TesseTalks
TesseTalks inspires hope. A unique and powerful podcast where we share with you top leadership and management strategies that encourages leaders, board members and management to take action in today's world through compelling stories and conversations.
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Overthinking - Killing Your Vibes
11/13/2025
Overthinking - Killing Your Vibes
Known as the workplace culture whisperer, , a leadership expert and sought after keynote speaker, helps teams and organizations build cultures where people feel seen, heard, and valued. With over two decades of experience transforming teams across government or Fortune 500 companies and global nonprofit, she excels at bringing a human centred approach to leadership, fuelling engagement, belonging, and real-world results. Dr Jolene changed schools 33 times, Kindergarten through 12. She had to build a relationship and then move on. No surprise then that, some of her oldest relationships are from childhood days. “I looked at it in a different way. I needed to make that connection because my survival, my ability to thrive in that moment was based on me connecting. I'm so grateful that I did. This does not mean that I don't overthink things. It means that self-awareness is so important in realising how many times I am stopping myself from stepping into my best self. “ “I don’t want to be muted. There’s much power in the pause, in our present moment. Between every problem and solution is a space. Change will happen in the future. If I choose now to change something, I can't change the past, but I can change the present moment.”
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Building Resilience
10/30/2025
Building Resilience
In conversation with Laura Gates In building resilience leaders and organizations, recognise the parts of the business that are not doing well. Some parts of the system are operating ways simply out of habit or normalised patterns that aren't helpful to the business anymore. To sharpen the strategic perspective, effective leaders need to make sure they can carve out space and time to think and reflect. It's amazing the ideas, innovative, creative thoughts that come through when leaders are able to step back and get an expanded perspective. Resilience grows through connection and trust, strengthening as we collectively support each other in eco-systems that are psychologically safe. “It’s not that people don't know in many cases what they want to do. It's that they're afraid of admitting it. They're afraid it's not possible. They're afraid, they're not qualified. Worse still, they don’t feel safe being vulnerable or authentic. My encouragement is to follow that path. Follow what gives you energy that will take you where you need to go more than anything else.” shares
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My Life Caring for Frank
10/09/2025
My Life Caring for Frank
“I’m not going to say it was any prettier than it was, but it was an honour to take care of him. He was a great husband”. In “My life Caring for Frank”, Carol Weisman shares as she talks about her life caring for her beloved husband Frank. She put a pause on her consultancy and speaking. She's now returning to international work, grateful for the time she spent with Frank and looking forward to connecting with the world once again.
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Life After Loss
08/14/2025
Life After Loss
Carol Weisman founded Board Builders, an international consultant firm focused on fundraising, philanthropy, and governance in 1994. She is the author of 11 books and is writing her 12th. In 2020, her husband Frank Robbins was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease, and spinal stenosis. Carol had to take a pause on her consultancy and speaking business to care for him. Frank, sadly passed away in January of 2025. Carol is now returning to international work, grateful for the time she spent with Frank. In Life After Loss, she speaks candidly about connecting with the world once again and how life is looking since losing Frank. “I started grieving the day that he was diagnosed. Because there was no medication. I knew there was no hope. This was such a downward spiral, Frank died a little bit every day.” Carol’s endearing recollection brings her realistic vibe to a very painful experience. As a listener, you are guaranteed a smile as well as a tear. “Following a loss, the biggest problem is loneliness especially if you were connected to a lot of people because of your spouse or your work.” says Carol. Carol has started internet dating, describing dating at 76 as really "bizarre”. She ends encouragingly. “You recover at that point, it’s a process. It's not an event. You don’t all of a sudden wake up, go to a, some kind of meeting and you're okay. Every death is different, every journey of healing, recovery, and repair is different. You have got to find the pathway that works for you.”
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Talking about Teams - What Makes Teams Resilient?
07/16/2025
Talking about Teams - What Makes Teams Resilient?
Stephen Light shines light on Team Resiliency. “What makes a high-performing, resilient team is when people know that they feel safe on that team.” He says “The teams who stick together, the teams who understand that we have each other's backs. They feel safe around each other. They trust each other. They are aligned on a common vision, a common effort that they are working towards. They talk with each other, recognising where each other are, they are human to human with each other. And what that does is help people’s resiliency come out, because, when you are alone in the job that you do and you are operating in a silo in the team that you operate in, you don't have meaning, you don't have fulfilment, and life is hard. When a team isn't skilled on how to navigate differences they have between each other, what tends to happen is polarisation”.
