Listen to the 'interview with...' archive
Dr. Samantha Collins interviews leading names in the world of business, academia, non profits and personal development.
Robert Holden on 'Raise Your Profile, Achieve More, Work Less, and Stay Happy'
Dr Samantha Collins in conversation with Robert Holden, Ph.D., the Director of The Happiness Project and Success Intelligence. His innovative work on happiness and success has been featured on Oprah and Good Morning America, and also in two major BBC TV documentaries, The Happiness Formula and How to Be Happy which have been shown to more than 30 million TV viewers worldwide. He is the author of the best-selling books 'Happiness NOW!', 'Shift Happens!' and 'Success Intelligence'. Robert has presented lectures in 25 countries and worked with clients including Dove, The Body Shop, the BBC, Virgin Media, Unilever and Sony.
This interview is a shot in the arm for those who want to change their outlook and make a positive shift in their whole approach to raising their profile. Robert tackles fundamental everyday concerns that can undermine your success and happiness. Using an inspirational blend of stories, insights and practical exercises, he'll show you how to shift the stuff that hold you back, transform negative thoughts, release fears, and embrace a new level of creativity
Kathryn Britten, Lucy Caslon and Staness Jonekos on 'Raising Profile – Success Strategies: An HQ panel discussion'
Listen to Dr. Samantha Collins in conversation with three very different women leaders as they discuss the importance of creating and maintaining a strong and effective professional profile. This panel of extraordinary women from different backgrounds and working in different fields offer their advice in attaining your professional goals, share their top tips, techniques and strategies and reveal what they did well, what they would have done differently and what they would never do again.
Profile Raising Questions covered include –
- What does raising your profile mean to you?
- Why is it important for women to raise their profile?
- How have you successfully raised your own profile?
- What are the common challenges on profile raising and how can they be overcome?
- What is your top profile raising strategy?
Kathryn Britten – Chair, KPMG Forensics
Kathryn is an active supporter of women in business and regularly contributes to the debate around attracting and retaining female talent in the workplace, in 2008 winning the Accountancy Women of Achievement award for Women in the City. She has more than 30 years' audit and accountancy experience and is one of the UK's most senior professionals in accountancy 'expert witnesses'. She has worked on a number of high profile commercial disputes concerning businesses across the globe and has given evidence both before tribunals and in the High Court on many occasions.
Staness Jonekos – Launch Executive Producer, Oxygen Media
Staness was one of the original executive producers who, along with co-founder Oprah Winfrey, launched Oxygen Media. She is an advocate for women's health, wellness and empowerment and has devoted most of her career to women’s issues. She co-created the Be Fearless campaign at Oxygen Media, as well as producing and directing ‘Inhale’, a daily yoga exercise show; executive produced ‘Who Does She think She Is?!’ profiling powerful women; ‘Just Cause’ featuring celebrities and their causes; ‘Oxygen Women’s Forum’ with Vice President Al Gore and ‘Worth the Risk’ partnered with WITNESS, a Peter Gabriel organization committed to global human rights.
Lucy Caslon – Founder, Msizi Africa
Lucy, winner of the prestigious Vodafone Foundation World of Difference Programme, is the Director of Msizi Africa, a charity she founded in June 2007 after living with 50 orphans in an orphanage in Lesotho, Southern Africa. Raising her profile is incredibly important so that she can fund raise as she now feeds over 1,000 children. She has had plenty of adventures raising her profile to raise money for the children – she has climbed Kilimanjaro and her next challenge is going to the North Pole which she aims to do in April 2013. She has shark cage dived and was even paid £120 by a group of traders in the City to down a pint a beer (which she duly did as it would feed 2 children for a year). She managed to secure a three page article in the News of the World, which until recent revelations, was the piece of PR she was most proud of. She was runner up for the Clarins Most Dynamisante Woman of the Year Award and was been shortlisted for Red and Cosmo magazine’s Woman of the Year Award once and twice respectively. She is also on the shortlist for the Dods and Scottish Widow’s Woman of the Year Award in the charity category which is announced in September.
This discussion was aired live as part of September's programme of events on The HQ, Aspire's online personal development programme. For more information on The HQ, or to join, click HERE.
