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AUTUMN 2026

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP

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Creating harmony in your organisation

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How you conduct yourself is key to team harmony

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Upfront

On the cover AUTUMN 2026

This issue’s theme of leadership styles and team dynamics was slightly tricky to illustrate when it came to the cover image. We created and discussed a number of concepts, but this musical route – based on the idea of a leader being the conductor of an often vast and multifaceted team, the members of which all have different roles to play in delivering organisational goals – jumped out as being the one. If you look closely, you’ll see the notes are actually people – the team members who provide the melody – with the leader directing when they need to step in or dial up or down. We also liked the ‘bigger picture’ view the conductor has of how the whole ensemble needs to come together – much like the role of a leader, no matter what the sector or shape of the organisation.

Editor’s letter

Edge is brought to you by CPL One cplone.co.uk Editor Louise Parfitt louise.parfitt@cplone.co.uk Art director Robyn McCurdy Chief sub-editor Jo Halpin Editorial director Helen King Reporting team Ian Farrell, Cathy King The Institute of Leadership c/o JW Hinks LLP, 19 Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 3BH. ioledge.com Chief executive John Mark Williams Content strategist Ciara Conway

The right track Surveys, stories and superstars By

Louise Parfitt

his issue’s focus on styles of leadership was discussed with the IoL team earlier this year, when Leadership Live’s ‘Leading with humanity’ theme was confirmed. Within these pages, we want to both complement and whet your appetites for the discussions at Leadership Live (see bit.ly/EA26LLVR) later this month, so we explore different approaches to, theories about and the practicalities of what makes a ‘good’ leader in the late 2020s. Our writer Peter Crush asks if the dial is swinging back to a more ‘decisive’ form of leadership from the collaborative, listening approach that gained traction more recently (pages 14-19). We expand the focus to explore if our delivery of leadership hits the mark as intended (page 23), especially when it comes to managing under pressure (pages 26-27) and those who are neurodiverse (pages 40-41). Our sector focus is on the HR profession. I spoke to Nic Elliott,

who, as an employment lawyer and HR director, sees the issues from both sides (see pages 58-61). We are fortunate to have contributions from several speakers at Leadership Live, including Neil Shah, from The Stress Management Society (pages 66-67), and author Victoria Rennoldson (page 51). We’re also delighted that Paralympian and all-round sporting superstar Aaron Phipps was able to take time out from his busy schedule to chat to our writer Ian Farrell (pages 30-35). Aaron will be presenting the Leadership Awards on 29 September, so good luck to everyone who has been shortlisted and we look forward to sharing some of your stories in future issues. Our survey on Edge is open until the end of September. Your feedback is valued and we will report on the results in a future issue: see bit.ly/ES26Survey Thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue. Please get in touch if you have a story or an opinion to share. louise.parfitt@cplone.co.uk

For advertising sales, please contact ciara.conway@leadership.global Publishing Published in the United Kingdom by The Institute of Leadership. Disclaimer Copyright 2026 The Institute of Leadership and CPL One. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is accurate, independent, objective and relevant for the readers, Edge accepts no liability for reader dissatisfaction arising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed or advice given are the views of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Edge, The Institute of Leadership or CPL One. Edge is printed on FSC-approved paper from responsible sources. Edge takes every effort to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor. ISSN 2515-7809 Printed by Paragon paragon.world

Contents Autumn 2026

Upfront 9 CEO welcome John Mark Williams

10 Updates

Latest news; research round-up

13 Lead in 15

Leadership development exercise

Regulars 14 Calling the tune

Collaborate or take charge – what’s your style and do you need to change it?

20 The debate

Knowledge 23 Mirror, mirror

Is there a preferred way to lead?

What is it really like to be on the receiving end of you?

30 Big interview

24 Drifting no more

Paralympian Aaron Phipps and his coach, Jon Cooper, on dropping the ego, uncomfortable truths and the journey to being top of their game

46 Spotlight Cover image: Robyn McCurdy / iStock

Joanna Reynolds, CEO of The Folio Society, discusses turning a failing business into a page-turning success

68 Book club 70 Ask the experts

Got a leadership dilemma? Our agony aunts are here to help

Leadership styles can unravel when the heat is on, so how can you be your best self at work everyday?

26 Under pressure

How to be a human-centred leader in a time of relentless change

28 Reflect yourself

Bring a healthy ego to work

29 Hot seat

Anna Pascoe, director of Make Me a Plan, on what leadership means to her

Workplace 36 The power of belief

Sustaining high performance

37 A leadership trap Smart leaders solve too many problems

38 Helicoptoring

Micromanagement will stifle a team, so here's how not to do it

40 Built for every brain How well is neuroinclusion experienced in the workplace?

42 Remotely close

Developing trusted relationships across global and hybrid teams

45 Beyond the role

How to get to know your team

Future focus 51 Future-ready leadership

Wellbeing 65 The price of 'always on' To be an effective leader, you need to be able to step back, tune out and not dive in

66 Sharing the load The importance of being honest about leadership demands, and how to get support

Building skills in an AI world

52 Bossing it

Meet award-winning mentoring duo Richard Sadler and Steve Ellis

54 Cooking up a storm

Addressing the shortage of women leaders in the hospitality sector

56 Push don't pull

Supporting teams to be future-ready

57 Human touch

Why leading with humanity will soon matter more than ever

Focus on... HR 58 Leadership in action Nic Elliott, HR director and employment lawyer, on the challenges facing HR leaders

62 In numbers

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John Mark Williams

The leader people experience Why intention isn’t enough

ne of the more uncomfortable things about leadership is that we tend to judge ourselves by what we intended to do. We know what we meant when we sent that email. We know why we challenged someone in a meeting. We know that we were under pressure when we became short with a colleague. We know that the decision we made was based on the information available to us at the time. The people around us don’t necessarily have any of that context. They experience what we say, what we do, what we don’t say and, sometimes most importantly, what we don’t do. They experience whether we listen or simply wait for our turn to speak. Whether we invite challenge or make it clear, consciously or otherwise, that disagreement isn’t welcome. Whether we notice when someone is struggling or carry on regardless because there is a deadline to meet. That is one of the reasons I think the idea of ‘leading with humanity’ matters. It is tempting to hear that phrase and think about being nicer at work. I don’t think that is what it means. Leadership with humanity doesn’t mean avoiding difficult decisions, lowering standards or making sure everyone is comfortable all of the time. Sometimes it means doing precisely the opposite. It means having the conversation that someone would rather avoid. It means giving honest feedback when it would be easier to say nothing. It means making a difficult decision and being prepared to explain why. It means holding people to account while treating them with dignity. The difference is in how we do those things. A difficult conversation can leave someone feeling diminished or it can leave them clearer about what they need to do next. A challenging question can feel like an attack or an invitation to think differently. A decision can be communicated in a way

“Think about the people you lead and ask yourself: ‘what do they experience when they experience me?’” that closes down discussion or one that helps people understand the thinking behind it. The action may be the same. The experience can be completely different. And that experience matters. We spend a great deal of time as leaders thinking about outcomes. Did we hit the target? Did the project land? Did we make the right decision? Did we deliver the change we said we would? Those questions are important. But there is another question that is much harder to answer: what is it like to work with me? Not what do I think it is like. Not what would I like it to be. Do people feel able to tell me when something isn’t working? Do they feel that their perspective will be taken seriously, even when I disagree with it? Do they know that I will listen before reaching a conclusion? Do they understand what I

expect from them? And when things go wrong, do they experience me as someone looking for someone to blame, or someone looking for a way forward? I suspect most leaders would like to think the answers are reassuring. But leadership is full of moments when our intentions and our impact can drift apart. That is not necessarily a sign of bad leadership. It is a sign that leadership is difficult. We are human, after all. We get tired and frustrated. We make assumptions. We become too focused on the outcome and lose sight of the person in front of us. We can become so accustomed to being the person with responsibility that we forget how our behaviour can feel to someone who has less power in the relationship. The answer isn’t to become endlessly self-conscious. Nor is it to try to remove every imperfection from our leadership. It is to become more curious about our impact. Sometimes that can start with a very simple question: “how did that land?”. It takes courage to ask it, because we may not like the answer. But leadership isn’t about receiving only the feedback that confirms our view of ourselves. It is about being willing to discover where our view might be incomplete. That, for me, is one of the most important aspects of leading with humanity. It is recognising that leadership is always experienced by another person. As you read this edition, I encourage you to consider the human side of your own leadership. Think about the people you lead and ask yourself: “what do they experience when they experience me?”. The answer may be one of the most useful pieces of leadership feedback you ever receive. John Mark Williams is chief executive of The Institute of Leadership. 9

Update

The Oxford Exchange gains Institute Approved status

he Institute of Leadership is delighted to welcome The Oxford Exchange Leadership Programme as a new Institute Approved programme, recognising its commitment to developing the next generation of confident, capable leaders. Delivered as a two-week residential programme at Oriel College, Oxford, the programme combines academic learning with leadership development across three pathways: Political Leadership and International Relations; Strategic Business Leadership and Entrepreneurship; and Global Health and Medicine. Leadership is not taught as a standalone subject. Instead, it runs throughout the student experience, with lectures, collaborative seminars, simulations and Oxbridge-style tutorials giving students opportunities to explore different approaches to leadership, test their thinking and apply it to everyday challenges. “Earning Institute Approved status is a monumental milestone for The Oxford Exchange. It validates our commitment to embedding practical leadership into rigorous academics. For our scholars, this partnership bridges the gap

between theoretical knowledge and real-world executive skills, empowering the next generation of global leaders,” said Professor Louise Formby and Professor Craig Tiedman, co-directors of The Oxford Exchange. The partnership also offers students the opportunity to connect with the Institute through student membership, opening the door to the wider leadership community as they begin their leadership journey. With further cohorts and programmes in development, the Institute looks forward to continuing to work with The Oxford Exchange and exploring new ways to support and showcase the leadership careers of its learners. “It was fantastic to see first-hand how The Oxford Exchange brings leadership development to life. Students are encouraged not just to learn about leadership, but to question it, practise it and consider the kind of leader they want to become. We’re delighted to welcome the programme as Institute Approved and look forward to building on this partnership,” said Laura Chassels, corporate partnerships lead at the IoL. To discover more about Institute Approved accreditation, visit bit.ly/EA26AS

Your community. Your expertise. Your voice This September, the IoL is introducing a new way for members and Fellows to connect, share expertise and help shape the conversation around leadership, with the launch of special interest groups (SIGs). The launch will initially feature two groups: Young Leaders and Coaching. Each will bring together members with a shared professional interest, creating a space to exchange ideas, experiences and insight from across the leadership community. The Young Leaders SIG will be hosted by IoL chair and trustee Emrys Green, while the Coaching SIG will be hosted by deputy chair and trustee Oliver Rendell. 10

The groups are designed to be genuinely member led. Members and Fellows will have the opportunity to help shape discussion topics, share perspectives from their sectors and communities, contribute their experience and feed insights and ideas into the Institute’s wider work and research. Over time, members will also have the opportunity to vote for their SIG chair, giving participants a direct role in influencing the direction of their group. More than a forum for discussion, the SIGs are intended to create a two-way conversation, bringing members together around areas they care about while helping

the Institute better understand the issues, opportunities and challenges facing leaders today.

Want to get involved? SIGs are a member-exclusive benefit, and places are open to active IoL members and Fellows. If you’re interested in joining one of the groups or would like to find out more, please contact membership@leadership.global

Update

A double shortlisting for Edge Edge has made the shortlist for not one, but two awards: the Association Excellence Awards – Publication of the Year and the MemCom Awards – Best Magazine Launch or Relaunch. It’s fantastic recognition for a publication that continues to evolve in response to the needs of our community and the ever-changing leadership landscape. A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to Edge so far – from our members and contributors to our partners, and our editorial and wider IoL teams.

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP

SPRING 2026

Grace under pressure

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP

SUMMER 2026

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP

WINTER 2025

Are two heads better than one...

Leading through crisis

Double trouble?

Twice as nice?

... or is sharing the CEO role a recipe for disaster? EDGE_Spring 26_pp01 Cover.indd 1

IoL new head of membership and marketing The Institute is thrilled to welcome Annette Wade-Clarke to the team as head of membership and marketing. She joins the IoL as an experienced executive leader in professional associations, bringing more than 25 years of expertise across marketing, communications, membership, education, skills and health. In her new role, Annette will lead the Institute’s membership and marketing activity, helping to strengthen the member experience, grow our community and ensure the Institute continues to connect with and deliver value for leadership professionals. “It is great to be joining the Institute at such an important point in its development,” said Annette. “Professional membership should be about more than belonging to an organisation – it should provide genuine value, recognition and opportunities to grow. I’m looking forward to working with colleagues, members and partners to strengthen that experience, grow the Institute’s community and ensure we continue to make a meaningful contribution to the leadership profession.” We’re delighted to have Annette on board and look forward to the experience, energy and insight she brings as the Institute enters its next chapter.

03/03/2026 15:51 EDGE_Summer 26_pp01 Cover.indd 1

03/06/2026 08:54 EDGE_Winter 25_pp01 Cover.indd 1

Sink or swim

Is being good at your job qualification enough to lead a team?

26/11/2025 11:45

Great teams are built with intention Putting a group of talented people together does not automatically create a great team. People bring different strengths, perspectives, preferences and ways of working. The leader’s role is to understand the differences and create conditions in which they can work together effectively. That means looking beyond job titles and individual performance to consider how people actually contribute to the team, where there are gaps and where differences can become a source of constructive challenge rather than friction. As the Institute’s work on effective teamwork has long recognised, the right combination of people, process and environment matters. This is the thinking behind our new partnership with Belbin, which brings together two organisations with a shared

interest in helping leaders get the best from their people. Belbin’s Team Roles framework provides leaders with a practical way to explore how individuals contribute to a team and how those contributions can complement one another. For our members, the partnership also provides access to new learning through MyLeadership+, helping leaders turn greater understanding of themselves and their teams into better collaboration, stronger relationships and improved performance. Ultimately, great teams are not created by accident. They are built deliberately – by leaders who understand that their job is not simply to assemble talent, but to create the environment in which different talents can work together at their best. See bit.ly/EA26TR

Update MyLeadership+ continues to grow, giving IoL members flexible, practical learning they can access whenever it suits them. Six new courses have recently been added, covering some of the everyday challenges and opportunities that shape effective leadership – from handling difficult conversations and giving and receiving feedback to evaluating team performance, developing a personal leadership brand and using critical reflection to learn from experience. The new learning is designed to be practical and easy to apply,

Research round-up A look at recent studies on leadership and management New research from the IoL and Pearson explores what organisations need to thrive as AI reshapes the workplace. The ‘Rethinking Capability and Leadership in an AI-driven World’ report argues that the challenge is not simply adopting AI, but helping people adapt alongside it. It highlights a shift in how leadership development needs to work. With only 14% of UK learners considering themselves highly AI ready, confidence is an important part of organisational capability. The report challenges leaders to consider: are they developing the capabilities AI cannot replace; are they redesigning work rather than just automating it; are they creating conditions for people to adapt continuously?

iStock

The Leadership Loneliness Paradox New research from the IoL challenges the familiar idea that ‘it’s lonely at the top’ is an unavoidable part of leadership. The ‘Leadership Loneliness Paradox’ argues that loneliness is often created by the structures and expectations surrounding senior roles: fewer trusted peers, greater confidentiality, shifting relationships and the pressure to appear confident and selfsufficient. The report makes the case for a different model of leadership, in which connection is treated as a strategic capability rather than a personal wellbeing issue. It calls on organisations to create structured opportunities for peer support, mentoring, coaching, reflection and honest challenge, while developing relational capabilities alongside technical leadership skills.

Leadership takeaway: The central message is that the strongest leaders are not those who carry everything alone, but those who know how to stay connected. Access the Institute’s research here: bit.ly/EA26RR

whether you have 15 minutes between meetings or more time to focus on your development. Members can access downloadable tools and templates, including a leadership self-assessment, SMART goal template, reflection journal and personal development planning guide. Together, the courses and resources provide another way for members to keep building their leadership capability, putting learning into practice and taking ownership of their continuing professional development. See bit.ly/EA26LC

Loneliness at work Among leaders

50%+

of senior business leaders have experienced loneliness and isolation

86%

said loneliness affected motivation and engagement

44%

said loneliness affected confidence when dealing with stakeholders

34%

said loneliness affected their ability to lead teams

Among employees

58%

of employees said they felt lonely at work at least some of the time

42%

had considered leaving or had left an employer because of workplace loneliness

40%

said loneliness had a significant or considerable impact on their motivation

Source: The Leadership Loneliness Paradox

New online courses added to MyLeadership+

The human movement

Lead in 15 One exercise

This short exercise is an invitation to think about how you lead when there is something that needs to get done. The task may be clear, but what does the person in front of you need from you? All you need is a pen, paper and 15 uninterrupted minutes

Think of a recent interaction Think of a recent conversation with someone you lead. It could have been about performance, a deadline, a difficult situation, a change or something that needed your attention.

Briefly note: • What did you need to achieve? • What did the other person need from you? • What was the pressure or tension in the situation? • How did the conversation actually leave the person feeling? Now ask yourself: Was I leading the situation, or was I managing the task?

Choose a conversation where the task mattered, but the person mattered too.

