Welcome to the award winning Get Amplified Podcast where we talk to tech industry leaders about everything from the pace of change, leadership tips, team development, organisational culture, fulfilment, to well-being.
We’ve chatted our way through over 70 episodes with 11,000+ downloads. Just amazing!
Thank you for taking the time to listen.
Our top episodes are:
We were a Band – Mark Templeton, former CEO of Citrix
Breaking down the glass ceilings of growth – Mark Templeton, former CEO of Citrix
None Of Us Is As Smart Individually As We Are Collectively – Scott Herren CFO Cisco
A Chicken Can Only Lay One Egg At a Time – Geoffrey Moore, Tech Industry Legend & Author of Crossing the Chasm
The Importance of Belonging – David Parry-Jones, Senior VP & GM International at Twilio Inc.
Culture is Everything – Colin Brown, Former MD at Softcat
The #GetAmplified podcast crew Vicky Reddington, Amplified Group co-founder, and our enigmatic host Sam Routledge, former CTO of Softcat, are back together. Like everything we do at the Amplified Group, we will keep it real, giving practical tips for leaders and teams with relevance and a sprinkle of liveliness!
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How do we make space in our work life for everyone to have a voice?
What better person to speak to than Mark Murphy, Director of Global Partner Marketing at Cisco.
Mark shares his experience of fostering and supporting a culture of inclusivity at Cisco. One of Mark’s many great roles involved co-leading the Cisco Pride and LGBTQ+ global community. His story is not just about leadership, but also about fostering respect, truth-telling, and positive intent in the workplace.
We love the analogy of using our elbows to make space – about using our voices and clearing space so that everyone can be heard and feel valued.
The conversation moves on to discuss how we all have to move fast in the tech industry, every single day. It’s a team sport – all the way to the customer. Mark shares how his experiences have shaped his approach to teamwork and collaboration. Inclusivity is the key to driving effectiveness in this fast-paced industry.
It’s a positivity fuelled episode. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we clearly did recording it!
How do you cope with stress in the workplace? Do you ever feel like your stress is managing you rather than the other way around?
We came across a wonderful sketchnote by Dr Hayley Lewis and knew we had to get her back for a chat on Get Amplified to delve into this some more.
Stress can affect all of us at different times. Hayley is quick to point out that not all stress is bad and that we should recognise sometimes it is good – it gives us adrenaline when we need it.
There isn’t one size fits all when it comes to stress. Hayley highlights how we need to understand the root causes and to put interventions in place when needed.
One of the differentiators in high performance teams is that team members really know each other and have found ways to complement and compromise with each other.
If you do nothing else, be curious about your colleagues and your team. Ask questions – people don’t have to share if they don’t want to, but if someone knows you care, that means something. As human beings we are geared towards human connection and belonging.
Hayley leaves us with these key takeaways:
Hayley references some great tools and information which we will share in an upcoming blog.
How strategic is HR within your organisation?
In this episode, Chris Woodward, a workforce transformation consultant, joins the conversation with Sam and Vic around moving from a resource-based view of managers to a talent-based view where everybody has potential.
We need to ensure the value of strategic HR is known. We need to think about how to maximise the potential of people. And that takes leadership.
Chris discusses that leadership is the game changing area to focus on. It’s not just about those at the top – leadership is for everybody.
There is so much in this podcast. Here’s a peek at the key takeaways:
After a Get Amplified break we’re back with a flurry of exciting new guests. We kick off September by looking outside of the tech industry to see what we can learn from the Pharma industry.
Not only are both industries affected by high attrition, particularly through Covid, but both share the same challenges of time to market – of people being pulled in different directions, with too much workload and less people to do it.
Ian shares with us his fascinating experience particularly around decision making and the importance of bringing together a cross functional team of people to successfully manage projects.
With only 1 in 100 drugs making it through to a successful registration process and 1 in 4 making back the investment, it’s a 7-12 year investment timeframe. A fascinating contrast to the speed of technology development and expected return.
Ian tells us how projects involve 3 key constraints which have to be managed effectively if you want a successful outcome. These are: time, quality, cost. If you reduce time, you increase cost.
It’s a fascinating insight into managing a triangle of competing needs.
We had such fun recording this podcast, it is relevant for everyone.
Andy Hunt gives us a sneak peek into the conversations and insights he focuses on as a CEO coach. The lessons Andy shares are not just for CEOs, but for any leader or aspiring leader.
We touch on a wealth of topics including:
1) How the best leaders are coaches.
2) Why culture is a vehicle for scale (it’s a magnet).
3) The difference between a manager and a leader.
4) Be humble, be curious. You don’t need to have all the answers.
5) Know your blind spots and what to do about them.
Andy talks passionately about the importance of having a coach.
Wherever you are in your career, get a coach. It was life changing for me.”
Enjoy listening. An episode not to be missed!
Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella
We’re writing a book! We have the structure and contents – we just need some real-life stories to support each of the chapters to bring the book to life.
And that’s where you come in . . . we’d love you to be part of what we’re doing.
