That People Thing

I don’t think we would have achieved the success we did without the determined, consistent, honest and challenging support that Blaire and her team brought to the project. Steve Hardy
Former CEO, AXA Personal Lines.

Through her books, Blaire shares thought-provoking ideas, inspiring readers to step up and drive change.

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Leadership Change and the Future of Work

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Since 2000 I've been working in organisations, helping them drive real change in their businesses. Now I share those insights with audiences of leaders to help them create places where people can do their best work.

We are at the start of the biggest revolution in how we work in 250 years. That means we need to re-think everything we thought we knew about leadership and organisational culture. As a Journalist and Producer for BBC Radio 4's Today Programme back in the 1990s I saw how the attitudes and behaviours of senior leaders can either inspire and enable the creativity and brilliance of a team or shut it down. I became fascinated by the question "How do we create organisations that, instead of suffocating people and their ideas, allow people and their ideas to thrive?".

And that's what I've been doing for more than 20 years - coaching, provoking and challenging senior leaders and their teams to work out how they, their people and their organisations can thrive in these fast-changing times. I help leaders bust outdated notions about how to create organisational cultures that are fit for the future, and give them the confidence to really make a difference.

Most of the theories about leadership, organisational culture and change were developed by academics who rarely, if ever, worked with real organisations in real time. That's why it is claimed that 80% of change programmes don't work. Applying those theories doesn't lead to sustainable change. Seeing that for myself, I started developing my own theories and testing them out with real clients, figuring out together how to create an environment where people could do their best work.

It turns out that leadership programmes are really culture change programmes. When leaders become more sophisticated, more self-aware, more versatile in their leadership style, the culture changes for the better. Equally, culture change programmes are really leadership programmes. You can't change the culture for the better without leaders changing their attitudes and behaviours.

And both culture change programme and leadership programmes are really personal development programmes. You become a better leader and create a culture more conducive to people doing their best work when you work on fundamentally human qualities - building trust, connection, losing the ego, tapping in to a deeper sense of meaning and purpose and being willing to listen - really listen - to the people around you.

Since 2000 I've run leadership and culture change programmes for organisations like AXA, Roche, the BBC, the FA, Rexel, DX and The Welsh Assembly. Today I share the insights based on what I've learnt, and what I continue to learn, with audiences around the world.

I've written 3 successful books on the subject of leadership and am regularly quoted in the media. I am a regular guest expert on TV and radio including BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show, BBC Breakfast News, BBC Working Lunch, Sky News, BBC World and am often quoted in the national press including The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Mirror and The Daily Mail amongst others. I write a monthly column for the UK's leading HR publication HR Zone and have a regular column with AccountingWeb. I also host my own podcast, The Human Revolutionaries Show.

Leadership Change and the Future of Work

Speaking

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Everyone wants to know how to lead in these fast changing, uncertain times. How are leaders engaging and motivating their people when they aren't in the same place at the same time? How are they retaining and attracting the best talent in a tough market? How do they inspire people to deliver more change when they've already been through so much?

I share the answers to these questions, and more, in my conference speeches. We are at the very start of a workplace revolution. Conventional ideas of leadership do not apply today. Only those leaders who are deeply connected to their own values and willing to listen - really listen - to the people in their business, will generate the levels of trust required for what lies ahead. The problems out there are too complex and the solutions required are too sophisticated for a small group at the top of an organisation to resolve themselves. They need to liberate the talent, ingenuity, energy and ideas of ALL their people.

And that takes a different kind of leadership to the standard models of the late 20th century. Drawing on my real experiences working hand-in-hand with business leaders and their teams to create environments where everyone can do their best to work, I present a new kind of leadership, based on authentic human connection, trust, empowerment and continual innovation. I share practical tips that mean audiences can start collaborating with each other more enthusiastically, support their teams to solve gritty problems, create safe spaces where people can speak up and speak out, and feel inspired and energised about the future.

Leadership and Change

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A great workplace culture is one where the people you've hired can do their very best work every day; where the barriers and frustrations have been removed and where your people can collaborate with each other to find solutions and generate ideas that serve the needs of your clients and customers. Wouldn't that be great?

In my experience, the vast majority of people want to do a great job. They care about their reputation. They want to grow and develop. They want to feel valued. And they want to be able to see how their hard work turns in to tangible results. In other words, they are just like you. The trick is to create an environment where people can do that. And that's the thinking behind all of my leadership and culture change programmes.

Companies come to me because they know off-the-shelf solutions won't work. They won't adapt to the unique organisation you want to build, they won't reflect your cultural legacy, what's going on in your industry or any other developmental or cultural work you're already doing. More than that, they will be based on conventional wisdom about leadership which doesn't apply now.

People's expectations are changing, their relationship with their work is evolving, there's a war for talent and a demand for equitable, diverse workplaces where people are valued, heard and given freedom to use their initiative. That presents new challenges for leaders as they try to figure out how to create a business where people can thrive while still delivering on the promises you've made to your customers, shareholders and the wider community. You need fresh thinking, depth of experience and a burst of energy to bring your leadership and culture programme to life, inspire your leaders to think and act in new ways and make lasting, sustainable change.