IMI Talking Leadership: Recent Episodes
Irish Management Institute
A provider of world-class executive education, IMI equips leaders to build the future. In this podcast series, we hear from some of the world's leading business thinkers about what it takes to lead today.
Niki Avraam is leading the charge in workplace evolution, combining her vast expertise as an employment lawyer and entrepreneur, to revolutionise how organisations approach leadership and future workforce development. Through her groundbreaking “Ownership Culture” framework, she equips leaders with battle-tested strategies to tackle today’s most pressing workplace challenges: disengagement; adaptability; and future-proof leadership.
Claire is a trailblazer in digital HR transformation. Founder and CEO of Quantum HR, Claire holds Chartered Member status with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and has a master’s level qualification in Human Resources Management. Her approach combines practical experience and a deep understanding of HR challenges with a strategic use of technology to create high-performing teams. Her mission is to provide innovative, technology-driven HR solutions that streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and support organisations through their digital transformation journey.
Andrew Saffron is a leadership strategist and author, with a passion for helping organisations accelerate cultural transformation. He is the author of Better Culture, Faster, a practical guide for leaders who want to move beyond buzzwords and create lasting cultural change at speed and scale. In his work, Andrew blends real-world experience with research-driven insights to show how leaders can align strategy, culture, and performance. His approach emphasises clarity, momentum, and measurable impact - enabling organisations to adapt quickly while strengthening engagement and trust.
Spencer is an INSEAD Associate Professor, TED speaker, and founder of The Creative Collaboratorium. His work with Google, Salesforce, and Deloitte has helped executive teams make culture measurable and directly tied to performance outcomes.
What does the rise of AI mean for human relationships? How can you build a prompt library? Is generative AI taking away from human creativity? Kieran Gilmurray dives into your most burning AI questions - and the answers might surprise you!
Changing careers isn't just for mid-level professionals - but it's a bit more complex at higher levels. Financial advisor Dave Quinn discusses tips for changing career at a senior level, financial implications, and transferable skills.
Nowadays, everyone is expected to be a hybrid manager, but very few people actually have training in how to do so effectively. John Dore talks hybrid leadership, social capital... and AI action figures.
We met up with Derek Howard to discuss why B2B sales strategies are so important, how to build relationships with your key clients, and what senior leaders should be doing to enhance B2B growth.
Multi-award winning DEI executive, Sheree Atcheson discusses bias, privilege, and what Irish businesses can do right now to foster an inclusive culture at work.
What makes the smartest teams? How will we use AI in the future? And why is being human good? We met up with theoretical neuroscientist Vivienne Ming to get all the details.
Inclusive leadership is about so much more than just diversity. So how do phycological safety, different ways of thinking, and unconscious bias all relate to this important topic? We discussed all of this and more with Sile Walsh.
Why do some businesses just feel different? What can we learn from the way restaurants do business? Jayson Moran dives into how leaders can help build and maintain organisational culture.
Chris Roebuck has interviewed some of the world's top leaders - so, what can we learn from them? These are the key leadership trends for 2025, and how they can take your organisation from good to great. To hear the CEO interviews Chris mentions and learn more from his articles and TV interviews head to his website - https://chrisroebuck.live/.
From conversations about AI, to insights on crafting connections, we covered a wide range of topics, alongside global thought leaders. These are some of our highlights of 2024.
People are living longer, and traditional ways of work are changing. In this episode of the Talking Leadership podcast, Lynda Gratton discusses the new multi-stage life, the impacts of the pandemic on the future of work, and why freelance is the future.
How do we ensure that customers feel connected, in the age of social media? How do you decide if TikTok is right for your business? Can online customer support backfire? All this and more with digital marketing expert, Eva Perez.
How can businesses mitigate geopolitical risks? What does the rise of right-wing populism mean for your industry? And just how bleak does the future really look? Economist and Professor, Christopher Hartwell, explores these questions on the IMI Talking Leadership podcast.
What do attached bottle caps and Teslas have in common? How can climate change disrupt your supply chain? Is AI sustainable? All this and more with sustainability expert, Paul Begley.
AI expert, Kieran Gilmurray, dives into how leaders can develop and AI roadmap, how to get buy-in from key stakeholders, and what new AI technologies are coming in the near future.
Is your organisation committing one of the 7 sins of ESG Management? Are you prepared for mandatory reporting? Pablo Collazzo discusses how sustainability requires a full mindset shift.
Why is it important for non-financial managers to have a basic understanding of financial concepts? What key financial terms should you be familiar with? How can you avoid being overwhelmed by numbers? Kery Hamman discusses.
Data, and particularly data literacy are key for all organisations in the modern world. It doesn’t matter what stage you’re at- start up, SME, major international business. Tony Moroney joins us to discuss how organisations can make better use of data, and how individuals can ensure that they're data literate.
What skills do IT leaders need to develop, to move from an individual contributor to a management role? How can leaders in the IT sector get buy-in from senior stakeholders, and efficiently manage transformation projects? Is it possible to keep remote IT teams engaged? We met up with Margit Takacs to discuss.
How can AI be leveraged in different areas of the organisations? How can companies retain talent in an age of AI? How can leaders manage risks associated with bias and data protection?
How can leaders leverage paradoxes? How can we prepare for unforeseen circumstances? And why is carving out time for deep thinking so important? All this and more with leadership and strategy expert, Kriti Jain.
How has the workplace changed over the past several years? What challenges do organisations face when trying to pivot away from a remote working model? What role does AI play in the Future of Work? Kevin Empey discusses all of these topics.
Why is embedding sustainable change - not just any kind of change - so important? How can leaders get buy-in from employees and stakeholders? And what are the risks of not implementing change in a sustainable way? This episode of the Talking Leadership podcast discusses all of this and more.
Why skills are more important than software, how you can keep stakeholders and teams on the same page, and essentials project management tips from The Jungle Book. James Louttit explores all of this and more.
