Details to follow soon…save the date!

In our last Lean In Food For Thought event of the year, we’re really excited to have Ann Francke OBE, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute for Management, talking to us. Ann is passionate about driving change at leadership level in organisations as well as getting more women leaders and ethnic minorities into the boardroom.

Better managers can really make a difference in people’s lives. When we have great bosses they nurture us, challenge us and support us.

Equally, it’s difficult for female leaders to thrive in an environment that’s unbalanced. So creating a gender-balanced workplace is key to develop and nurture good leadership and ultimately create a thriving workforce. Can you relate to the phrase "accidental manager"?

"The principles of management are stunningly simple, yet so few get it right,” says Ann “Being a good manager is about training and practice. A natural runner may have a talent for running, but they won’t win a race or complete a marathon without practice and training. The same is true for a good manager.”

Join us on Thursday with Ann where in her talk, Ann will give us practical steps that we can take to develop a more diverse workplace and nurture better leadership. She will touch on accidental managers and what to do if you have one, or feel you could be one amongst other tangible tips and takeaways!

If you’re an existing or aspiring leader, this is one not to miss!

About Ann

Ann Francke OBE is Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute the UK’s leading professional body for management and leadership with a global member community of over 160k. She started her career at Procter & Gamble and has held senior executive positions at Mars, Boots, Yell, and BSI. In 2020, Ann was awarded an OBE for services to workplace equality.

Ann is an expert on gender balance in the workplace and speaks frequently in the media and conferences on this and other management topics. Her book on gender balance - Create a Gender-balanced Workplace, published in September 2019. Ann also authored the ‘Financial Times Guide to Management and has been named in the top 100 women to watch in the 2015 Female FTSE Cranfield report. She was awarded the MemCom award for outstanding leadership of a UK professional body in 2016.

Ann has five Honorary Doctorates for her work in management and leadership Managementand is an advisory board member for the Work Foundation & Nottingham Business School, sits on the Advisory Council of the Chancellors Help to Grow: Management initiative, is an Engineering Council Board member, chairing their diversity & inclusion working group and chairs the WACL working group on workplace equality. She has also previously served on commercial boards - Grant Thornton and Tongal.

Ann and her husband live in West London; she has one daughter

We are excited to welcome Professor Gillian Ku, whose award-winning teaching focuses on negotiations, to host a personal development masterclass teaser on Negotiations and Women.

In the session, to create a shared learning experience that can have an immediate positive impact on you as an individual, she will share with us research on how gender affects negotiations, how to prepare for negotiations, how to grow the pie, and how to claim some of that pie for oneself.

About Gillian

Gillian Ku is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. She received her PhD in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management. Prior to her doctoral studies, Gillian earned her bachelor’s degree at Harvard University.

Gillian’s internationally-recognised research is in the broad area of negotiations, decision-making, and interpersonal relationships. Specifically, her research has focused on the dynamics of emotionally-charged decision-making and she investigates the decision-making processes involved in negotiations, auction bidding, and auction fever. She also has active research projects on perspective-taking and gender differences in a variety of domains.

Gillian’s award-winning teaching focuses on negotiations, decision-making, and leading teams. She teaches on London Business School’s full-time MBA and Executive Education programmes. Gillian directs and teaches the live virtual negotiations course, Negotiating and Influencing Skills for Leaders.