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Leading Questions

26 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago -

Leading Questions is a podcast about public sector leadership, published by Global Government Forum.
Every episode we interview a former senior civil servant and ask them to reflect on key challenges they have faced in their career and what they learned from them.
Packed with interesting insights into government, inspiring stories and handy advice, this is leadership in practice.

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Episodes

Flipping the script with former Bank of England chief economist – Andy Haldane

October 19, 2023 14:26 - 47 minutes - 62.3 MB

In this, the last episode of Leading Questions series 3, Andy Haldane talks about thriving on leading through crisis and the challenges and opportunities “when the old is broken and the new is yet to be forged”. Having spent 32 years at the Bank of England, latterly as chief economist, headed up the UK government’s Levelling Up taskforce, founded the charity Pro Bono Economics, and spent the last two years as chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, Andy has a range of roles and exper...

From COVID-19 to Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Estonia’s top public servant Taimar Peterkop's tips for dealing with crises

September 07, 2023 15:36 - 35 minutes - 22.7 MB

Estonia’s most senior civil servant, secretary of state Taimar Peterkop, shares his insights into leading through crises.   From dealing with a vulnerability in the country’s digital ID system – which involved updating thousands of digital services – to the country’s response to the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this is an episode packed with lessons on what to do when government is faced with emergency.   Taimar’s main learning from the digital ID crisis was the impor...

‘I always knew that my anchor was health’ – Dame Una O’Brien

August 10, 2023 17:05 - 55 minutes - 49.9 MB

In this episode of Leading Questions Dame Una O’Brien, who was permanent secretary of the UK Department of Health between 2010 and 2016, joins podcast host Siobhan Benita for a chat about her unconventional route into the civil service, and what she learned along the way. Having been appointed health department permanent secretary just as a coalition government was formed, and responsible for implementing sweeping and controversial healthcare reforms, Una was right in the thick of it – bei...

‘Find your references, your mirrors and your mentors’ – Israel Pastor Sainz-Pardo

June 29, 2023 12:26 - 45 minutes - 43.6 MB

Podcast host Siobhan Benita speaks know-how and knock-backs with the deputy director of learning at Spain’s National Institute of Public Administration.   Israel Pastor has more than 20 years’ experience as a senior manager in the Spanish state administration – including stints in the health, environment, finance and justice departments – affording him a broad perspective on leadership and what it takes to make the organisation you’re in charge of better.     Having studied hard to get t...

‘Empowering people with a sense of possibility’ – Iain Rennie

June 01, 2023 13:02 - 48 minutes - 40.8 MB

Iain Rennie spent 30 years in the New Zealand Public Service culminating in eight years in the top job – that of state services commissioner. In this episode, Iain tells podcast host Siobhan Benita about talent management reform, his realisations about leadership, his work as a consultant to governments around the world, and why public servants should be mindful of the increasingly diverse perspectives of citizens.   Realising that great leaders in the New Zealand Public Service often re...

What makes for a responsive government? BONUS EPISODE

May 26, 2023 12:00 - 30 minutes - 30 MB

This special episode of Leading Questions shares the results from the 2023 Responsive Government Survey. Report author Richard Johnstone shares the headlines from the research, while contributors to the report - Grete Kvernland-Berg, the managing partner and country head for Norway at PA Consulting Group; Alexander Evans OBE, professor of practice in Public Policy at London School of Economics and former strategy director in the Cabinet Office in the United Kingdom; and Michael Wernick, the ...

‘Serve your country – you will never regret it’ – Noreen Hecmanczuk

May 04, 2023 12:00 - 49 minutes - 46.6 MB

In the first of our Leading Questions podcasts to feature an American federal government leader, Noreen Hecmanczuk reflects on a long and diverse career which has seen her serve in the White House twice.   She took her first job in Washington D.C in the early 1990s – inspired by her WW2 veteran uncle – and hasn’t looked back.    The senior adviser on strategic engagements and communications to the US federal CIO, Noreen is right at the heart of government. But having worked at nine agenc...

‘Unless you fight for it, it’s not worth it once you get there’ – Phindile Baleni

March 30, 2023 13:00 - 45 minutes - 40.9 MB

Phindile Baleni was appointed secretary to South Africa’s cabinet and director general of the presidency – the first woman in the country’s history to hold these roles – amid the pandemic in April 2021. It’s a good thing she likes a challenge. With a background in maths and law, she joined the public service in 1994 just as South Africa was transitioning from the old apartheid regime to a new democratic order. Working in provincial government before moving to national, Phindile’s career ha...