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The Intersection of Faith, Work and Life
06/19/2025
The Intersection of Faith, Work and Life
The Intersection, Faith, Work, and Life is an introduction to God’s Design for Integrated Living. The Cities Project Global. awakens equip and unleash leaders into the city. Through Leadership Circles, the reach becomes impactful. The Leadership Circle is a nine-topic worldview journey into faith, vocation, and culture. And it's, a guided journey that facilitates the growth of leaders through these nine topics. Along the way these leaders get a clearer picture of where to focus their attention. Dr Robert C Varney and Hugh W Brandt introduce the design for integrated living in a very accessible and practical way. For instance, Bob and Hugh find that the word’ integration’ is much more helpful than ‘balance’.
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Storytelling - Leadership Narratives that Build Healthy Communities
05/02/2025
Storytelling - Leadership Narratives that Build Healthy Communities
Storytelling: Leadership that build healthy communities is such a timely theme to talk about. “If we want the best out of our people, we have to treat our people well. You can't rely on them being resilient if you're trying your best to kill them with structure. We are maturing to be more focused on the contributor, not the contribution. The biggest piece of resilience is believing that you can rebound, you can overcome, you can come back, you can heal. To believe that you can't, proves you can't, and makes it so you won't. You've got to believe that you can overcome. Being broken will be the anomaly rather than the norm. You've got to be well before you can help others be well.” says David Taylor Klaus.
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Introducing Future-Focus, Well-Being and Resilience
04/15/2025
Introducing Future-Focus, Well-Being and Resilience
Future-Focus, Well-Being and Resilience focuses on journeys that can keep us well and support our resilience. No two journeys are the same. We also recognise habits, practices, lessons that nurture us and help us flourish, support us to be fruitful and enable us to move from surviving to thriving. 1. We love to capture and share pearls of insight and wisdom. These are aired in our podcast, blogs and guest appearances across the world. 2. We touch on hope as the gift that keeps giving . We explore being future focused as we are shaping our pathway through life and living. 3. We revisit our definition of success especially in the face of adversity. How does pain become part of our life story? 4. Borne out of the Wellbeing and Resilience Leadership initiative, we are taking a pragmatic view of Wellness, Wellbeing and Reliance. Prepare to be thrilled, informed, inspired and motivated by Future Focus wellbeing and resilience.
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Finding Joy
03/13/2025
Finding Joy
Tesse Akpeki says " When I prioritise finding joy in what I do, success follows naturally. Creating balance, addressing a tendency towards workaholism, seeking meaning and purpose as I aim for excellence are important features as I flesh out my pathway to wellbeing. A few years ago I came to the conclusion that I wish to enjoy what I do. Work hard, yes of course, but not at the expense of burning myself out. Exploration, discovery, learning and cooperation feature highly through my lens of what matters. I am ecstatic when the work I do makes a difference to my clients and the organisations I serve."
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Leading and Governing Effectively
02/27/2025
Leading and Governing Effectively
Leading and governing effectively recognises that “people are an integral factor to ensuring things are done effectively. Board members, staff, and volunteers need to be empowered, trained and equipped to serve. The concept of service needs to be embedded within the infrastructure. Internal audit is an essential part of this pathway. Different systems need to be managed, controlled, and reported upon, on a frequent basis. Where things are not happening as expected, they are investigated, then discussed and corrective action is taken”. Morlai Kargbo, an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) award winner, sets the scene for a fascinating conversation.
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Lead With Two Rules
01/13/2025
Lead With Two Rules
Lead with two rules philosophy serves as a foundation for building wide support for the social, emotional, learning, and mental health needs of students. Through the years, has seen this and has witnessed the transformative impact, prioritising these essential aspects of education while contributing to a positive and nurturing school environment. What can we do to make change? What do we see? What do we want to see? What do we need to see? How do we see? Brenda’s book, “Lead with Two Rules, Feeling Good and Feeling Safe" is a conversational exploration of the origins of the philosophy and offers a detailed account of its practical application.