Will generative AI become as ubiquitous as wifi? How can we hire people for potential, rather than skills? And what would happen if Spotify started automating their artists? Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic dives into all of this and more.
How can you create a compelling strategy story? And why is storytelling so important in business? Most important of all, what can kids tell us about being strategic? All this and more with Padraig Hyland.
Enda Campbell of Irish Life Wellbeing discusses why workplace wellbeing initiatives are so important, how employees can advocate for their mental and physical health, and how we can get fit this April.Register to take part in the Workplace Fitness Challenge: https://mylife.irishlife.ie/wfc-2024/early-registration
How will the convergence of technology disrupt all industries? What do you need to know about deepfakes? And why do so many digital transformation projects fail? All this and more with Kamales Lardi.
What do HR professionals need to know about AI? How can you help to future-proof your organisation? Is the Four Day Work Week the future? Marianne Roux dives into all this and more.
How is hybrid working impacting your mental health? Why did we get PTSD symptoms from COVID-19? How can leaders foster a environment where people want to go to work? All this and more with business psychologist, Alan Lyons.
How curiosity help with internal communications? When might best practice be the worst ideas? Are AI selfies the future? Internal comms expert Joanna Parsons dives into all of this and more.
Futurist Gerd Leonhard gives some insights into future trends like proactive healthcare, the importance of sustainability, and AI in the workforce.
From AI baristas to holograms and health tech - Tony Moroney shares the most impressive technology and innovation from this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
How does Netflix use customer data to commission new content? How is AI impacting the world of human workers? What can we learn from a fish farm in Sweden? All this and more with futurist Bernard Marr.
We look back on some of our best moments of 2023, from AI to innovation, to creating workplace culture. Hear from guests like Bruce Daisley, Ian Kierans, Marianne Roux, Sinead Kane, and others.
HR expert and analyst Mervyn Dinnen shares insights into how to create an effective talent management strategy, how flexibility is key to recruitment, and how you can win the talent relay race.
Did you know that having a friend at work helps with staff retention? Have you thought about how remote work is a diversity & inclusion issue? Are you aware of the connection between health and social groups? Bruce Daisley sheds light on all of this and more.
What is Transformational Leadership, and how can leaders inspire teams to exceed all expectations? How you you foster a culture of psychological safety? Roger Delves explores all this and more.
How can leaders build trust in a team? How can we strengthen social connections? How can leaders get off the dancefloor and onto the balcony? Leadership Coach Colette Cahalane shares her insights.
We met up with Malene Rydahl to discuss the values of effective leaders, how you can promote wellbeing and performance in your team, and and how we can all be a little more Danish.
Why is humility so important in leadership? How can you lead with compassion? What does it mean to achieve "radical candor"? Executive coach Paula Mullin builds on insights from her recent webinar, in this edition of the podcast.
Applying 20% of the innovation tools and techniques available will probably give you 80% of the results. The big question is: which 20% of the tools and techniques should you apply? We dive into innovation in business with Ian Kierans.
What can our kids teach us about creativity? Why can't we put seats on the wings of planes? We dive into the meaty details with Jay Chopra.
We caught up with Morgan McKeagney to talk about why creative problem solving is so important, how organisations can break down barriers to creativity, and how Brexit might have been done differently.
Why are people so disengaged with work recently, and how can you channel the power of improvisation to foster creativity within your team? We caught up with Adam Kingl to get all the details.
"Culture can be like quicksand". Laurie Knell delves into the role of innovation in business, and how organisations can create a culture of innovation.
Larry Stapleton gives an overview of ChatGPT, discusses how businesses are leveraging Artificial Intelligence, and delves into what the future might look like.
Senior faculty member Margit Takacs has spent over two decades working in change management. In this episode, she sheds light on change fatigue, and how to manage change through common sense with a structure.
Dr Eden Charles discusses diversity and inclusion, how leadership impacts on culture, and how organisations can work towards becoming human systems.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast met up with Dr Marianne Roux to discuss the concept of adaptive HR, what the future of work looks like for HR professionals, and how generative AI impacts on everything!
The IMI Talking Leadership Podcast caught up with performance scientist James Hewitt to discuss knowledge work, the importance of sleep, and how Slack is stopping you from turning off.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast met with Executive Coach Lucy Gernon to find out how female leaders can achieve boundaries, balance, and happiness at work.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast spoke with Dr Amy Bradley, member of the Thinkers50 Radar of global management thinkers, and IMI faculty member. Amy shared some insights from her book titled Running on Empty: Navigating the Dangers of Burnout at Work.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast spoke with retired Vice Admiral Mark Mellett about key insights for leaders in embedding effective sustainability agendas.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast spoke with Dr Ruth Gotian about the four factors for success, and how we as business leaders can embody key characteristics of extreme high achievers.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast speaks with Dr Sinead Kane - lawyer, double PhD holder, and blind athlete - about overcoming adversity, and the mindset for success.
The IMI Talking Leadership Podcast met with Jon Kelleher and Elsabe Buys from the Deloitte Human Capital Team to discuss how organisations can move from Great Resignation to Great Reimagination.
The IMI Talking Leadership Podcast spoke with Programme Faculty Lead Nina Noonan about the importance of mentoring, and what the IMI / 30% Club Network Mentor Programme can do for you.
The IMI Talking Leadership Podcast spoke with Fiona Buckley about how the world is changing for female leaders, and how they can rise up to meet new challenges.
In this edition of the IMI Talking Leadership podcast, we spoke with Ade McCormack about the concept of the Cognitive Athlete, and what organisations can be doing to nurture their employees, from a human perspective.
Paulyn Marrinan Quinn is a senior council and former ombudsman. In this edition of the IMI Talking Leadership podcast, we discuss the changing role of women in leadership.
Fredrik Haren, Creativity explorer, delves into how and why leaders should be more creative and the benefits of having a curiosity mindset
Herminia Ibarra, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School, discusses the role of leadership, how it is changing and how it influences teams and organisations.