Pursuing gender parity in the public sector - BONUS EPISODE

March 07, 2023 17:00 - 25 minutes - 41.3 MB

To mark International Women’s Day, we bring you a special edition podcast in which two top civil servants discuss their experiences as women in government, their public service’s journey towards gender parity in the highest ranks, and what more needs to be done to break down the barriers women face on their way to the top. Sarah Paquet, director and chief executive of FINTRAC Canada, has won awards in recognition of her commitment to advancing gender diversity and inclusion, while Zukiswa ...

BONUS EPISODE: pursuing gender parity in the public sector

March 07, 2023 17:00 - 25 minutes - 41.3 MB

To mark International Women’s Day, we bring you a special edition podcast in which two top civil servants discuss their experiences as women in government, their public service’s journey towards gender parity in the highest ranks, and what more needs to be done to break down the barriers women face on their way to the top. Sarah Paquet, director and chief executive of FINTRAC Canada, has won awards in recognition of her commitment to advancing gender diversity and inclusion, while Zukiswa ...

Find out what governments’ priorities will be in the year ahead - BONUS EPISODE

February 02, 2023 16:00 - 40 minutes - 64.1 MB

In this bonus podcast in the Leading Questions feed, GGF executive editor Richard Johnstone and GGF event moderator Siobhan Benita set out the top trends affecting government in 2023, setting out insight on key topics including economy and finance, sustainability, resilience, digital government and transformation. Listen now to get the inside track on what governments will be working on in 2023.

BONUS EPISODE: find out what governments’ priorities will be in the year ahead

February 02, 2023 16:00 - 40 minutes - 64.1 MB

In this bonus podcast in the Leading Questions feed, GGF executive editor Richard Johnstone and GGF event moderator Siobhan Benita set out the top trends affecting government in 2023, setting out insight on key topics including economy and finance, sustainability, resilience, digital government and transformation. Listen now to get the inside track on what governments will be working on in 2023.

Getting to grips with the ‘friendly monster’ – Gertrud Ingestad

January 19, 2023 14:00 - 43 minutes - 69.3 MB

“It really was an adventure. But I was ready for it.” Gertrud Ingestad – now director general for human resources and security at the European Commission – had been a language teacher in her native Sweden for 13 years before she decided to take a leap into the unknown. Joining the Commission (the “friendly monster”) as a translator in 1995, Gertrud rose up the ranks, holding a variety of roles in different units, from head of training, to resources director, to information systems and in...

Public management perspective – Colin Talbot

December 01, 2022 10:10 - 57 minutes - 92.1 MB

“You don’t really understand your own system until you compare it with someone else’s.”   Professor Colin Talbot took an unconventional route into academia, having spent time in the private sector before landing his first university job. A seasoned researcher and author who specialises in public services and public management reform, Colin has also worked as a consultant for public sector organisations – allowing him insight into the true operating nature of public bodies and not just the ...

Championing diversity of thought – Yazmine Laroche

August 11, 2022 13:48 - 52 minutes - 42.3 MB

“Talent comes in every shape, colour, size and we have to be able to tap into that.” Yazmine Laroche had a varied 30-year career in the Canadian public service, rising to become public service accessibility chief and the first person with a visible disability to be appointed deputy minister in the bureaucracy’s history.   In this episode – recorded shortly after she retired from the public service in June – Yazmine gives an extremely honest and compelling account of the obstacles she fac...

Taking the good with the bad – Michael Wernick

June 23, 2022 15:46 - 46 minutes - 75 MB

“Any kind of meaningful career is going to experience setbacks and defeats. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a successful career.” Michael Wernick spent nearly four decades in the Canadian public service, rising to become the country’s most senior official before his retirement in 2019. In this episode he reflects on some of the many lessons of his long and varied career, its supreme highs and its crushing lows.   Drawing on his experiences as a white city-dweller at the helm of what is now k...

Staying sane while managing change, with Suma Chakrabarti

May 19, 2022 12:13 - 42 minutes - 67.9 MB

“You should never pick me for any job which is business as usual… I am my best or worst, depending on your point of view, when dealing with change.” From helping to establish the UK Department for International Development (DfID) after its separation from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to managing a prisons crisis as justice department permanent secretary, Suma Chakrabarti has never been afraid to take on big, complex challenges. Quite the opposite – the opportunity to create change is,...

