Leadership Unlocked podcast
Hosted by Bernd Vogel, Professor in Leadership and Founding Director of the Henley Centre for Leadership at Henley Business School, Leadership Unlocked explores what it means to become and be a senior leader today.
Learning from the experiences of senior leaders
There is no blueprint for becoming a successful senior leader today. But we can all learn from other outstanding leadership journeys to reflect on and refine our own practices, and create positive, meaningful impact.
Throughout the series, Professor Bernd Vogel is joined by guests in senior leadership roles from all walks of life – including the media, FMCG, transport and governmental organisations – to share their leadership journeys, experiences, setbacks, learnings, and motivations, to inspire our audience.
Episode 1: Balancing buckets and bricks
Having fun at work isn’t always top of the agenda for senior leaders. But for Christian Pau, General Manager UK & Ireland at The Lego Group, getting the balance right between enjoyment and business challenges is an essential part of both personal and business success.
Episode 2: When success means safety of life
Being available, honest and not afraid to tackle the tough discussions are key leadership principles that ensure Tommy Olofsen, Chief Marine Services Officer at global ship management company OSM Thome, can keep people his top priority.
Episode 3: How to ask the right questions
Award winning journalist and broadcaster Emily Maitlis didn’t get to the top of her profession by accident.
Her hunger for continuous learning, breaking the big news stories and creating content that has a positive and meaningful impact on society and people has seen her cover new ground in a profession that wasn’t an obvious first choice.
Journalism, like leadership, also seems to be a profession where aging actually helps.
Episode 4: Leadership as a platform for purpose and lasting change
Change in business is inevitable but do you, as a senior leader, always relish the idea of dealing with it?
For self-confessed change champion, Paul Lindley, Entrepreneur, Founder of Ella’s Kitchen and Chancellor at the University of Reading, change is essential for success but it needs to be based on clarity of purpose.
And systemic change needs to last longer than the person in the senior role.
Episode 5: The temptation to talk not listen
Leading your boss in business seems counterintuitive but is one of the most important skills for senior leaders to master, according to Sanna Suvanto-Harsaae, Chair at Finnair and a number of other high-profile Nordic businesses.
Sana has been honoured as Finland's most influential woman in business for multiple years.
Episode 6: Leave your ego at the door
Strong mentors at different stages of your senior leadership career can make the difference between getting ahead and getting left behind.
That still means working hard – and giving back and paying forward by obsessively assisting others, according to Helene Murphy, CHRO at Gridserve and former Chief People Officer with Unite Students and Formula E.
Episode 7: Influence is not a dirty word
Being vocal and building a network to create change in organisations is not easy. In fact being seen to influence is often considered a dirty word.
But for Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer, the inaugural Chief Information Officer at NATO, if done in the right way, influencing, negotiating and aligning are fundamental to a senior leader’s value proposition.
And where to best practice and learn this, if not in the very unique context of NATO as a consensus based and high-pressured organisation.