Leading 4 Life "Stories‪"‬ Bob Judson

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My guest this week is Mary Walter, a TV and radio broadcast personality, and a podcast host, based in New Jersey, USA. 

Mary and I have known each other for many years and I was really keen to tap into her Talk Radio experience to get some new perspectives not only on her own career and journey, but also on the US more generally.  As I anticipated, this is an episode with plenty of laughs but also a wide range of serious perspectives that I certainly hope you find both useful and interesting.

You can find Mary here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-walter-8550a4a/
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/MaryWalterRadio
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@marywalterradio/streams
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mary-walter-radio/id1653027709
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6QrgBL7OPcfTJKx5VDE6np

In this episode we cover the following topics (starting time in brackets):
Mary's career journey (00.02.16)Early motivations (00.13.09)Advice to a school age Mary! (00.16.17)Most impressive leadership behaviours (00.18.33)Divisions in the USA - causes & remedies (00.21.56)Risks of civil violence (00.31.48)Shoring up democracy in the USA (00.41.25)What might a Trump 2.0 Presidency look like? (00.53.45)Highs and lows (01.04.16)Most significant achievement (01.11.40)Career low point (01.13.17)De-stressing and relaxing (01.16.15)Most memorable event (01.18.30)Most difficult question (01.19.58)

Thank you for listening!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
In some respects ground tours or "flying a desk" are the things that aircrew are conditioned to dislike the most; however, as you will hear in this episode, that wasn't really the case for me and, although I always loved flying, I also thoroughly enjoyed my time on the ground.

This episode covers my ground tours as a squadron leader, starting with my first tour in the UK Ministry of Defence, then on to the Joint Service Defence College at Greenwich, and concluding with a short tour in Operational Requirements, once again in the Ministry of Defence.  

As ever with such roles, there are some really useful leadership experiences that I reflect on and I hope you find them useful.
Thank you for listening!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
I am delighted to be joined this week by Juliet Kennedy.  Juliet very recently completed more than 8 years as the Operations Director at National Air Traffic Services, the capstone of an entire 43 year career within the world of Air Traffic Control.

Juliet speaks very candidly about her love of a job that many would consider extraordinarily stressful but which she simply thrived on.  She is very clear that it is the outstanding people within the air traffic world that make it what it is, and she offers some fascinating perspectives on leadership and life in general.

You can find Juliet on LinkedIn here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliet-kennedy-14b38420/

In this episode we cover the following topics (starting time in brackets):
Juliet's career journey (00.01.22)Early motivations (00.06.00)Advice to a school age Juliet! (00.12.17)Imposter syndrome and the progression of opportunities for women (00.13.36)Adjustments to leadership style and important traits / values (00.18.42)The importance of early exposure to leadership training & development (00.25.01)Highs and lows (00.30.17)Most significant achievement (00.37.25)Career low point (00.39.31)Managing work : life balance (00.42.44)Personal lessons from crises (00.53.24)Perspectives on the future of the aviation industry & air traffic control (00.57.06)Changes / challenges for the future of air traffic control ()Most memorable event (01.06.14)Most difficult question (01.07.13)Thank you for listening!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
My guest this week is Nick Anderson.  Nick is  one of my original flying instructors from my own time in the Royal Air Force's flying training system, and spent his whole working life in the world of aviation. 

He spent 19 years in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot and advanced flying instructor, followed by an outstanding and longer 25 year career in Virgin Atlantic, eventually becoming one of Virgin's most senior captains on the Airbus A340.

Nick is also one of the hosts on the highly regarded Airline Pilot Guy Show podcast (https://airlinepilotguy.com/), which is really worth listening to even if you only have a passing interest in all things aviation.

We had a very enjoyable conversation and, amongst a range of humorous moments, and aviation stories, there are some fantastic tips on leadership and also managing your own mental health. 

