We tend to ignore "tensions" until so many have accumulated that a massive amount of change is required to set things right. Of course, every time you address a tension you risk creating another one so when you undertake a massive overhaul you often unintentionally create a whole lot of new problems that need to be addressed. In today's episode I'm talking about how to identify little tensions and make small tweaks rather than waiting until a major change initiative is required. There are lots o...
Nov 19, 2017•19 min•Ep. 50
It's a year (and a bit) since I started this podcast. A year ago my plan was to sell my house and buy a smallholding and, other than that, keep my life pretty much as it was. My business was doing fine, I was enjoying my work and although I had a long term plan to add other "solutions" - like a retreat centre where leaders could come to reflect, have important conversations with each other and help me muck out the sheep - that was a long term ambition, not something I planned to initiate in the ...
Nov 12, 2017•42 min•Ep. 49
Today's show is an interview with Bryan Falchuk. Bryan in the author of a new book called "Do A Day" in which he explores why we get stuck in bad habits and how to break those habit...for good! Whether you're stuck in a rut in your work, with your health and fitness, in your relationship or something else, you will love this interview and Bryan's ideas to get unstuck. You can buy Bryan's book at http://www.doadaybook.com/amazon or http://www.doadaybook.com/amazonuk And please stay inn touch with...
Nov 05, 2017•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 48
I'm not the only Palmer to have turned their back on coroprate life to run a business of their own. Ryan Palmer and his friend Dave Pickard are the co-founders of The London Sock Company, an online store started in 2013 based on the observation that although more and more men don't wear ties these days, people do notice your socks. Since them the company has gone from strength to strength with celebrities like Daniel Craig and David Gandy wearing the products. But we're not really talking socks ...
Oct 29, 2017•50 min•Ep. 47
So excited about today's podcast! I'm talking to Lisa Talbot, Award Winning Personal & Fashion Stylist about how to shake up your professional "look" and reveal more of the real you underneath. No one's saying you have to get a mohawk and wear a safety pin through your nose but business wear is so conservative that it's almost the last taboo. Even people who are outspoken, creative and enthusiastic about shaking things up tend to conform to the uniform. And that might be undermining their cr...
Oct 22, 2017•58 min•Ep. 46
How do you release the Punk inside you? On this podcast we normally talk about the “work you” - how to be a leader in your work, how to bring about change in your organisation. But inevitably re-thinking yourself at work leads to changes in your life outside of work. In this week’s show I share four places where you could look to start to integrate your growing authenticity in work and your desire to be yourself in your wider life. These are highly practical suggestions that will make a differen...
Oct 15, 2017•18 min•Ep. 45
A listener has asked me to do a show about Parent-Child Dynamics. So here it is! I see Parent-Child relationships and a Parent-Child culture in many organisations. In so many other ways people are fully formed adults but occasionaly they slip in to either parent or child reactions...which is very understandable since the Industrial Age workplace is designed to reinforce this dynamic. In today's show I talk about how to recongise this in yourself and in others and what to do about it. I'd love to...
Oct 08, 2017•33 min•Ep. 44
Behind all of my work with clients is a kind of screensaver - a story or image of the working future we can all look forward to. Bots and AI taking their place alongside human workers, small companies of primarily freelance workers, a possible shortage of jobs and need for a universal living wage, a diverse multi-generational workforce...I could go on. And in this episode I do! This week I share with you some of the elements of my screensaver. And whenever I'm having a conversation with a client...
Oct 01, 2017•24 min•Ep. 43
You'd think the tricky bit of having a team would be the people on that team. But in my experience the really tricky relationship is with your boss! I use that term advisedly. I don't mean the relationship you have with a true leader. I do mean the relationship you have with your manager when your manager embodies a "boss" mentality to get you to get stuff done. Not everything I suggest in this podcast is going to work for you. Every situation is unique. But you will notice that I put the respon...
Sep 24, 2017•23 min•Ep. 42
I don't really like the term delegation. Or empowerment. Or any of those other cliches for describing how loosely or tightly managers hold on to work they've distributed to others. But in the current system we have, you may well be in the position of having to divvy up work amongst your team and then make sure they do it. How do you do that in a way that is as close to empowering as you can get and makes the most of the incredible talent you have around you? And why don't people always grasp the...
