compassionate leader

Join us for another episode as we unpack the second key aspect of servant leadership: empathy, based on Larry Spears' research. We'll answer critical questions on leadership, and you'll learn how to walk in kindness that can truly help transform the lives of others through care and compassion today.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Empathy: Why it’s important and how to develop it
• Ways to empathize with your employees and why it matters
• What does it mean to be a compassionate leader?
• The role of self-empathy in cultivating compassion for others

 
Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Greenleaf’s Best Test of a Servant-Leader
• EP12: Finish Strong Friday | The Art of Listening, Servant Leadership Series Part 2

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Victoria Fox is the CEO of AAR 

In this episode Victoria shares how being a courageous leader means creating a safe space for your teams where people feel comfortable being themselves, where diversity thrives and everyone is encouraged to use their authentic voice. 

Victoria strongly believes in creating a company culture based on strong company values where diversity, inclusion and using our authentic voices are key. 

Victoria was appointed as CEO of AAR in April 2019. Having had a successful 20 year career agency side, she brings a wealth of experience of running agencies across a number of disciplines to this role - most recently as  CEO of LIDA, M&C Saatchi’s global customer engagement agency.

In her career, Victoria has had stints in digital, advertising, shopper marketing and CRM agencies

In her last two years at M&C Saatchi, Victoria took on the role of global sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion across the network. Victoria is very active in this space and sits on the WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications London) Executive committee and is Chair of the WACL Future Leaders Award.

Victoria is also honoured to have been named a Global Champion of Women in Business by the Financial Times two years in a row, in both 2017 & 2018.

Topics covered include:

• Having a daring vision
• Creating a safe space in the work environment 
• Encouraging others to use their voice
• Active listening
• Inclusive and diverse work culture

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

LIVE LONDON EVENT: https://www.thecourageousleaderclub.com/

 Rania Robinson CEO and Partner at Quiet Storm

In this episode Rania shares more on how stepping out of your comfort zone and being vulnerable is the key to leadership growth and success. As well as acknowledging when you don’t have the answers, accepting your failures and recognising when you need help are key to self-growth and development. 

She is passionate about challenging how we define leadership and what it means to feel fulfilled in a leadership role. 

Rania Robinson came to the UK from Egypt at the age of three and started school not speaking a word of English. Her early experiences sparked a life-long passion for forming connections and meaningful communication. Having spent most of her career in non-traditional agencies in both account leadership and strategic roles, she has worked with some of the world's best-known brands, including: Haribo, Mercedes, Virgin, Google and Coca Cola. 

Since joining Quiet Storm nine years ago, she has brought a 360° perspective and new energy to the agency, helping extend its service offer and broaden its sector experience. A passionate exponent of empowering women in the workplace, she is Vice President of WACL (an organisation whose purpose is to accelerate gender equality in the advertising and communication industry). Quiet Storm currently work with the Women's Equality Party pro bono. Rania is an active diversity champion and in 2020 relaunched Create Not Hate, Quiet Storm's initiative to get under-represented young people into the creative industries by unlocking their creative potential to tackle social issues that they live with every day. Rania is an active participant in D&I initiatives across the industry and a regular commentator on BBC Radio. She features in Campaign's A List of the most influential industry figures, sits on the IPA's Commercial Leadership Group, and is on AdAge’s Leading Women list of 2021. 

Topics covered include:

• Feeling the fear and doing it anyway
• Sustainable growth 
• Burnout
• Attracting great talent 
• Vulnerability 
• Self-belief 
• Accepting your failures
• How to ask for help 
• Changing leadership stereotypes
• Self sabotage
• Creating your own experiences 

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Mark is Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of SKOOT

In this episode Mark shares how he believes courageous leadership is being able to make uncomfortable choices. He has a passion for learning and his drive to believe there is always a better way keeps him and his team progressing. He shares more on how his company deal with accountability, culture and values and why his aim is to be the kindest agency. 

Mark Stringer (aka Strings) is a marketing specialist having spent nearly 30 years Agency and Client-side working for numerous world renowned brands. With a passion and love of start-ups, launching brands and developing campaigns that create a strong emotional connection, alongside driving sales.

Mark founded PrettyGreen In 2008 when Red Bull asked if they could give him Wiings. With an original vision for PrettyGreen to be an integrated Communications Agency alongside being a business that helped start-ups, with the Agency based out of Red Bull’s office for the first six months.