Staying sane while managing change – Suma Chakrabarti

May 19, 2022 12:13 - 42 minutes - 67.9 MB

“You should never pick me for any job which is business as usual… I am my best or worst, depending on your point of view, when dealing with change.” From helping to establish the UK Department for International Development (DfID) after its separation from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to managing a prisons crisis as justice department permanent secretary, Suma Chakrabarti has never been afraid to take on big, complex challenges. Quite the opposite – the opportunity to create change is,...

Engaging with risk – Stephanie Foster

April 21, 2022 14:26 - 41 minutes - 66.1 MB

I’m really kind of glad I didn’t know all the rules because if I’d stuck to the rules, we would never have done it.” Stephanie Foster had been in defence for 23 years when she volunteered to take responsibility for a floundering AUS$1bn stimulus package for local government. Despite facing public criticism over the scheme that she feared might end her career, she says breaking the rules – albeit unknowingly – helped her team deliver 1,000 projects across Australia. Now deputy secretary g...

Adjusting your leadership to the grain of the organisation: in conversation with Baroness Minouche Shafik

August 09, 2021 09:29 - 42 minutes - 39.5 MB

“You have to flex your leadership and you don’t really know how to do that until you’ve really understood the culture of the organisation.” Minouche Shafik was the youngest ever vice president of the World Bank. In 2008, she became permanent secretary of the Department for International Development (Dfid), before moving to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as deputy managing director in 2011 only to find her new boss engulfed in scandal. From there, she became the deputy governor at ...

Leading the digital revolution with Professor Sir David Omand

July 23, 2021 08:42 - 51 minutes - 47.7 MB

“GCHQ is an example for the rest of the public service… here is a case where civil servants have made technology sing.” In 1996 David Omand faced his first major leadership challenge: he had become the director of GCHQ and was charged with continuing the intelligence agency’s post-Cold War programme of technological transformation and reform. In this episode David discusses his experience of being “the young man sent from London to destroy the organisation”, the overlooked concept of fol...

The Treasury boy who supported four prime ministers - in conversation with Lord Gus O’Donnell

June 07, 2021 09:58 - 54 minutes - 50.4 MB

“The idea that in any sense I planned my career is completely wrong.” Lord Gus O’Donnell’s long career in the civil service started in 1979 in the Treasury and included stints as a diplomat in Washington, press secretary to prime minister John Major and Cabinet Secretary, head of the civil service and permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office under three prime ministers – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. In this episode he discusses what it was like to work with four very diff...

When Whitehall leadership dictats don’t work: in conversation with Professor Ciaran Martin CB

May 05, 2021 14:18 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MB

“The worst piece of leadership advice I got was: ‘be an authentic leader.’” Of course be true to yourself and your values, says Ciaran Martin CB, professor of practice in the management of public organisations at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. “The bit I interpreted wrongly, which made it the worst piece of advice, was to just act yourself at work,” he adds. In this episode, Ciaran reflects on his long civil service career including stints at the Cabinet Off...

Understanding what’s expected of you: in conversation with Dame Helen Ghosh

April 12, 2021 15:08 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MB

“I have used the term over the years of ‘having running away money’. That doesn’t mean having a stash of savings, but it does mean all the time thinking to yourself, ‘If this job doesn’t work, if I can’t stand this a moment longer… what would I do?’” Dame Helen Ghosh enjoyed a long career in the civil service, becoming permanent secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2004 and then the Home Office in 2011. She then led the National Trust before becoming maste...

It takes two to tango: in conversation with Ed Balls and Sir David Bell

April 12, 2021 15:05 - 57 minutes - 52.4 MB

“On the one hand, the cabinet minister has to understand that nature of the civil service role and the role of the permanent secretary as a leader alongside you… “But I think the permanent secretary also has to respect that the cabinet minister is not necessarily someone to be shaped in content or style to the previous way of doing things.” In this special episode, Sir David Bell and Ed Balls explore the minister-permanent secretary relationship. The two joined forces in 2007 at what w...

A steep learning curve: in conversation with Sir Peter Housden

April 12, 2021 12:53 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MB

“Did I feel equipped to become a permanent secretary? I thought I was, but I was very quickly disabused of the notion.” In this episode Sir Peter Housden reflects candidly on his first permanent secretary role at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He talks about how he prepared in all the wrong ways, what he learned from the experience and the coping strategies that kept him going. In 2010 he put his lessons into practice when he moved to become the permanent secretary of Scotland....