Sep 16, 2017•18 min•Ep. 41
Sounds like an obvious question with an obvious answer, right? But maybe it's worth really thinking about it. Because we pay a huge price for our work in terms of our health, our freedom, our time, our priorities. Yes, work is an enabler for other things. It give us the money to make choices. And we may really enjoy the work itself. But what if the price is too high? How can you find the right place for work in your life alongside everything else that matters to you? In this episode I muse on th...
Sep 10, 2017•25 min•Ep. 40
We are back! Series 2 of the Punks in Suits podcast is here. Over the summer I've been reading and making connections between what I've been learning about and leadership. I've had a few a ha moments! Today's topic is Integration, specifically, how integrated the different parts of your life are. If your life is out of whack in one area, e.g. work dominating, no amount of coaching, therapy or meditation will give you a sense of peace. If you want to share your experiences of blending the boundar...
Sep 03, 2017•28 min•Ep. 39
This week's podcast is all about listening! But before you switch off, thinking we're talking about Active Listening, listen again! In today's show I'm exploring the least common type of listening. I don't want to spoil it for you but it's this kind of listening that's required if you are intending to drive any kind of change, that involves people, through your organisation. I will be taking a break from the podcast for August to rest and come up with a fresh lot of ideas for you. You can still ...
Jul 23, 2017•18 min•Ep. 38
One of the most influential books for me of the last couple of years is Frederic Laloux's Reinventing Organisations which reinforced many of the ideas I had been having independently about what is not working any more about big business. I've been wanting to share these ideas with you and found the perfect opportunity when I met Charlie Efford, who shares my enthusiasm for these concepts. In our conversation on this week's podcast we talk about Charlie's professional history and the unusual rout...
Jul 17, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 37
I really don't like getting feedback. I don't naturally respond well! So I've had to learn some techniques for receiving it, given that I think it's actually really important to know what people think and how your messages (intended and unintended) are being received. In this week's podcast I talk through some practical ways to react to feedback even when it isn't given in the most skilled manner. I'd love to know how you have learnt to respond better to feedback and what you take on board (vers...
Jul 09, 2017•27 min•Ep. 36
Hi! In this week's episode of the Punks in Suits podcast I share some exciting personal news and the 3 beliefs I've had to let go of in order to make this personal life choice. I often say how important it is to reflect - to think before you make a decision and to question the assumptions that are keeping you stuck but also to think after you make a decision about what you've let go of. Often when you let go of a belief in one scenario you realise taht belief also kept you stuck in a variety of ...
Jul 03, 2017•20 min•Ep. 35
Today's show is a conversation with Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon of Being Boss Podcast fame. These two are real leaders - their podcast has become huge partly, I think, due to their down-to-earth yet fiesty and authentic approach to their work and their lives. In their show they help creative entrepreneurs grow their businesses and improve their lives but here they offer a fascinating insight in to how they think and what drives them as creative entrepreneurs themselves. This show is idea...
Jun 25, 2017•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 34
Tom Nixon was one of the founders of NixonMcInnes, Europe's first dedicated social business consultancy, working with a number of big name global brands. He's now an adviser to Founders helping them to grow businesses with purpose that they can be proud of. I interviewed Tom before I had started doing a podcast. I recorded it so I would have it for reference and I thought at the time that I would provide the whole interview as added collateral for anyone who read the book (which I still haven't ...
Jun 18, 2017•59 min•Ep. 33
There are some basic beliefs that I hold which I frequently share with clients. So much so that I wanted to share them with you too! I'm not necessarily "right". But no coach is completely neutral and so it makes sense for a coach to be upfront about the way they see the world. Clients can use this as a jumping off point - I don't agree...so what do I believe? Or they can see the world through the eyes of the coach and notice something different. Or they can simply observe that there is more tha...
Jun 11, 2017•21 min•Ep. 32
What can you do when it's everyone else's fault?! It's all very well looking inside for the answers and adjusting your own behaviour and outlook but maybe the problem is other people and their behaviour and outlook, right? In this episode I share a brilliant process called The Work, created by the wonderful Byron Katie. If you want to know more you MUST go to her website and download the Judge Your Neighbour Worksheet and follow her more detailed instructions (www.thework.com). However I wanted ...