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Celebrating My Brother
12/09/2024
Celebrating My Brother
Celebrating my brother, a sister’s tribute is a special place. Lucy Harrison gives so much of herself to other people. When TesseTalks sat with Lucy as she paid a tribute to her brother Peter, we knew we were listening to something really special. Lucy is passionate about bringing awareness to the sibling bond. Understanding how it is when you lose a sibling is so important and it is not talked about much. “I'm a bereaved sister “says Lucy as she talks about her grief. Peter wanted to live life all the time and have fun. He was so always in the moment. When he was tragically killed, for Lucy it was a trigger for change.
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Navigating Turbulent Waters
11/03/2024
Navigating Turbulent Waters
Wild waters are always going to be there. They may not be raging at this precise moment, but the potential for that disturbance and that turbulence is always there. Good Leaders Turbulent Times And How To Navigate Wild Waters At Work, Martin Farrell’s book is an enriching and purposeful read, full of good, uplifting stuff, with a good dose of reality. “Suffering happens, pain happens. We'd better get used to living with the turbulence, which has always been there and is now greater. Leaders need to find ways of dealing with the pain and suffering that comes up.” says Martin.
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The Super-Helper Syndrome - Part 2
09/20/2024
The Super-Helper Syndrome - Part 2
Help can be very humbling. It is hard to admit I need help right here. When I see someone or something that needs help, my first response is to go help. But is that the best thing in the moment, “What kind of help is needed here”? asks Erin Randall as she notes the seismic shifts that emerged for her as she read The Super-Helper Syndrome. Systems are greater than goals. If your goal is to be a healthy helper, what are the systems that you need to build in order to make that possible? She muses. Helpfully this compassionate guide addresses the question, how can we encourage or constructively challenge or ask others to remain healthy? How can we find ways out of unhealthy patterns of helping?
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The Super-Helper Syndrome-Part 1
09/09/2024
The Super-Helper Syndrome-Part 1
The Super-Helper Syndrome: A Survival Guide for Compassionate People authored by Jess Baker & Rod Vincent, serves up a rich meal to underpin what healthy helping looks like. “Do all things with great love. Avoid helping as a from of rescue, there needs to be reciprocity in helping. People who are helped need to have opportunities where they feel like they can be helpful to others as well.” shares Erin Randall. A healthy helper is one that is able to help in the way that they desire and see fit. Help has a mental and physical aspect. As a helper, your self worth does not depend upon helping people. Healthy helpers have boundaries that they hold for themselves that aren't porous and that other people are not able to run over. They are able to sustain themselves as well as the work that they're trying to do. A crucial question is asking, “what kind of help is needed here”? An essential element is the recognition of space. Saviourism is dangerous. The person being helped needs to be treated with respect and dignity while being encouraged to be independent and enabled to move forward in a manner that is best for them.
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Heart Centred Leadership
07/04/2024
Heart Centred Leadership
describes Heart Centred Leadership as being about connection, compassion, care and harnessing the power of kindness in leadership. “My vision was for young people to be able to have safe place to live and for them to get the support to be able to flourish in life and create better futures. I was starting to experience some mini strokes. My health was a little bit questionable, but it was very important to me that I didn’t leave my role until I'd completed the mission of raising £1 million. It took me four years. The project is up and running now and I know it's making a difference to young people's lives. This is an example of an ambitious goal that I managed to achieve by focusing on a heart centred approach”. So, heart-centred leadership can involve forging connections, showing compassion to others, caring deeply, and leveraging the strength of kindness in leadership.
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Excavating Memory, Archaeology and Hope
06/04/2024
Excavating Memory, Archaeology and Hope
Excavating Memory, Archaeology and Hope is an invitation by Elizabeth Mosier to listen to the objects speak. The true treasure is not the object at all. Instead, it is the stories the object tells about the people who owned or used it, what the thing tells you about the person and what is of importance to them. Once Elizabeth embraced that concept. It changed everything about the way she viewed objects.