15 minutes

One valuable takeaway

Look again through their eyes Without trying to justify your actions, imagine the conversation from the other person’s perspective. Complete the table by ticking what you think they may have needed from you.

They may have needed...

A lot

Somewhat

Not much

Clarity To feel heard Challenge Reassurance Space to think Confidence in me Something else

Then circle the one need that you think mattered most.

Examples: • “Rather than moving straight to a solution, I will ask what they think first.” • “Rather than assuming they understand, I will check.” • “Rather than filling the silence, I will give them time to think.” • “Rather than focusing only on what needs fixing, I will recognise what is working.” • “Rather than trying to remove their discomfort, I will help them work through it.” Keep your change small. The aim isn’t to become a different leader. It’s to become more deliberate in one human moment.

Explore further Leading with humanity: explore the Institute’s thinking on trust, connection, psychological safety and the human side of effective leadership at Leadership Live: see bit.ly/EA26LLVR

Make the human shift Now consider what you did, and what you could have done differently. Complete this sentence: “Next time, rather than ____________ , I will _______________.”

Take it with you Write your answer to this question somewhere you will see it before your next important conversation: “What does this person need from me right now?” That is your human leadership

prompt. It doesn’t mean lowering standards, avoiding difficult conversations or putting people’s feelings ahead of performance. It means remembering that how we lead the person is part of how we lead the situation. The one valuable takeaway Before you ask, “What needs to happen?” ask, “What does this person need from me?”. That small pause can change the quality of the conversation and – sometimes – the outcome.

The big issue

Calling the tune In a world of constant change, is the collaborative, listen-and-learn approach the best way to steer your ship, or is there now a need for leaders to be more decisive, to take charge with purpose and command a decisive path for their team to follow? Writing Peter Crush

arly in his leadership career, Paul McCallum – then a principal consultant at staffing agency, Blue Arrow – admits his adopted ‘style’ just wasn’t working. “It was very command and control; schoolof-hard-knocks sort of stuff,” he admits. “That’s what had been drummed into me back then. But even at the time I never really thought it worked.” Today, however, as founder of his own agency, PJ Staffing, which services the hospitality sector, he’s a self-confessed convert to what many would say is the more progressive ‘listen and enable’ approach. He describes his style as “leading with humanity”. “I’ve changed as a person,” he says, “but I’ve also understood that if you can improve the people who work with you, you improve the business as a whole, too. Today, I would suggest my at-work persona far more accurately mirrors my outside-of-work persona. I’d say I’m all the better as a leader as a result of this shift.” This evolution in approach is not dissimilar to the evolution that leadership theory has undergone in the past 30 years. Rigid, didactic, implacable traits so wedded to yesterday are increasingly falling out of favour. In their place has come seeking consensus, to arrive at far more authentic, cooperative and facilitative styles. As Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and interim co-chair of the World Economic Forum, observed from his time at the 2026

Davos congregation, progress was most likely when leaders felt able to disagree openly and deepen their understanding, rather than have agreement forced upon them. But in our increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times, does this consensus stand up to scrutiny?

Return of the decision-maker

In a world where disruption is the norm, and where clarity of direction is most prized by worried staff, is there an argument for saying a more decisive leadership needs to return? Many now think this moment has arrived. “Leadership is really just about responding to context,” argues Alain Bejjani, former Majid Al Futtaim Group CEO, who was recently ranked number two in Forbes Middle East’s list of the 50 Most Influential Expats in the UAE. He is also author of NEXT: Leading Through the New Realities. “We have arguably over-corrected to the more approachable and inclusive model,” he adds. “I genuinely think a more domineering leadership style needs to make a brutal comeback.” According to Bejjani, confronting business and political uncertainty by appearing to need discussion, and taking all opinions onboard, perpetuates uncertainty rather than quashes it. In these testing times, he believes what’s really needed is decisiveness. “Increasingly, I’m of the opinion that there is no right or wrong way to 15

The big issue

“Command and control vs listen and enable is probably a false choice – it’s not either/or but both/and”

lead because the requirements of leadership are so fluid,” he says. “The only thing that’s wrong is to say there is a wrong way and a right way. That said, we’re living in a world where we need to swing to the more assertive side. For many, I think this represents a return to common sense.”

Owning it

Christian Gladwell, former global CEO of M&C Saatchi Performance and now senior director, strategy and partnerships, at Sabio, is one of a growing number of commentators beginning to agree with this. “The basic premise is spot on,” he says. “We lead in context and we have to ask ourselves, ‘has the context changed?’. Today, the principal requirement of leaders is arguably having the intellectual firepower to communicate a plan and then own it. Leaders are required to make decisions. At the moment, so many don’t, or they lead by committee. When you have less wiggle-room, the directive approach has legs.” Responding to the counter-claim that this style just wouldn’t wash with today’s Gen Z workforce, and would simply come across as totalitarian, Bejjani suggests that the truer picture is far more nuanced. “I think people – employees – are far more tolerant to changes of style, even those that might seem quite Roman emperor in nature, especially if they can see that it is the right solution at the time,” he explains. “Where we are now is that people don’t want to have to second-guess. In a complex world, they want clarity about the strategic direction they are expected to go in. I see assertiveness as clarity. It’s not about being anti-inclusiveness, but it recognises a particular point of time that we’re in.”

Group. “True leadership comes flanked with purpose and trust. I tend to take the psychological safety approach first, of going slow to then go fast. I’d argue leadership today is precisely about saying you don’t have all the answers.” The intensity with which ‘listen and learn’ advocates will defend sticking to more inclusive ideas of leadership (coupled with almost a fear of a return to commandand-control notions) signifies just how far leadership theory has pivoted, and how demonised ‘old school’ styles have become. As Hult International Business School’s recently published report – provocatively titled The Six Shifts: What ‘Better’ Leadership Really Means – reveals, there is still strong academic support for the listening style. It proclaims: “Better is authentic. Humility, fairness and integrity underpin trust. Employees want leaders who ‘walk the talk’.”

Change of approach?

Given all this, it’s perhaps not surprising that leaders who might naturally err towards being collaborative are finding themselves questioning their preferences. “What style works best is a very timely question,” says Carl Lundberg, CEO of Londonbased mid-tier accountancy firm Gerald Edelman. “This has been going through my mind at precisely this time. My predecessor was absolutely more direct in nature, for good or for bad, but I’m a new CEO [of less than two years], but I can see the world is changing and I’ve probably underestimated just how decisively leaders do need to be right now. That’s a leader’s job. “I do sometimes sit here and wonder ‘how should I come across?’. People below me definitely want more certainty. My private thoughts are ‘how do you do this?’. I do find myself asking whether I need to be more aggressive – especially because our sector is facing lots of consolidation. The command way is a much easier way to lead if you think you’re right and can find people to follow you.” For Simon Crichton, CEO at Harvey Nash, the question of how he has been brought up

Purpose and trust

This isn’t a universally popular view. “When the rubber hits the road, it’s a team’s lived experience that sets the tone – and that doesn’t always come from overbearing leaders,” posits Vicky Reddington, co-founder of team performance coaching business Amplified

“You need to be less worried about what style you’re choosing or showing and, instead, have clarity about what you’re trying to do”

The big issue

to lead, and how appropriate this is for the current climate, is a very real one – and, again, does not appear easy to answer. “I trained as a chemist, so being analytical and ‘this is right’ very much shapes me now,” he says. “Mix this with how the world has changed and, yes, things do feel complex. “The way I try to navigate this is by trying to steer away from being at one end of a style spectrum or another. I sum this up by trying to be flexible but having rigidity in standards. To me, this means accepting that sometimes you need to listen to others, but at other times decisiveness is needed. “What I learned is that you need to be less worried about what style you’re choosing or showing and, instead, have clarity about what you’re trying to do. To me, this is better than being tied down to whether you’re ‘tough’ or ‘kind’ – or not.”

In 2015 there were just 11 businesses with co-CEOs in the Russell 3000 group of the biggest public companies in the US. By 2024, however, this had more than doubled to 24. MyLogIQ

Amp it up or dial it down?

If this reads a lot like leaders just wanting to hang on to the best bits of both styles – basically hedging their bets – then maybe this is their way of justifying amping up and dialling down some styles as they are needed. “Command and control vs listen and enable is probably a false choice – it’s not either/or but both/and,” says Dr Sam Porter, performance psychologist at Mindflick, which has just become official mindset performance partner to Manchester United. “Both are behaviours, not identities – one direct and driving the outcome; the other tuned into people and enabling. Every leader has a natural starting point and the good ones aren’t loyal to just one style; they read the moment and shift. I call this ‘changing gears’, or ‘counterweighting’, and it’s the difference between a strength and a liability. “Can you combine the two without leaving the team lost? Yes you can. But what unsettles a team is inconsistent intent – moving goalposts, having unclear standards or causing people to not know where they stand. So, you have to communicate and signal intent – a lot.” Steve Rowbotham, who won a bronze medal in rowing at the 2008 Olympics and is the founder of travel audience intelligence company Navigator, believes both styles

The big issue

are appropriate – but leaders have to know when to use them, and why. “I don’t think it’s either/or, but both,” he says. “I’ve done the collaborative way, and been burned, because things just didn’t get done. “Right now in our development [the company has just secured £4m investment], it’s speed of response that matters most. People are looking to me for clarity. Both these elements require a more direct, takingcontrol approach.”

False choice

“Leading with humanity can mean that you see the person behind the role, assume positive intent, and ensure that the person feels valued, supported and is leveraging their unique strengths – while still being willing to have the difficult conversation” 18

According to Rowbotham, the expectation staff have of their leaders – for them to chart the correct path ahead – is “insane”. Although he says he harks from a very command-andcontrol rowing background, he’s clear about one thing. “You can lead, and you can be directive, but you can do it properly, and you don’t have to be an a*hole!” Roy Capon, ex-Accenture, now managing director of AI innovation company Valtech, calls this being able to lead with “radical candour”. He argues over-indexing for consensus is quietly killing decision-making quality and speed. He also argues that ‘listen and enable’ creates indecision, and that kindness without

The big issue

clarity just leaves teams more confused and disempowered. “Radical candour comes from a place of caring,” he says. “It’s about leaders caring for the people around them and having a level of humanity, but taking control doesn’t have to mean a leader is dictatorial. I think you should lead with openness and then things such as engagement follow.” Some might call this ‘leading with humanity’, another leadership phrase that signals the ability to be directive when necessary, but listen at other times. “Leading with humanity can mean that you see the person behind the role, assume positive intent and ensure that the person feels valued and supported, and is leveraging their unique strengths – while still being willing to have the difficult conversation,” says Porter. “It’s not a soft option, but, arguably, it’s not a third style either. A line we use with managers is that being clear is being kind.”

A flexible modus operandi

Of course, if the current VUCA climate dictates a command-and-control style of leadership for the here and now, it’s just as likely that this could change again if things become more stable and a different modus operandi is needed.

“If leaders need to force control for one particular period, they need to be able to bring people with them and help employees ‘show up’,” explains Nicola Ellwood, a master executive coach and performance and leadership transformation specialist with more than 20 years’ experience supporting senior leaders. “Leaders have to remember they can only ever unlock intrinsic motivation – they can’t create it. “The number one factor that impacts leadership outcomes is whether staff have faith in them and can trust them. The best leaders are those who can find a way to bring staff with them in different circumstances, the ups and the downs.” The key thing, argues Porter, is that leaders shouldn’t be blind to needing to adapt their style when it’s required. “Most leaders aren’t missing the other gear,” he concludes. “They just don’t notice they need to change. Good leadership is mostly a noticing habit.” Peter Crush is an award-winning HR-specialist journalist, writing about all aspects of leadership and the world of work. 19

Debate GUEST OPINION

Simone Fenton-Jarvis

Beyond style Don’t stay stuck in your lane

or decades, we have argued about the wrong things. I’m not talking about cats vs dogs, United vs City or what goes first, jam or cream. I’m talking about command-and-control vs listen-and-enable. Directive vs inclusive. Tough vs kind. Decisiveness vs psychological safety. You don’t have to be one thing or have one way. The best leaders have the skill and self-awareness to deploy many approaches deliberately. Instead of having a style, they read the situation. We have been naming styles for more than 180 years. In 1840, leaders were born not made; in 1939, they were autocratic or democratic; in 1969, situational; in 1978, transformational... and by 2000 Daniel Goleman was naming six more styles within his EI framework. Each one of them described a way to lead. A good leader changes gear constantly in response to what is in front of them – the situation, the people being managed, competence, the urgency, the performance and results required. A capable, motivated team facing a familiar problem needs space, not instruction. A new team in a crisis needs clarity, fast. The same leader should look different in each. That is not inconsistency that drives uncertainty; it is competence that drives performance by putting people and profit hand in hand. Human-centric leadership. Human-centric leadership is not yet another style, but the discipline

“Human-centric leadership is not yet another style, but the discipline of holding them all and choosing the right one for the people, the task, the moment” of holding them all and choosing the right one for the people, the task, the moment. But, you say, isn’t this just situational leadership? Well, situational and contingency theory got closer than anything else; they were the first to say the right style depends on what’s in front of you. But they put at the centre the situation; the task; the problem. The person was a variable in that equation: read competence, pick the gear, get the job done.

Human-centric leadership flips this, asking: “What does this person need from me to do their best work?” and trusts that performance will follow. The same instinct to adapt, but a different starting point. One optimises the task and uses the person to get there; the other starts with the human and the results speak. More than 180 years of leadership models – yet none told you to start with the person. If people never know which leader they will get, don’t they stop knowing where they stand? A fair challenge – but style can flex; intent cannot. It’s not the change of approach that unsettles a team, it’s moving goalposts, poor communication and unclear standards. The human-centric leader signals intent, often and with clarity. Adaptability with humility shows attentiveness and skill. Reading the room and still holding the standard is far harder, but far more effective and authentic. The skill to build isn’t a style; it’s noticing when the moment calls for a different approach. A human-centric practice may be the only one built for a world that refuses to stand still. We are human, after all. Simone Fenton-Jarvis is co-founder of The Human-Centric Workplace and author of The Human-Centric Workplace (2021) and The Human-Centric Leader (2026). She is leading a workshop on ‘Humancentred leadership’ during Leadership Live on 29 September. See bit.ly/EA26LLVR

Debate GUEST OPINION

Gideon Schulman

Step up, step in, step back Lead according to what is needed, not how you prefer

eadership is often presented as a choice between ‘command and control’ or ‘listen and enable’. The easy answer is to say that good leaders should listen, empower and bring people with them. In most situations, I agree with that. People usually do their best work when they feel trusted, respected and clear about the purpose of what they are doing. But I do not think it is quite that simple. There are times when a commandand-control approach is necessary. In a crisis, when there is real risk, limited time or a need for clarity, leadership cannot become endless discussion. If there is a safeguarding concern, a serious operational failure or a threat to the future of an organisation, someone has to make a decision and take responsibility for it. In those moments, firm direction is not poor leadership. It may be exactly what is required. The problem comes when command and control becomes the normal way of leading. It can make people nervous, silent and dependent. It may get short-term compliance, but it rarely builds long-term commitment. It can also mean that all decisions sit with one person, which is unhealthy for the organisation and exhausting for the leader. It may also stop others from developing the confidence and judgement they need. A listen-and-enable style is usually better for building trust, confidence and shared responsibility. The people closest to the work often understand the practical issues best. If leaders do not

“Listening does not mean being weak. Enabling people does not mean stepping back so far that no one knows who is responsible” listen, they miss ideas and concerns that may be obvious to others. This matters, particularly in governance, care, charity leadership and HR, where culture and judgement are as important as process. However, listening does not mean being weak. Enabling people does not mean stepping back so far that no one knows who is responsible. A good leader still has to set direction, make difficult decisions and be clear about boundaries. Listening should inform leadership, not replace it. Enabling others should strengthen accountability, not dilute it.

The strongest leadership style is not one fixed approach. It is leadership with judgement. A good leader reads the situation: the risk, urgency, people involved, capability of the team and consequences of delay. Sometimes they need to direct. Sometimes they need to coach. Sometimes they need to step back and let others lead. The skill is knowing which is needed and having the humility to change approach when the facts change. The best leaders are neither controlling nor passive. They are clear about purpose, honest about risk and serious about people. They listen properly, because they know they do not hold all the wisdom themselves. They enable others, because organisations are stronger when responsibility is shared. But when the situation genuinely requires it, they are also prepared to take command and take responsibility for the decision. Rabbi Gideon Schulman is a chief executive, board and governance leader, and principal adviser, people and strategy, at Pytronot. He writes on leadership, governance, disability inclusion and ethical responsibility, drawing on commercial experience, public service and lived experience of progressive multiple sclerosis. Our next debate is looking at why and when leadership fails. Is failure a key ingredient in learning how to lead well? If you have an opinion on this that you’d like to share, please email louise.parfitt@cplone.co.uk

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Knowledge GUEST OPINION

Graham Allcott

Mirror, mirror What’s it like to be on the other end of you?

omewhere in the last month, someone told a story where YOU were the baddie. OK, ‘baddie’ might be a strong word, so let’s just say, at best, you were described as an annoying obstacle to be overcome. But maybe it was worse than that. Maybe in that conversation they were trying to give you the benefit of the doubt too. It happened. Because it happens – to all of us. So the question is: do you want to know what was said and why? It’s easy to say: “Absolutely not.” It’s far braver and much more rewarding to say: “Go ooonnnnn… tell me more about this.” And we absolutely should approach those things with curiosity, because, for the most part, we’ll never hear those stories. When there’s a glitch in the matrix and our path collides with one of those stories, we’d do well to listen, no matter how uncomfortable it might make us. Feedback is like that, too. We often don’t like to receive it, because someone else’s truth might mess with ours. I’ve had feedback that floored me. Not because it was cruel, but because it was true – and the person delivering it clearly cared enough to say it anyway. That combination is rare. Most of us hold back the last 20%. We give enough to feel like we’ve been honest, but not quite enough to be useful. And

it changed me, because tension – that place between comfortable and uncomfortable – is where the really useful stuff lives.

