In this enlightening and highly practical episode Lee is joined by PhD Neuroscientist and Flow Expert - Simon McKenzie-Nickson to discuss how we can engineer flow to emerge more often in our personal and professional lives. We cover the four phases of flow, strategies for accessing flow, and how to apply principles of flow to real-life leadership challenges.

Enjoy!!!

Lee's guest Kate Connors is a registered psychologist with extensive experience helping people back to work after significant mental health challenges. She is a Board Director at the Emergency Services Foundation (ESF), and Chair ESF's Mental Health Advisory Group (MHAG).

Lee first met Kate in 2010 years ago when seeking expertise while desigining a series of workshops for senior leaders struggling with how to effectively lead staff experiencing significant mental health challenges. At the time Kate was CEO of an organisation delivering best in class workplace psychological services including employee assistance, critical incident and organisational development services.

This conversation explores the question - How can I balance my duty of care and commitment to being a compassionate, responsible leader with the pressure to deliver results, when I have team members facing significant mental health challenges?

We hope you enjoy it!

Lee asks Roger Edwards about why he feels cultivating a sense of 'Belonging' is such an important feature of effective leadership.

Roger started his career in sales and marketing in GSK progressing to manage multi-million dollar account relationships with some of the UK’s leading retailers including Tesco, Boots, Asda, Amazon and Sainsburys. At bp Roger led the UK&I business for Castrol where he was responsible for leading a team of 150 people with responsibility for $250m revenue. He went on to head up global strategy for Castrol before moving into change management for bp group. Roger worked in culture across bp with a focus on delivering team effectiveness programs and coaching teams up to bp board level, delivering these initiatives in more than 30 countries around the world. He has successfully led multiple global change programs in bp. Roger now runs his own leadership consulting and coaching business, and partners with Lee on major global projects.

Enjoy!

Part 1 is in Episode 7 - if you want to hear them in order, please listen to Episode 7 first. We do a quick recap here so its not essential, but Episode 7 may provide some useful context for you to get more from this episode.

Lee's guest in this conversation is Darine Najem. Darine is a Systemic Change Facilitator, Consultant and Coach based in Beirut, Lebanon with 20 years of professional experience. She designs and facilitates learning experiences to help organizations and teams in becoming, and building, spaces for innovation and positive impact. Darine has a successful 13-year track record in the corporate world where she held several leadership positions in marketing, operations, and medical relations in multinationals in the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries (Novartis, L'Oreal). She holds a Master’s degree in Change Leadership from the Said Business School at Oxford University (UK) and HEC (Paris).

In this episode Lee discusses the challenges leaders face in making the really tough decisions that often affect many people's lives. What is important about how we make these decisions? How should we communicate these decisions? What do we do if we were not part of the decision process, or if we don't agree with the decision, but still have to take responsibility for it?

This conversation is in two parts - Episode 7 and 8.. enjoy!

If you'd like to talk to us about how we can help you, please contact us through our contact page at www.infinityleadership.com.au.

Lee's guest in this conversation is Darine Najem. Darine is a Systemic Change Facilitator, Consultant and Coach based in Beirut, Lebanon with 20 years of professional experience. She designs and facilitates learning experiences to help organizations and teams in becoming, and building, spaces for innovation and positive impact. Darine has a successful 13-year track record in the corporate world where she held several leadership positions in marketing, operations, and medical relations in multinationals in the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries (Novartis, L'Oreal). She holds a Master’s degree in Change Leadership from the Said Business School at Oxford University (UK) and HEC (Paris).

In this episode Lee discusses the challenges leaders face in making the really tough decisions that often affect many people's lives. What is important about how we make these decisions? How should we communicate these decisions? What do we do if we were not part of the decision process, or if we don't agree with the decision, but still have to take responsibility for it?

This conversation is in two parts - Episode 7 and 8.. enjoy!

If you'd like to talk to us about how we can help you, please contact us through our contact page at www.infinityleadership.com.au.

Sonia Rees, based in Uganda, has recently come across conflict arising in senior leadership teams she has been working with. Lee explores conflict resolution with Sonia covering a range of areas such as emotional regulation, the importance of a positive higher intent, understanding is not the same as agreement, demonstrating empathy, the importance of curiosity, challenging deeply-held assumptions and more.

I think you'll enjoy this one... I know I did!

