What Matters: Recent Episodes
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In What Matters, we discuss a key business issue with our guest and explore why it matters right now.
Marie-Claire Dwek, CEO of Newmark Security, shares what authentic leadership looks like – unmasked.
In this episode, Nicola Hunt talks to Marie-Claire Dwek, CEO of Newmark Security, about what it really takes to lead as your true self. Marie-Claire helped found the company in the 1990s, was forced to step away during a personal and financial crisis. She then spent 12 years rebuilding her career in commercial property before being invited back to lead Newmark as CEO in 2013. Marie-Claire speaks candidly about how that experience shaped an unmasked style of leadership - one built on honesty, vulnerability and resilience.
Marie-Claire argues that being open about her own setbacks has never undermined her authority; if anything, it has been foundational for it. She explains how she brings this same awareness to her team, encouraging colleagues to be truthful about what they’re going through. She also reflects on her own periodic “resets” and the values that have enabled her to keep moving forward.
Key Topics Discussed:
• What an authentic, unmasked leadership style looks like.
• How 12 years away from Newmark, rebuilding her life after a personal and financial crisis, shaped the leader she is today
• Why vulnerability strengthens authority rather than undermining it
• How to build team resilience
• The importance of regular re-sets in life
Featured Guest:
• Marie-Claire Dwek – CEO of Newmark Security. Marie-Claire helped found the company in the 1990s. She then stepped away during a personal and financial crisis, and spent 12 years rebuilding her career in commercial property before returning to lead Newmark as CEO in 2013. She is transforming the business from a hardware engineering firm into a software-led global player.
Episode Summary
In this episode, Nicola Hunt speaks with Vish Alluri, co-author of The Enlightened Manager, about an approach to management rooted in the teachings of the philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti. They discuss self-understanding and deep questioning as the foundation for effective management. Vish argues that true leadership requires personal clarity of mind and an awareness of life as a whole.
The conversation concludes with an exchange on the role of artificial intelligence in management, with Vish emphasizing that AI cannot read between the lines or replace human intelligence and that leaders must have clarity within themselves to guide others effectively.
Key Topics Discussed
- The art of questioning and why discovering your own questions is more important than the answers themselves.
- The life and philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, including his rejection of organized belief systems
- Why understanding your own mind is a prerequisite for understanding and managing others
- Key management tools: The "tool of negation" and the "mirror of relationship"
- Focusing on the process ("eye on the ball") rather than being consumed by outcomes
- 'Coffee darshan' and the importance of a daily refreshment to pause for reflection and connection
- A critique of business schools for providing "symptomatic solutions"
- The role of spontaneity and why acting without expectation prevents disappointment
- The limitations of Artificial Intelligence, including the concern that our brains could decay if we don’t use them enough.
Featured Guest
Vish Alluri – Co-author with Harry Eyres of The Enlightened Mananager. As a tech entrepreneur in 1988 Vish founded IMISoft. In 1999 he went on to found communication platform IMImobile which was acquired by CISCO in 2021.
Vish is currently the Secretary of the Krishnamurti Foundation India where his role is to assist the foundation’s work to preserve and disseminate the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, responsibility of Schools in India for education of children, rural outreach work.
Resources Mentioned
- The Enlightened Manager co-authored by Vish Alluri (available on Amazon)
- A Meeting by the River by Christopher Isherwood
- The Future of Humanity in the Era of AI (booklet)
- "The Good, The Bad, Ugly and the Danger of AI" (article by Vish Alluri)
In this episode, Nicola Hunt speaks with Steve Cockram, co-founder of Giants Worldwide, about his latest book The Voice-Driven Leader. Together, they explore why leadership must evolve for the digital age, how diverse voices unlock team performance, and why self-awareness is the foundation of relationally intelligent leadership. Steve introduces the Five Voices framework and explains how leaders can create environments where every voice is heard, valued, and effectively deployed.
Key Topics Discussed
- Why leadership skills must change in the digital, complex world of work
- The shift from individual performance to agile, collaborative teams
- The Five Voices framework and how each voice contributes to team success
- How leaders unintentionally silence voices—and how to prevent it
- The role of self-awareness in becoming a voice-driven leader
- Generational differences, resilience, and their impact on workplace dynamics
- Balancing high support and high challenge to develop people effectively
Featured Guest
Steve Cockram – Co-founder of Giants Worldwide, leadership coach, speaker, and co-author of The Voice-Driven Leader
Resources Mentioned
- The Voice-Driven Leader: How to Hear, Value and Maximise Every Voice on Your Team, by Steve Cockram and Jeremy Kubitschek
- Five Voices website and resources
- The Five Voices app and AI coaching tools
We talk to communication expert, international keynote speaker and transformational coach, Ravi Rajani, about his new book, “Relationship currency: five communication habits for limitless influence and business success”.
