Performance Leaders Podcast - Season 1 Review

We’re now into our third season of the Performance Leader’s podcast, so we’re taking the opportunity to look back. First up, our season 1 review. Season 1 featured thought leaders in the professions, from Australia, the US, and the UK and Europe.

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We kicked off with Ron Baker. Ron is co-host of the popular podcast series, Soul of Enterprise (SOE), so having him as our first guest was both intimidating and reassuring. The focus of our discussion was After Action Reviews (or debriefs). Ron has been a passionate advocate of AARs and their capacity to improve performance and productivity. We focussed on the why, what, and how of debriefs. Debriefs remain, in our view, the most compelling yet under-utilised tool for firms to innovate and improve. Check out Ron's SOE interview with Chris Stricklin and The Best Learning Method Ever Devised: AARs.

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We then heard from endurance athlete, Samantha Gash. Sam, a former lawyer who now runs for social purpose, raising awareness and money for charities that support young women. Sam’s insight into personal and team high performance is forged in adversity. We spoke about Sam’s 2000km run in 31 days across South Africa to increase access for young women to feminine hygiene products. We also spoke about Sam’s 3,500km run across India in 76 days to raise money for children’s education. Sam is a great communicator and storyteller, and her resilience and determination is compelling.

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Episode 3 featured futurist Eleanor Winton. Eleanor, is a former Director of the Future Institute at KPMG in the UK, and now leads Foresightfully. We discussed with Eleanor the future state of professional services firms as they solve complex client problems. The discussion covered strategy, innovation, purpose, resource models and talent management. Eleanor was ale to pepper the interview with some simple but powerful examples of disruption and innovation. Since our podcast, Eleanor has co-authored the Disruption Game Plan. It's a great read and sets a framework for turning disruption into value.

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Murray Paterson was our fourth guest in the series. Murray is a mindfulness coach and instructor, and senior consultant with Potential Project. He has successfully deployed mindfulness programs in global professional firms. Murray's reflections on how mindfulness can help even the most seasoned advisors do a better job, live a happier professional and personal life is inspiring. In the podcast we explored the link between mindfulness and high performance, and how successful firms and sporting organisations use mindfulness to achieve sustainable high performance and well-being.

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Podcast five in the series was a conversation with Joel Barolsky, Australia’s leading strategy consultant to the professions and founder of Barolsky Advisors. We discussed our Managing Partners’ Forum 2019 collaboration where we explored the Law Firm of 2030. We considered this future firm through the lens of the McKinsey 7S model: shared values, strategy, structure, systems, staff, style and skills. Joel’s approach, which we love, is to have an opinion, and generate debate. Our collaboration took place pre-Covid, and perhaps some of the changes forecast on a 10-year time frame are already taking place.

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Our final podcast in series one was with Michael Roch, one of the world’s leading partnerships and partner remuneration experts, and now a colleague. Michael outlined the principles for an effective compensation approach, utilising the performance to reward trilogy he has developed. We also discussed why changing models is so difficult (because the partner remuneration goes to the heart of the partnership ethos. I’m now delighted to be collaborating on a book about Partner Contribution & Compensation, to be published by Globe Law and Business in 2022.

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I'd like to thank all of our wonderful guests from series 1. Their insight and wisdom, derived from years of experience working with leading professional services firms, has made this project immensely rewarding.

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