What are the competitive advantages of being a digitally enabled organisation?
This week on the IMI Talking Leadership podcast, we are joined by Fiona O'Carroll, who recently held a Leadership Webinar as part of IMI’s Corporate Membership offering, to take a closer look at the dualities of digital.
Fiona is a globally recognized expert on digital mindset, digital transformation and eCommerce. She is a senior international executive with a 25-year track record of achievement in a variety of leadership roles.
This conversation was recorded on July 13th, 2022.
If the digital revolution has well and truly arrived, why are some organisations still living in the past?
This week on the IMI Talking Leadership podcast, we are joined by Professor Alan Brown, who recently held a Mini-Masterclass as part of IMI’s Corporate Membership offering, to dive deeper on the dilemmas of digital.
Alan is a university professor, researcher, coach and trusted adviser to start-ups and established organisations across the public and private sector. His work is focused on leading agile approaches to business transformation.
This conversation was recorded on June 29th, 2022.
You can't see culture in an organisation, but you can feel it. In this episode, we chat with Dr Amy Bradley about the concept of competent compassion at work and why developing a human-centric leadership model is essential to a thriving culture.
With disengagement and burnout rife in businesses, Amy explains how leaders can address the developing crisis and bring their people with them.
Dr Amy Bradley researches, writes, consults and speaks on the topics of compassion, engagement and burnout at work. She was listed on the prestigious Thinkers50 Radar of global management thinkers in 2020.
This conversation was recorded on May 12th, 2022.
How can we develop the capabilities to deal with an era of rapid change when we are so invested in maintaining the status quo? To help us navigate the balancing act for leaders between present concerns and future priorities and to explain why our successes can often lead to our failures, we are joined this week by Aidan McCullen.
Aidan is a change consultant and executive coach and works with organisations to improvement engagement and innovation, encouraging a mindset of permanent reinvention.
This conversation was recorded on March 21st, 2022.
How do the expectations of Generation Y have potential long-lasting consequences for the future of business? In this episode, Adam Kingl explains how the very definition of leadership is changing and how leaders can adapt with agility to the new landscape.
Adam is a keynote speaker and educator affiliated with a number of institutions, including the IMI, Moller Institute at the University of Cambridge, University College London, Imperial College and Hult Ashridge. He is the author of Next Generation Leadership and has contributed to publications including the Financial Times, The Guardian, Forbes, Fast Company, The Sunday Times and many more.
This conversation was recorded on April 13th, 2022.
As the crisis in Ukraine continues to unfold, a variety of leadership approaches are coming into focus as the leaders themselves make their mark on the evolving conflict.
This week, to assess the dynamics at play, we are joined by Mark Mellett. A former Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, he has served his country for over 48 years in Ireland’s regular and reserve forces. He is a IMI Life Fellow and a member of the IMI Council.
This conversation was recorded on April 6th, 2022.
How can an effective storytelling strategy bolster an organisation's position in the market and deliver positive returns for the bottom line?
Eric Fitzpatrick is a business storytelling coach who helps clients to shorten, sharpen and strengthen their message and increase their chances of getting clients to act on or buy into that message.
In this week's episode, Eric joins us to explain how leaders can make their story stand out in a crowded and rapidly evolving business landscape.
This past year, as part of our Corporate Membership offering, Eric delivered a Webinar session on 'Storytelling - Rules for Exceptional Communication'.
This conversation was recorded on February 18th, 2022.
As organisations and their HR functions reach a critical juncture, how can leaders bring purpose and meaning to their employees and create a human-centered business that generates lasting results?
Ben Whitter, an international keynote speaker and one of the world’s top management thinkers by Thinkers50, joins us this week on the podcast to chat through the dilemmas leaders face and what practical steps they can take to adjust to the new world of work.
This year, as part of our Corporate Membership offering at Transform level, Ben delivered a People Strategy Network session on 'Co-Creating the Future of Work and HR Through the Holistic Employee Experience'.
This conversation was recorded on March 2nd, 2022.
In the third episode of our Leaders Series podcast, where we speak to leaders about their experiences, challenges and aspirations, we are joined by Barry O’Connell.
Barry has been the Chairman of GOAL since July 2021 and prior to that he worked for Coca Cola for over 20 years across a multitude of markets around the world, driving growth and transformation.
As we emerge from the pandemic, the requirements of leaders are evolving, with a noticeable shift towards wellbeing and balance as leaders hold up a mirror to themselves and reassess their priorities. In this episode, we talk about how Barry's personal leadership style has evolved and how expectations on leaders have radically changed.
In a hybrid working world, how can leaders ensure communication with their teams remains equitable across the board?
To discuss this and more, this week Neil Kelders joins the podcast. Neil is a performance and wellbeing coach and an ambassador for mental health awareness.
In 2021, he delivered a webinar for IMI entitled 'Five Home Wins - Thriving in a Working from Home World'.
This conversation was recorded on June 23rd, 2021.
Why do some organisations set the standard for innovation while others fall short? Sometimes, it simply comes down to being able to identify the opportunity in the first place, according to our guest on this episode, Ben Shenoy.
Ben is an IMI Associate, management consultant, speaker and academic who decodes organisational quandaries using behavioural science. Last year, he held a Mini-Masterclass at IMI on the topic of an Evolutionary Approach to Innovation. He is a programme faculty member on IMI's Executive Series programme, Leading Strategy Execution.
This conversation was recorded on December 8th, 2021.
Can an organisational structure that deviates from the norm be empowering and transformative for the people working there? How can a more humble style of leadership contribute to this? To answer that question and more, this week I am delighted to be joined by Lisa Gill.
Lisa was included in the Thinkers50 Radar 2020 and coaches teams and organisations who are interested in becoming self-managing. She also facilitates leadership courses that train people in a more adult-adult, coaching style of leadership
This conversation was recorded on June 17th, 2021.
