Inspiring leadership and the importance of kindness in business, featuring international speaker and author Dr John Blakey

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 Dr John Blakey, global CEO coach, international speaker and founder and author of The Trusted Executive. As founder of The Trusted Executive, he helps CEOs and boards worldwide create a new standard of leadership defined by trustworthiness. His best-selling books include The Trusted Executive and Challenging Coaching.

Dr John shares insights into what drives him and the importance of kindness in business. He says: “I wanted to prove that nice folk who can be trusted can also deliver outstanding results.”

The conversation goes on to what encouraged him to start his own coaching business: “I wanted to find more leaders who believed what I believed, which is that the world needs more leaders who rely on the power of trust rather than leaders who trust in power. I believe that the currency of power is depreciating and the currency of trust is appreciating”

Darryl asked Dr John what trust means to him, and Dr John shared how he believes trust can be broken down into a formula: ability times by integrity times by benevolence. He explains how you need to be competent in all three of those aspects to be able to be considered a trustworthy leader.

They also discuss benevolent leadership and CSR, helping to highlight the benefits of business beyond profit.

To listen to the full podcast visit Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Previous guests of the Inspiring Leadership Podcast have included Paul Hargreaves 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. Read more insights from our guests in gunnercooke’s business magazine for good, The Reading Room.