The Agency focuses on delivering “Less Ordinary” Comms, having worked with the likes of Red Bull (including 4 years on the Stratos Project), Snapchat, LEGO, Three, Under Armour, John Lewis, Nintendo, and Nando’s to name but a few.

Mark is now Chair of comms Agency group, PrettyGreen (PrettyGreen (PR) The Producers (Events) and What They Said (Influencer).

Mark plays an active part in the marketing industry, judging numerous Awards, writing and commenting for various publications. He sat on PRCA Council a number of times and spent 6 years on the Channel 4 Britdoc Film Foundation as a Non Executive Board Director.

Mark is co-founder of Metropolitan Spirits, which has a portfolio of Absinthe’s, La Maison Fontaine. Distributed globally through 5* and premium bars and has created the world's most Awarded blanche Absinthe.

Topics covered include:

• Doing what you love and identifying that 
• Difficult decisions
• Building a diverse team 
• Learning from others
• Self drive and ambition
• Thirst for knowledge
• Building a safe environment for people to do their best work 
• Accountability
• Culture & values
• Kindness
• Recognising destructive habits & behaviours 
• There's always a better way 
• Leadership is responsibility 

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Sarah Hesz - CCO of Bubble Childcare - helping working parents.

In this episode Sarah shares how she believes the most powerful attribute as a leader is to be authentic and true to yourself. She's a huge advocate for making mistakes and believes if you’re not making them then you're not being creative enough and playing too safe. 

We discuss how all decisions you make will not always be right, but they will guide you to a better place, how to trust and back yourself, navigate emotion resourcefully and how courage is in the small moments that add up. 

Sarah worked in advertising for a decade but after baby 2 entered the world of start-ups and hasn't looked back. She has built teams from scratch and now leads the growth team at Bubble, an app connecting parents to babysitters and nannies that their friends already know, use and trust. Sarah is passionate about getting more women into leadership positions and feels that childcare is integral to this. She has a particular interest in the transition women go through when they become a mother and has a TEDx talk and book on this subject.

Topics covered include:

• The importance of clarity
• Self confidence
• The evolution of leadership
• Being humble
• Difficult conversations
• Courage in the small moments, doesn't always have to be big gestures
• Growth mindset 
• Failure is feedback and inspires growth 
• Having a bigger vision an admission 
• Being authentic and true to yourself 
• Embracing mistakes 
• Feeling lonely in leadership

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Sam Garrity is Co-Founder and CEO of RocketMill. 

In this episode Sam shares how during Covid his company grew 41% which he believes is due to putting his people first, over profit. He explains that by looking through the lens of your people you understand how they see, think and feel and therefore you can align with them making them feel understood and build a stronger culture and sense of unity. 

He agrees leadership can be terrifying but if you lead as a human you allow people to see you and you are more accepted and received and achieve more effectively together. 

Over the past decade, Sam has successfully led his team from being a self-funded start-up serving micro-businesses, to being one of the largest independent UK digital marketing agencies, working with ambitious SMEs and global brands. One of the keys to RocketMill's success has been nurturing a famous employer brand, embedding a people-first philosophy, which sees them regularly placed towards the top of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, and recently become an employee-owned company.

Topics covered include:

• Scaling during Covid 
• People over profit 
• Creating culture 
• Leading as a human
• Giving safety, security and certainty increases performance 
• Understand what your people need
• Leadership then and now

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Chad Warner is the founder of WeVee and most recently Creative Director at 72 and Sunny.

In this episode Chad shares how he believes the better you know yourself as a leader, the better you can serve your team and why vulnerability and transparency are key skills in leadership. He shares openly with his team which allows them to access their truth and increases trust, communication and ultimately performance.

We discuss the need to set boundaries and how we create and manage them, why micro achievements are far more freeing and how to bring playfulness and joy to the workplace.  

Chad’s one of the most modern, integrated, experienced, awarded, egoless, passionate creatives you’ll meet. He has a deep love for how creativity, strategy, culture and modern media collide to build brands that continually adapt and thrive.

He’s been an executive creative at RAPP London, Partner at CHI&Partners (the&Partnership) and Integrated CD at McCann London. He’s won over 200 awards and worked on some incredible projects like Lexus Slide, Xbox Survival Billboard and L’Oréal’s Vogue Non-Issue.