How does the combination of collaboration, connection and culture factor in to optimising hybrid work for your team and your organisation?
While circumstances over the past couple of years have taught us a lot of valuable lessons about the inner workings of hybrid, there is still much to figure out.
To dig deeper on this topic, this week I am joined by Ciara D’Arcy. An experienced Human Resources Director, Ciara is formerly HR Director of Accenture Ireland, Head of HR with Google and Technical Director with IBEC.
In 2021, she held a People Strategy Network event at IMI on Leading the Hybrid Organisation.
This conversation was recorded on November 2nd, 2021.
When we think about the future of work, often we are left with more questions than answers as leaders.
But if the future of work truly is ours to shape, what does the model look like and what trends are emerging?
This week we are joined by Peter Cosgrove, the Managing Director of Futurewise Ltd, a future of work research company that supports organisations in navigating the rapidly changing world of work.
Peter joined an IMI Council meeting late last year to contextualise the challenges and opportunities that the future of work could present.
This conversation was recorded on October 13th, 2021.
This year, leaders have been asked time and again to rise to the challenge of change. Amid the uncertainty, the IMI Talking Leadership podcast has welcomed a host of world-class global thought leaders, empowering leaders with valuable and actionable insights along the way.
In this edition of the podcast, we will look back at the main themes we covered in 2021, from inclusion to digital transformation to sustainability and much more, and ask ourselves the question: What were the main leadership lessons to come out of this year?
Of the 100 largest economies in the world by GDP, 69 are companies. As such, the business world has a massive influence on turning the tide in terms of our global goals on sustainability.
This week, to contextualise the challenges ahead and analyse where leaders fit into this ‘big picture’ issue, we are joined by an authority in this space, Marga Hoek.
Why is sustainability not necessarily just a top-down initiative in businesses? What part does trust play in planting the seeds for a sustainable future? How can CEOs communicate and execute on ambitious sustainability-led visions?
Marga is a member of the prestigious Thinkers50 and an expert on sustainable business and capital. She recently held a Masterclass for IMI on A New Vision for Sustainability.
This conversation was recorded on November 24th, 2021.
How can leaders harness the vast return that inclusion brings to teams and organisations and foster an mindset of shared responsibility to ensure the barriers to inclusive practices are overcome?
To go deeper on this fascinating subject, I am delighted to be joined by Sile Walsh, an expert in inclusion and leadership.
Sile specialises in strategic leadership and organisational development. She is experienced coaching senior leaders and middle managers across sectors including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, technology, and commerce within Ireland and internationally.
This conversation was recorded on October 1st, 2021.
How can leaders create a roadmap for leading teams and building trust in the complex world of hybrid working?
To answer this question and to discuss practical takeaways for leaders to navigate the current landscape, I am joined this week on the podcast by Paula Milligan.
Paula is the Managing Director of the LALLO Consultancy business and has successfully worked with clients across the UK, Europe, US and Middle Eastern markets.
This conversation was recorded on October 1st, 2021.
Why is digital transformation taking business leaders out of their comfort zone - and what can they do to reframe their mindset on this crucial area?
To dispel some of the myths around digital transformation, I am joined this week on the podcast by Tony Moroney.
Tony is a digital transformation consult, a member of the IMI Associate faculty and the Programme Director for the Professional Diploma in Digital Leadership.
This conversation was recorded on July 6th, 2021.
Resilience has been a watch word for leaders and their teams during the disruption caused by the pandemic.
With our IMI-CUBS Organisational Resilience Survey revealing that 86% of leaders felt their organisation responded ‘well’ or ‘very well’ to the pandemic, this week on the podcast we will go deeper on that topic with National Management Conference keynote speaker, Whitney Johnson.
According to Whitney, building resilient teams and organisations starts with the individual. Through her Personal Disruption Framework and S-Curve of Learning, in this episode Whitney explains how leaders can become more comfortable taking the right risks, boost their ‘return on achievement’ and deal with ambiguity.
Whitney Johnson is the CEO of human capital consultancy WLJ Advisors and is one of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world as named by Thinkers50. An innovation and disruption theorist, she is the best-selling author of Build an A-Team and Disrupt Yourself.
This conversation was recorded on 7th October, 2021.
The leadership landscape over the past 12 to 18 months has been unpredictable, to say the least, bringing with it a myriad of challenges and change.
Throughout the year, IMI has continued to deliver timely, informative and insightful content from the crème de la crème of thought leaders around the world.
In this special episode of Talking Leadership, we have collated 10 of the top leadership insights from the year so far, covering topics from digital transformation to collaboration to resilience and more.
The idea of psychological safety has come to the fore over the past 18 months. With teams separated, leaders have a renewed focus on being inclusive and fostering a culture of respect and openness to break down the digital barriers that exist.
With the return to the office looming, however, we must check in on key questions about psychological safety in the hybrid model - how can leaders create it; what are its benefits and are there any misconceptions about it?
To go deeper on the subject, this week Laura Delizonna joins the podcast.
Laura is an executive coach, instructor at Stanford University, an international speaker and a thought leader in the space of psychological safety. She wrote a popular Harvard Business Review article on the link between psychological safety and high-performing teams.
This conversation was recorded on July 7th, 2021.
Welcome to the second edition of IMI’s Leaders Series podcast, where we will go deeper with leaders on what makes them tick, how they developed their distinct leadership style and what leading means to them.
This week, I am delighted to be joined by Bernard Gloster, CEO of Tusla. Bernard is an alumnus of IMI’s Masters in Management Practice, from which he graduated in 2019.
I am also delighted to be joined by Kerrie Fleming, Associate Dean at Ashridge Executive Education and an Associate Faculty member at IMI.
In this episode, Bernard shares his thoughts on the power of mentors, sticking to your core values and the importance of culture.
This week on the podcast, our focus turns to resilience and specifically how to embed it within your organisation’s day to day to reduce stress and forge a clear road map to productivity.
