Why The Best Leaders Don't Need To Prove Themselves | Hetti Barkworth-Nanton

Hetti Barkworth-Nanton on Humility, Purpose & Leading Through Trauma | What We Don’t Know (Eden Project)

Recorded in the Eden Project Rainforest Dome at the Anthropy conference, Hayaatun speaks with Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, CEO of Ploughshare and chair of Refuge, about leading change across defense innovation and domestic abuse services. Hetti explains how Ploughshare spins Ministry of Defence innovations into civil applications, sharing examples from water-protective coatings used in Samsung phones to laser-detection tech adapted from battlefield needs to air ambulances and sport.

She traces formative influences - rural upbringing, her father’s death, early lessons on commitment, and being “spark spotted” into senior roles at British Airways, including being the “Project God.”

Hetti describes the murder of her friend Jo Simpson, resulting trauma therapy, later breast cancer, and how these experiences drove her campaigning, founding the Joanna Simpson Foundation, and her leadership at Refuge amid controversy and difficult board decisions.

Key lessons: systems thinking, curiosity, resilience, boundaries, and humility.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:45 Welcome To Eden Project

02:35 Two Leadership Roles

04:33 Rural Roots And Loss

08:01 Finding Self Belief

09:56 Strawberry Field Commitment