Chad even raised over £2 million to start a new brand focused on helping everyone switch to electric cars – just so he could go through the process of building a business from the ground-up. All with the aim of eventually returning to agency life with a deeper understanding of how to help agencies, creatives and clients navigate every layer of brand building and advertising today.

Topics covered include:

• Human leadership 
• Vulnerability 
• Transparency
• Setting and managing boundaries 
• Why creatives will always give more 
• How to resourcefully share your fears and pressures 
• Knowing your strengths and weaknesses
• The value in getting a mentor
• Shared ownership - you are not the glory 
• Joy and playfulness in the workplace 

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Jessica is Managing Partner and co-founder of CreateFuture. 

In this episode Jessica shares more on how leaders come in all shapes, sizes and flavours and considers herself an introverted leader. Her passion was to build her own company as it allowed her to live out her values and build a culture she wanted to be a part of. She explains that culture takes focus, energy and effort especially in a scaling company and how leadership is all about consistency, sometimes boring but necessary. 

Her most courageous moment was taking some time out of the business and she explains courage doesn't have to mean impulsive and big, courage can mean different things. 

CreateFuture is an innovation & design company that puts creativity to work, driving sustainable growth through brand, proposition and experience design. Based in the UK, they work with international brands such as adidas, Expedia, and Penguin Random House.

Jessica has successfully run multi-million pound digital and technology projects, accounts and agencies during her 20-year career. She co-chairs the BIMA Scotland Council and actively supports the wider digital community including Girl Geek Scotland, Ladies Wine Design and Agencynomics. Jessica is active and passionate in the building of happy, healthy teams in the creative industry and the empowerment of women to believe in themselves.

She also loves Nike trainers, Michelin star meals in glamorous locations and her cat Missy.

Topics covered include:

• Values 
• Creating a culture your proud of
• Responsibility 
• People over profit
• Setting boundaries
• Calculated risks
• Scaling a company
• Burnout
• Accepting when people dont fit and how to move forward 
• Holycratic systems
• Accountability 
• Clarity 
• Protecting your team 
• Personal development plans for your team 

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Neil Davidson is the CEO of HeyHuman and HeyLab.

In this episode Neil shares more on how he believes courage is pushing yourself and others to a place that’s better for both. 

We chat about taking risks, being brave and setting a believable vision that you give a realistic timeframe to. Neil is also passionate about reskilling his team and investing in education and training to show that they matter, as he believes this is the heart and core of leadership. 

HeyHuman was launched in 2014, believing that the relationships between people and brands had changed, and so brands and agencies had to as well.

Since 2014, HeyHuman has won awards such as Business Transformation Agency (The Drum), Gold at the Campaign Experience awards, and a finalist for CEO of the Year (The Drum). It has also grown its work with creatively driven brands such as Guinness and Smirnoff globally.

Previously, Neil has led, launched and re-positioned advertising agencies in the UK and Europe. He has an MA in Creative Writing and recently completed an MBA at Warwick Business School.

Topics covered include:

• Remembering your roots
• Caring about people
• Learning from bad examples, as well as good 
• Setting a future vision
• Giving change the right time frame 
• Being brave
• Reskilling your team 
• Knowing yourself 
• Finding the fun in your work 

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

Metz Bryan-Fasano is the Co-Founder and Production lead at theOr (Part of the Mother family). 

In this episode Metz shares how she discovered the courage to stand up for what she believed in and how one bold move created her next opportunity. Metz believes strongly in transparency and vulnerability as a leader using emotional intelligence to influence the creative process and connect with people to make the best work possible. 

We also talk about why it’s important to find your voice, back yourself, keep listening and learning and enjoy life! 

So many insights and wisdom on being a leader and what you can access when you step into your courageous zone.

Metz has worked at award-winning agencies including adam&eveDDB and McCann London, and most recently at BBC Creative where she was responsible for establishing processes and building their Project Management department.


Topics covered include:

• Showing vulnerability
• Leading by example
• Taking risks & trusting yourself 
• Standing up for what you believe in 
• Making bold moves 
• The importance of open mindedness
• Not having all the answers
• Connecting to your team to get results 
• Leadership is a two-way street - you can learn from your team 
• The importance of listening
• Finding your voice 

Follow Joanna Howes and The Change Creators: 

Website: https://www.thechangecreators.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/

In this episode Nicky shares how she navigated her way through imposter syndrome to become one of the most successful creative leaders in her industry.  