I’m joined by Eibhlin Johnston, Managing Director of the Resiliency Hub. She is an author, speaker, coach, trainer and consultant. She works as a consultant in financial services and has 30 years’ experience working in blue-chip organisations across of range of business areas.
Eibhlin was welcomed by the IMI community earlier this year for a webinar where she spoke about A Roadmap for Resilient Leaders.
This conversation was recorded on April 7th, 2021.
How can we channel the power of inquiry to make better decisions and move forward in an era of constant change and transition?
This week I am delighted to be joined by Hal Gregersen to go deeper on that very subject.
Hal is a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, a recipient of the Thinkers50 #1 leadership award and author of ten books.
This conversation was recorded on May 17th, 2021.
How realistic is a four-day working week in our lifetime? Working from home has recalibrated our expectations, but it has also surfaced new challenges for all of us.
To go deeper, this week I am joined by Bruce Daisley, a best-selling author and one of the most respected thought leaders on the subject of workplace culture and the future of work.
Bruce was welcomed recently by the IMI with his Future of Work Series session on Workplace Culture.
This conversation was recorded on April 26th, 2021.
The numbers on AI don’t lie: two-thirds of executives think AI is crucial for their business’ success. By 2025, it is predicted that AI will grow up to $118 billion.
To dig in on the potential and pitfalls, this week I am joined by David Kerrigan, a specialist in artificial intelligence. David is an author, speaker, and founder of London-based software firm, Quikkly, which provides computer vision solutions to over 500 million users.
David was welcomed recently by the IMI with his webinar on A Pragmatic Introduction to AI.
This conversation was recorded on March 11th, 2021.
Welcome to the first edition of IMI’s Leaders Series podcast, where we will go deeper with leaders on what makes them tick, how they developed their distinct leadership style and what leading means to them.
This week, I am privileged to be joined by Donal O’Donoghue, Managing Director at Sanderson and President of the National Recruitment Federation. Donal is an alumnus of IMI’s Masters in Management Practice, from which he graduated with a First Class Honours with Distinction.
I am also delighted to be joined by Kerrie Fleming, Associate Dean at Ashridge Executive Education, an Associate Faculty member at IMI and the Programme Director for the Masters in Management Practice.
This conversation was recorded on March 25th, 2021.
Purpose in organisations is often talked about, but the gap between the perception and the reality on the ground can be eye-opening.
To separate the fact from the fiction about purpose-led leadership, and to dive into how leaders can embed purpose as a key pillar of their businesses, I am joined this week by Kerrie Fleming.
Kerrie is a Managing Partner of ELEOS, an Associate Dean at Ashridge Executive Education and an IMI Associate faculty member. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, international governments, indigenous and international organisations.
She was welcomed recently by the IMI with her Mini-Masterclass on Empowering your People Through Purpose-Driven Leadership.
This conversation was recorded on March 22nd, 2021.
This week our focus turns to the future, as we dive into the key qualities and competencies to be an effective leader in a business landscape that has undergone its fair share of changes in the last 12 months.
I’m joined by Jacob Morgan, a four-time best-selling author, speaker and futurist and the founder of the Future of Work University. We discuss the end of work-life balance as we know it, the 'wiggling the mouse' phenomenon, employee engagement and how the typical working day should look.
Jacob was welcomed recently by the IMI community with his Masterclass on the Future Leader: 9 Leadership Skills and Mindsets for the Future of Work.
This conversation was recorded on February 24th, 2021.
Today we will turn our focus to the people who make businesses go. HR is being tested like never before in our current landscape, with a fine balance between focusing on business growth and developing performance capabilities for the now – and for the future.
I am joined by Jon Ingham, a people and organisation development strategist. Jon is a HR Executive ‘Top HR Tech Influencer’, an independent consultant, trainer, keynote speaker and analyst. His work helps companies apply academic research, new technology and innovation to the way they generate competitive advantages through their people.
Jon was recently welcomed by IMI as part of our People Strategy Network with his session on 'HR as a Leading Growth Strategist'.
This conversation was recorded on February 22nd, 2021.
Today we will take a closer look at leading a remote workforce, the challenges therein and the solutions that companies have moved towards during this time of change.
I am joined by Jennifer Dowling, a work and organisational psychologist and the director of Train Remote, which offers comprehensive capabilities and knowledge for your organisation to harness the potential of remote work and remote-first training. Jennifer is an Executive Coach with the IMI working on the Professional Diplomas in Leadership, Management and Coaching.
She is also the Programme Director for IMI's custom and open enrolment Virtual Leadership programmes.
This conversation was recorded on February 18th, 2021.
The IMI Talking Leadership podcast is now available on Spotify! Be sure to check back for new episodes over the coming weeks.
Today we’re joined by Filip Moriau, Founder and CEO of Stragilon, a Berlin based consultancy specialising in innovation, agility and development, and also an upcoming speaker at IMI’s last People Strategy Network event of the year.
We talked about bureaucracy in organisations and how it can stifle collaboration and innovation, and how leader’s in an organisation can move agility from a word on a page into the very operations of a business.
For those IMI Transform members wanting to join Filip’s session on Tuesday, 6th October, 2020, and get that deep dive, please go to imi.ie/events.
Our 2020 National Management Conference – the first one ever to be delivered entirely virtually – featured an array of world-class speakers.
In this episode, we talked to Cali Williams Yost, Founder and CEO of the Flex+Strategy Group, about the present, and future, of flexible work practices.
Then we talked to Michael Jacobides, who holds the Sir Donald Gordon Chair of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at London Business School, about what businesses can do to not just survive this crisis, but learn from the lessons in the past to take a leap forward in your marketplace.
These conversations were recorded in September 2020.
Today we're talking about the Foreign Direct Investment community in Ireland, from the impacts of the current crisis to how we are positioned to get back on a path to growth.