Link to full transcript

Please forgive some background noise on my microphone - it was 36 degrees in my office and the fan was working overtime! In this episode Lee and Brad talk about motivation - from its relationship to resilience to the importance of giving people autonomy within a clear and meaningful connection to a bigger picture. One pieced of Gold I took from this one is Brad's question to leaders who may be overly focused on financial metrics - "Remind me again, why did you start this business?" What a powerful question to drive attention towards the things that really matter.

If you would like us to cover any specific topics, please let us know through our website contacts page - www.infinityleadership.com.au

Link to full transcript

Lee Williams talk with Kim Dutton about how leaders can effectively respond when crisis hits. In this episode Kim has to manage a real mini-crisis (i.e. recording this podcast unexpectedly :-) ) and talks us through her approach as it happens! I enjoyed this one, and I think you will too. As always, we're trying to have real conversations that provoke thought and insight. We're happy to take your comments and questions to develop thinking around these topics.

If you would like us to cover any specific topics, please let us know through our website contacts page - www.infinityleadership.com.au

Link to full transcript

Lee and Rob Metcalfe talk about the importance and challenge of having tough conversations well.

A bit about Rob Metcalfe Rob has 20 years of consulting experience and more than 30 years in leadership positions, including 10 years as Managing Director of a Global Leadership Consulting business.

He has a passion for transforming organisations through leadership at every level. He routinely works with executive leadership teams and the individual leaders within them through consulting, facilitation and coaching.

Before becoming a management consultant, Rob was an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos. During his service he led groups of up to 80 Royal Marines and was "Mentioned in Dispatches" for operational service.

A bit about Lee Williams Over the last 12 years, Lee has facilitated leadership programs for, and coached, thousands of senior and mid-level leaders in all continents working in diverse private and public sector organisations. His work includes leaders operating in conflict zones and major emergency relief operations. He currently works with senior leadership teams in the Middle East and Africa running some of the largest humanitarian operations in the world.

Prior to his career move into Leadership Consulting, Lee spent 3 years in Finance and 12 years in the software industry.

Lee is a specialist in helping leaders to scale their leadership impact, working with them to define a clear sense of purpose and applying to real leadership challenges. This journey inevitably involves building a high degree of self-awareness, emotional intelligence and skill in building high quality relationships where meaningful conversations can take place.

Link to full transcript

Lee asks long time friend and mentor Brad Jobe to share some of his experience of the good, the bad and the ugly of leading from the middle.

Lee Williams Lee is a specialist in leadership development, culture change and executive coaching with substantial experience working with senior leadership teams. He brings a unique blend of personal, professional and academic experience to his clients. His authenticity and humility connect people to each other and the learning experience. Lee has facilitated leadership programs for thousands of senior and mid-level leaders in 21 countries across all continents. Many of these have been for leaders operating in very challenging environments such as conflict zones and major emergency relief operations. As a result, he has developed a pragmatic and highly effective approach to helping people to translate leadership theory into relevant practices on the ground that have a real impact on results.

Brad Jobe Brad seeks out and supports leaders who accept and understand that they are responsible for creating an environment which brings out the best or worst in their people. When he finds these leaders he works in collaboration with them to develop and implement strategies and processes to help them create an environment which encourages their people to do their best, to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Link to full transcript

Lee speaks with leadership consultant and productivity expert Francois Faure about principles of motivation and organisation that enhance productivity while working from home.

Lee Williams Lee is a specialist in leadership development, culture change and executive coaching with substantial experience working with senior leadership teams. He brings a unique blend of personal, professional and academic experience to his clients. His authenticity and humility connect people to each other and the learning experience. Lee has facilitated leadership programs for thousands of senior and mid-level leaders in 21 countries across all continents. Many of these have been for leaders operating in very challenging environments such as conflict zones and major emergency relief operations. As a result, he has developed a pragmatic and highly effective approach to helping people to translate leadership theory into relevant practices on the ground that have a real impact on results.

Francois Faure Francois work with leaders and their teams to create learning and innovation opportunities. His favourite space is the crossroads where logic and rigour meet empathy and personal transformation, enabling clients to explore their context, connect with their stakeholders, then execute on their initiatives with clarity, focus and momentum. Francois brings to his practice a variety of perspectives and experience from his own diverse professional background: executive leadership roles; consulting roles in strategy and leadership development; implementation of large, complex transformation projects; facilitation of strategy and execution planning for leadership teams; coaching and mentoring of executive leaders.

Link to full transcript