In Relationship Currency, Ravi uncovers the five communication habits you can embody to influence, inspire, and ignite change in your prospects, partners, customers, and team through building meaningful business relationships that matter.
We explore:
- How to ask conscious questions and why they are important.
- Why Ravi believes that we all have the innate superpower of charisma.
- True authenticity vs faking it.
- How to create story-worthy questions.
- Why imperfection equals connection.
- Why the suits Ravi wears have a far deeper significance!
- Key take-aways from the book that listeners can implement right away.
Relationship Currency is available from all major book sellers and from: www.theravirajani.com/book
In this episode of What Matters, we dive into the new book from Deloitte’s Geoff Tuff (Global and U.S. Sustainability Leader for Energy, Resources, and Industrials) and Steven Goldbach (Principal, Sustainability leader, Deloitte US), Hone: How Purposeful Leaders Defy Drift.
Hone builds upon the authors’ two previous books Detonate (2018), which challenged readers to blow up outdated playbooks; and Provoke (2021), which focused on creating future advantage by spotting risk early. This third book addresses the daily work of staying on track once you've positioned yourself for advantage.
- What exactly is ‘drift’ and why is it all too easy for organisations to lose their edge in times of massive transformation?
- How can the way in which a kitchen knife is sharpened deepen strategic insight?
- What is the connection between how our nervous systems work and management systems?
- What do four artisans - a chef, a documentary filmmaker, a nautical photographer and a Canadian rock band all have in common?
- What can sailing teach us about navigating change?
In our conversation, Tuff and Goldbach make a compelling case for the power of purposeful, continuous, human-centred improvement – something that’s so much more appealing than the often-brutal top-down corporate transformation!
Workplace pressure can be detrimental to growth, development and wellbeing. In this episode of What Matters, we discuss wellbeing at work, including the issues of fear-based cultures and psychological safety.
Lesley Cooper is a management consultant with nearly 30 years of experience in the design and delivery of employee wellbeing programmes. In 1997, she founded WorkingWell, an award-winning specialist consultancy.
Other issues we explore include:
- What employers can do to help people manage stress and pressure at work?
- The leadership skills that can help to mitigate a stressful environment.
- How to move to positive high energy emotions and strong performance.
- Self-awareness, resilience and self-regulation.
- The importance of building trust and creating a culture of openness.
Lesley is also the co-author with Vicky Smith of Brave New Leader: How to Transform Workplace Pressure into Sustainable Performance and Growth. Built around incremental, achievable steps, Brave New Leader covers the tools, mindset, and courage required to turn a damaging tide of pressure and fear into enhanced engagement contribution, fulfilment and wellbeing.
Being happy at work can sometimes feel out of reach, but my guest today on What Matters, Lord Mark Price, believes that it's one of the most important things we can strive for.
Mark is an expert in improving leadership and organisational culture. He is the former Managing Director of Waitrose and Deputy Chair of the John Lewis Partnership. He has also served as UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment, President of the CMI, Chair of Business in the Community and is currently a non-executive director of Coca-Cola. He is the founder of workplace happiness platform, WorkL, which measures the Sunday Times best places to work list.
In this podcast, we discuss the book, its ground-breaking Charter, Mark’s belief that it’s our responsibility to be happy at work and how his inspiration goes back to his first day at John Lewis as a graduate.
Work Happier is published by Kogan Page and available from Koganpage.com and all online book platforms.
We talk to Wilf Blackburn, who describes himself as "a serial CEO" and who is also the author of the recently-published book, Optimal Leadership Reflections of a Serial CEO.
Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj is an academic, author and keynote speaker. Her work addresses creating inclusive cultures to strengthen the retention and promotion of women into leadership roles. She works with public organisations, NGOs and private business leaders globally including FTSE100, Fortune 500 to help them transform their cultures and work on specific interventions that strengthen gender diversity on the workplace.
We talk to transformation expert and author, Bree Groff, about her new book, “Today Was Fun, a Book About Work (Seriously)”, and discover that the solution to improved performance might simply be injecting more joy into the hours we spend at work.