A sector that employs 245,000 people directly, and many more indirectly, the change in Ireland’s economy can be quite neatly traced back to the 80’s and 90’s when a proactive policy was put in place to attract Foreign Direct Investment, with IDA Ireland leading the charge.
We talk to Mary Buckley, Executive Director at IDA Ireland, and Paul Ryan, a senior director of engineering operations in Qualcomm, one of those Irish subsidiaries of FDI companies generating such vital economic activity.
We're also joined by our very own Julie Ryan, Head of Customised Solutions in IMI, to discuss the challenges in the FDI sector she’s gleaned from IMI's research, and the Leading with Strategic Intent programme her customised solutions team put together and ran last year.
For more information on the programme, go to www.imi.ie.
These conversations we're recorded in August 2020.
Dr Ian Kierans has over 20 years of research and hands-on experience in helping companies grow through business and digital strategy, innovation and change. In this podcast, Dr Kierans talks about the strategic concepts leaders need to continually adapt and innovate their organisations.
This conversation was recorded on 5th March 2020 after an IMI Mini-Masterclass.
We’re joined by one of Ireland’s most prominent business leaders – Anne O’Leary, CEO of Vodafone Ireland - to talk about lessons in leadership and what she's learnt from her professional career.
We talked about resilience, purpose, how you deal with mistakes, following your instinct, ego and humility and the importance of gender diversity in business.
This conversation was recorded in March 2020.
Today we’re talking collaboration – how to do it at as a team, an organisational and across borders.
We're joined by Mark Mortensen, recent Masterclass speaker at IMI and Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD.
As someone with an engineering background, Mark approaches collaboration in a systematic way while allowing for the messy realities of life.
Today we’re joined by Paula Mullin, executive coach and IMI associate, about how to build your own executive presence in a virtual environment.
From your appearance on a Zoom call to how you communicate in a virtual environment, we try and give you clear guidance on how to navigate it all as a leader and focus on those things that have changed most in the last few months and are likely to remain.
In today’s episode we're joined by Katharine Wilkinson, lead author for the New York Times’ bestseller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. We talked about those practical things leaders can do in industries from food to government to reduce the environmental impact of their organisations, and the potential innovations out there that might change industries.
This conversation was recorded back in late 2019 after IMI's National Management Conference.
Decisions, decisions. We’ve been asked to make a lot of them recently – some big, some small, some life-changing – but how can leaders actively improve their decision-making and get better outcomes?
In this week’s episode we talk to Simon Haslam, International strategy consultant, programme lead for strategy at the Institute of Directors and visiting faculty as several business schools, including the IMI.
This conversation was record in early June 2020.
How can leaders discover their organisation's purpose and then, more importantly, make it operational?
Purpose-led leaders achieve extraordinary results for their organisations. Acting as a central principle for people to guided by, an organisation with a strong purpose will make better, more aligned decisions, have more engaged and productive employees, and will produce stronger financial results.
We talk to Kris Sirchio, former CEO of North American Breweries, about how he brought the organisation's purpose into the heart of their operations and achieved brilliant results.
This conversation was recorded in mid May 2020
What are the key elements leaders need to consider when devising their strategy in the current climate?
Thomas C. Lawton, Professor of Strategy and International Business and Director of the Global Competitiveness Institute at Cork University Business School, outlines what lessons of the past can be applied today and the mindset leaders should use when looking to create their own breakout strategies.
The coronavirus pandemic has cast a harsh light on the financial security and sustainability of many organisations. Will the pandemic subtly shift how we do business and how we make ourselves financially secure?
We’re joined by Cormac Lucey, a columnist on economics for the Sunday Times, a chartered accountant and lecturer in Business Finance at IMI, to talk about financial leadership in a crisis – both at the moment of crisis and all those ways to survive the initial onslaught, but also how to use financial levers to grow out of a crisis as a stronger organisation.
In the past five years, the business world has seen the birth of a new breed of company. The Exponential Organisation has revolutionized how a company can accelerate its growth by using technology and transformational leadership. An Exponential Organisation can eliminate the incremental, linear way traditional companies get bigger, leveraging assets like community, big data, algorithms, and new technology.
Yuri van Geest is an international keynote speaker on exponential emerging technologies, digital transformation and technology trends. During his IMI Masterclass, Yuri explained why some organisations are able to grow exponentially and the fundamentally new ways corporations are organised to deal with disruption, exponential technologies and accelerated change through transformational leadership.
This conversation was recorded in March 2019
How much coffee is too much? How much should we be moving every day? In this Lunchtime Listen, we talk to Dr. John Briffa about how leaders can achieve peak physical performance – all while breaking a few myths about health and wellbeing.
Dr John Briffa is a practising doctor and award-winning health writer who has contributed to a wide variety of newspaper and magazines both in the UK and abroad.
This conversation was recorded in September 2019.
For our lunchtime listen today we revisit our conversation with Dr Jill Walker. Originally released in November 2019.
A key element of maximising leadership resilience, impact and success is making sure you have a healthy relationship with being busy – something which can be challenging in the modern culture of speed, ‘doing’ and distraction.
Being too busy can seriously affect the performance and impact of leaders – their focus, clarity of thought, creativity and impact on others. It also often affects their health, wellbeing and work-life balance – critical components for long-term, sustainable success.
Based on 18 years’ working with top global organisations, busy CEOs, entrepreneurs and C suite executives, psychologist and transformative coach Dr. Jill Walker challenges our relationship with being busy. In this episode Jill provides practical ways to help us create space in our fast-paced world, as well as how think about your work from a new perspective.
Is change changing? Does the modern business landscape mean we have to throw out our change toolkits and templates? Can we even devise a strategy any more?
In this episode we talk to Deborah Rowland, a leading practitioner in the world of large, complex change. We explore how change will always be effected by the leader's inner state, and how 'making disturbance your friend' can lead to brilliant results.
Recorded on Thursday, 12th March, 2020.
How can leaders achieve peak performance? Can we activate our minds in a way that allows us to perform at pace in the long-term?