If only there was a way to take all the best bits of how we work together as a team and make it sustainable all the time – wouldn’t that be great? Read on…
You’ve just stepped up to lead a team. You’re going to be unstoppable together. You dream of great collaboration, of team members not hesitating to help each other. Your team members can’t imagine working anywhere else. Together you’re a leading light in your organisation.
So where do you start?
When we learn about business we are taught about organisational structure, finance, go-to-market strategy, and sales, but we are not taught the process of building a strong team.
Should it just be down to luck?
We don’t think so. We think this should be taught, which is why we’ve created this book about building great team experience (we call it TeamX™). We want you to know what we wish we’d known 20 years ago.
Discover a pragmatic operating system that can help any team work more effectively together.
When we enjoy what we do and feel supported, both the people and the business benefit. After all, you are the best asset your business has!
If you think you have a story that fits with any of the titles below, good, bad, or ugly, we would love to hear from you!
Part 1 – Purpose
Chapter 1: Find your purpose beyond the numbers
Chapter 2: Take off your functional hat – The importance of having a joint purpose
Chapter 3: Point to your North Star
Part 2 – Trust
Chapter 4: Understand your team dynamics
Chapter 5: Gain psychological safety
Chapter 6: Hire based on values
Part 3 – Clarity
Chapter 7: Build guard rails
Chapter 8: Gain alignment
Chapter 9: Enable accountability
Part 4 – Simplicity
Chapter 10: Order your priorities
Chapter 11: Agree what you are stopping
Chapter 12: Build simplicity as a habit
Here’s a link to the Steve Jobs eBook that Vic referenced: Make Something Wonderful | a book from the Steve Jobs Archive
Drop us a message: team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk
Message us via LinkedIn
Diversity – hot topic or over used word? Whatever your view on this, so many of us are guilty of hiring who we know. It’s hard to disagree with Lee when he says we all need to build more diverse networks.
Lee Higgins, Founder of Diverse Talent Networks, shares with us why we should think ‘culture add’ instead of ‘culture fit’ and why thinking value aligned will allow for more diversity of thought – a topic we are very passionate about at the Amplified Group.
Here are the key takeaways and book recommendation:
Key takeaways
· Widen your circle and diversify your network
· Be proactive so when it is hiring time you are starting with a more diverse pool of talent
· Think about culture add – even if hiring through traditional means. Who’s adding to that culture?
· Recognise that you have more influence than you think
We like Lee’s comment, “Make change happen for good” with actions instead of window dressing.
Find out more about Diverse Talent Networks: https://www.diversetalentnetworks.com/
Follow them on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/diverse-talent-networks/
Alex Budak – Becoming a Changemaker
We are constantly being asked if it is possible to build trust in teams that are not in the office together. The short answer is YES!
But don’t hear it from us. In this episode of Get Amplified, Sam and Vic are joined by Tony Roberts a Customer Success Leader at Okta who shares how investing in time to not only introduce his team to the Five Behaviours but how turning into team muscle has really paid off.
The conversation starts by asking why teams are struggling to build trust and why trust is so important. Tony tells us about finding the magic when realising he’d created a team of mentors. As people take the time to get to know each other, they are building bonds – people are much more willing to step in and help each other without being asked.
This is a great podcast to hear how by putting the foundations in place to build a healthy team, the results come more easily.
Tony recommends the book, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
As many organisations try to figure out how and when to use their office space, we thought it would be great to hear from the experts!
Sam and Vic are delighted to be joined by Allison English, Deputy CEO at Leesman, to talk about the Leesman Index and super relevant work Leesman are doing to measure and analyse employees workplace experience.
This podcast is very timely as on the 21st March 2023 Leesman are about to announce fresh new insights from more than a million respondents, and we are lucky that Allison is able to give us a sneak peek.
Here is the link to the upcoming webinar we mention, and all of their research is available here on their website.
Allison’s book recommendation is the brilliant book, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Welcome to Series 4What a treat we have for you here. Thank you Darren for joining us again. We have been asked many times by clients to help them with change management.
Whilst it is a well known fact 70% of change initiatives are not successful and success rates can improve from 30% to 80% if you put an equal focus on the people as well as what you are trying to change, we knew we had part of the jigsaw . . .
What we had been missing is a change management framework. Welcome to another bit of magic!
When Darren was last on the podcast he recommended a book called ‘Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard’ by Chip and Dan Heath. This book shares many, many stories of successful change and the 9 elements needed – all summed up by an elephant, a rider and a road.
It is super simple, very memorable and pragmatic to implement – just what we love at the Amplified Group.
We will be sharing more on this framework on LinkedIn – so please do follow us!
If this title doesn’t appeal to you because you have meetings nailed – we want to talk to you! There isn’t a person or company we speak to that isn’t feeling the pain of meeting gridlock in this post pandemic hybrid working world.
It is for this reason we were thrilled to have Dr Carrie Goucher, founder of FewerFasterBolder, join us and share what she has learnt during her PhD at Cambridge University on this juicy subject. Sam and I literally spent the time picking Carrie’s brain on all the things meetings. And it is all here for you to listen to!
