Conscious Leaders with Ruth Farenga

Tom Tapper | Sustainable practices as opposed to gimmicky perks

Tom Tapper is back on the podcast and this time we dive right in and talk about the forward-thinking policies they have been implementing at creative agency, Nice and Serious, where he is Co-Founder.

Tom describes being part of ‘a race to the top’ with progressive policies for employees He compares it to redecorating a house – if you start painting one wall with a fresh coat of paint then other things can feel outdates so one modern policy leads to another.

What stands out is the high degree of communication and iteration with the team to come up with strategies for people to enjoy work more fully. There is then a lot of transparency to share with the team what is working and conversely, what become a threat to the business. It feels open.

You will take away

• The details of a ‘period policy’ and what it means for women at their company
• How and why to offer extended paternity leave
• Their 4 day work week trial and why it is now 4.5 days
• Being part of a race to the top.

If you want to listen to Tom’s first episode, then check out episode 4 to learn about the Moral Compass and how their innovative ways to accept (or refuse) clients based on ethics.

Tim Williams| Intention and boundaries

Tim Williams took over Onalytica with a mandate to run it as if it was his own start-up. He had come in, disliked the original set up and resigned. However, the investors wanted him to stay so he was asked to rebuild the company as he saw fit.

Renee Watson| Human connection at work

Renee Watson is Founder of Watson Consulting and the Curiosity Box (as well as a head coach in women’s touch rugby!). She is fantastic at tuning into her team and finding out what makes them tick and shares her specific methods for doing so.

Conscious Leaders Podcast - 2022 Highlights Episode

This podcast’s purpose is to open up honest conversations. Ones that get under the surface and tell us what leadership and life are really like. When leaders share something personal or deep with us, we learn tangible and practical things.  We also connect as human beings. In hearing others’ challenges, we feel connected and validated as fellow imperfect humans.

Dominic Mills | Preserving a culture of transparency, openness and fairness

Dominic was brought up to go for big goals but to do so in a way that was considerate to those around him. This is reflective in his company, which seems to build community as much as actual business.

Skyler Mattson | The power of finding joy

Skyler Mattson is President of the global creative agency, Wongdoody. She is a corporate leader with a very ‘human’ style. This really comes across as she talks about looking after a large team of creatives. I really got the impression she was ‘one of them’! Despite her leadership role and schedule, she’s still there on the ground, involved in projects and balances the corporate elements of her role with her employees’ needs.

3 characteristics of Next Level Leaders | Ruth Farenga

This month the tables have turned and I had the fortune of being interviewed for my own podcast by the wonderful Fi Macmillan.

From this episode you will take away:

• Why I wrote my new book Next Level Leadership, nine lessons from conscious leaders
• What holds leaders back
• Memorable and practical moments of great leadership from the podcast
• Simple practices you can adopt to take your leadership to the next level

I would love your feedback so do contact me ruth@consciousleaders.org.uk with any thoughts.

Shanice Mears | Start with transparency

Shanice Mears is back on the Conscious Leaders Podcast two years later to update us on how far business has come on diversity and inclusion (D&I) since George Floyd’s death in 2020.

She shares great stories of leading businesses but talks through the reasons why much of this work is limited.

Shanice is a young, black Co-Founder of a highly successful marketing agency called The Elephant Room who help build inclusive brands.

Martyn Sibley | The life of a disabled CEO

Martyn got his latest business off the ground when he put himself out there, asked for help and then capitalised on those moments.

As a business leader, his company, Purple Goat now uses the power of disabled creatives and influencers to create engaging, progressive and representative marketing campaigns and serves big brands such as Tesco and Virgin Media.

Martyn is keen to highlight that the disability market is huge with approximately 1.3 billion people in it. He says that these audiences are underserved.

As an employer, Martyn employs 50% disabled people (across mobility, neurodiversity, hearing and visual) and he recognises that conversations around disability are not always comfortable even for someone like him because he feels like he, of all people, should get it right! He shares how we can lean into these difficult conversations and not worry about being perfect.

Martyn has experienced burnout in recent times and we explore how it’s helped him understand mindfulness at a much deeper level to help him through the tough moments as well as lean into a more modern type of masculinity.

Jon Alexander | Why the key to fixing everything is all of us

In my revisit interview with Jon Alexander, Co-founder, the Citizenship Project and now Author of ‘Citizens’, we dive deeper into his philosophy. Jon believes the story of us as consumers is broken. Practically, he gets organisations to ask themselves ‘what would it look like to bring the same creative energy into selling stuff, into involving people?’.

He says that if you see people as consumers then you’re starting from the wrong place. This is then merely about ‘how can we sell people stuff’ whereas if you start from a place of seeing them as citizens then you can ask yourselves ‘what are you trying to do in the world?’, ‘what’s the point?’. Delving into purpose in this way and distributing power is central to Jon’s philosophy.

It sounds radical, perhaps even communist to some. It isn’t. It’s down to earth stories from across business, government and wider third sector and community groups.

We explore examples from The Bodyshop, the National Trust and explore the controversial role that Brewdog have had in the craft beer space.

Jon is a deep yet practical voice on how we rethink society.