Emma Chilvers on 'Make It So, Number 1 - How the Women of 2011 Will Become Their Own Boss!'
"At the end of a long and exhausting day where we had agreed a whole set of actions, one of my clients thrust the meeting papers in my chest and said 'Make it so, number 2.' What my client didn't realize at the time was how hard his 'little joke' had hit home.
The truth was he was right. My entire professional career was run along 'make it so, number 2' lines. I was a successful partner in a consulting firm, delivering someone else's dreams and goals. I did great work with clients, helping them deliver their dreams and goals, not mine. My working life was living out everyone else's dreams and goals. This was a wakeup call and I no longer wanted it to be that way. It was time to ‘Make it so, number 1’"
As a result of this wake up call, Emma has joined a growing number of women who are their own bosses. Like many of her fellow entrepreneurs, Emma is now following her own goals and has set up her own business, www.leaderwithin.co.uk. She works with leaders who are driving important changes to their teams and organizations and helps them uncover what is getting in the way of success, even if it's them!
Prior to 'making it so, number 1', Emma was at PA Consulting Group where she worked for 11 years and successfully navigated the ranks to partner for 5 of those years. She sat on the Partner Election Committee, a body accountable for the development and performance of the partner group. Prior to working in management consultancy, Emma worked in industry for SmithKline Beecham (now GSK) and BP.
Today, Emma manages to balance running her own business with being a non-executive director as well as exploring other interests and passions. During this call we will hear from Emma on some of the hints and tips she has to share on how to 'make it so, number 1’.
Gillian Shapiro on 'When Commitment Just Isn't Enough - Executive Leaders and the Women of 2011'
‘A majority of executives believe that gender diversity improves financial performance, but far fewer translate that belief into action’ ('Moving women to the top': McKinsey Global Survey results, October 2010). Join us to hear Gillian discuss the role of senior leaders - particularly executive leaders – in developing women leaders for 2011.
Gillian has helped many organizations across public and private sectors to increase the diversity of their workforce and leadership teams and create more inclusive work environments.
Previously, at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management at the University of Brighton, Gillian led research in the UK and across Europe on diversity, employee engagement and innovation. Her PhD thesis focused on the development of women as leaders and the organizational approaches that really work in practice to support this.
Gillian's focus is positioning diversity as a strategic strength – not a program. The research she co-authored – 'Reframing Diversity' defines the role of executive leaders in drawing strategic advantage from diversity. Gillian has worked with organizations on gender, race and disability and has co-designed their benchmarking models used to assess the outcomes of diversity programs. She is currently the diversity advisor to the Broadcast Equality and Training Regulator in the UK which works in partnership with the broadcast industry in a unique way to help it continue to raise its game to build a skilled and diverse workforce.
Jenny Daisley on 'How the Women of 2011 Will Inspire Each Other - and How You Can Do It Too'
Inspiration is the magic spark that can turn a plan into a passion and good intentions into dogged determination. It can turn a job into a vocation and give courage to any tentative dream. In Jenny's work across cultural, racial and corporate barriers, she has been able to observe how women from all walks of life gain inspiration and provide it for others.
Jenny Daisley, Chief Executive of the Springboard Consultancy Ltd, is one of the most experienced and skilful women's development consultants in the world. A lifetime of creating and delivering extraordinarily successful, women's development programs has resulted in 200,000 women in 33 countries having experienced her down-to-earth programs and her materials having been translated into 12 languages. Her most recent work has been the training of 100 women, from a wide variety of backgrounds, as women's development trainers across the Middle East.
In addition to the many awards won by her various programs, Jenny was personally presented with the 'European Women of Achievement Award' for 'developing pan-European understanding and inspiring others'.
In this interview, she will expand on her observations, illustrate them with practical examples and outline how all of us can inspire ourselves and others to be both successful and happy at work and in life.
aspire clients say...
"Thank you for [the event] yesterday - it was amazing (as Aspire courses always are). I left totally re-energised and raring to go – so thank you!!”."
Belinda Stacey, Retail Marketing Manager, A&N Media
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