In this Lunchtime Listen we talk to Friederike Fabritius about the neuroscience behind peak performance, and how getting the mixture between ‘fun’, ‘fear’ and ‘focus’ right can make you and your organisation perform brilliantly.
Friederike is a lead designer on the Mastering the Performance Mindset programme for senior leaders. Find out more at www.imi.ie
With COVID-19 the majority of us have been forced to work remotely for the first time in our lives, while others are welcoming us into the experience while, in the macro sense, working remotely and leading virtual teams around the world is becoming much more common.
We talked to Fiona Buckley, IMI associate and expert in the fields of work behaviour, leadership, coaching and mentoring, about how to best lead virtual teams, either temporarily or permanently.
Why do certain leaders have the ability to really engage, inspire and move people to act?
For our lunchtime listen today, we revisit our conversation with Paula Mullin, IMI Connect Lounge Speaker and Executive Coach.
Paula talks about Executive Presence and what it can teach leaders in how they should package themselves in order to drive their business, and teams, to success.
Go to www.imi.ie for more.
In a world of unimaginable complexity, how are leaders today supposed to make consistently great decisions, especially in the absence of tangible information?
For our lunchtime listen this week, we revisit our conversation with Kriti Jain, a behavioural scientist passionate about developing research and training leaders in making better decisions.
Kriti is a programme director on Leadership Decision Making - a programme from the IMI Executive Series for senior leaders.
What does it mean to be agile? Can you really make an organisation more agile? Or can you only make individuals more agile?
Today we’re joined by Kaihan Krippendorff, a Strategy and Innovation Expert - writing multiple best-selling books on the subject - and also IMI’s first Masterclass speaker of the year.
We talked about the biggest blockers of agility and innovation in an organisation, how an individual can become more agile, and how you can draw out innovation from the frontlines to keep delivering for your customers.
For more upcoming IMI Member events, go to www.imi/events.
For BT, improving their customer service was a marathon journey, not a sprint. Over the course of 3 years, a radically new customer-centric culture delivered a 40-point NPS (Net Promoter Score) improvement, moving from the bottom 10% to the top 10% in customer satisfaction.
By genuinely putting client feedback and the customers themselves at the heart of their business, the BT leadership team modelled the behaviour they wanted to see in their organisation – and in the process built a remarkable case study in customer experience transformation.
We talked with Shay Walsh, MD of BT Ireland and John O’Connor, CEO of Deep-Insight and author of ‘Customer at the Heart: How B2B Leaders Build Successful Customer-Centric Organisations’, on the marathon BT took towards brilliant customer experience.
More on BT Deep Insight here: https://www.deep-insight.com/the-bt-ireland-story/.
Today’s leaders must be agile. In the current economic environment, individuals are expected to be highly adaptable and rise to many unseen challenges. A fresh but proven approach to team building, improvisation (improv) encourages participants to develop the key components of being part of a high performing team.
Neil Curran is a teaching and performing improv expert with over 18 years of management and corporate experience. Neil has worked with organisations including Google, Facebook and Dropbox, using Improv techniques to encourage individuals to be more adaptable by learning to react without pre-planning.
This episode we’re talking about Higher-Ambition (or ‘Dual-Purpose) leadership – a way of evaluating success beyond profits that is gaining major traction and attention in the business world.
After hosting the 2019 Higher Ambition CEO Summit, we sat down with Tobias Fredberg, Executive Director at the Center for Higher Ambition Leadership Europe and Colm Foster, Director of Executive Education here at IMI.
We talked about why the practices behind higher-ambition leadership are permeating the highest levels, and how you as a business leader can make your business a ‘higher-purpose’ organisation.
For more, go to www.imi.ie/insight/.
What are the fundamental drivers of human performance? Strip away all the jargon, all the technical supports, and it generally comes down to the relationship between two human beings.
In this episode, we talk to Chris Roebuck, a global leadership expert, honorary visiting professor at CASS Business School and a member of IMI faculty.
We talked about how leaders connect with their people, how their people connect with the business, and the ‘simple truths’ that allow for brilliant business performance.
A key element of maximising leadership resilience, impact and success is making sure you have a healthy relationship with being busy – something which can be challenging in the modern culture of speed, ‘doing’ and distraction.
Being too busy can seriously affect the performance and impact of leaders – their focus, clarity of thought, creativity and impact on others. It also often affects their health, wellbeing and work-life balance – critical components for long-term, sustainable success.
Based on 18 years’ working with top global organisations, busy CEOs, entrepreneurs and C suite executives, psychologist and transformative coach Dr. Jill Walker challenges our relationship with being busy. In this episode Jill provides practical ways to help us create space in our fast-paced world, as well as how think about your work from a new perspective.
What can business leaders to tackle the climate crisis while continuing to sustainably grow their business?
In this special episode of IMI Talking Leadership, we talked to two world-leading experts that come to the issue of sustainability from very different angles – Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, lead author on the New York Times’ Bestseller, Project Drawdown – the 'most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming' and Dr. John Briffa, a practising doctor and award-winning health writer, who cuts through the myths when it comes to leadership wellbeing and how you can adapt strategies to optimise performance and productivity.
In the past five years, the business world has seen the birth of a new breed of company. The Exponential Organisation has revolutionized how a company can accelerate its growth by using technology and transformational leadership. An Exponential Organisation can eliminate the incremental, linear way traditional companies get bigger, leveraging assets like community, big data, algorithms, and new technology.
Yuri van Geest is an international keynote speaker on exponential emerging technologies, digital transformation and technology trends. During his IMI Masterclass, Yuri explained why some organisations are able to grow exponentially and the fundamentally new ways corporations are organised to deal with disruption, exponential technologies and accelerated change through transformational leadership.
For more on IMI events, go to https://bit.ly/2vB64W9.
Context is king, especially when everything keeps changing. In this week’s IMI Talking Leadership episode we talk to Marco Mancesti, R&D Director at IMD Business School, about the ‘disruption-fit’ leader.
