In Your Shoes - Mike Soutar

Monday - podcasting and an awkward interview

No two weeks are ever quite the same for me. I sit on several boards, including V&A Dundee and Scottish Rugby, so despite the fact I haven’t lived in Scotland for thirty-plus years, I travel up quite a lot. Dundee in particular remains very important to me. I also have multiple regular online and in-person meetings with CEOs, founders and executives from companies I advise and consult with.

My book Next Gen CEO came out in June and every week the number of opportunities to promote it seems to grow. This makes me very happy.

The morning is taken up with travelling into Canary Wharf to record a podcast with entrepreneur Oliver Bruce. We have a long chat about my background and the leadership ideas in my book.

In the afternoon I work on a slide deck for a conference I am delivering a keynote for on Friday morning and send it to Michelle, who designs for me.

I also do an interview with a Sunday Times journalist who asks me awkward personal questions about my life for a feature called Fame & Fortune. He wants to know how much my house is worth and all sorts of impertinent details. 

It’s rather uncomfortable because it’s so “look at me”, but I do it because it’ll sell books.

Tuesday - from a forest walk to Ghengis Khan.

Am early morning walk in Epping Forest with my friend Tom, who is just the smartest leadership coach. We’ve known each other for decades, since he was my MD when I edited Smash Hits. Tom was a brilliant source of advice for Next Gen CEO. It’s lovely to see him.

I go back home to field emails and calls about upcoming events. I also spend time being a sounding board for a new Scottish Rugby comms strategy. It’s good work.

In the afternoon a message pops up from my friend Tim Campbell from The Apprentice. Seems he has bumped into an old employee of mine and has used the opportunity to get some unflattering gossip about me. It’s all lies Tim! Lies!

I listen to and sign off two episodes of a podcast I’ve been hosting called History’s Greatest Leaders. It’s produced by the History Extra team in Hammersmith. The episodes are Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan. Two VERY different leaders.

Wednesday - more promo and the Ivy Club

It’s another podcast, this time with Jenny, the CEO of a marketing agency called Magnetic, based in Borough on the south side of London Bridge. It’s great fun speaking to someone who has so obviously devoured every word of the book.

It’s too lovely a day to be stuck on a stuffy Tube, so I jump on a Lime Bike and cycle over to the Ivy Club in Covent Garden. The Ivy Club is my favourite bolt hole in London. It’s got quite a small membership list and I know all the staff there. It’s a great spot to arrange coffee meetings and I can work from a table there throughout the day.

I meet Dundee dementia expert David Wilson-Wayne and talk about his business. And then I meet a new senior civil servant from the Department for Business and Trade. I am a member of the UK Board of Trade. It’s an unpaid group that advises the government on export growth.

Thursday - early flight and a late train

I have two rules: no work dinners and no more than two nights away from home every month. I like my wife Bev and my family too much to want to spend more time away than I have to.

This morning I am up just before 4am and in an Uber to the airport to fly to Edinburgh for a day-long Scottish Rugby board meeting. I get the tram in from Edinburgh Airport. Normally we meet at HQ, Murrayfield Stadium, but today we are off-site because Bon Jovi are playing in the bowl and the sound check will make having any sort of sensible meeting almost impossible. We leave Jon and the boys to do their thing and meet in town.

The meeting finishes at 4.30 and at 5pm I am on a train to Burton-on-Trent to open a conference on Friday morning for Howdens, Britain’s leading trade kitchen manufacturer. The journey will take almost five hours.

Friday - the Three Lions and a surprise from India

Up at 6am but feel brilliant after a proper sleep. One problem: everywhere I look, things are branded with England’s Three Lions. This is the hotel the England national team stay at when they train, St George’s Park. For a proud Scotland fan, it’s torture!

I deliver a keynote address to Howdens’ CEO and their 100 most senior executives. They are heading into the most crucial period of their trading year and part of my job is to help them focus on the task ahead and how they will lead and motivate their teams.

We talk about creating a dynamic culture of constructive dissent, how to be strategically unreasonable and the importance of an empty seat in every meeting. (You’ll have to come and hear me talk to find out more about that.)

Afterwards I sign and dedicate 100 books and have my photo taken with every delegate. It is an absolute privilege to sign copies.

On my way home, during a change in Derby, I get a call from my publisher. The team at Pan Macmillan were supposed to be launching the paperback edition of Next Gen CEO in India in April next year, but have decided to bring it forward to October.

Brilliant news.

There is just one small catch. Can I write a new foreword by the end of the day?