vacuum in society.

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As a species we are probably the most aggressive, destructive and  divisive that have ever walked this earth. We have destroyed countless other species, including human species. We have enslaved  - and enslave.  We discriminate against anything and anyone who is different from what we consider to be "our norm".  
In our daily  lives, we inevitably catch ourselves being almost intuitively divisive  - whether by competing, envying, resenting, despising, mistrusting or excluding. Even the majority of our relationships are transactional - trading benefits rather than sharing fellowship.
Are we simply incorrigibly driven to achieve dominion - power - over our world?  Or is there something else? In this episode, Stephen Barden proposes that it is fear that  fragments us from one another. And that fear  arises from an illusion that each of us clings to,  as tightly as if it were life itself. 

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In this episode, I sat down with financial sector leader Jenny Knott to discuss how deceptive the drive to  diversity can be.   

How can we ensure that diversity really means inclusivity and does not end up being the status quo in another guise?  We also talked about her own challenges in being recognised - not just as a woman but as a working class woman: born, educated and developed outside the clubs and norms of the corporate elite.

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I recently sat down with the author of the“CEO Whisperer” and Insead distinguished professor Manfred F.R Kets De Vries whose fascinating work focuses on leaders, leadership and the dynamics of individual and organisational change. 

As we both spend much of our time dealing with leadership, top teams and corporate leaders, we had a lot to discuss. 

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David Lane of the Professional Development Foundation interviews Stephen Barden about the research for his new book How Successful Leaders Do Business with Their World: The Navigational Stance.

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Leadership coaches inundate us with advice on "What great leaders do"  or "The 6 characteristics of a good leader" or "The 14 leadership Traits" or, pick a number, "The 5  habits of great leaders."

Even if they are all entirely true, what use are they? Do aspiring leaders, simply have to mimic these  sacred qualities. Are we asking them  to be good actors or impersonators?  Is that why there is so much talk about "leadership style" - because it's about performing rather than doing the job?

In excerpts from his controversial book, "How Successful Leaders do Business with their World",  https://www.stephenbarden.org/books/ , Stephen Barden argues that leadership is never about acting - or adopting a so called leadership style. It is a hard job that requires deep learning and an apprenticeship in managing  ourselves in our world. And  very successful leaders start that learning a long time before they get to the top.

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In episode 2 of the series, Stephen Barden talks to Lieutenant General (Ret) Ben Hodges, Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, to find out whether the US army, which  - like all armies is built for conflict  - has any room for balanced, partnering leaders. Or is it possible that, all the while,  its ability to largely  stand back from partisan politics and its stability as an institution has been down to it jealously guarding its...Power of Balance?

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Coach mentor and author Stephen Barden introduces this podcast series,
"The Power of Balance". In this first episode he argues that the childhood assumption we form about the power balance we hold with our worlds, affects every aspect of our lives. Understanding this, begins to open a door on why we do the things we do.

"Having insight into why our leaders behave as they do is only half the issue; understanding why we elect them is probably much more important. 

Understanding why our bosses tell us to do things at work which we’d never even consider doing in our families and communities is one thing; understanding why we actually go ahead and do them is another." 

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The third guest in this special series is not someone you would immediately think of as speaking truth to power. Yet retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges has consistently done just that — especially when reminding the U.S. military of its core values and allegiance to the Constitution, rather than to the interests of politicians. His worry is that the unwillingness of some of the  most  senior military echelons  to speak out against the growing demands of the current administration is either because they are fearful of something....or they agree.

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Stephen Barden speaks to a post graduate student in Norway who, by speaking truth to power, managed to get her university in Stavanger to change a core policy. 

What has this to do with business and management? 

Everything. 

Listen carefully and it becomes clear what leaders and managers need to learn about the generation that will be running things in the next decade or so.  

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In this first episode of a new season of the Power of Balance - focusing on Speakers of Truth to Power - Stephen Barden tells the story of Harold Strachan, a man who sacrificed all but his life when he spoke truth to the power of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. 

Stephen also invites listeners to submit their own suggestions of Truth Speakers - ordinary people who spoke up to power for the greater good.

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For more information about Stephen Barden and his work please visit:
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or
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Contact me here

For more information about Stephen Barden and his work please visit:
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Stephen Barden turns his "Wherefore" spotlight on the European Union to ask: Where does the EU see its highest value in its world? Can that "Wherefore" carry it through the inevitable turmoil of next decade - or is it time to change, before it does it and its members real damage?

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In the second in the series "Wherefore Art Thou", Stephen Barden argues that if  human beings need to have a balance of meaning and value with their world, then organizations certainly do. 
 

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Stephen Barden suggests that before we ask ourselves why? - to give us purpose - we could be asking "wherefore?" What is that place where we and our world value one another at the deepest level? And how is that question practical - let alone invaluable-  in today's world? 

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 Stephen Barden follows up on the previous episode's theme of refleting

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