The case for diverse boards - with Monique Choudhuri - a podcast by PeopleSmart SAS

In this super stimulating interview packed with nuggets of wisdom from the 'front line' Monique Choudhuri explains clearly and passionately the benefits of a board level focus on Diversity and Inclusion.

Monique is a Non-Executive Director for Brentford FC where she is board champion for EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) and has spearheaded their quest to become the most inclusive club in English football.

She tells the story of how a professional sports business, Brentford FC, a Premier League football club based in London, has employed cutting edge leadership practices to create a massive and frankly unlikely success story. This success has been based on the use of data.

As Monique says: "Everyone has bias and to stay humble you have to challenge your bias. We use data to challenge our own assumptions to make better decisions. This takes the bias out of decision making."

We discuss Brentford's success factors including "humility and togetherness on and off the field", "inclusivity" and "doing something they never thought we could do". Also that the "culture is set by the board" (not the CEO and his/her team). In addition, Monique explains the role of "discretionary gold dust" and "pre-mortems" at the club.

All this has application to businesses across the board.

Please explore and enjoy!

Monique Choudhuri MA, ChartMCIPD, has extensive experience in driving up business and board performance through strategic people development and robust governance and combines a 26-year track record as a strategic leadership consultant with a portfolio of board positions. Currently Monique is a Non-Exec Director for Brentford FC, where she is the board champion for EDI and has spearheaded their quest to become the most inclusive club in English Football, and is a board director for Women in Football and Advance-TRS, a niche recruitment consultancy specialising in the provision of highly skilled technical professionals for the built environment. In this time, she has advised public organisations, blue-chip corporates, and education to achieve board and operational excellence through advising on senior executive performance management process and metrics, investment in people, implementing core business policies and helping to mitigate risk. She possesses strong commercial acumen as a business owner and consultant that is utilised to drive strategic culture change at all levels of seniority. She champions diversity and changes attitudes towards inclusion, to both unlock opportunities for people as well as value for businesses.

Further episodes of Leadership Luminaries

Further podcasts by PeopleSmart SAS

Website of PeopleSmart SAS