The gift to help you grow

“We often don’t like to receive feedback, because someone else’s truth might mess with ours”

when we’re on the receiving end, we do the same thing in reverse – we listen just enough to seem open, then file it under ‘their problem, not mine’. The moments that have actually changed me were the ones when I couldn’t do that. When the feedback was delivered with enough warmth that I couldn’t dismiss it and enough honesty that I couldn’t ignore it. And

It’s difficult to hear, but it can be such a gift to learn what it’s like to be ‘on the other end of you’. It’s essential for self-awareness and, hence, essential for kindness. One of the dictionary definitions of kindness is ‘limiting the damage’. How can we limit the damage if we don’t know about how we’ve caused damage in the past? And how will someone else know what it’s like to be ‘on the other end of them’ if we don’t give them that feedback, too? It’s brave to offer it, but it’s a gift that can help them grow. So, over the next few days, I invite you to ponder the uncomfortable question: “What’s it like to be on the other end of me?” Some of it you can probably guess. Some of it, if you hear it, will surprise or even shock you. But choosing brave curiosity over fearful ignorance is almost always the right call. Graham Allcott is founder of Think Productive and the winner of the IoL’s Book of the Year Award for his book Kind. You can read an interview with Graham in the Winter 2025 issue of Edge: see bit.ly/EA26GA

Knowledge

Preventing leadership drift Sara Barrie offers insights from recent research on the challenges of showing up as your best leadership self, day in, day out

y experience, in both corporate life and as a coach, has included discussions of leadership styles as though they were relatively fixed. We review whether a leader’s particular style is visionary, affiliative or directive. Whether they are task- or people-focused. Development programmes encourage leaders to understand their preferred style, build on their strengths and recognise where they need to adapt. While these conversations remain useful, they no longer feel sufficient for the reality leaders now face. That’s because leadership is no longer taking place in a stable context, where style can be consistently and consciously applied. It is taking place in conditions of continuous pressure, relentless change and growing complexity. And that must alter the conversation entirely. The unvarnished truth One finding from my company’s recent research has emerged with remarkable consistency. Leaders are no longer questioning whether they know how to lead. They are questioning how they can continue to lead well when the demands placed on them rarely subside.

“Pressure has become embedded in leadership itself rather than arriving in identifiable waves”

Capability is no longer the hard part. The challenge is about whether leaders have the capacity to continue deploying that capability day after day in unpredictable circumstances, with difficult decisions piling up, each competing for attention, while carrying responsibility for the performance and wellbeing of others. What has changed is not simply the amount of work leaders undertake, but the nature of the role itself. The leaders contributing to our research described operating under a constant barrage of competing demands: ●C ommercial performance alongside people priorities ●T ransformation alongside operational delivery ● I ncreasing regulation and governance alongside accelerating technological change ●G reater visibility alongside diminishing thinking time. Perhaps most significantly, many described a role that no longer has natural recovery periods. Pressure has become embedded within leadership itself rather than arriving in identifiable waves. Leaders are expected to remain composed while responding to an almost continuous flow of decisions, competing expectations and external uncertainty. Leadership drift Against this backdrop, I believe we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, “what combination of leadership styles is most effective?”, perhaps we should be asking, “what happens to leadership styles under sustained pressure?” This is where I believe one of the greatest, but least discussed, leadership risks exists: leadership drift. Leadership drift is rarely dramatic. It happens gradually, even invisibly. In my experience, under

Knowledge

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sustained pressure, leaders seldom abandon their values. Instead, they begin to over-rely on the very qualities that have previously made them successful: ●T he well-organised, more adaptive leader may check out, avoiding the abject confusion their more visionary colleagues are causing ●T he highly driven/directive, task-focused leader may tighten control because the uncertainty becomes intolerable ●T he highly affiliative leader may be caring too much, absorbing everyone else’s concerns until their own judgement becomes clouded by exhaustion. Remember, none of these behaviours begins as weaknesses. Each starts as a strength. But every strength, when overused or left unchecked, eventually becomes a blind spot. Blind spots often only become visible through their impact on others. It’s the leader you become on a difficult day. Three lenses Leadership is defined by behaviour on an ordinary Tuesday when the inbox is overflowing, three difficult conversations await, the board requires reassurance, a key client has escalated an issue and home life has not stood still simply because work has become demanding. That is where leadership becomes visible. When pressure exposes it. Our research suggests leaders remain highly agile and capable. What is becoming increasingly fragile is their capacity to sustain that capability over time without compromising judgement, relationships or themselves. I increasingly see leadership through three connected lenses: ●C apability ●C apacity ●C ontext Capability asks whether leaders possess the knowledge, judgement and skills to perform their role. Capacity asks whether they have sufficient cognitive, emotional and physical resources to keep doing so consistently. Context asks whether the organisational system enables good leadership or unintentionally undermines it. These three elements are inseparable. Highly capable leaders eventually struggle when capacity is continually depleted. Even the most mentally tough leaders become less effective when organisational contexts reward perpetual urgency over thoughtful judgement, while still expecting strong results and creating meaningful strategic value. The issue, therefore, is rarely that leaders cannot lead. It is whether the environment allows them to lead well.

“Leadership drift is rarely dramatic. It happens gradually, even invisibly”

Survey During the past two years, Sara Barrie & Associates has been exploring the realities of modern leadership through its survey Real Leaders: The Unvarnished Truth. Drawing on data and in-depth conversations with senior leaders across a range of sectors, the research seeks to understand not how leadership is taught, but how it is actually experienced. See bit.ly/EA26UT

Self-awareness as a discipline If leadership increasingly takes place under pressure, then perhaps self-awareness is one of the most important strategic capabilities a leader can possess. Not self-awareness as introspection, but selfawareness as discipline. It is the discipline to notice when our strengths begin to work against us. When kindness becomes avoidance. When decisiveness becomes control. When confidence closes us off to different perspectives. Self-aware leaders recognise these shifts early and make conscious adjustments before they begin to affect their judgement, relationships or impact. To achieve this level of self-awareness demands something increasingly scarce within organisations – space. Space to think before responding, to challenge assumptions and to distinguish what is urgent from what is genuinely important. Space to recognise that the leader we become under sustained pressure may not always be the leader we intend, or want, to be. The future of leadership Perhaps the next evolution of leadership is not another model or another style. Instead, perhaps it is a more honest understanding of the conditions in which leadership now takes place. Leadership has never been about perfection. Nor should it be. But it has always depended upon judgement. And judgement requires more than experience, intelligence or confidence. It requires clarity. The leaders who will flourish over the next decade will not necessarily be those with the strongest personalities or the most compelling leadership styles. They will be those who recognise how pressure quietly reshapes behaviour, who actively guard against leadership drift, and who understand that sustaining themselves is not separate from sustaining organisational performance. I believe the question facing modern leaders is no longer “how do I lead?” but “who am I as a leader?” Because who you are ultimately determines how well you serve both your organisation and your own performance. Sara Barrie is an award-winning master coach with more than a decade of global coaching experience following a successful executive career. She works with C-suite leaders, boards and senior teams across FTSE and Fortune-listed companies, entrepreneurial businesses and in the third sector. Known for her commercial edge and insight-driven approach, she coaches leaders in elevating performance and delivering real, sustained impact. 25

Knowledge

r e d e n r U essu r p

Paul Haynes explores how to be a human-centred leader in an age of relentless change

are running on empty, fatigued or burning out. That concerns me. It is why I believe we must reset our focus: paying attention to pressure so we can work with it and discover what becomes possible when we stop pretending it is having no impact.

Pressure cooker

here is something relentless about the context in which leaders find themselves today. Pressure is mounting, the pace is accelerating and I worry about the toll on our people. Yet I remain hopeful we can lead differently within it. We talk all the time about what great leadership looks like: empathy, psychological safety, clarity and presence. We talk far less about what sustained pressure is doing to the person expected to provide those things. Leaders are being asked to make bold leaps within systems scarred from when risk taking went wrong – systems that now try to block these leaps by saying: “No. Don’t do it. Stay safe.” Then along comes AI! I love it and use it all the time. Yet the rush to adopt it is adding to leaders’ pressure. All this means our people must be more creative, innovative and human-focused while many

I often see leaders and teams respond to pressure by working harder and faster. Both can be great. But there is a big difference between pace fuelled by purpose and pace propelled by overwhelm. I get why we might not want to step away from that pace. Slowing down can mean seeing clearly how we are doing under pressure, whether we are coping and whether we need help. For some, saying “I am struggling” can feel like an enormous risk. Yet pressure we do not process comes out elsewhere: defensiveness, control, withdrawal or overthinking. All too often we carry it home, becoming less present, snapping at people we love or making decisions we later regret. Surely this cannot become the norm for leadership?

What is happening?

My hope that there is another way has been developing over many years, through trying to understand why brilliant teams become so stuck under pressure. For years, I found team coaching incredibly tough. Conversations ended

Knowledge up stuck, and I often felt I had let teams down. Eventually, something shifted. I realised I had only been coaching the subject matter: the strategy, the difficult conversation, the goal. What if I was starting in the wrong place? What if I looked first at the unseen conditions surrounding the work? My question changed: what is happening to these people that is stopping them accessing the capability they already have? That became the genesis of ‘The Grip©’, my work on internal patterns that flare up when safety, identity or belonging feel threatened. I stopped asking, “what are you working on?” and started asking, “what is happening to you while you work on it?”. That distinction sits at the heart of humancentred leadership.

Make the shift

I saw this clearly while working with leaders in a large, complex organisation. They wanted to lead well: to listen, ask better questions, and have honest conversations about feedback, performance and accountability. They understood what good leadership required. Yet when those conversations became difficult, pressure often got in the way. We started with the real challenges they were facing. But as leaders described a difficult conversation or situation, we also paid attention to what was happening to them in the moment. Some spoke faster and filled every silence. Others became quieter, avoided the difficult part of the conversation or searched for the ‘right’ answer. Once leaders could see those patterns, they could begin to practise responding differently. The shift was not about giving them more leadership knowledge; it was about helping them access skills they already had when it mattered most. They left better able to notice when pressure was shaping their response and with ways to work with it. The ambition was simple: better conversations, greater courage, and leaders more able to help people think, contribute and thrive.

Acknowledge the discomfort

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Many of us were taught to move away from discomfort, suppress it and carry on. Today’s culture of more, faster and harder amplifies that instinct. Caught in these patterns, we rarely see we are inside them. We defend, withdraw, control or push harder, assuming a stuck meeting simply needs more effort.

“We must reset our focus: paying attention to pressure so we can work with it and discover what becomes possible when we stop pretending it is having no impact”

But what if, rather than trying to outrun ‘the grip’, we faced into it? We have all been in a room where somebody says something and the atmosphere turns to stone. A project or instruction is mentioned and suddenly everything becomes tense. Someone withdraws; another challenges every detail. That shift is information waiting to be explored. A leader can either push through the agenda or become curious: “I noticed the room changed when I mentioned that. What just happened?” Asking will only work, however, if the leader has created enough trust and safety for honest answers without fear of reprisal. Only then can new information emerge: an unspoken risk is voiced, the leader learns their approach is creating fear, or something systemic is getting in the way. The leader who battles through ‘the grip’ is limited to information already on the table. The leader who creates safety to face into it can access what is underneath. ‘The grip’ is not actually the problem. Used as data, it can uncover what is blocking people and help them access the skill, judgement and brilliance they were employed to bring.

Human first

AI adoption, restructuring and rising expectations are happening now. Pressure is continuing to intensify. While people are becoming depleted, performance is suffering and some organisations are doubling down on pressure, that cycle is not inevitable. We can choose differently. We can notice when ‘the grip’ arrives and ask what is happening, rather than push harder. We can create teams in which people say what they see, ask for help and bring to the surface what might remain hidden; places where talented people contribute, take risks and thrive. The pressure may not disappear or the pace slow, but our capacity to meet both can change. That is where my hope lies. Human-centred leadership is not about pretending these pressures are not real. It is about creating the conditions in which people can remain connected to themselves and each other while facing them. If we can do that, perhaps we will not simply survive relentless change. Instead, we may be far better placed to lead through it. Paul Haynes is an executive coach and leadership specialist with more than 15 years’ experience supporting leaders and teams in high-pressure, high-stakes environments. At the heart of his work is a simple idea: when leaders learn to stay present in the moments they usually avoid, real change begins. Paul isa keynote speaker at Leadership Live in September: see bit.ly/EA26LLVR Read more about Paul at bit.ly/EA26PH 27

Knowledge GUEST OPINION

Steve Mostyn

Reflect yourself How to bring a ‘healthy ego’ to work

go is always an interesting word, its origin stemming from psychoanalysis and the work of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Jung defined the ego as the centre of your conscious mind. I hear the word used all the time in my work with global executives, often with negative connotations that refer to an overbearing co-worker, boss or CEO – and yet, sometimes, they achieve fabulous results in spite of themselves. If you have strong self-esteem, accept constructive feedback and feel secure without needing constant praise, then I think your ego is working well. So, what can you do to bring a healthy ego to work? My insights are twofold. First, build a reflective practice and, second, ask better questions. To build a reflective practice – that is, to have a systematic approach to knowing yourself in the workplace – you first have to ask yourself the question: how do I reflect? When you have spent some time thinking about this, you may find you have actually answered where you reflect – for example, while walking, cycling or on the drive home. This is helpful, but not as useful as really trying to answer ‘how do I reflect?’. When you have considered this question further, start to build your reflective practice – be more intentional and carve out time each day to reflect. Reflective practice then invites you to experiment and try out new ways of acting or behaving. The skill to develop masterfully is to reflect amid action – and if you reflect on

“Reflective practice invites you to experiment and try out new ways of acting or behaving”

unexpected experiences, and conduct mini experiments, these will, in turn, create a novel understanding of the experience and, most significantly, a change in the situation. As the American scholar Warren Bennis says: “There are lessons in everything, and if you are fully deployed, you will learn most of them. Experiences aren’t truly yours until you think about them, analyse them, examine them, question them,

reflect on them and, finally, understand them. The point… is to use your experiences rather than being used by them, to be the designer, not the design, so that experiences empower rather than imprison.” A simple technique that works is to get into the habit of daily journalling – but try micro journalling first, for just one minute per day (and write your answers longhand). Ask: • When did I lead today? • When could I have led – but chose not to? • What am I proud of today? • What is still unresolved? • What is the best question I asked today? The power of the one-minute journal is key to building a habit. After a few weeks, you will start to see themes of your leadership, and better and better questions will emerge. This is an act of agency and the key to developing a healthy ego. You then train yourself to reflect in the midst of action. Your questions improve. The best leaders ask the best questions. Become that leader! Steve Mostyn is the author of Why Great Leaders Ask Great Questions (John Murray Press). He is a leading designer and director of senior executive leadership programmes, and an internationally recognised thought leader in leadership training. Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, he creates and leads the Oxford Executive Leadership Programme and is honorary professor at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow.

Knowledge Leader Q&A

are you focusing on 4 What from a leadership perspective? Being understanding, which ties in with empathy. How you project yourself matters immensely, and I’m currently focusing on understanding where my team are coming from and how to help them be their best and most comfortable.

In the hot seat

do you develop 5 How your people?

Anna Pascoe believes good leadership is about responding, not reacting

does leadership mean 1 What to you?

If you’d asked me that earlier in my career, I might have said “making sure my organisation/department/projects run smoothly and modelling projected values – and a sense of competence and control”. But now, good leadership to me is more about empathy. I need to respond, not react, to situations and performance by team members and stakeholders. This means considering what personal and professional inputs by each person led to the outcome before providing feedback.

What are your main leadership and management challenges?

I have a portfolio career, which spans three sectors and the executive and non-executive domains. This means planning time for work that needs doing and contingencies, so I can try to be responsive when, or even before, people need me to be. It also means dreams of a zero inbox are largely unrealistic and I keep coaching myself not to be bugged by that!

“How you project yourself matters immensely. I’m focusing on helping my team be their best and most comfortable” I love being creative and innovative – both great attributes, but I need to caution myself not to spend time creating project 1,435 when project 17 is time-critical right now.

does the landscape of your 3 How sector affect those challenges?

My company, Make Me A Plan, primarily works in business support, development and consultancy, which has created a heavier recent workload. Higher overheads make it harder for businesses to grow and funding organisations more reluctant to lend or fund. Sometimes we can help – for example, coaching on effective bid writing. Other times, the answer might be a business having to park growth plans for the foreseeable future, which is never a nice message to deliver.

