The Longest Day Podcast Broadstairs Consulting

On this week’s episode, Leah talks to Dr Lynn Robson, Dean of Regent’s Park College, Safeguarding Lead, Director of the Visiting Student Programme and Tutorial Fellow in English Literature. Lynn’s longest day encompassed the COVID pandemic, from its announcement to its conclusion by the end of which she was exhausted and unable to carry on. All her roles during that time were relentless as there was no time off from bearing responsibilities. Although Lynn learned that she had more strength than she thought she had, she realised that there were limits to her strength and that she needed to recognise her own vulnerability. Her salvation came when she was able to say to somebody else, “I’m finding this hard, and I don’t know what to do.” Saying this is not a form of weakness but is vital for a leader to take the lead in expressing. As Lynn adds, “if we discuss it and we support one another, it’s likely that we will find a solution.” It's been a life-long lesson to value herself and see what others value in her. So, it comes as no surprise that Lynn wants her students as future leaders to learn how to value themselves, see who they are with all their talents and importance without waiting for somebody else to tell them their worth.

Welcome to our fourth Season’s first episode!

Listen to Leah’s conversation with Caroline Sabourin who enjoys a 30-year career in organising Motorsports events globally while running a Sports Car Championship of 60 international teams. Caroline’s longest day was in 2000 when during the Australian Grand Prix, at the final race, one of the cars went sideways and was thrown in the air by another car, causing significant damage to other cars that had to crash into the wall. At Race Control, she and Tim Bamford, the Australian Grand Prix Chief Executive, took the hardest decision of her career which was to cancel the race. Against this in the background was that she and her colleagues had to underwrite the cost of the loss of TV rights if anything went wrong with the race. It was a huge undertaking but because it was so special they went ahead with it. Motorsport is life for Caroline. She counts it as a blessing to have been raised in the sport even if it is one where “something goes wrong, generally it goes stupendously wrong.” But she was brought up to remain calm in the middle of a problem and deal with it. She’s a believer that anything is achievable and its corollary that “the only limitation is the belief in yourself.” On all the billboards in the race, the saying advertised was “Make every second count” – a saying she lives by.

This week, Anne-Marie Imafidon is Leah’s guest on The Longest Day. She is a keynote speaker, presenter, and co-founder of Stemettes, the enterprise inspiring the next generation of women into STEM roles. 

As a leader, Anne-Marie is all things to all people: she will never ask someone to do something she wouldn’t or couldn’t do herself. One of the advantages of this approach is that trust, authenticity, and inspiration empower her colleagues to step up in their roles. Another is that it gives her, as a leader, gravitas because of the value she brings to the different spaces she’s in. 

Anne-Marie consciously does not have yes people around her, finding that her closest allies are her most critical ones. The reason for this is that she knows she’s human and not perfect. So having critical friends and reading the negative comments as well as the positive ones give her perspective. 

She reflects on how everyone has a sphere of influence. But she asks questions about what that means, what power looks like, the nature of the system and how it works, and what are the levers needed to bring change. As a leader she builds, measures, and learns. As a role model, she exercises her agency in the room and leaves things better than she found them.

In this week’s podcast, Leah welcomes Professor Lucy Easthope, the UK’s leading authority on recovering from disaster. During the COVID pandemic she advised the Prime Minister’s Office, governmental departments, and charities. She is author of When the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope from an Expert in Disaster. Her longest day was waiting for the invasion of Iraq while she was based at the mortuary. It was March 2003 and something old died in her but something new was born. There was a plan for the deceased soldiers, those bringing them back, the bringing of the coffins, a plan for their bereaved families, and the viewing of their loved ones. Her longest day resulted in making use of the plan that was needed from the outset. For Lucy, there is great power in working on the principle that we are the help others need. On her paternal side, given their strong Methodist faith, she grew up with believing that everyone was her neighbour. Many of the female matriarchs in her family were teachers and they always provided help. It is, therefore, unsurprising that at the age of 10, Lucy realised that emergency planning was going to be her speciality. Her advice to young people is to “get a good sense of you early on.” We need to come alongside the young and help them express what they are not and what they are. After all, who we are in our souls is vital.

Professor Fiona Ross CBE’s longest day was the day when an accounts misconduct by a senior member of staff transpired. Because she believed that a person’s exit from an organisation is important, she safeguarded the person’s dignity, confidentiality, and boundaries even if it meant that some thought she was to blame. Fiona took it well with equanimity as a leader. Since she was seen as “somebody who saw things through,” relationships were strengthened. As a leader, she values having people around her who are ready to challenge her. If she could have her time again, she would like to bring in more nurses around the policy making table.

This week’s episode’s guest is Zoiey Smale, senior inclusion, diversity, sport consultant and internationally acclaimed activist. Sport was Zoiey’s first love. She believes in what it can bring to the world. But her dilemma as a young woman in medical school at University of Oxford was whether to drop out and work in sport as a coach or carry on living a lie and not become her authentic self. The turning point was when she experienced at the training hospital the loss of a very sick patient under her and her team’s care. She tremblingly told her mother on the phone that she could not carry on becoming the doctor their family dreamed of and that she was going to work in sport instead. Coaching, for Zoiey, means getting the best from others and helping them become their best selves. She learnt this from coaching herself, channelling her inner fire, and stepping out of her comfort zone. This is critical at a time when there is an unacceptably low representation of Black women working in sports leadership making important decisions. Zoiey’s mindset is “if I can’t see it, I want to be it"!