The How of High Performance

Pete Markey is the former CMO of Boots and president of ISBAR, with 30 years spent across British Gas, One Tel, More Than, Post Office, Aviva, TSB and Boots, every role defined by coming into new sectors and driving change.In this episode of The How of High Performance, he shares what it was like to arrive at Boots post COVID when the business was underperforming and marketing had lost the confidence of the organisation, and the relationship he built first before he pitched for a single penny more.Pete talks about recruiting nine fellow CMOs to learn improvised comedy for charity and what that taught him about carrying too much of the high stakes yourself, why he believes there's no room for politics when the stakes are real, and what playfulness in the executive context actually looks like when it's done well.About the ShowThe How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders.Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent.Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure.Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show.Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops.Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

Rak Patel is Chief Commercial Officer at Channel 4, with 26 years across media owners and platforms including EMAP, the Financial Times, Microsoft, AutoTrader and seven years at Spotify where he grew the UK advertising business into a pan European operation.In this episode of The How of High Performance, he shares what it took to persuade an organisation to back a bold growth strategy that would double the size of the team and why the goal never changed even when everything around it did.Rak talks about losing his father and the way it reshaped how he thought about what mattered, the four years at AutoTrader that he nearly turned down and that became the most formative of his career, and why he says there will always be a reason not to act and the only answer is to trust your instinct and get it done.About the ShowThe How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders.Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent.Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure.Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show.Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops.Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

Claire Hollands started out heading for medical school before finding her way into advertising, spent 14 years at AMV rising to chief client officer, became CEO of Mullen Lowe and is now CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi.In this episode of The How of High Performance she talks about the merger she led at Mullen Lowe where the real job wasn't the finances or the client proposition but bringing three fierce cultural tribes together under one roof in a way that made everyone want to be part of what came next.Claire also shares the personal high stakes of leaving a 14 year career during COVID while pregnant with her second child and walking into a new agency after nearly two years away from an office, carrying what she describes as an unhealthy paranoia that nobody around her ever saw.Her advice to senior leaders is rooted in trust and in something she says sounds basic but that most leaders still don't do.About the ShowThe How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders.Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent.Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure.Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show.Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops.Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.

The How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders.Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent.Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure.Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it helps other senior leaders find the show.Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops.Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.