When I started, one of my nonnegotiables was that every plan would be tailor-made to the individual. That carries over into how I lead. Sure, some things are important to everyone, such as working on a huge, audacious goal. But so is having a listening ear and maximum flexibility. Some organisations think flexible working means allowing people to log on from 9-5 from home, but the concept for a Make Me A Plan team member on a 20-hour contract might be to take a week off for personal stuff and work 40 hours the next week. I wish more businesses would explore treating their staff like empowered adults.

is your biggest leadership 6 What lesson over the past year? I used to get cross if I didn’t complete the to-do list or clear the inbox by the end of each day. Over the past year, I’ve experienced the sudden death of my father, plus elderly friends and family needing much more help. This has made me less negative about what I couldn’t achieve and more appreciative of what I did.

Anna Pascoe is the managing director of Make Me A Plan, a Living Wage Awardwinning consultancy specialising in personal and business development. She is also the founder of the Healthy Habits Academy CIC, which upskills people not earning or learning, and the vice-chair of Cornwall’s largest charitable leisure centre trust. We’re looking for members to feature in the Hot Seat! Please contact louise.parfitt@cplone.co.uk

Edge interview

A partnership forged in gold As a teenager, Aaron Phipps’ life was turned upside down when he had both legs and most of his fingers amputated. He turned it back around to become an award-winning athlete and motivational speaker, but he wouldn’t have got to where he is without his coach and mentor Jon Cooper. The pair share their story of leadership and resilience, and why success is often born out of the most challenging circumstances

aron Phipps was 15 years old when he contracted meningitis. When his flu-like symptoms became worse, he was blue-lighted to hospital, where he spent the next year. Blood poisoning from his illness meant Phipps had to have both of his legs and most of his fingers amputated: life-changing events that could have knocked him sideways. But they didn’t. Phipps’ list of achievements since then is astonishing. He has completed the London Marathon twice, finishing in fourth place in 2009, in less than two hours. In 2016, he became the first double amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro unassisted, trekking for four days on his hands and knees to reach the summit. He’s also been a member of the GB wheelchair rugby squad, representing his country at three Paralympic Games and winning gold at Tokyo 2020. “I don’t think I ever appreciated what I put my parents through until I had my own children,” Phipps says when reflecting on his illness. “It was that time when I would have been doing my exams and all the hormones are flying around. It was incredibly tough, but probably both the worst

Writing Dr Ian Farrell

and best thing that’s ever happened to me. The worst for obvious reasons, but the best because it gave me a completely different outlook on life and got me working with people like Jon.”

Changing times

Indeed, while Phipps’ name is on the medals and in the record books, Jon Cooper’s role as coach, mentor and friend has been of equal importance, the pair say. “I was reintroduced to Aaron just casually, because I was studying for my Master’s at [Southampton Solent] university at the same time he was training there for his Kilimanjaro trip,” Cooper says. “We’d met before, in the build-up to the 2012 Paralympic Games, but I was just a student and he wouldn’t have known who I was: just another person collecting blood from his finger and spotting him in the gym. But as we got older, it just clicked. “Off the back of that Master’s degree, I realised coaching is kind of like teaching – and I really liked that. So, I started lecturing in sports coaching and strength conditioning.” Cooper describes his relationship with

Edge interview

Aaron Phipps with his coach Jon Cooper 31

Edge interview

Phipps and his GB team-mates beat Japan on their way to Paralympic gold

“I’m passionate about people pushing themselves, being better versions of themselves” Phipps as “a pretty good bromance”, adding that there is now a sense of mutual value and an understanding of how both men fit into the system. “It’s not a typical ‘sport coach and athlete’ relationship,” adds Cooper. “It’s two people being more collaborative than that, pushing for the same kind of environment.” It hasn’t always been that way, though. When he started working with Cooper in 2017, Phipps says it was a far more transactional, professional relationship. “I’d been to the 2012 Paralympic Games and played wheelchair rugby, and I was going back 32

into the squad with the aim of getting to the 2020 Games. Jon and I trained for two years and we had a good relationship. We got on and we met up, and we went training. But I was very much a professional athlete: I’d been to the Paralympics, I knew what I was doing; there was an element of ‘screw you!’ “And Jon was a professional sports scientist – he knew what he was doing and was a subjectmatter expert. He’d come to training sessions and say, ‘this is what we are doing today’. And we collaborated a bit. That was it. Then there was this global pandemic. Covid-19 came along and we lost everything overnight.”

Uncomfortable truths

Phipps recalls how he and Cooper were suddenly kicked out of their world-class gym, with its £150,000 treadmill and team of technicians, and

Edge interview forced to confront some uncomfortable truths. “I think what made our connection so strong was all the walls coming down at this point – we both dropped our egos because we were thrown into this kind of ‘tornado of sh*t’. I couldn’t pretend to be this big-bully athlete any more and Jon hadn’t got any of his fancy equipment. That was when we started being really honest with each other and when the real collaboration started to happen.” Cooper adds: “Remember how everyone had their ‘safety bubbles’ at one point? Well, we had this ‘performance bubble’. We’d meet up on a path between our houses or in a park somewhere. Aaron’s wheelchair is for an indoor, hall-based sport, so we didn’t know if it could even be used outside, but eventually we made it work. “We found a nice bit of path with an incline, for resistance training. I remember we had to sweep it clean of broken glass and mess when we used it and jump out of the way of people who were walking their dogs. It was not high performance in any way, shape or form.”

Game on!

Gradually, Cooper and Phipps found a way to make things work and, in doing so, realised that this more authentic, honest version of their relationship was far better than the sanitised professional one they’d left behind. “We were ‘game on – let’s be the best in the world’,” says Cooper. “We found a way for it not to matter where we were or what we had access to. We adapted to make the unchangeable situation work for us.” And work it did. Phipps went on to be part of the best wheelchair rugby team in the world, which beat the number one side in the world, Japan, at their home Paralympic games, Tokyo 2020 – securing the first-ever gold medal for a European side in a team Paralympic event.

Lessons in adversity

There are many lessons to be learned from Cooper and Phipps’ remarkable story – specifically that out of adversity can come energy, fresh ideas and great progress. The pair now coach and advise in the world of business, helping leaders boost their performance by applying the same tactics the pair learned in sport. But is terrible adversity always necessary before progress can be made? “I had to lose 30% of my body before I started to use 100% of my potential, but people don’t have to go there to find that momentum – we want to teach them our processes so they don’t have to,” says Phipps.

Aaron Phipps

Jon Cooper

2009 Fourth place in London Marathon, in a time of less than two hours

2012 Joins Crystal Palace Football Club as a strength and conditioning intern

2012 Member of GB wheelchair rugby for the London Paralympic Games, at which he scored more than half his team’s points

2013 Works as a strength and conditioning coach, supporting international Olympic-class sailors

2013 Becomes a professional speaker

2016 Becomes an independent performance coach

2016 Becomes the first double amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro unassisted, raising funds for MRF and Shaw Trust

2017 Becomes a lecturer in sports performance and coaching at Southampton Solent University

2017 Phipps and Cooper meet at Solent University and start to train together more formally

2000 Global pandemic forces them out of the gym and into a new stage of their coaching relationship

2021 Phipps is a member of the first European team to win a medal in wheelchair rugby and ParalympicsGB’s first gold medal in a team sport

2021 Phipps and Cooper start Path to Gold leadership development consultancy

2022 Cooper founds Evolve Sports Coach Education

2024 Phipps takes part in the Paris Paralympic Games

Edge interview

“I had to lose 30% of my body before I started to use 100% of my potential” “I’m passionate about people pushing themselves, being better versions of themselves and doing things they never thought they’d do. “My story’s probably a good example of how things can go wrong very quickly, and it’s often not fair and it’s no-one’s fault. I just want people to appreciate that, although things in life are sometimes crap, you have a choice about how you behave. You can crack on and do something cool.” Cooper agrees: “There is research out there that talks about adversity being a trigger point for change, but I would never recommend people actively pursue it or encourage some kind of mass trauma just to prove a point. Instead, just recognise that adversity happens naturally all the time, on different scales. “You find this ‘micro-adversity’ everywhere. I remember one time, when we were training on that path during the pandemic, and Aaron burst a tyre. You can either say, ‘Ah, do you know what, let’s call it a day there’ and go home, or you can say, ‘That’s a setback. But let’s just change the tyre and crack on.’ It’s an attitude thing, a state of mind. “When we work with CEOs and other C-suite executives, there are massive decisions to be made, but for each one there are probably 10 smaller decisions that lead up to that point, all of which had different levels of adversity. The question is: do you reflect on that and learn from it, or blindly assume it didn’t happen and has never been there?”

How we respond to adversity is a choice, says Aaron Phipps

Do Phipps and Cooper find that getting rid of ego can foster an environment in which risk taking is more encouraged, and an atmosphere of ‘psychological safety’ is created? “I have a problem with the word ‘safety’ there, because it implies there is some kind of threat associated with putting your ideas out there and attaching your name to them,” says Cooper. “But if you feel that way, you have to ask: what is that threat, and who is it from? If the threat is between you and a colleague, then it vanishes as soon as you remove ego from the equation.” If an organisation can get to a point where it “doesn’t matter whose idea it is”, then a bad idea isn’t a personal failure or an embarrassment – it’s

Photogrpah: Jeannie Coombs

Drop the ego

Edge interview just a data point, he adds. “Those ideas must get out there; you might have to try 50 of them to get 10 that actually work. If you don’t feel comfortable putting those ideas out there, then you’re in trouble, because how else are you going to find solutions?” Phipps agrees, adding that in high-pressure roles – “where the world is watching and social media is ready to tear you apart” – true safety is an illusion. “You cannot control the outside world or stop people from criticising you. Accept that this will happen and push yourself outside your comfort zone regardless of the risk – this is where the best achievements happen.” The takeaway: you can’t build a perfectly safe bubble – resilience is about taking action anyway and accepting that mistakes will (and must) be made for people and organisations to flourish. “If one of my team-mates makes a mistake, the worst thing I can do is shout, ‘Oh my God! What are you doing?’ They can’t change what has just happened; all they can do is control what happens next – and by criticising them I’ve just put them off their game. But, if I say, ‘Next play, crack on, don’t worry about it,’ that fosters better performance. After all, we all drop the ball.” Cooper adds that micro-management – something they see often – is also a product of ego. “If you catch yourself thinking, ‘I’m going to make you do this task the way I want you to do it’, then you are assuming you, and you alone, have the right answer. But, actually, you have only got one answer – there may be others that are better. “When I’m working with someone like Aaron, he’s an expert in his field. I’ve never been in the chair. I’ve never moved as fast as him. I’ve never been on his courts playing his games in his moments. He’s got that expertise, not me. “So, instead of providing answers, I ask questions. I might ask two questions and they could give me five answers, and those five answers can give me more questions, and, between us, we can end up with 50 or 100 potential answers to a problem.”

The common language of performance

Phipps and Cooper will both always need a challenge in life. Now retired from wheelchair rugby, Phipps is turning his attention to pistol shooting, with the aim of representing GB at the

“I want to understand the athlete, not the sport”

2028 Paralympics, and Cooper will still be right by his side as coach. “I’m not an expert in shooting in any way, shape or form,” says Cooper, “but that’s OK because Aaron’s going to become the expert in shooting, and there will be other technical coaches who deal with that side of things. He’ll process it in his way and then I’m going to work with him to do what he wants to do. I always want to understand how to work with the athlete, not the sport. Even now, I still apply that with anyone.” Cooper is not just talking about sport here; it’s how he operates in the business world, too. “If you are really happy just ticking along, not trying to innovate or be better than you were, then we are the worst people in the world to invite into your boardroom,” he laughs. It’s hard not to feel uplifted by the pair’s infectious enthusiasm. Does Phipps think he would still exude such positive energy if he hadn’t been through such a challenging time as a teenager? “No, I don’t think I would,” he says. “Psychological safety, resilience, risk taking – for me, it’s all linked to that time in the hospital, where I became so aware of my own mortality. “I wasn’t making the best choices as a teenager – I mean, I wouldn’t have ended up in prison or anything, but I certainly wasn’t motivated. I was a bit of a wimp, but I remember thinking, ‘if this can’t kill me, then nothing can’. “It gave me a determination and a drive. I had literally stared death in the face, which made all the normal fluff that worries a 15-year-old boy disappear. It made me laser-focused.” Cooper chuckles as he hears this. “I remember shaking Aaron’s hand and introducing myself when he was looking to go to Tokyo. He just looked at me and said, ‘I want to be the fastest player in the world’ – and I knew he 100% meant it. I’ve never met anyone else who has been that determined.” If Phipps could travel back in time and give his hospital-bound teenage self a piece of advice, what would it be? “When I went to collect my gold medal at Tokyo, there was this place marker on the floor that said, ‘Wheelchair rugby, gold medal. Aaron Phipps.’ At that moment, I remember thinking I wish I could go back to that scared 15-year-old boy and say: ‘Do you know what? It works out right in the end’. “That was probably the first time in my life I felt settled. I’d achieved something. I was the best in the world. That was my special moment.” Dr Ian Farrell is a writer and editor at CPL One. 35

Workplace GUEST OPINION

Dr Amanda S Davis

The power of belief One way leaders can help make high-performance team working sustainable

could put it off no longer. Pretty much everyone in my class had got their 10m swimming badge and now my teacher insisted I give it a go. I thought I would get into the water, splash about hopelessly, and it wouldn’t take long for everyone to let me quietly fail. But something remarkable happened – and it wasn’t my superb breaststroke. The fastest runner in school started cheering me on. He was not someone I was friendly with, but he still wanted to help me. It wasn’t long before the majority of the class joined in with encouraging cheers. I remember thinking “oh no – now I am going to have to try”. So I pulled out my best doggy paddle and, fuelled by the cheers of my classmates, I got to the finish line. I was exhausted but exhilarated, both from the show of support and the fact that I had achieved it. Often, when introducing highperformance team working, organisations invest in interventions such as team building, teamwork training, group goal setting, and debriefing and reflection.* While these interventions may produce some gains, more often than not they are short-lived, leaving leaders frustrated that they didn’t gain more from these investments. That does not mean to say these interventions are not helpful, but they may not be enough on their own. Reflecting on my 10m swimming achievement, what made my attitude change from failing quietly to giving it my all? There was no extra tutorial, no investment in aids and no highperformance interventions. A simple

“Small actions demonstrating the belief a leader has in their employees are so simple, incur no direct costs and yet are so powerful” sign of encouragement turned around my performance. The life lesson I learned from this act of cheerleading has stayed with me throughout my career, and when I eventually found success in my own field (nothing sporty of course), it was a gift I tried – and still try – to use with others. So, what does this mean for leaders trying to maintain high-performance working? Before any intervention, leaders need to discuss with employees the purpose of it and what outcomes they are aiming to achieve. This discussion aims to not only help employees understand what is required, but also to

get them excited about it and create the psychological safety for learning to occur. After the intervention, employees need the opportunity to put these new skills into practice. Ongoing feedback and coaching conversations are essential to keep building on improvements and confidence. Crucially, leaders must convey that they believe employees are able to achieve what is required. This may be words of encouragement, or it may be reflected in body language, tone of voice and facial expressions. These small actions, demonstrating the belief a leader has in their employees, are so simple, incur no direct costs and yet are so powerful. This is because, when other people – particularly your leader – have belief in you, you start believing in yourself. And when that happens, you can achieve (almost) anything, which may go some way to making high-performance working more sustainable. Dr Amanda S Davis is an independent lecturer and facilitator providing workshops on leadership and management, organisational behaviour and human resource management/development for professionals and managers. She also works in organisational development within the public sector. Previously, she was a visiting/associate university lecturer and worked as a middle manager within the public sector. * Young, J and Gifford, J (2023) Highperforming Teams: An Evidence Review. Practice Summary and Guidance. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: bit.ly/EA26AD

Workplace GUEST OPINION

Amy Lowe

The leadership trap Why smart leaders solve too many problems

ne of the biggest leadership myths I’ve encountered is that leaders are paid to solve problems. If you’re the person solving every problem, you may be the bottleneck. That might sound strange. After all, solving problems is usually how people become leaders. We often promote people because they’re brilliant problem-solvers. They know the job, they’re experienced, a safe pair of hands. They deliver results. Then we ask them to lead. The irony is that the behaviour that earned them a promotion can become the very thing that limits the growth of their team. I’ve noticed a pattern in many coaching conversations. A leader brings a challenge they’re facing with a team member. They’re frustrated because the person isn’t performing, isn’t taking ownership, or isn’t finding a solution that seems obvious. As we explore the situation, it often becomes clear that the leader has unintentionally become the chief problem-solver. They’re rewriting the presentation; joining every difficult meeting; making the decision; stepping in when things wobble. Usually with the best of intentions. The challenge is that every time we solve a problem for someone, we remove an opportunity for them to think. As leaders, it’s often true that we could do the task better, faster or more efficiently. But leadership isn’t about proving that we can do the work; it’s about creating the conditions for others to do the work. Leaders often underestimate the shadow they cast. If every challenge is

“The behaviour that earned them a promotion can become the very thing that limits the growth of their team” escalated upwards and solved by the leader, people quickly learn where the thinking happens – and it isn’t with them. Brain-based coaching suggests that lasting change rarely comes from advice; it comes from insight. The moment someone sees something differently for themselves. The moment they connect the dots. The moment they arrive at their own conclusion. Those ‘lightbulb’ moments. As leaders, that can feel painfully slow. It requires us to resist the urge to jump in with answers; to tolerate silence; to ask questions we may already know the answer to; to trust that someone else’s solution doesn’t need to look exactly like ours.