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Mountains and Valleys, Ordinary to Extraordinary
05/03/2024
Mountains and Valleys, Ordinary to Extraordinary
Mountains and valleys, ordinary to extraordinary is a theme that thrills anthropologist . Erikspotlights the essence of feeling fulfilled and purposeful. Describing himself as ordinary he admits doing extraordinary things, especially after being told he would not be able to do something. He learned to confront his fears and embrace the possibilities and gifts in less than ideal situations. “Challenges are what makes life good. Challenges do make us who we are. Fear is a team effort. Faith wins over fear every time, whether we are in the valley or the mountain top”. “Mountains and valleys are both stepping stones to shape our lives. Movement in our lives and achieving paradigm shifts is very much related to our mindset. Whenever something bad happens, I always ask myself, what's the positive? What do I see that's the positive, where is the gift? “
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Vulnerability - A Human Gem
04/04/2024
Vulnerability - A Human Gem
Says David Taylor-Klaus , “Vulnerability is a human gem. It's a core part of who we are and it doesn't have to be hard. It just has to be conscious. And when you bring it up to conscious awareness, when you invite it, when you lean into it, it's not hard, it's a practice. Being attentive to your frame and your energy as you're creating something, whether that's your presentation to your board or something other activity”. " Leaders who don't bring themselves and their full selves to their leadership are experienced as not genuine, and a disingenuous leader is one that people won't follow". “Failure is part of the path towards vulnerability”.
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Feed Forward Inspires Quality Performance
03/08/2024
Feed Forward Inspires Quality Performance
People are less familiar with, feedforward which inspires quality performance. That’s because there really isn't any point pointing out to people what they're really bad at, because they probably already know. The brilliant thing about feedforward is that people at the receiving end of feedforward see aspects of their performance that they are less good at - start becoming better! This is because people feel good and are not trying to undo what they are not good at. In pursuit of excellence Two themes emerge - excellence and empathy. Feedforward is a totally different way of talking about performance.
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Power of Feedback
02/09/2024
Power of Feedback
reflects on the power of feedback “What is the point of saying something to somebody that they are not going to do anything about? Instinctively as a human being we assume feedback is going to be bad. As managers and as leaders, we have an enormous amount of power of other people. The biggest power we've got is over their emotional state. “Feedback is about the person who gives it and the person who receives it, and both have got to be in the right space. We can wield feedback so inappropriately. We forget how much power we have over those we lead. We can make our staff utterly miserable without thinking about the context of feedback or the support required for it to land well.
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Insights Focusing on Career Change
01/25/2024
Insights Focusing on Career Change
“Working with a coach is lovely. In that space a coach can really push and prod and poke, just like the journalist would, but in a much more supportive way. You can't think your way into a career change, because at some point you get stuck. So much is shifting. This isn't a kind of one and you're done. It's not like you decide and you're stuck forever”, says . worked for the BBC for 20 years as a journalist and news presenter before training as career and . She has turned her journalist’s passion for asking awkward questions onto the world of work, helping individuals think creatively, embrace the discomfort of change, and figure out what fulfilling and impactful careers look like in our rapidly changing world.
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Boundary Boss Review By Erin Randall and Tesse Akpeki
01/04/2024
Boundary Boss Review By Erin Randall and Tesse Akpeki
TesseTalks review "Boundary Boss", written by Terri Cole - The Essential Guide to Talk True, Be Seen, and (Finally) Live Free, with special guest Erin Randall who is all about happy people doing great work. Boundaries really matter. In Boundary Boss, Cole models how people can connect with the appropriateness and benefits of putting boundaries in place and begin to apply this understanding to their individual situations. She gives you exercises and scripts to follow so that you can model it first. You can try it out, in your own sand pitted home before you go take this out for spin in the real world. She gives people the steps to practice, to gain confidence and the reader is able to take that forward. With practice, I can in my own words, learn it and put in place appropriate boundaries that serve me. The mantra is try, fail, forgive, repeat. Cole invites the reader to release the old reaction and choose a response that is in your highest good – the 3 Rs (Recognise, Release – Respond)
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Life Changing - A Map to Happiness
12/15/2023
Life Changing - A Map to Happiness
Life changing is achieved by a map to happiness. Jane Gunn points to a compass of North, East South and East and West with a link to personal and professional values. N in North, what we're trying to do is to say, what's going on Now? What is the immediate challenge? Essential, even if you're starting up a collaboration. E in East stands for "Explore". Where am I with this? What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What are my own hopes and dreams? You know, we need to really understand ourselves better, and then understand each other better. S in South, stands for "Solutions". Decide on what criteria do we make that decision? What criteria could we apply to this? Also, what values do we have? What personal values do we have? What group values do we have? How do we apply those to this thinking process? We think deeply, we question everything, we question ourselves as to see what the right way through challenging times is. W in West stands for "Walking Forward". It's a commitment, it's an ability to leave any bad feelings from the past behind, so to draw a line in the sand. It also stands for wisdom. It's reaching that higher level of wisdom and possibly learning from yourself and from the past. What have I learned? What do I take forward with me?