You can find Nick here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.anderson.pilot
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/OldPlot
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/old.pilot340/

You can find the Airline Pilot Guy Show here:

Website: https://airlinepilotguy.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/airlinepilotguy
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/apgcrew
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apgcrew/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@airlinepilotguy

In this episode we cover the following topics (starting time in brackets):
Nick's career journey (00.02.34)Reminiscing about the RAF (00.10.57)Early motivations (00.19.10)Changes to leadership style (00.26.37)Role models (00.38.39)Advice to a school age Nick! (00.45.29)Most important leadership traits and values (00.47.51)A bomb warning on the aircraft! (00.50.49)Highs and lows (01.02.15)Most important achievement (01.06.49)Managing mental health and work : life balance (01.12.43)Nick's perspective on the future of civil aviation (01.20.12)The Airline Pilot Guy Show podcast (01.27.17)Thank you for listening!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
It was an absolute pleasure to interview the effervescent and award winning Liz McConaghy for this week's episode.  Author of the outstanding autobiographical book "Chinook Crew Chick", Liz is the longest serving female Chinook crewman, and during her 17 year RAF career, she completed an unbelievable 2 flying tours in Iraq and 10 in Afghanistan.  She accrued some 3000 hours in the Chinook and flew in some incredibly tough roles, including a lot of Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) work, recovering injured and sometimes dead soldiers from the battlefield.

Liz's story really only starts with her time in the RAF though.  Once she left, she suffered very significantly from post traumatic stress and ultimately attempted to take her own life in 2020.  She talks extensively about this dark chapter of her life in the podcast and provides a huge amount of great advice for dealing with mental health challenges both personally and with those around you.  It is an incredibly inspirational story and Liz's work now focused on helping others to understand and handle mental health challenges in all walks of life. 

Without doubt, this is one of the most important podcasts I have done and I am sure you will find what Liz has to say, valuable, emotional and inspirational in equal measure.  I cannot recommend her book highly enough - it is a really great read!


You can find Liz on here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-mcconaghy-84a46822/

Twitter / X:  https://twitter.com/chinnychick


In this episode we cover the following topics (starting time in brackets):
Liz' career journey (00.02.53)Operations in Afghanistan (00.04.22)Early motivations (00.16.06)Advice to a school age Liz (00.21.33)Leadership as a Chinook crewman (00.23.19)Role models (00.26.59)Liz' mental health story (00.30.17)Retraumatisation and "opening the box" (00.40.24)Mental health coping strategies (00.50.05)Highs and lows (00.57.13)Most significant achievement (01.01.19)Career low point (01.02.47)Emptying the bucket! (01.06.43)Reflections on the RAF (01.09.27)Most memorable event (01.16.05)Most difficult question (01.17.32)

Thank you for listening!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message
This episode is being published on Easter Sunday 2024 so an interview with a senior figure in the Church of England seemed highly appropriate, and I am delighted that my guest for this episode is Bishop Graham James, the former Bishop of Norwich.

Bishop Graham and I first met back in 2001 when I had the privilege of flying him in a Jaguar from RAF Coltishall, where I was the Officer Commanding Number 6 Squadron at the time.  He is a really lovely and very inspirational man who has had a fascinating life journey and I am sure you will find his story extremely interesting.  Not only does he describe his own journey as a leader with great candour, but he also offers some terrific insights on a wide range of issues along the way.  Enjoy! 

In this interview we cover the following topics (starting time in brackets):
Bishop Graham's career journey (00.03.04)Early motivations (00.13.01)Advice to a school aged Graham (00.18.05)Changes to leadership style (00.24.54)The Church & politics (00.37.45)Leadership traits and values (00.41.01)Role models (00.47.10)Highs & lows (00.50.35)Work : life balance (01.02.58)Challenges for the Church of England (01.07.37)Most memorable event (01.15.15)Most difficult question (01.17.41)An Easter message! (01.19.16)Thank you for listening!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/