Organisations don’t always help. We celebrate the leader who fixes the issue. I haven’t seen many organisations celebrate the leader who helped someone else solve it themselves. Sometimes, the most powerful thing a leader can do is create space for thinking. I’ve seen leaders transform conversations simply by replacing advice with curiosity. Instead of “here’s what I think you should do”, they ask: “What have you already considered?” – and my favourite coaching question: “What’s the real challenge here?”. The irony is that many leaders tell me they feel overwhelmed, because they have too much on their plate. Yet some of that weight comes from carrying problems that were never truly theirs to own. One of the most important questions a leader can ask is: “Am I solving this problem because it’s mine to solve, or because I’m uncomfortable watching someone else struggle with it?”. Perhaps that’s the real leadership challenge. Not learning how to solve more problems, but learning which ones to let go – and trusting that, when we create the right environment, people are often more capable than we think. Amy Lowe is head of talent and leadership development at HomeServe UK, drawing on leadership experience across elite sport, higher education and the corporate sector. Starting in administration, project management and operational leadership, she now champions practical, people-centred development to drive performance.

Workplace

Are you a helicopter? Audrey Tang offers six steps to move

away from micro-management and give your team – and yourself – the space to develop and thrive

merican author and speaker Scott Berkun likened micro-management to treating thoroughbreds as if they were a “toy pony at the county fair”, stopping horses and jockeys mid-race to “remind them… it would be nice to win”. If you have a tendency to ‘helicopter manage’, you risk damaging your team’s confidence in themselves, as well as their trust in you to lead as they try to resolve the question, “why won’t you leave me alone to do the job you hired me for?” In practical terms, you might even delay the success of your projects, as well as disrupt your own workflow, because your team feels they constantly have to check in with you for approval and fear doing anything creative or different because they envisage a long conversation on why it wasn’t done your way. In turn, this results in lowered productivity, and a team feeling frustrated and demotivated. Ultimately, micro-managing is damaging not just to the organisation, but to the teams that have to work with it. The Breathe Culture Economy report finds “21% [of employees] regard micro-management as a reason for distrust” [of the employer].1 But if you have that uncomfortable feeling that this might be you – even sometimes – then here’s what you can do to break out of that cycle.

Understand why it happens

Three key reasons why people micro-manage are: a. A fear of failure. This is even classified as a specific phobia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV b. A personal struggle with relinquishing control c. Some people actually do need an unusually high 38

level of support… but that should really manifest as ‘training’.

Undertake practical steps

Often, whatever the reason for micro-managing tendencies, it can be addressed by improving your skill of delegation – or in the case of c, better recruitment. Here are six ways to do so:

the task and delegate it to 1 Understand the person who can do it

Delegation is a necessity. It is a way of developing your team as well as ensuring your own work is completed. However, successful delegation – without micro-management – is about knowing who can do it. But when it comes to the ‘can’, it is as much about ensuring someone has both authority and the tools they need at their disposal, as well as the ability or skills to do it.

2 Communicate the task effectively

If I ask the world’s best bakers to make a cake without specifying what exactly I want, I won’t get what is in my head, leading me to continually make changes. When it comes to setting a task, explain: • What you want and what the outcome needs to look like

Workplace

means that you have given them both power and accountability in getting things done.

Understand your tendency to micro-manage If you struggle with letting go of control, have a discussion with your own manager, a mentor or, if available to you, a coach. Exploring deeper behavioural needs might impact other areas of your work, not just over-management. Similarly, if you are struggling with a fear of failure, recognise that sometimes, you need to allow others to have the experience of failure in order to self-reflect and grow, while knowing that you can support them in rectifying the situation. This is best explored on a task where there is time built in for things going wrong.

• Your expectations of process including timelines • If there is a specific ‘how’ that needs to be followed, and what it is. If not, let your team work in their preferred method – you might learn something. For tasks that are always needed, or those that require a specific methodology, a template can save time.

Offer appropriate time and support for completion

Illustration: AI-generated (OpenAI)

If you are clear with what you are expecting and by when, you can build in ‘check back’ time, which means that you and your team know what is needed at each checkpoint. If your team is new to the task, clarify that if members recognise they are not on track before the next checkpoint, they can ask you for help through a specific channel. Again, the management of expectation at the outset

The tell-tale signs of ‘helicoptor’ management

that sometimes a more 5 Recognise ‘hands-on’ approach is OK

In certain circumstances, for example when the stakes are high on a task or project, you might choose to be more involved, and your team may welcome this. As long as the expectations are clear at the outset for what you will be doing, or requesting to see and by when, this simply becomes due process for completion.

6 Recruit wisely

Don’t over-invest in someone who talks a good talk without evidence to support their words. Similarly, if someone shows you that they are not keen to take on certain aspects of the job, even if they are very capable, do not hire them hoping they will change their mind. In therapy and coaching we are always taught to ‘meet clients where they are’ – hire reality not potential! Micro-managing diminishes confidence, it makes people feel devalued, and contributes to an overall toxic working environment, but it can be addressed. And in doing so, not only will it have a huge positive impact on team performance, but it will liberate you to direct your time and energy on vision and growth – a far more valuable pursuit.

● Is your team under-performing?

● Do you notice a lack of initiative?

● Is your inbox overflowing with ‘please check’ actions?

Could this be down to you trying to control and oversee everything?

Dr Audrey Tang (AFBPsS) is an award-winning author, chartered psychologist and leadership coach. 1

See bit.ly/EA26MM 39

Workplace

Built for every brain Neuroinclusion has moved from ‘nice to have’ to ‘can’t afford not to’ for leaders and managers. But, asks Liv Blaney, how well is this being experienced in our workplaces? How can we build inclusivity in every level of our organisation?

ore people than ever are being diagnosed with autism, ADHD or other neurotypes – and more are recognising themselves in that description mid-career. This rising awareness has caused shifts in expectations from employees, resulting in a 95% increase in employment tribunals citing neurodivergent conditions over five years.1 It is not just avoiding legal risk that is driving the need for change. Repeated studies have highlighted the potential that organisations miss when different ways of thinking are not represented in the workplace. But whose job is it to create the required change? The honest answer is that it is everyone’s, at every level, and that’s exactly why so many neuroinclusion efforts stall. A brilliant policy means nothing if a line manager doesn’t know how to use it. A trained, confident manager can still be undone by a team culture that mocks ‘over-sharing’ in meetings. And an employee who’s expected to self-advocate their way through a system with no scaffolding underneath them will burn out doing the organisation’s job for it. Neuroinclusion has to be built into four layers at once: the organisation, the team, the manager and the individual. It isn’t a single initiative you can tick off and file away – it’s a stack and every layer depends on the one below it.

1. Organisational level: the scaffolding

This is the foundation – policies, processes and physical environment – and it’s where most organisations start, and where most stop. Recruitment: this is often the first and most damaging filter. Standardised, high-pressure interviews reward fast verbal recall and eye contact, rather than the ability to do the job. Simple 40

changes – sharing interview questions in advance, offering alternative ways to demonstrate skills, being explicit about what’s being assessed – widen the pool without disadvantaging anyone else. Reasonable adjustments: these need to be a proactive, structured and iterative process, rather than a one-off, undocumented informal chat. A workplace needs an assessment or adjustments passport that travels with the employee, rather than being reinvented every time they change manager, and that protects both parties. Physical and sensory environment: this matters more than most estates teams realise – lighting, noise, hot-desking, open-plan meeting culture. None of this needs to be expensive; quiet zones, flexibility over desk choice and genuine hybrid working options go a long way. Training and data: one recent survey found 35% of managers lack confidence in making neurodiversity-related adjustments, and more than one-third of professionals cited a lack of staff awareness as the single biggest barrier to better support.2 Policies without training, and training without any way of checking it is landing, is the gap tribunals are increasingly finding.

2. Team level: the everyday rituals

JPMorgan Chase found neurodiverse teams in its Autism at Work programme were 48% faster and 92% more productive than comparable teams6

Culture is created by small, repeated things: how a stand-up meeting runs, whether an agenda goes out in advance, whether disagreement is voiced or buried. This is the layer that’s hardest to write a policy for, and arguably the one that matters most. Teams that get this right tend to have built in a few unglamorous habits: written agendas and pre-reads as standard (not as a special favour), multiple channels for the same information (so someone who processes better in writing than in a fast-moving meeting isn’t disadvantaged), and clarity over ambiguity in how work gets allocated and reviewed. They also build structured ways of handling conflict, because direct communication styles, sensory overwhelm in tense conversations, or difficulty reading unspoken social cues can get mislabelled as ‘attitude’ or ‘not a team player’, when they are nothing of the sort. These practices don’t just help neurodivergent individuals; they support the entire team.

3. Manager/leader level: the daily interface

If the organisation builds the scaffolding, the manager is who the employee actually experiences day to day – and it’s here that good intentions most often collapse under lack of confidence or training. For example, more than one-third of managers have received no neurodiversity-related training at all. 3 Alongside neurodiversity training and

Workplace

awareness, foundational managerial skills – such as creating psychological safety, building trust and rapport – are critical. Recent research found that, alongside flexible working policies, psychological safety – the belief within a team that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks – was the number one determinant of wellbeing, career satisfaction and retention among neurodivergent individuals.4 That is primarily created or destroyed by leadership actions. For example, a manager can build it by inviting dissenting opinions in meetings, modelling openness about their working style and mistakes, and responding constructively to feedback.

increased level of awareness that the past few years have brought. The employers pulling ahead aren’t the ones with the glossiest policy statement, but the ones that have created the strongest culture that allows people to be accepted, supported and empowered to do their best work. Culture lives in the crevices and the details. What one small change could you make that might shift your culture to one in which everyone thrives?

4. Individual level: agency, not obligation

The final layer is the individual employee, who needs to be empowered to make the changes they need while balancing the needs of their team. Job crafting can make a meaningful difference here: employees reshaping the tasks, relationships and mindset around their role so it plays to their strengths – reordering how they tackle a task list, choosing to run parallel written threads alongside verbal meetings, or reframing repetitive admin as ‘keeping the team compliant’ rather than drudgery.5

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Simple changes

Neuroinclusion can only be truly embedded where every part of the organisation is living and breathing it. While organisations have come a long way, many have still to catch up with the

CIPD research into UK organisations already running neuroinclusive practices found 63% reported a positive impact on employee wellbeing and 43% a positive impact on performance7

Liv Blaney, MA Meng, MSC, PCC, QAVS is a leadership and neurodiversity coach and training facilitator. She is also the author of Neuroinclusion: A guide for managers and leaders. Liv is leading a workshop on ‘Everyday neuroinclusive leadership’ during Leadership Live on 29 September. See bit.ly/EA26LLVR 1 Irwin Mitchell analysis of HM Courts & Tribunals Service data, February 2026: ‘Employment tribunal cases linked to neurodiversity almost double in five years’. 2 Vinciworks survey 2026: see bit.ly/EA26VC 3 City & Guilds research, cited in Thrive Law, ‘The rise in employment tribunal claims: what every employer needs to understand right now’ (March 2026). 4 Neurodiversity in Business Research Report 2023 5 Job crafting framework (task, relationship, cognitive crafting) as applied to neurodivergent employees, Specialisterne Canada, ‘The great win-win: supporting neurodivergent employees in job crafting’ 6 bit.ly/EA26JP 7 bit.ly/EA26NI 41

Workplace

Remotely close Andy Lopata, Francesca Lagerberg and Dr Lynda Shaw on how to develop trusted relationships across global and hybrid teams

ybrid and global teams mean many leaders rarely see a large number of their colleagues in person. Virtual meetings have become central to daily work, but convenience can mask a quiet erosion of trust and collaboration. To maintain strong professional relationships across borders and time zones, we need to be far more intentional about how we connect online and deliberate about when we choose to meet in person. The technology now available to us may be sophisticated, but our brains haven’t evolved at the

42 42

same pace. Trust is still built through eye contact, small, shared rituals and interactions as simple as a handshake. In virtual meetings, those cues are blunted or disappear altogether. Unless we deliberately redesign how we interact online, teams can quietly lose the conditions that make collaboration easy: mutual understanding, psychological safety and the confidence that ‘these are people I can rely on’. There are some simple steps you can take to create genuine connection and build deeper trust among your team members, wherever they are.

Workplace

Create moments of interaction

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Bring humanity into the conversation

Authenticity drives connection, yet many people over-correct by aiming for perfection on virtual calls. Overly polished digital backgrounds often blur or flicker whenever someone moves, not only distracting, but also potentially causing visual strain and cognitive fatigue as the brain works harder to interpret unstable images. There is also a neurological impact. Trustbuilding brain chemicals, such as oxytocin, are stimulated by eye contact and facial expressions. When we blur our surroundings or minimise our image on screen, we reduce the amount of real, imperfect human information others can take in. That limits the subtle cues that help people feel ‘I know you, I get you, I can trust you’. Psychologists such as the great American professor Paul Ekman have shown that microexpressions – split-second changes around the eyes in particular – often reveal when something hasn’t landed as intended. In person, we can sense those moments and clarify. These signals are already harder to detect online, and sterile or artificial backdrops remove even more of the humanity people rely on to build trust. We mustn’t let technology strip away our humanity. Therefore, we may need to work harder to maintain authentic connection when we are not speaking in person.

If we meet in the office, we chat. Whether it’s a water-cooler conversation, chit-chat before a meeting starts or grabbing a drink after work, there are countless opportunities to get to know each other personally. But when we meet online, we typically dive straight into business. It’s even worse on group calls. One of us recently participated in a call where all 30 participants stayed silent while waiting for everyone to join and the meeting to start. The only interruption was the host periodically repeating “we’ll start in a couple of minutes”. Instead of presiding over a redundant silence, meeting hosts can take the initiative by encouraging people to turn on their cameras and asking questions to break the ice. Leaders can also schedule short virtual ‘coffee chats’ or pair colleagues randomly for non-business conversations. These informal exchanges recreate the social glue teams lose when they work across locations. Even a private message thanking a colleague for an insight can spark a deeper relationship. These seemingly trivial conversations are not a break from ‘real work’. They are one of the ways our brains test and reinforce trust. Are you interested in me as a person? Do we share any common ground? Without these social rituals, people are more likely to stay guarded, which makes deeper trust and true collaboration harder.

Make the most of being together in person When teams do meet in person, the time should be used intentionally. Fill your calendar in advance, reach out to colleagues who aren’t attending the formal meetings and create opportunities for informal conversation. We recently worked with the London-based team at an international law firm that started hosting breakfast and lunch get-togethers at a local bar whenever they visited one of their US offices. It was an open invitation; they could make the most of it whether two people turned up or 20. Even if people aren’t available when you’re there, the simple act of inviting them is a point of connection.

“We need to be far more intentional about how we connect online and deliberate about when we choose to meet in person” 43 43

Workplace

“Seemingly trivial conversations are not a break from ‘real work’. They are one of the ways our brains test and reinforce trust” Likewise, when visiting different parts of a geographically dispersed organisation, we would encourage leaders to build in time for them to chat in a more informal setting, such as a walk in a nearby park or a quick trip to a local museum. Even when hybrid workers attend their own offices, they can still be looking for opportunities to connect. As one HR leader noted when her team returned to the office: “Don’t do anything in the office you could do at home.” In-person time is too valuable to spend on emails or remote calls.

You can build relationships remotely

None of this means deep relationships can only form in person. Many global teams work almost entirely online and still develop strong trust. One of the authors co-authored The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring with a colleague he had never met in person, building the relationship through Zoom, WhatsApp and shared projects. Another recorded more than 50 podcast episodes with a co-host before they ever met for coffee. With intentional effort, such as more frequent touchpoints, curiosity and well-designed virtual interactions, remote relationships can flourish. Hybrid working is now a permanent feature of how global teams operate and trust can thrive across borders when leaders plan deliberately. Andy Lopata is an expert in professional relationship strategy. He has worked with individuals from several multinational companies who face the challenge of raising their profile and gaining the support of colleagues with whom they rarely interact in person. Francesca Lagerberg, as the CEO of Baker Tilly International, has worked hard to ensure that the relationships across the professional services network that she leads flourish, despite members being based across different geographical locations. Dr Lynda Shaw is a leadership psychologist who focuses on helping organisations use behavioural neuroscience to get the most out of their teams. Together, she says, we have had to combine an understanding of how to get the most out of modern communications with a desire to connect in person, to create opportunities for connections to thrive. 44

Design virtual meetings around how trust really works If we accept that virtual meetings strip away some of the richest signals our brains use to assess trust, the question becomes: what can we do about it? Three elements are particularly important: 1. Eye contact and micro-expressions: video platforms make true eye contact difficult, especially when the camera is positioned far from where people appear on the screen. Leaders can’t always invest in new equipment, but they can: ● Position the main video window as close to the camera as possible ● Encourage people to raise their cameras to eye level rather than looking down at a laptop ● Build in short check-ins (“How is this landing for you?”) to compensate for the subtle signals they may be missing. 2. Tactile cues, replaced by shared experiences: a handshake tells us a lot about someone’s confidence and warmth. Online, that tactile information disappears. We can’t replicate touch, but we can create shared experiences that serve a similar function: small rituals at the start of a meeting, shared objects sent to the team ahead of a virtual offsite, or even a moment when everyone stands, stretches and refocuses together. What matters is a sense of ‘we are doing something together’, not just silently watching the same screen. 3. Small talk as a deliberate agenda item: rather than hoping informal conversation will happen, leaders should schedule it. That might mean five minutes of guided small talk at the start of the call, using a simple question (“What’s one good thing from your week?”), or putting people into breakout rooms of three or four as they arrive. In smaller groups, more people speak, more stories are shared and trust builds more quickly.

