In this podcast, James Beasley, Senior Director at Nasdaq Governance Solutions, discusses how organisations and boards can evolve their risk management practices in response to a changing risk landscape. James outlines how non-financial risks are becoming more prominent and discusses the challenges in managing these less tangible, more complex risks. He argues that their universal nature means that organisations can no longer afford to forgo risk oversight and governance. James describes how many organisations are innovating to ensure they are equipped to manage what is becoming an increasingly complex space.

In this podcast Sharon Constançon, CEO of Genius Boards, offers advice for company secretaries and governance professionals on managing the challenges they face in their role, from gaining feedback and stretching themselves to learning tactics to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Sharon advises compartmentalising the noise of the role to gain control of it. She describes how to handle the inevitable left hook and the value of being the trusted expert who absorbs panic rather than creating it. Sharon highlights the power of conversation initiated by the governance professional to fix a broken relationship, as well as discussing how to own up to a mistake and how to avoid being seen as a ‘blocker’.

In this podcast Alex Efthymiades, Director and Founder of Consensio, discusses workplace conflict. Alex argues we aren’t taught the skills we need to successfully navigate conflict; therefore, we avoid it because it feels uncomfortable. However, Alex believes conflict can be positive, enabling us to clear the air and become more productive. She says it’s important to create a workplace environment where healthy conflict can flourish. This can be done by establishing psychological safety where everyone feels able to speak up without being punished. This is particularly important in the boardroom, where constructive challenge is needed to avoid groupthink.

In this podcast Sophie Paton-McDermott, a partner at Make Happy, explains how to approach and conduct difficult conversations. She argues that being skilled at having difficult conversations can make you more effective and advises being strategic about the conversations you have. Sophie says it’s important not to put off tricky conversations and describes how reframing a conversation in your mind, as well as using breathing techniques, can help you cope. She says it’s natural to become defensive and/or emotional and advises naming emotions to achieve a constructive conversation. Sophie argues the best conversations happen in person when the timing is right.

In this podcast Daniel Roach, Senior Technical Lead at Company Matters, discusses the latest developments in ESG reporting.

In this podcast, Jennifer Sundberg, Co-CEO of Board Intelligence, discusses her company’s theory of collective intelligence, which advocates moving away from superstar CEOs and board-centric decision-making to recognising the whole organisation’s potential to make great decisions.

In this podcast Peter Fowler, Managing Director at Lumi UK, looks at how annual general meetings (AGMs) are changing.

In this podcast, Ben Fielding, Head of Sales for Global Entity Management at TMF Group, talks about the challenges facing organisations in carve-out situations.

In this podcast we are talking to Sharon Constancon, CEO of Genius Boards, about leadership in the boardroom.