We focussed on how to make a meeting successful – which, given we spend so much of our precious time in meetings, is pretty darn important to move a business forward at pace.
Carrie has also agreed to come back and talk about changing meeting culture in a company. We hope you learn as much as we did!
Additional Information
You can find the link to the e-course mentioned by Carrie below. It is released on 31st January 2023 and is available now for pre-order:
https://www.fewerfasterbolder.com/fewerfasterbolderecourse
Pre-orders already receive 50% discount, but Get Amplified podcast listeners can get a further 20% off with the code:
GETAMPLIFIED-MEETINGS
If you are interested in some of the other resources mentioned by Carrie such as the invitation template and the capture canvas (no sign in or email address needed), you can find them here: www.fewerfasterbolder.com/resources
Matt Piercy joins Amplifiers Lewis Gee and Lindsey Moore to bring to life our New Hire Productivity Report: ‘Move over great attrition, bring on great engagement.’
We hope you enjoy this discussion as we look at the impact of the ‘great attrition’ on the tech industry. Organisations and sales leaders are under huge pressure to hit their quarterly revenue targets but in today’s economic climate, combined with a 30% employee turnover rate, we discuss how new hires are faring.
We explore how to quickly get new salespeople up to full productivity and the role ‘team’ plays in that.
Matt saw his career take off leading NEMEA sales organisations for VMware, then EMEA for ZScaler and ThousandEyes. Matt shares his thoughts and what he put into practice around setting new hires up for success. Matt suggests starting by measuring objectives vs revenue (that is unrealistic in the first few months) is much more likely to get your new hires off to a strong start.
Lewis (who promoted Matt into the NEMEA role at VMWare) brings so much experience on this topic, having held leadership positions in high-growth organisations ServiceNow, VMware and Citrix – all of which hit through a billion dollars during his time. Lewis shares the rigorous onboarding he experienced, and we explore if this is now missing? We feel incredibly fortunate to have Lewis as one of our Amplifiers as we and our clients constantly benefit from his wisdom!
We hope you enjoy the conversation. We’d also love to hear if any of our listeners have stories or tips to share. You can reach us at team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk.
We are finding cross team collaboration is the new big headache that organisations face since COVID impacted where we work. The challenge has now become so big for organisations, it is hard to know where to start.
Thanks to Paul Wiefels from the Chasm Group we were introduced to Jamie Thomas from Cophi, which is a super simple diagnostics tool to help you measure and identify where to start.
Cophi provides the data to support the feelings.
On this Podcast we chat to Jamie, one of the Co-Founders of Cophi.io to find out more about how they can help. We are excited to share this breakthrough solution 🚀
This image is an example of the collaboration network we spoke about:
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
The book talks about overcoming resistance and is a great personal development book for individual flourishing.
During this conversation, Vicky referenced the Team of Teams model by General Stanley McChrystal. You can listen to this topic in more detail in our podcast: Going 17x Faster by Building a Team of Teams
Wow what a conversation. It’s fascinating hearing former combat helicopter pilot & squadron leader, Sarah Furness, share her experience and learnings around how we can all fly higher. There are some great tips and reminders of how we can improve the way we work, starting with understanding our own minds.
Sarah tells us that we are never too old to learn, we can always train our brain. The conversation delves into some interesting topics including stress, focus, stretch and flow. Sarah tells us about Eustress which refers to positive stress, the opposite of distress. If we can stretch ourselves, we’re likely to find our flow to operate at our optimum state.
In a hectic work life of constant competing priorities, Sarah talks about the importance of unitask. We are not built to manage multiple tasks. Focus on one thing at a time and do it well.
“Focus on one thing – Fly the helicopter”
We may have mentioned a few times that Sarah is a best-selling author.
You can find her book on Amazon: Fly Higher: Train your mind to feel as strong as you look eBook : Furness, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Instead of a book recommendation, we asked Sarah what great team experience, TeamX, means to her.
“Great team experience comes from starting with the individual. I think good teamship and good leadership comes from understanding the human condition. You’ve got a wealth of knowledge in your own mind . . . Starting with understanding ourselves is a brilliant way to understanding other people.”
We welcome back Andy Bryars, Director of Customer Success EMEA at Okta, to share the secrets of his team’s success and shine a spotlight on one of his brightest stars.
Moving from an individual contributor to manager role is one of the biggest changes we experience in our career. Jamie McDonnell from Okta’s EMEA Customer Success team shares his experience of the step up.
We also get to hear about the comprehensive onboarding program that the Customer Success team have implemented to set all their new hires up for success.
This podcast is packed full of practical practices that all of the CS team embrace with extraordinary results.
Topics covered include:
Jamie’s book recommendation is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.
What a treat it was for Sam and Vic to record this with Tim. It will be clear whilst listening to this why Tim is such a great addition to the Amplified Group family, Tim is clearly a people and team first sales leader.