Workplace GUEST OPINION

Mick Gillick MBE

Beyond the role Investing time in getting to know your team can pay dividends, but you need to do it right

ngaging with your team has many benefits, but some leaders appear not to allocate sufficient time for it, and even fewer think how to make it rewarding for the team member. I worked in a manufacturing plant where the most senior person was regularly seen walking through. He’d force a smile, deliver a clipped “hello” and be gone. He gave no-one the impression that he was interested in how their day was going or what he could do to help them do their job better. Without doubt, leaders are very busy people. They also have access to resources that most team members don’t. How they choose to allocate the discretionary resources will be based on their understanding of the needs and priorities of the team – but how can they know where those priorities are?

Embed a leader’s mindset

People pay attention to the behaviours of leaders and will draw their own conclusions about values and motivations. They create a narrative that they share with other team members, and even clients. By spending quality time engaging with your team, you can help them fill in the gaps (in a fair and honest way) by allocating discretionary resources in the areas where they can make the most impact. But before you do, ask yourself three questions…

What do I want to know?

How well do you know the person? On the first encounter, finding out more about them may be the bulk of the conversation.

willing to follow. You might wish to ask: • What’s the one thing I could do that would help you do your job more efficiently? • What would you do to make the systems and processes work more effectively? • What needs to happen to get everyone on the team performing to that person’s level? • What do I need to do more of/less of? • What are your ambitions, and can you achieve them here?

“By including them, you motivate and enable them to explore ways to secure better outputs and become a stakeholder in the organisation’s future success” Having this knowledge is the rapport that will be the start of subsequent conversations, and is the foundation of trust and confidence that followers have in their leaders. Building this rapport will enhance your ability to ‘sense check’ the efficiency and effectiveness of the systems and processes that deliver consistent, good performance and drive innovation. With this insight, you can allocate resources, which demonstrates to the team member that they have been heard, valued and respected. Securing respect from team members is what elevates senior managers to leaders that people are

What do I want the team member to know?

This is an opportunity to clarify the reasoning behind any recent or proposed changes that affect the team member, and to paint a picture of the challenges facing the organisation. Including them enables them to explore ways to secure better outputs and become a stakeholder in the organisation’s future success.

How do I want them to feel?

Heard? Valued? Respected? To feel proud to be a member of the team and that the conversation with the leader was a good use of their time? To feel empowered to ask questions of their own? How people feel when you walk on can be the difference between success and failure. Think about it. Mick Gillick MBE is a former police superintendent who qualified as an L7 executive coach after leaving the service. He subsequently worked in the private and charity sectors. He’s driven by curating and embedding cultures that nurture psychological safety and develop future leaders.

Spotlight

Page turner When Joanna Reynolds arrived at The Folio Society in 2015, the company was on its knees. Eleven years later – following a radical rethink of its offering and culture – this CEO has turned the company’s fortunes around. She talks to Peter Crush about taking tough decisions, being bold and the joy of a limited edition Photography Dunja Opalko

oanna Reynolds is wearing a great big smile. It’s the day after The Folio Society went live with its latest book – a beautiful leather-bound edition of Moby Dick, limited to just 750 copies. But any trepidation this CEO might have had about its popularity is non-evident. Within 12 hours, every copy of the £530 book was gone. “Sometimes you wish you’d done more,” she admits. “But it’s important that ‘limited’ sets sell out. Popularity is a good problem to have!” For the helmswoman of a company that produces fine press editions of classic works of fiction and non-fiction – and that republishes around 60 titles and 8-10 limited editions a year – this vindication must feel particularly earned. As recently as 2015, The Folio Society – formed in 1947 as a membership-based book club – was facing tough times, down to its last £250,000 and giving off the early sounds of a death rattle. Bringing in Reynolds as a change-management consultant was its last throw of the dice, but such was her immediate impact that she was asked to stay on. A year later, the CEO reins were hers and, today, the company is in rude health.

Turnover rose by 8% last year, to £16.8m. The organisation’s pre-tax profits were up 21% and its customer base up 8%.

New releases

It’s a comeback worthy of a book in its own right, but this is not just a story of decisive leadership – Reynolds says she had to “regretfully lose people” – but also of the power of the outsider; someone who, with no baggage, can critically re-look at and disrupt the often comfortable, sometimes fusty, inner world of an organisation. “This was my first book-publishing job,” says Reynolds, whose long career in direct marketing includes a stint as marketing director at Which?. It was her relative naivety in book publishing, however, that enabled her to see what needed doing and apply her marketing skills. “We didn’t have a very good website or social presence, and were still largely printing classics,” she says. “We needed to broaden our offering and break into new markets.” What has transpired, through Reynolds, has been a vision to break into new genres, such as fantasy and comics, and new markets – specifically the US – and publish books that are not 100-plus years old. And it’s paying off. The organisation’s US customer base grew 13% in 2025, and American readers now account for almost half of Folio’s turnover. “When I first started, 95% of the books we published were out-of-copyright classics, such as Dracula, Emma or Frankenstein,” she says. “Now, 95% are books in copyright.” Fiction releases now piggyback popular culture, with recent successes including Frank Herbert’s Dune, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, and Fire and Blood by Game of Thrones author George RR Martin. Later this year – just in time for the busy Christmas uplift – Game of Thrones will also be published as a limited edition. In addition, non-fiction titles have grown by more than 10% in the past few years.

Dear reader

“What I’ve really wanted to do is feel like we’re building a community that is our own,” says Reynolds, who also decided to ditch allowing limited retail distribution in key stores, such as Harrods, in favour of being completely B2C. “We now know precisely who our customers are,” she says. “No other book publisher can claim this.” This community-creating spirit even extends to asking customers what they want next, so building up anticipation for Folio’s

Spotlight

“It’s absolutely up to the leader to set the strategy. But you also need to let people present ideas to you”

Spotlight

“Moving us to an Employee Ownership Trust arrangement is perhaps one of the proudest achievements of my life” spring, summer, autumn and winter ‘reveals’. It was this direct customer relationship that was behind Moby Dick’s launch, after Folio asked its community to nominate the greatest American book to celebrate this year’s 250th anniversary of US independence. “We still do the ‘classics’, and recently completed the last of the 14 Ian Fleming James Bond books,” Reynolds says. “But the mix is now so different, and so important to us.”

Off the shelf

Listening to Reynolds – who is dyslexic, and who claims her leadership style is always to surround herself with people who will challenge her – is an interesting experience. She is warm, friendly and charismatic, but she is also economical with her choice of words, and demonstrates a directness that perhaps explains another main facet she brings to the business – a no-nonsense approach to books. “We don’t say ‘collecting’ here,” she says, very deliberately, and in reply to a question about a much-observed resurgence of book collecting. “We don’t even say ‘editions’,” she doubledowns, which is a distinctly odd thing to hear from the leader of a book company producing occasional, limited edition collectors’ books. “What I really want to show is that we make books for people to handle, to hold, to get grubby, to get ‘used’ – and not books to put in glass cabinets,” she says with confidence. “It was my big mission when I arrived, to get rid of all that old-fashioned bibliographic mentality. We don’t use any of these funny book-related terms any more. They turn ordinary people off. While we still do have limited-print books, we do at least make sure they’re limited to a low number. When I first arrived, we’d have limited editions that were printed for years!”

For the people

It’s this very down-to-earth approach – one that wants to move books away from being treasured artefacts to being everyday items people should enjoy and, yes, even ‘ruin’ through over-reading – that is arguably one of her greatest contributions to the business. It certainly seems to resonate 48

Spotlight

with consumers, because this has completely reset the age group of its customer base. Now, more than half of those who buy are aged between 25 and 44, and the under-35s are the fastest-growing group. “Fewer people reading is a real problem,” Reynolds says, addressing what is clearly a serious concern for her. “If we can help reverse this, we’ll be doing our jobs properly.” To ensure this vision continues, her other great intervention was realised in 2021, when she announced she was moving The Folio Society into an employee-ownership model. “Folio has always been independently owned, but moving us to an Employee Ownership Trust arrangement is perhaps one of the proudest achievements of my life,” Reynolds says. “We have an employee council, representing every part of the business, and I meet them every week.” She adds: “We’ve literally just finished paying the last instalment we owe the trust, which means that, moving forward, we’ll be sharing profits between our people, and they are just so motivated to do the best they can for the customers who want to buy our books.”

The next bestseller

With reading now going through something of a revival – even sales of Bibles rose 19% last year – Reynolds says she can take confidence that the balance she’s created financially, and the one she’s created culturally among staff, is the right one. For the, ahem, ‘collectors’ out there, the limited editions will still be made (a special edition of The Hobbit sold out in 14 minutes in 2024), but the regular editions will continue to be made, reflecting what customers want. “There are still plenty of authors we’d love to work with. We’ve not done any of the Terry Pratchett Discworld books, and we’d obviously love to do the Harry Potter books,” she adds wistfully. “It’s the lateral thinker in me that says these would be great additions.” But whoever Folio is able to publish next, the strategy is now evidently right. “It’s absolutely up to the leader to set the strategy,” Reynolds reflects, “but you also need to let people present ideas to you. Plenty of our staff have suggested other titles that I would never have thought of. That’s the beauty of what we now are – all in it together.” Peter Crush is an award-winning HR specialist journalist, writing about all aspects of leadership and the world of work.

The Folio Society timeline Tom Walker, publishing director at The Folio Society, surrounded by some of the organisation’s beautifully printed titles

1947

The Folio Society is formed, using a membership model through which people can purchase its books

2015

Down to its last £250,000, The Folio Society brings in change-management consultant Joanna Reynolds

2016

Reynolds is appointed CEO and ditches the membership model

2021

The Folio Society becomes an Employee Ownership Trust, owned by its employees. It also becomes a B2C business, stopping selling books through stores such as Harrods and Selfridges

2025

Turnover reaches £16.8m. Pre-tax profits are up 21% and its customer base up 8% on 2024

2026

The US market now accounts for more than half of the publisher’s total sales

‘ Workplace GUEST OPINION

Victoria Rennoldson

Future-ready leadership How to build your human capabilities in the AI era

ver the past few months, I’ve hosted a series of leadership breakfasts, and what’s been particularly interesting isn’t that AI naturally comes up in the conversation. It’s a topic, but it’s not the predominant theme. Instead, it’s that the conversations keep returning to essentially human questions about leadership: • How can you lead confidently when you don’t have the answers? • How do you build trust during constant change? • How do you create clarity in uncertainty? These conversations have convinced me that, as AI becomes more embedded in teams, the leadership skills that matter most are becoming more human. For years, expertise has been deeply valued, with many leaders rising through the ranks. Today, however, knowledge is increasingly accessible to everyone, so the competitive advantage is shifting towards something that AI cannot easily replicate: our ability to communicate with clarity, navigate complex dynamics, build trust and strengthen relationships. I believe we’re moving from a knowledge economy to a relationship economy – which isn’t to minimise the importance of technical expertise, but emphasises the attributes that will distinguish strong leaders. If I’m to paraphrase Charles Darwin, survival of the fittest belongs not to the strongest or the most intelligent, but to those who are most adaptable. As organisations navigate waves of continual change, adaptability is becoming a leader’s defining skill. The encouraging news is that adaptability and human capabilities can be developed. In my work with current and future global leaders, I define this with

career development and change, which, when handled well, build trust.

Connection: cultural intelligence, curiosity, empathy and the ability to bring together people with different perspectives become even more valuable in increasingly fragmented organisations. Technology may enable and automate, but strong collaboration and delivery at pace still depend on connection, trust and relationships.

“As AI becomes more embedded, the skills that matter most are becoming more human” my framework, the Four Pillars of Global Leader Communication™.

Confidence: not having all the answers, but having the confidence to make decisions with imperfect information, remaining steady through uncertainty, and being comfortable with experimenting and failure.

Clarity: AI can generate endless information, so effective leaders create value by cutting through the complexity, communicating priorities for the current moment, being transparent about the knowledge gaps, and developing good judgement.

Challenging conversations: as roles evolve and organisations redesign work, leaders will need to have more honest conversations about performance,

Research reinforces the importance of this. Deloitte has concluded that well-developed human capabilities are increasingly important to employability. Businesses that prioritise these are more likely to achieve stronger outcomes.* Perhaps that’s why so many organisations tell me they aren’t struggling with technical expertise, but with human capabilities -– how to influence, collaborate, communicate confidently through uncertainty and create impact. Future-ready leadership won’t be defined only by who unlocks the power of AI, but also by individuals, teams and organisations that develop the human capabilities that bridge, connect and deliver results. Victoria Rennoldson is a cultural intelligence and strategic communication expert, keynote speaker and author of Become a Global Leader. She helps teams and professionals increase their influence, visibility and impact by developing leadership, communication and cultural intelligence capabilities. She is leading a workshop on ‘Future-ready leadership’ during Leadership Live on 30 September. See bit.ly/EA26LLVR *Deloitte 2025 Human Global Capital Trends report 51

Q & A

Future focus

In conversation In this series, an emerging leader and their leader sit down together to talk about their leadership journeys. This issue, the conversation is between Richard Sadler and his mentor Steve Ennis Richard Sadler (RS): What do you look for in a mentee before committing your time?

Steve Ennis (SE): I’m selective from the outset, because mentoring only works if both sides are going to put in the effort. With you, two things stood out: you were completely clear about what you wanted – increased profitability to make the hard work worthwhile – and you had the courage to be vulnerable about where you needed help. That combination is rare, and it told me immediately the time investment would be worthwhile. SE: You sought out a mentor proactively. What made you do that? RS: I started CJC in my early 50s. It was my first time running my own business and I think that made me unusually open to seeking help. I’d consistently grown the turnover of CJC, but profitability hadn’t kept pace, and I knew I needed an external perspective. I heard about Help to Grow: Management at a networking event, and the mentoring component was what really sold it.

RS: What’s the biggest misconception people have about what a mentor’s role actually is?

SE: That you need to be the expert on the mentee’s business and sector. The mentor’s job is to help them think through challenges, not to hand down answers. Being comfortable saying “I don’t know” is a strength, not a weakness. A mentor’s role is to be a sounding board, someone the mentee can think out loud with, test ideas against, and use to help identify priorities.

Help to Grow

Richard Sadler

Richard Sadler recently won the Mentor’s Choice Award at the National Mentoring Matters Awards. Organised by Enterprise Nation, Newable and the Association of Business Mentors, the awards celebrate participants and mentors on the Help to Grow: Management course. The 12-week, government-funded programme for SME leaders is delivered through Small Business Charter-accredited business schools. Richard’s mentor, Steve Ennis, was recognised separately at the same ceremony with the Biggest Impact Award.

Future focus Steve Ennis

SE: What did mentoring give you that you couldn’t get from your co-founder, your team, or your own thinking? RS: My co-founder, Colin, who is a full-time farmer, is brilliant at the transport and recycling product side, but he’d be the first to admit that business strategy isn’t his world. So, I had no-one else really to share ideas with at that level. You gave me a sounding board, but more than that, you drew out answers I already had instinctively and gave me the confidence to act on them. That’s harder to find than it sounds.

RS: What do you get out of mentoring that people might not expect?

SE: I learn as much from mentees as they do from me. Every mentee brings real-world experience that I can draw into my own work and into how I can help other people. It’s like paying it forward in many ways. SE: Was there a single moment in our sessions that changed how you ran the business? RS: The customer relationship management (CRM) realisation. I’d built the business to £1.5m turnover without ever using my customer database properly, or a CRM system. What mattered was how you framed it – not as a failing, but as an exciting opportunity. We rebuilt the website with CRM at its core and I’m reaping the benefits now.

RS: How do you structure a mentoring relationship to make sure it actually produces change?

SE: Accountability is crucial. Committing to specific actions before the next session creates a deadline effect that turns conversation into progress. You can tell within two or three sessions whether someone is going to follow through. I also adapt to what the mentee needs, rather than applying a fixed method. SE: How did you make the most of the relationship, and what would you say to other SME leaders about getting real value from a mentor, rather than just turning up? RS: Do the work between sessions. I’d research topics, bring ideas and come ready to be challenged. Also, be honest about where you’re struggling; you only get useful answers and advice if you’re really honest about where you most need help.

RS: What are the three most important qualities of a good mentor?