The second part of our interview with Daniel Snell, co-founder of management consultancy, Arrival, looking at some of the issues affecting managers and leaders today, such as productivity and performance.
Managers and leaders are in a state of perma-crisis and the pace of change is relentless. In this two-part podcast series with Daniel Snell, co-founder of management consultancy, Arrival, we look at some of the issues affecting managers and leaders today, including why DE&I initiatives are in decline, whether AI expectations are matching the hype, and why the disconnect between senior leaders and managers is growing.
Kamales Lardi is listed amongst the top 10 global influencers and thought leaders in digital transformation and top 50 women in tech influencers. Today we're talking about her latest book, Artificial Intelligence for Business.
An interview with Nathan Shearman, a qualified psychotherapist and counsellor at Red Umbrella, on what can be done to help improve the mental well-being of men in the workplace. Red Umbrella work in partnership with large employers to deliver bespoke mental health training and support solutions.
A beehive is the ultimate business case study of a complex organisation. This lens of perspective also helps to bring a fresh perspective to some of the most pressing challenges facing leaders today.
In this episode, we talk to Philip Atkinson, author of Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive. An organisational coach as well as a beekeeper, Philip lifts the lid on what happens inside a hard-working beehive as we discuss this refreshing metaphor of working life.
To learn more and get a copy of the book go to beewisebook.com or you can find it at all the usual online retailers.
Paul Hargreaves is an author, speaker and CEO of Cotswold Fayre, one of the UK’s leading speciality and fine food wholesalers. In this podcast we discuss the concept of extravagant generosity and explore key themes in his two books. We also dive into why Paul believes that people and planet must come before profit and why this approach is at the root of Cotswold Fayre and Flourish’ success.
Imagine a workplace Christmas party with no alcohol. For today’s guest, Alex Clapp, it has become a mission to show the world that we don't need alcohol to have a good time.
In this podcast, Alex, a recovering alcoholic shares his journey and explains why the business he set up to organise non-drinking events, Claritee, is attracting so much attention.
In this interview Alex:
- shares his personal transformational journey with alcohol
- explains how and why Claritee events are so much fun, despite being alcohol free
- highlights that he doesn’t support a prescriptive approach - it’s the principle of offering people a choice that matters
- gives his predictions on the speed at which attitudes towards drinking will continue to change
Claritee was founded to fill a gap in the market for non alcoholic corporate events and training that focus on well-being whilst being fun, entertaining and challenging. It’s the first company of its kind to focus on hosting events that prove you don't need alcohol to have a good time.
In the second half of 2023, leading global executive search firm, Kingsley Gate, conducted in-depth conversations with over 35 senior executives and board members across 11 Latin American markets with FT Longitude of the Financial Times Group.
The findings highlight that most senior executive participants not only believe that decision making is both a critical component of any leader’s mandate, but also that decision making does tend to look slightly different in a Latin American context.
In this conversation with Aaron Mitchell Finegold, the Chief Marketing Officer of Kingsley Gate, we’re going to discuss key findings from this survey which builds upon their original global research also launched last year with the FT.
Julia Milner is a Professor of Leadership at EDHEC Business School and along with some colleagues, has conducted research that explores the underlying problems of micro-management and how employees can avoid it. We explore the various symptoms of micro-management with her and identify some strategies for dealing with it.
In this episode, we explore the Enneagram with Karl Hebenstreit, author of "The How & Why: Taking Care of Business with the Enneagram".
The Enneagram is a personality model that describes people in terms of nine personality types, each with its own core motivations, fears and internal dynamics. The name derives from Greek (ennéa, meaning "nine" and grámma, meaning something "written" or "drawn"). The nine types are represented diagrammatically by the points of a geometric figure called an enneagram.
In a business context, the Enneagram is used to gain insights into workplace interpersonal dynamics. The ability to take on another person’s point of view is a vital part of getting anything done successfully, and the enneagram offers an effective route to open people up to other ways of thinking.
Karl Hebenstreit is a certified executive coach, leadership and organisational development (OD) consultant, author, and international speaker. He has more than 25 years of HR and OD experience across arrange of industries. As well as "Taking Care of Business with the Enneagram" (now in its third edition), Nina and the Really, Really Tough Decision.
If you are a woman over 40 and feel that ageism is stopping you landing a job despite your experience and qualifications, this interview with Nori Jabba, author of Keeping Your Seat at the Table, a Memoir and Guide on Regaining Confidence in Middle-age , is for you.