The real magic of this podcast is all the practical and pragmatic best practices that Tim shares about how he has learnt to set up his teams for success, recognising that Sales in the Tech Industry is a Team sport not an individual one!
We covered everything from planning your meeting capacity based on one large pizza and how to support your team at end of quarter to maximise their time with their customers, to being able to build a successful sales plan that has anticipated roadblocks and is prepared and set up for success.
We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it!
The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
Herve Renault, Vice President of Cloud Sales for VMware EMEA, joins Vic and Sam for – as Sam delightfully wraps it up as – a canter through the role of the sales specialist, value selling and the transition to the cloud.
Herve talks from the heart on subjects he is clearly passionate about, and his passion is infectious!
He also moves us on from recommending a book to recommending a film – Glengarry Glen Ross – A film which he assures us is about how NOT to sell!
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we did recording it.
Denise Sangster is recognised in the top 10 most influential women in tech, working as CEO of Global Touch Denise consults with many leading tech companies on their partner strategy.
Denise joins Vic and Sam to talk about the future of partners in the era of consumption.
Denise is a wonderful advocate of this critical route to market which often is the ‘underdog’ to enterprise sales which is where most of the recognition goes.
This podcast is great timing as Global Touch have just published their new Global Partner Outlook Survey, a must read but, for a quick intro, we touch on all the main challenges.
The Outlook covers the three markets of US and Canada, EMEA, and APAC – the good news, partners are bullish about the 2022 outlook.
On the podcast we also discovered Global Touch and Amplified Group have measurement or telemetry as Denise calls it at the heart of what we do. Whether it’s the impact of partner go to market or speed of sales execution, being able to measure it is the key to unlocking its potential!
The Partner Outlook Survey results are available by subscription. For further details about this edition’s results or a subscription, please email us at PartnerOutlook@globaltouch.com.
Denise’s recommended reading How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
What a treat you are in for!
Darren joins Sam and Vic to share his vast experience and learnings through the transformations he advises on. The breadth of content on this podcast is everything from learning how to be the best version of yourself, through to implementing Geoffrey Moore’s Zones model.
The underlying message throughout is no matter how much change technology drives, the human element is your critical success factor.
There was so much to take away from this. Thank You 🙏 Darren!
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath
Radical Simplicity: How Simplicity Transformed a Loss-Making Mega Brand into a World-Class Performer by Ken Allen CEO
Two other books were also referenced in the conversation:
Zone to Win by Geoffrey Moore
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek
We miss Sam in this episode of Get Amplified, but instead Vic is joined by Lindsey Moore and Pippa Hutchinson to discuss the findings of our Tech Leaders Survey.
As you will hear, there are some real positives to how the Tech Industry has fared through the Pandemic but we also believe we get to the heart of why everyone in tech is feeling the ‘heat’.
We hope you find it as insightful as we did, as the findings came to light for us!
You can find the full report here
Lindsey recommended The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.
A quote from the book “Because laughter is not just laughter, it’s the most fundamental sign of safety and connection.”
Those looking for inspiration for how to drive successful digital transformation and how to pivot a global software business to a subscription model will know of the incredible success story of Autodesk
In this episode of Get Amplified Vic and Sam are joined by Reddy Mallidi who shares his journey from India to Wallstreet, to Pentium 3 Product Manager at Intel Corporation to Head of Global Ops at AutoDesk.
Reddy shares his incredibly humbling people first approach and his experience of the close correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction including how his team automated 200,000 man hours.
Trillion Dollar Coach. “Anyone who wants to be a people-first leader should read it.”
Here’s a great quote from the book,
“Your title makes you a manager, but your people make you a leader”
We are often asked what is the difference between a coach and a mentor. Yvonne Matzk, Leadership and Channel coach, joins Sam and Vic to share why she has become a coach and why everyone should have a mentor.
Yvonne shares how the new mentoring network she has brought to the channel in the UK is really gathering momentum and how you can get involved.
Maybe with the help of this podcast we can extend the scope outside of the UK?
If you are interested, we also found ourselves in a discussion about a potential podcast mini series – we left it in, but put it after the music at the end in case you are interested to listen – we would love to know what you think.
The event we referred to is on the 21st April from 4pm in Central London, Agenda and more details to come and will be posted on our LinkedIn Page:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-channel-community-uk
The LinkedIn group is: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9021877
Website link: https://www.thechannelcommunity.com/
Read the blog here
We had such an incredible 
response to an article we wrote about Imposter Syndrome, we thought it made sense for Sam and Vic to cover it on a podcast.
Imposter syndrome seems to be something that many people have experienced, but perhaps didn’t know how to talk about it or even understand what it was that was holding them back. By sharing our stories we can begin to understand it and through supportive people around us, can actually help us grow.
We would love to hear your imposter syndrome stories. Please do get in touch team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk
Customer Advocacy is the ultimate teaming between Customer and Vendor. Polly Lambert, an Expert in Advocacy in the Tech Industry joins Sam and Vic to share some thought provoking ideas on how to get the best from your Advocacy Program, whatever size company you are.
