The Northerner in the Room: Edwin Booth CBE's episode

By Sandy Glanfield

My husband has a tell. Whenever we are in a formal meeting and a northerner speaks, he visibly relaxes. There is something about that combination of honesty, warmth and straight talking that he finds deeply reassuring, particularly in a business setting. I thought about this a lot after meeting Edwin Booth CBE.

Because Edwin has it in abundance. The warmth, the hospitality, the candour. No performance, no jargon, no pretence. Just a genuine, grounded human being who knows exactly who he is and what he values.

Nothing illustrated this more than when Edwin shared his personal purpose statement with me. It was a candid, clear stripping back of who he wants to be in the world. No corporate language, no carefully managed impression. Just honest reflection about what he values, what lights him up, and what he hopes lights others up too.

It made me think. How many of us could do that? If we stripped away the language we feel we should use, the version of ourselves we feel we should perform, and just asked honestly: what do I value? What brings me joy? What is it that I do that lights other people up? That kind of warm candour feels like a radical act in a world that so often rewards the opposite.

I recognise at the heart of Edwin's approach is the Golden Rule. Treat others & the planet as you wish to be treated. Simple, ancient, and yet somehow still quietly revolutionary in a business context. Edwin talks about it plainly: recognising that we each have “a heart and soul like everybody else”. And from that recognition flows everything. The listening, the creating of opportunity, the building of culture from the inside out.

But what really stays with me is the trust. Because it is not just the offer of opportunity that makes what Edwin does so powerful. It is the faith behind it. The belief that anyone can learn, grow and thrive, if only they are encouraged, shown how, and trusted to do it well. That trust is the connective tissue running through everything he does. And when someone truly has faith in you, we all know what that feels like. You see it in songs, in films, in the stories that move us most. When someone believes in you, the lengths you will go to for them are extraordinary.

Isn't that exactly the kind of people you want around you? In your business, in your community, in your life? People who are motivated, creative, loyal. People who will go the extra mile not because they have to, but because someone showed them that they mattered.

Edwin has built something quietly remarkable. And it started, I suspect, with a simple decision to put kindness first.