When Philippa Hann stepped into the CEO role at Paradigm Norton after 20 years in law, she faced the challenge every new leader knows: how do you quickly build trust, make effective decisions, and create the psychological safety needed for a team to thrive, whilst...
Welcome to the When We Think blog
From good to EPIC: Insights from Dan Atkinson
In late 2024, I sat down with Dan Atkinson, Head of Technical at Paradigm Norton for a chat. Dan came to one of my courses in May and I was keen to hear his thoughts on what had changed for him since. The result was a thought provoking and insightful conversation...
Where empathy meets experience: A conversation with Ruth Sturkey
Recently I was lucky enough to sit down and record a conversation with Ruth Sturkey. Ruth has had a very successful and layered career. Ruth has extensive experience as a Financial Planner, co-founding The Red House in 2007 and running that for ten years. Later, she...
Passing the baton: Three keys to a smooth succession
The average age of a Financial Adviser / Planner in the UK is now 56 (FT Adviser March 2024). This means that many are now facing the same challenge they've helped their clients with for years: gaining financial independence and retiring while they're still young...
Improving conversion rates for financial planners: A conversation with Brett Davidson
Recently, Brett Davidson of FP Advance and I recorded separate webinars for the Personal Finance Society (PFS) Power series. As we compared notes afterwards, we were struck by the significant overlap in our content. This realisation inspired us to dig deeper into the...
Empathy: The hidden opportunity in Financial Planning
The average age of a Financial Planner in the UK is now 56 and just 17% of the profession are female. The demographic just doesn’t represent the wider population. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. Younger planners coming into firms as part of a succession...
When assumptions stop helping
This is the third in a series of three posts, where I consider the challenges of intergenerational conversations and how we can facilitate them more effectively for better outcomes. You can find links to the first two posts at the end. Assumptions are...
Succession planning across generations
This is the second in a series of three posts, where I consider the challenges of intergenerational conversations and how we can facilitate them more effectively for better outcomes. You can find links to the other two posts at the end. For financial advisory...
Building trust in intergenerational financial planning
This is the first in a series of three posts, where I consider the challenges of intergenerational conversations and how we can facilitate them more effectively for better outcomes. Links to the other two posts can be found at the end. The baby boomers are...
Why your team isn’t innovating (and what you can do about it!)
The world is changing faster than ever. Global politics, technology, and AI are challenging what we thought was core to our roles. As Brené Brown warns: I hear experts trying to soothe people's anxiety about AI by offering platitudes like, 'What makes us human will...
From sausage factory chats to meaningful connections
How developing deeper listening skills transforms client outcomes and business results When Mel Holman, founder of Compliance and Training Solutions (CATS), first heard about my work on listening skills for financial planners, she admits she thought it sounded "a bit...
From Lawyer to leader – how a new CEO built trust from day one
When Philippa Hann stepped into the CEO role at Paradigm Norton after 20 years in law, she faced the challenge every new leader knows: how do you quickly build trust, make effective decisions, and create the psychological safety needed for a team to thrive, whilst...
From good to EPIC: Insights from Dan Atkinson
In late 2024, I sat down with Dan Atkinson, Head of Technical at Paradigm Norton for a chat. Dan came to one of my courses in May and I was keen to hear his thoughts on what had changed for him since. The result was a thought provoking and insightful conversation...
Where empathy meets experience: A conversation with Ruth Sturkey
Recently I was lucky enough to sit down and record a conversation with Ruth Sturkey. Ruth has had a very successful and layered career. Ruth has extensive experience as a Financial Planner, co-founding The Red House in 2007 and running that for ten years. Later, she...
Passing the baton: Three keys to a smooth succession
The average age of a Financial Adviser / Planner in the UK is now 56 (FT Adviser March 2024). This means that many are now facing the same challenge they've helped their clients with for years: gaining financial independence and retiring while they're still young...
Improving conversion rates for financial planners: A conversation with Brett Davidson
Recently, Brett Davidson of FP Advance and I recorded separate webinars for the Personal Finance Society (PFS) Power series. As we compared notes afterwards, we were struck by the significant overlap in our content. This realisation inspired us to dig deeper into the...
Empathy: The hidden opportunity in Financial Planning
The average age of a Financial Planner in the UK is now 56 and just 17% of the profession are female. The demographic just doesn’t represent the wider population. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. Younger planners coming into firms as part of a succession...
When assumptions stop helping
This is the third in a series of three posts, where I consider the challenges of intergenerational conversations and how we can facilitate them more effectively for better outcomes. You can find links to the first two posts at the end. Assumptions are...
Succession planning across generations
This is the second in a series of three posts, where I consider the challenges of intergenerational conversations and how we can facilitate them more effectively for better outcomes. You can find links to the other two posts at the end. For financial advisory...
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