Vic apologises in advance for her whooping – but it is a great example of sub consciously doing the right thing, and learning for next time to make it conscious and deliberate! (This will make sense when you listen!)
Polly’s definition of Customer Advocacy,
“Using the voice of those who have, to earn the trust of those who could.”
Read the blog HERE
Dr Hayley Lewis, named one of the most influential thinkers globally in her field of Organisational Psychology joins Sam and Vic to provide our listeners with hints and tips to set ourselves up for success this year.
One of the main themes you will hear is ‘being kind to yourself January’ and what that really means.
All of the resources Hayley talks about are available here
Hayley’s website https://halopsychology.com/
Laziness Does Not Exist – by Dr Devon Price
When: The science of perfect timing – by Daniel Pink
Season 3 kicks off with Geoffrey Moore, Tech Industry Legend (we can say that!)
As you will hear, Vic is even more excited than usual. Not only because, let’s face it, this is Geoffrey Moore we have as a guest but also because, through our Tech Industry Leaders Survey, we appear to have identified the Tech Industry’s Biggest challenge:
Competing Priorities – where 75% of Leaders agreed or strongly agreed they had competing priorities and this is also a topic Geoff is very passionate about.
The title of this episode comes from a previous talk Geoff made where he says, it is only natural that Tech organisations do not want to put all their eggs in one basket but they need to remember a Chicken only lays one egg at a time. Hence, we dig into this some more and also learn about Geoffrey’s new book, The Infinite Staircase.
We had great fun recording this as our Christmas Special and hope you enjoy listening too.
Here is a link to the video Vic refers to.
Geoffrey Moore is the author of the classic business book, Crossing the Chasm.
The book Geoffrey referenced in this episode is his latest book, The Infinite Staircase.
Like many others, we first came across Hayley Lewis, on LinkedIn with her super simple sketch notes providing solutions for many of the human aspects we find challenging in our working lives.
Hayley joins the Get Amplified Team to share her experience and we pick her brains on how to have difficult conversations, which is one of the biggest challenges we find the leaders we work with needing to overcome, especially as it relates to accountability.
This is the first of many conversations we plan to have with Hayley – we hope you find it as insightful as we did!
Download the sketch notes for how to have difficult conversations here and getting into the right headspace for important conversations here.
Hayley’s website https://halopsychology.com/
Scott is the true humble leader, it is never about him, it is all about the team and the power of what the team can achieve together.
With his vast experience, his authenticity and his transparent approach, it is no surprise Scott was approached by Cisco to be their CFO.
Scott shares how his career journey has unfolded, how he is settling into Cisco and why taking care of Cisco’s 75,000 employees is his number one priority.
We also get a great insight into AutoDesk’s transformation to the SaaS based company and it’s incredible market cap growth.
Our favourite quote from Scott,
“To be a leader, people have to want to follow you”
From flat sheets and fitted sheets to getting told off by Bill Gates, and everything in between.
Alistair Wildman SVP&GM of Customer Experience EMEAR at Cisco shares why he is so passionate about Cisco’s emerging talent and we meet Rhiannon – a Cisco apprentice who oozes talent, who shares how her career has got off to a flying start.
Sam and Vic are joined again by Chris Collett former Army Major and Mental Health First Aid Trainer to talk about returning to the office. We certainly don’t have all the answers, but we hope this is food for thought!
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Getting the right working balance between Corporate and Field is one of the critical success factors for tech organisations to scale at speed, but why is it so hard to achieve?
Lamia Megdiche, VP Partner Strategy and Programs at Commvault, joins Sam and Vic to share her vast experience. Lamia discusses the importance of always being customer centric and how everyone is part of the value chain. If one part breaks, it all breaks.
We also talk through:
We hope you enjoy listening!
Steve Wilson and Tracy Reis from Syniti join Sam and Vicky to record this episode of #GetAmplified. It is no wonder Syniti is enjoying such success and has attrition rates of <5%. This is a masterclass in building great culture. As you will hear – being Kind – does not mean being ‘soft’ tough conversations and accountability are front and centre.
But it is about EVERYONE being #kind and EVERYONE being the keeper of the culture. Thank you Steve and Tracy for giving Sam and Vicky such a thought provoking insight into Syniti. How you are scaling your culture is inspirational!
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Listen to a short soundbite below…
Jed Ayres joins Sam and Vic to cover 3 hot topics – all on transformation – hardware to software – CMO to CEO and successfully taking an EMEA built company into the US market. Three big topics covered beautifully through Jed’s art of storytelling. We also find out Jed, Sam and Vicky have more in common than they realise – as Sam put’s it so articulately – from tech to spuds! It’s a wild ride not to be missed – we hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording!
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Graham Crich has been a pioneer of the SaaS model – offering it in the mid 90s working in a visionary reseller. He drove the Service Partner Program for VMware in EMEA and is now taking it to another level at Veeam. This podcasts covers lessons learnt and best practices and as with every GetAmplified podcast drawing on the importance of the human element and TeamX including leading without having direct reports.
