Leading Through Uncertainty Jude Jennison

Fabrice Desmarescaux  is a Partner at McKinsey and works with CEO’s and their teams to increase in their performance and effectiveness. He also creates the next generation of leaders working with team members who are not yet on the executive committee. He talks about the benefits of retreats for his clients and how slowing down and being in nature can have a positive impact.

Fabrice tells us the importance of changing the environment and where the team work together helps to see the world in a different way. When immersed in nature Fabrice explains how leaders can deal with uncertainty differently. As someone who works with a herd of horses in nature, I certainly resonate with everything Fabrice talks about.

I found myself slowing down and getting really present with Fabrice and my nervous system calming. I’m someone who often works at 300 mph and taking time to be really present is such a gift.

For anyone who is sceptical about slowing down, I love how Fabrice explains that nature demonstrates the ability to move from chaos to beauty and order. If you want to create less chaos and more order in your organisation or team, then maybe it’s time for a retreat for you too?

How do you ensure you slow down in order to access your creativity and leadership?

Topics covered:

Retreats and Nature (00:02:41) 
Benefits of Slowing Down (00:11:30) 
Impact of Uncertainty (00:16:50) 
Challenges of Siloed Organizations (00:18:19) 
Budgeting and Uncertainty (00:21:38) 
Embracing Uncertainty (00:24:39) 
Innovation and Failure (00:27:37) 
Slowing Down and Reflection (00:35:33) 

Other free resources:

Buy the book Leading through uncertainty
Take the Team Performance Scorecard and discover the 12 hidden dynamics of your team’s performance
Sign up to our Leadership Hints and Tips
Connect with Jude Jennison on Linked In

www.judejennison.com

 

Daniel Astarita is the Managing Director of Kesslers, a business that he bought when it went into administration. He’s also MD of a London-based mannequin business, having bought the assets from another business that had also gone into liquidation.

He explains how he took a risk to run the business in a different way. Instead of chasing revenue and profit in isolation, he realised that retail needs to be an experience for the consumer, particularly after the impact of COVID-19 on retail. Regardless of the sector you are in, there is so much to learn from listening to Dan’s story and leadership.

What really comes across when talking to Dan is how much he cares about the people and sees them as being fundamental to the success of the business. I love that he encourages his staff to ask questions and seek guidance as much as possible. Having space to be curious is so critical.

Dan was open about his leadership, his desire for fairness and honesty and spoke about the emotional toll it took on him when dealing with redundancies which I could really see when talking to him.

Where can you be more curious with your team and organisation?

 

Topics covered:

Acquisition of two businesses in administration (00:02:30)
Taking a risk and having a vision (00:03:22)
The emotional impact of making staff redundant (00:09:24)
Creating an inclusive workforce (00:15:58)
Purposeful leadership (00:20:57)
Shifting from a sales-focused to people-focused leadership approach (00:18:14)
Transforming retail into an immersive experience (00:23:19)
Leadership advice (00:32:29)

Other free resources:

Buy the book Leading through uncertainty
Take the Team Performance Scorecard and discover the 12 hidden dynamics of your team’s performance
Sign up to our Leadership Hints and Tips
Connect with Jude Jennison on Linked In

www.judejennison.com

Wendy Dean is the CEO of Strategi Solutions, a business consultancy offering services around people, creative and marketing. She talks about the anxiety that comes when thrust into the uncertainty of major change and how she looks for opportunities and generates new ideas to turn uncertainty into certainty.

Wendy reminds us that excitement and fear are physiologically the same and therefore how we can choose how we consider the uncertainty of change. She’s pragmatic about the fact that some people like the status quo and talks about how important it is to lead change in a way that doesn’t burn people out.

The over-riding word I get from Wendy is “balance”. She seems to balance leading change without burning people out, encouraging young people without overlooking the older workforce as well. She balances growing a business with growing the people in it.

Where do you need to be more in balance, in life, in work and in the way you lead?

Topics covered:

Leading through uncertainty
Transformational change
Role models for women
Different generations in the workforce
Empowering women

Other free resources:

Buy the book Leading through uncertainty
Take the Team Performance Scorecard and discover the 12 hidden dynamics of your team’s performance
Download White papers
Sign up to our Leadership Hints and Tips
Connect with Jude Jennison on Linked In

www.judejennison.com

Graham Todd, Co-founder of Spaghetti Agency, a digital marketing company talks about his transformative journey from struggling with alcohol to adopting a healthier lifestyle. He explains the moment he realised how excessive his drinking habits were and how that realisation led him to quit alcohol.

Todd explains the positive changes he experienced after focusing on his fitness, including improving his health, productivity, and being more present as a parent. He’s an advocate of self-reflection and addressing the root causes of stress rather than resorting to alcohol as a prop.

Todd’s journey is inspiring from the moment he decided to quit and how he kept at it, continually improving his health by adding new habits one at a time. He’s not suggesting it’s for everyone but for anyone wanting to do Dry January, Todd certainly provides lots of good reasons and plenty of inspiration.

What props do you turn to when under pressure? And how might your life and work improve if you made your physical and mental health a priority?

Topics covered:

Quitting alcohol
Healthy living
Transformational change
Better sleep
Hydration
Personal growth
Physical and mental health

Other free resources:

Buy the book Leading through uncertainty
Take the Team Performance Scorecard and discover the 12 hidden dynamics of your team’s performance
Download White papers
Sign up to our Leadership Hints and Tips
Connect with Jude Jennison on Linked In

www.judejennison.com

 

Show Notes
Leading Through Uncertainty podcast celebrates its 100th episode and this time I’m talking about my journey with uncertainty and why we need different skills.

I share stories of how I came to talk about uncertainty, how I have led through uncertainty, some of the challenges I’ve faced and how I’ve overcome them. 

I also share stories of the horses, how working with them has given me the skills to be comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty and continually ask: “What’s needed now?” so I can respond to the uncertainty of change in service of everyone.

How might you get more comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty?

Topics covered:

Leading through uncertainty
Leading through fear
Team dynamics
Change 

Other free resources:

Buy the book Leading through uncertainty
Take the Team Performance Scorecard and discover the 12 hidden dynamics of your team’s performance
Download White papers
Sign up to our Leadership Hints and Tips
Connect with Jude Jennison on Linked In

www.judejennison.com

 

Julie Chakraverty is the founder of Runway, a platform that facilitates employee feedback in organisations. Julie explains how Runway allows employees to voice concerns either anonymously or openly, ensuring a safe space for dialogue. She explains that the platform is predominantly used by companies undergoing change, with common themes around organisational and process change.

Julie shares some shocking insights from Runway's data that show that women and people of colour are more likely to use the platform's anonymity feature. Without Runway, many of these people silence themselves and conform.

If organisations really want to lead change, be inclusive and engage their employees, they need to provide an opportunity for people of colour in particular to engage anonymously so their concerns are heard, understood and included. Otherwise, minority groups continue to conform.

I was especially struck by Julie saying “It's one thing to say, my door is always open. It's another to be sure that people have got the personal courage to walk through it.”

How are you creating a safe space for employees to engage fully and honestly without fear of blame or judgment? How do you ensure everyone has the courage to articulate what’s important to them in the workplace?

Topics covered:

HR tech
Employee listening
Engaging employees through change
Inclusive conversations

Other free resources:

Take the Team Performance Scorecard and discover the 12 hidden dynamics of your team’s performance
Download White papers
Sign up to our Weekly Leadership Hints and Tips
Connect with Jude Jennison on LinkedIn

www.judejennison.com