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As you will hear when you listen to this episode, a couple of recent events have led me to dive into the topic of optimism versus pessimism this week. My intent is to get you to do a bit of self-reflection and consider whether you are a glass half full or a glass half empty type of person.

Neither is right or wrong, but it is important to understand where you are on the optimism / pessimism scale both for you own well being and for those around you personally and professionally. The intent of the episode is very much to make you think about your own personality and what your coping strategies might need to be to cater for wherever you are on the scale. Have a listen and please let me know what you think - I would love your feedback on this hugely important topic.

Support the show

Thank you for listening! If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message

Having thought I was leaving the operational world behind me when I handed over my command of RAF Coningsby, only a little more than a year later, in January 2008 I found myself getting on an aircraft to head to Afghanistan as the incoming Commander of Kandahar Airfield, one of (at that stage) only two strategic airfields in the country.

There are a huge number of great leadership points and operational experiences that I want to cover in this chapter of my career and so this relatively short 9 month tour will result in several episodes of the podcast and I hope you enjoy them all.

In this episode, I set out some of the context and the preparation for my departure. I conclude with my arrival in country and hopefully set the scene for what is to follow over the next few episodes!

Support the show

Thank you for listening! If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/

I'd love to hear from you; feel free to send me a Text Message

Another week and another great guest on the show. Rory Underwood is probably best known for his amazing skill on the rugby pitch. He represented England for 12 years, and still holds the try scoring record for an England player with 49 tries from 85 international appearances for his country.

Rory was also a highly successful Royal Air Force pilot and, having followed that path myself, I marvel at his ability to deal with the challenge of flying training at the same time as playing rugby at the international level - that was an amazing balancing act and Rory talks about it a lot on the podcast.

For just over 25 years now, Rory has been in the corporate world. He is the founder and CEO of Wingman, a highly successful consultancy and leverages all that he learned from the rugby pitch and the RAF to help companies improve their teams, their individuals, and their corporate strategy.

We cover a tremendous amount of ground in this episode and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it.

NOTE: Rory makes substantial reference to his flying career and there are a number of expressions and acronyms that might not be clear to the average listener. I hope the following notes help to demystify some of the terms used:

• Alpha refers to angle of attack, which in simple terms is the angle between the wing and the airflow. It is critical to aircraft performance and frequently used as a key element of an approach to land or in high performance manoeuvring.
• Instrument flying is the term used when flying the aircraft purely by reference to instruments rather than using any external visual cues. It is critical when flying in cloud or poor weather and is a key skill for all military and commercial pilots.
• SCT refers to Staff Continuation Training. Typically a training organisation will have a certain amount of flying hours allocated to enable the staff and instructors to keep up their personal flying skills.

Support the show

Thank you for listening! If you value the content I produce, please consider supporting the show financially by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/leading4life/ or clicking the "Support the Show" link above.

You will have the choice of becoming a Supporter, a Champion or a Patron of the show and any contribution you feel able to make will be hugely appreciated.

You can find more about me here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judsonbob/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudsonBob

Website: https://leading4life.co.uk/