8 Words or Less

It is a privilege to be joined by Céline Cousteau for the season finale to discuss the book The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. As a filmmaker, author and environmentalist, Céline is in a unique position to understand and appreciate the power of storytelling. Picking up on Campbell’s assertion that ‘the only myth worth thinking about in the immediate future is the planet and everyone on it’, we talk about what this means in reality today, and whether there is a place for myth in the modern ...

For this week’s bonus episode, we are joined by Becks Beere - the founder and CEO of Avec UK, a market-leading strategic brand and product partner for global retailers. Becks recommended 'Principles' by Ray Dalio and shares the many ways the book has influenced her life and how the insights influenced the considerable success of her business. Basing our discussion on insights garnered from the book, Becks speaks about how failures on her leadership journey have fuelled the desire to c...

In this bonus episode we are joined by Amna Al Owais, chief executive and registrar of the DIFC Courts, to talk about the key themes and messages from Samie's book #Time4Humanity. We discuss why Amna has placed values and culture at the centre of her leadership and how she discovered her purpose. Amna shares more about her leadership journey and how she learned, over time, to bring her full authentic self to work. Finally, we discuss the implications of technology in the legal industry...

In this episode we are joined by Rob Gardner, investment director for St. James's Place Wealth Management, co-founder of Redington, author and thought-leader on financial education and inclusion. Rob shares his experiences from founding and successfully growing his own businesses and the significant impact that Clayton Christensen’s book had both on his career and keeping him focused on what is really important in his life. Rob talks about the motivations that led him to leave a successful ca...

In this bonus episode, we are joined by Harvard Business School professor, former Medtronic CEO, and bestselling author Bill George. Bill shares anecdotes from his leadership journey, as well as reflecting on the interviews and stories from his book ‘Discover Your True North’. We discuss the impact of ‘crucibles’ on our lives and how these can help forge authentic leadership, and how every leader needs a good ‘support group’ around them. Bill then shares the central message from h...

In this bonus episode we are joined by John Flint who shares with us his insights on Simon Sinek’s book ‘The Infinite Game’. The economic dislocations caused by this crisis are forcing leaders at all levels to make quick decisions, often with incomplete and changing information - decisions that have been accelerated or compressed in a shorter time frame. This book can be helpful for leaders either as a challenge - or as a comfort - that our decision-making framework is built around something ...

In this short bonus episode Samie talks about the importance of having a 'central message’ of 8 words or less for effective communication and what is a 'petal'. Samie discovered the art and science of how to communicate a powerful idea when he did a TEDx talk, and we use this methodology to structure the podcast. This 'tool' can be used to help improve our communications across all mediums and situations and Samie shares some tips on how to do this.

This book puts forward the notion that the application of uncommon sense - thinking or acting differently from other organisations in a way that makes unusual sense - is the secret to competitive success. Written shortly after the 2008 financial crises it offers some useful insights and tools to leaders for these times. Listen to the episode to hear Samie's central message 'It's time for a new paradigm in business' and our discussion around the importance of collective input in strategy, the...

In this book Alain de Botton explores the joys and perils of the modern workplace, illustrating through 10, self-contained, case-studies what other people get up to all day – and night – to make the frenzied contemporary world function. Ultimately the author is looking to understand what make jobs either fulfilling or soul-destroying! Samie shares his central message of 'the future of work is human' and why this is an important theme for the challenges of today.

Cialdini opens his best-selling book on Influence with the words 'I can admit it freely now. All my life I've been a patsy.' These are words that resonated for both James and Samie and, throughout this book, there are 'lightbulb moments' which help explain how we have fallen for people using the six rules of influence outlined by Cialdini. In this episode Samie outlines his Central Message and we discuss some of the different examples outlined by Cialdini as well as instances from our own ex...

In this episode Samie tells us his central message from 'Great by Choice' written by the bestselling author Jim Collins. Samie reflects on how it is important sometimes to 'go slow to go fast' and shares some insights around the need for discipline and vigilance as well as discussing the relative benefits of being 'one fad behind'. Essentially this book asks the question of why some organisations survive in periods of chaos while others don't - a very valid question for our current times.

In this episode Samie and James talk about Margaret Wheatley's book - Who Do We Choose to Be? The themes running through the book - Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity - are very relevant for the challenges we see around us with the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode we discuss some of the key themes from the book, understand its relevance in the current climate and, of course, distil this into 8 words or less.

8 words or less is a new series where, on each episode, James and Samie select a leadership or management book that has inspired them and, drawing on their own experience and insights, distil some key themes from the book into a central message of 8 words or less.