Cara McCarthy
You will have noticed that over the past number of months I have invited a guest writer, Cara McCarthy, to share her thoughts on various leadership topics. I am delighted to now be able to share the news that Cara is joining me as a partner in The Padfield Partnership in contemplation of my eventual transition to retirement.
I have known Cara for several years (having met her at a training course to become certified in the Leadership Circle Profile tool), and admire her professionalism, skill, integrity and experience. We are excited about our partnership and enhancing the value we can bring.
Cara has spent more than 20 years working closely with senior leaders and their teams to support their development, performance and growth. Like me, she is an accredited and experienced one-to-one leadership coach and a systemic team coach, and she has a particular interest in the cultures that leaders create.
For many years, Cara headed up the OD, Culture, Learning & Talent function at a leading investment management firm. Since becoming independent, she has worked with a diverse client group from a range of organisations and sectors. Through our partnership, we can use our complementary skills and qualifications to enhance our value and the projects we work on – and look forward to working with you in this way!
We hope you enjoy this month’s topic.
Last month, we looked at the impact gravitas has on our leadership presence: How to build your gravitas and unlock transformational leadership.
We talked about gravitas as the balance between gravity, or the substance and ‘weight’ a person carries, and levity, a complementary element of humour and personality.
We explored Caroline Goyder’s gravitas equation from her book Gravitas: Communicate with Confidence, Influence and Authority, and considered ways to grow and sustain our personal gravitas:
Knowledge + purpose + passion (– anxiety) = Gravitas
This month, we explore the anxiety element and look at some tendencies that might unwittingly be diminishing our gravitas. We will explore how leaning in to our strengths will ensure we keep maximising our leadership presence.