Jun 04, 2017•34 min•Ep. 31
Hi! Big news - I took a nap! And the world didn't crumble. In this week's episode I muse on napping, the science behind taking breaks and the real purpose of reflection. We are so hard wired to work long hours, to fear looking or feeling lazy, to be actively in production that we ignore all the signs that human beings aren't built to operate that way. These thoughts are taking me to some radical conclusions...but more of that in future episodes. For now I'm focusing on breaking the cycle and fin...
May 28, 2017•20 min•Ep. 30
This week I'm talking to behaviourist Jez Rose about his new project - The Good Life Project. There's a lot of talk in business about engagement and employee satisfaction and "leaders" spend a great deal of time (and money on leadership development courses) trying to work out how to get a more "turned on" workforce. But what if it really isn't that complicated? What if the answer doesn't lie in fancy techniques and sophisticated models? What if we just need to feel connected with the natural wor...
May 21, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 29
I'm a leadership futurist which means I'm looking for business trends and how they will impact how we need to be to lead. But often the trends seem really BIG. Yes, you like the idea of Agile or Teal or AI but how can you make an impact when these concepts seem to require a massive change at the heart of business? In this episode I talk through some of the trends I've been nattering about lately and then how you, as an individual, can start to make a difference by turning your attention inward. ...
May 15, 2017•24 min•Ep. 28
Author, speaker and Canada's first Coach of the Year, Michael Bungay Stanier, is my guest today on the show. And we're talking Coaching! I always say that leaders listen and that they particularly listen to the stuff they don't want to hear. Well, in this podcast Michael shares a few of the most important questions you can ask so that you can sit back and do some listening. In this way, by adopting a coach-approach, you move in to the role of "creating the space" rather than fixing all the probl...
May 07, 2017•48 min•Ep. 27
We're so used to working the way we work - specific hours, sitting behind a desk, holding meetings in a meeting room, having lunch at lunchtime etc. etc - that we don't really questions whether that's the only way. This week, while visiting a client's lovely offices, I wondered why we treat work so differently to home. Why do we make our homes so relaxing, such an expression of ourselves but don't notice that our workplaces are bland, formal, highly structured and not necessarily conducive to th...
Apr 30, 2017•17 min•Ep. 26
Lee is a force of nature. Down to earth, humble and funny, he's also a guy who thinks and acts BIG. He was pivotal in revolutionizing how major companies used their websites back in the late 1990s, is more recently the founder of THNK Vancouver, and his latest project is to create Bicycle Mayors in every major city in the world in order to turn the bike, a 200 year old invention, in to the transportation mode of the future. I loved talking to Lee partly because he thinks so differently to much o...
Apr 23, 2017•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 25
Certain behaviour just drives you nuts, doesn't it? When things don't go the way you want, when people don't behave the way you expect them to, when life doesn't go as planned it causes stress and frustration. But when we fight reality we aren't able to resolve "what is" and instead we use all of our energy trying to make things how we want them or expect them to be. In this episode I talk about the battle with reality and how to notice and expose it so that you can disrupt the true reality. Tha...
Apr 16, 2017•15 min•Ep. 24
Hi folks! People sometimes come up to me after a presentation and say they could never speak like that. Well, if they knew a few simple tips - things that I've learnt along the way that make the difference and that can easily be copied - they would be able to do it too. To prove it, I'm sharing some of the little things I do before and during a presentation that help me with nerves and that help me construct a presentation that works from the stage. I'd love to hear your tips too. So contact me ...
Apr 02, 2017•33 min•Ep. 23
This week I'm speaking at the inaugural Agile Working Event in London. I'm anticipating a lot of talk about technology, processes and systems all of which are important to support an agile culture. But the culture bit comes first. Companies that expect agility to result from policies and technology without looking at the cultural mores of their workplace will find the same issues they have today, only magnified, when they attempt to be more agile. And whose job is it to create the culture? Leade...
Mar 26, 2017•29 min•Ep. 22
Wherever I go, senior people tell me they wish their people would step up and take ownership of their job. So in this week's episode I talk to Mark Fritz who is all about ownership! I his keynote speeches and workshops he explores how to create a sense of ownership amongst your people and what that requires of leaders. I loved talking with Mark who is full of easy to remember concepts and tips. I'm confident you'll take a lot from it too. Stay in touch with me on twitter (@blairepalmer), instagr...
Mar 19, 2017•55 min•Ep. 21