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Dreams and Triumph
11/22/2023
Dreams and Triumph
Dreams can become a reality. The dream you hold is what bears fruit. Tenacity and patience can make a difference to stay with our intention. Shortlisted three times for the Championship Award , for Tesse Akpeki, it is third time lucky. She has been crowned . “I would like to thank everyone who nominated me over the three opportunities to become a champion. I am so glad I can serve people and bring a measure of joy as well as competence to what matters to them” says Tesse Akpeki FCG
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Brown Girl In The Ring
10/12/2023
Brown Girl In The Ring
“Brown Girl in the Ring came from a place of desperation” says . “Though my recollections are pretty harsh, the memoirs reflect my reality. All of us were in some kind of pain. People feel judged sometimes when you ask them to change something without any understanding of why they could consider doing so. If we understand things, we are more inclined to make changes” says Olukemi”. “All of the experiences have been a learning, a deepening understanding to myself. The painful moments are deeply painful. The pain does pass and as it passes, you can understand why it's happened. This is not about accepting it. Sometimes it's just about understanding so that you can move to the next part. Struggles are where our biggest growth comes from. Then if we choose to do so, we can share our experiences and help others. “
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Power Of Transformation
09/07/2023
Power Of Transformation
Stephen Sidebottom brings a refreshing take on transformations. “ People are actually extraordinarily adaptable. The idea that people don't like change is, I think fundamentally false. What I think is true is that organizations don't like change. The construct people are asked to operate is rigid and fixed, and the mechanism for adapting and changing those constructs, whether they're social constructs or organizational constructs, are much slower than the mechanisms by which people themselves change.” “ I'm not a big hints and tips person. My approach is often through studying how people work in an organizational context and what needs to be true to succeed.” Stephen’s experience of managing enabling functions including people, finance, legal, operations, risk and technology comes in handy. TesseTalks curiously explore various angles of Stephen’s thinking.
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The Great Revitalization
07/19/2023
The Great Revitalization
“I asked an audience what they are passionate about just before the pandemic. Then as well as now, they admitted running the hamster wheel so fast that they have lost complete touch as to who they are, what matters to them, and what they want for themselves in the world. When we can create workplaces where people can feel like I'm doing work that enlivens me. I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm reaching. I can feel myself growing toward my potential, that the playground of life where people really come alive and realize their potential while their organisation does business that betters the world” says Alise Cortez. The first part of the book “The Great Revitalization” touches on the world you find yourself in as a leader. The second part lists 21 best practices to create a workplace that is anchored by the activation of meaning and purpose. Sources of fuel include passion, inspiration and the attitudinal stance that we take whenever life throws it at whatever it's going through at us and which shapes our mindset.
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Elements Making a Difference
06/22/2023
Elements Making a Difference
How can elements make a difference? explains how. “Magnesium" is work each person is going to be doing towards crafting better things. Each voice is a voice of a system. What does this system need now? Ad Meliora means to better things. The catalytic question is “what do I want to create? “. The Quest 1.What is the purpose of a system? Is it to protect or is it to create? “If we want empathy in systems, if we want that connection in people, we need to be able to stand in those and shift and to be able to listen to what the system is asking us to find.” Says Erin. 2.What is the inner work required to do the outer work? How they want to be seen? What do you want others to notice in you? How confident are you to do the work the world requires from you? The litmus test is what are you seeing that I don't? What do you want me to hear? The answer to these questions gives us more range and more aptitude
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Life Without a Tie, Finding Your Path
05/10/2023
Life Without a Tie, Finding Your Path
, author of “ Life Without A Tie, Finding Your Path Amidst the Noise, Chaos, and Pressure to Conform “ says - “I won the Daily Telegraph Business Leader of the Year award, so I had public recognition. So I had all the trimmings and trappings of success. But I have to say that honestly, for quite a few of those years, I wasn't feeling like I was really, truly happy. And I felt like it somehow I'd managed to end up in someone else's life. I was living a life that others expected of me and not life I truly wanted to be living.” “ I was trapped in it because it was very rewarding and very materially comfortable. And I was kind of like not really wanting to walk out of it either, even though I wasn't happy. So when I was forced to, because my business partner, the woman I was married to, said, "I'm leaving you and I'm leaving the company". It was very sudden my father actually passed away at the same time”
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