

Nine children to organise take some, well, organisation, but whom better to negotiate such a feat than City superstar Dame Helena Morrissey. One of only a few women to have been CEO of an investment bank, she’s a champion of gender equality and author of ‘A Good Time To Be A Girl’ a book about how women and men can succeed in work and indeed life by changing the culture they’re leaning in to. Awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire it’s the fascinating Dame Helena Morrissey.
On this episode we cover:
Mother of nine
Small-town background
Happy childhood
Big family, big jobs
Working on gender equality in male dominated areas
Her book ‘A Good Time to Be A Girl’
Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’
Lack of progress
Changing the system we lean in to
Harvey Weinstein
Me too
Wanting a different way of life
Treating work as an activity rather than a place
Being a CEO
Four day weeks
Flexible working
Culture of presentee-ism
Rigid and narrow careers
Seeking out more flexible, creative industries
Young people in the workplace
Starting a family young
Women overanalysing things
When is the right time to have a baby
Her husband’s redundancy
Becoming the main breadwinner
Hungry for success at work
Making it work
Dealing with the hand you’re given
How success gives more autonomy
Success isn’t a straight line
How we need to embrace failure
Nothing worth fighting for or worth doing comes easy
How disillusioned with diversity led to the ‘The 30% Club’
Improving business results with diversity
Getting more women on the board
Gender equality on boards
Getting men involved
Combining career and family
The financial crisis
Seizing the moment
Class diversity
Travelling with children
Travelling with nine children
Large family logistics
Nervous about travelling with kids
Holidays on the Isle of Wight
The south of France
Taking the train
Nerves about flying
Avignon
School trips
Airport logistics with nine children
Watching people counting the kids!
Not having twins
Flo Morrissey – her oldest daughter
Becoming a grandmother
The beauty of Crete
Sun, sand and sea
Not going on huge adventures
The Italian island of Elba
Scuba-diving
Meeting the locals
Relaxing on holiday
Not taking much time off
Maternity leave
How senior positions mean more autonomy
How technology is freeing the workplace
Her husband staying home with the kids
Being religious
Buddhism
Catholicism
Christianity
Church of England
Teaching Sunday School
Not going to Church
Politics
Benefitting from the UK’s mix of cultures and religions
Growing up in a village in Hampshire
Beachside trips as a child
Childhood visits to the Isle of Wight
Walking in the mountains with her Dad
Her Yorkshire father
First family holidays to France
Wales
Travelling through work
Australia
The Middle East
America
The Far East
Not having much time to explore when travelling for work
Spending time in LA with her daughter Flo
Business Class to Bangkok
Her ‘I’ve made it’ moments
Working in New York
Working Girl the movie!
The tedious side of travel
Cultural differences in New York
New York’s art and museums
Exploring further in the USA
Differences between working in America and the UK
Work-life balance
Treating work as a ‘dimension of life’
Working for an American company
The globalisation of work
Working online
Social media
Millennials wanting an ‘odyssey’ rather than a career
How work is changing through technology
Developing ones own work
Finding ones own niche
Encouraging women to invest in their own financial independence
How travelling is investing in your wellbeing
Culture shocks in Tokyo
Struggling as a working mother in Tokyo
Japan’s efforts to improve gender equality
A recent family holiday in Morocco
The absence of women in Morocco
Women’s rights in the Middle East
Celebrating our rights in the UK
Working with men who want gender equality
Her support of Brexit
Reasons to be cheerful about Brexit
Europe’s swing to the right
How the UK should concentrate on the domestic agenda
The need for greater distribution of wealth
The need for more North/South equality in the UK
Travelling for work without children
Missing children’s birthdays
Missing the children when away
Working in Melbourne
Being a role model for her 6 girls and 3 boys
Flo Morrissey’s rising fame as a musician
Teaching a class at Harvard
Her motto of ‘leap before you look’
The importance of mentors
The importance of a counter-balance
How we are not islands
George Ezra’s Budapest helping her feel less far from home