The Inspiring Leaders Podcast

Episode 1: Criticaleye Asia Podcast - Innovation in the Boardroom

Featuring Criticaleye Asia’s General Manager Michael Crompton, plus two Criticaleye Board Mentors Karen Fawcett and Mui Hoon Poh, this podcast was recorded following an event with Singapore Institute of Directors on the topic of innovation in the boardroom, including:

• The Board's role in creating and maintaining a culture of innovation for an organisation
• The importance of being able to have challenging conversations at board levels so innovation can thrive  
• Whether the culture of a board is influenced more by location or what type of organisation it oversees
• Diversity at board level and the impact this has on innovation
• Having Non-executives who are willing to learn, and processes which do not limit a board and what it can achieve

Episode 7 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber, it covers some of the key outtakes from our recent CEO Research, including:

• The landscape for leadership drawing upon our recent Criticaleye CEO Research 2021
• Why agility is the top area of change for leaders - what this means in practice and how to get internal processes and teams to keep up with an agile strategy 
• The relationship between Boards and executives, and how the drive for new tech is creating a need for a new type of leadership
• Followership over leadership, and why this is becoming more important
• The role of the CEO to inject energy, to give people confidence and to make sure they have the right team around them

Episode 6 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber, it covers some of the key outtakes from our recent CEO Retreat, including:

• Topics raised during our flagship event including board dynamics, customer focus, agility and purpose
• Where the CEO and top team need to align in 2021, including hybrid working, the pace of decision-making and future strategic direction 
• What the return of greater travel and movement for executives will mean for leadership energy and motivation
• Shifting mindsets of leaders from internal to external, and why CEOs need to be externally focused more than ever
• The learning process for first-time CEOs and how most Boards are now exerting greater pressure on leadership teams

Episode 5 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Managing Editor Emma Carroll, it covers some of the key outtakes from our recent HR Director Retreat, including:

• Reviewing the role of the HR Director and how it has evolved as a result of the pandemic
• The future challenges of hybrid working - how can organisations break the 'virtual-working' cycle and ensure focus on the customer 
• Relationships in the top team including how the CEO should be leveraging the CHRO going forward
• Are HRDs rethinking their career path after Covid-19? A poll taken at the Retreat reveals that many are.
• Visibility at Board level for HR leaders and whether a return to in-person interactions will impact on this

Episode 4 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Managing Editor Emma Carroll, it covers some of the key outtakes from our recent Growth Company, NED and Asia Leadership Forums, including:

• At our Asia Leadership Forum, 87% agreed that leadership teams need to be more agile. What does this mean in practice, and what distinctions need to be made between agile working across the business and the approach of leaders?
• Businesses talk about operating at pace - how do leaders ensure pace doesn't supersede profitability? 
• The difficulties of needing to change strategy when many leadership teams still can't come together physically
• How local leaders are more isolated than ever, and need the right support and development, particularly access to global reference points, to be successful
• Looking forward to our HRD Retreat at the end of April - what role does the HR Director play in today's environment? They have a core responsibility to ensure the people strategy aligns with the business strategy.

Episode 3 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Managing Editor Emma Carroll, it covers some of the key outtakes from our HR Director Forum 2021, including:

• HR Director sentiment in the current climate - are HRDs more or less positive than their executive counterparts?
• HRDs contribution to strategy - are HRDs getting a seat in the top table and can strategy be done virtually? 
• The future of the workplace and hybrid-working
• The role of the HRD in aligning the top team, plus those crucial relationships between HRD, CEO and CFO
• Benchmarking and external reference points - what role will looking outside the business play in 2021?

Episode 2 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast is part of our Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber, it covers our CEO Research 2021, including:

• The challenge of aligning people, strategy and culture in 2021
• Putting strategy back on the leadership agenda and how to overcome the difficulties of strategic debate in a virtual environment  
• Top priorities for leaders in the year ahead including sustainability and ESG
• C-suite succession - will we see a lot of change at the top of organisations in 2021?
• The likelihood of increased investor pressure this year and how leaders will approach key stakeholder relationships

Episode 1 of our "Leadership with New Horizons" Podcast Series

Offering an outlook for leadership in 2021, this podcast kicks off our new Leadership with New Horizons series. Featuring Criticaleye’s CEO Matthew Blagg and Director of Content Marc Barber, it covers key themes for leaders and senior executives in 2021, including:

• Customer and employee experiences in the year ahead - will lessons learned in 2020 stick? What changes will be long-term?
• How organisational agility and the need for leaders to move at pace in 2021 will determine success  
• Criticaleye’s CEO Research 2021, including news that sustainability has moved into CEO’s top three priorities for the first time
• HR Director pressure as the people agenda becomes even more important in 2021
• The need to reconnect in person and why Criticaleye has adjusted its support for the year ahead in response
• Why balanced and impartial benchmarking will be critical this year, especially when it comes to influencing stakeholders

Leadership Reflections On 2020 - Part 2

In this 32-minute podcast, our Managing Editor Emma Carroll speaks to Catriona Schmolke, former SVP Operational Centres of Excellence, Jacobs and Charlie Wagstaff, Managing Director, Criticaleye about the leadership challenges of 2020. They discuss:

• Have leaders questioned their ability to lead in 2020? At our CFO Retreat in November, 58% told us they had doubted their leadership
• The importance to leaders of outstanding teams
• Leadership isolation and how the virtual world has impacted leaders
• Employee engagement and support - how did this play out in 2020? Did leaders get it right in terms of maximising productivity and motivation?
• The ‘return to the workplace’ - how 2020 will transform the way we all work and interact in the future
• What our speakers have learned about their own leadership style and what they will take into 2021

Leadership Reflections On 2020 - Part 1

In this 38-minute podcast, our Managing Editor Emma Carroll speaks to Dr William Lo, Chair of Captcha Media (plus a Criticaleye Board Mentor), Catriona Schmolke, former SVP Operational Centres of Excellence, Jacobs, and Charlie Wagstaff, Managing Director, Criticaleye about the business challenges of 2020. After a year of not often getting what you want, but appreciating what you have, our leaders cover:

• How leaders have both captured and acted upon the lessons of the year
• Shared experiences of the early days of COVID-19
• The increased importance of employee wellness in 2020, and how employers took on the role as trusted reference points for their teams
• Responses from different regions - the opportunities arising in Asia as case numbers have fallen
• The challenges for leaders of balancing honesty with positivity, and the role of purpose in 2020
• How have we stayed close to and understood our customers in the last 12-months