SE: The ability to draw answers out of the mentee, rather than prescribing solutions; the

discipline to adapt to what each mentee needs, rather than running a fixed playbook; and the instinct to reframe challenges as opportunities, turning “why didn’t you do this?” into “look what an opportunity you now have”. SE: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from being mentored, and would you mentor someone else now? RS: The discipline of stepping back to work on the business, rather than just in it. In a seasonal business, it’s easy to get consumed by the day to day, and mentoring forced me to make time for higher-level thinking. That habit has stuck. And, yes, I’d absolutely mentor someone else, now that I understand what it actually involves and feel confident in what I can give back. Personally, the programme started our relationship, but I feel that, now, it’s a long-term connection that keeps evolving over time. Steve Ennis is a business adviser who has helped many organisations to grow profitably and realise their vision for success over the past 18 years. He has acted as a mentor and lecturer on the Help to Grow: Management course at the University of Worcester Business School. He has a breadth and depth of commercial experience in businesses of all shapes and sizes. Richard Sadler had extensive career working in the corporate world as a sales management professional, before establishing CJC Aggregates and Landscaping Supplies in 2020 with a lifelong friend. CJC sells aggregates and landscaping supplies to the trade and public in Worcestershire and surrounding counties. Prior to establishing CJC, Richard was sales director at The Forest Garden Group.

We’re looking for people to take part in ‘In conversation’. Please email louise.parfitt@ cplone.co.uk to express your interest.

Future focus

Cooking up a storm Marta Wolska explains how The SHEF Movement is building stronger kitchens through inclusive leadership

Empower, enable, elevate

The SHEF Movement organises that work around three connected pillars: • Empower – build confidence, progression, and leadership through visibility and support • Enable – create opportunities and career pathways that help female chefs develop their knowledge and skills • Elevate – drive positive change by promoting inclusive kitchen cultures across the industry. Together, the pillars turn a simple principle into practice: women should not only be able to enter professional kitchens; they should have every opportunity to grow, influence and lead. When the culture improves, everyone benefits.

Leadership in practice

As a founding partner of The SHEF Movement, The Ned hotel in central London shows how 54

More than

900

women have completed chef apprenticeships with HIT Training

More than

600

female apprentices are currently training with HIT

commitment can become everyday culture. More than 30 women work as chefs across its 10 kitchens, creating a stronger base from which talent can develop and future leaders can emerge. For Zoe McNabb, senior sous chef at The Ned, leadership begins with the people around her. Watching colleagues build confidence, strengthen their skills and step into leadership continues to shape her own practice as a leader. “Leadership isn’t about perfection – it’s about consistency, resilience and integrity,” she says. Her point goes to the heart of the movement. Strong leadership is not one-dimensional. High-performing kitchens also need emotional intelligence, accountability, respect and inclusion. These are not alternatives to high standards; they are what enable teams to meet them consistently. McNabb’s advice to emerging chefs is equally direct: “Don’t wait until you feel completely ready.” Growth comes from stepping into opportunities, adapting and learning along the way. For employers, the principle is just as clear: potential becomes performance when people are trusted with responsibility, offered stretch opportunities and supported as they grow.

From intention to accountability

Ambition needs measures. Shef has set a 2030 target of 25% female representation, alongside more women in leadership, stronger and more inclusive kitchens, and a growing coalition of committed employers. Lasting change must be visible in outcomes, not just statements of support. For hospitality leaders, action is practical: make progression criteria transparent; invest in apprenticeships, mentoring and leadership development; review work patterns and flexibility; listen to teams and act on feedback; and measure recruitment, progression and retention over time. It also means widening the idea of who leadership is for. When women can see credible routes from first role to senior responsibility – and can see people like them succeeding – it becomes easier to enter, navigate and remain in the

iStock

rofessional kitchens are places of creativity, discipline and ambition. They are also workplaces in which gender inequality is hard to ignore. Industry estimates suggest women make up only about 17% of UK professional chefs. That is not a talent shortage, but a leadership challenge – shaped by access, culture, recognition and opportunity. The SHEF Movement is helping to build an industry in which opportunity is open, contribution is recognised and people are supported to do their best work. Momentum is growing. Since 2019, more than 900 women have completed chef apprenticeships with HIT training, with 381 achieving distinctions. More than 600 female apprentices are currently training with HIT, including 27 at senior culinary chef level, and women now account for 45% of HIT’s chef apprenticeship completions. The numbers are encouraging, but entry is just the beginning. The real test is whether access becomes a lasting career: if people can see a route forward, develop skills, gain recognition and step into leadership in cultures where they want to stay.

Future focus

Zoe McNabb, senior chef at The Ned

profession. Visibility alone is not the answer, but it can make opportunity feel real.

A better kitchen culture for everyone

Diverse kitchens are stronger kitchens. Greater female representation brings new perspectives, encourages innovation, improves culture and strengthens the talent pipeline. Supporting women in cheffing is not just about fairness – it is about building a more resilient industry for the future. The talent is already there. The task now is to make sure it is seen, supported and given room to grow. By bringing the industry together around inclusive, emotionally intelligent leadership, The SHEF Movement is helping to build kitchens where people – and hospitality – can thrive. Marta Wolska is talent attraction partner at The Ned City of London and founding partner of The SHEF movement, where she leads recruitment and employer branding initiatives across the business.

What is The SHEF Movement? Led by The HIT Chef Academy, The SHEF Movement brings together chefs, employers, educators and industry partners to empower, enable and elevate women throughout their culinary careers. It champions female talent and progression, but its ambition reaches further: stronger, more inclusive kitchens for everyone. Learn more and join the movement: theshefmovement.co.uk

Future focus GUEST OPINION

Lucy Cox

Pull, don’t push In times of uncertainty, how can we best guide and support our teams to be future ready?

he drive to find a consensus on the specifics of what good leadership looks like makes me nervous, in the same way that trying to get agreement on the ‘perfect’ way to parent a child might. There are fundamentals, yes (clarity, common sense, decisiveness etc), but should even they be delivered in a uniform, predetermined manner when we are talking about leading a unique team of deeply complex, ever-changing human beings in a world that is rapidly evolving technically, environmentally and socially? We are headed into a future that looks nothing like the past, so moving backwards to older, more traditional styles of leadership feels lazy and perhaps a way to overcompensate for uncertainty. Our people have never been more connected, self-aware or technically equipped, and there is an argument that we have also never been so polarised in our values – or at least the application of them. I believe this is a time for curiosity, agility and vulnerability in leadership. Not indecisiveness or management by committee, and not rigidity and authoritarianism, but being: ●C urious enough to have an ear to the ground, actively listening to what your people are experiencing rather than assuming challenges are simply being repeated or exaggerated ● Courageous enough to ask ‘beginner’s mind’ questions, challenging assumptions, inviting different perspectives and creating permission

for others to think differently too Vulnerable enough to ask for help or admit to getting it wrong, modelling psychological safety and demonstrating that learning is a strength rather than a weakness ●A daptable enough to be who people need us to be, recognising that different situations, individuals and stages of change require different leadership approaches rather than one fixed style ●D ecisive enough to move a team forward unapologetically, making thoughtful decisions while remaining open to adjusting course as new evidence emerges. ●

“We are headed into a future that looks nothing like the past, so moving backwards to older, more traditional styles of leadership feels lazy and perhaps a way to overcompensate for uncertainty”

This sounds like a long list of ‘must haves’ for someone who doesn’t want to get into specifics, but these are simply our default human qualities when the pressure of trying to be ‘perfect’ is stripped away. Our people need a combination of certainty, clarity, control and ownership, which can be a hard balance to strike in the shifting landscape in which we find ourselves. Leadership isn’t about having all the answers, but it is about having the type of intelligence and courage to tune in, learn, adapt, build trust, and ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ our teams in the right direction. Lucy Cox is co-founder of The Academe, a multi-award-winning training, coaching and leadership development company based in the UK. Lucy is leading an interactive workshop on ‘Leading without limits: overcoming self-sabotage’ during Leadership Live on 30 September. See bit.ly/EA26LLVR

Future focus GUEST OPINION

Jade Okene

Competitive advantage Is it possible that the most innovative mechanism driving the future economy will be humanity rather than technology?

nvision a future in which human-centric leadership is a rarity as the current rise of AI becomes the future commodity and benchmark of organisational capability. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development data (2026) shows that AI adoption across countries has tripled since 2021,1 with adoption accelerating across every industry. The continued integration of AI is shaping an economy in which technology is ubiquitous, and the organisations that stand out may be those that never forget the importance of people, a quality traditionally considered an anchor within family businesses. For the next generation of family business leaders, particularly those operating within human-centred sectors such as health and social care, professional services and workforce development, this presents a defining opportunity to ensure humanity is not deprioritised in an ever-changing world. This is where leading with humanity exemplifies a strategic imperative that preserves family values within a complex future. Family businesses play a crucial role in the UK economy. Research commissioned by the Family Business Research Foundation (FBRF) and conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that family businesses account for nearly half of the UK’s private sector turnover (49.5%).2 Furthermore, evidence indicates that family businesses excel in human-centric leadership, a quality that may become rare in the future economy. The FBRF found that family businesses are more likely than

non-family firms to adopt relationshipbased management over highly formalised, process-driven systems. As AI increasingly facilitates business models that move away from relationshipdriven approaches, the concept of ‘leading with humanity’ emerges as a bold strategy to preserve the qualities that have long set successful family businesses apart. However, growth presents a paradox. The very relationship-based model that enables family businesses to thrive can become harder to maintain when implementing growth strategies, such as mergers and acquisitions, scaling, and joint ventures. According to the FBRF, informal management approaches become more difficult to sustain as businesses undergo organisational restructuring to accommodate growth. As organisations expand, human-centred leadership values cannot remain centralised within the family and must become universal principles integral to the organisation’s capabilities.

This requires a new perspective on leadership. Morgeson, DeRue and Karam (2010) argue that leadership does not stem solely from hierarchy.3 This highlights a reality in human-centred sectors, where culture is delicate and shaped by daily interactions. To lead with humanity, this approach cannot be top-down leadership. Distributed leadership also distributes risk, however, as it may deviate from historic family values, and characteristics associated with the Dark Triad – narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy – can permeate organisations when influence lacks an ethical foundation.4 Leading with humanity must provide an ethical basis through which distributed leadership can uphold its legacy. The future economy will not reward organisations solely based on innovation. What will remain crucial is the ability to remain human-centric. Family businesses in human-centred sectors have long recognised this as a fundamental competitive advantage that can endure through any economic shift. Dr Jade Okene is operations director at Passion Tree Care, a family-owned organisation with more than 200 employees and a portfolio worth more than £5m. She is completing a postgraduate certificate at Henley Business School and is participating in the Family Business Community’s Next Gen Leadership 2026 Programme. 1. bit.ly/EA26FV 2. bit.ly/EA26FV2 3. bit.ly/EA26FV3 4. bit.ly/EA26FV4

Sector focus

The people perspective What’s it really like to be the person responsible for HR in a company – and what happens when the people side of a business needs intervention from an employment lawyer? Nic Elliott, HR director and employment lawyer, tells Louise Parfitt about the pressures and rewards of the ‘people person’ role

s an employment lawyer and HR director at Actons Solicitors, Nic Elliott sees both sides of the human resources profession. “Employment law is sometimes reactive: people come to us when things have gone wrong, so we are dealing with the messy end of things,” Elliott says. “The HR role is much more proactive. It’s about how we look after our people; how we train our people; how we create a good working environment for them. Lots of what HR professionals do is designed to avoid the need for me, wearing my employment law hat, to be involved at all, so I am in an interesting place sitting across both roles.” Rather than following a conventional route to HR director, however, Elliott says the role found him and adds, with a wry smile, that he is only here by virtue of his main job as an employment lawyer. Having worked alongside the HR profession for more than 20 years, it made sense for him to become the HR director at Actons. “But just because I know employment law doesn’t mean that, when I became HR director, I knew about engagement surveys, or learning and

“If you feel the people agenda is important in your business, then having a HR professional sitting at that top table is essential” 58

development, or any of the other aspects in which a HR team is involved on a daily basis,” he says. “I had to learn a lot about running HR within a company, because there is a tension: you are representing the interests of the employees and the employer. It can be a fine line to tread.”

Changing landscape

The HR profession is up against a number of new pressures, says Elliott, including the changing expectations of employees in terms of what they want and need from their workplace, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. “We want flexibility, we want financial reward, we want fun and friends. Part of the shift towards being very employee-focused has been driven by these expectations and, to some extent, I think the fact that people are at work to work has been lost. We are actually here to do a job, to make money or to provide a service – and that’s a bit of a controversial thing to say these days!” There is increasing noise about the validity of the notion of ‘bringing our whole selves to work’. Some people are arguing that workplaces require you to bring your ‘professional self’ to work, not everything about every aspect of your life. Their point is that we are being paid to perform a task, and by bringing all our different selves to the role it makes it increasingly difficult for colleagues and employers to navigate everybody’s views, and the different needs competing for attention. “I am certainly of the view that people shouldn’t feel restricted in being who they are, but we need to remember that people are there to do

Sector focus

a job and it is OK for us to remind people of that,” says Elliot. “Yes, we treat them well, we look after them, we support them where necessary – but if the core focus is only about looking after people in the organisation, and not on the work they are here to do, then we are losing track of what work actually is; the reason why we are here 9-5, Monday to Friday.”

Why do you do what you do?

Headline news

I am problem-solver by nature, and HR and employment law are essentially about how we are going to get to where we want to go. What are the options for doing that? What are the risks, and how do we navigate that in a way that is compliant with employment law but also makes commercial sense?

There has also been push back on equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) in recent years, with HR professionals getting a lot of the negative press. Elliott defends the profession’s right to stand firm on EDI, believing it has been adopted as a political issue, with HR caught in the crossfire. “There’s a lot of media coverage giving HR professionals a hard time. The Times, in particular, has featured a number of stories that seem very anti-HR and I think, to some extent, there is a political agenda involved. Conservative

Basically, I really like people! I have a degree in psychology, so I love that element of it as well – how people think and feel about the stuff we are doing, and how we, in HR, are going to manage that.

HR never fails to throw new interesting challenges and solutions – even after 20 years of doing this, I still find it all so interesting.

Sector focus

“[As HR director] there is a tension: you are representing the interests of the employees and the employer. It can be a fine line to tread”

Tackling negativity around HR HR directors and teams have to have difficult conversations and do the difficult stuff, which creates the impression that HR is responsible for what is being done. The classic example is when it comes to making people redundant. HR teams don’t decide to make people redundant – the commercial side decides the organisation needs to save money or do things in a more efficient way. But HR has to implement a restructure, so it ends up being the front line of that. Because of the confidential nature of what most HR professionals are doing day to day, the job is not something you can talk about openly most of the time. Some of what we do is really positive, but some of it can be very complex and emotionally draining. There is now greater recognition that HR professionals need some support in dealing with that. My challenge to those working in the HR profession is to shout about the positive stuff they do that isn’t confidential – the initiatives you are driving forward that have a real beneficial impact on the business and employees. That’s what we need to celebrate. 60

Party leader Kemi Badenoch said recently that the country was being run by ‘HR professionals’ – and she wasn’t using it in a complimentary way.” In addition to calls to move away from a ‘HR culture’, the profession is facing challenges on two other fronts that mean, if anything, we may need more HR professionals. The first is the Employment Rights Act 2025, with some of the biggest changes brought in by this new legislation coming into effect next year. They include lowering the threshold for unfair dismissal protection from two years to six months, opening up claims to approximately six million extra people. “This will add more pressure on our tribunals system, which is already at breaking point,” says Elliott. “If you bring a claim now, you won’t get a hearing until 2030 or 2031, which is just incredible. With the changes the Employment Rights Act is set to bring, HR professionals need to be ready for a tidal wave of employment tribunal claims.”

Sector focus Bigger picture

It may seem that there is something fundamentally wrong with workplaces if the number of claims is rising 55% year on year – and that is before the new Act takes effect. Elliott believes you need to look at the bigger picture to get the reasons behind this – and these are the change in the balance of power between employee and employer, societal influences, and the impact of AI, which is the second issue he identifies as driving the need for more HR support. “In my client-based role, I am seeing the huge impact AI is having on the employee relations side of what HR professionals are having to deal with. AI-produced grievances have gone through the roof. HR teams are overwhelmed because documents that used to be 10 lines long are now 10 pages, and people are raising complaints more regularly. It is being driven by wider society, where there is uncertainty, so people feel scared and angry. That’s coming out at work and, therefore, they are consulting AI and getting help to write those grievances for them.” The problem is that these AI-generated grievances are very repetitive, legalistic and often exaggerated. HR teams are under a legal obligation to deal with them, but they are taking up a lot more time and resource than previously. “In some cases, it is not even clear what the complaint is,” says Elliott. “And then you are trying to deal with people who have been advised by AI – often incorrectly – that they have a strong claim and are in line for a huge payout. Rather than settle before it gets to court, they now have an incentive to wait years for it to get there, even if, in reality, they won’t get anything like the amount ChatGPT promised them. So that is adding yet more pressure to an already failing tribunal system.”

Human first

So, how can HR professionals cut through? Elliott is seeing various approaches, including some people trying to follow the same process as previously – review it, try to understand it, investigate it and suck up all the extra work. Others are using AI to respond to the AI, but that risks repeating the inaccuracies in the original AI-produced document. Some companies are now refusing to deal with any complaint that is AI generated. “That approach is very high risk, because employers are under an obligation to consider grievances and complaints from their employees. And, of course, it is a good thing to make people feel heard,” says Elliott, who advocates putting the ‘human’ side of the function front and centre. “Have a chat with someone to get to the bottom of the issue and explain that you’d like

Advice to the next generation of HR leaders I ask this question to guests on my podcast, The HRD Talks, and the common theme that has emerged is to encourage people to get wider business experience. Most of the top people directors I work with didn’t start out in HR. That wider view, that broader experience, is invaluable to bring to the HR role, because you are then able to support and understand the commercial aspirations of the business and the people side.

them to write it for you in their own words, setting out exactly what the complaint is,” he says. “The danger is HR teams can get caught up in procedure and process, so we forget that, actually, you can just talk to people and explain why the AI isn’t working – it is inaccurate, it is overcomplicated and repetitive – and we just need to get to the bottom of what the issue is to support you to solve it. That may sound quite simple and straightforward, but it is not happening enough in my experience.”

