Perspectives
My work is guided by beliefs and insights about leadership, coaching and risk. These beliefs are reflected in my recent article on what today’s leaders can learn from great conductors.
Beliefs on leadership and coaching
To enable others to enhance their achievement, experience and fulfilment, leaders need to ground their actions and judgments on a sense of identity and meaning.
People have an unceasing ability to grow and unlock their potential, in ways that they and those around them did not envisage.
Leaders and coaches have a critical role in creating the space and time required for others to learn, explore, collaborate and perform.
Leaders need to provide ‘external, organisational and inner’ leadership in an era of volatility — with the openness, humility, purpose, compassion, balance and calm this requires.
The personal and professional aspects of leadership are inextricably linked, including the importance of ‘inner work’ and our sense of care for our teams and ourselves.
AI complements and amplifies the importance of the human elements of leadership and coaching – not least the value of being fully present for the people we work with in an era of accelerating change.
Beliefs on risk
An organisation’s approach to risk is a critical foundation of its impact, growth and innovation, as well as a core part of its governance, controls and licence to operate.
Organisations across sectors have an imperative to take a holistic, systematic approach to risk, that goes beyond traditional areas of financial, operational and regulatory risk.
The foundation for effective risk management is substantive, engaged discussion at all levels of an organisation — from the board to operating teams — with time set aside to explore complex, nuanced issues.
Leadership on risk needs to form an integral element of organisations’ capabilities and culture and of what it means to be a leader in an era of volatility.
Leaders need a dual pivot: facing internally to their organisations and people, and externally to stakeholders across business, government, civil society and the media.
The evolution of AI heightens the need for organisations to put risk at the top of their agendas, alongside exploring opportunities created by AI to enhance their approach to managing risk.
What today’s leaders can learn from great conductors
From my recent article, Making music without making a sound, which draws on my experience as a conductor, leader, advisor and coach
Conducting is an almost pure form of leadership — in which a conductor’s role is to bring together up to 100 individual musicians to perform as one.
Conductors do this by applying six attributes that are directly relevant to leaders across sectors.
The first three attributes relate to things a conductor brings to a rehearsal or a performance: preparedness, purpose and humility.
The second three attributes relate to things a conductor does once they are there: create a space where things can happen, provide a path forward, and listen and respond with heart, mind and soul.
The attributes are even more relevant in an era of volatility and change, in which leaders need to bring wide-ranging groups of people together to address challenging tasks, guide them through new and uncertain terrain, and enable them to meet exacting expectations.
Selected articles and speaking engagements
‘Ensuring safe passage through stormy seas, the changing role of the General Counsel in an era of volatility’, keynote address, Global Leaders in Law, January 2026
Your interview playbook: insights on excelling in job interviews, London Business School, Think, August 2025
Making music without sound, what today’s leaders can learn from great conductors, Meyler Campbell Insights, April 2025
‘Career pivots, navigating change at any stage of your career’, London Business School, Professional Perspectives webinar, March 2025
‘Influencing without authority in Governance, Risk and Compliance roles’, panel discussion, Møller Institute, Cambridge University, December 2024
Family and family business reputation in an era of transparency (with Charlie Bain, Julian Hanson-Smith and Iraj Ispahani), International Family Offices Journal, volume 9, issue 2, December 2024
Protecting and enabling the firm, managing risk in law firms, Modern Lawyer, volume 8, issue 3, October 2024
Enabling multi-generational impact, five ways for family business leaders to take a systematic approach to risk, International Family Offices Journal, volume 8, issue 4, June 2024
Managing risk in professional services, interview with Alastair Levy, Saxton Bampfylde Insights, June 2024 (building on thinking in Alastair Levy Advisory working paper, 2023 and presentation to International Bar Association Building the Law Firm of the Future conference, November 2021)
Creating space, how a musical response to Nancy Kline’s Time to Think can help executive coaches and their clients, Time to Think, November 2023
Leading in an era of volatility, keynote address to annual leadership conference of the Association of CEOs of Greece (ΕΑΣΕ), Athens, May 2023
How global companies can manage geopolitical risk (with Andrew Grant and Ziad Haider), McKinsey & Company, July 2021
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