Inspiring leadership and the importance of belonging in improving societies, with David Walker, Bishop of Manchester

gunnercooke has released the latest episode of The Inspiring Leadership Podcast, hosted by Co-Founder Darryl Cooke and Sir Peter Fahy.

The series delves into the minds of inspiring businesspeople, to learn from the very best, and to understand what makes a great leader. Insights include recipes for success, behaviours to model and practical tips from some of the best business leaders, most successful coaches, and the world’s most influential thought leaders.

In this episode Darryl and Peter are joined by David Walker, a British Anglican bishop who has been Bishop of Manchester since 2013.  He competed in the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1975, studied at King’s College, Cambridge and trained for ministry at Queen’s College, Edgbaston. He is also a member of the House of Lords.

His latest book God’s Belongers is a book that intends to transform our thinking about what it means to belong to church. David uniquely replaced the old and worn division between ‘members’ and ‘nonmembers’ with a fourfold model of belonging: through relationship, through place, through events, and through activities. From his extensive practical research, David shows how ‘belonging’ can encompass a far wider group of people than those who attend weekly services.

Throughout the podcast Darryl, Peter and David explore how the church relates to our communities, how leaders relate to our communities and how they all relate to each other.

Touching on leadership, David asks: “how can we build relationships with people nationally and internationally to tackle major issues such as climate change?” and discusses the importance of diversity, predominantly “diversity of thinking.”

Values take a lead in the discussion, particularly in how important these are to a business and wider society in order for us to feel connected and aligned with each other. David claims “in our society there seems to be a collapse in the political centre. We have become more polarised. This can mean people feel like they don’t belong.”

Ultimately David highlights the important of being part of a community in being a successful and inspirational leader. “One concern is that business leaders are often so internationally mobile do they create the roots in communities? Do they feel like they belong? Do they know their communities? Are they able to truly help?”

The conversation also leads on to the deeper aspect of life and what its meaning is with the group agreeing “simply to be happy is nothing like deep enough. It’s to be authentic and to be engaged.”

Previous guests of the Inspiring Leadership Podcast have included Vikas Shah, Hassan Damluji, Sir John Timpson and Roger Lane Smith, who discuss how to have integrity in business, the importance of mindset, the balance of process and innovation, and how CSR drives a business forward.

Darryl is welcoming inspiring leaders who are making a difference in their business or community to join him for future episodes. Get in touch to recommend a guest.

To listen to the podcast visit Spotify or Apple Podcasts.