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
This is a slightly different Get Amplified episode – Gabe Barrett former CIO of Abellio Group and shortly embarking in a Masters in Organisational Psychology joins Sam and Vic for a thought provoking conversation. We dip into what the future of work looks like and things we should be considering as we start to introduce hybrid working for the many vs the few.
You can find an overview of the speed check we mention here
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
In this episode of #GetAmplified Sam grills Vic on how to build a team of teams and why it is so important to break down the silos that form as organisations grow. We talk through the six critical leadership questions needed for leadership teams to align on. Vic shares how to create a common language for culture throughout the organisation and introduces the TeamX Champion train the trainer program. We also touch on the importance of hiring team players as the organisation scales. There are so many practical elements in this podcast we hope it helps!! #TeamX #TeamofTeams #McChrystal
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
You can find the 6 critical questions here
Building a Team of Teams overview
Video for the Ideal Team Player
Richard Jackson former Sales VP at Citrix and NVIDIA joins the #GetAmplified Team to share his experience of running regional sales teams in the US and EMEA. Richard shares his vast experience from running small startups to global teams and we gain a great insight into what it is like to move to the US for work.
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
There are so many pearls of wisdom and anecdotes in this #GetAmplifed podcast it is hard to do it justice. Alan Barber joins Sam and Vicky to share his experience leading European and Global teams in his vast career in the Tech Industry – we get to hear both the good and the bad and the impact this has on the business. We’ve already started putting some of the things we learnt from Alan into practice – we hope you can too! #trust #authenticleadership #tranformation #teamX #customersuccess #professionalservices #techindustry
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
I haven’t been this excited about technology since I used to demonstrate Application Publishing 21 years ago!
So I apologise for my enthusiasm on this episode of #GetAmplified where Sam and I are joined by David O’Hara from Beaconforce to chat about their innovative employee engagement app and why intrinsic motivation and trust are the critical leading indicators of sustainable business and how Beaconforce helps measure them in real time.
Think of it as your ‘Fitbit’ for employee engagement and you start to realise how this deep listening tool enables the agility in your business you have been missing, especially in the new remote working world we find ourselves in!
We are delighted to share the latest episode of #GetAmplified. Duncan Greenwood joins Sam Routledge and Vicky to share how he stays true to himself and why he is a purpose driven leader…but we don’t just cover this. Duncan takes #leadership to another level, he talks passionately about the importance of #diversityandinclusion and shares why intrinsic motivation is so critical to his team at VMware . We also hear first hand, the ‘big hairy audacious goals’ he has set himself, having recently joined the board of techUK to help the Tech Industry in the UK. Prepare to be inspired, we certainly were!!
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Lewis Gee held senior leadership positions at Citrix , VMware and ServiceNow when they were all in their Hyper Growth phase. Lewis joins Sam and Vicky on this Easter special of #GetAmplified to share his vast experience of the different founding leadership styles and how true these organisations stayed to their original purpose.
We also discuss the pitfalls that organisations face as they scale through rapid growth and lessons learnt along the way.
This episode of GetAmplified is not to be missed for EMEA regional sales leaders and also Global sales leaders needing an insight into EMEA sales best practice.
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
This podcast maybe just a ‘chat’ between friends, but there is no getting away from what is at the heart of Phoenix’s success – it is it’s people and culture with Sam as the driving force.
Samantha Mudd shares with us just how important it is to get the culture right, to create the caring and trusting environment with clear purpose and vision that enables talent to grow and take on new responsibilities. How this not only helps with talent retention but is the secret behind their business success.
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Read the Blog HERE
Dave Wright joins Sam and Vicky on the latest episode of #GetAmplified to share his thoughts on how to drive innovation through teamwork. Dave gives us a valuable insight into why no idea is a bad idea because you never know the future and why asking ‘why’ is the most important question.
Dave tells us his fascinating career story that has landed him in such an exciting role.
It wouldn’t be a #GetAmplified podcast if we didn’t touch on the importance of #trust – We learn why Dave believes the most beautiful culture is where you don’t need to be brave because everyone is safe to say what they think and where cross functional teams can work without hierarchy.
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Paul Wiefels
is the MD and Co-founder of the Chasm Group LLC and is master of Go-To-Market strategy for the Tech Industry. We caught up with him in the episode of #GetAmplified to find out what tech companies should be focusing on in 2021.
Paul shares how there is such little difference between technology offerings from tech companies in the same category and how aligning and motivating the troops is the key to success. In a nutshell it is all about speed to market. This is a not to be missed episode.
“Tech is very mainstream now. We are no longer mystified by technology … Tech companies are always fighting in a time-based competition . . . Nowadays there’s not more than 10 cent worth of difference in tech in the same category. How you take things to market is just as important as what things you’re taking to market. How you’re organising your troops inside the company is even more important than it was previously.”
Paul talks about the technology adoption lifecycle and describes ‘the chasm’ which is detailed in Geoffrey Moore’s well regarded book, Crossing the Chasm.
