Lancefield on the Line

The same workplaces that have held back women aren't working especially well for men either. That insight reframes the whole conversation about gender at work. My guest is Jennifer McCollum, CEO and President of Catalyst, one of the world's leading organisations dedicated to advancing women and building workplaces where everyone can thrive. She is also the author of Men at Work: The Roadmap to Gender Partnership, a practical and timely book on men, women, power, fear and change. We explore th...

What separates a good team from a world-class one. My guest today has lived that question at the highest levels. Ollie Phillips captained England in rugby sevens, rowed across oceans, and now runs Optimist Performance, helping teams move from great to world class. We explore why most organisations spend 95% of their time playing the game and only 5% practising the hard skills of leadership and teamship. Ollie reveals how elite teams build unshakeable trust, why practising discomfort before bi...

Incumbent traditional organisations are doomed to failure. That’s a misleading view that permeates the world of digital transformation. In fact, they can thrive if they develop the right mindsets and capabilities. Julian Birkinshaw joins me to explore more of the myths and misconceptions surrounding digital transformation, the discipline of balancing today’s pressures with tomorrow’s opportunities, and the art of thoughtful experimentation. Julian draws on his research and his role as D...

What does it take to push yourself to the absolute limit and keep going for a cause bigger than yourself? Imagine you’re cycling 3,000 miles in 12 days on no more than 2 hours sleep a day. You feel exhausted, with nothing left to give, but important decisions need to be made to achieve your goal. This was the reality for my guest in this episode, Kurt Matzler, one of the world’s most cited strategy professors and an elite ultra-endurance cyclist who has completed the Race Across America, ofte...

Immigrant entrepreneurs have an outsized impact in business and society. 80% of billion dollar startups have founders or senior executives who are first or second generation immigrants. So, what can we learn from them? In this episode I am joined by Neri Karra Sillaman, author of Pioneers: 8 Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Neri’s research shows that immigrant entrepreneurs have a unique ability to reframe failure. Something she has done herself as a refugee turn...

Are you a night owl or a morning lark? For many of us the traditional working day just doesn’t suit our circadian rhythms. We’re called into a meeting or slumped over a desk at 8am but hyper focused as we’re about to leave the office and head home. What if work took our biological clocks into account? In this episode I am joined by Camilla Kring, author of Chrono leadership. We talk about the costs of rigidity in work patterns, and what it takes to develop smarter, more flexible arrangements....

What if the person who raised you was also the one who stole your sense of self? Parents should nurture, protect and believe in you, not distort your reality, drain your self-esteem and leave wounds no one else can see. In this episode I sit down with Kathleen Saxton, psychotherapist, entrepreneur and author of My Parent the Peacock. We go beyond the surface-level label of narcissism to uncover the full spectrum of behaviours, from the overtly grandiose to the quietly manipulative. This is no...

How well do you communicate? A simple question on the face of it, but are you really winging it? Whether it’s via email, that first impression, or contributing to meetings, there are ways we can improve how we contribute. That’s exactly what I discuss in this episode with my guest Chris Fenning, an award-winning author on the topic of communication. Chris shares the significance of structuring communication so we can deliver messages in high stakes situations with more skill. He also explores...