How becoming a mum changed her perspective for drive and success.

We also explore how creative people have all the skills to run businesses yet there are not many taking on this role and what could be stopping this.

So many insights and wisdom on being a leader and what you can access when you step into your courageous zone.

Nicky was the first creative woman to become chair of a UK marketing agency, that being the multi award-winning MRM in London, and has just been promoted to Chair of MRM Europe. Creatively recognized across nearly all the major shows, Nicky thinks she’s probably worked across every media and sector - but direct and digital are where her heart lies. She’s been writing professionally for 30 years and despite running a huge operation, she also keeps her hand in writing and ideating as often as she can. She is a fierce champion of the customer and believes insight is all. She is also hugely passionate about effectiveness - it’s only great work if it works.

Nicky says that the campaign of her career is the one we’re all living right now, the campaign for equality.

Topics covered include:

• Imposter Syndrome
• Why it’s good to speak out when things don’t feel right 
• Why leaders to think about the long game
• Making tough decisions
• Creating the right environment for courageous action 
• How we all feel fear whatever our level 
• How ridiculous can be genius and to nurture that in the workplace
• Understanding human beings
• Why it doesn't matter if you have a degree or not
• Finding your motivation 
• Finding your sunshine to grow authentically and fully 
• Why comparing yourself to yourself is where true growth lies 

Follow Joanna Howes
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/
The Change Creators - https://thechangecreators.com/

AJ is Head of Marketing at Klarna UK and one of Campaigns Power 100.

In this episode AJ shares how It takes courage to step out and away from the 'norm' of the 'old' 'usual' way of doing things and trust yourself to disrupt for future success.

How you need to identify and understand what your contribution is and be okay that you won't know it all but trust that you bring value. By being confident in the value you bring this will remove the fear and anxiety that comes from fear of failure.

How to use the ‘Human First’ approach to build relationships, connections and be comfortable in your own skin.

So many insights and wisdom on being a leader and what you can access when you step into your courageous zone.

Prior to his current role, AJ led marketing for The Lion's Share (United Nations Development Program) and was instrumental in both its creation and success, helping secure: Gucci, Mars Inc, Cartier, and other partners.

AJ has also held senior roles in creative agencies across BBDO, McCann and Ogilvy, most recently as General Manager at BBDO Australia where he led the Mars business. His experience spans through FinTech, FMCG, Music, Entertainment, Technology, Gaming and Fashion. 

Topics covered include:

• Listening & trusting your gut instinct
• How to gain clarity of thought
• Why it’s courageous to step out from the ‘norm’ 
• Understanding your contribution
• Self-belief
• Finding a mission bigger than you 
• Human first leadership
• Difficult conversations
• Giving your team autonomy 
• How to build relationships to inspire risk and creativity 
• Being accountable 
• Learning from mistakes 

Follow Joanna Howes
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannahowes/
The Change Creators - https://thechangecreators.com/

Listening with empathy is a skill we all need if we want to be compassionate communicators. In this episode I talk about how we typically listen and respond autobiographically, when that's okay, and when we need to step up our listening skills and lean in with empathy. Learn about the three worst things to say; and at least three responses that will leave the other person feeling heard, respected and validated every single time. Here we go!

This year has been difficult for most industries, and that includes the beauty salon space. The closure in California has especially been tough for a lot of beauty salon and barbershop owners. Joining Ryan Weeden on today’s show is Gayle Fulbright, the owner of Headlines The Salon which has been named a Salon Today Top 200 Salon for thirteen years straight! Gayle gets intimate with Ryan as she talks about the challenges they’re facing during this pandemic shutdown and shares some salon survival tips, including how she’s leading and being a support figure for her staff.

Be Bold, Be Brave, Be YOU.

Thanks for you listening.
-Ryan


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If you're someone who struggles with delegating tasks and responsibilities to your staff because either it hasn't always gone well in the past or there's too much at risk, this episode is exactly what you need. I'll walk you through the six levels of delegation and explain what to delegate, to whom, when to do so, and how to make your request so that the end result is exactly what you need. Sound impossible? Just click play:)

When you're ready, go to https://debbie-lawrence.mykajabi.com/pl/146059 to get your free copy of the Six Levels of Delegation quick reference guide. Print it. Even laminate it! And place it somewhere in your workspace where you can quickly use it to help you delegate with ease!