If you enjoyed this one, we think you’ll love our conversation with Geoffrey Moore in this episode: A Chicken Can Only Lay One Egg At a Time
Sam and Vic share what they have learnt from the inspirational guests they have had on Get Amplified and how they are now putting it into practice. They also give a sneak peak into the great episodes coming up in the second half of series two which will start next week.
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Listen to the podcast episode HERE
Delighted to bring you the second part of our podcast with Mark Templeton. This podcast is an important listen for all leaders in the Tech Industry
Mark started at Citrix in marketing when it was 50 people, became President in 1998 and CEO in 1999, he experienced many stages of growth with many lessons learned along the way. Mark shares advice for organisations going through hyper growth, highlighting how to break down the glass ceilings of growth and also stop inertia creeping in. We are also very thankful to Mark 🙏 for sharing a very personal story of when he first became CEO and thought he needed to have all the answers and the hard lessons he had to learn.
We also bring you three minutes extra – after the music….we would love to know what you think ?
Listen to the episode HERE
As referenced by Mark, order a copy of the Five Behaviors of a Dysfunctional Team HERE
Listen to a short soundbite by clicking on the image below…
We’ve got a festive treat for you all! Citrix customers, partners, employees and alumni will know Mark Templeton as the inspiration, and the driving force, behind the realisation of the Virtual Workplace vision. Mark former President and CEO of Citrix joined the Get Amplified crew for a heart-warming two-part Christmas special of our Get Amplified podcast; put your feet up, get the fire on and pour yourself a warming drink while you enjoy his pearls of wisdom!
Listen to the episode HERE
Order a copy of the Five Behaviors of a Dysfunctional Team HERE
Listen to a short soundbite below…
Martyn Storey, Senior Director Customer Success at Puppet joins the Get Amplified crew to talk about best practices in this new world of constant remote working. Martyn shares how he and the Puppet team are using OKRs in place of KPIs to ensure the team have clarity of what is expected of them and feel empowered to be innovative.
This episode is a little different as it also features some best practices from David Parry Jones and Stuart Fenton with regards to this years remote working. (Please note their comments were recorded in September when things were a little different, but are still very relevant)
The OKR software Vicky refers to:
https://weekdone.com/
Listen to the episode HERE
Hear how Andy Bryars, Director of Customer Success at Okta is partnering with the Amplified Group to invest in his teams future, his team was already in a good place but Andy recognised as a leader that you can’t take fitness of any kind for granted, especially when you are going through hyper-growth as an organisation.
Listen to the episode HERE
Download a sample of a Five Behaviors model Team Assessment HERE
Following on from the great episode with Colin Brown of Softcat, we are keeping on the theme of Simplicity. Pippa Hutchinson joins us to share her experience of the growth of Tesco’s in the 90’s. There are startling similarities to the growth of Softcat, we also had some great fun recording it, with Sam revealing a secret and Sia unknowingly transporting us back to the Blind Date back in the 90s! So if you want some cheer as well as great business practice insights, this is not an episode to be missed!
Listen to the episode HERE
Download the overview of the SIX CRITICAL QUESTIONS
Want to know the magic behind Softcat’s phenomenal success? We are thrilled to release our latest episode of Get Amplified with Colin Brown former MD of Softcat plc
Softcat’s story is proof that you can scale at speed, go through a successful IPO and still keep the magic. Colin gives us a valuable insight into the ‘Softcat way’ where keeping the strategy simple to ensure the leadership team can invest their time in maintaining their incredible culture really is their recipe for success. Sam, our host describes Colin as the Custodian of Culture – (Sam Routledge should know as he was Softcat’s CTO!)
Listen to the episode HERE
Empowered Workforce report (How to achieve an agile organisation) by the Amplified Group download HERE
The Amplified Group and the Five Behaviors®of a Team model
or order The Five Behaviors of a Team by Patrick Lencioni BOOK HERE
We often use sports analogies in business especially when we are talking about high-performance teams, so its great to have Simon Clarkson on our latest podcast, talking about his experience working with elite sports professionals.
Simon also shares how the principles cross over from sports to business with his three key takeaways;
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF GET AMPLIFIED HERE
The Amplified Group and the Five Behaviors of a Team model
Team productivity; A case study of how IT Security Solutions leader Glasswall
hits major milestone through the power of teamwork
With his vast experience at iconic companies like IBM, Microsoft, VMware now VP of EMEA & APAC at Twillio Inc, delighted that DPJ joined the Get Amplified team to share his experience of building a high-performance team that can scale at a rate to match its growth and why it is important that Twilio’s new hires feel like they belong….that and so much more, this is a great listen!
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF GET AMPLIFIED HERE
The Amplified Group and the Five Behaviors of a Team model
Jane Rimmer, a renowned IT vet, who played an instrumental part in the early success of behemoths of the industry such as Citrix and was employee #2 at VMware EMEA and now founder of hiviz-marketing, Jane shares with us the importance of leading from the front and how to make the extraordinary happen.
