Parenting, career pause and leadership under pressure | Ian’s story Artwork

The Alternative Leader Podcast

The Alternative Leader Podcast, hosted by the award-winning Coach, Therapist and Mediator Mari Williams, The Mind Architect - "The Alternative Leader" has a mission: to enable the powerful insights and learnings of real people from all walks of life to be shared; to help us and our leaders of today to lead with new-found strength, humanity, determination and compassion, whilst achieving healthy life balance. The alternative leaders have learned from their successes and mistakes; now they're ready to share those lessons with Mari and all of us. How can we gain resilience? How can we make better decisions? How can we all become happier people? How can we lead, better?We focus on challenge and resilience by getting to the grit and discovering the gold in in-depth conversations on real life and its lessons: Leaders including, CEO's and entrepreneurs, actors and athletes, key influencers and key-workers; those alternative leaders who've forged their own path, those who've crashed and burned and risen again.. all share their stories with Mari.Hosted by the award-winning Coach, Therapist and Mediator Mari Williams, The Mind Architect -voted Best Executive Coach UK, co-author of "Fit for Purpose Leadership", author of "The Alternative Leader" (book due out this year) & regular BBC radio contributor.

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The Alternative Leader Podcast

Parenting, career pause and leadership under pressure | Ian’s story

May 12, 2021 • Mari Williams, The Mind Architect

0:00 | 1:02:06

Ian shares how the birth of his daughter, following an emergency caesarean and a rare chromosome deletion diagnosis, reshaped both his life and leadership.

We explore how these experiences influenced his thinking, including putting his career on hold for seven years, navigating responsibility and how personal life directly impacts leadership and decision-making.

This is a conversation about parenting, leadership, pressure and how real-life events shape the way we lead and manage others.

Beyond this, Ian reflects on the unexpected connections between places like the Caribbean and Amsterdam, and how the idea of “getting it wrong safely” applies to both parenting and leading teams. His story brings a more personal, lived perspective to what leadership really looks like over time.

Find out more about Mari: www.mari-williams.com