Naomi Szakacs told the Leaders Council about the importance of fighting against outdated approaches to leadership and nutrition. Meanwhile, William Hague warned the government to step up their game on Covid-19 testing.
Leadership in Focus
Naomi Szakacs approaches leadership in the same way she approaches nutritional therapy. In both cases, she believes it is crucial to break down traditional barriers.
In nutrition, this means looking outside of conventional one-size-fits-all approaches and instead finding a unique, holistic approach that will work for each individual. While in regards to leadership, this means relying on ideas and leading by example rather than being forceful or seeking to dominate others.
In a fascinating conversation with The Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Szakacs, who is the director of Red Iguana Associates, said that rigidity can hinder leadership and nutrition.
She said that leadership was all about ‘kindness, openness and listening’ and it was crucial to be open-minded and allow others to express their points of view.
Szakacs also talked about how her experience in restaurant management and event management set her up for a career in nutrition therapy, where she designs food events and programmes to help encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyle choices. Her many services include cooking classes, allergy training and corporate retreats.
Leadership Today
William Hague has called for mass testing in autumn to prevent a nightmare second Covid wave in the winter. Writing in his weekly Telegraph column, the former foreign secretary said:
‘I have made the case for it before in these pages, and make no apology for returning to it. Jeremy Hunt and Tony Blair have made the same argument: mass testing, using tests still being developed but which could give results at the point of use, might be the only way to spot new outbreaks quickly enough and give people the confidence to go back to the office, the airport and big indoor events.’
Elsewhere in the paper, Mumnet founder Justine Roberts speaks about the specific effect the Covid lockdown has had on women. 'It’s almost assumed that because women are going to have to pick up the childcare, domestic, home- schooling stuff, that they’re going to be less valuable employees.’
The Times leads with Oxford University’s hopes that a Covid-19 virus may be ready this year with Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, telling the paper, ‘It’s all very good news: the vaccine is behaving as we expected. That’s great. There’s lots more to do, but really it’s a milestone.’
In less positive news, the same paper reports that Marks and Spencer is planning to cut 950 roles in the belief that shopping habits ‘have been changed forever’ by the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times leads with the EU’s agreement on a 750 billion euro recovery package to fund post-pandemic relief efforts across the bloc. The deal was announced at 5.30am this morning, more than twelve hours after talks resumed yesterday afternoon.
Leadership in History
On this day in 1925, a Tennessee teacher was fined 100 US dollars after being found guilty of teaching evolution to his students. The so-called ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ was later made into a play called ‘Inherit the Wind’ by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.
