Podcast S4 Ep1: Carole O'Neil on leading a global engineering firm: change, culture & sustainability

Our guest on the Performance Leader podcast is Carole O’Neil.

‍

Carole is Managing Partner at Cundall, a global multi-disciplinary engineering practice delivering sustainable design projects in the built environment from 26 offices in locations across the UK and Ireland, EMENA and Asia Pacific.

‍

Carole embarked on a career in Human Resources quite by chance, having completed a law degree at Oxford University and decided not to move into practice. Since then, she has worked in a variety of HR roles in professional services firms across the legal and built environment sectors. She spent most of her HR career as a generalist but developed a particular expertise and interest in the development of leadership capability.

‍

In 2022, she was elected Managing Partner at Cundall. Carole is the first non-engineer to hold the position, and Cundall’s first female Managing Partner.

‍

Show notes

(1m:30s) Carole's path into the MP role

‍

(3:26) Cundall as a people-focussed firm

‍

(6:27) How Carole sees high performance, and her high performance life outside work: powerlifting!

‍

(12:08) Rewarding different contributions and strengths

‍

(17:40) Maintaining culture through growth

‍

(19:27) Cundall's Zero Carbon Design 2030 goal

‍

(23:13) Linking transformational goals to individual contribution

‍

(24:30) The value of regular 1:1s, and how Cundall is evolving its approach

‍

(27:15) Carole's advice on having difficult conversations

‍

(28:50) Fostering collaboration in a diverse, global firm

‍

(31:57) Legacy at Cundall

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