Authentic leadership drives organisational success, yet is often misinterpreted in the workplace. In this book launch and panel session, Dr Rebecca Newton discusses what it really means to lead with authenticity, how to influence with integrity and drive positive change. She outlines practical steps professionals can take to lead with gravitas whereby they are trusted and respected and can “lead the room” regardless of their position in it, including:

• What to do if you feel, “I’m just not like that”
• How to build confidence in your leadership journey
• Being simultaneously true to yourself and committed to change

Dr Newton and her guests share insights, experience and advice on those things that drive authentic leaders: to be able to lead well, as our best selves, and enable others to do the same.

Shanelle Hall (@shanellehall) was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 6 June 2016. Shanelle served as Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division (2007-2016), the organisation’s procurement and logistics headquarters in Copenhagen, where she oversaw UNICEF’s global supply activities and emergency supply response, with an annual expenditure exceeding USD 3.4 billion.  She helped to expand the Supply function beyond service delivery to being a major strategic contributor to UNICEF results.  Prior to that role, Shanelle served as Deputy Director of Supply Division and Chief of Immunization in Supply Division.

Rebecca Newton is an organisational and social psychologist and Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Management. She has spent the past two decades researching and teaching on leadership, organisational culture, change, collaboration and management practice. Dr Newton has a PhD in Organisational Psychology from the LSE, was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, and has run executive education programmes on behalf of the LSE, Duke CE, University of Cambridge and Harvard Law School. She is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and Forbes, and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Change Management. Dr Newton is the CEO of CoachAdviser and has worked with leaders and teams from a range of organisations, including Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Google, HSBC, Microsoft, Nike and more. Her latest book is Authentic Gravitas.

Shaheen Sayed (@ShaheenSayed5) is the CEO of Accenture’s Government Business in the UK & Ireland. She is a technologist by trade, who has most recently been at the forefront of delivering digital solutions to the Financial Services industry. Recognised as a senior advisor on talent and the workforce of the future, she was included in the Top 100 influential BAME global leaders by the Financial Times as well as Cranfield School of Management’s 100 Women to Watch in their 2018 list. Shaheen is also the Co-Founder Of ‘’Outsiders’’ a Not-For-Profit organisation focused on the intersection of youth education and digital technology.

Shaun Sinniah works for Guy Carpenter & Company, the wholly owned reinsurance broking subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, the world’s leading professional service firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people. At Guy Carpenter, Shaun is a Managing Director and looks after the Strategy & Sales functions across the International platform. Prior to joining Guy Carpenter, Shaun spent 9 years at Willis Towers Watson and its predecessor firms across group strategy, M&A and reinsurance, where at the age of 29 he became the youngest Managing Director in Willis’ 180 year history. Shaun started his career at Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong and has a BEng (Hons), MSc and DIC in Engineering from Imperial College. Shaun is a trustee of his local Church and Compassion UK, which provides sponsorship, education and healthcare to over 100,000 children living in poverty around the world. 

Sandy Pepper joined the Department of Management in September 2008 as an ESRC/FME Fellow. He was appointed Senior Fellow in September 2011 and Professor of Management Practice in January 2013. He previously had a long career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he held various senior management roles, including global leader of the Human Resource Services consulting practice from 2002-2006.

The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a world class centre for education and research in business and management. At the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London, we are ranked #2 in the world for business and management studies.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSELeadership

Podcast

A podcast of this event is available to download from Authentic Leadership: how successful leaders build gravitas

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.