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF GET AMPLIFIED HERE
The Amplified Group and the Five Behaviors of a Team model
Stuart Fenton former CEO of Insight inc and CDW inc, and now Chairman and CEO of Quantiq, shares his story of how he has learnt to become the leader he is today, building Quantiq a company that he would want to work at. Stuart shares how putting your people first, ensures you retain incredible talent who pull together to undoubtedly deliver extraordinary (and sustainable) results.
Discussed on this episode we talked about what we do at the Amplified Group and also a useful model called the Deficit model, download details here;
The Amplified Group and the Five Behaviors of a Team model
In the last episode of series one, the GET Amplified team are joined by Paul Burke, SVP of Product Marketing at Glasswall and client of the Amplified Group. We explore why clarity is needed at every level of the organisations and how lack of it can paralyse individuals and teams and cause silos in organisations.
Here is the Alignment Assessment we talk about that will help you assess where you are as a team and enable you to start the conversation….
Jonathan Alexander, Former Director of Cloud Management Sales at VMWare EMEA joins the Get Amplified Team in our penultimate session of the series to share his wealth of experience of working with remote teams. This topic was recorded pre COVID-19 but perhaps is even more important than ever.
The team are joined by Andy Bacon, Strategic Marketing Consultant, Mentor and Speaker to discuss the challenges when sales and marketing are not aligned. Andy shares how account based marketing (ABM) can be a catalyst to unite them as one team.
Read Andy’s enlightening article here
In our last bite-sized episode in mental health awareness week the team wrap up our discussions with Chris where he stresses the importance of making mental health a part of your discussions at work.
The check that Sia refers to https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
Interesting HR Analyst article that Vic refers to https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6661883214933692416/
As we continue our discussions around good mental health awareness at work, this is the fourth bite-sized episode where the team have a great discussion about how giving feedback with care is the kindest thing. It’s better to have feedback, good or bad, than not to know.
Here is the link to the radical candor video we refer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9GLeNCgm4&feature=youtu.be
Our third bite-sized episode of Get Amplified supporting mental health awareness week, the Get Amplified team along with Chris Collett discuss the importance of everybody on the team having a voice and how gaining clarity can help with good mental health.
In our second bite-sized episode the Get Amplified team are joined again by Chris Collett mental health first aid trainer to discuss how organisations can provide a safe space, where opinions are sought, offered and heard, where disagreements can be aired and overcome through positive conflict. Most importantly – why this is good for your mental health!
In this first special bite-sized daily episode of Get Amplified supporting Mental Health Awareness Week, the Get Amplified team are joined again by Chris Collett, former Army Major and Mental Health First Aid Trainer. The team explore why having trust in the workplace helps our mental health and how a leader can build trust by showing vulnerability.
The Get Amplified team are joined Francisco, founder and former CEO of ITQ. This is a fascinating personal story of how Francisco recognised his blind spots and appointed a new CEO to run his company. ITQ goes from strength to strength, recently winning VMware’s EMEA partner of the year for knowledge.
If change is a constant, listen to Paul Russell a leader in the IBM Watson Group who shares
the fascinating use of design thinking to help you with your next chapter.
On this episode of Get Amplified, Sam finds out more from Vicky and Sia on the best-kept business secret, the Five Behaviours of a Team, discovering the simple and pragmatic formula for teamwork.
You will hear about Microsoft as a case study, how the formula works and tips on how to get started with it.
It’s just us three chickens this time, enjoy!
Still struggling with remote working? If not, but you know someone who is, please share. Join this special edition of Get Amplified with guest Adam Harding, Chief Technologist for Workspace at Softcat. Sharing our joint experiences of remote working that span over 50 years we hope we can help as we discuss; Best practices of remote working. How best to deal with the tech and how to act as a leader
We welcome our listeners back to the chat with Martin Kelly, where Martin gets to the heart of how Citrix’s internal IT organisation transformed to be able to keep up with the pace of change.To learn more about the importance of a high trust culture to help organisations keep up with the pace of change – Read our Empowered Workforce Report published here
The Get Amplified team are joined by Martin Kelly, Global Technology Leader and Former WW VP of IT Infrastructure at Citrix. Find out why being customer-centric enabled Citrix’s IT team.
Vice President of HR Verena Sunday talks about how to build and maintain a high-trust culture by using a pragmatic approach. With no HR or corporate-speak this podcast gets to the heart of how by picking a lane and sticking to it, your organisation can be set up for long term success.
Chris Collett of Spire coaching and training, a qualified L&D Consultant, Facilitator and Coach talks about
DISC circumplex and guidance on how and when to use your knowledge relating to your personality type. GET EPISODE
James McNab, Director, Cybersecurity Marketing, (EMEA, Asia Pacific) at Cisco talks about his experience of being acquired by Cisco and how the art of simplicity made Sourcefire an attractive acquisition for them.
In this first episode, we introduce the Get Amplified Team, Sam Routledge our host and former CTO of Softcat, Siaron van Wetten and Vicky Reddington Co Founders of the Amplified Group and why we do what we do.