People at the top

The best HR departments Elliott comes across are involved in the business from the very top. “For the people function to work well, you need a good leader – a CEO who values the people side of things. Where you see the people function failing is when its HR leader is not on par with the rest of the executives.” He refers to the classic set up of having a HR team report into a CFO. “The finance side of the business is more concerned about the cost of things and the numbers – understandably, because it is their role – than it is with the people side. It also sets a perception of where the people function is ranked within a business. “So, if you feel the people agenda is important in your business – and it should be in any organisation that has employees – then having a HR professional sitting at that top table is essential. They are then in the room when all the important decisions get made and can input into them with the rest of the senior exec team, rather than being told to implement something that has been decided without them. This sets the tone and culture for the rest of the organisation. When it is done right, it is really powerful.” Louise Parfitt is the editor of Edge. 61

Sector focus: HR

People perspective Are HR leaders overestimating levels of trust in their organisations?

1. We all think trust is important…

93%

of employees and 100% of HR leaders say trust is critical

82%

of HR leaders believe people are completely or mostly trusted to use their judgement at work

2. … but are levels of trust overestimated?

61%

of employees say they regularly ‘cover themselves’ with emails or screenshots

65%

have avoided speaking openly in the past six months

3. The effect on employees When trust is low...

29% 25%

focus on protecting themselves

do only what is required

19% look for another job

19% avoid taking the initiative

Sector focus: HR

4. The risks of a lack of trust

48% 37% of HR leaders say reduced productivity is a big concern

5. Leaders and change are key trust tests

are concerned about lower engagement

6. What HR leaders can do Investors in People recommends: • Measuring whether people feel safe to speak up • Equipping managers to build trust consistently • Involving employees earlier in decisions

HR leaders say near-term risks of low trust include: • Poor leadership behaviour (37%) • Inconsistent communication during uncertainty (29%) • Inconsistent manager capability (26%)

The statistics used for this infographic are taken from research conducted by Censuswide for Investors in People in February 2026, among more than 1,000 employees and 500 HR leaders. The full white paper, The Trust Paradox: Why behaviour, not belief, determines trust and how leaders can bridge the trust gap to drive performance, is available at bit.ly/EA26TP

Work is changing. Capability must keep pace. Roles are shifting. Skill needs are moving. AI is accelerating the pace. You need to know where capability gaps exist, which skills matter most and how to build workforce readiness for what comes next. Pearson connects skills intelligence, assessments, learning and verified credentials to help enterprises turn change into performance.

Lead through learning

Scan to explore how Pearson can help.

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Wellbeing GUEST OPINION

Angela Cox

The price of always ‘on’ When leaders can’t switch off, it’s not commitment. It’s a problem

here was a lot of noise recently about leaders not switching off while on holiday, sparked by comments from Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, who shared that he doesn’t like leaders stepping away, and isn’t a fan of the whole work-life balance conversation. While that might be intended as a reflection of personal commitment, it reveals something far more problematic about how leadership is still being understood and modelled. This isn’t about whether someone chooses to check their emails while they are away. It’s about what that choice signals when it comes from the top of an organisation, and how quickly that signal becomes something others feel they need to follow. What leaders model becomes culture Leaders rarely experience their own behaviour in the same way others do. When a CEO talks about “staying connected”, they may see it as a personal standard they hold themselves to, but it is interpreted far more widely as an indication of what is expected. People don’t treat it as optional, they treat it as guidance. They begin to adjust their own behaviour accordingly, not through instruction, but through observation. They remain a little more available than they otherwise would. They check in when they don’t need to. They keep themselves visible, because it feels safer to do so. And gradually, something that was framed as ‘choice’ becomes embedded as norm. Over time, this

“Leadership is about building something that holds without you, where others are able to think, decide and act with clarity, and where time away from work is not compromised by expectation” creates a workforce that never fully switches off, and that constant partial engagement has a cumulative effect on energy, clarity and connection. The leadership gap it exposes When you look at this more deeply, what becomes clear is that the issue is not about holidays, it is about what sits beneath a leader’s need or desire to stay connected. If a leader genuinely cannot step

away from their organisation, even for a short period of time, that points to a system that is too dependent on them, where decision-making has not been distributed, capability has not been built deeply enough and the organisation has not been designed to function without constant oversight. If the organisation can function, but the leader still chooses not to step away, then the issue shifts from system to behaviour, where staying connected becomes a way of maintaining control, staying involved and reducing the discomfort that comes with letting go. In both cases, the solution is not to stay more connected. It is to build differently. Leadership is not about being constantly available or staying across everything at all times. It is about building something that holds without you, where others are able to think, decide and act with clarity, and where time away from work is not compromised by expectation. When leaders cannot step away, or choose not to, that does not demonstrate strength. It highlights a gap. And until that gap is addressed, what is being presented as commitment will continue to drive a quieter, more sustained form of exhaustion across the people who are watching and adjusting in response. That is not leadership. It is a standard that needs to change. Angela Cox is a master executive coach and founder of Paseda360 Coach Training Academy. 65

Wellbeing

What leadership asks of us… and why humanity matters more than ever, says Neil Shah

have spent more than 20 years helping people understand stress, and if there is one thing I have learned, it is this: nobody warns you how lonely leadership can feel. You are expected to have the answers. To stay calm when everything around you is not. To carry your own pressures quietly while making space for everyone else’s. I have sat in that seat. I still sit in it – and I know how heavy it gets when nobody thinks to ask how you are doing, because they assume that is your job to ask, not theirs. That is what I want to talk about at Leadership Live this September. Not another list of things leaders are getting wrong. Something closer to the truth of what this role actually asks of us, and what I have learned – often the hard way – about doing it with more humanity.

The weight nobody sees

Leadership looks composed from the outside. Inside, it rarely feels that way. You are managing 66

competing priorities, absorbing other people’s stress alongside your own, and trying to make good decisions while running on very little reserve. I know what it is to walk into a room and perform calm I did not feel, because the team needed it and I did not think I had permission to need anything myself. That tension, between being strong and being honest, is one of the hardest parts of leading people. Nobody tells you that the strength people actually respect is not the appearance of having it all together; it is the willingness to be real.

What I have learned about listening

For a long time, I thought good leadership meant having the answer ready. If someone came to me with a problem, my instinct was to solve it, quickly, so we could move on. It took me a while to understand that people do not always want a solution. Sometimes they want to be heard, properly, without being rushed towards a fix.

Wellbeing admitted when I got a conversation wrong, I have watched something shift in a room. People do not need a perfect leader. They need one who is willing to be human in front of them.

Leaders need support too

“The more I have allowed myself to be seen as a person, rather than a role, the more honestly my team has spoken to me in return”

This is the part I want to say plainly, because I think it gets lost. Leaders need support. Not just training, not just tools, but genuine space to reflect, to be honest about what they are carrying and to hear that they are not failing simply because they are struggling. I have watched capable, caring leaders push themselves past what was sustainable because they believed asking for help would look like weakness. That belief costs people far more than it protects them. If we want leaders who can hold space for their teams, we have to build a culture that holds space for the leaders, too.

Small things, done consistently

None of what I am describing requires a large budget or a new programme. It requires consistency. Checking in after a hard meeting. Thanking someone for telling you the truth. Admitting when you got the tone wrong. Actually taking the break you tell others to take. Trust is built in these small, repeated moments, not in grand gestures – and it works both ways. The more I have allowed myself to be seen as a person, rather than a role, the more honestly my team has spoken to me in return.

Where this leaves us

I have learned to ask better questions. “How are things feeling for you at the moment?” opens something that “are you OK?” rarely does. But I have also learned that the question only matters if what follows it does too. I have caught myself, more than once, asking how someone was doing and then glancing at the clock, half listening, already moving on to the next thing. That is not a failure unique to other leaders. It is one I recognise in myself.

iStock

Mixed messages

I have told people to protect their evenings while myself answering emails at midnight. I have encouraged a team to slow down while visibly not slowing down at all. I am not saying this to confess it as a leader’s crime. I am saying it because I think most of us who lead have done some version of it, and pretending otherwise does not help anyone. Culture is not built by what we say in a meeting. It is built by what people watch us do afterwards. When I have been honest about my own limits, or

I do not believe leadership is about appearing to have everything under control. I believe it is about being present, being willing to listen properly, and being honest enough to say when we have got something wrong. I believe leaders deserve the same compassion we ask them to extend to everyone else. That is what I will be bringing to Leadership Live this September – not a checklist of leadership failures, but a conversation, leader to leader, about what this actually feels like, and how we might carry it a little better, together. Neil Shah is the founder of The Stress Management Society and chief insights officer at International Wellbeing Insights. For more than 20 years, he has worked with individuals, leaders and organisations around the world to better understand stress, improve wellbeing and build healthier workplace cultures. He is an international speaker, author and recognised expert in stress management and human behaviour, known for bringing warmth, honesty and lived experience to conversations about what leadership really asks of us. Neil is leading an interactive workshop on ‘From Awareness to Action: Practical Ways to Build Wellbeing at Work’ during Leadership Live on 29 September. See bit.ly/EA26LLVR 67

Book club REVIEW

Which books should be keeping leaders and managers awake at night? Edge reviews some of the most intriguing titles around

Love Your Job – Based on ‘Workjoy’ Author: Beth Stallwood Price: £9.99 Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing

Do you love your job? Beth Stallwood, people development expert, has created a compact self-coaching guidebook designed to support individuals in assessing and addressing how they feel about their current roles. The book is organised into 10 ‘daily read’ chapters, with each chapter being a ‘6-minute smarts’ read. This aims to offer a lot of knowledge in a condensed manner.

Life Remixed™: Looking Beyond the Dance to Face the Music Author: Mark Wilkinson Price: £10.14 Publisher: Hasmark Publishing International

What is the concept – Life Remixed™? I asked myself the question above as I dived into this book. Mark Wilkinson, a multiple business owner, coach and speaker, has drawn on a previous career as an international house-music DJ and record producer to create the Life Remixed™ book and concept.

Stallwood addresses topics such as knowing and living your values, setting and strengthening your boundaries, building a joyful squad and making joy a habit. The inclusion of self-coaching-style questions at the end of each chapter (day), titled ‘So what? Over to you…’ gently aids self-reflection. This builds self-awareness and creates a pathway for how you can increase your joy. There is a powerful piece on defining boundaries in chapter (day) 5, explaining the non-negotiables, and the bouncy and free-flex boundaries, together with

As explained by Wilkinson, Life Remixed™ is about adding to the parts of life you like and removing or rearranging the parts you don’t. This creates new space for the things you truly love. Wilkinson openly discusses his own journey and how various lifealtering events have acted as catalysts for change. In the introduction, he highlights that some elements might make readers uncomfortable, which is sound advice when approaching this book. Written across 14 chapters, with

the pause, ponder and pick implementation methodology, which I found inspiring. This is a ‘small, yet mighty’ book, a coaching companion for busy people and packed with useful insights. Our joy and love for our job matters, and this book will help you, as Stallwood states, to ‘rediscover your work mojo’!

a music-related thematic approach, Wilkinson shares his highs, lows, his illness and how the Life Remixed™ concept has supported his success today. Blending elements of biography with traditional leadership advice, this book features personalgrowth methods, insightful quotes, and chapter-ending ‘remix opportunities’ to encourage reader reflection. If you are seeking a different style of leadership-development book, or looking for clarity on your purpose, this book might be one to consider.

Book club REVIEW

Internal Communication in Times of Crisis: How to secure employee trust, support and advocacy in crisis situations Author: Alison Arnot Price: £32.99 Publisher: Kogan Page

Do you have an internal communications strategy for times of crisis? Challenges can surface instantly in fast-paced environments. As a result, the manner in which leaders and organisations communicate during times of crisis is critical. Alison Arnot is a business owner, trainer, consultant and speaker, with decades of experience in PR,

internal communication and crisis communication. Her expertise shines throughout her extensive crisis communication guide. Arnot begins the book, which is arranged in 12 chapters, with an emotional account of the 2007 terror attack on Glasgow Airport, where she was head of employee communications. She explains how that frightening experience has shaped her interest in crisis communication, which is evident on every page of this brilliant book. Various strategic considerations for crisis preparation are outlined, encompassing: crisis anticipation; plan development and practice; comprehension of the internal community; contingency establishment; line-manager support; and personal wellbeing.

Read all about it at Leadership Live! Simone Fenton-Jarvis and Louisa Clarke, authors and cofounders of The Human-Centric Workplace, will be speaking at Leadership Live in September. Their book, The Human-Centric Leader, challenges leaders to rethink performance by placing people and profit side by side, and not head to head. The authors argue that chasing profit at the expense of people – or prioritising people without a viable business model – are both flawed approaches. True performance, they say, comes from leaders who understand how to balance purpose, people and profit in equal measure.

The book has earned high praise from Andrew Hulbert, vice-chair of Pareto FM, chair of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management, and one of Steven Bartlett’s 100 CEOs. He says: “This book is nothing short of a wake-up call for leadership. If you want to future-proof your leadership, this is the playbook. It redefines success and empowers leaders to create lasting impact by putting humanity at the heart of everything they do. A powerful manifesto for the leaders our world needs today.” The first 200 guests at Leadership Live will receive a copy. To find out more about Leadership Live, see bit.ly/EA26LLVR

Arnot introduces the new 7S framework, designed to support strategic activities of internal crisis communication, which she states “prioritises essential human needs and moves incrementally to meet fundamental interconnected organisational needs as the crisis evolves and continues through each stage of its life-cycle”. With a ‘key takeaway’ segment at the end of each chapter, comprehensive content is simplified into more digestible insights. I found the book difficult to summarise in this review, as there is so much more I could say about this compelling read, which effortlessly blends academia with real-world experience. It is a book every organisation should acquire.

About the reviewer Belinda O’Neill is a business, leadership and wellness consultant, and founder of Be Inspired To Be. She is an award-winning author, speaker, event facilitator, podcaster and educator. She is also a business and community ambassador, and a judge for the National StartUp Awards. Belinda was highly commended for Institute Advocate of the Year 2025. Join her online on 14 October to meet author Mark Wilkinson to explore the ideas behind his book, Life Remixed™. See bit.ly/EA26MTA

And finally... Your questions answered

Ask the experts Leadership experts Beth Stallwood and Sarah Langslow are here to offer advice on all aspects of leadership. In this issue, they discuss how to deal with small subversive actions in a proactive, positive manner

Beth Stallwood (left) and Sarah Langslow

I am frustrated that someone I am managing doesn’t seem to want to grow and develop in their role. What can I do to help accelerate their potential?

needs of all the people you lead. There is no single formula that works for everyone – that’s what makes leadership such a puzzle. And you need to do all this while balancing the needs of your people with the changing needs of the business. If one of your team is not keen to accelerate, try reflecting on these questions: ●I s their performance in their current role good enough? ● Are they in the right role to fully use their skills? ● Is the role they’re performing the right role for the needs of the business (now and in the future)? Your answers will define whether you’re dealing with a performance issue, a role-alignment issue, an organisational design issue – or simply mismatched expectations.

Beth: Can potential really be accelerated? It’s an imagined version of the future, not a tangible reality, and often reflects our own ambitions projected onto other people. However, performance can be accelerated through development – although let’s remember that any performance enhancements require the team member’s participation in the process. They need to be willing, engaged and motivated to make changes. If you’re encouraging accelerated development and they’re putting the brakes on, you’ll probably get excess friction! Sarah: Leaders also benefit from understanding what is causing the brakes to go on. An answer of “I don’t want to” may mean the next stage of development seems like too much work or doesn’t look fun. If they say “I do want to, but not right now”, it’s often related to external circumstances, such as children, other caring responsibilities or health issues – or even that they feel overwhelmed. If they say “I don’t feel ready”, this is worth exploring. Is this about confidence? Do they feel they lack skills or experience? What support do they need to feel ready? Just because you’re ambitious doesn’t mean everyone is. Have you had an honest conversation about how they see their future? Once a year, as part of an appraisal process, is not sufficient. Really knowing and understanding your people is core to effective leadership. Beth: As is responding to the different styles and

Sarah: One final point to remember: a team stacked full of ambitious people causes its own problems, as you will never be able to keep them all happy and motivated. A team needs a balance of high performers, high potentials and some who sit more in the middle – effective at what they do, reliable, but not necessarily hungry for more. Perhaps your team member is right where they need to be.

If you have a question for Sarah and Beth, please visit bit.ly/Edge26AA

Beth Stallwood is a speaker, leadership coach and award-winning author of WorkJoy: A Toolkit for a Better Working Life, who is on a mission to bring more joy into our working lives. Sarah Langslow is a speaker, executive coach, leadership development specialist and bestselling author of Do Sweat the Small Stuff, who helps leaders build the self-awareness, confidence and skills to be exceptional.

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