This is a leader who constantly questions what is happening around them and is both agile and people-centric enough to do something about it. For leaders to succeed in a disruptive environment, they need to learn to put context at the centre of their professional armoury.
Marco was a speaker for an IMI Talent Forum event for members. For more on IMI events, go to https://bit.ly/2Go2IvO.
In a world of unimaginable complexity, how are leaders today supposed to make consistently great decisions, especially in the absence of tangible information? How can a leader operate across different cultures and marketplaces and not let their inherent biases affect their decision-making?
On this episode of IMI’s Talking Leadership podcast we’re joined by Kriti Jain, a behavioural scientist passionate about developing research and training leaders in making better decisions.
Kriti is a programme director on Leadership Decision Making - a programme from the IMI Executive Series for senior leaders. Go to www.imi.ie/product-category/executive-series/ for more.
How can leaders achieve peak performance? Can we activate our minds in a way that allows us to perform at pace in the long-term?
This week we talk to Friederike Fabritius about the neuroscience behind peak performance, and how getting the mixture between ‘fun’, ‘fear’ and ‘focus’ right can make you and your organisation perform brilliantly.
Friederike is a lead designer on the Mastering the Performance Mindset programme for senior leaders. Find out more at www.imi.ie/courses/mastering-performance-mindset.
How does a leader drive greater diversity within their organisation? Why does it matter? And where does Ireland stand in the world when it comes to comparable economies?
On International Women’s Day, we sat down with Brid Horan and Carol Andrews from the 30% Club to talk about diversity in the working environment.
In 2018, IMI partnered with Goal to support the development of Goal workers around the world. In this special episode, we talked to Nebras in Syria and Vincent in Uganda about how completing an IMI programme has impacted their work, and what difference it's making to vulnerable people where they work.
We also met with Siobhan Walsh, CEO of Goal, and Janet Humphreys, Head of Group Services at Goal, to take a look at what work the charity is doing around the world and what difference developing their leaders makes to the work being done on the front lines.
IMI's National Management Conference was about 'Equipping Leaders to Build the Future' and we sat down with the three keynote speakers to get their opinion on what will take to lead tomorrow.
We were joined by Deborah Rowland, author of Sustaining Change: Leadership That Works, who spoke about large complex change and how to manage it in this climate.
Terence Mauri, currently writing a book for the Financial Times called Leaders who Dare and talked at the conference about ‘The Leaders Mindset: Leading with Purpose’.
American professor, Nathan Furr, examined the topic of Innovative Capital and how leaders can innovate in creating a future for their businesses.
As the business environment becomes ever more competitive, disruptive and complex, future-fit leaders are required to be agile in how they think about problems, and how they deliver solutions.
This week we talk to Danica Murphy about the performance mindset; what it is, how leaders today can benefit from the thinking and development behind it, and why it’s necessary in the modern business environment. In the conversation we cover topics such as the importance of Focus, Resilience and Wellness for senior leaders.
Decisions, decisions, decisions… leaders make thousand every day, and their organisations make millions, but how can you improve a process as complex as decision-making?
In this episode we sit down with Dr. Simon Haslam, one of the lead associates on the new IMI Navigating Complex Decisions programme, and talked about what clouds decision-making, how to improve it as a leader and organisation, and why algorithms will have a hard task completely replacing humans.
This week we talk to Margit Takacs, change management consultant, on how leaders should drive, influence and support change initiatives within their organisation.
We cover communication best practices and techniques, how to structure initiatives so leaders receive timely and accurate information, how to measure results, and the common missteps leaders make during a change initiative.
Dr. Trish Gorman is one of the world's leading thinkers about strategy.
From serving as Dean of the Jack Welch Management Institute to being McKinsey’s Director of Global Strategy Learning, Trish has also developed and delivered learning programmes for some of the world's foremost multinationals.
In this week's episode we talk to Trish about what the role of a leader is during the strategy execution process, from common missteps, creating a strategic dialogue, getting the right information and being flexible and agile when your plan meets reality.
Authentic leaders are in high demand.
For the collaborative, team-orientated approach to tackling strategic challenges that dominates the modern work culture, authentic leaders are key in creating the environment for successful execution.
In this week's episode we talk to Billy Byrne, executive coach and leadership development specialist, about what happens in organisations lacking in authentic leadership, how to build a culture of authenticity and why President Trump has a lot of work to do.
Zoe Chance is a master of influence and persuasion. During the IMI Masterclass, Zoe explored how human beings really make decisions – including how they decide to spend their money – and how leaders can influence behaviours of both their employees and their customers.
In this week’s podcast, we sat down with Zoe to talk through her insights into the human mind, her favourite tactics and methods to capture attention and tells us about ‘the magic question’ – the simple technique to influence people around you.
A Yale School of Management professor, Zoe was named in the Thinkers50 Radar list for 2016, developed an executive education leadership program at Harvard University and marketed a $200 million segment of Barbie.
An actively engaged worker will be 17% more productive than their disengaged counterpart - the equivalent of an extra working day every week - but 87% of Irish employees are not engaged at work.
In this week's episode, we talk to Bruce Young, Senior Workplace Consultant at Gallup and IMI Talent Forum speaker, about the incredible data Gallup have collected on the subject, how they recommend tackling the problem, and what effects it can have on performance for those organisations that get it right.
Why do certain leaders have the ability to really engage, inspire and move people to act?
We talk to Paula Mullin, IMI Connect Lounge Speaker and Executive Coach, about Executive Presence and what it can teach leaders in how they should package themselves in order to drive their business, and teams, to success.
Go to www.imi.ie for more.
Rasmus Hougaard, Founder of the Potential Project, was the keynote speaker at the IMI Membership Launch Day.
Talking about how mindfulness techniques can create a better leader and deliver greater productivity across the board, Rasmus is one of the world's leading minds behind the 'soft' skills a leader needs to succeed.